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Offline triple7sss

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #20 on: August 01, 2012, 04:11:50 pm »
Don't do it!!  Those chickens are just a gateway drug.  You some of them running around the yard, you get used having delicious eggs and fryers and everything's fine...you think you've got it under control.

Then WHAM!...next thing you know you're down at the sale barn bidding on skinny-hipped bred heifers or that lonesome looking steer who probably just needs a shot of penicillin, some probiotic, and a little hug to prop him and turn him into a blue ribbon champ. 

Six months later your life will be in a complete downward spiral as you start putting up a little hay and eyeballing just a small trailer to move cows around in.  Then you reach rock-bottom when your friends see you out cutting grass from ditch for feed and you find out the rendering company charges $75 to haul that steer out of the pasture when hugs weren't enough.

Still....they're better than starting off with horses... :-D

Offline Kathyp

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #21 on: August 01, 2012, 05:24:33 pm »
got those too  :-D
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline AllenF

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #22 on: August 01, 2012, 05:46:37 pm »
 :-D    I thought bees were the gateway.

Offline David McLeod

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #23 on: August 01, 2012, 06:37:37 pm »
:-D    I thought bees were the gateway.

Bees are crack.
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Offline AllenF

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #24 on: August 01, 2012, 09:15:31 pm »
Crack is whack.         

Chicken is what was for supper tonight.    :-D

Offline JP

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #25 on: August 02, 2012, 01:12:13 am »
jp...eggs.

So then I have to ask, why do you want a rooster?


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Offline Kathyp

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #26 on: August 02, 2012, 11:17:41 am »
biology  :evil:  as far as i know, you can't hatch out unfertilized eggs.  if hens do their best laying in the first couple of years, it seems to me that it makes sense to have a new batch coming along every couple of years.  + my youngest son wants to do chickens next year, so i could have a batch for him. 

i have no objection to eating the chickens, so an excess can be eaten, or the old ones put into the stew pot.

survival mode......
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline AllenF

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #27 on: August 02, 2012, 03:28:31 pm »
Get an incubator to hatch them eggs.   My leghorns don't sit.   Not broody at all.  And it is great for the kids. 

Offline BlueBee

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #28 on: August 02, 2012, 03:53:27 pm »
What temp and how long does it take a chick to hatch?

Offline AllenF

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #29 on: August 02, 2012, 04:07:58 pm »
21 days at 99 degrees.  And you have to turn the eggs also.   Easy to raise them.

Offline JP

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #30 on: August 02, 2012, 04:31:54 pm »
Kathy, my chickens are all three years old and laying up a storm. I would wait on the rooster if I were you.


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Offline Boom Buzz

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #31 on: August 05, 2012, 10:33:48 pm »
I've kept a few chickens over the years so I'll chime in here.  I have kept Wyandottes, leghorns, seabrights, Araucanas, Rhode Island reds, etc.

By far the most productive bird I have kept is the white leg horn - smaller bird and easy on the food cost and consistently lays a nice large white egg - but kind of a boring hen from a color standpoint.
Araucanas lay a greenish blue to blue eggs which is a fun novelty, but they are less consistent as an egg layer.  The roosters are very attractive color wise.
The wyndottes have been the most broody from my experience.
The brown leghorns, rhode island reds and wyandottes all are brown layers and are fairly consistent.

As for rooster disposition, I haven't kept enough to see a good or bad pattern by breed.  I've had mostly good disposition bleep and just a few ornery ones.  Although my daughters might disagree.  If you are on the smaller side the roosters seem to size you up and think they can take you on, until you show them who is boss.

BlueBird , you asked about the attention they need...for our set up it is pretty much daily feeding and checking on water, though I think some people are set up with feeders that might need refilling every few days.  On average I spend about five minutes a day feeding, collecting eggs and topping off water if needed.

My biggest problem is coyotes and skunks.  I have lost too many birds to these thieves.  I plunked a skunk earlier this summer that killed six hens - aarrrggghhh! :evil:


Offline Kathyp

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #32 on: August 05, 2012, 10:53:37 pm »
JP the chicken guy brought me a rooster.  got out of his truck and handed the bird to me.  so far, he's really nice....but i know that can change.   ;)
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Offline David McLeod

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #33 on: August 05, 2012, 11:12:46 pm »
Kathy, if you looking to go survival mode I would pick one of the dual purpose breeds and establish a closed flock. There is a good article on the dominique site about closed flock breeding.
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Offline LoriMNnice

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #34 on: August 08, 2012, 12:37:09 am »
I like my roosters, I have at least 5 big ones and 10 bantam roos they watch out for the flock and keep everyone in check, I've never had a mean one guess I am just lucky. Black australops go broody I have a couple of those that try and hatch eggs.

I am addicted to incubating eggs so I prefer the incubator method  :-D I have 3 going right now. hatched chickens, ducks, quail and guineas a couple of weeks ago and more are do to hatch this week.
Lori

Offline kingbee

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #35 on: September 09, 2012, 02:03:55 am »
Get an incubator to hatch them eggs.   My leghorns don't sit.   Not broody at all.  And it is great for the kids. 

Broodiness has been bred out of white leghorns, like since way back there.
But a good "Yard Chicken" biddy could likely pip a ping pong ball.  Regardless of breed, some hens are not good biddies or sitters.  If you can't keep one hen separated from another (in your mind) its better to use an incubator when first starting out with chickens.  There is not enough space here to list all the things that can go wrong with brood hens and a setting of eggs, but anything can happen and likely will.

Getting a good hatch is easier for a beginner if he sets the eggs in an incubator verses under a hen.  A 90% or greater hatch is quite possible every time.  Yea I too have had 100% hatches using setting hens, but I have also had total failures from no fault of my own. By using an incubator it is possible to set fresher eggs than when using a biddy, and the fresher the egg, the more likely you will pip a chick out of it, and the more likely the chicks will all pip at the same time.

http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/guide_to_better_hatching.html
http://www.randallburkey.com/The-Backyard-Flock/productinfo/36020/
These two sources of information will get you started on the right track.

Offline Vance G

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #36 on: October 17, 2012, 04:32:47 am »
An unanswered question was room required.   More room makes it easier but the eight by ten foot chicken coop and ten by ten outside run was the home to up to fifty chickens on the farm I grew up on.  It required weekly swamping or it was quite a mess.  Well chicken coops are always a mess actually.  There were usually a few loose.  My mother would find a scissor bill or one with bad feet in every batch of fryer chicks she got and decide after nursing them to adulthood that they were pets.  The meat breeds in batches of fity lived in the brooder house which was tiny with a small run until dad would start feeling breasts to see who was ready to eat.  Then they were eaten as they reached frying size.  There were eight of us and they didn't stand a chance.  Unless mother befriended them.  One of those of the meat breed we purchased as Silver Broads got to 22 pound before meeting his end after attacking a three year old neice.  The aforementioned .22 solved his antisocial display and after several hours of boiling , he would still bend a fork.   My mother was given a clutch of eggs to raise by a pair of bachelor farmers in the area.  When she found out that they had acquired them from a breeder of fighting chickens and had plans , she refused to give them back!  Beautiful roosters but they were really no more aggressive and feisty than other roosters.   

Offline Kathyp

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #37 on: October 17, 2012, 03:32:37 pm »
3 of the 5 hens started laying before the days got short.  i am still getting 1-3 eggs a day.  the rooster has taken a couple of runs at me, but a squirt bottle of water with a little ammonia in it seems to have given him pause for the moment.  his name is soup, and there he'll go if he turns nasty.

so far, so good.  chicken keeping seems not to have changed much since i had them 15 or 20  years ago!
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline JP

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #38 on: October 18, 2012, 12:56:46 pm »
I'm down to three hens. I had to put one of my Buff Orps down about a month ago. She looked like someone shot her in the head with a bb gun & was dwindling down to nothing. Poor girl.

I am down to a silver laced wyandotte, an easter egger and a black sex link. Vera, Jezebel and Betty, in that order. The first two are about three now I wanna say. Not sure how old betty is. They are all still putting out. One small brown egg, one turquoise egg and one very large brown egg from Betty.

My next hens will be large egg layers, either Rhode island productions or black sex links. Betty has been a great hen and follows me around as I kick the dirt over for her to gather her delectable morsels.

My wife is happy we only have three left as she says they are messy birds but sure loves those eggs come Sunday morning served with applewood bacon and toast with fresh honey. Don't believe it will take much convincing to get her to change her mind.  ;)


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Offline minz

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Re: Chicken ?
« Reply #39 on: October 21, 2012, 09:04:21 pm »
I went to pet the leghorn in the garden the other day and the golden sexlink took a chunk out of my hand.  I think she came down someplace between the goal posts for 3 points.  Today we were out burying the apple pulp from cider making and the leghorn took a run at my son.  I don’t know what the deal is they are always been real nice.  About june everybody is trying to give away the roosters they bought as pullets.
KP don’t know if you had chickens for a while but here in the valley the raptors will  be migrating through with the waterfowl and they are hard on chickens.  About 2 years ago a big kite would not get off the chicken house.  The guy at work that free ranges his all the time looses about half his flock this time of year.
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