Anyone here raise chickens? Thinking of getting some laying hens

[soothsayer]

My GF has a beautiful farm with a chicken coop her dad built her years ago. She used to have chickens and loved them so is gung ho for it, and I'm mighty excited myself, so naturally I want to hear chicken raising stories! (Nice ones, not ones with horrible endings, tho feel free to send tips for guarding against predators).

[Shakespeare]

1. Do it.

My husband and I just got two this year for our tiny backyard. They started laying a little over a month ago (they were hatched out mid-April), and we're getting an egg a day from each of them.

They're sweet-natured (we went with the Barred Rock breed), tame and hilarious to have around (who knew chickens had so much personality). We wish we had room to raise more, and hopefully will soon (and will also raise some destined for the freezer). They're easy to care for, and the quality of the eggs is MUCH better than anything you'll find at the supermarket. It's also nice knowing that our eggs were obtained under humane conditions (hell, the chickies are spoiled rotten).

We're making a big effort to raise as much of our own food as possible (we have a huge vegetable garden this year). It's satisfying, the quality is great, and it's reassuring knowing where your food came from and how it was raised/grown.

I know there are other DUers who raise chickens, too, and I'm sure they'll chime in with advice and encouragement, too. There's also a great website that I go to often--the poultry forum at www.homesteadingtoday.com. Any question you have can be answered there, the folks are nice, and the threads are entertaining. The site overall is a mixed bag politically, but they try to keep politics to a minimum (I've encountered only minimal wingnuttery).

[soothsayer]

5. Thanks! I got hooked on fresh eggs from a guy up the street

from my GF, but he never has enough to keep me happy so I thought why not get chickens of our own?

I hope we'll get a variety of breeds, Barred Rock being one, but I gotta' get at least one Araucana or Easter Egg to get them purty blue eggs...!

I think she's thinking between 10 and 20. Yay!

[LynneSin]

2. MIght I also suggest a pair of Guineas

Having a farm means risk of ticks & lyme disease. A pair of guineas can help resolve this because their main diet: Ticks and other bugs



http://www.guineafowl.com/fritsfarm/guineas/

My parents had 2 pairs on their property and most of the neighbors loved them because they knew they were out there eating ticks. (The homes where my parents live have plenty of property but they would roam off the property and on to the neighbors - but since everyone knew they were eating ticks they didn't care). But then some new lady moved in and decided she didn't want guineas anywhere near her home and was going to call the cops to raise a ruckus. Fortunately the breeder took the guineas back

[soothsayer]

10. Won't hawks get them if they're running around?

[LynneSin]

12. My parents had no problem with that

but yeah any chicken is pretty much vulnerable

[MrsMatt]

32. One of my co-workers has guinea fowl

and he says they are more work - they won't stay cooped up, and will build nests out in the open and their chicks end up dying more often due to exposure.

Then again, maybe he has guineas that are more stupid than most.

[tjwmason]

3. I've been thinking about it too.

Will you be using your GF's coop?

If not, what I was looking at seems to be a very easy step into it http://www.omlet.co.uk/homepage/homepage.php I'm not sure if it's available in the U.S. Plus the site is full of information about keeping chickens.

[soothsayer]

7. yeah, her coop is in great shape. Doesn't even leak! We'll

have happy hens, i just know it.

Anyone got a rooster too?

[soothsayer]

8. That's a really neat product! You guys have such cool things

over there in the UK and Europe. Very hip looking.

[trackfan]

4. The eggs are great - you'll never want "store" eggs again.

And the chickens are fun. You'll learn their language. (They have a surprising amount of different calls for various situations).

[soothsayer]

6. Cool! I'm so excited, Should we wait until spring? We need

to figure out some kind of run for them to keep the predators out.

[Shakespeare]

9. Where do you live (how rural are you)?

You'll definitely want to make sure the coop is predator-proof; raccoons and minks to horrific things to chickens, and for sport, no less.

Check that forum I gave you for tons of info on how to do this--it's also my first place to look for links to other websites on topic.

You don't have to wait until spring if you don't want to--remember that if you start with chicks (the best thing to do if you want to socialize your birds and make them tame), it'll take 5-6 months for them to start laying. Your biggest concern over winter would be keeping them warm enough until they're fully fledged, but that's easy enough to do.

[soothsayer]

13. It's decreasingly rural thanks to developers, but she's got 70

acres with a pond and creek and woods, bordered by other farms, so yeah---there are foxes, raccoons, skunks, and rumors of coyotes (about 40 miles outside of DC, in VA). I want to start with peeps but she wants to get poullets/poulets or whatever they are.

[AngryAmish]

38. I live in Chicago

And I saw a coyote They are getting more and more acclimated to human folk.

[Patiod]

14. My friend has lost TWO coops to predators

She lives in the 'burbs, and doesn't know if it was a fox, and cat, or what. Very traumatic.

The last time happened a week after she was suddenly widowed (with 2 kids under 8) at the age of 44. Both the scene (blood, feathers) and the timing were so horrific that we couldn't do anything but laugh (and cry a little at the same time).

But hope has finally overcome experiece, and she got another batch recently, and DAMN the eggs are wonderful!

[soothsayer]

16. yeah, i'm very worried about that. I know it's part of farm life, but

I'm a city girl. I'm trying to talk her into getting a donkey or emus (they're very protective!) but so far she's balking at that, lol.

[China_cat]

29. Geese. If you want protective, you can't do better than geese.

[StopTheMorans]

11. well, i do know a thing or two about raising

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=4145812&mesg_id=4145812

[BigMcLargehuge]

15. here are the lessons I learned from the chickens at my in-laws place -

1. All roosters are assholes who want to kill me and won't hesitate to chase me around the yard, house, and into oncoming traffic.

2. Chicken shit smells like ammonia and sticks to everything.

3. Chicken coops are no fun to clean (see rules 1 and 2).

[soothsayer]

17. Those are mighty good lessons!

[youthere]

18. My husband and I have raised chickens for close to ten years now.

And our chickens "set" (that is they hatch their own). If you only want eggs then you won't need a rooster (unless you like to hear them crow). If you plan to hatch your own chicks, then (obviously) you'll need a rooster. If it's just your girlfriend and you you won't need more than 4 hens (at their "peak" you'll be collecting 4 eggs a day-less in colder weather).
The eggs alone are worth raising the chickens (plus the entertainment factor) but you also need to have a plan for what you will do when they stop laying. Some people keep them as pets, we butcher our old layers. A good hen will lay for a little over a year-some more, some less.
We've raised a variety of breeds, and the only ones that I would reccomend AGAINST are Rhode Island Reds and Brown Comets..both are beautiful, but they are nervous, they like to jump fences (they are a lighter breed so they can jump fences easily) and seem to have a tendency to become "egg eaters".
We like Buff Orpingtons. They are a heavy breed, gentle, with thick plumage (important for winter here in Iowa), they lay the most lovely brown eggs and best of all they are "broody"-they will set and hatch their own chicks (most breeds have had this instinct bred out of them).
They seem to be heartier than other breeds we've tried and they are just beatiful when they are fully feathered out. Our roosters are very gentle (important because we have young kids entering the coop).

We have a lot of "nasty" chicken stories, but the funniest was that one time we had a really wiry, mean little rooster who managed to jump into the pen where we keep one of our boars. That rooster (maybe 3 lbs soaking wet) took on a 350 lb boar and had him cornered, terrified. (Our pig lot is adjacent to the chickens). After that, all that rooster had to do was crow and that pig would tear off into the corner of his lot and shove his head into the corner.

On edit: If there's any advice I can offer, go ahead and PM me. I'll be happy to help.

[soothsayer]

22. Thanks! Those Polish (I'm Polish myself) are so cute. Phyllis

Dillers...!

[Lisa]

34. Polish are great....

The eggs are a little on the small side (though they're white-shelled, which one of my friends wanted, since her kids won't eat brown-shelled eggs). But what Polish lack in the laying department, they sure make up for in terms of conversation value (and personality, from the ones I've met).

Anyway, I hatched 2 Polish chicks out of my mixed batch. They were smaller than the other chicks, and in fact during the first couple of days they were able to squeeze out between the bars of the cage I was using as a brooder, and were going around the house looking for me! The crests didn't appear until they were teenagers, but even as babies they had extra fluff on their heads.




I've since heard that one of them, Leo (buff feathers -- he's old enough to look like this lower pic now), is now a handsome rooster. He's still friendly with people. And he's escaped being picked on by the bigger, stronger birds because for some reason they fear his "dreadlocks".

[Lisa]

19. if you want to give them cover from predators, but ...

... haven't got the resources to put netting over all (or part) of a fenced-in yard, to prevent "aerial attacks" -- putting a few small trees (e.g. holly) in the yard will provide cover and also perches for those birds who are inclined. And if you keep the trees trimmed, the birds will still be within grabbing/netting distance for you, if you need to round them up during the day.

I know two people who have done this, in areas which have lots of eagles etc., and it's really helped.

I've gotten a home incubator and managed to hatch out a few clutches. Mainly heritage varieties of chickens ... I figure that if I'm going to be stuck with males, which is the case if you do a home hatch and don't buy from a hatchery, it's a lot easier to find places for the chicks if they're rarer breeds. And indeed this has been the case. I've hatched Polish, Brown Leghorn, Australorp, Speckled Sussex, Brahma, Barred Rock, and Silver-Spangled Hamburg (besides the standard hybrid brown-egger). Even the breeds which have been labelled as "unfriendly" or "skittish" can be approachable, if you hold them and hand-feed them a lot during the first 3-4 weeks.

If you're shopping for breeds, you might find this chart handy.

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

p.s. many of the breeds which are going extinct are fine for home production, since they are dual-purpose (kind of a compromise between egg-laying and meat production) -- and the birds tend to be healthier and longer-lived, without the need for as much medication. (The commercial meat birds grow so quickly that they often die from circulatory problems when they are still quite young.) Plus they are generally pretty good at free-ranging. Male egg birds aren't good eating (not enough meat on them), and if you don't feel like killing them as chicks, the hatchery would likely have to do that in any case. Male dual-purpose birds can at least be eaten, after they've had a chance to live a little! And some of the rarer types are so pretty that people who normally wouldn't want another rooster may say yes.

American Livestock Breeds Conservancy:

http://www.albc-usa.org/


oh, and if you decide to hatch eggs at home (they can be obtained from many hatcheries, and even on eBay) -- it's well worth spending an extra hundred bucks for an incubator that will turn the eggs for you. Saves having to drop what you're doing and turn them manually. Mine is a Brower, which holds 3 or 4 dozen.

[soothsayer]

23. Great idea re: the hollies. I think we're thinking of something like

a dog run, with fencing on top, too, so nothing gets the little dears. Just gotta' figure how to keep out the burrowing animals.

[Lisa]

25. a lady I know just outside of town has the "dog run"type ...

She says it works great (though she used an old fishnet as the cover, and because the netting has begun to deteriorate in the sunlight, it's starting to develop hawk-sized holes). To reduce the rat problem, she made the sides of the enclosure out of galvanized steel mesh (1" x 1/2") and she buried the mesh about 3 feet into the ground. She's had much less rodent-burrowing than the place where I "farm-sit", which didn't do that last part.

One good thing about having holly trees is that the trees love the extra fertilization from the chickens, and you can sell the holly at Christmastime -- that's what some other people I know are doing!

[soothsayer]

27. still a great tip on the holly trees. Yeah, I think we'd have to sink

the fence into the ground a ways. Or maybe just a bunch of long spikes hammered into the ground around the perimeter (no one agrees with me on this, but I think it would be far easier).

[Lisa]

31. the spikes would have to be rather close together ...

Rats are capable of squishing through a pretty narrow space, a couple of inches or less -- as I found to my dismay. They can dig alarmingly fast, and just burrow along until they find an unprotected spot. We had a bit of a scare because one of the barns is used for breeding rare pigeons, etc., and there was one corner which wasn't adequately protected -- and literally in a couple of days the rats managed to dig their way in. There were burrows all over the place, and as fast as I tried to fill them, the rats re-excavated them. They managed to climb up and kill some of the nestlings, even though the leftover feed was what they were originally looking for. Very opportunistic -- they're worse than Karl Rove that way.

[soothsayer]

42. She's got 30 farm cats and 12 house cats (Marilyn is a particularly

good mouser) so hopefully they'd dissuade any ratsies.

[ashling]

20. I wish I could post pics

of our 9 hens. The are known as "the sisterhood," or more often as "the girls". Unfortunately when we took our laptop in to replace the modem, they wiped the whole thing and we have no more pics of our chickens or our beautiful country home which we are leaving.

We have 2 Buff Orpingtons, 2 Silver Laced Wyandotts, 2 Black Austolorps, 2 Barred Plymouth Rocks, and 1 New Hampshire Red. We also had another New Hampshire Red, but, though labled as a pullet, this chicken turned out to be a rooster. He started getting bossy, and the sisterhood took things into their own beaks one night in the coop.

They are free range and lay the best brown eggs you can find!

Chickens are fun. Let them run around. I don't know about swhere you are, but they help keep down insects and snakes around here. Just keep them off of your front porch!

[soothsayer]

21. Sorry you lost your pics! Sure they can't be recovered?

Worth a try.

[ashling]

24. took computer to comp usa

they sent it to HP as it was still under manufact. warranty. The guy tild us that we had the option ti get them to do a backup, but that since all they had to do was replace the modem that they probably wouldn't erase everything . . . they did. No backup.

I have no idea how to recover. Any suggestions?

[soothsayer]

26. Seems to me that when you deliberately TRY to erase your

hard drive, experts can find stuff you thought you erased. So...it must still be there somewhere, right? I dunno. Maybe a call to rent-a-geek (computer guys who rent themselves out). Or something like this
http://www.pctools.com/file-recover/?ref=google_fr

or an expensive place like this http://www.datarecoverynet.com/

this one has a 'no data, no charge' policy, and mentions reformatted drives (is that what happened?)

http://www.cbltech.com/data-recovery.html

I'm sure there's a way, if you really want them. Good luck!

Here's another---only $39. Testimonials sound really hopeful!
http://www.quetek.com/reviews_all.htm#RonShook

[ashling]

28. It was reformatted.

We've got pictures of our chickens and some gorgeous pics that Melodie took around here in the spring. We will be moving in a couple of weeks and probably won't be back.

Thanks.

Oh, and definitely go for the chicken raising! There are lots of good sites on coops, etc.

http://www.i4at.org/surv/poultry.htm

[NaturalHigh]

30. I love fresh, free-range eggs...

but I hate chickens. My great-grandmother had a dozen or so before she passed away, and they are some of the most annoying creatures on the planet.

[naturalselection]

33. We have raised chickens for several years.

Yes, we have lost chickens to foxes and dogs and we do have hawks and owls that visit our property but they have never taken one.

We let them free range during the day and put them up right before sunset.

The chickens have learned to come to my wife's "chicken" call.

We now sell our eggs to our friends (for a couple bucks a dozen) b/c we get way to many for 3 of us.

We do eat the chickens on occasion.
The rooster we had was way too aggressive, going after my son. Of course with me, he stayed about a leg's length away. The rooster ended up on our dinner table one night after he killed one of the hens.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

35. Where do you live?

It makes a big difference in housing and protection.

I have raised all kinds for years.

[soothsayer]

39. Outside of Washington, DC (Haymarket, VA)

[TallahasseeGrannie]

40. Nice, temperate zone

The biggest threat to chickens after predators is heat. They get really heat stressed.

I buy mine as biddies from Murray McMurray (sp?) Hatcheries. I usually buy an assortment and it is fun to see what they grow up to be. I have also bought geese from there. I highly recommend them. The babies come in the mail! And I have never had a dead one. Now, the mortality rate for a few days..maybe a week...can be as high as 25 percent. About one or two a day in a group of 25 or so. And since I get them unsexed, I end up with a bunch of roosters and they have to be dealt with.

And unfortunately it is the "ultimate solution." My husband does that. We sometimes cook them but frankly I have no appetite for my own chickens. I've tried. I really have. The eggs, I have no problem with.

Chickens are very amusing. I can sit and watch "The Chicken Channel" with a beer in the afternoons until it gets dark!! Chickens are beautiful, too. And you can keep the feathers.

If you can't deal with disposing of roosters you can buy hens a bit older from local farm places

There are enormous resources out there on the net for housing ideas. I have used everything. My biggest problem here in no. FL are foxes and coyotes. We have to keep the chickens VERY secure or...well, you know.

You can email me with specific questions but there are plenty of chicken freaks online, too!

You won't regret getting into this. And it is great insurance against bad times. Five hens can keep you literally alive, as long as you have grass and bugs you don't even HAVE to feed them. (in bad times, I mean)

JenB

[soothsayer]

41. Thanks! I think my GF (who's had chickens in the past, for years,

and loves 'em---tho she's not had 'em in the 9 years we've been together) wants to get poullets rather than peeps or eggs (she's got an incubator that was her dad's), and since it's her farm, I reckon we'll do it her way..!

Security from foxes and raccoons and coyotes is my numero uno priority for these future hens of ours. Gotta' keep the darlings safe and secure and happy.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

43. Your biggest

problem with security is at night. If you can just lock them in somewhere when they are roosting, you will do fine.

I love the idea of free range chicken, but unfortunately so do the predators.

If you have a little shed of some sort that has rods high enough for multiple roosting, they will automatically go in there at sundown and you just have to close them up and LOCK THEM IN. Racoons have very adept fingers. Then in the AM, let them out. You will rarely lose a chicken in daylight unless it is to a neighborhood dog. The dogs love to chase them. If you find a chicken just dead out in the yard it is usually a dog because if they are domesticated, they don't take the carcass. The other predators mean business and only leave feathers.

[soothsayer]

44. hey, that's great to know! Her chicken coop seems really

secure, tho I don't trust those raccoons either as they sometimes open her cans of catfood (the pop top kinds) and drink hre cans of iced tea left on the porch.

She's had a couple of her outdoor cats mauled by a neighbor's dog, so she's put extra fencing all around her 'yard' (not the whole 70 acres, just the fencing surrounding her house and garden), but it seems to me the chicken coop sits outside of this protective area.

[Lisa]

46. good luck with the pullets!

One good thing about getting them that old -- you won't have long to wait until they're laying. And also, they'll probably be pre-screened for sex. There are certain breeds which hatch out with distinct sex-based coloration, but most of the time you need special training to tell if day-old peeps are boys or girls. (Unlike ducks. Ducks are a snap to sex, since they seem to be, um, better-endowed than other types of poultry. I should mention that there are types of ducks, such as Indian Runners and Khaki Campbells, which can lay as many eggs as a chicken ... and if you're in a cold climate, they don't need as much shelter.)

[soothsayer]

47. She's got a gorgeous pond and likes (wild) ducks but hates geese.

Too messy.

[DawgHouse]

36. You are so lucky!

My fondest memories are of when my grandmother had chickens. She used to let me go out in the morning and gather the eggs. I was a little nervous at first because a hen doesn't just GIVE her eggs to you. You have to stick your hand up underneath her and take them! Ack! It used to sure make me nervous. But the eggs were so delicious fried in bacon fat, of course :)

[MissB]

37. Chickens on slides!

We have three chickens- hand raised from little chicks. They're almost 5 months old.

We have a hen house that we built, complete with windows from the local rebuilding center. They have their own yard, fenced in. I don't have the yard covered- they are free to fly out and about during the day (which they do). There are large trees and large bushes in their area, so they have plenty of protection from predators. We do have hawks in this neighborhood, but because of the tree cover, they would be hard-pressed to "swoop" in and steal them. The chickens have amazing hearing. They can't see worth a darn, especially at dusk. They're always back in their house before dark.

My kids carry the chickens all over the yard. They tolerate this very well. It is quite a hoot to watch the chickens ride down the slide on the back of one of the kids. Yes, they do seem to enjoy this activity.

They eat an amazing amount of bugs and produce some nice fertilizer.

[Lisa]

45. chickens that hitch for rides!

I had about 7 in the very first clutch I hatched (Bovan Browns). I gave 5 of them to a friend who wanted to start raising chickens at her place in the country. Her kids promptly adopted them as pets and started carrying them all over the place. Of the 2 roosters, one of them has the habit of coming out to the turnoff for the farm, and waiting for my friend or her husband to come home from work. The first time she saw the rooster, she pulled over and opened the door to yell at him to get back from the road in case he got run over -- and he hopped inside the vehicle and settled himself on the seat! When they got up to the house, she opened the door and he jumped out again, and went under the porch (his favorite place). This has happened several times in the past few months.