Chickens???

[cypressfarms]

My daughter has decided that we need a few chickens out back by the barn. I've never raised chickens before.

Anyone have any suggestions? Don't even know if they need shelter, and what type. I'm assuming that they will eat cracked corn, and maybe if I'm lucky some worms/parasites in the pasture.

The barn is a couple of hundred yards from our back yard. Will they eventually wander into my yard? If so, no chickens, or dead chickens. Wifey wants a nice yard for the passers by to look at.

 

[memanpa]

i have about 25
i built an inclosed pen and coop to house them so they do not wander into the yard,
i feed a lay pellet/scratch feed (can get it at wally world) or feed store
sell fresh brown eggs for $1.25 dz and basically pay for their feed out of the egg money plus have fresh eggs for us to eat!
wife even like hearing the rooster crow( he is not necessary unless you want fertile eggs)

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

memanpa, how's that rooster around your very small grandchildren (if you have any small ones) ? I love to hear the roosters crowing and I can vividly recall a number of really brazen & ornery roosters that my grandma had over the years. They really like to attack the little kids. I punted and/or drop kicked many a rooster in my younger days back on the farm. :lol:

 

[memanpa]

as i said mine are all kept in an enclosed pen not free roaming, my grand kids love to gather the eggs but i always go with them to the coop same when we go to look at the moo's what one of my grandsons calls my cows

 

[Crowderfarms]

Cypress, IF they stay in and around the barn, it'll be a miracle. Just be ready for them roosting and making a heck of a mess, if you dont build a pen for them. Most of em' we had were picked off by Owls, or Foxes and Coyotes. Aint nothing like going to get on a Tractor and find chicken little was there the night before.

 

[memanpa]

i remember when i was growing up about 5 maybe 6 lived with my grandparents one day an old rooster decided he LIKED me
gramps grabbed that guy and i SWEAR one twist hyalfway across the corral and the rooster was flopping around minus head chicken and home made dumplins yum yum

 

[Caustic Burno]

We run games they stay in the woods most of the time and survive, well most of them. We have nesting boxes scattered around to collect the eggs and everynow and then one brings in a batch of biddies.

 

[Saltydawg]

We always kept about 150 or so Golden Comets when i was younger.
We had some Plymouth Rocks too but they didn't seem to lay as many eggs as the Comets.

We had a chicken coop (about 10x15 in size) with about 50 nesting boxes for the hens and we would caponize all the males and eat/sell them once they grew up.

Used a 40" chicken wire fence and clipped one of their wings so if they tried to fly they just ended up dive bombing in a spiral :lol: .

We kept dogs around and taught them not to monkey with the chickens...dogs did good keeping predators away.

 

[Gale Seddon]

Cypress, okay, this is something I can address...we have some laying hens who have a coop and a yard...I shut their coop door at night (have found possums IN there, scared the you-know-what outa me, much shrieking...mine and theirs, LOL). Feed them Laying Mash and "scratch", fresh kitchen scraps (except meat); they love spaghetti. (We won 1st place at the Louisa County Fair for brown eggs; that night those girls got a pound of cooked spaghetti!).

We also have some bantams that wander at will (doesn't matter HOW high the chicken yard fence is, bantams WILL get out) they'll roost in boxwoods, in the barn...the most charming little chickens, feisty little roosters, colorful, smart, good setters. Wonderful little birds, but hawks, raccoons, etc., take their toll (they never get the roosters, just the hens, that figures!).

Yes, they'll not only wander into your yard, they will dig up any and all flowers you just spent hours planting. We cover the tractor with a tarp...when we move the tarp to use the tractor, taa daa, there's an EGG on the seat!!!!

Have sold excess bantie chicks to the local feed store...people always seem to want them. Sell fresh brown eggs for $1/dozen.

Darned roosters...start about 4 AM or earlier, the ones in the boxwoods holler, the ones in the coop answer, the ones in the barn answer back...(truly, though, too many roosters will have a negative effect on egg production...and when a bunch of them gang up on a hen, I step in and start kicking).

But what's a farm without chickens? Seriously, if you manage the laying hens right and don't let them out of their yard (clip one wing), they'll do well for you; get them at about 4 months of age, almost ready to start laying, and keep them confined, fresh water everyday, a couple of nesting boxes for eggs, clean the coop once a week (compost it for your garden), and give them roosts to perch on at night in their coop, you should do fine. Great activity and responsibility for kids. If you want to get fancy, get an "egg-mobile" a la Joel Salatin, run it behind your cows, check it out, fascinating.

Wow, I sure got carried away on this one, sorry!

 

[SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE]

We always kept about 150 or so Golden Comets when i was younger.
We had some Plymouth Rocks too but they didn't seem to lay as many eggs as the Comets.

We had a chicken coop (about 10x15 in size) with about 50 nesting boxes for the hens and we would caponize all the males and eat/sell them once they grew up.

Used a 40" chicken wire fence and clipped one of their wings so if they tried to fly they just ended up dive bombing in a spiral :lol: .

We kept dogs around and taught them not to monkey with the chickens...dogs did good keeping predators away.

I know this can obviously be done....but tell me...how do you break the dogs from killing the chickens? :?: :cboy:

 

[Caustic Burno]

We always kept about 150 or so Golden Comets when i was younger.
We had some Plymouth Rocks too but they didn't seem to lay as many eggs as the Comets.

We had a chicken coop (about 10x15 in size) with about 50 nesting boxes for the hens and we would caponize all the males and eat/sell them once they grew up.

Used a 40" chicken wire fence and clipped one of their wings so if they tried to fly they just ended up dive bombing in a spiral :lol: .

We kept dogs around and taught them not to monkey with the chickens...dogs did good keeping predators away.

I know this can obviously be done....but tell me...how do you break the dogs from killing the chickens? :?: :cboy:

22 Long Rifle and get a new dog.

 

[Saltydawg]

We always kept about 150 or so Golden Comets when i was younger.
We had some Plymouth Rocks too but they didn't seem to lay as many eggs as the Comets.

We had a chicken coop (about 10x15 in size) with about 50 nesting boxes for the hens and we would caponize all the males and eat/sell them once they grew up.

Used a 40" chicken wire fence and clipped one of their wings so if they tried to fly they just ended up dive bombing in a spiral :lol: .

We kept dogs around and taught them not to monkey with the chickens...dogs did good keeping predators away.

I know this can obviously be done....but tell me...how do you break the dogs from killing the chickens? :?: :cboy:

Our dogs were always raised from puppies and they were familiar with chickens.
Puppy will get his butt kicked by a grown chicken lol.
Once they get a little older they might try to get sneaky but long as you catch them in the act and punish them they learn pretty quick.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Never seen a dog once he started killin chickens quit no matter what other than the 22 LR.

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

grandma's method was: try to take the freshly killed chicken away from the dog and then with chicken in hand she would just beat the hel*l out of the dog with it, yelling "bad dog" (or some more colorful language if it was grandpa doing the dog beating). Sometimes it worked, sometimes not. If that treatment didn't break the dog of the bad habit the Caustic Burno method was then employed.

 

[Saltydawg]

I believe that Caustic.

We always raised our dogs from puppies and can say I don't ever remember one of our dogs actually killing a chicken.....a few feathers once in a while but never had a dead chicken due to the dogs.

edit: and yea if i caught a dog chasing a chicken it resulted in my boot up the dogs rear...they knew better.

 

[milkmaid]

I know this can obviously be done....but tell me...how do you break the dogs from killing the chickens? :?: :cboy:

A good 'ol fashioned "spanking" :lol: :lol: That description doesn't really do it justice. LOL!

Seriously though, I have Labradors - yes, Labrador Retrievers - that can trot through a flock of chickens, and never look right or left. They wouldn't dare touch one of those birds. I won't put up with that. :shock: I've taught puppies that and I've taught adult dogs that. I don't believe I've ever had a dog kill or ruffle the feathers on more than one chicken - once I've had a "talk" with them, they figure out pretty quickly they had better not touch those birds.

As far as chickens themselves...we give ours a place to roost at night. If we want eggs, they do have to stay penned up, or who knows where they'll lay 'em. Younger birds that aren't laying yet we'll let out during the day. My Mom's biggest complaint with the chickens running loose is that they love her flower gardens (80 yards from the chicken coop) - and they sure wreak havoc on it.

 

[SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE]

We always kept about 150 or so Golden Comets when i was younger.
We had some Plymouth Rocks too but they didn't seem to lay as many eggs as the Comets.

We had a chicken coop (about 10x15 in size) with about 50 nesting boxes for the hens and we would caponize all the males and eat/sell them once they grew up.

Used a 40" chicken wire fence and clipped one of their wings so if they tried to fly they just ended up dive bombing in a spiral :lol: .

We kept dogs around and taught them not to monkey with the chickens...dogs did good keeping predators away.

I know this can obviously be done....but tell me...how do you break the dogs from killing the chickens? :?: :cboy:

22 Long Rifle and get a new dog.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :shock:


I have often seen pictures of "hound dawgs" laying around with free ranging chickens and they never bother them.

 

[Crowderfarms]

We always kept about 150 or so Golden Comets when i was younger.
We had some Plymouth Rocks too but they didn't seem to lay as many eggs as the Comets.

We had a chicken coop (about 10x15 in size) with about 50 nesting boxes for the hens and we would caponize all the males and eat/sell them once they grew up.

Used a 40" chicken wire fence and clipped one of their wings so if they tried to fly they just ended up dive bombing in a spiral :lol: .

We kept dogs around and taught them not to monkey with the chickens...dogs did good keeping predators away.

I know this can obviously be done....but tell me...how do you break the dogs from killing the chickens? :?: :cboy:

22 Long Rifle and get a new dog.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :shock:


I have often seen pictures of "hound dawgs" laying around with free ranging chickens and they never bother them.

We have Bloodhounds, and they could give a flip bout the Chickens. We had a heeler that went Adios because of killing Chickens.

 

[cypressfarms]

Cypress, IF they stay in and around the barn, it'll be a miracle. Just be ready for them roosting and making a heck of a mess, if you dont build a pen for them. Most of em' we had were picked off by Owls, or Foxes and Coyotes. Aint nothing like going to get on a Tractor and find chicken little was there the night before.

Man, I posted just before I left work and came home and in a couple of hours this.....whew. thanks to everyone for the replies, but crowder's above post alone is enough to say no. Gale and Milkmaid's comments are enough for me to tell my wife, and then she will make sure we don't get chickens. No one messes with her flower beds. This is a woman who likes to sit in the front yard and admire the house, thinking of what she could do next.

My girls are just old enough to start getting into 4-H, they seem to ask about a different animal once every few weeks. I'll have to nip this one in the bud. Maybe I'll give in to the llama request instead. Already said no to goats and rabbits and ducks.


Edit: Is there any type of fowl that would stay around a barn, or am I asking too much?

 

[Saltydawg]

Neighbors down the road have a couple guinea's (not sure on spelling).

They are noisier than heck when strangers are around but they stay right around the barn and in the yard.

Quite often see them parading around with a new clutch of chicks.

They look like overgrown chickens lol...but they behave similar to geese...good "watchdogs".


edit: Found a link for the Guinea's

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/Guin ... ineas.html