Chickens

[mnmtranching]

This mild weather has really got my barnyard chickens going, they eat waste from the cattle. I guess there's about 2 dozen hens maybe few more running around. Anyway, now with all the placenta available, I guess with the added protein. I don't even look hard to find a dozen or so eggs a day.

 

[angie1]

MoGal ~ you are going to be disappointed with the light brahmas if you are wating them to lay in the cold weather. Give them artificial light. Set timer so that it goes on earlier in the morning than the sun comes up and it shuts off after the sun goes down ~ makes a difference, the light.

Ours are laying eggs like crazy. They are on laying mash now, but I will take them off of it next bag. Makes shells too hard, to much calcium and protien in it, and the chicks have difficulty hatching. Had one hen hatch out 18 by herself last year ~ farm record. Raised every last one of them. Her name is Lace.

 

[pdfangus]

I have had several breeds of laying hens as well.

I think my favorite is the black austrolorp.

 

[Lammie]

I have had several breeds of laying hens as well.

I think my favorite is the black austrolorp.

Yes, they do lay a big pretty brown egg. I get eggs so big they don't fit in the cartons very well. Hard to shut the lid. And yes, we are laying like mad right now. I am glad winters about over. In fact it is supposed to be ninety degrees on Friday here.

Yippee! Time to plant the garden!!! :mrgreen:

I have been having issues with the range chickens getting into the yard, so I have taken to firing a shotgun blast at them to scare them away. I did that last year, and it worked, between that, and getting some steady warm weather to birng out the bugs in the pasture. Still might have to eliminate the trouble makers.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Lammie I put up a 4' fence around my garden. The rolls are about 20' long it takes about 2 of them to go from our pasture fence around my garden then back to another pasture fence.
Starting my seedlings next month.
My chickens love my garden too much so that is why I got the fence. Have to rotatile it, put the fence up fast or the chickens are scratching in it.

 

[Calman]

I am amazed.
I bought the cornish rock chickens at 4 days old.They wasen't much bigger than an egg.Now at this time they are 15 days old and bigger than a quail. I have those little chick feeders which are about 2ft long 4in wide and 2in deep. Those 20 little chicks are going through 2 of these every day,and a gallon and a half of water.They don't spend much time on their feet they are so heavy.
Not that I doubted everybody's word but I found it hard to believe that in 5 to 6 weeks they'd be ready to butcher. Now I do not doubt it. If we could just get our calves to gain that quik.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Don't feed them too much or you will start finding dead ones.
Are you removing the feeders at night?
The rooster are good fryers. I let the hens grow for another couple of weeks and have large roasters.
Got accused once of killing a turkey too young. :lol:

 

[Calman]

Don't feed them too much or you will start finding dead ones.
Are you removing the feeders at night?
The rooster are good fryers. I let the hens grow for another couple of weeks and have large roasters.
Got accused once of killing a turkey too young. :lol:

Dang I never thought about them eating too much.I will start removing the feeders of a night.
Thanks Cal

 

[kerley]

Three weeks ago my better half went to the local ranch supply and bought baby chicks. They charged her $3.79 each. I thought that was a rip off since they were not sexed. She was happy, so no big deal. They are huge now. Anyway she ordered a dozen from Mc Murray on the net. That was Friday. This morning the post office called and our order was there. When we got home she opened the box and to our surprise there were twenty seven chicks, each sexed and mixed breeds. They charged her $1.89 for twelve plus $5.00 shipping. The rest were free. What a deal. :nod: Tom :cboy:

 

[Calman]

Hey Tom don't think you could beat a deal like that.I will try that the next time.

Cal

 

[kerley]

Correction... We paid $1.89 each for twelve chicks plus $5.00 shipping. Sorry for the error. Tom :cboy:

 

[kerley]

The chicks we bought are rapidly growing. I just about have our chicken house built. All that is left to do is the metal roof and outside paint. It is kind of cute. Looks like a little barn. It takes me forever as I am so slow. I am not a youngster anymore. The bad part is that it is already to small. We had our first encounter with a huge bird of prey. He swooped down and grabbed a small chick and was gone. I herd the chick cry out and looked up and the bird almost ran into me. We looked on the computer for the type of bird of prey it was. We could not find a photo of one that we saw. The wife says it had white on the tips of his wings. She thought it was ether an Eagle or a black buzzard. It did not look like any chicken hawk I have ever seen. Any one had such an experience. Will a buzzard swoop down and grab prey ? I don't know much about buzzards but I thought they only ate dead things. Tom :cboy:

 

[I luv herfrds]

Was it white under the wing tips? Now a bald eagle does have white patches on their wings. Their heads do not turn white til they are older. I have heard 5-7 years of age. Could be different age too.
If it was bigger then a hawk then it was a bald eagle.
Now just a thought. If this was the biggest bird of prey you have ever seen and it was a dark brown just a possible thought of a gold eagle. Just a thought. I'm probably wrong though.

 

[ToddFarmsInc]

Odd, how times change. For me, I got tore up over the double yolked eggs, and now I see smaller kids with cell phones text messageing and checking to see how many bars they have everywhere.
Chuckie

Gosh I wana go back to 1956! :cry2:

I think I'm more a 20'th century person than a 21st century. :x

I just got into birds this year. I got my moms old chicken coop. (it's a 12ft X 12 ft brooder house) I fixed it all up last year, and built a nice fenced in yard. This spring I went to Orschlens and got 5 each of 5 different breeds, all pullets. I got some red, and some white, and some barred plymouth rock, and some brown. They all looked alike as little chicks. (excpet different colors.) But as adults they are all different as can be. The little brown birds are just as wild as can be, but the others will come up and sit on my feet.

I have dogs, and I have been trying to acclimate them to the birds, so I can have them outside the pen. But it's just not going to work. The dogs have been around here too many years catching and killing things. ( I don't have any cats for that reason) I had let my three tamest hens out of the pen saturday morning, and had put two of my dogs inside, when it started sprinkeling. And sure enough.... when I was inside working, the blue heeler who was still outside behaving herself, decided to have some FUN! I found one of the hens shell shocked, and ruffed up pretty bad, hiding under some concrete that afternoon. I am assuming the dang dog chased the other two off and killed them somewhere. :devil2: Needless to say, the hens are never getting out of the pen unless I am around and the dogs aren't. :roll:

My 23 birds I have left (I got two roosters by the way, so much for them all being pullets) eat a lot of food. I am amazed at how much scratch grain I go through now. They aren't old enough to start laying yet, it should be fun when they get to that age. :banana:

 

[1982vett]

Don't feed them too much or you will start finding dead ones.
Are you removing the feeders at night?
The rooster are good fryers. I let the hens grow for another couple of weeks and have large roasters.
Got accused once of killing a turkey too young. :lol:

:?: It's been a long time since I have been involved with poultry but removing feed from growing chicks does not compute. I would think you should never let them run out, if they do that might cause overconsumption causing problems in the craw and gizzard. As I said, it has been a long time. If they are gaining weight to fast you might see leg problems. I would think changing from a chick starter to a growing ration, maybe adding scratch to the feed would be a better solution. Poultry, as far as I know, need a source of grit for the gizzard to work properly even with todays processed feeds (ground, crumbles, pellets).
If I'm way to wrong, you bird brains :lol2: :roll: feel free to set me straight. :help:

 

[I luv herfrds]

1982vett with the cornish rock cross you remove the feed because they will eat and eat and eat til they die. The other breeds will at least stop eating when they are full, these won't.

 

[1982vett]

1982vett with the cornish rock cross you remove the feed because they will eat and eat and eat til they die. The other breeds will at least stop eating when they are full, these won't.

I'm going to take your word for it. Have no reason to think you would lead someone astray. Only chickens I remember Mom and Dad had besides broilers were White Leghorns.

And I thought turkeys were the stupidest bird alive. Maybe not.

 

[I luv herfrds]

1982vett the hatcheries recommend removing the feed in their information packs they send with these birds and a family friend, that has raised chickens longer then I have been alive, also said the same thing.
You have a brooder light on to keep them warm and they just stay awake and eat, while the others sleep. Almost forgot to remove the feed one night. Went out pretty late and there where the cornish cross eating away and the layers under the heat bulb sleeping. Have always made sure to remove feeders at night ever since.

Actually my turkeys are the dumbest bird I have ever seen especially after hatching out some chicks and it rains. Dumb things won't come into the house to keep them dry.

 

[1982vett]

Actually my turkeys are the dumbest bird I have ever seen especially after hatching out some chicks and it rains. Dumb things won't come into the house to keep them dry.

Yep, got soaking wet many times trying to pen them in the turkey house when a thunderstorm would pop up unexpectedly. Would drive the ones that would and have to go back and carry the ones that just squatted down.

 

[Jalopy]

The reason for removing the feed from the cornish-rock broilers is they do keep eating and they have a build up of lactic acid in their muscles especially the heart muscle causeing "flip=overs" basically it is like a heart attack. So you remove the feed so their system will get rid of the excess lactic acid. The big bird houses control feed mainly with lighting by darkening the house on a timed basis which stops the birds from feeding constantly. We have raised broilers on a small scale for a number of years, but I heard from large producers that they use the light to control overeating, there may be other methods of controlling thr feeding also