Chickens

 
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johnjoseph
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Post by johnjoseph » Sun. Mar. 06, 2016 7:00 am

Any chicken owners out there? My son is involved with FFA and we are going to raise 20 laying hens. They will arrive as chicks in mid April.


 
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SWPaDon
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Post by SWPaDon » Sun. Mar. 06, 2016 7:04 am

I have 10. The first thing you will need is a brooder and heat lamp. I used an old freezer, and made a lid with 2x2's with chicken wire. I then took cardboard and made the inside corners rounded. The reason for this is that when the chicks get scared, they will crowd into a corner and smother 1 or 2 chicks in the process.

Lot's of very good info on this site: http://www.backyardchickens.com/

 
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SWPaDon
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Post by SWPaDon » Sun. Mar. 06, 2016 7:39 am

I have 4 white leghorns 1 died as a chick when it managed to get caught behind the cardboard in the brooder, the other flew into the chain I used to hold the water bucket with the 'chicken nipples'.: http://www.backyardchickens.com/products/white-leghorn-pullets/reviews/10545

I have 6 Red Sex Link: http://www.backyardchickens.com/products/red-sex-link

 
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johnjoseph
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Post by johnjoseph » Sun. Mar. 06, 2016 8:19 am

Swapadon,

These are the chickens I have coming:

Barred Plymouth Rock Chickens
Golden Comet Chickens
Austra White Chickens

We have a 3ft by 5ft aquarium we are using to start them with. Already have the heat lamps and accessories to raise them in this set up.

 
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SWPaDon
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Post by SWPaDon » Sun. Mar. 06, 2016 8:31 am

Great, you have something for them. Just be sure to round off the corners to avoid suffocation.

 
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Post by cabinover » Sun. Mar. 06, 2016 3:14 pm

A cardboard carboy is a nice enclosure to raise them in as well. The best eggs you'll ever taste but almost impossible to hard boil and peel when fresh. Give them a couple weeks before trying or you'll be frustrated.

Barred rock were bitches to us, very independent. Red sex links were very friendly. Black sex links not so much but better than the Barred Rock.

 
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SWPaDon
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Post by SWPaDon » Sun. Mar. 06, 2016 6:36 pm

My red sex link hens are very friendly, just like you say. They will sit on my shoulders, and want to be petted almost every time I go into the coop. 1 of the white leghorns is the same way, always wants attention.
But 1 of the leghorns is the leader(top of the pecking order), she has come after me several times :o :shock:


 
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Post by pyro29 » Mon. Mar. 07, 2016 6:54 am

We have a total of 38: Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, New Hampshire Reds, Buffs, and Aracanas.

Ours are in the Coup-Mahal, as I call it. They have a 8' x 10' shed and a 18'W x 40'L x 8'H enclosure.

The coup has power inside and keeps a heated base water jug in the winter and has interior lights set on a timer, year round. There is an attic space where we store up to 600 lbs of feed as well as oyster shell and hay. We have a four bay laying box and two 10 foot and one 6 foot roosting bars. The floor has a very thick coating of epoxy paint, the kind that you use to coat garage floors, etc.

Outside, I built a feeder box that has a four foot trough which, by standard practice is not quite large enough but it seems to work just fine here. The feeder self feeds, by gravity, and holds about 150 lbs of layer pellets.

We feed them a mix of layer pellets and cracked corn. The layer pellets are Du-More brand from TSC. We used to use Blue Seal but the TSC brand looks identical, has the same ingredients, and is $12/50lbs while the Blue Seal is $20/50lbs. For the winter, they get 100lbs of layer pellets mixed with 50lbs of cracked corn (TSC $8/50lbs) but for the summer we switch to cracked corn and fresh grass.

We get 1 day old chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery. We get a new batch every couple years so we always have at least two different age ranges at all times. Until the chicks grown into pullets, we keep them segregated, via chicken wire fencing, inside the coup under a heat lamp. Once they are big enough to defend themselves or fast enough to run away, they are mixed into the rest of the flock. Since they are visible as they grow, we think that it helps with integration as we've not had many issues once the age groups mix together.

 
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Post by cabinover » Mon. Mar. 07, 2016 5:38 pm

Our Barred Rock rooster would take after my wife and daughter any time. Every once in a while he'd be stupid enough to come after my son or myself. I got so I could whack him in the head with my hand and not get hit by wings or feet. Finally whacked him with a knife when he took ill. My wife did things for me that night I can't mention here. :dancing:

 
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Post by corey » Tue. Mar. 08, 2016 6:27 pm

At one time I had 24 chickens. For a while I made profit then feed went.

Mine were Rhode Island reds wild ones too.

 
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Post by Seagrave1963 » Wed. Mar. 09, 2016 7:24 am

We've had chickens for several years now. Started as a hobby for the kids and now it is our family norm. We have and do the same as pyro and have had very few problems other than some natural predators (fox, eagles, hawks) that will cull a few each year while they are free ranging. We tried a mail order for chicks one year and were not satisfied as 30% of the "pullets" turned out to be roosters. We had much better results by just going to TSC.

Good Luck and enjoy very fresh, deep yellow yolk eggs!

 
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Post by SWPaDon » Fri. Mar. 11, 2016 10:20 am

pyro29 wrote:
We feed them a mix of layer pellets and cracked corn. The layer pellets are Du-More brand from TSC. We used to use Blue Seal but the TSC brand looks identical, has the same ingredients, and is $12/50lbs while the Blue Seal is $20/50lbs. For the winter, they get 100lbs of layer pellets mixed with 50lbs of cracked corn (TSC $8/50lbs) but for the summer we switch to cracked corn and fresh grass.
I've only used 2 different feeds. I was using the Country Road layer pellets from Rural King. I liked them because the were very little fines in there to plug up my feeder. But I was getting thin shelled eggs, and even eggs with no shells at all. I was giving plenty of crushed oyster shells for supplemental calcium.

I since switched to the Du-More brand at TSC, it has a lot of fines but the hens are laying very good eggs now and I've stopped supplementing with oyster shells.

 
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Post by KingCoal » Sat. Apr. 30, 2016 7:51 pm

cabinover wrote:Our Barred Rock rooster would take after my wife and daughter any time. Every once in a while he'd be stupid enough to come after my son or myself. I got so I could whack him in the head with my hand and not get hit by wings or feet. Finally whacked him with a knife when he took ill. My wife did things for me that night I can't mention here. :dancing:
i can confirm everything said of Barred Rocks so far. we had them too, I still think they are the best eggs / meat bird of the bunch, but the roosters are all NUTS.

ours would terrorize the girls and one day cornered our youngest. Mom heard from out front and got her out of the coup then went back in with the wiffle ball bat. in a couple mins. she came to the shop crying that she thinks she had killed him and I should go do something about it :roll:

she had gotten in a couple good body shots then accidently caught him just at the base of the skull, knocked him out cold with a "Bwak". by the time I got there he was up, head lolling like it was on a hinge and barely walking, like a sailor on his first shore leave in S.E.A.

he didn't make it the next time the 2 of them tangoed and she wasn't sorry about it that time. :lol: :lol:

 
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Post by johnjoseph » Wed. Jun. 22, 2016 6:51 am

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Post by coalfan » Wed. Jun. 22, 2016 8:10 am

i had several rhode island red roosters were reel bad my scars on my legs still show it and always beat the *censored* out of my beagles and had one that liked my old apple tree and would not come down .less he fought or fed and took care of the dogs .finally at night went out and caught him with my fishing net and he was dinner !!!!! :)


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