Official BYC Poll: What Is Your Least Favorite Thing About Keeping Chickens?

[Barnette]

Worrying about them when we go away for a few days. I have good people to look after them when we go but still worry. I can see the coop and run on a camera/ phone app to see what's going on if we get cell service.

I need one of those cameras

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I have a question for you guys - what do you do with old or disabled chickens? Cull them? Eat them? Give them away? Keep them? I'm truly curious. I ALWAYS keep them, and actually, most of my flock are old chickens that others didn't want and who I adopted. I also have a blind hen and another who possibly has cancer

It depends on the disability. If it's something that will destroy their quality of life, I put them down. If it's something they can't seem to learn to cope with, I put them down. If they learn to cope with it and they act like they did before, then I generally will let them stick around.

 

[dirkandlorie]

I have a question for you guys - what do you do with old or disabled chickens? Cull them? Eat them? Give them away? Keep them? I'm truly curious. I ALWAYS keep them, and actually, most of my flock are old chickens that others didn't want and who I adopted. I also have a blind hen and another who possibly has cancer

I let them live out a long happy life and help them along as much as I can. My Cochin is 11 years old and has mobility problems but sure can move when the blueberries come out. She has moments of joy and on really bad days I give her a 1/4 baby aspirin which helps, Epsom salt baths comfort her also. One Easter egger and a black sex link are 10, and have no issues at all. I did lose my gold sex link and a black sex link early this year (9 1/2 and 10 years old) and am so missing them. The coop feels empty without their personalities.

 

[Barnette]

I let them live out a long happy life and help them along as much as I can. My Cochin is 11 years old and has mobility problems but sure can move when the blueberries come out. She has moments of joy and on really bad days I give her a 1/4 baby aspirin which helps, Epsom salt baths comfort her also. One Easter egger and a black sex link are 10, and have no issues at all. I did lose my gold sex link and a black sex link early this year (9 1/2 and 10 years old) and am so missing them. The coop feels empty without their personalities.

good answer. That's wonderful. Your hens are so lucky! My oldest is 9 years old, and she's still spry as a rabbit and likes to sit in the laying box for no reason she hasn't laid in years

P. S. I'm sorry for your loss but I'm sure those hens lived wonderful, happy lives

 

[MROO]

Oh man!! That is hilarious!! I have never tried the electrolytes but will now! We are off grid so I just use a little one gallon plastic water dish and go out there every hour or so to refill it with hot water. I use lots of straw too. We canned the salmon row from the summer and heat it up to give them as well as any meat we don't want. People say that corn is not a "hot grain" but I have found it is. They get some corn meal mash every night. Beyond that I just offer a highly insulated coop and lots of warm treats. I also soak their feed in hot water so they get warm breakfast! Thanks for the tips!

My birds LOVE a warm corn and oatmeal mash when it's really cold out. Regardless of whether corn is a "hot" grain or not, the heat from the mash helps. It sure doesn't last very long when I put it out there!

I use a multi-layered bedding when it's cold, too - horse pellets as a base with pine shavings on top. When it's super windy or a big storm is due, I line the north wall and the windows with unbroken straw slices. They make a great windbreak and after the cold snap, I just drop them to the floor and sprinkle them with some scratch grain for an instant chicken boredom-busting bedding spreader!

Which leads to my "Least Favorite Thing About Keeping Chickens" - Winter storm (and massprep. We don't get anywhere near your low temps, but it can hover well below freezing for most of January and February. Kudos to you for dealing with that much cold - I couldn't do it!