Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[bobbi-j]

ok i just have to post this. my friends all know i have chickens. i am chicken obsessed. so i get this phone call. my friend says you are not going to be leave this. i just left a customers house ( he does home improvement ). the couple was arguing horribly. i said okay but why you telling me . i don;t give a rats butt. he then goes on to tell me they have chickens. i said ok, and.
the husband was going raving mad . the wife just got home from the vets with a bill close to 2500,00 because the chicken needed an operation.

i dropped my phone.
true story i give you my friends number.let him tell you.

so bee, i am going to need a diaper cause i am still laughing so hard i lost all body function control and that was over a week ago

Pretty sure both the chicken and I would be buried out back behind the barn somewhere if I did that....

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Wow....

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Walt - so now I know why my roos are well behaved, my game hens kick the crud out of them, and anyone else for that matter, it's not manners, it's fear. I guess no body wants to mate with a ball of barbed wire.

 

[deedee1]

It is confusing because we keep chickens in so many different ways in so many different condtions that no one answer can be right for everyone. Some people keep a few hens in very tight quarters in the middle of town. Some have much larger mixed flocks out in the country where space and neighbors are not a problem. Some keep them as pampered pets while some treat them as livestock. Some people have chickens perched on their shoulder while they are chatting on this forum, while others would throw a fit if they saw a chicken in their house. I'm in that last group, by the way.
I haven't cleaned my coop bedding out in three years and I've never wiped the roosts down with bleach. I do occasionally remove piles of poop when it starts to get too thick under the roosts. Occasionally. But mine don't spend much time in the coop. They are out eating grass and chasing bugs. My coop is well oversized for the number of chickens I have so I have to work less than someone that shoehorns their chickens in a tiny space. There are a lot of people on this forum that do things a lot different than I do.
I see by your signature line that you have a pretty good sized flock. If you can tell us a bit about the size of your facilities and how you manage your chickens, somebody might be able to give you some more specific ideas, but my coop will get cleaned out when it starts to stink or this fall, whichever happens first. It's time to put that bedding in the garden and start over.
You don't need to keep everything sanitized. I think chickens are healthier when they are allowed to build up immunities to what is in their environment. A wet coop is a dangerous possibly disease-ridden space, so try to keep it dry. It will probably stink if it gets wet. If it is not stinking, you are probably OK.
You'll find a lot of people use a lot of different things in the nest boxes and on the coop floor. None of them are right or wrong, just what we use. My preference is straw or long grass cuttings in the nests and wood shavings on the coop floor. I don't like straw on a coop floor. I mucked out too many stables and barns in my youth and that straw can mat together and make it a bit hard to clean out once I decide to actually clean it out, but plenty of people use straw. It's just personal preference. What you're doing sounds fine to me, but I don't know your specific cirumstances. If ground corn cobs are cheap and available, that sounds pretty good to me for the coop floor. I prefer something a little more substantial in the nests though. I like the way straw or grass holds its shape.

I have 2 coop my big coop for the big girls is12x8 and is 12 feet high I have the Keets in there along with the rooster and the 16 hens I also have 5-4 month old appenzellers. we have a flat roost along with nesting boxes. . . I was worried about over crowding but if I did my math correct and read correctly there is still plenty of room (not real sure). They are all out in the run through the daywich is about 1/2 acre fenced in.I have a small 4x8 grow out pen for the chicks and the only thing in that is a roost and a small run in front of it. I just want to make sure I have things rite. also with all my hens I am only getting about 6 eggs average a day. 3 rir, 1 barred rock,2 delaware, 1 game. 2 golden stars.1 Americana, 1 Polish, 3 not sure what they are LOL, Just thought with all the hens I would get more eggs.

 

[Clay Mudd]

ok i just have to post this. my friends all know i have chickens. i am chicken obsessed. so i get this phone call. my friend says you are not going to be leave this. i just left a customers house ( he does home improvement ). the couple was arguing horribly. i said okay but why you telling me . i don;t give a rats butt. he then goes on to tell me they have chickens. i said ok, and.
the husband was going raving mad . the wife just got home from the vets with a bill close to 2500,00 because the chicken needed an operation. i dropped my phone.
true story i give you my friends number.let him tell you.

so bee, i am going to need a diaper cause i am still laughing so hard i lost all body function control and that was over a week ago

Geez. And I feel extravagant spending five bucks on Blu-Kote!

But then, that was probably a rare Silkie that looks just like David Bowie or something, and I only have common barnyard chickens.

 

[Ridgerunner]

What you are doing sounds like it should work. The test will come this winter if your ground is covered with snow for a while. It usually takes a couple of days for mine to get used to snow where they'll go out in it. Chickens generally don't like things that are different than what they are used to.

If you have that many hens in prime laying age you should be getting more eggs. The main things I'd look for is them hiding a nest on you or something is getting some of the eggs. If they are still too young or maybe too old, that is a different story. How old are they?

The list of things that can be getting the eggs is pretty long. If you are regularly getting only about 6 eggs, that narrows it down some. My biggest problem is snakes, but snakes don't visit every day. If it is snakes, you should see a big fluctuation in what you get.

Some wild animals will eat the eggs on the spot and usually leave some traces behind, but others will carry them away or swallow them whole. No traces. With no traces, I'd think canine or similar. Fox and dog top my list. I'd think a coyote would probably be eating your hens. Do you have a family dog that has access? It may have become trained that the egg song is an invitation to a treat. Even with this, if it is a wild animal, I'd think there would be more fluctuation in the daily numbers..

If eggs or chickens disappear without a trace, never count out the possibility that it is a human.

Another thing that could affect it is food and water. They especially need water all the time. If they have sufficient feed available they should be laying more eggs than that. The quality of the feed can affect size quite a bit but I think it would need to be poor quality to affect the number of eggs that much. Still, it is a possibility.

Another possibility is that some may be molting. Stress can cause a mini-molt at any time.

Another possibility is that you have recently moved them to new quarters. Sometimes it takes a while for them to get comfortable in new surroundings. Or maybe you introduced new chickens or took some away so they have to resort the pecking order.

In the heat of summer, some hens will slow down laying. Mine do some but not that much. I'm still geting an average of 7 eggs out of 10 hens, all prime laying age.

There are lots of reasons why they may not be laying real well. It's hard to zero in on any one thing from far far away.

 

[deedee1]

Wow I started reading this yesterday, I am an avid reader anyway and this is like a book that you just can't put down!!! I am having a hard time getting things done, I am on page 52 and love every minute of this. Thank you all.

 

[deedee1]

Yes we moved the a couple of weeks ago and then last week I moved the appenzellers in with them also.

 

[galanie]

All I know is, Al had me roaring for a couple pages there! And Bee egging him on... priceless!!

 

[deedee1]

I was hoping all summer for a broody. When my BO finally went broody, it was mid-October and too late in the year for me to be able to hatch out and house all 14 of the eggs she was sitting on! (Most of them were fertile, too.

) So, hoping she does her thing in the spring. Unless, of course, I can find me some good heritage birds close to home. Then I'd just let her set on some store eggs for awhile and transfer some chicks under her when her time is up.

Wow!! This is awesome. . . I did not know you could do that with store eggs and then add chicks later, how long can you leave the eggs under her before you add the chicks and I am assuming you add them at night time?