Raising Chickens

[battleax]

I'm also curious if anyone here raises chickens and would recommend a good book on the subject. My objective is to have maybe 2 laying chickens so I can have fresh eggs for my breakfasts in the mornings and also teach my children as I learn about raising chickens etc.

I live in a small city street and I don't see a problem with noise or neighbours. I called the city hall and the by-law officer had no idea, so I take it that means it is fine as long as nobody complains. The area I would build the coup is 8x10. I wanted to build a small chicken coup in that area and a small roaming yard as well that was fenced off. I intead to let them out in our yard when we are out gardening in it etc but confine them to there smaller 80sq ft. yard when we were not home or inside.

Any ideas or advice?

[The Mersey's Watcher]

I think the best idea is to visit a farm and learn about raising chickens there. I don't think a book could cover the subject, it's better to see with your own eyes and get your hands dirty before buying chickens. I think it's a great idea though.

[ensonulv]

I also want to raise chickens and maybe ducks (for fun). I have a friend that lives three blocks from me, who's dad raised chickens. I will post or PM everything as I learn it.

[Lonnie]

Try here Othala Acres (http://www.othalaacres.com/)
These are Heathens who raise chickens, turkeys, and sheep...

[aud_friggsdottir]

I have raised all of the above, but most recently chickens and turkeys (for 4H)...frankly they are very low maintenance except that you should keep their coup very clean. Turkeys cannot be raised with chickens because a "black head" disease can be passed through chicken feces.

You need rooster for laying.

As for chicken per square foot...I am not sure we never measured...actually our last batch...we just let roam around. But be sure if you do that you clip their wings. Keep their litter...it is great for garden manure, but must be "watered" down with compost soil.

...can't think of anything else at the moment!

Thanks for the link Lonnie...you should put it in the links section....

FFF

[battleax]

I didn't think you needed a rooster for laying. If that is the case I can not have them. I don't want the thing pissing my neighbours off.

[Outdoorsman]

What a coincidence, my father and I were just today discussing years ago when my great-grandmother on her farm kept chickens for eggs and meat.

He said that she'd buy new chicks around March and when they matured, they'd lay eggs. One chicken would lay typically two eggs a week, more if the chicken was more productive. She'd butcher the chickens eventually, and get more chicks the following March.

He never mentioned a rooster. I don't think they had one. If they had one, I doubt my great-grandmother would need to get chicks each year.

[aud_friggsdottir]

Well as far as I know that is the case, but hey I didn't read a book. My mom was raised on a farm and she told me we needed a male bird. For a while we only had a male duck and that worked, but if nothing is needed well then it didn't matter...LOL

I say what the hey, try it without a rooster...then if it doesn't work, get something quiet like a duck or something. Then if that doesn't work, eat them....LOL....home raise chickens are quite tasty :)

FFF
Kathy

[Outdoorsman]

Oh, I forgot to mention, my father said that they had wooden eggs that they'd put in the nest to get the chickens in the right frame of mind to start laying eggs.

I agree, farm raised chickens and eggs can't be beat for taste. :)

[hemrud]

A friend of mine asked me the other day this question, perhaps someone here can answer. His chickens are laying but dont "sit" on the eggs to hatch them? Any idea why?
Thanks

[Loki's Advocate]

My folks have got a chicken run at the back of their place. Those chooks lay the biggest and best-tasting eggs I ever ate.

So Dad says, the best way to work out how to have healthy, happy and productive chooks is to look at how they lived (live?) in nature.

They are indigenous to rainforests, which means they don't like too little shelter.

They are roosting birds, which means they need somewhere to perch themselves when they sleep.

They get about in groups of 12 or so hens, and ONE rooster. And believe me, if your coterie of chickens is too small, too large, or contains no rooster or more than one, the yield and quality of the eggs you get out of your hens will be a hell of a lot lower than it otherwise could be.

Oh, and whatever you do, DON'T FEED THEM ANY MEAT IN ANY FORM, unless you want them to go loco. Dad fed a spare rooster on minced goat meat* only as an experiment once, and although the thing got way bigger than any chicken I have ever seen, it was the most aggressive bird I have ever come across, including ganders. They used it as a watch-bird before it got turned into soup, because it could not be let anywhere near the rest of the chickens.

*: And this was free-range meat, fed only on grazing and vegetable scraps. I imagine feeding them on commercial meat, full of hormones and antibiotics as it is, would make a rooster even crazier.

[Katia]

This is a cool thread.. I missed it somehow! I'd love to raise chickens one day. I guess you don't need a rooster because you don't need the eggs to be fertilized?? This is my guess. Or maybe you do need a rooster around just to keep the chickens "in the mood" and laying.. hahaha!

[Outdoorsman]

*: And this was free-range meat, fed only on grazing and vegetable scraps. I imagine feeding them on commercial meat, full of hormones and antibiotics as it is, would make a rooster even crazier.

I wonder what commercial meat does to people...

[Loki's Advocate]

I guess you don't need a rooster because you don't need the eggs to be fertilized?? This is my guess. Or maybe you do need a rooster around just to keep the chickens "in the mood" and laying.. hahaha!

I dunno the exact reason myself, not being a chicken physician, but there it is.

Pea****s/peahens are much the same, in terms of their social organisation.


I wonder what commercial meat does to people...

I never saw a person who worked at a McDonalds/Burger King/et cetera. for more than 6 months, who didn't end up with bad skin. <shrug>

[Loki's Advocate]

What, the word '****' (as in pea****) is censored by the forum software? How absolutely ridiculous. I'd expect this sort of thing from a panty-waisting Christian forum, not here.

I suppose the word '*****' (as in a female dog) is automatically censored too, hmm? Let's see... Oh for crying out loud. :rolleyes:

[Hveðrungur Kveldúlfsson]

We put those forum censors in for a reason. To keep profanity off the forum. Sorry if you dont like it but we dont want curious younger folk coming onto the board and having to see cuss words.

[Sigurd]

why does su****ious then have this issue as in censoring the combination s-p-i-c... :rolleyes:

I think that it should be depending on the context. Apart from which none of us have posted in a vulgar way anyway as far as I am aware...

[Hveðrungur Kveldúlfsson]

But if its not censored people can go around posting it whenever they want.

[Loki's Advocate]

Sorry if you dont like it but we dont want curious younger folk coming onto the board and having to see cuss words.

Man, I can live without cussing, trust me... but those two particular words do have legitimate uses outside of cussing, and it simply seems silly to censor ALL mentions of them without taking into account the context in which they are used.

There's reasonable censorship; the word that rhymes with 'luck' and the word that rhymes with 'hit', for example, should be censored, because anyone who uses them could very easily use other words. And there's other words that should also be censored. I agree with you on that.

But then, there's molly coddling. And I am sorry if you find this insulting, because it's not meant to be.

What? Do you expect Odinist kids to grow up calling our colourful, feathery friends 'pea-male-reproductive-organ'? Or to grow up calling a female dog a 'canine woman-who-one-finds-objectionable'?

[Jay]

Ummm, the censor stays. Sorry kids. I'm not going to remove it so people can have their way with vulgarity and slurs.

Simple and case closed.

[Loki's Advocate]

I don't want to 'have my way with vulgarity and slurs', but hey, you're doing a excellent job so far so I see no reason to argue the point further (besides it being futile :D).

[battleax]

I never seen any swear words on teh old board. I can see you maybe just having f and s in the profanity list. but the s-p-i-c one... like come on. Also it is very easy to swear if u want too. From what I see we are all grown adults and can control our language, but censoring whole words like peac0ck is retarded.

[Hveðrungur Kveldúlfsson]

When you put in words for the censors they censor those words, the whole word isnt censord but since its got a censord word as a part of it, it will only show the non censored part of the word. Again these were put in and they wont be leaving.

Discussion over. Dont turn this into an argument thread and make me have to move it out of the forum. The staff agreed to censoring offensive words that might bother parents of children.

You have kids battleax, would you want them browsing the forum with the chance they could see words like the ones we have censored?

[battleax]

Ya I have 2 and another will here this summer, and as a parent I think the profanity filter is overkill and reminds me of some x-tain chat bible room. My children know what swear words are. I have taught them not to say them and they don't. Also as a parent I don't overly shield them from the world. Pretending bad things do not exist is poor parenting.

[Hveðrungur Kveldúlfsson]

I think the profanity filter is overkill and reminds me of some x-tain chat bible room.

Wow thanks for the kind words....I mean insults.

[Der Einzelgänger]

HEY! Yeah so How about them chickens HUH? Aren't they good at laying eggs and stuff?

[Outdoorsman]

HEY! Yeah so How about them chickens HUH? Aren't they good at laying eggs and stuff?

Yes, they are remarkably good at laying eggs. It's almost like they have a built-in capacity for it. It's truly amazing! :p

[Der Einzelgänger]

See that's more like it. Talking about chickens in a chicken topic. And yeah, I'm gonna raise chickens at some point. I love my eggs :D

[texas heathen]

I remember getting eggs with my Granny when I was a kid, I remember the wooden eggs but she also had some kind of egg that would kill " chicken snakes ". Don't know how much of a prob that is cause I think chickens will kill a snake, but my fam is from S.E. Tx and we got a lot of snakes down there :eek: .
FFF
Clif

[battleax]

Wow thanks for the kind words....I mean insults.

Hey no problem. :)

[Jay]

Hey, the censor stays. If you REALLY have a problem with that, you can not post here. We are determined to keep this family friendly and most parents don't want their kids reading cuss words and the like. I'm not saying people here are going to sound like sailors, I am preventing the occasional poster from doing it and we are also making our job of moderating posts that much easier.

So, please don't get your panties in a bunch about it and deal with it. :)

[battleax]

I was just having some fun. No need to get all riled up. ;)

[Jay]

I'm not. :)

When I get riled up, I don't do it here. I take it out on the rugby pitch. ;)

[battleax]

Sounds good.

All this talk about pea****s reminded me of one we seen a few weeks ago.
Here are some good pictures of a pea**** for everyone.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/battleax/DSC01255.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/battleax/DSC01254.jpg