Poultry
- Thread starter Brent S
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helps keep the snakes out.
my dominicker rooster likes snakes for breakfast!
free is always worth a little labor.
Absolutely! And it's almost identical in plan, to the one I planned to build, so even better! I can't complain. He was really looking to get rid of stuff, so also ended up with a bed, a table saw, a tile-cutter, a nice office chair, and some other things out of the deal...
i need to load up the chicken tractor and move them around some for bugs and fertilizer but am afraid its so hot right now i might cook them prematurely! im close to finishing the roof on my main coop and will try letting the new ones mix with the big hens again. hopefully being in a cage in with the older ones has gotten them over some of the fear. Even though im not completely sure which are roosters yet i think im going to cook a couple birds this weekend. I'll post some pictures.
I'm just planning on keeping hens. I don't want any roosters (or any fertilized eggs). At least not yet. In an impending SHTF situation, THEN I'll want a rooster or two. Bad enough I have mixed sexes of bunnies, when I just wanted one or the other. (at least for now). So I have to have them separate unless I want a bunch of baby bunnies. Right now, they are pets though.
Funny thing on rabbits and chickens though, nobody seems to have an issue with them being pets and then later food, at least not on a ranch. Just a weird mindset observation.
Funny thing on rabbits and chickens though, nobody seems to have an issue with them being pets and then later food, at least not on a ranch. Just a weird mindset observation.
Sweet, just checked out my local feed store yesterday, and they have Rhode Island Red pullets (baby hens). PERFECT!
I go to get the coup on Sunday, and will hopefully have it all assembled during the week, so we can get the chicks and be official chicken farmers. I think we're going with six to start.
I go to get the coup on Sunday, and will hopefully have it all assembled during the week, so we can get the chicks and be official chicken farmers. I think we're going with six to start.
One of the eggs in the incubator just hatched, chicken for breakfast anyone?
We got our coup up, and ended up getting 8 chickens over 6. They are doing great so far. We did lose one, as she ended up being a runt, and just had a health issue (better odds than most I hear, who report usually losing about a third or more initially). We got another to bring the number back up to 8. Since that, they've been growing for the past week (so week 3), quite well.
Our Domenecker ( Dominique ? ) rooster is about 2 years old now and thinks he boss of the yard no one can go outside without watching for him because he's so mean . When he started this I told my wife I'm going to kill him and she didn't want me to . Now he is worse next time I'm home alone I'm going to zap him . We have Grand kids that come over and even my son don't like going out . I think I'll play it like I don't know where he went , stray dog might have got him .
My dominecker is the meanest sob I've ever seen! He's really lucky he's so big, beautiful and potent. One of these days though he's going to be chopped up in some fried rice!
I've decided on Rhode Island Reds, they're well-known for both egg production and brooding, although I have no plans to get a rooster any time soon. I know what my time frame is for getting one and they are very easy to come by so that's for down the road. Right now, I just want eggs, not chicks.
I thought I was going to have to just dismantle everything I had done here to accommodate my great danes, but it looks like I won't after all. I had roofed over a 4 foot by 8 foot space between the side of my shed and the back fence. Now I'm just closing it in for the hen house. I do plan to clip wings and let them free range my yard. The garden in the back yard is fenced off from the rest of the yard, leaving plenty of room for a half dozen chickens and a trio of goats. If it turns out that I need to confine the goats, I had a 25' by 60' run for the dogs surrounded by privacy fence as the side yard and I'm going to bug bomb the doghouses that are still sitting out there to provide them with shelter. All three of them will fit in one great dane doghouse. I will build them a proper "barn" off the back of the shed which is against the run area with a raised milking stall in there eventually, but I suspect it will be a few months before I start getting milk. I don't have the goats yet - so I don't know what ages they will be when I get them. I am really hoping I can get my hands on one that's recently had babies or is pregnant. I'll find out tomorrow morning!
I thought I was going to have to just dismantle everything I had done here to accommodate my great danes, but it looks like I won't after all. I had roofed over a 4 foot by 8 foot space between the side of my shed and the back fence. Now I'm just closing it in for the hen house. I do plan to clip wings and let them free range my yard. The garden in the back yard is fenced off from the rest of the yard, leaving plenty of room for a half dozen chickens and a trio of goats. If it turns out that I need to confine the goats, I had a 25' by 60' run for the dogs surrounded by privacy fence as the side yard and I'm going to bug bomb the doghouses that are still sitting out there to provide them with shelter. All three of them will fit in one great dane doghouse. I will build them a proper "barn" off the back of the shed which is against the run area with a raised milking stall in there eventually, but I suspect it will be a few months before I start getting milk. I don't have the goats yet - so I don't know what ages they will be when I get them. I am really hoping I can get my hands on one that's recently had babies or is pregnant. I'll find out tomorrow morning!
Good choice on the Rhode Island's, they are my best egg layers. I have a bunch of mutt chickens, but am mostly only hatching the Rhode's eggs as they are bigger and produce well. I'm excited for you with the goats too. I'll probably wait till spring as I'm still working on finishing all the fencing here. It's allready so hot I just don't want to work outside as much now. I want both the property fenced to help keep predators out, and the area I want to keep the goats in. I also have an electric wire to put up to help keep them from escaping and eating all the stuff I've planted! I have about 3/4 of an acre they can live in. I'm getting there, just not as fast as I'd like.
I don't clip wings the layers always stay close and return to their house each night and I close the door . I have some games that will move into the trees to roost and a couple of Golden sebrites that are as wild as quale .
I really don't have a choice where I live. I cannot take the risk of one of them going over the fence so their wings have to be clipped.
One of my better layers was really good at escaping the enclosure, she was the only one that could figure out how to get out. I thought about clipping her but didn't get around to it. Anyways, she's missing now and I'm regretting not getting around to it. If I could let them range I would not clip as that's about their only defense.
Are you getting full grown hens? It's nice to have at least a couple that start producing immediately as it motivates you a little more. I am enjoying watching the chicks hatch and grow as well though.
I'm headed to the Flock Swap in about 20 minutes and then I'll know what I'm getting. I know I don't want hatchlings. I'll probably get pullets. I was laboring on my chicken coop last night when I realized that I don't have the wood to make a door. I kept looking around at what I do have and realized that I have something that could easily be "chicken tractors". I have wire colossal dog crates! They are 3 1/2' x 4' x 4 1/2" and connect together with long pins. I can combine several of them and keep my chickens safe from going over the fence, move them all over the yard for them. The top is easily covered to provide them with shade, too. I think that's going to be their temporary home because I want to seal the gaps in the wood in the actual coop. Yes, I live in the city, but with those 2 empty, overgrown lots beside me, I do occasionally get a snake and the backside of the coop is where I once found a rather large green rat snake coming out of the roof of my shed. Snakes don't bother me, but their job is to keep the mouse population under control, not eat my chicken eggs.
I'm such a sucker. You can't put me around baby animals and expect me to keep my wallet closed. But all in all, I think I did pretty well today. I got 3 goats, 3 laying hens, 1 pullet and 7 chicks under 3 weeks old that are supposed to be all hens. Getting laying hens is really tough around here so I settled for some other breeds while I wait for my Rhode Island Red chicks to grow up. One is a Frontier, one is a Red Sex-Link and one is a Buckeye. The pullet should start laying in about a month - she's a Black-something mix - I can't remember now. The goats were the best deal though. Dixie is a 2 1/2 year old pregnant doe, due in 3 months. Diana is in milk now and her kid was old enough to wean so he stayed back on the farm. And Denver is a 6 month old showable buckling and I'm told I might be able to sell his hair for cashmere next winter. I also picked up a nice bale of hay, a salt block, 2 bags of chick starter and a bag of laying mash. Total cost for all of the above $371.00 Yep, the lady let me steal the goats! I'll post pictures of the chickens later this afternoon. I'm having too much fun wth the goats right now.
I love it, instant farm! I hope you have a cheese receipie. I had a setback this morning. I had put my two ducks in the chicken tractor, and 1 chicken, and rolled it down to the front creek. The tractor is 2x4" welded wire, but something small got in and killed all three last night. I didn't see any tracks, but we had a lot of rain last night. Whatever it was couldn't get the bodies out of the cage, but was small enough for it to come and go. Bummer, those ducks were really cute. Sorry, didn't mean to rain on your good news. I'm really happy for you!
I have several cheese recipes and know how to make butter, too. I'm also really excited about having hens that are already laying so I can make pickled eggs to sell at the Farmer's Market. Now don't judge my picture backgrounds too harshly. I'd let the grass grow in the picture with the chickens so the goats would have plenty to eat. And I really didn't expect to bring home chicks so they are currently under a heat lamp in my grand-daughter's old playhouse that has been sitting in the backyard for years doing nothing. The chickens aren't very friendly. I hope that changes over time. They run from me even when I have yummies to offer to hem. The black something mix pullet is a Black Maran mix. They were not cooperative at all for photographs. The one that looks like a rooster is the oldest hen and she's a Red Sex-Link (what a stupid name for a critter, huh?) Oh yeah, and the chicks are 5 Rhode Island Reds, a Cochin and a Gold-Laced Wyandotte.
Great start!
I'm real sorry about your ducks and chicken. I was offered 2 ducks for free with the laying hens but they just don't make sense for me to have without a water source. I had Indian Runner ducks a long time ago. They make great pets.
Nice, we did the same, got 8 Rhode Island Red pullets. They're a few weeks old now. Keeping ours in the coup though, as just too many possible predators around. The coup is even snake-proof, so they should be pretty safe.
Snake-proof, really? Don't count on it... lol That's the only wild predator I have to worry about here. And if you have fencing instead of solid sealed walls, they can get in. Problem is, once they eat the chick, they can't get out. Even if you're using what we call "hardware cloth" here, a 1/2" by 1" mesh that is also known as "rabbit wire" I think, a snake big enough to kill but not necessarily eat a chick can get in and snakes "eyes are bigger than their stomachs" often and they will kill things only to find out they can't consume them. Your best bet is a dog. I think you have one or more of those to alert you when something isn't right, right? Because of the close confines of my neighborhood, I can't leave a dog out at night without complaints from the neighbors.
You know what else I'm finding to be a problem here? Cats. Apparently people think it's okay to dump their pet cats in this neighborhood. We have quite a few that have gone wild. I see them around the perimeter of my property a lot and really worry about one of them going after my chickens. I also think of the "Book of Eli" movie whenever I see one slinking around.
Back to the chickens - I paid $3.00 apiece for the chicks and it will be about 6 months before they start laying. I don't remember what I paid for the starter food. I'm not sure that this is a good deal, really, from a financial standpoint. If I could have a rooster here and if I actually ate chicken and not just the eggs, maybe. It is important to me to know what is going into my food sources. Perhaps if I discover one of my hens to be really broody, I could pick up a rooster and get away with having him here for a week or so.... but then I wouldn't have any eggs to eat because the idea of eating a fertilized egg..... I'd have to leave them all under the hens, then send the rooster to my son-in-law for dinner.
I like my goats. Much easier.
Yeah, we have cats and dogs out around. Another reason for the coup the way it is. We use the reinforced hardware cloth, each opening in the grid is only a half inch by a half inch. Everywhere is sealed with less than half an inch of space (and we'll soon be caulking all of that), even with the roof. The walls are slightly sunk into the ground. I know, nothing is full-proof, but we've really tried to make sure they are as safe as can be.
Just have to get the big bags of food (can't recall either, but it was fairly cheap, even for the medicated kind). The big bag was only a couple bucks more, and about 3 times the amount. I paid pretty much the same for my pullets. From a financial standpoint, I'm sure it will be worth it once we're regularly getting eggs. Mostly, it is for the self sufficiency protein source, and just eating better quality eggs. I lucked out and got the coup pretty much for free, just had to spend about 40 on roofing materials, but I have leftover material now too.
Typically, the Rhode Island Reds are said to be friendly, and ours really are, so doubt you'll have too much trouble there eventually.
Just have to get the big bags of food (can't recall either, but it was fairly cheap, even for the medicated kind). The big bag was only a couple bucks more, and about 3 times the amount. I paid pretty much the same for my pullets. From a financial standpoint, I'm sure it will be worth it once we're regularly getting eggs. Mostly, it is for the self sufficiency protein source, and just eating better quality eggs. I lucked out and got the coup pretty much for free, just had to spend about 40 on roofing materials, but I have leftover material now too.
Typically, the Rhode Island Reds are said to be friendly, and ours really are, so doubt you'll have too much trouble there eventually.
The 3 day old and 3 week old chicks that I got are taming very quickly. I'm still working with trust issues on the bigger chickens. They came from a commercial outfit where they were not handled at all. The Black Maran pullet doesn't run when I approach her now, but I can see her thinking about it. The Frontier hen is the same. The Red Sex-Link is a wicked witch who chases everyone else off the feed. She's pretty easy to catch but will run if she sees me coming for her. And I can't even get close to the Buckeye.
The Corgi is proving to be a good chicken herder as long as I keep him on the leash while doing it. Otherwise, I think he'd become a good chicken killer! He's learning his way around the goats, too. Still nervous, even though they've been disbudded, they still head butt him if he gets to close to their front ends. He's learning to sneak up behind them and go wide around them if he doesn't want to get butted. I think, with time and familiarity, I might actually turn him into the herding dog he was intended to be.
The Corgi is proving to be a good chicken herder as long as I keep him on the leash while doing it. Otherwise, I think he'd become a good chicken killer! He's learning his way around the goats, too. Still nervous, even though they've been disbudded, they still head butt him if he gets to close to their front ends. He's learning to sneak up behind them and go wide around them if he doesn't want to get butted. I think, with time and familiarity, I might actually turn him into the herding dog he was intended to be.
I got my first egg today. So glad I got a couple of laying hens instead of just waiting for the chicks to grow. The brown egg is from my Red Sex-Link and the white is a "large"
![20140616_212444-1[1].jpg](https://cdn2.imagearchive.com/homesteading/data/attach/132/132657-20140616-212444-1-1-.jpg "20140616_212444-1[1].jpg")
from the grocery store. I'm really pleased with the size. I got small chickens. I expected small eggs.
