Calling all chicken experts.....need help

Alright, completely off topic, but,
now and then I get a bit down with the (perceived) direction of ATS.

Then a thread like this comes along, and my confidence in ATS shoots right back up.

I mean, c'mon, a dude(?) puts out a question to all "chicken experts" and within 11 minutes, has a response from somebody who certainly seems to know a bit about chickens.

Then more people all chime in with their chicken knowledge.

Freakin' awesome!

I knew several Chicken Farmers back in Delaware. They grew for Frank Perdue.

When it would get to a certain temp, they had a system that misted water in the Chicken House that kept them cool.

Semper

Thanks to everyone for all of the info.

I thought about a misting system, and I think I may end up going with one just to keep them cool.

The chicks should be here Friday or Saturday, I'm thinking of an ATS "Name my chicken" thread once they get settled in.

Thanks again everyone, lets keep the chicken info rollin

OK I'll chime in as well, been raising chickens for several years now. We currently have a flock of about 50, getting ready to cull our excess roosters this weekend. We also have six ducks and some turkeys.

Sounds like you're getting pretty good advice so far. The egg shells are a great source of calcium for your egg-layers. As another member said, definitely a good idea to crush them up into pieces so they do not resemble eggs at all. Once chickens learn that eggs = food they'll eat their own eggs constantly. Very annoying and makes a helluva mess inside the nestboxes. It's also very hard to break them of it.

With 50 chickens we get a LOT of eggs. Even now during the winter, when they slow down laying, we're still getting a dozen+ per day. Every so often I just scramble up a dozen or so, shells and all, and give to them as a treat. They get a lot of table scraps like potato peelings, leftover hamburger, canned corn/green beans -- they really will eat just about anything.

Here's a good list of pretty much every chicken breed imaginable, with notes on egg production, hot/cold weather hardiness, etc.
www.ithaca.edu...

And if you haven't discovered it already, www.backyardchickens.com is another great forum with plenty of helpful folks on there.

The RIR's are great layers and meat birds. My RIR's will lay 5-6 eggs per week. I've heard the roosters are particularly aggressive but ours have been pretty docile. Aracaunas are more of a "fancy" breed, mainly for looks & showing, not much of a producer in either eggs or meat.

Since you're in the city I assume probably no roosters are allowed? If you do get any roos you want to maintain a ratio of about one rooster per 15 hens, otherwise the hens will get "overworked" and if there's more than one rooster they're likely to fight alot. We've got 8 roosters right now to about 40 hens, the girls are starting to get ragged & featherless on their backs from the roosters doing what they do.

If you do get roosters I also recommend getting a couple "broodier" breeds of hens. RIR's rarely go broody, although we did have one hatch us out a clutch this summer. Makes it alot easier to replenish your flock, or help make a few bucks selling off extra chickens to help pay for feed. Raising baby chicks is a pain, let the hens do what they do best!

As for the garden our chickens haven't bothered it much, although we only had about 15 last year, this year with 3x that many I'm a little worried. I would imagine they would tear small plants & seeds to pieces, so make sure it's protected at least until the plants are well established. After that I say let 'em in there and they'll keep the place clear of bugs. We're going with all seeds this year for the veggie garden, last year we bought alot of young plants to (hopefully) save on time, they turned out terrible.






[edit on 2/4/2010 by Mortimer452]

Originally posted by Dramey
but on a serious note, whats up with that chicken picture? what the hell? whats that all about? would love to hear more of the background on that one

Ok , after doing a little investigating , I came across 2 Articles pretaining to Genetically Altered Chickens . One was for Drug Research , and the other was for saving costs on Processing . Both distubing stories if you ask me . .....




news.bbc.co.uk...


www.msnbc.msn.com...

Im building a chicken coop after all this snow melts.
Egg layers will lay 295 eggs a year so for my family of three, 5 chickens will be enough.
As for the bald chicken: There are a couple breeds of chicken then if bred together will result in bald offspring. I cant remember the name of them but my friend at work knows what they are. They are not genetically altered its just breeding.

Since its going to get hot where you are build a large chicken coop with huge flap doors on the side that you can lift up to expose screens. So the breeze can blow through. In the extreme heat they wont lay very many eggs. You can also dig into a hillside and make your chicken coop half underground to keep it cooler.

[edit on 4-2-2010 by Darkice19]

[edit on 4-2-2010 by Darkice19]

Originally posted by Zanti Misfit
reply to post by HappilyEverAfter

 

You seem to know something about Chickens , so I'll ask you then . About 8 years ago I came across this Pic. Of a Genetically altered Chicken on the Internet . I was just wondering if you have heard about it , and maybe could shed some light on why it was Created in the first place ?



i297.photobucket.com...

because people do not like to pluck chickens

As Darkice mentioned, you can get some odd looking chickens from simple breeding. But sometimes the offspring are quite lovely......we have some RIR/Barred Rock/ Buff Orp hens that are prettier than their 'elders'.

My RIR hens seem to be my loudest cacklers.....almost as bad as a crowing rooster, so that might be something to consider when choosing a breed for suburbia....

Be sure to keep your feed from getting mouldy, it can kill. If you have nice dry heat this may not be a problem for you, but here in NW GA, we get lots of humidity.....feed that gets a bit damp in transport, or that just sits in the barn for a few days in our heat, can go bad quickly. ( and when feeding kitchen scraps, don't give them badly spoiled or rotten food.)

We use metal trash cans ( shiny new ones, bought just for this purpose) to store our feed, keeping it dry and away from mice and rats that are really drawn to yummy grain! We only buy what we can store in the cans.....sometimes we could save a bit on buying 'bulk', but in the long run the waste would be costlier.

They will eat your garden when the plants are young and tender, and at times when other greens are not available. Mine did not seem to notice my turnips and collards till most other choices were killed by frost.....(or they saw me picking some and decided to 'help'!! ) But I like free-range eggs enough to make the sacrifice.....

WASH your hands after handling the chickens or gathering eggs.....If you have children that help be sure they follow this rule. If your hens are running free on your yard and you have small children, beware of the poo that will be freely deposited.....and if the hens have the run of your veggie patch, you might want to fence off any that you intend to eat raw, like lettuce.

Happy chicken herding!!

I might not be an expert, but, I sure do love my *babies*!

My Black Australorps were the best layers, but I'd a loved them whatever they were called. (Bad chicken joke)...

Anyway - one of the best chick Hatcheries and info centers IMO for chickens is McMurray Hatchery

They have a great baby chicken policy and stand by each and every chickie they sell. Their products are great and the they've a nice bunch of people to answer questions. I recommend their book on Raising Chickens.

By the way these two chickies are from McMurray, and they're a meat breed called Turkens. (They never made it to the stew pot)!

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8df8463e4b6b.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/fe54468aed4d.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2543133b9f03.jpg[/atsimg]

Oh! Now I have chickie fever again! I can't wait to order my batch for this Spring!

Added Note: I had two hens from McMurray that lived over 8 years. My two dearest chickie friends Peaches and AppleBottom... The point being, that hatchery has wonderful babies!

Good Luck with your little ones!


[edit on 4-2-2010 by silo13]

You need to provide them with a place to roost at night. You should also provide a place for them to lay their eggs. There are lots of sites on the internet about raising chickens.

We have araconas and very happy with them. We've had reds before and they really produced a lot of eggs.