Topic 2- Chickens

A few years after that incident, I was on a different farm (the one I was being a hermit at), and I built my chickens a palace... at least in chicken terms.

It was in the back of an old tool shed. I lined the walls and floors with sub-flooring, built roosts up one corner of it, and an access door to a run out the back. On the inside wall, (in the tool shed itself), I built the nesting boxes and a feed trough. The feed trough was a Vee shaped flip in trough. You walked up to the outside, flipped a catch, pulled the trough out, filled it up (without chickens going mad around you), tipped it back in and locked it. Then right above that on the same wall were the nesting boxes... Open another catch, lift the flap, have access to four nesting boxes, (there were three of them side by side). Eventually, I was going to have a slide out floor in it. Chase the chickens into the yard, lock them there, lift a flap at the bottom of the wall, hook the edge of a piece of subflooring that is just reasting on the main floor, slide it out, flip it over, tap it a couple of times, flip it back, slide it back in. For a room 8'x8' just have two pieces side by side.

That would also give you the chance to leave the sub-flooring that you slide out, sit in the sun for a while, killing off a lot of bacteria that may be developing. You could even wash it off and disinfect it easily without flooding the chicken house which could lead to mold problems.

On feeding chickens their egg shells back to them... it's really important that they are boiled first (the egg shells). Two reasons, one is that they could carry bacteria and such back to your chickens, the other that it changes the taste of them, so they don't get a liking for raw egg shells.

 

Sure is active around here...

The first week of May, we will be picking up 12 fresh layeing hens. 6 are ones that lay white eggs, 6 brown.

The first week of June, 15 meat chickens (two weeks old) will be ready.

The layers will be going into the old chicken coop after we finish cleaning and repairing it.

It's been sitting empty for at least 6 years. Its not big, only 5'x7', but is set up with roosts and nesting boxes, chicken wire on the windows.

We will most likely spray it all down with javex in the next week after cleaning it out totally, then we'll put some fresh chopped straw and sawdust in and start setting up the water and lights.

We still haven't quite decided what we are doing with the meat birds. Most likely we will build a movable chicken run for them and move them from place to place where we want to add a flower or garden bed.

 

My chickens are pretty smart )

lil banties... maybe about 30 or so of them... of course, I use the "let the hawks, possums, 'coons cull the dumbs ones" method, which helps my breeding program alot too LOL...

I also have a few turkeys here too... and 4 barn cats that I feed, who dont belong to me lol...

I use to have a bunch of game & jungle fowl, ghineas, pigeons, peacocks... and hogs (a red waddle X old english spot mix)

the #1 rule on a farm is you are food or brood....
biggest difference is brood gets a name <wink>
if you got a name, you were safe...

I would suggest that any newbie organic farmer who thinks that they want to do birds as food to butcher themselves, start out with a small number (maybe 10 to 25) first...
you will know within a few minutes if butchering is for you...

I did not see anything yet about housing the turkeys and chickens apart... turkeys can carry blackhead to chickens... so best to have two different places for them to coup...

anything you feed your birds will go to the eggs BTW... so if wanting organic eggs, watch what you feed...

I let my chickens free range... and they coup @ night...
my gals do communal nesting mostly... be sure to gather all eggs daily...
if allowing hatches, use more of contained areas for that...
why? well because sometimes anther hen will run in and lay eggs inside the sitting hen's nest... the sitting hen will sit as long as she feels heartbeats inside the eggs... a late timed egg will slow the sitting hen from leading her chicks to water & feed...

the larger birds will make fast biz of your gardens, so I keep them kenneled... big feet, big damage...

cold weather birds... no problem... watch ratio of feed... proteins etc... in colder weather increase corn to feed... the corn creates heat in birds... also, when roosting, make sure that the roost poles are wider, rather than narrow... that way the birds feathers cover the whole foot... a too small pole, the feet wrap around the pole... frost bite! I use 2X4's for most my roosting...

smaller containment areas mean warmer birds... in the winter, I tarp off 7x14 dog kennels inside the barn for mini-couping... they go in and out as they please into the larger part of barn during the winter... never allow birds feet to get wet in winter... will die...

my home made feeder holds 3 x 50lbs bags...
use 4 large size plug-in water containers during the winter (gets to -35 with wind chill here sometimes) but want to figure out maybe a solar system? still working on that lol

as often as you can, open barns up a little for fresh air... too much stale air can kill too...

always have a few medical cages on hand for sick, wounded or new birds... be sure to keep new birds away from rest of flock for at least a week to make sure they are healthy...

in spring, de-louse and red coate..

just off the top of my head there...

want to know, just ask...

I am always willing to help when & where I can...

oh yeah... when butchering... dont dip the feet into the boiling water! LOL
you will never forget that smell... lol