Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living Chickens

Caught two last year, didn’t kill them, no birds at home any more. The one I’m holding by the tail is over six feet long.

I usually kill every one I see. I hate a snake.

Hanco, I found one out by my catfish tank one day that was much bigger than that. Didn't have anything to kill it with closeby.

It was as big around as my arm, with a head as big as my fist.

Grabbed it by the tail, and picked it up, and it came back on me.... PDQ! Mouth open and ready to take a bite.

It didn't take me long to turn it loose.

What breed of dogs barry? I like the look of them.

I just got into chickens again for the first time since I was a kid. I knew most this stuff as a kid, but thanks everyone for the refresher. Got 8. Had them for a month now and so far so good.

Things might get interesting when I pick up my bird dog pup in a couple weeks!

Actually going to build the chicken run today.

It is simple to get your dog to ignore chickens, I have had several dogs while I had chickens. A firm "NO" has been all that was necessary with the older dogs. That has worked with English Setters, German Wirehaired Pointers, Labs, German Shepards, and various mixes. The first chicks grew up with a Wirehair, two Setters, and two mutts that were adult dogs at the time. The setters were enamoured with the chicks at first but soon grew to ignore them.

Our chickens free ranged over the yard and it was common for the dogs to be running around amongst the chickens. The worst that would happen would be my youngest setter to "goose" a hen as he ran by while the chickens retaliated by chasing the wife's 5# ankle biter around when the hen's got bored.

Our coop is 4'x12' with a 24'x30' chain link run attached. Most of the time the gate is open so the hen's get free range of the yard which gave them a good acre to roam as well as some venturing into the windbreak.

The wife picked up a rooster the third year. That was a mistake. He crowed all the time from morning to after dark. He acted tough but did not push through with his threats. His crowing eventually attracted a coyote which took 6 of her hen's and the rooster. For those reasons I doubt she will get another rooster.

We are getting into chickens in a couple weeks. It has been 25 or so years since I raised them. A lot of good info here. A lot of stuff I've forgotten. Thanks for starting this thread. Good luck with your flock Rock.

TAG !!

Deb is talking about "us" starting too !

After the 4 feet of snow abates.

Everyone,

Good luck with your chickens and to those who posted their knowledge and experiences, Gracias Mucho!

We've got our first ones in 20 years. First time I've had to raise them from chicks. Last ones we got came from a crazy lady chicken hoarder who had over 100 in a suburban yard!!! We asked for 3 hens and a rooster, she had so many she tried to give us three roosters. No thanks m'am, we just need the one. They were crazy mixed breeds as one might imagine. But they were great chickens and the rooster was very nice to his ladies, finding bugs for them and what not.

I"m hoping to have as good success this time. I got 12 chicks the other day, 8 for laying and four for eating. The bigger yellow ones are Cornish cross for the pot. Smaller ones are Aruacana, Barred Rocks (I think?) and Rhode Island Reds. If one of them turns out to be a rooster then I don't have to go back for one.

Here they are in their happy little tub. The eatin' ones are already showing signs of faster growth.



Last night was "FUN". Local electric co-op had a scheduled outage for maintenance of the lines coming from their providers. I had to go out and check them every 2 hours to make sure they weren't getting too cold. They're in the insulated pump house for our well, but we were down near freezing outside by bedtime and at or below that by 2AM. I ended up filling gallon water jugs with hot water and putting those in with the chicks. Had to change them out at 0100 or so as they had cooled down and temps in the tub were down near 60-65. They all survived, but I was wiped out this morning and slept in 'till 0730! (I've worked transporting endangered juvenile salmon and went through the 2 hr fish checks for years, but I retired and now I'm not used to it anymore)

On top of that,while out there I cleaned up their water dish and Breeze the giant whippet squeezed past sleepy Geno. Out the gate he went after "his" bunnies, which he knows are out there. He had a nice run through the sagebrush, way over towards the neighbor's, got their dogs to barking. We have an emergency recall word to get him back. Sometimes it works right quick, not last night. I went in the house to get a treat, came back out and called again. He came running down the far bank of our little "creek", decided to cross right where the biggest deepest pond of icy water was, jumped in and immediately regretted the idea, turned back, crossed the creek at the culvert on the road and came back to me on the house side of the creek. Soaked, in 30 degree temps, with only a whippet coat on his skinny frame. But happy as a whippet can be after chasing bunnies.

Breeze's midnight freezing swimming hole:





I'll try to remeber this thread and update as they get bigger and hopefully produce good eggs and "meat" (is poultry really meat? )

Geno

Wadda ya doin Hanco?

Changin snake oil?

Look like schnauzers.

Sorry, missed this..

Yes, they are schnauzers. Standard schnauzer.

The older one, Buster is the best hunting dog I've ever hunted with. He's just turning 15.

The younger one, Bandit, is just turning 2. He's certainly coming along with his hunting.

Bandit weighs about 70 pounds. Not lap dogs...

My 70# black lab mix is a lap dog!

Was thinking schnauzers, but wanted to check. Thanks.

My only advise is a few things. Keep the coon numbers down, give them lots of water, try to keep the food all gone over night cause of rats and mice, let them free range , and white egg layers so far have been the best layers, although, most like brown eggs but I can't tell the difference.

Brown eggs are more desired than white as white is the color of "store bought" and many have a dislike for them. For some reason the "Easter" egg colors are most desirable, even more so than brown.

I don't see a difference between the egg colors but I see a marked difference between free ranging chickens and those eating mostly commercial food. Free range have a richer yellow yoke and a different texture when fried. I much prefer the free range eggs.

Shell color is immaterial to egg taste and nutrition.

The pastel eggs are mostly Aracaunas.

I call the brown shelled eggs whole wheat eggs.

As a side note, my pullets ought to begin laying pretty soon. They will be whole wheat eggs...

I like brown eggs, although I had some hens a few years ago that laid white ones, and you couldn't tell a difference in how they tasted. However, I've had folks tell me that they prefer my eggs to store bought ones. I suspect it has a lot to do with what they're fed more than anything else. Free range chickens usually have a thicker and yellower yolk.

If the eggs don’t want to come out at first, you’ll need to pullet out.

All my chickens from McMurray arrived dead. They were dead 3 days after shipping them. Going to have to call the to make it right.