I'm in the chicken business now, I reckon...

Got like 10 Golden sex link pullets. They should be laying in a month's time.

I have a 10x10 chain link pen that I covered with a metal roof. Built a henhouse/laying box for them., but notice they go into the old dog house I had in there when I brought them home.

Any advice on egg production, care, or maintenance?

First time chicken guy here. I've had barn chickens before, but not really serious about it.

Thanks!

Barry

It sounds as you are a step ahead of the chicken varmints Barry.

You should he at least one rooster.

gnats are a problem around here. Plenty of clean water and dry straw are important as well as oyster shells added to their feed

I'm feeding them a 17% protein mash now.

That's kinda hard to find. Most places just carry the 16% crumbles now.

I'll ask about the oyster shell stuff too. Thanks.

Richard, I have my live trap set again tonight. Got plenty of bug coons here, but I put a pretty good dent in them.

Lime is fed as well as oyster shell.

My wife has had chickens for years and has raised chicks for other people who were less than successful in previous attempts. If you notice your chickens pecking each other they might not have enough room. 10' x10' seems a little small for 10 chickens but just keep an eye on them. It's called cannabilizing and you can spray the bloody area with blue kote or a similar product until they heal.

If they are not laying yet you can feed a starter/grower until they start laying. Then switch to a layer feed. Crumbles or pellets or mash whichever you prefer. Mix the two when you switch over for a few days to help with the transition. Most layer feeds are 16% protein. If you notice their vent (a$$ hole) is dirty that is from too much protein. They can actually get impacted and will die from too much protein. Had a friend who read on the internet to feed her chickens starter feed when they molted. Protein was too high for adult chickens and several died.

Your chickens will lay for a while and then quit. That is when they molt. Basically a rest period for their bodies to catch up. Egg production will drop off after the second molt and that is when some people turn them into chicken dinner. My wife likes her chickens and some of them are old enough to collect social security.

My wife uses pieces of astroturf in her nest boxes. Makes them easy to clean out and provides a cushion for the eggs. With ten chickens they will probably only use three or four nest boxes no matter how many you provide. You can feed oyster shell free choice if you notice the egg shells are thin. Also they will eat almost all your table scraps, vegetables, meat, fruit. They love watermelon rinds.

These are some things she has learned over the years. Others may or may not agree. IDGAS. Hope this helps. Good luck with the girls and hope you get lots of cackleberries. Oh, you dont need a rooster to get eggs. Fertilized eggs will sometimes have a bloody sreak in them.

Gold sex links should be strong producers. They are not the typical farmyard type of breed. Be prepared for them to produce strongly and to fall off quickly when they are finished with laying. Modern sex linked chickens are bred to give their "lifetime" supply of eggs over the shortest possible time period. That is called efficiency and helps egg producers attain profitability. This means they aren't being fed for 7 days/week and only lay 3 or 4 eggs/week as hens. They can be very precocious and lay early, earlier than the rest of their body is prepared for. This can produce egg laying tract physical failure called blow-outs in the vernacular. It is important to restrict available bright light intensity as they are maturing pullets. Available light influences egg laying, including (too) early laying development.
Modern sex linked chickens are also bred to be socially compatible when in loose pens and large open and cage free environments to meet "ethical farming standards." Having said that, it is still important to give them plenty of floor space or room. Crowding causes social tension and leads ultimately to possibility of cannibalism. The bottom of the pecking order, or sick, injured, etc. need to have space away from aggressive birds. Birds may show no aggression until they see the weak or they see the bloody bottom of a hen who laid a large egg. Refer back to the comments about laying at too young an age. You should have a number of nest boxes in a darkened area of your coop and have roosting bars for them to sit on at night. They want the box to be clean and they want a choice of box to use.

I speak with some personal experience and fair amount of investigation and research, having produced organic eggs for a high price market and did well at it. We chose to use "Golden Comets," a sexlink from a different hatchery, most likely than that which produced your chicks. We ran 5 flocks of 50 birds, used lighted coops in winter, and did an age rotation so that we had a relatively uniform rolling age, production and sales rate.

You have a good variety of hen. Good luck with your venture.

Marv

Thanks guys!

Lots of good info here!

I've had chickens for a number of years, and my grandfather had about a 100, that he sold eggs from. Not an expert, but do know a little about them. I think you need more room than that for 10 of them. That's not much, although the caged layers in the big houses don't have that much room. I have 9 hens, and a pen of at least a 1000 square feet for them. I did let them have the run of my acre horse lot, but when one would get out, my Aussie would catch it........and that would be the end of a chicken getting out.

Plenty of water, good feed, and green stuff......chickens like green stuff......oyster shells, as they need those for the egg shells, or else they will peck the eggs they lay, to eat the shells. Also, chickens like to roost off the ground, so make sure your chicken house has roost poles.

When they do start laying,start checking their vents( butts). If it is yellow, they are not laying. If it is bluish ,you have yourself a producer.After a while you can cull those poor produces .I always preferred plymouth barred rocks.

Caught this big coon last night.

Well, shake him out and let the dogs have some fun......

My old dog that died last fall, a Great Pyrenees, would make short work of a coon. My present dog, an Australian Shepherd, pretty much avoids contact with them. Me thinks I need another dog.

You know me...

Get you a Cur

Yeah, the Aus Shep that we have is smart as all git out but doesn't have much grit. She loves getting to work goats. Had a 1/2 Aus shep 1/2 heeler that was smart, gritty, and obedient....probably the best farm dog I've had. I'd love another like her. We have a cur now along with the AS. Cur is tough and gritty (will jump on or chase anything) but no where near as smart and certainly not as obedient as the AS or AS/heeler mix.

A Cur can hold it's own with a coyote, very important around here

Are chicken snakes going to be a problem? I live in the piney woods, they gave me fits.

I started killing rat snakes/chicken snakes when I moved to the ranch here over 5 years ago.

Don't know how many I've killed, but a bunch of them...

I think last year I only killed one. Putting a dent in them.

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.

That's a long time. I worked as a rural mail carrier for USPS for 31 years, and delivered quite a few chicks. One to two days is pretty much standard, anything over that is really stretching it. I have been out of the loop for a few years now, and know that USPS is always changing their delivery options, but it used to be that live animals were always shipped ASAP.

I usually buy around a dozen chicks every 2 years, and just go to a store and buy them, rather than mail order. It's just easier that way for me.

This.

Unless you live more than a couple days drive from a store that sells chicks.


Report on chickens:

They are all laying now. Getting 8-9 eggs a day.

Doesn't take long to get a bunch of eggs!

We get our next batch on the 24th. We order them at a feed store and normally pick them up in April but the wife waited this time. Looks like we will be keeping 9 of them while a neighbor takes 6. Or, that is what my wife is telling me. If not, I'll have to make the coop a little larger.

At least I have a few weeks before that point, first I have to get the pen set up for the chicks. I start them off in the puppy pen in the basement as it is easier to monitor the chicks for problems and protect them from predators and the weather. It also gets the birds accustomed to us which is helpful in rounding them up when we free range them. Now, to see how long before the coyotes realize the chickens are back.

Hanks village may not have a farm store.

I just ordered our freedom rangers today. Due to arrive June 1.

I don't even live in a "village" Haha. I am in the middle of nowhere, our mail comes by boat and they were dead when they got to the post office. I had the delivery date right so they would get to town when the mail gets picked up. They were dead from the get go.

Hank your comments remind me of the guy who was having trouble with his chickens pecking each other. Guy at the feed store told him to take a file and file a little bit off their top beak. He was at the feed store a few days later and the guy asked him how the chickens were doing? Said they all died. Feed store guy said you filed off too much. Fella said they were dead when I took their head out of the vise!

The dark yellow yoke from free range chickens is from chlorophyll in the plants they eat. Alfalfa hay gives the yolks a nice bright color and chickens really seem to like it.

Yolks get super yeller if corn is fed.