Now the missus wants to have chickens. I was thinking of enclosing the deck I made half with chicken wire and half with boards .... I have a nearly dead cedar at the back of the property I could tip over and then mill into boards for the enclosed part. The question is how many chickens and what kind should I look for at what time of the year for the two of us ?? I have no idea about chickens. I raised rabbits and rats for my snakes in the past and we had hogs and a cow when I was about 3 foot tall. But other than that I either use a hook of a gun to get protein on the table. please educate this old sea dog ......
Dunno about the " best" chickens ... just some that are easy for a beginner like me. Don't want them to keel over after a week because I used the wrong hay in the coop or woke them up to early.
Boss bought chickens this spring about a dozen . They are a family of seven and they can't eat the eggs fast enough. Begging people to take eggs. Im getting some this spring. Don't think u will ever starve if u have chickens. Keep the coons away and they are pretty maintenance free from what I see
Boss has red ones and some blacks one and one Russian. Russian is smaller wilder and has smaller eggs. I like the red chickens the best.... and thats my complete knowledge of chickens
gentle temperament ????/ you mean there are vicious chickens out there ???
I don't know about vicious, but some are more friendly than others. My Mrs. treats hers like pets and the Sussex seem to handle being picked up and petted pretty well... At least that's what she says. I just pay for their feed.
2 to 3 modern era layers should produce about a dozen eggs a week for their first 2 years......so plan accordingly. But I'm currently looking after neighbor's 5 birds, and this is their 2nd winter, and they have given me 3 eggs in 10 days. So it varies.
When it comes to housing, most modern era growers are clueless when it comes to a chicken house. Most are not aware, but as far back as 100 years ago, when every farm had a chicken house and they were essential to survival, a chicken house was a highly engineered structure with almost every aspect of it researched to a high degree. Good news is they are not expensive or complicated. Just need to get it right......and build it tight. Biggest predators of chickens are coons and your neighbor's dog. Coons at night, dogs mostly during the day.
True free range birds are marked for death. They don't last long.
My daughter and son in law raise birds, sell birds, sell eggs. I ALMOST feel bad when they load us up with eggs every few weeks. Chicken duck and goose. They all taste good. The goose eggs are huge. People that buy from them mostly want chicken eggs though. I think they are scared of the duck and goose eggs.
Welsumer are really good speckled sussix are decent Dominique are good and avoid predators better 5han the welsumer and the welsumer avoid them better than the Sussex
BTW, if a guy wanted to do some light recreational trapping just because, chickens are the perfect bait. Every varmint for miles around will come to you.
I suggest starting with black or red sex linked for brown eggs. They can be purchased from hatchery or maybe Tractor Supply. 4 H Clubs in Tn auction layers usually August. Protection from coons, foxes, dogs, etc is a must. I finally utilized electric fence.
Are you looking to get eggs, or meat birds? This would make difference in the breed of chicken you choose. Several breeds will provide one or the other, but few will do both well. Cornish chicks will grow fast and butcher in about 6 or 8 weeks, but they will not make an egg laying chicken. As for egg laying chickens the cheapest and most direct way I have found is retired hen house chickens. When a hen house rotates stock the hens can sometimes be had cheap and are laying now instead of waiting for a chick to mature. The hens I got have been laying for me for a couple of years now. When they quit earning their own way they go into a pot of noodles. Then you get some more hard working hens and start the process over. Cinnamon queens or road island reds are my two favorites for duel purpose birds. If you are choosing to raise chicks the hens can be kept for eggs and cockerels make a fryer when young. If getting retired birds these two breeds will make good crockpot birds at an old age.
find someone near you that already has chickens. Either buy a few from them or most will hatch ya a few chicks if ya want to go that route. They can also tell ya about how many you will need from their stock.
The neighbors and my dog look after his chickens. He does not know what he has though had them given to him by clients he has worked for and they are all sorts of different colors and some have hatches=d last year under the brush hog of his that prevented him from mowing for a while. His run around free 24/7 and thanks to the dogs he has not lost one since we got here just over a year ago. A couple of the white ones come over to visit now and then and thats what put the chicken bug in the bosses head. My dog just like hearing them. It looks funny when he does that when I am over at the neighbors place or when he goes over there by himself.
We had a couple of mean Araucanas. I probably spelled that wrong but the hens layed blue eggs. They knew my wife’s stepmothers car and wouldn’t let her out. It was great. Lol
The gentlest rooster I ever had was a cross between a black australope and black giant that I hatched out myself in a incubator. I was gone to work at a union job and my wife you hates hearing roosters crowing all day shot him
The gentlest rooster I ever had was a cross between a black australope and black giant that I hatched out myself in a incubator. I was gone to work at a union job and my wife you hates hearing roosters crowing all day shot him
Got me so mad at the time I sold all my chickens.Buying some more come this spring time as I have sure missed having chickens this last few years.But just buying laying hens.I might just sneak a rooster in the order .....dang honey they must have made a mistake.
I have had several different breeds of chickens. The most reliable layers were leghorns. white eggs almost daily. Dominicks being a real close second. Lay large brown eggs. All other breeds were not as proficient and very few were much good as broilers. The austrolopes layed well but were very easy to get sick and fought all the time with other breeds of chickens. They were nasty birds IMO
this year I am going to try the Bielafelders. A large, colorful, auto sexing, german breed known for their x-tra large brown eggs. They also frequently lay dbl yoked eggs. Gentle and supposed to be able to take care of themselves well. A little more expensive to to buy though. I think McMurray is at 8 bucks for day old females.
Meanest rooster I ever had was a rhode island red. At least once a month I had to give that thing a boot or it would attack any body got near it. I don't know how it survived my boot as many times as it did. Didn't survive the shotgun though.
Andrew already asked the questions I had. Eggs or meat or both? Also the security issue has been discussed. Easier to do it right as you go than to have to redo.
We raised meat birds and kept some hens for eggs as I was growing up. We would buy around 150 hatched chicks each year and start them out in a heated coup. Young birds do not tolerate cold and wet. If they get cold, they will pack up so tight that many of them will get smothered. We would usually lose a few anyway but would butcher the majority (all of the males) but would keep a few as replacements for hens that quit laying and found the stew pot. It was just the three of us but we ate chicken a couple times a week. We also had eggs for breakfast every day plus what was used in baking and other cooking. Excess eggs got sold at our little country store. IIRC. Rhode Island Reds were our breed of choice.
And one thing I do not recall seeing was security from the air. Hawks and owls will do a number on them if the pen has an open top.
gentle temperament ????/ you mean there are vicious chickens out there ???
ask any young lady without the good sense to carry a stick to smack the rooster with.
why do you think c-0-c-k fighting works
haven't you heard of Pecking order , it really is a thing dominance decided by brutal and even deadly picking and pecking
a dozen is a nice number because and they will fit in a 4x8 night coop a nesting box per every 2 chickens is recommended but a few more isn't a bad idea
I think your going to want them 10 yards from the house or so they get an odor
gentle temperament ????/ you mean there are vicious chickens out there ???
ask any young lady without the good sense to carry a stick to smack the rooster with.
why do you think c-0-c-k fighting works
haven't you heard of Pecking order , it really is a thing dominance decided by brutal and even deadly picking and pecking
a dozen is a nice number because and they will fit in a 4x8 night coop a nesting box per every 2 chickens is recommended but a few more isn't a bad idea
I think your going to want them 10 yards from the house or so they get an odor
gentle temperament ????/ you mean there are vicious chickens out there ???
ask any young lady without the good sense to carry a stick to smack the rooster with.
why do you think c-0-c-k fighting works
haven't you heard of Pecking order , it really is a thing dominance decided by brutal and even deadly picking and pecking
a dozen is a nice number because and they will fit in a 4x8 night coop a nesting box per every 2 chickens is recommended but a few more isn't a bad idea
I think your going to want them 10 yards from the house or so they get an odor
gentle temperament ????/ you mean there are vicious chickens out there ???
Oh yes, there's some you have to kick daily and others you can ignore. And that's just the roosters. Theres hens that will ride on your shoulder like a parrot and hens that are neurotic and some that are cannibals. Actually all chicken are potential cannibals.
Beginners breeds, imo.
Orpingtons Sussex Delaware Wyandotte Australorps
Breeds to avoid for first timers
Any Mediterranean breed Any rare, novelty, feather footed or other special care breed (except silkies everyone should have some fuzzy chickens)
Breeds not allowed on my place
Rhode Island Reds (daily kicker and cannibal) White Leghorn
I was talking with a nurse while my mom was dying years ago. She said her dad went to work one day and left her to cut the weeds under the electric fence that kept some steers up. She said that the steers liked to butt her so she carried a 3 ft. shock prod for protection. All of a sudden her dad's old rooster was flogging her and she zapped him on the head with the shocker. Old rooster did the death flop, she picked him up and laid him in the chicken house so when her dad would find him in the morning, he would just think he died of natural causes. She went to bed and couldn't sleep all night. Before daylight she heard the old rooster crow. She knew then that there really was a God that hears little Catholic girls prayers, lol.
Free range hens are about as good as it gets so long as they lay in the boxes instead of hiding eggs in the weeds. I like a jungle fowl (fighting rooster) running on them and if he gets "too vicious" for an old guy like you then just make some dumplings up to go with him.
Do you just want layers or do you want dual purpose which lay fairly well but are larger and provide a good source of meat as well? If the two of you use a dozen a week you would not need more than a half dozen decent layers and a dual purpose hen would be able to do that. If you get layers you can keep them and get some pretty decent stewing chickens for soup etc. when their done. We have several layers and we don't have any trouble finding buyers at about double the typical store prices. Ours are mostly brown and green egg layers and we free range them most of the year. Been lucky not to have predators taking them. Having two dogs in a big pen in the yard helps a lot, keeps the coons out of the sweet corn too. Bryce
Looking forward to getting birds this spring. I miss having a layer flock. Thinking about barred rocks. Have room for 16 birds. Wife and I use about 3 dozen eggs a week. Had RIR's last time, want something different this go around.
Michael. 40 years ago the arrival of the Stromberg catalog was one of my yearly highlights. There are lots of breeds to do one or both purposes and hopefully this website has some good information for you and the misses.
gentle temperament ????/ you mean there are vicious chickens out there ???
Chickens don’t get ornery unless they have chicks. And then it’s not all of em, just like with cows, some will let you pick up their chicks, some would rather claw you to death than look at you if you get too close to their babies.
Roosters do get pretty feisty though. As long as you wear long pants they can’t really hurt you though.
Thank you folks. there is a lot to learn again ...... darn it Pelicans are easy in comparison But they don't supply eggs for breakfast. As the deck is attached to the side of the boat, I will now have to build a separate chicken house. have to find another cedar to add to the other one to cut the lumber out of then. So for from what I am reading here and its eggs the missus is after I guess that half a dozen birds will be plenty for us two. How big should I make the house for that number of birds?? I'll have to find some plans some place or will end up building something not fit for purpose. isn't it great to have a better half that keeps springing ideas like that on one .... I'll never get bored. She will probably want goats next lol
Not a cost effective move. Cost of feed and etc will be more than eggs from the store.
Some one will need to be there every day to feed them, collect the eggs, and take care.
Noise, smell, upkeep, clean up, fencing ---- on and on...
That said, the eggs are better than from the store, and the birds can be fun to work with.
We keep about 20 ISA Red hens and two Rhode Island Red roosters. Local feed store sells them in the spring, and will give you ten Rock Cornish meat chicks if you buy a bag of feed. A little work to raise, but a very enjoyable task.
Several times we have put eggs in the incubator in late summer to raise new chickens for the next year. Takes about 25 weeks for hens to start laying, so spring chicks don't lay till fall. Late summer hatch chicks will start to lay in the spring. The young roosters are fine to eating.
Sine when do women think about cost effectiveness when they make any decisions. ut to be honest, I am ok with this idea of hers, I like the thought of fresh eggs and it will give her something to do that she likes. i think she is missing the pelican, great egret and the herron that we had when we were still on the water. So I guess she needs some birds in her life again. And chickens are way more cost effective then the other three ever were. They cost me 5 bucks a day on fish if there were no bait fish around I could get with the cast net.
Scuba, 2-3 square feet per bird, three nest boxs will be enough for six birds, we have black sex links, rhode island reds, buff orpingtons, 10 of each, 1 buff rooster. Keep the missus happy.
Then do away with the protections that they have if they are truly controlling their content they should be responsible for that content!
I suppose they are responsible for the content of the eggs and as long as they keep laying them, I'll protect them....well I get the dog to do that part.
