Chickens on the homestead

[Beekissed]

Lol I feel like a bad chicken keeper because I'm really not friends with my chickens!

Your "inattention" to your free range hens likely contributes to their safety, NH. I never pick up a chicken in the daytime nor do I ever want any of my birds to get used to that for any reason. It often results in this when they hold still for shadows stooping over them....

Just before Winter she went to the chicken coop in the sky from being attacked by a chicken hawk.

For some reason, over the past several years, people have come to equate physical affection and increased dietary intake of "treats" and high pro feeds to "good care", when it's just the opposite. Some chickens seem to like to be touched, though it's not likely if they don't also associate that touching with food being given...it's more of a conditioned response than otherwise.

But, for the most part, chickens are prey animals and we are predators, so they are rightly wary of being touched by us. Frequently touching or picking up birds that are going to be free ranging can give them a slow response time to danger from above, some eventually have NO response to shadows from above except squatting and letting it happen, as they associate that with humans and food. Not a great idea.

Hands off is a good policy if you love your chickens. Also, just providing a balanced diet is also more love than feeding treats and high performance feeds to large fowl, dual purpose poultry...they aren't high performance animals, so that excess protein and sugar is hard to metabolize and can shorten their laying and life span.

 

[freemotion]

I've had several breeds throughout my chicken keeping years and finally identified what I wanted in my flock and bred to get it. I wanted large breed laying hens that would reliably go broody. I also wanted a flock that was very good at free-ranging most of their food. A few years ago I bought 25 Icelandic hatching eggs through Craigslist and hatched out I think 14 of them. I loved my Icelandic flock! But those little birds could fly quite high and laughed at my fencing. The roosters ultimately ended up sleeping in the trees and could leap at least 14 feet up in a single jump. They had to go. I live in a close suburban neighborhood and it just did not win me any points with the neighbors. But I managed to get a batch of mixed breed chicks before I rehomed or ate all the Icelandics. We ate all the roosters and I rehomed the purebred hens. I still have some gorgeous Icelandic rooster tail feathers in my hat.

Icelandics are very colorful and great free rangers and very reliable broodies. They are about halfway between a standard chicken and a bantam in size. Too small to be dual-purpose in my opinion. So I bred them up in size using some larger heritage breed laying hens. Each year I bring in a new rooster of a large laying breed variety and now my hens are almost all standard size. My flock is completely self-sustaining with the exception of bringing in new genetics with a rooster each year. Interestingly, I've never had to pay for a rooster. People gladly will give it away to a good home. People who order chicks will generally get a packing peanut rooster in there and in the suburbs roosters are not popular.

Got my first broody of the season starting today. Once I know she's solid I will move her to a pen in the backyard. The new rooster is an Easter Egger and I love a colorful egg basket as well.

Oh, and I try to get rose combs or pea combs because our New England winters can be rather cold.

 

[Beekissed]

Huh, does decomposition in the deep litter add a significant amount of warmth?

If it's working right, it can add 10 * difference on the outside temps at roost level...at least it does in my coop. This is a meat thermometer shoved into the DL under my roosts at different locations.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

His beard is more the color of his main body color... even though it's looking pretty rough right now!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

They're a good sized bird...not huge, but definitely a nice meaty carcass. It's been a while since we processed one, but it was nice!

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGD/Favs/BRKFaverolles.html "When considering weight on the Faverolles it is of the utmost importance to remember that the bird was originally known for its table qualities. Density and mass of the bird are what should be looked at. They are not tall birds, like Rocks, but at the same time they are not short and close to the ground. The breadth of the chest and legs is where the mass comes in. Ideal weights are suggested in the American Poultry Association Standard for our American birds. Cocks: 8 lbs. Hens: 6 1/2 lbs. Cockerels: 7 lbs. Pullets: 5 1/2 lbs. The Standards of other countries call for more or less within a pound. But, it is stated in several writings from the early 1900's that bigger usually means a cost in the quality and type of the bird."

 

[Country homesteader]

First pic is of MAMA and her babies. Second pic is a closer pic of the babies. ( I photo enhanced it). Just found out today I had babies-what a shocker and a surprise!! Almost had a heart attack! Lol

 

[Country homesteader]

I guess you do have a mix of chickens. Here's a pic of the latest additions to my flock:

Mama #1 and Munchkin who is approximately 3 1/2 weeks old.

Mama #2 and Peepers who is approximately a week old.
Both babies are BO/RIR crosses.

 

[sumi]

3-4 hens per nest box should be adequate. But hens tend to have favourite boxes that they will queue for or cram into, if needed, ignoring the less attractive and vacant ones.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I was gifted a set of 8 of the metal nest boxes when my son bought his new place.... they use 4 of them...maybe. Of course they also use the big sink in the barn....just hunker right down in there and think they're doing good, and up inside a bunch of nested tomato cages, and behind the round bale that I just put under the shed (right next to the metal nest boxes)...they definitely take their "free range" status very seriously!

 

[Beekissed]

Saw a hen on the wood pile on the front porch this morning...she was searching all over that wood pile. I knew exactly what she was looking for and what hen, white among all the white ones, she was.

Two years ago this same hen had laid a nest of eggs in this tiny space behind the wood pile and sat on them, hatching out 15 chicks. I had loaded up her nest a little after I found it, putting in some eggs I had wanted hatched along with her own.

Two years later she's looking for her old nest???? Remarkable!

I can't get the dogs to remember to stay inside of an electrified fence, their memory between each episode of getting lost for days out in the wilderness and coming home sore, stiff, hungry and tired just gone...poof! But a chicken can remember a nesting site from 2 yrs ago?

I'm hoping she's not planning on going broody at this time of year.