Thinking about chickens

[MamaSheepdog]

Listen up, everybunny! If you don't have a copy of The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery, run, don't walk, to your nearest bookstore.

I thought a hen had stopped laying so I butchered it and was going to use it in a soup. Turns out I was wrong and the chicken had a few yokes in her.

From the above mentioned book:

As a hen lays she loses her yellow coloration. If all her yellow is there, she hasn't started laying at all. After a few weeks of laying the yellow will be faded around her vent, eye, and earlobe. After producing for a couple months her beak's yellow will be faded also. After 6 months of egg production her feet, toes, nails, and shanks will also be faded. When hens quit laying the color comes back in the same order it left.

Chickens wreak when process.

I know. :x

Plus the defeathering process takes f o r e v e r....they have lots of feathers.

I culled a hen that was doing poorly last week and just gave the entire bird to the dogs. They can pluck their own chicken!

Plus the rumor that chickens just stop laying at 2 y/o is soooo NOT true!

Hens will lay tolerably well for 7-10 years, but your cost per egg goes up exponentially. Of course, if they are pets as well as producers that is okay.

From Carla's book again:

A hen that laid 240 eggs her first season will lay about 190 in her second, and about 150 in her third. For peak laying efficiency the longest you would keep a hen is three laying seasons.

 

[Frecs]

We, Mother and I, have seven Ladies who donate their eggs to us. Two buff orpingtons, two Barred Rocks, two brown leghorns, and one black sex link. By the time they are 'done' laying (three...four...years down the road) there is no way I will be able to butcher them...nope, not after three or four years of them running to see me every morning and evening....no way. They will finish out their lives as bug patrol and manure producers and finally as fertilizer beneath a new tree or shrub.

 

[AmysMacdog]

Hens will lay tolerably well for 7-10 years, but your cost per egg goes up exponentially. Of course, if they are pets as well as producers that is okay.

rkl (daughter) again,I just need to register on here! .... Mine are always pets, but oftentimes by that age they get got by predators. We seem to be living is a opossum haven But chickens do have many more uses than just eggs, I put mine in tractors to cut down on the monstrous honeysuckle. Plus I toss them out into the compost area, that area now has 6 inches of good soil above the GA red clay. And the goats think that the occasional freshly plucked feather tastes good much to the chickens dismay! :lol:

 

[-HRanchito]

I really like some of the things you did! I could combine ideas easily. So for your poop chute, is it under the roost? How often do you need to power wash everything down? I kinda like the wire bottom (more like rabbits).

Yeah, the poo can fall through the wire through a long hole we cut under the roost.In the summer, we hosed it down every 2 weeks or so, and had some nice buckets-o-poo to lug to the compost pile. (chicken dooky is great for hot composting!) in winter, it's a lot more troublesome w/ a frozen hose. we put a long wooden board under the chickies for winter and now it's more of a nasty scrapey thing every couple weeks. :wr_blackcloud: We'll get it lookin all shiny and nice again come spring.

 

[Frecs]

.... Mine are always pets, but oftentimes by that age they get got by predators. We seem to be living is a opossum haven But chickens do have many more uses than just eggs, I put mine in tractors to cut down on the monstrous honeysuckle. Plus I toss them out into the compost area, that area now has 6 inches of good soil above the GA red clay. And the goats think that the occasional freshly plucked feather tastes good much to the chickens dismay! :lol:

Chickens are good for a number of things as you noted! I basically let the chickens run be the "compost" pile -- kitchen wastes as well as yard wastes not suited for rabbit forage go in the chicken run. They make the best soil in there! They can tractor up a new garden bed (or destroy a weed bed) in short order. They keep bugs under control. And, they make me laugh. :lol:

 

[AmysMacdog]

They definitely make us laugh!

 

[Marinea]

As to the smell, we put down shavings in the coop and change them out 3-4 times a year. I have been known to sit in the coop and chat with my ladies, and there is little smell at all. It helps that my coop has a window and open door in warm months for ventilation.

As to cooking an older hen, we shall soon see. My husband and I butchered our first hen this weekend. Our flock is aging, and egg production is declining, so we are incubating replacements as I type. I was SO proud of myself for helping. We didn't de-feather, we skinned the bird. My plan is to use her in gumbo. I will let you know how it goes.

The rest of the flock is at the moment composting and tilling our vegetable beds. They free range when the garden is not producing.