How to break into CHICKENS?

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Definitely put a fence around any garden or you won't have one. No, not just, "Oh, they torn up the garden." It's, "Oh, I used to have a garden in that spot, now I have a 30x30 dust bath spot." My poor rhubarb and strawberry plants. :cry:
 
Mickey328":92k5jzeg said:
I heartily recommend sexlink chickens...
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I had never heard of those before, but I see they are quite well-recommended for laying, which is what we want.

Mickey328":92k5jzeg said:
Have a look on backyardchickens.com
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Thank you! I remember finding that site last time I looked, but I had forgotten about it!

3mina":92k5jzeg said:
My first thought when I saw the title was "With a knife and fork" :twisted:
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:rotfl:

Marinea":92k5jzeg said:
Ooh, something I can actually help with!

The biddies will need some heat until completely feathered out. Then, they should be fine down in Louisiana. You want at least four square feet per hen once they are grown. You will also want a roost for them. We use sumac poles. You will also want some nesting boxes- you can use milk crates with hay.

You don't really need a rooster unless of course you want to hatch babies down the line. The hens will lay anyhow, starting about 6-7 months of age. If you can free range them in your yard during the day, you can cut down on feed, but I would make sure they get chick starter until that point to get them a good headstart.

Oh, I recommend orpingtons- excellent layers, setters and a good dual purpose bird. Have fun!
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Thank you for all the info! Glad I don't really need a rooster... I'm already surrounded by them! :lol: Thankfully, the one behind us seems to have given up on his habit of standing at the back fence and crowing his fool head off for a couple of hours. Maybe a rooster later. :)

Oh my goodness... I can't respond to everybody... Wow, I can't thank y'all enough for all the help!

Marinea, I edited your post so your picture appears full size. I had to see what the picture was, and wow, what a nice looking coop!

Answers to some questions...
I don't know if I will free-range them or not. I figure for now their run will be the rabbitry, and I can add a more outdoor run later. I did not know they would denude a spot if you did not rotate them. I may do a tractor or limited free range. Especially if it means controlling ticks and redbugs!

No poop water nipples, got it. That sounds like the thing to have, since I've seen waterers fouled with chicken mess.

I am really thinking of getting chicks for one main reason. My son is very afraid of animals, but he has handled chicks before. I think he could handle chickens as long as he handled them every day from chickhood. If I got older ones that are all feathered, I'm pretty sure he'd be afraid of them for a good while.

I was planning to spread a deep bed (horse bedding pellets or something) under the rabbits, and I could use that in the chicken area, too. And DE.

I like that fodder sprouting system, and I'm glad it will work for chickens, too.

Christmas lights... I like that, as I don't like heat lamps because of the risk. No chicken wire, okay. I was wondering if the stuff was really good for anything. Golf balls! What a wacky and wonderful idea!

Sounds like with kitchen leavings, I could reduce the amount of purchased feed. I like that!

We eat a lot of eggs. I will probably just start with a few chicks, though, because our neighbor gives us his extras, when his hens are producing. Which they're not, right now. :roll:

Thank you for the economical chicken feeding link! I'll finish looking at it tomorrow. :)

Exclude from the garden when free ranging. Definitely. Wow!

Thank y'all so much! You've given me focus. With all I'd read before, I had no idea how much of it was necessary from the beginning, and how much of it could be put off, or not done at all.
 
MaggieJ":1fehjkad said:
:yeahthat:

No reason not to have both... but rabbits are easier than chickens. They taste better too. I keep chickens because we love the fresh eggs... and really they are very little work once they are grown and well worth keeping... but I hate brooding day-old chicks artificially. The way to go is under a broody hen. Then the chicks are a joy!
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Good point, if you ever think you might want to hatch, get a hen from a breed that goes broody. Most Bantams will sit forever on a nest. Many of the large fowl heritage breeds are not broody. You can create your own sex linked by crossing Rhode island Red hens and a Barred Rock rooster. Only the Roos will come out barred (did I get that right?).
 
Oceanrose":1zok0lew said:
Is here any major advantage to having them in with the rabbits under the cages? I'd love an excuse to get a couple silkies..
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Apparently, if you have deep bedding under the rabbits, the chickens will keep it turned, and eat the bugs, keeping the flies under control.

See? You NEED a couple of Silkies! :razz:

Just make sure they can't roost on top of your cages.<br /><br />__________ Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:51 pm __________<br /><br />
skysthelimit":1zok0lew said:
MaggieJ":1zok0lew said:
:yeahthat:

No reason not to have both... but rabbits are easier than chickens. They taste better too. I keep chickens because we love the fresh eggs... and really they are very little work once they are grown and well worth keeping... but I hate brooding day-old chicks artificially. The way to go is under a broody hen. Then the chicks are a joy!
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Good point, if you ever think you might want to hatch, get a hen from a breed that goes broody. Most Bantams will sit forever on a nest. Many of the large fowl heritage breeds are not broody. You can create your own sex linked by crossing Rhode island Red hens and a Barred Rock rooster. Only the Roos will come out barred (did I get that right?).
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That sounds good... I was wondering why I would need an incubator if I had hens. So some of them will sit and some won't. Weird.
 
Miss M":37xt25cy said:
So some of them will sit and some won't. Weird.
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Broodiness has been purposely bred out of many chicken breeds because a broody hen stops laying eggs. Bantams are usually the best bet if you want a broody bird, probably because they are more of a novelty- nobody goes into the egg production business to sell banty eggs!

I have had a couple of buff Orpingtons and black Australorps that would go broody.
 
Miss M- thanks for the compliment on our coop! Hubby and I had fun building it- even though he wasn't too happy when I said I wanted to add windows on three sides.

Chickens are not difficult to raise. Getting chicks is not a bad idea- they get used to you and your family can get used to them as they grow. Mine come to the run door when I call them now.

A few more thoughts, relative to chicks: make sure as they get bigger they get some grit for their craw. Oyster shells can serve a dual prupose here- grit and calcium for shell hardness. Ours pick up tiny rocks outside. Every so often add a couple spoons of apple cider vinegar to their water for parasites and worms.

Lastly, not sure where you are planning to get chicks from, but if from a hatchery, be careful with medicated feed. If you order vaccinated chicks (which I recommend), medicated feed will destroy the immunity from the vaqccinations. I recommend Murray McMurray Hatchery. I can't tell you how awesome it is to get chicks in the mail :p Their chicks were the start of our flock. Here is a pic of our main man now, Papa Doc:

6912113790_2703a3764c.jpg
 
Miss M":9jw6iens said:
I was planning to spread a deep bed (horse bedding pellets or something) under the rabbits, and I could use that in the chicken area, too. And DE.
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Spreading a deep bed is a good idea along with making it horse bedding pellets as I believe those aren't too tough. Just a word of warning on what you spread as having something that is too hard, I.E: Wood Chippings from a chipper or something like that because that might lead the chickens to get bumblefoot which is what they get when something gets lodged in their feet, makes a sore that needs to be cut out. Their foot ends up looking like a ball and is painful which also causes them not to lay. Just food for thought.
 
I used to keep a few Silkies in my rabbit area, they did not roost on the cages, they couldn't get up that high. Silkies are a fun sweet little bird to have, I love the darn things, they lay small eggs but I just double up for recipes. Silkies and Bantam Cochins are very broody, and will hatch out whatever you put under them. McMurray is the best hatchery to buy from, they have the best quality birds, what you buy from them is healthy and looks like what its supposed to, thats not always true with many other hatcheries. Chickens watching is great for stress reduction, my funniest bird I have right now is a Salmon Faverolle, she's a real hoot!!
 
Miss M":2ntwxfbu said:
Is ordering from McMurray better than buying from a local farm supply?
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Yes an no. Ask them where they get chicks. Odds are they order from Mcmurray or Ideal so you are paying them as a middle man an losing choices but probably getting the same quality birds. The big two hatcheries have nice birds but they are pet or production strains so dont expect show birds from any hatchery.

Miss M":2ntwxfbu said:
Can I buy one of this, one of that from McMurray?
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Yes. I think they charge a fee if you dont get 1/4th of a box of each kind but its not much.
 
McMurray also has several packages of different types of chickens, so that is a possibility as well.

I believe, and may be wrong, that if you order less than a box (25 chicks or so), they will charge you a bit more and fill up the box with birds they have lots of. So be prepared to get 25 birds no matter what. Unless, like I said, I am wrong. It's been a few years since I ordered from them.

If you want less than that, Tractor Supply gets chicks in of various types. I also believe they will order for you. Tractor Supply also has a minimum purchase limit, but I think it's 6 (at least it was at our local store). Tractor Supply also sometimes offers just pullets, other times straight runs. If you don't want a rooster, pick a breed you can get just pullets of (McMurray also offers MOST breeds as sexed). Our TS has different chick breeds each week, throughout spring. Chances are if you buy from TS, the chicks will NOT be vaccinated, so the medicated chick starter is a good idea.
 
Last time I hatched, then I got some from a guy who ordered from Meyers, and I actually ordered from eBay. Meyers is within driving distance, but the cost of gas is the same price of shipping.
 
Miss M":3gq3qerj said:
Is ordering from McMurray better than buying from a local farm supply?
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Other than Queenpup's Silkies which come from a friend who breeds for show, all of my chickens have come from the feed store. As RebelCowboy said, they probably get them from one of the big hatcheries anyway.

Sometimes they have older chicks that have started feathering out but are still the same price so they have spent the money on feed and it is a better deal for me. I am sure ILoveBunnies and BunnywanKenobi will want some fuzzy babies, and you might too, but you could get some of both. :)

You also can look the chicks over and make sure they don't have "poopy butt" or other issues.

I always try to sex them by gently holding their head and neck in my fist and lifting them off the ground. Hens will dangle with their legs extended, while roosters will kick your hand. Or so the old-timers say. :roll: I have ended up with roos despite using that method, but if nothing else, the "dangle test" starts you out with less combative chickens! :lol:
 
I've seen chickens from many of the different hatcheries and honestly McMurray does have the best and most correct looking birds. In our 4H club many of the kids order from different hatcheries and the contrast can be marked. I believe that Welps in Iowa has some of the poorest looking birds I've ever seen, their Polish are horrible, and their Houdans are missing important breed charateristics like a beard. Many hatcheries buy chicks from surrounding growers, and sometimes those growers don't have good or pure stock. We have in our area what I call the giant Silkie syndrome, some hatchery, the one in Gratz PA I think is selling Silkies that are nearly standard sized, their easily 6 lbs or over, biggest Silkies I've ever seen. MT Healthy is selling chicks to TSC, and I have some Wyandottes and Partridge Rocks from them, when we showed them some of the Wyandottes were pretty good, all of the Partridges were too dark in color but nice for laying birds. Which hatchery you use does make a difference, some have higher standards, and yes you will get 'packing peanuts' thats the extra rooster chicks they stick in there for warmth. If you don't want 25 you could try 'My Pet Chicken', heard that they sell smaller amounts.
 
Thank you all ever so much for all your help! I came home with chicks today, so I'll start a new thread. I have read this thread several times now, and will continue to re-read.
 

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