Farm Things I have learned about chickens so far ..... maybe

[20Gauge]

This may be more of an update than what I have learned, but live with it....

For those who have been here for more than a minute, you are aware I have built a secure level 4 prison for my chickens to allow for them to have plenty of running around room, protection from predators and as much hands off work by me as reasonably possible.

Total we started with 19 chickens and have lost 3 over time. Basically for the reason of inmates being inmates. Yeah, I have tried to remove all the shivs, but they seem to keep making them from just about anything.

Part of what we decided to do in order to allow us some slack time is auto feeders. We started with the store bought versions and quickly realized that they were inadequate even for 6 week old chickens. So we built an auto feeder out of 3in pvc that allows us to scoop small quantities of food and lasts about 24 hours. Additionally it requires we push the food forward to allow it reach the point where gravity takes over. Needless to say, we were less than thrilled. It worked, but not good enough.

So this weekend we built a new version. We took a 5 gallon bucket, inserted a spot for the chickens to grab food and gave it a top fill spout that allows us to fill it from outside the coup. We currently estimate we can last 3 days with the new version or 4 days overall.

Now to what I have learned.......

1) No matter what you do, they @#%^#$%^ will spill feed all over. NO MATTER WHAT!
2) All you can do is minimize the amount of spilled feed each day.
3) Chickens will sit on and poop on EVERYTHING. Yes, everything! If it is in the coup, they will poop on it.
4) Grass works really well to keep the coup from smelling. The chickens also love moving it around. Much better than hay.
5) We have too many chickens. WAY WAY WAY too many.
6) After a single month of laying 1-6 eggs per day, we have 7-8 dozen eggs sitting around waiting to be eaten.....
7) People do run away if you try and give them eggs.....
8) People lie when they say they want fresh eggs and will take your extra.
9) Some chickens like to lay double yolks regularly. We have one that gives us one almost every day.

That's all for now.

 

[goatsrus]

A lot of non-chicken people are scared of farm eggs. They don’t like the richer looking yolks and brown shells. Some seem to think factory eggs are more sanitary. I have even been told that you shouldn’t eat eggs if there’s a rooster in with the hens! There’s a whole slew of crazy thinking out there. People are strange! I feed extras to my dogs and sometimes cook them up for the chickens to eat. They love them!

 

[Meemur]

I found that I was always learning with chickens. The basics are the same, but some have really unique personalities and create some real mayhem. I don't have time for stories right now, but that's one of the aspects that makes keeping them interesting.

I've also found that for just me (with a friend or two who will help eat the eggs) three chickens is fine. They keep each other company and aren't hard to manage. I've had one die and had two before but three seems to help with the bullying, if there is any. I've been fairly lucky about that.

My largest flock was 14 with two roos (both ended up in the stew pot, but we had a large household and buyers for the eggs.

 

[Border Collie Dad]

Here's what I use as a feeder.
4" piece pvc pipe approx. 5' long.
I got a metal pan at Tractor Supply that's about 2' across and 4" deep
Stand the pipe in the pan and strap to the wall high enough for the feed to come out.
Fill from the top.
Last my 6 almost a week

 

[20Gauge]

Here's what I use as a feeder.
4" piece pvc pipe approx. 5' long.
I got a metal pan at Tractor Supply that's about 2' across and 4" deep
Stand the pipe in the pan and strap to the wall high enough for the feed to come out.
Fill from the top.
Last my 6 almost a week

I have nearly 2.5 times that in chickens, so I had to implement a 2nd feeder and ramp things up.

 

[Pebbles]

Yep, you have learned the truth about chickens . They are filthy birds. The flock I have now pick at each other and just look terrible. And yes, I too always get WAY to many chickens. I donate my extras to a shelter in town and freeze some too . I also feed to the dog . Oh, and they don't grow on you emotionally either .

 

[Littlesister]

Had a friend who had 35 chickens. She let them out to run around the yard every morning. One morning I stopped by to visit and noticed most of the hens lined up, single file, in front of an old plastic doghouse in the corner of the yard. She said that was the only place they wanted to lay their eggs. Every few minutes we would hear a bunch of cackling, as if to say, " Hurry up! Im about to drop an egg here! "

 

[jward]

I learned I am very laizze faire with re: to the livestock and fowl that share the small holding with me; momma aint got time to be helicoptering! Most recently though, I learned that if a bird is trapped under a small stock tank turned up side down, it can apparently survive (asleep?) for 12-18 hrs.

I also learned that, like all males, my rooster sometimes grows tired o' all those ladies, and I'll occassionally find him emerge, suitably sheepishly, from the buck barn in the morn. :: shrug :: He's a good boy, and good watch dog, in all other respects, so I just look the other way and try not to wonder


ETA: for any drive by karens that might be peeking at us: those ladies free range, much to their delight, and on mornings below ten degrees, I actually cook them a lil something something to add to their breakfast- and all the four footers are ridiculously healthy, according to their vet, who only gets used (knock on wood I remain so blessed) to run blood work to certify my herds are disease free.

 

[bbbuddy]

I have nearly 2.5 times that in chickens, so I had to implement a 2nd feeder and ramp things up.

Time to put some on the dinner table. Can up those older chickens for soup this winter.

 

[babysteps]

A lot of non-chicken people are scared of farm eggs. They don’t like the richer looking yolks and brown shells. Some seem to think factory eggs are more sanitary. I have even been told that you shouldn’t eat eggs if there’s a rooster in with the hens! There’s a whole slew of crazy thinking out there. People are strange! I feed extras to my dogs and sometimes cook them up for the chickens to eat. They love them!

People are crazy.

I had someone pull me aside one day to warn me, in all seriousness, that I shouldn't eat brown eggs.

Because they "come out of a chicken's butt."

...what???

I couldn't even respond. I was speechless.

I just stared in confusion and wondered where they think white eggs come from...??

 

[Pinecone]

People are crazy.

I had someone pull me aside one day to warn me, in all seriousness, that I shouldn't eat brown eggs.

Because they "come out of a chicken's butt."

...what???

I couldn't even respond. I was speechless.

I just stared in confusion and wondered where they think white eggs come from...??

Thanks for the belly laugh this morning!

Society in general has moved way too far from its agrarian roots.

 

[TxGal]

I know you know they will slack off some during winter. And, you've probably heard to freeze some, just in case. We are among those who hard boil the 'extra' eggs, chop them up, and feed them back to the chickens...it's 'free' food and will cut down some on your feed bill.

Messy, without a doubt, and they can be downright destructful when free-ranging...and they want to scratch at recently planted landscaping, mulched areas, etc.

 

[Border Collie Dad]

I have nearly 2.5 times that in chickens, so I had to implement a 2nd feeder and ramp things up.

Maybe.
But I have used this with more chickens.
May have to fill it a little more frequently

 

[WalknTrot]

10) - If you (and the chickens) want to experience a lot of dust, flying feathers and high-pitched screeching, mistakenly let the Lab pup sneak into the henhouse while you have the door open refilling their water tub.

Yeppers...yesterday. Bet there won't be any eggs today...


BTW, for water, in the land of ice and snow (MN) I finally gave up and went to good sized squishy black rubber tubs for water. They are tough, and you can hammer the ice out of them every morning without doing any damage.

 

[33dInd]

No matter how secure
The coons will find their way in

 

[bracketquant]

This may be more of an update than what I have learned, but live with it....

For those who have been here for more than a minute, you are aware I have built a secure level 4 prison for my chickens to allow for them to have plenty of running around room, protection from predators and as much hands off work by me as reasonably possible.

Total we started with 19 chickens and have lost 3 over time. Basically for the reason of inmates being inmates. Yeah, I have tried to remove all the shivs, but they seem to keep making them from just about anything.

Part of what we decided to do in order to allow us some slack time is auto feeders. We started with the store bought versions and quickly realized that they were inadequate even for 6 week old chickens. So we built an auto feeder out of 3in pvc that allows us to scoop small quantities of food and lasts about 24 hours. Additionally it requires we push the food forward to allow it reach the point where gravity takes over. Needless to say, we were less than thrilled. It worked, but not good enough.

So this weekend we built a new version. We took a 5 gallon bucket, inserted a spot for the chickens to grab food and gave it a top fill spout that allows us to fill it from outside the coup. We currently estimate we can last 3 days with the new version or 4 days overall.

Now to what I have learned.......

1) No matter what you do, they @#%^#$%^ will spill feed all over. NO MATTER WHAT!
2) All you can do is minimize the amount of spilled feed each day.
3) Chickens will sit on and poop on EVERYTHING. Yes, everything! If it is in the coup, they will poop on it.
4) Grass works really well to keep the coup from smelling. The chickens also love moving it around. Much better than hay.
5) We have too many chickens. WAY WAY WAY too many.
6) After a single month of laying 1-6 eggs per day, we have 7-8 dozen eggs sitting around waiting to be eaten.....
7) People do run away if you try and give them eggs.....
8) People lie when they say they want fresh eggs and will take your extra.
9) Some chickens like to lay double yolks regularly. We have one that gives us one almost every day.

That's all for now.

Crack eggs, wisk, freeze.

I do them in portion sizes for 1 breakfast, and portion sizes for different baking recipes.

 

[bracketquant]

No matter how secure
The coons will find their way in

Posting a "Now Hiring" sign may keep many out.

 

[Loretta Van Riet]

20Gauge...I am living vicariously through YOUR chickens, lol. I get the laughs, YOU get the cleanup!

I only have a little Canary that takes GREAT JOY in pooping in EVERY water vessel I provide.

Thanks for your update. I expect more!

 

[Marthanoir]

A lot of non-chicken people are scared of farm eggs. They don’t like the richer looking yolks and brown shells. Some seem to think factory eggs are more sanitary. I have even been told that you shouldn’t eat eggs if there’s a rooster in with the hens! There’s a whole slew of crazy thinking out there. People are strange! I feed extras to my dogs and sometimes cook them up for the chickens to eat. They love them!

Brown shells, I have white, blue/green, light brown, normal brown, dark chocolate brown.

We kinda went crazy on variety

 

[Bubble Head]

If you have surplus eggs you need to preserve them in lime. Use gallon jars and pickling lime. Instructions are in the archives or just pull up a You Tube on the procedure. We put around 3 dozen in each gallon and store for when the cold months stop the laying or when we have a new batch of hens to start laying. Right now both are happening but we still are getting enough for our consumption and have not had to start using are stored eggs.

 

[Profit of Doom]

I have even been told that you shouldn’t eat eggs if there’s a rooster in with the hens!

Doesn’t bother our VP.

 

[Griz3752]

This may be more of an update than what I have learned, but live with it....

For those who have been here for more than a minute, you are aware I have built a secure level 4 prison for my chickens to allow for them to have plenty of running around room, protection from predators and as much hands off work by me as reasonably possible.

Total we started with 19 chickens and have lost 3 over time. Basically for the reason of inmates being inmates. Yeah, I have tried to remove all the shivs, but they seem to keep making them from just about anything.

Part of what we decided to do in order to allow us some slack time is auto feeders. We started with the store bought versions and quickly realized that they were inadequate even for 6 week old chickens. So we built an auto feeder out of 3in pvc that allows us to scoop small quantities of food and lasts about 24 hours. Additionally it requires we push the food forward to allow it reach the point where gravity takes over. Needless to say, we were less than thrilled. It worked, but not good enough.

So this weekend we built a new version. We took a 5 gallon bucket, inserted a spot for the chickens to grab food and gave it a top fill spout that allows us to fill it from outside the coup. We currently estimate we can last 3 days with the new version or 4 days overall.

Now to what I have learned.......

1) No matter what you do, they @#%^#$%^ will spill feed all over. NO MATTER WHAT!
2) All you can do is minimize the amount of spilled feed each day.
3) Chickens will sit on and poop on EVERYTHING. Yes, everything! If it is in the coup, they will poop on it.
4) Grass works really well to keep the coup from smelling. The chickens also love moving it around. Much better than hay.
5) We have too many chickens. WAY WAY WAY too many.
6) After a single month of laying 1-6 eggs per day, we have 7-8 dozen eggs sitting around waiting to be eaten.....
7) People do run away if you try and give them eggs.....
8) People lie when they say they want fresh eggs and will take your extra.
9) Some chickens like to lay double yolks regularly. We have one that gives us one almost every day.

That's all for now.

ALL the above is correct AFAIK (remember).
I can say if we were closer (I'm in Greater Memphis ( a total misnomer) your egg-surplus wouldn’t be an issue.

Any way to donate them to a mission or something that serves meals? Just a thought . . .

 

[Barb]

Take your extra eggs to a senior center. Those old folks know what to do with eggs.

 

[Dozdoats]

Just remember chickens are what velociraptors turned into.

Feed them or they will eat each other - or you.

 

[intothatgoodnight]

People are crazy.

I had someone pull me aside one day to warn me, in all seriousness, that I shouldn't eat brown eggs.

Because they "come out of a chicken's butt."

...what???

I couldn't even respond. I was speechless.

I just stared in confusion and wondered where they think white eggs come from...??

Wait until they inform you as to where they think that chocolate milk comes from . . .

Was a joke among us farm-folks when I was in high school, many moons ago - this mother-nature "ignorance" problem in the "suburban" populations easily goes back into the 1960s - perhaps further.


intothegoodnight

 

[20Gauge]

Time to put some on the dinner table. Can up those older chickens for soup this winter.

Older? They just started laying.... less than six months old.

 

[Dozdoats]

Murkins are not too far from demonstrating they are indeed too stupid to live.

 

[20Gauge]

People are crazy.

I had someone pull me aside one day to warn me, in all seriousness, that I shouldn't eat brown eggs.

Because they "come out of a chicken's butt."

...what???

I couldn't even respond. I was speechless.

I just stared in confusion and wondered where they think white eggs come from...??

We are eagerly waiting on the brown eggs. Right now we have 1 laying brown. The others are green and blue eggs.

 

[20Gauge]

Maybe.
But I have used this with more chickens.
May have to fill it a little more frequently

Filling frequently is what I am trying to avoid....

 

[20Gauge]

Crack eggs, wisk, freeze.

I do them in portion sizes for 1 breakfast, and portion sizes for different baking recipes.

We are just about at that stage. I was talking to the wife about that one. quart bags with enough for an quick egg breakfast.

 

[20Gauge]

20Gauge...I am living vicariously through YOUR chickens, lol. I get the laughs, YOU get the cleanup!

I only have a little Canary that takes GREAT JOY in pooping in EVERY water vessel I provide.

Thanks for your update. I expect more!

We finally got to the point of hanging the waterers. Putting them on the ground even with a secure footing, just allowed them to poop / drag dirt on to it / dump the water all day long.

 

[Texican]

No matter how secure
The coons will find their way in

Or a weasel. Finally got the chicken pen totally secured and have not lost any chickens for months.

Texican....

 

[Border Collie Dad]

Filling frequently is what I am trying to avoid....

I bet you wouldn't have to more than twice a week.
Trying to remember.
Guessing 15 lbs. of feed to fill it completely

 

[KMR58]

I have an abundance of eggs coming in right now from 18 hens who are all one year or younger. When I have about 34 I put them in a one gallon jar and water glass them. That way if/when laying slows down over winter I will still have plenty of eggs. I did a jar a few days ago and it took me all of 15 minutes to do.

 

[Texican]

People are crazy.

I had someone pull me aside one day to warn me, in all seriousness, that I shouldn't eat brown eggs.

Because they "come out of a chicken's butt."

We give our neighbors lots of excess eggs. We tell them that the eggs have not been cleaned, but dry wiped down. This preserves the eggs longer. We get an extra 3 to 4 eggs per day which mount up quickly.

The DW does the lime treatment and we have several gallons of eggs put up. The dogs love scrambled eggs.

Texican....

 

[bbbuddy]

Older? They just started laying.... less than six months old.

They will still be a lot tougher then what you are use to from store bought, which are 6 to 8 weeks old.

 

[Hfcomms]

I went with galvanized hanging feeders and waterers and hang them with small link chain. As they were growing I'd move it up a few links at a time so it was tall enough to get their beaks into the food and water but not tall enough that they could get poop into it and also they have rounded tops on them so the chickens can't perch on them. They come in two and five gallon sizes so you can pick what works best for you.






I built a three hole nesting box for them and screwed that to the inside wall of the coop and then I used a hinged section of wood above the nesting box at a steep angle so they can't perch on top of that either. And then on the bottom of the box I used seedling heaters to keep the eggs above freezing and then covered that with heavy plastic.

I have no problem giving my excess eggs away. I bring them to work and someone always scarfs them up. Being in a rural area they know that I free range and the eggs taste a whole lot better and it's rare that I even have to clean off the eggs. I was in the coop today and one of the hens was standing up and posturing and out popped an egg and I got it ten seconds old right from the source.

This is my second go around with chickens and I learned a lot from the from the first time.

 

[babysteps]

Wait until they inform you as to where they think that chocolate milk comes from . . .

Was a joke among us farm-folks when I was in high school, many moons ago - this mother-nature "ignorance" problem in the "suburban" populations easily goes back into the 1960s - perhaps further.


intothegoodnight

Oh I know. I've heard so many head-shaking comments. But that one definitely took the cake for me.

My girls have raised sheep for 4H for years. The conversations they've had at fair with non-farm folk are hilarious. Especially when someone INSISTS that that market lamb must be a goat, because it doesn't have any wool.

The fiber goats REALLY confuse them.

 

[Starrkopf]

I miss having chickens, I also relished the double yoke eggs, those were my favorite.
probably the most surprising thing for me with having chickens was just how vicious they are to each other.

 

[Sozo]

This is what I use for a feeder (and it's on sale right now too)
Just supply your own container. I use a 5 gallon bucket.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09QGFJLNZ/