My journey into chicken herding.

[Mark A]

About 4-5 months ago we decided to stick our toes in the water and bought (3) 18 month old Americuana chickens, a little coop and some electro-netting. After they settled down for a few days they started dropping an egg here and there and settling in. I added a light on a timer and a heat lamp for warmth and egg production went up.

Feeling giddy with success we ordered (11) cornish cross chicks and (2) different types of Marans for a total of 18 new chickadees. Somehow we managed to keep them all alive through the brooding process and 7 weeks later the 11 cornish cross's graduated to the freezer. Due to some stupidity on my part I passed up a great deal on some 2 year old chickens and by the time I figured it out they were gone. Of course the next week the wife said we needed more laying hens now. So, we went to Poultry Hollow and bought (3)  red sex-link birds that were about 24 weeks old. My buddy who helps me with projects wanted some and bought (2) White Leghorns and (2) Black Australorps. Both sets are very pretty birds.

The 11 birds we processed taste good and definitely smell much better than chicken bought at the store.

While we were waiting on our first birds to be delivered I remembered how tasty the pastured raised turkey I bought last year tasted so I ordered (11) broad breasted turkeys and 6 heritage breeds. 3 of those are for our neighbors. The heritage breeds won't get as large as the broad breasted birds but are better foragers and will reproduce better. You don't get to pick the sex on the turkeys so we are really hoping for at least 1 male and 1 female from both sets of heritage breeds. Really hoping to get 2 females of each kind and see if they can make free turkeys. We also have (10) more cornish cross chickens coming in the second order.

The new batch will hopefully be more pastured than the first batch. Between getting them near the end of winter and these being our first birds to raise we kept them in a small protected run and provided most of their food. Hoping this next batch will be a little more self sufficient. I've built 3 long runs and the meat birds will go into tractors out on the pasture.

Processing the first batch was possibly not the most fun I've ever had but the birds led a good healthy life and only had a second or 2 of bad luck. I thought I would probably want a automatic plucker and after doing 11 in one day I confirmed it. So, I'm ordering some parts and I'm going to build one large enough to process the larger turkeys. That will make things go much faster.

Anyway, I know this is old hat to many of you but it was a big step for us as we move closer to having a homestead. These will probably be the only egg laying chickens we get as we will transition to ducks for eggs once we are living up there. I do plan on doing a couple of runs of (26) meat birds twice a year so we can put at least 1 chicken for each week into the freezer.

It has been a fun journey and if you've been thinking about it I say get a few (not from tractor supply) and give it a shot.

Mark

[Ronald_55]

I saw an interesting way to add protein the the birds' diet from a guy on YouTube. He takes a bucket and punches some small holes in the bottom. Then he suspends it with a makeshift tripod. He puts in a layer of straw/hay. Then he puts in left over meat scraps (such as from the bird he just ate or butchered), then more straw. He keeps that up as meat scraps are available. He even said he picks up roadkill to add to it. Then as nature does its work, the flies leave eggs. When they hatch the maggots crawl out the bottom holes to be chick food. He says the straw keeps the smell contained and when the bucket is full he just dumps the clean bones and such out somewhere. He said his chickens love it and since the maggots are clean it does not have any type of potential health issues.

This might be good to use in you contained run. I might suggest cracking open any bones if you can to get maximum benefit by letting the marrow be eaten out. You might also need several buckets set up at butchering time so that you do not waste the butchering scraps. Obviously this would not be a primary food, but would be a free way to augment it naturally. It also takes care of food waste that you can not add to the compose bin. If you got really ambitious, you might be able to hook up with a local butcher and keep a lot of buckets running. If you hunt things like the deer head that you are not going to use could be added too.

I have wanted to try this, but my place and life does not lend itself to fowl.

 

Another note: With Easter coming up, you might watch for people giving away fowl after the cute chick/duck phase wears off. Lots of people still give the dyed chicks and ducks to kids as Easter gifts. You might not have a choice of sex or breed, but it might help to add to your flock.

Edited April 3, 2017 by Ronald_55

[RED333]

Please do keep chickens and turkeys apart, turkey have a bug that will kill chickens. I have had chickens for 5 years now. My 1st group came from Poultry Hollow and they did very well. My 2nd group I got from a man here in Mt Juliet and thay have done well. All mine are egg layers.

[Mark A]

RED333, thanks, I've read that. We have a second wire crate (they  make a pretty good brooder at the house with a plastic tub inside)

 

We are going to brood them in a different room. I a;ready have a small building to use when they get a bit bigger and then they will be in chicken tractors....

 

Mark

[RED333]

Here are a few pics of my coop, grass is gone now, pics are a few years old.

[RED333]

Tractor I can not use anymore, wood is rotten

[hipower]

1 hour ago, RED333 said:

Here are a few pics of my coop, grass is gone now, pics are a few years old.

You have a pool for your chickens! Wow. That must be quite an incentive for them to produce.

[RED333]

12 minutes ago, hipower said:

You have a pool for your chickens! Wow. That must be quite an incentive for them to produce.

That pool sprung a leak, then we helped it leak a bit more, fun day.

Some of the recovered boolits

[hipower]

Looks like you had a great party! I'm trying to talk my neighbor into letting me shoot his old one so he can replace it.

Told him he could tell his agent that all the high winds lately had picked up rocks and just filled it with holes.