If you raise chickens...

[Mallory]

Wishbone- from that batch we did last fall, we kept 4 hens. They lay great beautiful huge eggs. Three of them did die over the past year with no signs of illness- so I am guessing heart problems. The last one got butchered by my over zealous helpers in our last butchering about a month ago, it was just about a year old and doing fine. That was a huge bird!

 

Mine never did roost, and we had to end up building a poop sheild for them because they would sleep under the roosts and always be covered in poop from the other birds.

 

One of our other birds hatched one of thier eggs, it was crossed with a red sussex rooster. It was a large fast growing bird but not like its mom. Unfortunatly, it got hit by a car at about 3 months.

 

From this last batch of birds from the chicken farm we have kept 3 hens. They aren't quite as big as the cornish rock xes though.

 

Ours also do move around the yard, while not quite as brave when there are 50 of them (I think they are afraid that if they get to far from the feed dish then everyone else will get the food), when we just have a handful left, they go everywhere the rest of my chickens do.

Edited September 25, 2012 by Mallory

[BlsdMama]

When we bought our farm we had visions of free ranging happy chickens. Then we met our neighbor's dog and the neighbor's dog met 20 of our chickens. The outcome was unhappy.

.

Their dog needs to meet the business end of a BB gun in the tailfeathers. It'll sting for a bit and hopefully it's a motivator. If that's not, the bill you take over to the neighbor to contain his dog should be.

 

:glare:

 

They are economical when you compare the cost of HIGH quality eggs & meat to your own. They are not if you are comparing bargain basement sale prices. You should also include the cost of broth, because as you will be making whole chickens, your home raised ones make really high quality chicken stock. :)

 

It is also cheaper to buy six month old hens off of Craigslist than it is to start from chicks in feed alone. We've raised some of ours from eggs. (That's fun, I recommend it!) We do it because the kids love it, not because it's economical.

 

I am not a chicken person. I personally hate chicken poop and I like the chickens nice and neatly contained. Our dog is a massive chicken killer. He's killed a good two dozen in his lifetime along with a pygmy goat, but that's another story. My husband? He would let them roam on every inch of the yard if he could. He goes out some nights just to watch them peck and walk around - great stress reliever for him. :)

[cajunrose]

We have 7 hens in a neighborhood. We LOVE our girls. My husband estimated they would have to lay something like 5000 DOZEN eggs to pay for the coop/early starting costs. The joy we get from them well makes up for the cost though. We sit outside all the time and just watch them peck. They each have their own personalities. We even have a 100% blind one that is as spoiled as she can possibly be. Yes, there is poop but it's manageable with just 7 girls.

[Shelsi]

Another completely newbie/ignorant question: do you need to clean out the coop pretty much every day? Like spray it down or something? Do you put straw/hay in there or something? I have got to find a book that completely holds my hand lol.

[fairfarmhand]

I am going to defend the poor Cornish Rock.:D

 

Out current batch is 11 weeks and going to the processor tomorrow. The cocci chick was from this batch. We put them out at 3 weeks, free ranged them, limited their feedings to certain parts of the day and they are fully feathered darlings that forage and run and even fly a bit. Seriously, these are handsome, healthy chickens.

 

I am now fully convinced that many of the health problems people encounter with these guys are of their own making. People feed them for 12 or 24 hours straight or confine them to small quarters.

 

They've got an ugly waddle and they poop like there's no tomorrow but they're sweet, charming chickens. No, they don't have the same activity level as a layer but that's because they're doing exactly what we ask of them, putting on weight. They'll forage if you put them out early, they'll follow you like puppies and let you pet them if you're Mama Food, they'll all make it to processing time if you treat them right.

 

FYI the first batch we did we took them to ten weeks (the other two deaths were from that batch) and they finished at 6 - 8 lbs each. I cannot hate a chicken that gives me an 8 lb roast in 10 weeks.

 

This year, we're keeping a hen to see how long she'll live and what size eggs she'll lay. I love my Cornish Rocks.

this was our experience with Cornish Rocks too. The poop did me in, and I will not have them again, unless we have a chicken tractor to put them in. They are very mess birds, but we had no problems with deaths.

[Momling]

Another completely newbie/ignorant question: do you need to clean out the coop pretty much every day? Like spray it down or something? Do you put straw/hay in there or something? I have got to find a book that completely holds my hand lol.

 

Google "Deep Litter Method". We rarely clean out the coop -- a full clean out maybe every 6 months? It's not even particularly disgusting. I have pine bedding down and mix in some diatomaceous earth sometimes... I mix it up and add a little extra bedding if I want it to look nice. I chuck the pine bedding in the compost every few months.