WTM chicken farmers: tell me everything you know about chicken poop....

[Pam in CT]

In a truly unforeseen turn of events, DH in CT has transformed into a chicken farmer.  Would NOT have called this when I met him at age 17, but, circumstances change and people evolve, LOL.

He spent much of the last three months researching, poring over designs, ordering materials, consulting extensively with our Iowa-born neighbors who actually know what they're doing, constructing, ordering more materials, re-tweaking, cursing, ordering more materials, finishing, painting, ordering more materials, and securing every corner of the outside run from predators, as exhorted by the Iowan neighbors who've lost two of theirs over the last year, one to evidence-based burrowing and the other apparently by air.  

All the while, waiting for the "pullets" to grow to adolescence.  Well, we picked up the "pullets" on Saturday, and we're now settling in to wait for them to achieve egg-laying maturity, which the pullet people estimate to be end-August and the Iowans estimate to be more like October.

In the meantime: poop.

 

During the same interval I have vastly stepped up both my gardening, and my composting.  I feel sure there must be an accelerated route to transform chicken poop into gloriously rich soil amendment.  But the Iowans don't garden; they merely haul theirs in the wheelbarrow to a back corner of their woods, so on this one part of the process they have little to offer.

Tips, please?

[barnwife]

I wasn't born in Iowa, but you could see it from there.

What are you using for bedding?  That will determine the Carbon to Nitrogen ratio of the resulting manure bedding mix for composting.  Chicken manure will be high nitrogen and low carbon (not much fiber) so it will be too hot for general garden use, and too gross for most people anyway.  You want to aim for a C/N ratio on the low end of the range, like 10-1 from memory, that will compost faster than a higher ratio of carbon/nitrogen.  You're not going to actually measure C/N, you estimate it based on green/brown (with poop being "green" in this case, very high N) And bulky bedding like long straw, or stemmy hay, or even cornstalks to give plenty of fluff to the compost pile.  Chicken manure is quick to turn into a slimy ammonia mess, hence the bulky bedding.  Wood products are too slow to break down generally.  

You can add chicken manure directly for high nitrogen demanding crops, like till it into the soil for sweetcorn, or a month ahead of time or side dress for potatoes.  

[Pam in CT]

re bedding material:

47 minutes ago, barnwife said:

I wasn't born in Iowa, but you could see it from there.

What are you using for bedding?  That will determine the Carbon to Nitrogen ratio of the resulting manure bedding mix for composting.  Chicken manure will be high nitrogen and low carbon (not much fiber) so it will be too hot for general garden use, and too gross for most people anyway.  You want to aim for a C/N ratio on the low end of the range, like 10-1 from memory, that will compost faster than a higher ratio of carbon/nitrogen.  You're not going to actually measure C/N, you estimate it based on green/brown (with poop being "green" in this case, very high N) And bulky bedding like long straw, or stemmy hay, or even cornstalks to give plenty of fluff to the compost pile.  Chicken manure is quick to turn into a slimy ammonia mess, hence the bulky bedding.  Wood products are too slow to break down generally.  

You can add chicken manure directly for high nitrogen demanding crops, like till it into the soil for sweetcorn, or a month ahead of time or side dress for potatoes.  

Hmmm.  I believe at the counsel of the non-composting neighbors, he's using wood shavings (on which, as another consideration also unrelated to composting, he has an enormous and free supply from a woodworking artist/art teacher friend).

Would shredded cardboard boxes fulfill the "brown" ratio consideration?  Because we happen to have a crap-ton of cardboard boxes arriving on a regular basis.  And I've discovered that sitting on the patio with a cup of coffee in the morning, or a beer and dusk, and listening to the birds while shredding soggy cardboard boxes, is a remarkably relaxing and contemplative activity, which I have re-branded "compost meditation."

 

20 minutes ago, WendyAndMilo said:

I only have 12-14 chickens (don't know exactly) so I let mine pile up for 6 months then dump it in my raised beds at the beginning of the spring and fall seasons then cover that with dirt and I'm ready to garden.  

I'm sure there are better ways of doing this, but I'm lazy and it's worked for several years.

This is very much my own gardening style!

 

Does it need to aerate like food/garden waste compost?  What do you use for containers?  Or just leave it in an out-of-sight pile?

[KungFuPanda]

My composting method is to have one more garden box than I need and compost in that one for a year.  Then I rotate my plants and move the compost elsewhere next year.  It's just easier to rake than to move compost.  I move some of it for dressing, but not all.  Do you have a lot of fall leaves?  I get TONS of leaves in the fall and spend the rest of the year layering them with green stuff so that I have good compost by spring.

[Spy Car]

How many chickens are you going to raise, Pam?

Bill

[Pam in CT]

re leaves

6 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

My composting method is to have one more garden box than I need and compost in that one for a year.  Then I rotate my plants and move the compost elsewhere next year.  It's just easier to rake than to move compost.  I move some of it for dressing, but not all.  Do you have a lot of fall leaves?  I get TONS of leaves in the fall and spend the rest of the year layering them with green stuff so that I have good compost by spring.

Yes, more leaves than I can possibly use.  I have long had a slow & lazy compost bin for large garden waste, and a somewhat more systematic system for food waste, and I start them both with thick layers of good and dead leaves... then I also have out-of-sight piles out in the woods where I vaguely attempt to keep large wooden tree limbs separate from leaves... and let the leaves slowly decompose into loose(ish) dirt with very good texture, reasonable fertility and FULL OF WEEDS that I nonetheless use to fill big holes when I'm planting.

DH in CT has constructed the most stylish -- dunno about functional, we'll see about that I guess, but it's definitely stylish -- chicken condo in New England, with a ramp down to an outdoor enclosure roughly 12' by 30' (it's not a rectangle; it follows the angles of an existing terrace.  He seems to believe that while the poop can just pile up in the enclosure it's essential to rake it (and the bedding) out of the coop every few weeks?

 

4 hours ago, Spy Car said:

How many chickens are you going to raise, Pam?

Bill

He's starting with 6.  The neighbors who know what they're doing believe the structure he's built is adequate for up to 20.

 

[Melissa in Australia]

I have large compost bins. I rake out the chook pen every second Sunday and spread it in the compost. I then cover with a mix of wasted hay and cow poo. 

I chuck a bucket or two of green stuff in to the chook pen every day, what they don't eat gets raked up and composted at the same time 

I have 20 silky chooks

[Melissa in Australia]

I also add cardboard, wood Ash, pidgen poo,  anything compost able to the compost bin.  It takes me about a month to fill the bin. Each compost bin is 4feet by 6 feet.  When the bin is full, I turn it once into the bin beside it. I have 5 bins in a row. I always have one bin being made, and one bin ready for use

[Pam in CT]

6 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

I have large compost bins. I rake out the chook pen every second Sunday and spread it in the compost. I then cover with a mix of wasted hay and cow poo. 

I chuck a bucket or two of green stuff in to the chook pen every day, what they don't eat gets raked up and composted at the same time 

I have 20 silky chooks

"Green stuff" like garden clippings?  Or actual food?  Do they eat *it* or are they pecking for bugs?  I believe DH in CT's current plan is to just feed them... chicken kibble stuff in great big chicken kibble bags. 

I have no easy source of cow poop, sigh.  

[Melissa in Australia]

Green stuff includes the outside leaves of veggies when picking stuff from the garden scraps from preparing meals, picking grass in corners of the yard where the lawnmower doesn't reach weeding from the garden

The chooks love it. They eat a lot of green stuff and it makes their yolks nice and golden 

[Melissa in Australia]

We have a house cow, that is our cow poo source. 

A house cow is a cow that provides the milk for one house, ours, she is a Jersey called flower 

[Melissa in Australia]

Forgot to add that I sometimes put a wheelbarrow of pine needles under their roosts. They love scratching through it and it makes it easier to rake the poo out, but they slow down the compost a bit

[Innisfree]

21 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

I also add cardboard, wood Ash, pidgen poo,  anything compost able to the compost bin.  It takes me about a month to fill the bin. Each compost bin is 4feet by 6 feet.  When the bin is full, I turn it once into the bin beside it. I have 5 bins in a row. I always have one bin being made, and one bin ready for use

I have no chickens atm, or any particular chicken/composting wisdom, but those five compost bins and your system for them have me green with envy. 😍 Maybe someday...

[itsheresomewhere]

One of the fastest selling and hard to get items in the mom and pop garden center I go to is aged dried chicken poop.  It is used on lawns, gardens and raised beds.  This stuff sells out.  
 

May I suggest a present for DH-  there is a monthly chicken subscription box that I hear from my new chicken friends is excellent.  They get a assortment of stuff that didn’t think to buy or know existed.  One friend got it for a couple of months while they got comfortable with owning chickens, so you don’t have to commit to it. 

[Pam in CT]

re I humbly bow before Melissa's composting volume...

59 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

I also add cardboard, wood Ash, pidgen poo,  anything compost able to the compost bin.  It takes me about a month to fill the bin. Each compost bin is 4feet by 6 feet.  When the bin is full, I turn it once into the bin beside it. I have 5 bins in a row. I always have one bin being made, and one bin ready for use

Holy cannoli.  I fill two bins that size a SEASON.

35 minutes ago, Innisfree said:

I have no chickens atm, or any particular chicken/composting wisdom, but those five compost bins and your system for them have me green with envy. 😍 Maybe someday...

Indeed!

 

17 minutes ago, itsheresomewhere said:

One of the fastest selling and hard to get items in the mom and pop garden center I go to is aged dried chicken poop.  It is used on lawns, gardens and raised beds.  This stuff sells out.  
 

May I suggest a present for DH-  there is a monthly chicken subscription box that I hear from my new chicken friends is excellent.  They get a assortment of stuff that didn’t think to buy or know existed.  One friend got it for a couple of months while they got comfortable with owning chickens, so you don’t have to commit to it. 

Oh this is a wonderful idea; thank you! 

 

 

[Selkie]

1 hour ago, Pam in CT said:

I have no easy source of cow poop, sigh.  

Too bad we aren't neighbors. My horses produce 200 pounds of manure every single day, and it's free for the taking!🙂

[itsheresomewhere]

Chickens also love pumpkins, watermelon and frozen water with blueberries in it.  My friend’s chickens go nuts for water frozen water and blueberries.  

[Pam in CT]

re alpaca poop

8 minutes ago, Dotwithaperiod said:

Do you have any alpaca hobby farms nearby, Pam? Their manure is heavenly, and can be put in the garden directly. I’ll bet it would pair well with chicken poo!

Plant a bunch of marigolds. Chickens love them, and it makes their yolks a pretty gold color.

Turns out, according to Google, we do!  Closed for COVID though.

Marigolds, hmmm. Is it too late to start them from seed at this point?  

[Pam in CT]

2 minutes ago, itsheresomewhere said:

Chickens also love pumpkins, watermelon and frozen water with blueberries in it.  My friend’s chickens go nuts for water frozen water and blueberries.  

I'm curious how she made the discovery?  That sounds like a story...

[itsheresomewhere]

1 hour ago, Pam in CT said:

I'm curious how she made the discovery?  That sounds like a story...

Her DH remembers doing it when he was a child.  
 

I was asked to chicken sit one day and to bring out the frozen water blueberry pan.  The words were be careful when feeding this to the chickens.  I thought it meant don’t drop the pan on your foot or something but those chickens seeing that pan came on like a full out attack. They were on it before I put the pan completely down.  I am convinced that the memory her DH has of this must be a trauma based one. Lol

Edited June 23, 2020 by itsheresomewhere

[Melissa in Australia]

I just remembered something we use to do in the past. We use to put grass clippings in the chook pen, the chooks would scratch through in and poop in it, it was easy to rake out and made beautiful top dressing mulch

[Liz CA]

Ahhh Pam, welcome to the world of chickens. They are more interesting than most shows on TV.

We have let the poop sit on a pile mixed in with the wood shavings for about 3-4 months before we spread it into the garden and mix it in. Fresh poop, I was always warned, was "too hot" for immediate use in gardens. If you have plants that prefer high nitrogen content soil you could bless them with some and see how they fare.

Like Selkie, I used to have horse manure as well - albeit not quite as much poundage as she has - and while it works, it contains a fair amount of weed sprouting "ingredients."

While you wait for the poop to "mature" you could use Alaska Fish Emulsion. I have poured a little on just about everything that grows in the ground and pots around here and recipients of the emulsion seem to virtually double in growth the following week.

Edited June 23, 2020 by Liz CA

[Liz CA]

3 hours ago, itsheresomewhere said:

Chickens also love pumpkins, watermelon and frozen water with blueberries in it.  My friend’s chickens go nuts for water frozen water and blueberries.  

 

I like to eat my blueberries myself but I have to try this at least once.

[Ausmumof3]

7 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

"Green stuff" like garden clippings?  Or actual food?  Do they eat *it* or are they pecking for bugs?  I believe DH in CT's current plan is to just feed them... chicken kibble stuff in great big chicken kibble bags. 

I have no easy source of cow poop, sigh.  

Any stables nearby?  Horse poo is serious garden magic

[itsheresomewhere]

5 hours ago, Liz CA said:

 

I like to eat my blueberries myself but I have to try this at least once.

You can mix corn pieces it in too. 

[Pam in CT]

re Chickens: Better'n TeeVee!

8 hours ago, Liz CA said:

Ahhh Pam, welcome to the world of chickens. They are more interesting than most shows on TV.

We have let the poop sit on a pile mixed in with the wood shavings for about 3-4 months before we spread it into the garden and mix it in. Fresh poop, I was always warned, was "too hot" for immediate use in gardens. If you have plants that prefer high nitrogen content soil you could bless them with some and see how they fare.

Like Selkie, I used to have horse manure as well - albeit not quite as much poundage as she has - and while it works, it contains a fair amount of weed sprouting "ingredients."

While you wait for the poop to "mature" you could use Alaska Fish Emulsion. I have poured a little on just about everything that grows in the ground and pots around here and recipients of the emulsion seem to virtually double in growth the following week.

LOL they certainly are.  The whole family has been *riveted* since their arrival on Saturday afternoon.

So far they haven't voluntarily come out of their (extremely roomy) coop on their own initiative -- for the first few hours they just clumped in a huddle together like the middle school girls I guess they are.  Since then they've seemed to accustom themselves to the inside features -- they're drinking from the clever automatically-replenishing water dispenser, eating from the somewhat haphazardly-rigged-so-as-not-to-overturn food dispenser, and flying up to the rafter bars on the third "floor" of the establishment.  But they haven't yet, on their own steam, walked the plank down to their play-yard.  Yesterday DH in CT scooped them up and placed them in it, to see if they could manage the plank... and after an hour or so of middle-school-girl-huddling they started wandering around pecking cautiously... and then near dusk they did all manage to navigate back up to the coop.  But there they remain today despite the gloriousness of the morning.

 

______

Back to the central poop question:  So you use wood shavings as the bedding?  And they decompose in 3-4 months?  Do you *just* use the wood shavings or something softer mixed in as well?  I suspect that the shavings in DH in CT's supply are fairly hard wood, since the source is making sculpture and furniture.  I wonder if there's something I can do to accelerate their decomposition.  (In my experiments with cardboard keeping it good and wet -- much wetter than I have ever done with normal compost -- seems to speed its disintegration along.  Though my experiments are not controlled, lol.)

 

I will try the fish emulsion.  My go-to fertilizer for flowers and shrubs has always been blood meal, since around here there is a legend that it deters the deer and, unlike all the other deer deterrents that wash away every time it rains, the blood meal smells MORE after it rains... so I've always figured it for a twofer, fertilizer and deterrent.  But now that I'm attempting vegetables it's a whole new world...

[Liz CA]

23 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

re Chickens: Better'n TeeVee!

LOL they certainly are.  The whole family has been *riveted* since their arrival on Saturday afternoon.

So far they haven't voluntarily come out of their (extremely roomy) coop on their own initiative -- for the first few hours they just clumped in a huddle together like the middle school girls I guess they are.  Since then they've seemed to accustom themselves to the inside features -- they're drinking from the clever automatically-replenishing water dispenser, eating from the somewhat haphazardly-rigged-so-as-not-to-overturn food dispenser, and flying up to the rafter bars on the third "floor" of the establishment.  But they haven't yet, on their own steam, walked the plank down to their play-yard.  Yesterday DH in CT scooped them up and placed them in it, to see if they could manage the plank... and after an hour or so of middle-school-girl-huddling they started wandering around pecking cautiously... and then near dusk they did all manage to navigate back up to the coop.  But there they remain today despite the gloriousness of the morning.

They will waddle up and down the plank soon. Never fear. It just takes a little time to explore. One will try it and the rest follows.  :)

______

Back to the central poop question:  So you use wood shavings as the bedding?  And they decompose in 3-4 months?  Do you *just* use the wood shavings or something softer mixed in as well?  I suspect that the shavings in DH in CT's supply are fairly hard wood, since the source is making sculpture and furniture.  I wonder if there's something I can do to accelerate their decomposition.  (In my experiments with cardboard keeping it good and wet -- much wetter than I have ever done with normal compost -- seems to speed its disintegration along.  Though my experiments are not controlled, lol.)

We use pine shavings since this is what is common around here for animal bedding. Maybe we could use it before the 3-4 months are up. I may be overly cautious. Also I don't have the time to be scientific about it and study which plants are fine with a higher nitrogen content and which would not like it. So I wait until I think it's fairly safe before I spread it around.

I will try the fish emulsion.  My go-to fertilizer for flowers and shrubs has always been blood meal, since around here there is a legend that it deters the deer and, unlike all the other deer deterrents that wash away every time it rains, the blood meal smells MORE after it rains... so I've always figured it for a twofer, fertilizer and deterrent.  But now that I'm attempting vegetables it's a whole new world...

I have heard of blood meal but have never used it. I do not know if your deer will love the fish emulsion LOL. We may have to google that one. We don't have a deer issue at this house. I am just impressed how everything shoots up with a little stinky fish emulsion. WARNING: You may have to shower after applying fish emulsion, especially if a little drips on your toes. Ask me how I know.  😃

 

[Pam in CT]

re one will try it and the rest will follow:

3 hours ago, Liz CA said:

...They will waddle up and down the plank soon. Never fear. It just takes a little time to explore. One will try it and the rest follows.  :)  ...

 

 

 

I have heard of blood meal but have never used it. I do not know if your deer will love the fish emulsion LOL. We may have to google that one. We don't have a deer issue at this house. I am just impressed how everything shoots up with a little stinky fish emulsion. WARNING: You may have to shower after applying fish emulsion, especially if a little drips on your toes. Ask me how I know.  😃

Yes, there definitely is one consistent "leader" of the pack.  DH in CT suspects she may be a rooster, which if true, between our town zoning rules (Hens=OK, Roosters=Zoned Out) and our vegetarian for life daughter, will pose considerable complications.

They waddled down earlier today when no one was paying attention, so we're not quite sure the sequence.

[itsheresomewhere]

38 minutes ago, Pam in CT said:

re one will try it and the rest will follow:

Yes, there definitely is one consistent "leader" of the pack.  DH in CT suspects she may be a rooster, which if true, between our town zoning rules (Hens=OK, Roosters=Zoned Out) and our vegetarian for life daughter, will pose considerable complications.

They waddled down earlier today when no one was paying attention, so we're not quite sure the sequence.

He can post a picture of the suspected rooster on 5 Acre living on Facebook.  The people on it are really good and full of information.  But some hens can be just as bossy as a rooster.  

[Pam in CT]

3 minutes ago, itsheresomewhere said:

He can post a picture of the suspected rooster on 5 Acre living on Facebook.  The people on it are really good and full of information.  But some hens can be just as bossy as a rooster.  

Thanks, I'll put him on that.

Re the bolded: My 17yo daughter (the vegetarian, in fact) said the exact same thing, LOL.  She knows exactly nothing about chicken farming but is our household Subject Matter Expert on adolescent females...

[IfIOnly]

Nothing more to add about poop, but so many people complain about feed costs and lack of eggs in the winter/less sunlight days. We have eggs all winter long. It's soooo easy to run an extension cord and put a light bulb in the coop on a timer. Only a few hours of light supplement is needed a day, and the bulb does not need to be an expensive warming light. Just a low watt bulb is fine. 

[Pam in CT]

re bulb on a timer to extend the light hours in the winter

36 minutes ago, IfIOnly said:

Nothing more to add about poop, but so many people complain about feed costs and lack of eggs in the winter/less sunlight days. We have eggs all winter long. It's soooo easy to run an extension cord and put a light bulb in the coop on a timer. Only a few hours of light supplement is needed a day, and the bulb does not need to be an expensive warming light. Just a low watt bulb is fine. 

Yes, that is one of the many tips DH in CT absorbed from his Interwebs research. He actually put some sort of warming pad out there too.  Our winters typically only have a few days below ~20 degrees, and the neighbors who know what they're doing don't bother to heat (just light) and they too get eggs through the winter, but he's a tenderhearted sort concerned for their comfort...

[Corraleno]

On 6/22/2020 at 4:12 PM, Pam in CT said:

Yes, more leaves than I can possibly use.

When I had chickens at my last house, we used to put all the leaves in the chicken run, sometimes it would be a foot or more deep in there. They would get so excited when they saw a wheelbarrow of leaves coming, they loved to scratch around in it and eat bugs. Our soil was heavy clay, so the leaves also kept the run from becoming a slimy poop--clay amalgam when it rained.

We mostly fed organic/vegetarian pellets, but would also toss veggie trimmings, grass clippings, and weeds into the run. Oh, and when DD was little one of her favorite things was to collect a bunch of grasshoppers in a big jar and then dump them in the chicken run and watch the hens go crazy catching them. We used to raise mealworms, too, for a special treat in the winter. They're super cheap and easy to raise.

We used straw for bedding, and would keep adding fresh straw on top as the old straw broke down; supposedly the manure in the straw helps generate heat in the winter. Then in the spring we'd rake it all out, dump it into a separate compost pile, and put fresh straw in.

[Pam in CT]

K my major takeaway here is I should be tossing the vegetable garden clippings right on in the play yard.  And the fall leaves when we get to fall leaves.  That much seems clear.

[Roadrunner]

Put your coop on wheels and once you have rich soil with poop, move the coop elsewhere and just plant your garden in a former location. 
On a serious note, i have no idea what I am talking about 😋 but couldn’t resist the thread.

[Terabith]

2 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

Yes, there definitely is one consistent "leader" of the pack.  DH in CT suspects she may be a rooster, which if true, between our town zoning rules (Hens=OK, Roosters=Zoned Out) and our vegetarian for life daughter, will pose considerable complications.

Our neighbors have chickens.  They had a rooster.  It was annoying.  I found myself trying to convince the neighborhood foxes to come liberate it.  

[Pam in CT]

46 minutes ago, Terabith said:

Our neighbors have chickens.  They had a rooster.  It was annoying.  I found myself trying to convince the neighborhood foxes to come liberate it.  

And... how'd that work for you anyway?

 

Our town allows chicks, and our town allows mature hens, but our town forbids roosters.

Which rather begs the vegetarian question.  Thus: "pullets."  I do hope the Pullet People did not misdiagnose.

[Terabith]

1 minute ago, Pam in CT said:

And... how'd that work for you anyway?

 

Our town allows chicks, and our town allows mature hens, but our town forbids roosters.

Which rather begs the vegetarian question.  Thus: "pullets."  I do hope the Pullet People did not misdiagnose.

Actually, it worked pretty well.  I thought really hard pro fox thoughts, and the rooster disappeared one night.  Well, and one hen, too, but there are still another four hens.  

It really is a difficult question for vegetarians, especially since I'm told sexing chickens is challenging for quite awhile.  

[Corraleno]

1 hour ago, Roadrunner said:

Put your coop on wheels and once you have rich soil with poop, move the coop elsewhere and just plant your garden in a former location. 
On a serious note, i have no idea what I am talking about 😋 but couldn’t resist the thread.

That's exactly what I did when I lived in the UK — I had an A-frame "chicken ark" (this exact one, actually) with an extended run that attached to it. Then I built a series of raised beds that the ark + run fit into exactly, and the hens would scratch up the soil and dig in the compost and poop, and then after a month or so I'd move it to another bed. If all the beds were in use, I'd put it on the grass and move it every couple of days. We also had an 8'x 24' greenhouse, so I'd put the chickens (and the ark) in there during the coldest months so they could run around and dig in the dirt without getting snowed on, and then the beds in there would be nice and fertilized in the spring. 

[Pam in CT]

3 hours ago, WendyAndMilo said:

Only on some breeds.  Some breeds you can do it with 99% accuracy when they're a day old; I have a few breeds that it's only about 60% accurate at that age.  

Wait -- what breeds can you do that early?  That was the whole point of waiting for "pullets" !

[Liz CA]

7 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

re one will try it and the rest will follow:

Yes, there definitely is one consistent "leader" of the pack.  DH in CT suspects she may be a rooster, which if true, between our town zoning rules (Hens=OK, Roosters=Zoned Out) and our vegetarian for life daughter, will pose considerable complications.

They waddled down earlier today when no one was paying attention, so we're not quite sure the sequence.

 

Well, many years ago when I still had young ones, my son came in to announce: "Mom, Ruby just crowed." After that we had a Ruben who grew into a stately rooster.  😉

[Pam in CT]

re Ruby the Rooster

5 minutes ago, Liz CA said:

 

Well, many years ago when I still had young ones, my son came in to announce: "Mom, Ruby just crowed." After that we had a Ruben who grew into a stately rooster.  😉

That is precisely the concern.

Despite the advice of literally every single person with whom DH in CT consulted, whose first counsel was, to a chicken farmer....

Quote

Don't name them

... they are all, needless to say, named. It's COVID, everyone's super-psyched to have New Friends!! in the household.  

So we're hoping none of the ladies ever crow. It would be problematical.

 

[Terabith]

7 minutes ago, Pam in CT said:

re Ruby the Rooster

That is precisely the concern.

Despite the advice of literally every single person with whom DH in CT consulted, whose first counsel was, to a chicken farmer....

... they are all, needless to say, named. It's COVID, everyone's super-psyched to have New Friends!! in the household.  

So we're hoping none of the ladies ever crow. It would be problematical.

 

I mean, I've named our skunk friends that I keep seeing on our neighborhood walks.  And have taken to carrying around cat food to feed said skunk friends.  

My 15 year old says, "Humans will pack bond with ANYTHING."

[Melissa in Australia]

My older kids would never ever name an animal. That is why  ds now 21 has a dog called Dog

[Terabith]

Apparently my old college roommate is getting chicks, but she's getting them from a farm that will take back any roosters!  Now I'm super jealous and wish there wasn't a pandemic so I could go visit baby chicks.  

[IfIOnly]

13 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

re one will try it and the rest will follow:

Yes, there definitely is one consistent "leader" of the pack.  DH in CT suspects she may be a rooster, which if true, between our town zoning rules (Hens=OK, Roosters=Zoned Out) and our vegetarian for life daughter, will pose considerable complications.

They waddled down earlier today when no one was paying attention, so we're not quite sure the sequence.

I've given away and gotten roosters on CL. We had two (strays, couldn't find owner), and I just gave one away. A super nice family came and took him home.

[Pam in CT]

re disposal in the unfortunate event that Eggsmerelda turns out to be Eggward:

4 hours ago, IfIOnly said:

I've given away and gotten roosters on CL. We had two (strays, couldn't find owner), and I just gave one away. A super nice family came and took him home.

 

(whispering)  I expect the Iowa-born neighbors, who do not name their chickens, would be more than capable of dealing with an unplanned rooster.  While we have never specifically discussed the matter with them, they started their (all Buff Orpington) brood with chicks... and somehow ended up with all hens.

I dearly hope, however, we do not arrive at that particular bridge...

[bibiche]

14 minutes ago, Pam in CT said:

re disposal in the unfortunate event that Eggsmerelda turns out to be Eggward:

 

(whispering)  I expect the Iowa-born neighbors, who do not name their chickens, would be more than capable of dealing with an unplanned rooster.  While we have never specifically discussed the matter with them, they started their (all Buff Orpington) brood with chicks... and somehow ended up with all hens.

I dearly hope, however, we do not arrive at that particular bridge...

🤪

http://couteaux-et-tirebouchons.com/coq-au-vin-recette-traditionnelle-gastronomique/

[Pam in CT]

re whatever you do, do not name the chickens

Just now, bibiche said:

🤪

http://couteaux-et-tirebouchons.com/coq-au-vin-recette-traditionnelle-gastronomique/

Right, in the long months while we were waiting for the "pullets" to reach puberty, there was an animated debate about the names.  

DH in CT lost the debate, as happens, but his proposals were

Quote

Caccitore

Cordon Bleu

Con Arroz

Kiev

General Tso

Korma

 

[Liz CA]

On 6/24/2020 at 8:01 PM, Pam in CT said:

re Ruby the Rooster

That is precisely the concern.

Despite the advice of literally every single person with whom DH in CT consulted, whose first counsel was, to a chicken farmer....

... they are all, needless to say, named. It's COVID, everyone's super-psyched to have New Friends!! in the household.  

So we're hoping none of the ladies ever crow. It would be problematical.

 

 

Of course you have to name them! We currently are hosting Arabella, Henrietta, Daisy and Olivia. We used to have a lot more but this is a good number for just the two of us. Perhaps a fifth for good measure next time. What are the names of yours?

Even if there is a rooster in the bunch you could check locally if another chicken farmer wants one for breeding or protecting his hens. The aforementioned scenario occurred again when dh and ds were overcome with chicken fever one spring and brought home from the Tractor Supply store two chicks from a STRAIGHT RUN! They knew what that meant but evidently ignored it. 2 roosters of course. I dropped them off at a farm nearby. The farmer wanted to get more chicks to sell them.