Chickens on the homestead

[NH Homesteader]

I wish you lived closer, I have 6 I would give you so I don't have to deal with them!

 

[Beekissed]

I wish you lived closer, I have 6 I would give you so I don't have to deal with them!

And I'd take those off your hands in a jiff! You don't want to eat them yourself?

You'd be amazed...or maybe not...at how many folks feel just that way. They have retired hens they don't want to kill, but they need an infusion of new layers....so, what to do with the oldsters? Usually I can pick up whole flocks of hens for $1 ea. and roosters for free. That's meat I didn't have to feed from chick to adult, so it makes me pretty happy.

I just feed them for awhile on fermented feed and free range until their meat tastes better than the commercial feeds they've been eating renders it and then they get canned into a jar. It's a mercy for many of them, as they start to have reproductive issues around 2 1/2-3 yrs of age.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I have no issues with doing it, we just have 20 meat birds and a bunch of cockerels and I don't feel like dealing with that many birds. For hens, I have 4 NH's and 2 undersized Jersey Giants to cull and the NH's are aggressive to my more docile hens so I am annoyed with them. There are only a few hens that get permanent life status here, because we like them enough to keep feeding them!

 

[Beekissed]

Got the spare pen ready for an influx of birds. It's smaller than I would like for that many birds, so I'll likely only keep them penned there for a week until they acclimate, then they will be let out to free range all day and just sleep in there at night.

 

[Beekissed]

Oh I worry about those other germs too! Lol I know my chickens are pretty clean but they're chickens!

Yeah silkies.. They're good at dirt!

Side note- can I ask a chicken health question here? I have a hen with one swollen toe. The rest of her foot is fine, no limping, no bumblefoot signs, good appetite, etc. What are the chances it's something other than bumblefoot? We don't do intensive chicken doctoring here. Sorry chicken, she was due for the stew pot 2 years ago but we saved her because she was pretty (yeah... I know)...

Was wondering about your hen with the toe thing...any changes since treating her?

After getting these spent hens this past week, I can fully see why you see a HUGE germ fest when seeing chickens....these birds were absolutely filthy, they stank like dead things and had poop balls encrusted on their toes.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around eating such a thing, though I know they will clean right up after a month on free range living...but, for now, they are incredibly filthy, germ ridden beasts. I can't imagine eating an egg that came out of one of these hens....the dogs are feasting on the eggs as of now. Gonna have to get a lot cleaner looking and smelling, eat a lot of FF and free range a long while before I'd partake of anything that came out of one of them. Ick.

 

[NH Homesteader]

That, is gross. Ughh. My chickens don't look like that and I still think they're gross lol. My husband used to process birds for people (now only a few friends) and this one batch he didn't even want to put through his equipment. The smell... I couldn't even be near them. Why do people think that's ok? Ugh

We haven't caught her yet. She's acting normal and I kind of forgot to bug my husband about it.

 

[Hinotori]

Well did my twice yearly chicken nail grooming this evening. Silkies tend to get long nails, most especially that 5th toenail. 34 silkies had to be done. It goes quick.

One hen had the start of a bumble on a foot pad and I removed it. I'll keep an eye on her. It should be fine now.

I had a cockerel that had started biting on Sunday and continued to on Monday. He was super friendly and would follow me around. Nothing physically wrong with him. I gave him a haircut Monday so he could see since he has the largest crest I've ever seen on a male. The biting stopped and he's back to following me and being sweet. I think the other boys were taking advantage of his vision issue.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Hey chicken folks, I have a novice question (even though I've had chickens for 5 years... Oops)... What is the proper ratio of hens to nest boxes? We've always just thrown a random amount in a coop, which evidently has always been too many since they mostly aren't used. Anyway now we have 3 roos so 3 separate pens, and one of the coops isn't huge so I don't want to use up roost/hang out space for unnecessary nest boxes.

 

[sumi]

3-4 hens per nest box should be adequate. But hens tend to have favourite boxes that they will queue for or cram into, if needed, ignoring the less attractive and vacant ones.

 

[Hinotori]

I was always told 4 per box. I had 8 for 28 birds at one time. They used 3 of them. Putting two nest eggs in each helped encourage them to use more. Now they use 4 of them and the box I put in there when I had 7 broodies. For some weird reason mu girls like the metal nest boxes best.