BROODY HEN, I got chicky fever... - Page 2

[hoppytoad]

Hi all...

Just wanted to join in...

We have 22 chickens at the moment. 20 are hens, 2 are roosters. We only meant to have one rooster, but the one "hen" we bought when he was small grew up to be a rooster. He's not the boss and he knows it. Our bigger rooster chases him all over the place and the hens don't even like his company. I've giving him to a friend soon so that he can be a little happier.

We get anywhere between nine and 12 eggs a day. Some of our hens just started laying, so I'm thinking they'll up their production soon. My husband said he had to move a broody hen the other day to collect the eggs, so I'm thinking when it gets a little warmer I'll start letting her keep some.

We have a few older birds that I got at an auction in the beginning of our chicken journey last year. I haven't butchered any yet because I don't quite know how, but it's really about time for some of these girls. Does anyone have any good advice on how to do this? Feel free to PM me with instructions so as not to offend anyone who happens upon this thread.

Thanks!

[reeseccup]

HEllo sound like you are busy :LOL

I took a sneak peak at her nest today, that blasted hen has snagged 17 EGGS total, she can't even cover them all :LOL I'm just going to let her try and hatch them out, I doubt all of them will hatch, if any, we'll see.

Karen, i'll pm you in a moment with some sites that are detailed.

[Chicky2]

>I don't know how many eggs are under her, but they were poking out

Uh-oh! If any of those are golf balls, you may want to go ahead and remove them. If any eggs are sticking out, there are too many and they will not be incubated properly. Don't mean to sound like a big know-it-all, but I cannot stop myself from commenting on that, lol. If they ones sticking out are not removed, they will get rotated back in, leaving a new egg out in the cold, resulting in many, many spoiled eggs. And believe me, they will start to stink!

I HIGHLY recommend getting the Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow. Wonderful, very informative book!

Also, according to my Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits (lol!).....A Rex rabbit may be a great dual purpose rabbit, but make sure to check the foot pads. They can sometimes be less furry than they need to be, and can result in problems later. Make sure there's lots of fur there! Any good meat rabbit's pelts can be used, though. My sister used to tan the hides from our New Zealand White's when I was a kid.

[reeseccup]

Thanks Chicky, yea i pulled all golfballs from her nest a few days back. I go out to collect eggs several times a day so stay on top of those. I'm thinking these wont' hatch anyway, seems like she's off her nest way too much.

I'll candle the eggs next week, if I see life I'll let her keep at it, if I don't I'll pull those eggs. Growing up we just let the hens do their thing, which is what I believe they ought to do. I'm allowing her to go at it as if I wasn't around to help out and will see how it goes. If it doesn't work it was a lesson learned. If it does cool, either way I'll take what I've learned from this and store away for next time. Thanks for the book suggestions.

I do appreciate your help over all, I'm by no means an expert and it has been MANY years since I've done this.

[brandywine]

We have jersey wooly rabbits and holland lops, just for fun and the free, easy to handle manure. We've been thinking about getting some hens, but we don't have any experience with chickens, and friends of ours told us that hens only lay well for about a year or two and after that, they aren't much good to eat so they get auctioned off and made into pet feed and stuff. I get pretty emotionally attached to animals, so I'm not sure I would want to do that, but I'm also not sure I'm up for paying to feed a bunch of chickens that aren't producing eggs either. I'm pretty up in the air about it right now. Plus, even organic, free range eggs aren't *that* expensive in my area.

[reeseccup]

Brandywine, if you get a breed of chix that isn't as prolific at laying you'll more than likely have eggs for years to come. That first year is the heaviest laying year (first year of laying production that is), but many do continue to "earn their keep" and imo are still worth letting them hang around. If you want to eat your non-productive chix, a slow low heat cooking method would work, or feed to any pets on a barf (bones and raw food) diet.

I also don't "force" my hens into producing or over production with unnatural stimpulants (lights in the winter ect). This imo helps them stay naturally productive longer. As for after a year tossing to the dog food factories, well a back yard flock is NOT like a commercial battery hen flock and imo it's not necessary to sell backyard flocks for dog food after a year.

[girlndocs]

Keep in mind that I have, um, exactly 2 days experience raising chickens :LOL but when I was looking into it, it really seems to me that hens who're pampered and kept very healthy and happy *do* lay a lot longer than 1 or 2 years. (I agree with Reese that pushing for egg production during winter months can't be good, either.)

This was something I had to take into consideration as well when I was deciding whether to keep hens. I ended up figuring that the cost of maintaining free-range or tractored, healthy hens who get a lot of their diet from forage is likely to be so low that I could afford to grant a retirement to the ladies who were done laying. I think it might be different for those who're trying to get all their living from their farm though.

However, I might be talking out my

[reeseccup]

OMG that ms. bb had 20 eggs in her nest...note the HAD. I snagged 9 of them which were all cold and left the warm ones in....she snagged more eggs today. I was trying to do this the "easy" way, but she wont let me...looks as though I need to make a new pen and seperate her until she hatches out her clutch and they're able to deal with the other chickens. I'll end up putting fresh ones under her :LOL so I know they'll all be ready about the same time (either that or fake her out with some meatier breed chix and have some home grown meat this fall )

The dogs did enjoyed the treat though. :LOL

[reeseccup]

Also, chickens are good at other things than laying eggs and producing great garden manure/compost. They help keep the bugs down including ticks which is just a bonus in mybook kwim. So when the hens are retired, they still can earn their keep with bug patrol :LOL

[brandywine]

Wow, thanks for the info! The friends we talked to about hens have a small egg business, so they probably push for production. I was pretty horrified at the 'waste' of the hens, so I didn't bother to look into any further, but it sounds like it might be doable for us after all. Can you recommend some lower-producing breeds that would lay for longer? We wouldn't be getting started until probably next year, because (pause for contraction.....) We're excpecting a : any old minute now, so my hands will be full this spring, lol.

[reeseccup]

FEATHERSITE has information on breeds of chickens, great resource site.

A nice chart to give info on breeds

2005 Preservation Breeds if you are into preserving breeds

that'll wet your appitite :LOL

[reeseccup]

well got my pathetic broody pen set up, will move her tonight. she took more eggs today and she and rooroo were sharing the nest :LOL made a lovely couple.

once i get her moved i'll be able to spring clean the henhouse, got the pen done today, have a huge pile of soon to be black garden gold

[Persephone]

So, reesecup, how are your chickies doing?

I was talking to dh today, and he was talking about how since he was working out, he wanted to eat more eggs. And I told him THIS is why we need chickens! The two of us eat 2 dozen eggs a month as it is! (mostly scrambled and fritattas and in baking), and if we had chickens, we'd have plenty. So he started asking me serious questions about chickens. We won't be able to have any til we get a house (in like, 3 years), but at least I've got dh thinking seriously about it now!! I'm so happy!

[reeseccup]

WEll we have a sad home today. DD looked out this morning and saw Ms BB (broody b :LOL ) dead in middle of the lawn Her neck was snaped no blood, so not sure exactly what happened. I have an idea, but not sure if it's fact so not going to be overly mean to the husky, esp. if it was him I dont think it was his intent to kill. He also looks very remoseful and has been pouting all morning long.

SOOOOO i'm tossing the eggs, no other broody and no incubator and to be honest I don't think she was setting well enough to hatch them. Now i'm really hoping my buff chick is a hen *sigh

[reeseccup]

OH and you know there are those that have "house chickens" :LOL all you need is 2 :LOL

[Persephone]

Yep, I know about the house chickens, but we don't even have the space for that right now.

I'm so sorry about your hen! I was getting attached to her, and I"m sad, so I can only imagine how you feel. And I feel bad for your husky too, since he seems so remorseful. *Hugs*

Oh, and just so the eggs aren't a total loss, did you know you can bury them in the garden? They help fertilize the plants. I know it's early for a garden, but burying them might enrich the soil anyway.

[reeseccup]

Originally Posted by Persephone

I'm so sorry about your hen!

Oh, and just so the eggs aren't a total loss, did you know you can bury them in the garden? They help fertilize the plants. I know it's early for a garden, but burying them might enrich the soil anyway.

aw thanks we're doing ok, sad but ok.

i didn't know about the burry in garden thing for the eggs that's a great idea since i'm TRYING to get out there and prep my garden for april planting.

[Chicky2]

Awwwww, Reesecup, I"m so sorry about your sweet hen. That's so sad. How was a dog able to get to her?

We got a nice surprise yesterday! Something told me to go check on Lovey (the hen who went broody first), and as I was peeking at her, someone else peeked (and peeped!) at me from under her wing! So cute!!! Got to looking and there were 3 baby chicks, one who'd just finished hatching and was still all wet and wobbly. Two more eggs had holes in them and I could see the beak in there just working away. It was also peeping at me. I'll take some pics later and post them on photobucket and put a link here for ya. My kids are so thrilled, but I think my husband was gonna cry, lol!!! He loves baby chicks.

I offered Lovey some food and water which she took very gratefully. She had been really zoned out for a week, and wouldn't move or eat or drink. She ate and drank soooo much last night, so I'd better go check for poop (and more chicks!). It was very cute the way she'd take a little bit of chick starter in her beak and make a really funny (and really fast) peep sound over and over while she pecked at more food and "chewed" it really fast. Then she'd drop it next to the eldest chick (only one interested at that time), and he/she'd peck at it. Since she wasnt' getting up yet off those other eggs, I went ahead and took each chick and dipped their beak in water. She'll teach them the rest.

[Chicky2]

Well, I cannot post an attachment here for some reason, so I'll upload some pics to ofoto, I guess...Unless someone can tell me a different way to do it?

[Chicky2]

Ok, try this!

I hope this works. LMK if it doesn't so I can figure out what I did wrong, lol!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePh...1&sort_order=0