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Chick Chat- Week Two - Page 4

post #61 of 78
10/21/08 at 3:40pm
Hi all, sorry life got in the way.

MrsAlf97: Please don't allow your dh to waste the good food by shooting it. Here are some sites to help you learn how to do it. Don't open if you can't stomach graphic instructions on processing poultry.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distrib...ms/DI0701.html
http://www.siteupgrade.com/poultry/b...ltryfinal.html
http://www.angelfire.com/ar2/rojo1/post.html
http://www.gatewaytovermont.com/thefarm/slaughter.htm

Ok, those give graphic instructions, we choose the quick chop head off method. The first one is the hardest. The processing does get easier and quicker, but the killing part is always a tough. It does help when the kids like to use it as a lesson and look at the guts and brain...strange kids I have.

We put golf balls in the nest boxes as our "decoy" eggs. I'm not sure if it works or not, but it seems to do the job.

As for the ducks keeping away the alga, not sure, but I know they'll eat it. Use that algae in your gardens as well.
We have muscovy ducks and ABSOLUTLY LOOOOOOOOOOVE them.

Molting lasts as long as it lasts...vague enough for ya ? Usually it lasts a couple of months +/- It does suck.

Great ground covers for chickens = clover, wood sorrel, chickweed, stuff like that.
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post #62 of 78
10/21/08 at 4:12pm
But why would you want to eat a sick bird? I mean, aren't you culling it so that the rest of the flock doesn't get sick, so isn't shooting and disposing of it the best? Why would you want to eat it if it's so sick that it won't recover?

Maybe I missed the point of culling?
post #63 of 78
10/21/08 at 6:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrsalf97 View Post
How do you cull? I know what it means to do, I just want to know the actual process. Dh said if we had one that needed it, he would just shoot it because that's what they do to the cows.

I may not be cut out for this.
I cant imagine shooting a chicken, seems like a lot of unnecessary mess. We did have to put one bird down (and she was not edible as she had a raging infection all down her back plus she was a pet, and we took care of her inside for 2 weeks trying to get it cleared up) and DH just twisted her neck. You have to do it hard and quick though. Depending on the age, for chicks I've always heard pulling their heads off is the best.
post #64 of 78
10/21/08 at 7:50pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by gottaknit View Post
Hmm... I don't think ducks will keep the algae down. More likely all that poop (nitrogen) will cause an algae bloom. But you should still get ducks. I want ducks! :
Ducks are awesome! Get some ducks! : Ducks are close enough to on-topic if we dress them as chickens for Halloween .

We have four Khaki Campbells and the eggs are delicious. The drake goes after the chickens so they are not together. He's a nice drake but likes to intimadate hens.
post #65 of 78
10/21/08 at 7:53pm
Thread Starter 
I was going to put up week 3 today, but I'm going to let the cull and butchering topic go on, since it's important and tomorrow I'll close up this thread and put up Week 3.

So look for that tomorrow. Prepare for your new topic : "Eggs!" : Of course you can talk about anything chicken, the topic is a general focus.

Eggs will start tomorrow for Week 3

Carry on!
post #66 of 78
10/21/08 at 8:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MamaMonica View Post
Ducks are awesome! Get some ducks! : Ducks are close enough to on-topic if we dress them as chickens for Halloween .

We have four Khaki Campbells and the eggs are delicious. The drake goes after the chickens so they are not together. He's a nice drake but likes to intimadate hens.
So are they a lot noisier than chickens? (See, still on topic! ) Do they lay reliably longer (as in more than one year)?

As for culling.... I would really like to cull and start over in the spring, due to the non-laying. BUT, having only four chickens (one of which I adopted this summer and promised wouldn't be dinner) it is a little more difficult. I think I could manage the killing part (don't know how DS would take that, though!), it's more the plucking and gutting that I think would be a PITA. HAven't checked out the links, though. I am getting really tired of buying expensive pastured eggs at the farmers' market.
post #67 of 78
10/21/08 at 8:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by greenmagick View Post
I cant imagine shooting a chicken, seems like a lot of unnecessary mess. We did have to put one bird down (and she was not edible as she had a raging infection all down her back plus she was a pet, and we took care of her inside for 2 weeks trying to get it cleared up) and DH just twisted her neck. You have to do it hard and quick though. Depending on the age, for chicks I've always heard pulling their heads off is the best.
Since I have had this respiratory thing going through my flock, I've come to the point several times in the past few months when I wonder whether its best to put a chicken down or to keep it comfortable and wait. I've just opted to keep them comfortable thus far, until today. My bantam blue laced red wyandotte pullet, named Little Gia Chicken by my toddler, had been suffering from what I've named the Killer Snot, and this morning she was laying in the coop trampled by the other birds. One of her wings was broken and her face was swollen where they'd flattened it into the floor. I picked her up and she managed to open one eye and give her "hello" cluck, but she was in so much pain...I called the animal diagnostic lab at our university and they told me I could bring her in and they would put her down for me. She died in my arms as we were leaving the house, and in a way I'm glad she died with us instead of scared in an unfamiliar place. I took her anyway, and she had a necropsy (like an autopsy) done this afternoon to find out what illness is killing my flock. She's the fifth bird that's died from the Killer Snot in the past two months. I can't wait hear the results!! They are supposed to call me tomorrow to tell me what they found, and they also sent tests and samples to a big lab that will have results in 7-10 days...
post #68 of 78
10/21/08 at 9:32pm
Thread Starter 
I'm so sorry.
post #69 of 78
10/21/08 at 9:34pm
I always dispatched culls by the cervical dislocation method - you still have to hang the carcass by the feet & cut the throat to bleed them out if butchering them, but it's otherwise fast & bloodless, & requires little to no preparation. Hold the bird by the legs, weight resting on the chest on the ground, neck & head on the ground - lay a tool handle (rake, shovel, broom) across the bird's neck at the base of the skull, hook your toes over the handle ends while giving a hard, sharp pull on the legs - kills the bird quite instantly, although they do still have that reflexive flapping thing afterwards. If the bird's not going to be eaten, bag & bury or burn afterwards. BTW, when butchering chickens, I find it easier/faster to skin them than to pluck them. If you catch a bird when it's just coming down with a cold (aka CRD), it's fine to eat (sneezing with a tiny bit of clear discharge from one or both nostrils, or a slightly puffy eye on one side with a fleck of foam in the corner). I usually spend some time around the birds at dusk, right around when they go up to roost, as many houskeeping chores with birds are easiest done when they are roosting at night, & that's an excellent time to monitor health - check breathing, look at faces (eyes, nostrils), examine weight, check for parasites, check toenails (if they need trimming).

"Culling" literally means "removing from the flock"; whether this is fatal or not depends upon why it's going.

If you do choose to treat a sick bird, unless the majority of them are sick, isolate them to give them quiet & rest, & not only does this protect them from the others, it keeps them from spreading more germs around. Pepper44, sorry to hear about your losing your little bantam
If it's a pet flock, I do see trying to treat birds; if it's a working or breeding flock, I've found it best to treat the flock as a sort of avian garden, & "weed" them as needed.
post #70 of 78
10/21/08 at 9:41pm


Oh Pepper, I hope you figure it out. Our local chicken friend/guru is a Vet, so he puts his down. He said it can get pretty pricey to do it that way if you aren't a vet though. I am not looking forward to the day we have to cull
post #71 of 78
10/21/08 at 9:50pm
Ours is a pet flock, we've become so attached to them. The losses are hard. I'm hoping the necropsy will provide some answers! The remaining birds are on Sulmet right now, and they seem to be doing well. When we set out to get chickens I didn't anticipate the constant deaths. I've said this before I think, but next time around I will only get chicks or hatching eggs...I'm never buying hens from a farm again! That's how we got this respiratory illness going.

Those of you who treat sick birds...what do you keep on hand in your emergency bird care kit? (Did we discuss this already?)

We have unpetroleum, Neosporin, q-tips, Sulmet, Terramycin, Tylan 50 with syringes and needles, poly-vi-sol, and Corid/amprolium 9% for cocci. I would like to buy Avia Charge 2000, next time I have some extra money. http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/prod...arge_2000.html

We also have DE and Sevin, though I am very iffy about the use of Sevin dust. We recently had a lice outbreak and the DE didn't kill them, so I resorted to Sevin but I'm kind of scared of it...

I need to find a good method of deworming my chickens. The DE is supposed to deworm, but it didn't kill the lice so now I'm unsure how effective it will be.

Before I owned chickens I thought that I would never use any antibiotics, but then we fell in love with our birds...and they got sick. They've had cocci, which we treated with Sulmet but it didn't get it so we had to get the Corid. Then the whole respiratory illness, the Killer Snot...which I've treated with the Tylan (didn't work, except for one hen who was cured), next we tried the Terramycin which also didn't work, and now by recommendation of the State Vet's office I'm using Sulmet which seems to be helping! (Aside from the one who died today, she was too far gone to help by the time I started Sulmet.)
post #72 of 78
10/21/08 at 9:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sparkygirl74 View Post


Oh Pepper, I hope you figure it out. Our local chicken friend/guru is a Vet, so he puts his down. He said it can get pretty pricey to do it that way if you aren't a vet though. I am not looking forward to the day we have to cull
How lucky to have a friend who is a vet to consult all the time!! I did consider culling our sick birds, but I would have to cull my entire flock and there's no way I could do that.
post #73 of 78
10/21/08 at 10:05pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by gottaknit View Post
So are they a lot noisier than chickens? (See, still on topic! ) Do they lay reliably longer (as in more than one year)?

As for culling.... I would really like to cull and start over in the spring, due to the non-laying. BUT, having only four chickens (one of which I adopted this summer and promised wouldn't be dinner) it is a little more difficult. I think I could manage the killing part (don't know how DS would take that, though!), it's more the plucking and gutting that I think would be a PITA. HAven't checked out the links, though. I am getting really tired of buying expensive pastured eggs at the farmers' market.
If they're healthy, robust but not laying, maybe you can sell them for a few dollars or offer them free on Craigslist or elsewhere for someone else to eat. Except that one. Maybe just keep her for a pet.

I don't know how many years the ducks lay reliably. They're going gangbusters their first year with an egg a day. Some chickens lay many years- my old neighbors had some Easter Eggers that were laying at 8 years old).

Oh, and our ducks are NOISY! I feel bad or my neighbor when they quack at 5 am. Muscovies are supposed to be quiet-- they also don't need to swim!
post #74 of 78
10/21/08 at 10:10pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pepper44 View Post
How lucky to have a friend who is a vet to consult all the time!! I did consider culling our sick birds, but I would have to cull my entire flock and there's no way I could do that.
Aw, Pepper, how sad. I hope you can find some answers and heal your flock.
post #75 of 78
10/21/08 at 10:51pm
(((Pepper)))

The more I read the more I think I may not be cut out for this. I've been vegan for a long time, but started eating eggs recently because I'm nursing a baby with severe food allergies. I've wanted chickens for about 7 years to have as pets and now for eggs, but I don't know if I could handle the culling.
post #76 of 78
10/21/08 at 10:58pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrsalf97 View Post
I've wanted chickens for about 7 years to have as pets and now for eggs, but I don't know if I could handle the culling.
It is a tough decision. Sometimes you're lucky and can avoid it, especially with just a few backyard hens. Maybe you can come up with a plan (euthanasia with the vet for illness or having a friend with a farm take the birds if they don't lay well?)
post #77 of 78
10/22/08 at 12:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrsalf97 View Post
(((Pepper)))

The more I read the more I think I may not be cut out for this. I've been vegan for a long time, but started eating eggs recently because I'm nursing a baby with severe food allergies. I've wanted chickens for about 7 years to have as pets and now for eggs, but I don't know if I could handle the culling.
I don't want people to be scared off of keeping chickens; if you get birds from a clean source, & practice biosecurity, sickness is not likely to be an issue (at least not the really icky, not particularly curable kinds). You might notice, that I think everyone who's had experience w/CRD has done the "let's add new birds without quarentining them" mistake; if you get chicks from a hatchery, don't let sparrows roll around in their food, feed them good food & don't crowd them, don't add chickens from other sources or track around someone else's flock in the same shoes you wear at home (at least, not without bleaching your shoes & changing your clothes 1st), you will likely never see diseases in your flock.

And while chickens older than 3-4 years don't lay eggs like gangbusters anymore, they continue to lay a respectable amount of eggs until around 7-8 years, while being nice pets & contributing greatly to your garden (via manure & bug eating) for many years. Many smaller breeds & heritage breeds live well into their teens, some have been known to reach 20 years (mind you, they don't lay more than a 1 or 2 dozen eggs a year by age 12-14). Heavier breeds tend to die of old age around 8-10 years.
post #78 of 78
10/22/08 at 1:13pm
Thread Starter 
We're heading into Week three, so I will close this now. Come on over to the Chick Chat- Week Three thread.

I hope none of the you are discouraged by the talk of culling. It's something to think about ahead of time and realize there are many options. Chickens are wonderful and can bring much joy to your family.