Chickens

[bacpacker]

Well today I made a start to my chicken clock today. I've been workin on the chicken tractor gettin it ready and gathering the supplies I needed. I've done a fair amount of research on chicken breeds to try and figure out what kind would work the best now and long term in a PAW situation.

I decided on Buff Orpingtons for a variety of reasons. They are pretty good egg layers, averaging around 5 or so a week/chicken. The hens will get 6-7 lb's and lay eggs very well for about 2 years then taper down over the next year. Rooster average 8-9 lb's, so there is a decent amount of meat when slaughtered per chicken. They can tolerate temps up into the 90-100' with shade, and down below Zero if protected from the wind. ( That means I gotta get the Coop built and finished by this fall).

The other excellent thing about the breed, they go broody very easily (they will sit on their eggs to hatch them out. They also are suppose to be very good mothers at raising their young.

Hopefully this will work out and I can get a good flock going and learn what all I need to do.

Do we have any other farmers on here? Ideas you'd care to share with a rookie?

[RedJohn]

I just wish I had land to start such a project. I am going to have think about this really hard. Please keep us posted.

[alaska]

every day i told mine " I dont have omelette's for breakfast I am having baked chicken for dinner. Seemed to work................
I inherited the ones we had. I have no idea what flavor they were. I will say tuned tho and follow your progress as I will gear up for my own here next summer.

Dont forget the pics

[bacpacker]

Well got up this morning and had lost 1 chick. I expect to loose 2-4 before they go outside. I was surprised though, they looked like they had grown over night. For a single day they had eaten almost a pint of food and drank right at a pint of water.
I've got them in a box right now and they tend to stay in a pile under the light when they are sleeping. I'm gonna have to build a larger box. I'm thinkin about using plywood and assemble it with brackets and screws so I can take it down and store it when they go out. Plenty of room available for them, easy to clean up, and move outside for periods to acclimatize them.

[CheriG22]

I have written a tutorial on raising chickens, would this forum be the place to put it? Gardening, livestock, canning foods, stuff like that?

I have a little farm, and I would be glad to post some of what I have learned.

Cheri

[RedJohn]

would this forum be the place to put it? Gardening, livestock, canning foods, stuff like that

This is perfect.

[bacpacker]

I bet RJ will post for sure on this, but I think the chicken tutorial would be ok here. Or maybe better, start your own thread with it, similar to Chicom's Chainsaw Primer maybe.
I'm looking forward to what you've put together.

[bacpacker]

Interesting night We had a big storm roll though here around 6:15 and must have knocked out a transformer. Power was down for 4 1/2 hours. After the first hour I started getting concerned about the chicks getting too cold. The chicks were all in a pile and wrestling to stay uinderneath. Very Funny.
So I started tryin to engineer something to keep them warm. First thing I came up with was a emergency candle in a can. Fired it up and placed it in a small tub to keep the chickens away and placed some foam insulation over about 2/3 of their pen. It seemed to be warming it up a little, but I was concerned about the very small flame from the candle. Then I go the bright idea to open a pack of "Hot Hands" and put in the box. They huddled close to that and pretty much slept thru till the power came back on. Once the power came back and I got their heat lamp going, within 2-3 minutes they were streching and starting to move around some.
Moral of the story, I'm stopping at Wall Freakin Mart on the way home tomorrow and buying a case of Hot Hands. We're expecting more storms Wed.

[LUNCHBOX]

Bacpacker, Someone gave me my first bakers dozen. 10 baby chicks (unknown sex) 1 full grown hen that set the 10 eggs and 1 rooster. Chicks...6 were pullets (hens) and 4 cocks. Once grown I put the four cocks in my freezer and now have 6 more pullets 2 months old. hopefully, I have 16 more chicks on the way in 21 days. They are addicting but very enjoyable....and you can eat them of course. I kept them in the garage until they were big enough to keep them warm.

[bacpacker]

Here's the latest update on the chickens.

The 13 chickens we had left are still alive and growing off like crazy. I would guess they range in size from 3 lbs to 1.5 lbs. It looks like we have 4 roosters and 9 hens. Hard to say for sure at this point. They are now drinking around a gallon or better water per day. They are consuming about 4-5 lbs of starter mix a day. Their right at 8 weeks old now and if I get the chicken tractor repairs finished tomorrow I plan on transitioning 3-4 a day to the tractor till there all out side. I don't want to move them all at once and rish losing the whole flock.

I'll post on this again in a few days after the transistion.