Keeping Chickens Newsletter November 2009 · Keeping Chickens Newsletter ... as a chicken run /...

Keeping Chickens Newsletter

Published November 2009 by www.Self-Sufficient-Life.com


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November 2009

Hi

Welcome to my Keeping Chickens Newsletter.

Thanks to everyone who has sent in their keeping chickens tips, storiesand photos etc. - as usual, if you have anything chicken related (tips,photos, stories, questions, coops etc.) you'd like to share in future issues ofthe newsletter or blog posts then just email [email protected] I will do my best to answer / include them.

Best WishesGina



Subscriber Letters

Donnie Beall : Hi Gina, I just had to send this picture to you. I amrebuilding my daughter engine and while working on it I had some help.The girls and guys were hiding from a hawk that was watching them.

John : On your newsletter front page you have a photo of a black andwhite chicken, can you tell me the breed please. The reason I ask is I havebeen told it is a black rock....is this also known as a plymouth rock ?

My Reply : It is a Barred Plymouth Rock - they are sometimes also sold asbarred rocks. Plymouth Rocks can come in several different colourvarieties.

Lin Marshall : Have had a great summer with my new flock of chickens.Mostly buff orpingtons and new hampshires. Now winter is quicklycoming and am wondering what tidbits you could send me to help methrough this freezing season. Do I change their feed? Do they still laythrough the winter and will they continue to lay again in the spring? Whattemp is the best? Some people have told me to butcher them and startagain with new hens in the spring. How old will they grow to be and howmany seasons will they lay? I am very confused. My hen house is quitewarm, with a heater. Not so fun to clean out as in the summer months but



do-able. I have dropped from about 8 - 9 eggs a day to only 2 maybe 3.My husband is pushing for butchering and I would love to keep them andam willing to do the work/cleaning , feeding and watering. Is this toorandom to make sense of ? Sorry, but please help.

My Reply : I have a couple of bits in the newsletters which hopefully willhelp answer your wintering questions: pages 2 - 4 in the October 2007newsletter and pages 3-4 in the December 2008 newsletter. There is also avideo at the bottom of the following post showing a greenhouse being usedas a chicken run / scratching shed in winter weather which you might findinterestinghttp://successwithpoultry.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-build-greenhouse.htmlGenerally there is likely to be a reduction in eggs as your hens get older.Most hens will have laid most of their eggs by 3-5 years old but they canlive into double figures and some will still lay the ocassional egg even at aripe old age. In commercial operations where their primary concern isprofit from eggs they do 'trade in' their hens for pullets every 18 months orso as they should have reached their peak by then and be on the decline.

Bruce Beck : On the cold weather question, we live in Connecticut andexpect night time freezing temperatures from about mid November to MidMarch. When we first started keeping chickens we noticed a big drop offin eggs in the cold weather. In order to keep the coop warm withoutwasting a lot of electricity, we got a 200 W heat lamp bulb and reflectorthat we put on a timer (along with the water heater) which we set to go onat 1am and turn off at 9am. When the kids get home from school (about2:30) they open the coop to let the hens free range. This cut down onpredator losses and encourages the hens to lay their eggs in the nestingboxes. Since the chickens go back in the coop about 4pm in the winter Ifigure they can have about 8 hours of total darkness to work on the nextdays egg production. It can get pretty cold after midnight so the heat lampkeeps the coop somewhat warm and melts any ice in the waterer so theywill be able to drink in the morning. Two years ago we added athermostatically controlled duel outlet plug in (we found one on line madeby Thermo Cube) that turns on at 35 and shuts off at 45. We put inbetween the timer and the water heater and the heat lamp. (I'm not surewhy there is a 10 degree difference but it was the only one we could findthat didn't need to be hard wired in) This way if there is a warm night thewater heater and bulb are not running which saves even more electricity.Also it helps to get hens that are cold weather layers. The commercialhatcheries' catalogs sometimes list those breeds.



Gayle : I am an older woman (63) and want to have 4 to 5 RIRs in mybackyard for eggs. I grew up in the country and with chickens. I rent - mylandlord has agreed to the chickens, but I have absolutely no idea how tobuild a coop and run for them. I have talked with some carpenters whogave me an estimate of $300 - $400. Well, that is certainly out of thequestion! I am raising 3 grandchildren on my own. There must besomething more affordable and DIY. Could you please recommendsomething? Thanks.

My Reply : The main requirements for chicken housing are that it besecure, dry and free of drafts. If you are handy at diy then the cheapestway of building your own coop is to build using scrap timber (sometimesavailable free or cheap from builders yards and tips, or perhaps you mighthave some lying around). A conversion of an existing dog kennel / run orold shed into a chicken coop can often work and are the sort of thingsoften found in local classified ads.

Shelby A. Jordan : What is the routine (i.e., age, etc.) that should befollowed to safely allow chickens to roam free (we have a 10 foot wallaround our 3 acre home site so I'm assuming that they most likely won't goover the fence). Any experience in knowing when they will return to theroost in the evenings

My Reply : There is no one set way as far as I know, but I believe it canhelp for them to be settled in their adult 'home' for at least few weeks sothey are sure of where to come back to. A regular meal and call for foodthat they recognise and respond to can be handy as well so as to almosttrain them to come to you in case you need it. They naturally should wantto go back at dusk. The first couple of times perhaps release them an houror two before it gets dusk so they hopefully will not roam too far. I think10 foot would be too high for them to get out, but you may still have hawksetc. and potentially some predators may try to burrow under the wall.

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Jodi : Just getting started with my small flock of ten hens: two barredrocks, four black stars, and four golden comets. Got them as juveniles,about five to six months old. This picture is of my son coaxing them withbits of bread right after we put them in the run. I told him to go ahead andsit on the ground now, because he won't be able to in the future unless hewants chicken poo on his pants. The comets are especially tame andjumped in the air to pluck bread from our hands. Jodi North Carolina,USA

Mandi : I'm from South Coast NSW in Australia and currently have 10hens, one rooster and 2 chicks. They are Rhode Island Red x Isa Brownand some are Australops. All are excellent egg layers- one even laysdouble yolks! I'm curious, if we put the double yolk egg into an incubator,will we get 2 chicks?

My Reply : It is possible. I have heard of 'twins' but they are not verycommon because even if they do successfully develop for the full 21 days itis hard for them to both successfully hatch out.

200 Eggs a YearChicken Care Guide


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Mark & Leah : Love your blog. It's been my evening reading for days nowas I learn about my three chix ~ Buffy (a Buff Orpington), Roxie (aka:Rock Star, an Arcauna), and Coco (an Isa Brown). All three girls are 3weeks old tomorrow. Buffy and Roxie seem to be thriving, are quitecheeky with each other, and are growing tall... Coco is our runt, poor girl.Attached is a pic of the girls in the “playpen” my son and I made fromhardware wire and two dollar store hula-hoops! Works just perfectly! ~Leah

Ellen : I was informed a couple of days ago that the manner in which I amhousing my two chickens may not be appropriate for their egg layingabilities. I have two chickens -- one rooster and one hen -- in a very largedog kennel with a roof on it, but they are living with two ducks. I do notyet have suitable nesting facilities for the hen (wood shavings in avegetable bin with no housing around it), so she isn't likely to lay anyway.But, my burning question is: should the fowl be sharing this type ofstructure?

My Reply : The main difficulty with ducks and chickens sharing is thatducks are very messy and obviously like water and so make everything wetand muddy. For chickens they are better in a dry, draft-free, but ventilatedhousing so the damp and mess that the ducks are happy to live in is notvery ideal for the chickens. Damp can make it hard to keep their housingsanitary which may then impact on their health in general.



Dawn : Thanks so much for your great newsletter! I wanted to share somepictures of my chicks and chickens with you. I first started last year with 6"free" chicks that you got with a bag of feed from the local hardware store.They were 3 Cornish Rock crosses and 3 "red broilers" I had no idea whatany of it meant or what I was getting into, but we loved it! Out of those 6 Ihave my two girls left, Ginger and Penny (the two red broilers) They eachlay a brown egg for me almost daily.

I got 6 new chicks this year and they all seem to be doing well, I got 2Easter Eggers, 2 Australopes and 1 Silver and 1 Golden Wyandotte, allhens. I have included some pictures of the girls, I do not have names fortwo of the babies yet, The australopes are Jade & Snow, (yes I knowthey'll be all black, but they looked like little penguins when we got themLOL) One of the easter eggers is Mopsy and the golden wyandotte isMona.

Snow, Mona, Jade and Mopsy



A Morris : last time we wrote to you about our chickens, they are nowlaying their eggs in the correct place (in the nest boxes) and not in the pen.Thank you for the advice. Just thought I would send you a couple ofpictures of my hen hut and outdoor pen.

Success With PoultryPractical Advice on Eggs, Feeding,

Chicks, Housing, Diseases, Incubators andBrooders, Turkeys Ducks and Geese


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Christy Weick : Patrick placed 1st in his egg division at the WashingtonFair. ☺

Kyle Rice : I did find a "secret" nest under the coop, how can I get themback in the nest, thanks so much for your help.

My Reply : Putting a false egg in each nest such as a wooden or ceramicegg, or even a golf ball can usually help. Also making their secret nest less'secret'. They prefer to lay in a safe, secluded place so if their secret nest isno longer secluded or has noise near it (such as a windchime or strips ofplastic tied to a post for example) that may put them off laying there andhopefully they will be encouraged to go back to their proper nests.

Jennifer Gardner : Thank you once again for a very fun newsletter! Icompletely understand the story of the hen who had been mauled by a dogand the owner who will no longer eat chicken! After "nursing" 2 of ourgirls at different times, my husband finally gave in and all I buy now isprecooked chicken because I can't stomach the thought of raw chickenanymore. One of our girls is finally finished with her first moult and isstarting to lay fairly regularly again. The others are still looking quitefunny. I am excited to have "more eggs than we know what to do with"again. The ones from the store are just NOT as tasty! Thanks again for thetime that you put into this for all of us. I love reading the stories andseeing the pictures from around the world! The miracles of technology!Have a good day!

Robie : About keeping hens from setting eggs, when I was a small boy mygrandmother had about 300 hens. When one or more wanted to sit eggsshe would take it and soak it in a barrel of water ( I suppose this wouldlower the body temp. ) This was followed by a day in a chicken wire boxup off the ground, after that they didn't sit eggs anymore, I know thissounds like its tough on chickens but it always seemed to work withoutany ill effects, I do this now (60 years later) myself and it still works.



Tom : Here's some pics of a very weird egg one of my Rhode Island henslaid. I've had odd shaped eggs before, but never one like this. Los Angeles,CA

Lawrie : I'm having trouble with my local council because a neighbourcomplained. It's a really long story but among other things, the councildoesn't publish any guidelines and seems to just make up anything theythey like. Do you have any info on a uniform set of regulations that mightapply?

My Reply : As far as I know there are no uniform regulations but the mainconcerns are noise (most notably from roosters), smell and mess. Whetheror not the complaints are founded, if the neighbours express concerns thattheir quality of life is worse because of noise or aroma or that it is somekind of health hazzard (perhaps more rats around etc) then the council hasno choice but to investigate. A lot of areas that have restrictions do notallow roosters, some will also limit the number of hens that are allowed (3or 6 seem to be common numbers), and also the distance of the coop fromthe neighbours property.

Darrell : I read in one of your past news letters someone was havingtrouble adding new chickens to their flock. As I have a mixed flock, andhave had two different hatchings lately a friend of mine who raiseschickens said I should put the new chickens in with the older birds at nightafter they go up at dark or there bouts. Well I tried it this week andalthough they tend to stay apart there has not been the major in fighting weall have seen if you just throw them together. It seems the older birds thinkthey belong there if the new ones appear over night. So far it seems to beworking. And as I have one more group left I will be using this methodagain . I hope this will help someone else out also.



Jacqueline Moor : Now another problem! One of our hens is limping. Ihave examined her feet to see if she had a thorn or stone in one of them,but no sign of anything. One of her pads seems a little swollen. She isabviously very uncomfortable on it, and spends hours just sitting in onespot or standing motionless - even when there is food in the offing! Haveyou any suggestions what it might be or what we can do about it?

My Reply : Potentially there could be quite a lot of reasons but one of themost common for sore / swollen feet is 'bumblefoot' which usually occursfrom jumping down onto or walking on hard ground - I have a blog postabout it here :http://successwithpoultry.blogspot.com/2009/09/bumblefoot-chicken.htmlAs she seems to have swollen pads I believe that bumblefoot may be apossibility, and if that is the reason for her to be sitting / standingmotionless then hopefully she will also feel more like moving about oncethe pads are less swollen, but obviously I am not a vet so you may wish totake her to be checked in case something more is going on.

Jacqueline Moor : Thanks, I got Wrapz from the Vet, exactly the same asVetWrap. With the help of a sister I “did” our little hen following yourBlog exactly. She seems much more comfortable; still limping, but can puther foot down and put weight on it. She wasn't a bit like Oberon - made anawful fuss, loud squawking and feathers flying! We had to wrap her in atowel, and she did calm down then, and was quite good while being“done”. I'll keep an eye on her, but don’t think we’ll be able to repeat theoperation before Monday, unless it's obviously needed. Thanks so muchGina, for all your help. All best wishes, Jacqui

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Lonnie : I recently purchased 2 Welsummer hens at a show. When I gothome and placed them into the coop I found that they both had littlenubbin spurs on the back of their legs. I also found 1 egg in the box Ibrought them home in. They are supposed to be only 5 months old. I'veheard of old hens developing spurs or something similar to spurs. I'm newto raising chickens, I started this Spring. Can you tell me if this nubbinspur thing is normal ?

My Reply : It is more common nowadays than it used to be years ago.Some breeds are more prone to hens developing ‘spurs’ than others.



MAC : I have been enjoying your newsletter for some time, and I have aquestion…I live in Washington state, USA, and last winter, we had anespecially hard winter with several snow storms. We had four chickensand a rooster (Rhode Island Reds). The rooster died during one of thesnow storms. One of the chickens had always had a full comb and largewaddle and had always been somewhat aggressive at times, nothingserious. Well, since the rooster died, she has become the dominant chicken(which I expected). What I did not expect was for her to grow spurs! Isthat normal? None of the other girls have spurs. Of course, all our friendshave been teasing me about my chicken. Could you shed some light on thesubject? MAC in WA

My Reply : I don't think it is overly common for a hen to suddenly growspurs out of the blue but it does happen. Hens with spurs are not alwayslinked to becoming dominant and taking the place of a rooster but in thiscase it does seem as though that is what has happened - perhaps she willeven start to crow! ☺

Tiffany Fuller : I just wanted to let you know that Hobble unfortunatelyhad to be put down. Her leg was caught in the fence one day while Iwas at work and she was pretty weak when I got home. We cleaned up herleg and it seemed to heal okay without any of the other chickens picking ather, but she was just never the same after that, and I found her breathingvery hard underneath one of the ramps one night. I was amazed that shemade it as long as she did, and we enjoyed having her. ☺ It was very neatto see all the other girls watching out for her, and even when she couldn'tget up and move anymore they still did not pick on her and continued tobring her scraps of food. Thanks for everyone else's stories about their“hobble” chickens. ☺

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Subscriber Coops

Small and Main Coop

Bill Alley : Hello, Gina I would like to thank you and your Newsletterreaders for all the useful help. As a new home chicken caretaker I havefound this newsletter both entertaining and useful.

“Mr Roaster” “Second in Command” “Mother Lulu Hen”

I have included my coop pictures and a picture of the 2 main roasters andone of Lulu the mother hen. The coop was made almost entirely fromrecycled wood and only cost about $100.00 dollars for misc. materials.



Main Coop

“I paid a farmer 30.00 us for 32 pullets and one mother hen named Lulu,he neglected to tell me I needed to provide a heat lamp for 4 of theyoungest pullets and the first night in the new coop they were exposed tocold that left 2 of them near death. Well of course I got a heat lamp nextday and the 2 closest to death I brought into my home and they bothsurvived but the one I have named Baby just doesn't seem to be growingbigger.

Baby is the small one in the center of the picture.



Pullet Area Inside Main Coop

Nest Boxes Inside Main Coop

Hope you enjoy my coop pics.”



Tanya Lemcke : We purchased 8 red sex link chickens this July and justwanted to pass on some photos of our coop for you. It was with greattrepidation that I took on the conversion of our old ice fishing hut (only inCanada eh?!!) into a hen house and coop, but all four of our kids were soexcited at the idea of having chickens that my husband agreed to build ourlittle farm area for us. After much reading of back issues of yournewletters I felt fairly confident when the “girls” arrived and we havenever regretted having them! What an incredible learning experience it hasbeen for our kids, from feeding them and doing chores to selling the eggslocally to raise a little summer spending money. They have been quite theadventure and we look forward to many more years of having them. Thankyou so much for your newsletters I don't know what I would have donewithout them!



Shanna Beavers : I did a lot of searching on the internet for help withlearning about chickens and every time my search let me back to yourblog! I hope that as I learn about my chickens I can help you contribute.Thanks again!!!! (I'm very excited about my new venture.) I've attached acouple pictures of my first coop and chickens.



Coleen McMurphy : Wow, I have just spent my morning reading yournewsletter(s). I have several chickens, and ended up with a few roosters. Istarted out only wanting enough chickens to keep the family supplied, butwhen my sister moved and bought property near me - it became trouble, ina good way - I think.

We started off with 14 Rhode Island Reds, they were cute and on sale at alocal farm store. They took up residence in my garage - and the car satoutside in the cold (March). They finally outgrew the garage and wedecided the weather was warm enough to start a chicken house.





My sister designed the house with my input. It became the “CoopDeville”. With all family members involved in the building of the house,which took about 3 months, it was completed on the day our first egg waslayed. Also by that time, my sister had been to the farm store a couplemore times and had found “great deals” on chicks. My sister is a fantasticnegotiator and can get anything on sale. We ended up with 50 + chicks.Now these chicks came from straight runs, so we used the old wives taketheory of the feathers on the wings. Short feathers they are female, longfeathers they are male. We did pretty good and out of all those chicks, had8 roosters. We love having chickens!! Have lost very few but have had alltypes of legs injuries and a few picked on chickens we have had to dealwith. Have so many questions to ask, but for now a couple photos of“Coop Deville”. Coleen McMurphy

------

Scott Lee : Here is a photo of the coop that I came up with and builtmyself. Living in Kingston Ontario, Canada we get hit with winterweather and it sticks around. The joke around here is that we have threeseasons, June, July and Winter. The dimensions for this design are asfollows two feet wide, three feet tall and eight feet long. I built it three feettall because the wire mesh material comes in three foot widths. The othersizes have reasons too, one sheet of plywood can be cut down to make atwo by two cube, you only need to buy one sheet. I built it two feet wideso it can sit atop my workbench in the garage and that’s where the ladieslive for the winter months under a heat lamp and a timer on the full



spectrum compact fluorescent light to keep up egg production. You cansee one of the three girls under the protected area, her name is Red, Lucyis black and Daisy is white.

This chicken truck gets shifted two feet to the left every day and the grassgrows back in a matter of two to three weeks when I move it back to thestart position (like an old typewriter) my two boys and neighbours arealways aware of the poo side. You can see that I left the middle wood slatsat ten feet long this helps move the coop with a little set of wheels and itmoves like a wheel barrow, these long handles also make a good place tosit with a small bench that straddles the arms.

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Keeping Chickens Newsletter November 2009 · Keeping Chickens Newsletter ... as a chicken run /...

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