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Angel
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| Posted: April 08 2008 at 8:23am | IP Logged
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I know some of you keep chickens; any advice on how to do it and keep up with a large homeschooling family, too?
Right now we haven't made any committments, but everybody wants chickens and it's only me holding things up because I'm not sure I can take on another responsibility. How much time do your chickens take? Have you delegated any responsibilities for them to the kids? Where do you keep them, how many do you have, and what breeds are you keeping?
Basically I know NOTHING about chickens. Can you tell? 
--Angela
Three Plus Two
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chicken lady
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| Posted: April 08 2008 at 8:31am | IP Logged
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Well, yes I have chickens  They are super easy. we free range ours, the dc feed them and make sure they can get to fresh water. Every morning we have an egg hunt for breakfast (you may want a coop for laying, we are just plain crazy). We have Buff Orpingtons as they are good for meat and eggs (dual purpose). My dd is currently reading Poultry the modern way, as she wants to start a business raising fancy chickens.
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marihalojen
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| Posted: April 08 2008 at 8:49am | IP Logged
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There's lots of good books out there, we used to raise chickens in a Chicken Tractor, hauling it all over 180 acres with our 4wheeler, it followed the cows in rotation. I recommend starting smaller at first.
I like colored eggs so I had Arucanas, Mom loved the coloration of the Buffs, Dad, of course, went with some bulked out meat chicken, one sister had those chickens with the top knots...we always had the most fun selecting chickens every winter from McMurray's Hatchery
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The Mari Hal-O-Jen
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MichelleW
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| Posted: April 08 2008 at 10:36am | IP Logged
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We have chickens as well. I believe we started with 22. I am a city girl. I have only lived in the country for 5 years, and I pretty much do everything wrong. Chickens are easy for even me!
I started them in the kitchen in a big tub under a warming light. When they started popping out of the tub, we moved them out to the coop. By then they were probably big enough to be fine out there, but I kept the warming light on them for another couple of weeks. We let them free range in the fall, winter and early spring. This has cut down completely on any tick problems we had. In the late spring and summer, we let them free range for the last couple of hours before sunset (otherwise they dig up too much of my garden).
The kids feed and water them every morning. They have been doing this since they were 7 years old (the kids, not the chickens). They collect the eggs. Dh and I clean out the coop twice a year and the kids put down new straw when necessary.
We have Buff Orpingtons as well since they are so mild and they can take cold temperatures. My daughter used to take them for rides in her baby carriage and they still love her. She used to carry them around in her arms upside down as if they were babies. They didn't mind one bit. Now the Barred Rocks did not care to be loved on quite so much...
Oh, by the way, 22 was way too many to start with. We now have 12 and that suites our family of 5.
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Michelle
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: April 08 2008 at 11:36am | IP Logged
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We did chickens for a long time. Very easy. The kids did the vast majority of the care. They free ranged all day but we put them in a coop at night to prevent loss to owls.That also helped with egg collection as we had nest boxes in the coop along with the perches for sleeping. We did lose some to hawks during the day, but that was rare.
We had most Rhode Island Reds, which are my favorite. Like the Buff Orphingtons they are very calm and kid friendly (my dd carried them around like dolls, also), and they are great, very consistant layers with big beautiful brown eggs. We also had a few Arucanas, but they were not as friendly. The colored eggs were a kick, but not as consistent or as large.
Every once in a while we would get a significant drop in egg numbers, and that's when we knew a rat snake had found the nest boxes. We would then have to remove them and relocate them to nearby woods.I'll never forget picking up a 6 foot rat snake with 5 big lumps in its belly which were obviously our eggs!
Our neighbors had chickens in a small chicken-tractor type coop and it worked very well for them. She rotated it through her garden and had very few pests, plus the soil got fertilized.
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Lisbet
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| Posted: April 08 2008 at 11:53am | IP Logged
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How many eggs do you usually get and how often?
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Lisa, wife to Tony,
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Michaela
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| Posted: April 08 2008 at 11:56am | IP Logged
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Great questions, Angela! We are also considering getting a few backyard chickens. Our only hesitation is our dog.
Here is a 4Real thread From Chick to Hen that Kim started. A lot of information was shared there.
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Michaela
Momma to Nicholas 16, Nathan 13, Olivia 13, Teresa 6, & Anthony 3
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lilac hill
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| Posted: April 08 2008 at 12:23pm | IP Logged
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We started with layers and bagan raising meat birds a few years later.
Layers seemed to be a good choice because of the relatively low $ and time imput.
I wanted eggs and to watch the birds but I did not want a dirt packed chicken yard or torn up garden beds so we do a combination of coop, free range and chicken tractor.
We keep our layers in a coop (since light triggers egg production we also have a light bulb on a timer) with free range in the winter and use a chicken tractor (moveable open bottomed coop with feed, water and nesting boxes that we move at least once a day) If your tractor is lightweight enough you can move it quickly--get a large enough feeder and you only feed once a week or so and we use a little giant waterers which have a 5 gallon bucket as its water source or a large resevoir to cut watering time.
With chickens in a tractor all spring, summer and fall the coop clean up is not a problem. We like the backyard chicken book for ideas.
Our first coop was a converted outhouse and the present one is a remodeled solar wood kiln. Nesting boxes that can be accessed from the outside cuts your egg collecting time and keeps you cleaner. A feeder on the door also has the same benefit.
I take care of the chickens and it since I really enjoy it it is fun and not an added chore. The children have never really been solely in charge of the birds (because the birds are living creatures I always have some oversight) but they do help since we all enjoy the eggs. The birds take a few minuted a day in the winter and a bit longer in the summer because they need more water and the waterers need to be washed more often. Saturday is the day I spend a bit ore time, cleaning and refilling--maybe about 15 minutes.
If you are not breeding and do not care about fertilized eggs you do not need a rooster.
You can start with the chicks offered at your feed store ora catalogue ( we use hoffmanhatchery.com)or a speciality egg breed or sometimes you can find some older birds from a farm. We have started raising an old fashioned breed that uses less feed than the more modern breeds, at least in my experience. My first years I started with year old hens from a local farm so I did not have to raise the peeps to start.
We started very simply--purchased generic egg birds rather than peeps, no winter water heater, converted existing buildings and a 5 gallon bucket on its side was my nesting box. I have kept 4-8 egg birds and have not overcrowded my flock.
Hope this elps.
Obviously raising chickens for eggs is a hobby now. (Trying to breed our Buff Brahmas-not a great layer but boy are they pretty.)
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Wife to Rick (7/83), Mom to dd#1(6/87), dd#2(1/90), and dd#3(6/94) in central PA.
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chicken lady
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| Posted: April 08 2008 at 1:00pm | IP Logged
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I too, have used a chicken tractor, I am thinking of starting our new chicks out in it and see how it goes. My chickens don;t bother my gardens, the ducks do 
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Maddie
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Predators were our biggest problem, it is so not cool to have your 8 year old discover a headless chicken. Study up on the possible predators in your area and think through how you plan to protect your chicks. We had hawks actually pick up some of our chicks and carry them off. 17 & 13 year old boys, I found, actually hope for predators because they get to hang out with the 22 for the night.
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aussieannie
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We are going to buy more chickens soon as our neighbouring dogs tore ours apart recently...really traumatic stuff 
BUT when we did have them, we had them spending most their time in the chicken tractor, we had 4. They would lay an egg a day and I believe that they were so good like that due to the fact we always put dried stinging nettle in their feed (bought it in bulk bins and so it was very cheap) I also have many dried herbs in the house and would brew up on a regular basis, different mixes of herbs (dandelion, alfafa, horsetail, wormwood, nettle, comfrey etc) and mix that tea in with the rest of their water. Wormwood would be added over a series of days from time to time to keep worms at bay. They were always very healthy chickens.
I had two Barnavelders and a mixed breed and whatever it was, it produced smaller egges plus a common laying hen, she had the biggest eggs.
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: April 08 2008 at 5:59pm | IP Logged
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Lisbet wrote:
| How many eggs do you usually get and how often? |
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Pretty much one egg per day per hen. 
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Theresa
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Michaela
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| Posted: April 08 2008 at 6:10pm | IP Logged
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I have a question.
Roosters are out because of the crowing. We'd have to purchase hens. When we've visited farms the hens seem relatively quiet. How much noise do they make?
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Michaela
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: April 08 2008 at 6:15pm | IP Logged
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They cackle pretty loud when they lay an egg, but otherwise mine were pretty quiet.
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Theresa
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chicken lady
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lapazfarm wrote:
| They cackle pretty loud when they lay an egg, |
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Mine do as well, but the kids follow the noise to hunt the eggs.
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Angel
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| Posted: April 09 2008 at 3:34pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for all the info! I had heard that the Buff Orpingtons were calm birds. I can get them through our local feed store. Do any of you know about Wyandottes? They're so pretty and I was reading something that said they're gentle, too... but with the twins, I REALLY need the absolute most easygoing chicken ever.
Now I have a few more questions.
How far do your chickens go when they're free-ranging? And do you have any problems with them going into the street? (Our road is quite busy for a rural road.)
Also... what if you wanted to make a weekendish trip somewhere. How long can you be gone? Do you have arrangements with anyone for those circumstances?
I think the one thing that I'm probably most worried about is keeping them over the winter, though. Our winters are pretty brutal. How do your chickens deal with snow? Do they just stay shut up in the cold weather?
Ok, so that was a lot of questions; sorry!
--Angela
Three Plus Two
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chicken lady
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Our chickens never go very far, they know the hand that feeds them! I don't know how, but they are pretty good at staying close.
I live in Ohio, our chickens just find shelter and really are fine in the winter. We usually find them snuggled under a pine tree or in our hay storage shelter.
When we go out of town, I do arrange for a neighbor to feed/milk the animals. One of the biggest draw backs to animals 
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hylabrook1
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I had chickens as a kid; the one egg per hen per day doesn't happen during moulting season, when they don't lay at all. But I can't remember when that is (I think once a year, but don't remember what time of year) or how long it lasts. Can any of you chicken keepers comment?
Also, (this will probably make the most sense to those who have hens), my grandmother always said that when they gave out with that loud cackle after laying an egg they were saying, "Look!Look!Look! what I did!"
I just loved that idea when I was little. Next time you hear their proclamation, see if doesn't fit with the rhythm of those words.
Peace,
Nancy
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Maddie
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Angel wrote:
How far do your chickens go when they're free-ranging? And do you have any problems with them going into the street? (Our road is quite busy for a rural road.)
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I foolishly threw scraps to my chickens from the front door once and EVER after, they were worse then the cats, they were always at the door begging. As they would hang around waiting for food they discovered the road and would visit the neighbors dogs, which few lived to tell about. Just thought I'd share my lesson learned.
I got rid of all my chickens last year during a pregnancy-hormone induced fit.  I plan to get chicks again this summer, I miss having my own eggs.
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~Maddie~
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chicken lady
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So does anyone ever wonder who first saw a chicken lay an egg and think, "gee lets fry that up"??????
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: chickens?
