[Food] Production - Poultry (was Backyard Chickens)

CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1422

Sorry to hear about your little turkeys Ludi Sad

Maybe a hawk carried them off? That's what usually happens around here if one just up and disappears. Hawks don't go for our full grown chickens, even the banties, but I have to carefully watch my babies and Junior chickens. We've had several carried off - a couple right in front of me Sad

Mercurygirl,
A chicken will, on average, lay an egg about every 24 hours. Some breeds are better about being on time. Some breeds will almost quit laying on you in the winter. If you're just wanting eggs, then white leghorns are about the best choice. They're light breed birds, so they eat less and they're prolific egg producers. However, there are many dual purpose birds (both meat and eggs). Depends on what you want them for.

As for housing, you need to have about a foot of roost space per adult bird (more is better). If you're wanting a dozen eggs a week, you could get away with just three birds. If you get 4 eggs a week from each bird, that still gives you a dozen. When I started we bought four chickens. Now I have about 100. Smile

Chickens are kinda addictive lol.

Oh, don't be surprised if, when you bring your birds home, they don't lay eggs for a while. Moving chickens upsets them. Sometimes it will be a week or two before they'll start laying. Sometimes a move will put them into a molt. If that happens, feed them crushed red peppers. It'll help bring them out of it faster. And always keep out free choice oyster shells to help with their calcium.

You're gonna love having chickens. Be sure to let us know how it goes Smile

Kathy

Ludi

We heard screech owls in the woods while we were looking, but screech owls seem too small to have gotten the babies. I just don't know. Sad

Thank you all for the sympathy.
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Shannymara

So sorry about the turkey poults, Ludi. Sad

I am visiting friends in upstate NY right now, and they say a mink got all 6 of their hens, 1 per night. There are so many poultry predators. I've probably listed these before, but we've personally contended with coyote, bobcat, owl, hawk, snake, raccoon, dog, and opossum attacks in the past. Crying or Very sad

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mercurygirl · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jan 29, 2006 Posts: 1290

Hey Shanny. I'm from extreme western NY. Isn't NY pretty in the summer? Very long, cold winters, though. I have a plan B there. Smile

My source with chickens swears by their portable solar electric fence to keep varmints away. Of course, they lock them up at night.

Thanks for all the info on chickies, ladies. I actually have a to-do list that may delay them for awhile, but I'm still checking out the little house. It looks homemade and very sturdy.

careinke

Well Glisten hatched her eggs today. Six of the seven managed to make it. This is the first time I have had a hen hatch eggs. She seems to know what she is doing. Hopefully everything will work out. Here she is making sure I don’t mess with her babies. I can take a hint!!

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Cliff (Start a rEVOLution, grow a garden)

wisconsin_cur

yes they do seem to know what they are doing.

We let our mothering hens free range and I watched the other day as the 18 month old was watching the baby chicks. I knew what would happen, having a good idea what would unfold and knowing that no one would get hurt.

Child approaches chicks, hen warns child but child does not read the signs. mother hen knocks child down.

what I did not expect, however,was,

terrier comes to child's rescue and almost attacks hen.

Luckily the terrier is very responsive to verbal commands and while he stood between the hen and his boy, did not attack the hen.

boy learned that mothers protect their young,
I learned that the terrier will protect his boy.

five more hens are setting on clutches of eggs... I hope this is a banner year for hatching.
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CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1422

careinke,
Yes, she does look serious, doesn't she Smile

Beautiful chicks Smile

Homesteader,
Feed prices are going through the roof for all of my critters. Thankfully since it's summer, and there are bugs everywhere, I've been letting the chickens free range and thus, am feeding them less grain. I have stopped buying laying pellets for now. I'm just buying scratch grain to supplement their bugs and such. This winter, though, we'll be buying pellets again... if we can afford them!
K

Ludi

We buy whole corn for the chickens, and cracked corn for the turkeys. We've never fed layer pellets - too expensive!
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"...powerdown so soft and fluffy you'll think you're living in a pillow." - jboogy

Ludi

I have a turkey question:

So far, my turks have been very bad about learning to return to their house in the evening. I'm afraid to let them out for this reason. Has anyone else had this problem?

They were not let out at a young age, I think this might be the problem...
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"...powerdown so soft and fluffy you'll think you're living in a pillow." - jboogy

WisJim

I also have a moveable electric fence around the area of the orchard where the new coop is located. We do have fox, bear, coyotes, hawks, eagles, etc., in the immediate area of the house and coop, but haven't had any trouble with any predators except skunks and possums. We are far enough from our creek that the fishers don't bother us, and the black bears make rare appearances that close to the house.

So far, so good.

gnm

WisJim, is this fence around turkeys? Do you string the electric on the top? Inside? Outside? I am trying to design a coop/runs for chickens but I have considered having turkeys as well.

Thanks,

-G
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WyoDutch

Quagmire · Tar Sands Joined: Jun 07, 2008 Posts: 94

.
I haven't read all the pages of this excellent thread, so this may have been covered already:
Will a solar powered motion sensitive light in the chickenyard discourage predators?
I close my chickens up every night in the coop, but one night, stayed late in town and came home to find a raccoon eating my spangled sussex rooster, Laverne. (He was supposed to a hen and companion to the other sussex , Shirley.) He died defending the girls. Sad

Btw, they are fenced, but the fence is not tight enough to keep out raccoons or possums, but the coop is secure and snakeproof even!
Any advice will be appreciated.
.

Shannymara

WisJim

gnm-
I only have chickens, no turkeys (yet)--maybe someday.
My fencing is like this.
I think it is a different brand, but similar, with posts attached to the fencing, woven plastic mesh material with conductive metal strands in it.