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Today, I just wanted to share some of the things we have learned along the way during our first year raising poultry. First let me begin by saying that if you would have asked me two years ago how I would like to raise poultry I first would have wondered about your sanity and next I would have probably started to laugh because it was a simply ridiculous thought at the time. We lived in a very HOA ruled subdivision in Florida with family who were quite opposed to animals of any kind much less the barnyard variety. So, however much I liked the thought I would never have believed we would ever get to own much more than a dog! Well God has a way of changing things so when by necessity my husband and I took a leap of faith and moved the kids to the rural land of milk and honey of Southern Middle Tennessee we were about as prepared for the rural life as say Mr. Douglas! We started reading every self-sufficient, homesteading, hobby farm book and or magazine we could get our hands on and started to make plans. We had already been planning for about six months before we moved so we knew that our ultimate goal was to get as much acerage as we could afford and then get the animals. We were very fortunate to find a very nice home on a very nice and flat piece of land not too far from where my husband was going to work. It did not have fence or a barn but it did have a nice mini barn with a run-in and a small chicken coop. There was a little fenced in area next to the mini barn where the previous owners kept a dog so we decided to get the kids a couple dogs first since I already had experience with them. That did not turn out to be such a wise choice but that is another story. We also already had the chicken coop so I spent about a week planning and then started to clean it out. It was quite messy and a real introduction to farm life for this city girl! However, I did get all the feeders sanitized with diluted bleach and also used a similar solution on the interior and exterior of the hen's house. The floor was already a nice deep litter that we read was a good thing so we left that alone and just added another thick layer of fresh litter. We were not sure what was best so we purchased some rather expensive organic litter from the local TSC. We later started to use the ever ready supply of dried lawn clippings we had in excess after mowing and mowing and mowing five acres! So, what to get? Chicks or already laying hens? Well, I wanted to go with the chicks since we could choose the breed ( I liked a lot of "ornamental" layers back then) but my husband was dead set against it since we would have to get at least 25. So after some research I found a very nice lady about an hours drive away in Alabama who was willing to sell me some of her free range Red Star's that were only a year old. Knowing that a chicken will lay well for two years I thought that was perfect. She chose four for me and had them ready for us when we arrived to pick them up. A few looked rather tired but she said they were just molting. Well, after getting them home we all anxiously awaited those eggs but no such luck. We waited for three weeks! Then we finally got a rather huge egg. It was actually the largest egg besides an ostrich egg that I have ever seen. Now I know that the older a hen gets the larger the egg and the less frequently she lays so that was my first indicator that the hens were quite a bit older than a year. We got about one egg a day for about two weeks and then the girls all started laying eggs with no shell. We had been giving them oyster shell and grit plus feeding them organic layer ration so I was very confused. Then they started sneezing and one poor old girl got so sick my poor husband had to learn how to cull just so we could put her out of her misery. One down three to go. Well after a starving pit bull found out about the chickens two more bit the dust. Now we were down to only one. She is now buried in the backyard after finding her dead one morning from the same malady as the first poor girl. None of this was easy on the kids or my husband and I but we learned a lot. Mostly not to buy full grown birds and to watch out for starving pit bulls! We got three more Araucana chicks from our local Flea Market and started again. Two turned out to be roosters but they were so cute! I say were because the starving dog or possibly a hawk got them both right after they finally started to crow. We were down to one again. Well, we learned that if we wanted to keep them alive we had better not let them out of their coop and run. So since we were determined to get eggs we went back to the flea market and got some older pullets. We got four of various mixed breeds. They stayed in the coop unless we were going to be in the yard working and then we let them out. My two girls got in there enclosure so much that they were all extremely tame, so much so that most of them would crouch down and let you pick them up. One bit toes so she was my favorite since she had some character! Unfortunatly I forgot to put them all up one afternoon and by the time I remembered, my favorite and one other were gone. We still have the one Araucana, one who is a mixed bantam and a medium sized Black Sex Link. They stay inside there coop most of the time and I have learned never to forget to put them up. My oldest daughter is so scared they will get eaten that she makes sure I never forget. She and my youngest take care of the hens and they do a terrific job. We have found that you need to clean the nests out once a week and that sand paper works very well to get off any dirt that might be on the eggs. Our hens got used to sleeping inside the nesting box area over the winter so we have had a couple dirty eggs now that they have started to lay again. We are going to be putting a stop to the roosting in the nests as soon as we can get them a new roosting area that is more sheltered. We did have one of the last pullets that taught us quite a lot about chicken health issues as well. Her name was Thelma Lou and she was a feather footed Cochin bantam mix. One day we noticed that she was having trouble keeping up with the other chickens while they made their way around the yard. I decided to examine her and found that one of her feathers on her foot was curved in and was growing so that it was poking her. I cleaned her foot and then removed the feather and started to give her Vet RX in case she had an infection. She did not get much better and even got so that she could hardly walk at all. She was still eating and drinking and even laid an egg but she still looked drunk! It was pitiful so I had to do something else for her. We got an old dog crate and made that her temporary isolation area and I found a product called Nutri-drench for Poultry at my local TSC and started to administer that directly into her mouth every morning. In about a week she was much improved and we put her back with the others. She started to walk perfectly soon after and started to lay nearly every day until the dog got to her. I was very upset because I had worked to hard to pull her through whatever it was she had and then a dog got her! I did learn a lot from Thelma Lou so even though she is gone she will always be the chicken who I remember because she was my first success! Now a year later we have three hens that give us three eggs most every day and they are pretty easy to care for now too. We clean out there waterers every time we refill them (we use SOS steel wool pads that we keep outside by our outdoor sink to clean them because they have a pretty low toxicity) and we clean out the nests and add litter to the run every week. It all takes less time than the dogs care does and they give us something we can eat and they are fun to watch as well. The chickens have been the only animals besides the crazy dogs that we have gotten over the past year but they were the best place for us to start and we are very glad we did even though some of it was quite trying at times. We now feel like we are truly living the country life and doing a pretty good job of it too. Over this past weekend we got started on preparing a new pastured poultry pen for the girls to have their own batch of chicks to care for and we started converting the run-in attached to our mini-barn for housing the new chicks we are getting from a hatchery next month. Tomorrow I am going to share more about that and our plans for the Spring, plus some tips on organic gardening! Blessings,Hope |
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