Chicken opinions?

16 years ago

Hi. My rooster is lonely so I am thinking of getting a few hens. I was thinking three would be a good number. One grown experienced brooding hen and two younger hens that might not be so broody (maybe not set at all). I have looked at a good many nesting boxes but I would like to know what works best for others. Also, are Dominic hens generally good mothers? I had some hens years ago but they would never sit on there eggs, that is why IÂm asking. Are laying pellet best or is just sweet feed good? Don't get mad anyone for me asking. IÂd just like to know real peoples thoughts.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (7)

russh_nepa
16 years ago
I sure hope no one gets made over valid questions.

I have about 2 dozen laying hens. Mix of americaunas, barred rocks, RIR, and hybrid sexlinks. I don't tend to encourage them to go broody, and I haven't let any of my current hens hatch a clutch, so I can't say too much except that you will want to stick with the older, unimproved breeds for that. The sexlinks show little broodiness compared to the RIRs.

My best broody is gone now. We miss her. She was a little bantam Brahma who could be counted on to hatch a clutch every spring. She lived to be about 12 years old, and was active and "happy" till the end. She was the only "friendly" chicken we ever had. She would come to us and follow us around. The others act more like "real" chickens, and shy away from us.

Good luck. Hope that helps.
nhsuzanne
16 years ago
I think your rooster would love a couple of hens!

There are lots of great brooders out there. The attached link is a good and comprehensive resource for the various breeds and their broodiness and hardiness.

I had Dominics and they were great layers and mothers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Henderson's Chicken Breed Chart
Related Discussions
AntiChickenLittle Chicken Anti_Little non-panic button
Q
Comments (50)
What might be the moral to the story? This might be it: wait a little while if you are shocked when you read about a problem that sounds shocking to you. It probably also sounds shocking to everyone, but wait. Don't be trigger happy. Don't indulge yourself by typing out your feelings. Wait. Someone will post some kind of fact-based response within a few hours. Isn't there a Supreme Court Justice who subscribes to this theory of conservation of personal (his) initiative? He doesn't believe in "indulging himself" by vocalizing any thought processes, either. Of course, I don't recall his reserve having garnered him many plaudits for holding his curiousity or opinion in check. My initial position was paraphrased by marcolo several times. Several people have made a big ado about it. Marcolo pointed out why it is good to ask for information first. Wow. What a new idea. Ask around. Get new input. (MARCOLO! Paging Dr. Marcolo! Need Davidro-to-english translation help here, please.) Assuming I understood the point of the post, isn't that what a post on the Kitchen Forum is about? Airing personal experience, making correlations, getting opinions on similarity or dissimilarity of experience? I don't believe that posting is an automatic ticket to litigation-city. That said, while I don't disagree with David that the massive haemorrhaging of personal outrage on the KF can be a trifle wearying, the instances cited here that have apparently motivated this thread are ridiculous. For one thing: "exploding glass doors" vs "exploding glass doors that way". Yes, tempered glass explodes "that way" but to think that anyone should be expected to be blase and off-hand about the fact that their oven door blasted itself open in the course of its "normal operation" (I'll hold my opinion on self-clean in check here) is asking for the moon. It doesn't matter than tempered glass breaks a certain way - it does matter that it spontaneously imploded without a clear and discernible impact to trigger; that makes the data noteworthy and the event really should be publicized. Yes, perhaps the glass was subjected to stresses beyond normal range a while back - or even undetected anomalous events at the time of high drama: bird strike, pellets, surface scratches, edge impact - and now the smallest minor perturbation to the nominal took it beyond its elastic limit, so to speak. But if a certain product has a habit of shattering (multiple reported such outcomes) - well, the likelihood that there should be such a high correlation between purveyors of that item and 6-sigma beyond norm events that shattering glass should be an expected outcome, is statistically insignificant. More than likely then, there is indeed a manufacturing defect - either in the glass manufacture process, or planarity of the door frame into which it is inserted, its tensioning or some other assembly process. Tempered glass might shatter safely, but it doesn't have a habit of shattering so much so that anyone buying ovens or doors or whatever should expect that after the 3year/5year/7year window that they should expect to walk upto an imploded door. This is just silly. It is absolutely the right thing to do to air the fact that E'lux's oven door shattered in self-clean mode. If many E'lux ovens do that, it is likely an E'lux problem and won't be known until such complaints are aired, collected and documented. If many oven doors shatter in self-clean then either ovens will get to a point where they won't use glass in self-clean ovens or self-cleaning will be outmoded (yesssssss!). Whatever. (regardless that as far as I know, self-clean temps are well inside the tolerance regime of tempered glass). None of this happens until the user airs this. & others aren't edified until they happen upon such reports. The only factually incorrect, if that, information I ran across on the e'lux oven thread was the moral outrage about the health risks of someone walking into the glass shards. Fact is that shattered tempered glass is safer than regular shattered glass but it's no bowl of tofu, chaps. So, while I think that keeping a bit of a tamp on the emotional quotient isn't a bad idea, the motivating example has even me arguing against this thread and I certainly don't support the idea of filter's eliminating posts that exceed some imagined emotion threshold or pass someone's idea of fact-filled posts. If the last was the case, I doubt that the OP's post (top post, this thread) would have made the cut .... Hmmmm, come to think of it ....
...See More
Bought another chicken at Wal Mart and found out something
Q
Comments (47)
Glenda, I see this is an old post, but I am doing some research for school and ran across it, but I will fill you in on the chicken situation at Walmart. They do not come in frozen, they come in on ice fresh from the packers. They are however, preseasoned. They are then put into the rotisserie and cooked. When they are put on the floor to sell they are freshly cooked, ok sometimes overcooked because of complaints of them not being done. However, they are temped before packaging and put on the floor. After that three hour time frame they are brought off the floor and put into a flash freezer to stop the heat. This does cause them to get frozen. They are then repackaged in new packaging and placed in the refrigerator at a low temperature to keep bacterial growth from beginning. The next morning, they are then put out in the cold section of the deli at a reduced rate. Since the chickens are a hot seller, usually by the time the new ones come out of the oven, the old ones are already gone. So what probably happened is you got one that was off of the last run for the night and that is why it was still frozen inside since it had not had time to thaw completely. I will say thought the best deal is to get there early enough in the evening for the last run of chickens that end up getting marked to half price if they are not sold by closing.
...See More
Chicken unrefrigerated and then cooked: safe for dogs?
Q
Comments (23)
I'm just pretty surprised that an animal shelter would accept any bag of mystery meat fresh, cooked or otherwise. Our local shelters won't even take opened bags of kibble. Never heard of a shelter feeding table scraps to the dogs and cats in their care. Is this a shelter or a private rescue? Well run shelters are like any institution with large populations. They can't afford to risk illness. That means everything from the bedding used to the diet provided must be controlled and there is no room for risking illness and no time to track where the illness originated. That is why they won't accept so many things like used kennels (risk of Parvo), bedding that can't be disinfected , blankets that a pup can chew up and ingest ,certain toys,even types of leashes and collars. Their hospitals are overrun with animals that are incoming in poor health and injuries. Their primary concern is to keep the healthy population healthy and avoid any risk however minor to their welfare.
...See More
Chicken Recipe Cooking Question
Q
Comments (18)
Thanks about the indirect heat comments! We're pretty good cooks here, but its the hubs who does the grilling (why does it so often seem to be a testosterone thing????) but anyway he does okay usually - but I don't think he's ever done indirect heat - but I think he's up to it. We've both learned a lot over the years :) We'll be cooking this for a group of 15 but I'm counting on him doing that grilling so I can do everything else - I'm sure you all understand that scheme of things.
...See More
velvet_sparrow
16 years ago
Your roo is going to be one happy fella. :)

I use the dark 'hidey-hole' type of nest. I've found that my hens prefer them, they instinctively want to feel that they are hiding their clutch from predators and also want to feel safe. So we have basic wooden nest boxes with open fronts, a small lip on the front holds in the nesting material (straw) and prevents eggs from rolling out. I stapled a sheet of black landscaping cloth across the front to hang like a curtain, and cut a slit up the middle of the nest box opening. The hens can easily come and go as they please, they like the dark and the landscape cloth breathes well so air circulates.

Must be a hit because this year I had 9 broodies at once! Mostly bantams, silkies and cochins. As a rule, the 'fluffy' girls are the best bet for broodies--Orpingtons, Silkies, Cochins, Brahmas and a lot of the fluffier bantams--my slender girls don't go broody much.

Try to get breeds that will get along together--for example, silkies are extra sweet and docile, and Rhode Island Reds are notoriously aggressive, so don't mix birds at each end of the scale. Either stick with aggressive breeds or docile ones and everyone will be happier.

I use plain old chicken scratch mix plus lay mash, and supplement that with fresh water, free range to forage in, green grass and table scraps here and there (what's healthy for you is healthy for your chickens). Live mealworms are a tremendous treat for chickens and they gobble them like candy. Raw corn on the cob is a great treat, too, and provides interest and fun as well.

I've got a chicken info site here that may help:

http://home.earthlink.net/~velvetsparrow/VSChick.htm

Enjoy your chickens! :)

Velvet ~:>
picklespickles
16 years ago
i have used laying pellets, crumbles, and scratch. i have also just used plain old table scraps mixed with whatever weird leftovers we have (for instance dry dog food that got wet and the dogs wouldn't touch), the leftover egg shells crumbled up, fruits and vegetables, dried out tortillas, etc. i can tell you that they vastly prefer the table scraps. maybe the variety? i don't know. and it doesn't seem to bother them that there are grapes mixed in with sunflower seeds mixed in with dry dog food mixed in with old bread mixed in with old cucumbers. they love it. they peck and scratch at it much more animatedly and compete for it in a way that they never do for anything storebought. my g'ma and the rest of my family who were rural (i'm a city girl) always said that chickens will eat anything and it's true.

they are also allowed to run over the property and so they eat grasshoppers, dirt, weeds and whatever else they find, too.

i think for winters more storebought food is good because nature can't provide for them as well.

i don't find any difference in how many eggs i get from storebought versus scraps and range food.
littlecritterkeeper
Original Author
16 years ago
Hi, sorry I didn't leave feed back for a while. I was at a goat show. Thanks everyone.
I am considering modifying my old rabbit cage for the hens. It is approximately 24" tall, 24" wide and 71" long. It has a removable divider, two doors, and is made of hardware cloth with a wooden frame on stilts. I am worried that if I put plywood over it, it won't have good air flow and could get to humid inside. What do ya'll think? Does anyone have any good ideas on how I should make a nesting box or modify the rabbit cage?

Thanks again!!!
velvet_sparrow
16 years ago
Can you post a picture or two of the old rabbit hutch?

If you have concerns over enclosing the entire thing with plywood, maybe think of only going halfway up the walls with the wood, leaving the hardware cloth near the top so air can circulate. Do you live in an area prone to high humidity?

Velvet ~:>
seamommy
16 years ago
We used 1/4" plywood and furring strips to build our nest boxes and hung them on the wall of the wooden coop. I mounted a furring strip in front of the boxes about 4" out for them to hop up on when they wanted to go in and out. the front is open and the boxes measure about 15" square. We put 1/4" hardware cloth on the bottom to allow for air flow up from below.

The first boxes we built were flat on top and the chickens would roost on top of them, so they were always messy. The ones we have now have a top that slants towards the front, so they can't roost there. I like that idea about the landscape cloth on the front. I never tried that before so they may like that.

VelvetSparrow, I was wondering if you have a way of breaking them from roosting in the nest boxes? Some of my hens like sleeping in the hay. Maybe I should build a little platform on top of one of the roosting poles and they could all scrunch together up there? Cheryl

Chicken opinions?

Comments (7)

russh_nepa

nhsuzanne

Related Discussions

velvet_sparrow

picklespickles

littlecritterkeeper
Original Author

velvet_sparrow

seamommy

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Chicken opinions?

Comments (7)

russh_nepa

nhsuzanne

Related Discussions

velvet_sparrow

picklespickles

littlecritterkeeperOriginal Author

velvet_sparrow

seamommy

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

littlecritterkeeper
Original Author