Chicken Diary – August

Its Now Time for the August Chicken Diary,  As I live an New Zealand  the  Seasons will be in reverse order in some cases. We are now coming into our Spring time, so just try to use common sense when applying some of these Tips.

“OK Lets Get On with It.”

• Check for Broody hens. If you want to try raising a Clutch of chicks then a broody hen is a natural incubator. How ever, during the time she is siting she wont be laying eggs.

• You’ll need a rooster to get fertile eggs or you can buy fertile eggs off a poultry breeder. this is a great way to get colorful rare breed poultry onto your property. Breeders can and do send eggs all over the place thru surface mail  so there is very little  limit to the breeds you can choose from.

• If you are hatching a clutch, remember you will be getting a 50/50 mix (or thereabouts)  of Males or Females, SO YOU WILL NEED TO HAVE A PLAN for what you are going to do with the Boys. Being poultry owner means having to make tough decisions on who lives and who dies, and it should never involve dumping roosters so that they become the problem of others.

• If you have hens that have gone broody and you don’t want her to be Broody you’ll need to trick her hormones  to get her to lay again. To do this , place her in an all mesh cage with food water and shelter but no nest and keep her in a place with a draft. A barn, shed or garage are good but make sure she can see the sunlight – don’t keep her  in the dark. if the cage can be put off the ground a few inches perhaps up on bricks, all the better as the cooler air around her body will literally cool her hormones down she should stop wanting to sit with in 1 – 2 Days and resume laying.

• The Longer the Hen has been broody the longer it will takes to cool her and get her back to laying, so keep an eye out and act quickly as soon as you see the signs of her being broody.

• Brown and White shavers/Hylines Almost will never go broody all though it can happen.

• Bantams (small coloured breeds) go broody at the drop of a hat, and make excellent mothers for any eggs you wish to incubate even duck eggs.

• Layer hens should be on good quality layer mash or pellets that provide protein, Vitamins and other essential minerals and nutrition that a layer hen needs for good egg production.

• Chicks should be feed a special – chick starter . Never give them layer feed as it is too high in calcium and can cause (fatal ) Damage to organs. A mother hen, if raising them, can safely eat chick Starter

Here is a break down of the common grains in terms of nutrition for poultry

Maize is the highest in energy of all the grains, has 3% fat, but is lower in protein at 8%. Good for yolk color, and is excellent if crushed first.

Wheat is about 13% protein, lower in energy then maize and much lower in fat at just 1.5%.

Oats is about 10 % protein and very high in fiber at 12%, making it useful as a ‘filler’ feed.

Barley is around 9 % protein , 2% fat and 8% fiber.

If you need a whole grain like barley you really should supply insoluble grit ( like pea sized road grit ) so that the birds gizzards can grind up the grain to extract the nutrients .

There are disadvantages to feeding some of these grains. Their quality will vary due to harvest conditions,  storage time and possible contamination by yeasts and moulds, and the mycotoxins produced by these.

Barley is a filler type grain. It produces firmer, whiter fat in the meat chickens. The barley kernel has little spike-lets which can make some birds reluctant to eat it as a whole grain. It also has a hi Beta Glucan content; this is poorly digested by birds, and because it absorbs water in the gut it leads to sticky wet dropping if feed in excess.

The recommended for oat feed is 500g/100 birds scattered around as a scratch feed as its nutritive value is low. to much oats can lead to excessive thirst and wet droppings.

Grains on their own should probably form about 60% of s birds diet, preferably a mixture of what grains are available and preferably the grains should be lightly crushed . The balance of the diet should be protein-rich, consisting of a high protein pellet. plus meat and bone meal and scarps from the house and what ever veges and free range fodder is available.

Hens are omnivores and will eat a varied diet. A balanced diet of fiber, protein, carbohydrate and fat is needed to grow and produce eggs. If allowed to choose a chicken will do pretty well, but faced with only one grain and nothing else you may run into problems .

Its Q & A Time

Some Great questions lately from my Group

Q

We Have a few free Range hens. One Is Laying soft-shelled eggs; the egg yolk and egg white are in the nesting box, separate from the shell. How can we cure this problem!

A

Soft shelled eggs can be a result of faulty calcium deposition through the lack o in the diet, or because of an imbalance of calcium and phosphorous in the diet.

A more likely cause when it suddenly starts happening is an infection, either a viral disease like infectious Bronchitis or egg drop syndrome or a more localized infection in the shell gland its self.

I hope by now that the problem has righted itself. Egg Drop Syndrome has no outward symptoms in the bird but can affect egg quality for several weeks.

Q

We have a good supply of barley from a neighbor and were wondering if it is OK to feed wheat to our hens rather then barley and they seem to like it! Also, can oats be feed successfully?

A

Layer hens need at least 16 – 18 % protein in their diet, so full grain diets are not good as they do not have enough protein content on their own. You would need to feed whole grains in conjunction with either a commercial feed or with additional  high protein feeds like meats, peas, milk etc.

Any more questions please send them in we can all learn from them

Chicken Diary – June

• If your Birds are still molting, keep up ad lib quantities of good quality chicken layer feed. This is the time of year when a hen is replenishing her self in preparation of another season  of laying and she need s good nutrition more then ever

• If It’s really cold in your area over winter try feeding out in the afternoon; Birds that go to sleep with a full crop will stay warmer. Use a scatter of grain occasionally to make bird work for their dinner, so they keep them selves warm through exercise.

• Don’t be tempted to shut up your Birds up in their hen houses to keep them warm. Poultry expend a lot of moisture in their breaths and droppings, and a tightly closed up coop will increase condensation and ammonia levels , leading to a terrible smell and  an increased risk of health problems for your birds. Make sure your hen house id well-Insulated and has good ventilation, With out being draughty.

• Don’t have lots of glass windows in a hen house, as it will be colder in winter and hotter in the summer.

• Check your birds for lice. Winter is a prime time to find lice, and the easiest place to see them is around the vent, where they will look for grains of brown rice. Use a dusting powder like pestene, or flowers of  Sulphur  (Dusting sulphur). Dust Under the feathers and into the bedding, or try Diatomaceous Earth in a tray. You will find Diatomaceous earth for sale on ebay, trade me, and other auction sites or try a commercial cleaning  supply company (where it may be called Celetom or other commercial names)

Once you have decided to o raise a small flock, you have the exciting decision as to which breed to raise.

Your Tastes will change as you raise them. Choosing from such beautiful birds may confound you with the range of choices, or you may find your self lured  by a particular breed as soon as you see it. But their are breeds for all needs.

Breeds For All Needs

Production for meat and  eggs has been bred to high level. Modern chicken breeds and hybrids offer a wide range of characteristics. They are well documented and easily available from hatcheries and the local feed store.

Hybrid crosses, with their associated vigor, Can serve well in small production flocks.

Integrated and sustainable operations my find that traditional breeds offer many advantages in their settings. Traditional breeds have long-standing characteristics that have endeared them  to farmers over the years. That very history may make them ideal bird  for your needs

Modern commercial operations  keep chickens  for a year or 18 months at most. Fryers and broilers are processed for the table as early as 4 weeks, Seldom older the 16 weeks, Longevity is not a factor in commercial all-in/all-out production. For a small flock owner, However, it’s a  good indicator of over-all vitality. Longevity is associated with low chick mortality,high productivity and generally strong constitutions.

Breeds and Varieties

A breed is a type of Chicken, defined its body conformation,Comb, and feather quality. A variety represents of color, comb, muff, tuft, or feather within a breed. Breeds breed true–that is , their offspring are reliably similar to them to at least 50% of the time, Breeding true is a requirement  to be recognized by the American Poultry Association and is included in the American standard of perfection.

Hybrids by definition do not breed true. They are crosses between two or more seperate breeds.if you want to supply your own hybrids, you will need to keep breeding flocks of parent breeds. Small commercial operations that rely on hybrids may prefer to purchase birds from hatcheries as needed.

The single most important quality that should guide you in choosing which breeds to raise is what you like. You will enjoy the most and have the most success with breeds that appeal to you. Chickens have wide appeal, and so many varied breeds are available that you should express your personalty in the breeds you raise.

How Many Breeds?

You may want to start with a single breed. That gives you a chance to become an expert on them. Many experts, recommend starting with a single breed to gain experience. Few people actually follow that advice.

Keeping more then one breed can improve your general expertise. It can expose you to the differences between breeds as well as the difference between individuals. If you are keeping pure breeds , rely on the standard of perfection to learn their characteristics and discern which ones are desirable.

If you intend  to breed your birds, having multiple breeds will require  more pens and more paper work. Many breeders change the breeds they pursue over time, finding more satisfaction with over another.

How to Choose what Breed

Chickens have been categorized as  meat birds, egg birds, and dual purpose birds. If you intend to produce for a market, these are important considerations.

Leghorns are the acknowledged leaders in egg production, such as Polish, Hamburgs, and Spanish, Lay very well. The Braggs Mountain Buff, a modern composite, was developed for its large brown eggs. Bovans, a modern hybrid, are often used in organic egg operations.

Barred Plymouth Rocks are becoming the preferred traditional breed for meat production today

Cornish have a meaty, stocky build that makes them good for the  Table. Cornish/Rock Hybrids are the dominant commercial chicken. Dominiques and Wyandottes were popular in American history. Dominique-type chickens are documented back to colonial days. although there is no hard evidence that they arrived with the Mayflower.

Dominiques were recognized as a breed  by the early 19 century. Wyandottes were developed after the civil war and attracted many followers. The columbian Wyandotte ws admitted to the American Standard 1905, Interest continued thru the 20th century, with the blue variety recognized in 1977. These birds are again making there mark on the poultry niche market All Chickens Lay eggs and are good to eat, so categorizing them is some what subjective many traditional breeds provide both and are considered dual-purpose fowl.

Industrialization Of Poultry-raising

The Industrialization  of Poultry-raising marginalized backyard chicken flocks, at the same time suburban life made backyard chickens flocks less viable. By the End of the twentieth century, chickens in the yard where the exception rather then the rule.

Today In the United States, Commercial poultry operations are selling more then 35 Billion LBS of chicken  and some 90 Billion Eggs each year. Approximately 5 Billion LBS of chicken is exported, but the rest is consumed in the united states. The US Department of Agriculture values the broiler industry at $45 Billion .

Broilers are Raised in  all-in/all-out barns, slaughtered at thirteen weeks of age or younger. They are housed in buildings that can take up to 4o thousand birds.

Interest In Heritage Breed Poultry

Interest In Heritage Breeds of live stock of all kinds, Including poultry has increased as the twenty 1st century begins Concern for the origin and conditions of food translates into the next step: growing your own.

Even those who recoil from butchering their own chickens feel comfortable eating the eggs of  birds they know and Love.

Establishing your Own Flock puts you in the spectrum of poultry breeders As others have before you, you will inevitably make your mark on your birds, as they will on you.

Whether you decide to eat their eggs or become a merchant selling meat and Eggs at your local farmers market, you are an important link in a long relationship between humans and Chickens.

Domestication likely began when an early human decided it was easier to weave a cage and put some baby birds in it then try to catch them or search for their nests.

India’s red jungle fowl, from which modern chickens are descended, are quick on the ground, cleaver about hiding their nests, and lite enough to fly. Knocking them out of trees with a sling shot must have been taken exacting skills and a sharp eye.

Keeping these chickens would have provided these early humans the opportunity to watch them. Watching a pen of chickens is as memorizing as gazing into a camp fire. The phrase “Pecking Order” comes from chickens social organization, and watching their inter-chicken jockeying is an entertaining past time.

Like many birds, chickens naturally form flocks with a strong social hierarchy. Hens develop alliances and loyalties , and social life is rarely with out incident. An extra worm to a low ranking hen can start off a squabble or improve her ranking. Life is never static in the chicken Yard.

In our own chicken yard, a certain unassertive hen that was last at every thing, one day, discovered a large juicy cricket for her self. She snatched it up in an unaccustomed manner of self assertion and took off, with half a dozen hens in hot pursuit. They where outraged that she would presume to usurp this tasty delight for her self.

Unwilling to release her prize cricket, she flapped and ran until she had sufficient leeway behind a bush to gobble her treat in hasty triumph.  After seeing her outwit her colleagues, I felt that perhaps her place at the bottom of the pecking order was not with out its comforts.

Choosing the right breed for your situation

Your success or failure as a chicken-raiser depends a lot on your choice of breeds.
But even before you head to the nearest farm to make the purchase, you should first determine    the purpose of your operation. Are you into chicken-raising as a hobby? Are you into it to produce chicken meat? Or is it the first determine the purpose of your operation. Are you into chicken-raising as a hobby? Are you into it to produce chicken meat? Or is it the eggs you want? Is it warm in your farm? Or is it cold?

The answers to these questions matter in your choice of chicken breed. There are many breeds of chicken available in the market, but each of them has distinctive differences in terms of egg production, egg color, temperament, meat production, broodiness, foraging habits, and survival skills.

Having said that, you need to go back to your list to determine your needs.

If it’s egg layer you want, then maybe the leghorn will work for you. Leghorns are good at producing white eggs. They are good at foraging, so they make an ideal choice for free range situations. However, they are not as broody as some of the other breeds ,so they are not an ideal choice if you want to raise chicks in your farm.

You also need to watch out for them if they are on free range. They are likely to be picked off by birds of prey, like hawks, because of their white color. Docile hens, like Buff Orpington, will also cower in fear rather than scamper away to seek shelter when a predator stalks them.

If it’s an aggressive breed you want, then you can go for a Dutch. The downside, however, is that it chases after children.

Children can better appreciate the Bantam, which makes good pet or show bird. This breed is small, agile and fast and cannot be readily captured by a predator. It lays tiny eggs that children would love to have for dinner. Because of its size, though, it’s not meant for meat and egg production. As a rule of thumb, birds that are prolific layers are not known as good meat producers.

Most of the eggs and chicken meat available to American consumers today belong to a few highly specialized breeds used by the commercial poultry industry.

This is a result of the disappearance of family farms that used to house thousands of flocks of chickens.

While they can lay more eggs and produce more meat than the older farm breeds, commercial breeds have lost certain traits, like ability to forage, longevity, tolerance to extreme cold or heat, predator avoidance and broodiness or ability to set and hatch eggs.

So, finally, which Chicken breed should you choose? If it’s the healthier, free range layer you want to raise, then go for breeds known for their optimum egg laying ability, like the leghorn.

It you want to raise broilers for meat, then you should go for a Rhode Island. Another consideration is the breed’s natural disposition.

But even more importantly, you should consider a breed’s tolerance to hot or cold climates. If your farm happens to be in a cold zone, then you’d best go for a breed that can tolerate freezing temperatures and can lay eggs even in the cold of winter.

There are many reasons why people raise chicken. After all, people have been raising chicken for more than 3,000 years, originally for cockfighting. While some continue to raise chicken for sports, the domestication of chicken has largely evolved into a major food production undertaking for human consumption. Today, there are more domesticated chickens in farmhouses than there are wild fowl in forests across the world.

And why would you and I raise chicken?

I have my own reasons and you probably have yours, too. For me, I just want to go back to the old charm of the countryside after spending sometime in the city. I want to enjoy the smell of natural flowers, feel the caress of fresh air, climb mountains, wade through rivers, and feel free and refreshed in the midst of it all. Perhaps there is an anthropological explanation to this. I believe there is a natural yearning in all of us to be in the midst of nature and our natural sources of food.

But, of course, I also need to continue working to have something to feed my family – and I think poultry-raising is not such a bad idea. Aside from a steady source of income from chicken eggs and meat, I also have a steady supply of fresh chicken and eggs for my family’s consumption. With the price of organic eggs in groceries hitting $4 a dozen, raising chicken in the backyard is certainly a most welcome idea.

Let me give you a rundown of the other benefits of raising chicken in your own backyard:

• Eggs from well-tended backyard chicken are healthier and more ideal for human consumption. Commercially farmed chickens are fed an unnatural diet, mostly chemically produced feeds that are meant to produce more eggs quickly and cheaply. This results in layers that produce eggs that are less nutritious than eggs produced by chicken allowed to exercise, peck for bugs and engage in their natural behavior.

• Eggs from backyard chicken are better tasting than those purchased from groceries and supermarkets, which can be days or weeks old. When eggs are stored too long, air seeps into the naturally porous eggshell, adversely affecting the taste and nutrition of the egg. Fresh eggs from backyard chicken have firmer whites and bright orange yolks, which is a good source of beta carotene.

• Raising backyard chicken teaches children about responsibility and origins of their food.

• Chicken droppings enrich your compost with their nitrogen content. They can be a source of cheaper, healthier, natural fertilizer for your garden crops.

• Chickens provide natural insect control when hunting for their food around the yard.

These are just a few advantages. There are more benefits, but there is just not enough space to include them here. For one, tending chicken is not as demanding as taking care of dogs and other household animals. Chickens do not need to be bathed or taken to a walk, unlike your favorite Labrador or German Shepherd. They just need to be fed and given fresh water like all natural pets. Of course, you need to keep their coop cleaned and the chickens inspected regularly to ensure they are healthy.

You can involve your kids in these activities, including picking up eggs on a daily basis. As a kid, I remember watching a mother hen lay her egg every morning. My brother and I had to wake up very early in the morning to watch this daily ritual. It’s a memory I totally enjoy recalling to my kids even before we decided to transfer to this farmhouse. My brother and I continue to relish this memory to this day.

Hatch, rear, and raise chickens

If you have passion, dedication, and commitment in whatever it is that you set your mind to do, then the task of hatching, rearing, and growing chickens is, as the idiom goes, “chicken feed”.

For hatching purposes, you need fertilized eggs which you place under the brooder.

You can get your fertilized eggs from your favorite farmhouse or simply have your own set of cock and hen, using your favorite breed.

once you have the fertilized eggs on hand, it is much easier to have a live hen to do the brooding because it knows exactly what to do without human intervention.

For some reasons, however, not all breeds of hen, like the Leghorn, are brooders, so you will need an artificial brooder to hatch the eggs.

A small artificial egg brooder with full temperature control can cost from $100 to $500, depending on the features. As a startup, you can try this before moving up to the more sophisticated machines on a need basis. In this price range, you can hatch 10 to 20 fertilized eggs at a time in 21-day intervals.

If you have a budget, you can also buy a heater with temperature control at less than $100, but a 95-watt red bulb with enclosure will likewise suffice. However, you will need a handy thermostat to monitor the temperature in the brooder.

Once the eggs are hatched, the chicks are left in the brooder for another 24 hours to allow them to dry off before gently transferring them to a warming box, which you can buy or build yourself. A warmer box can be a small box inside a larger box with a “door” cut between the two.

The lamp hovers over the small box, while the unheated part is for starter feed, which you can buy from a feed store and continuous supply of clean, fresh water. The chicks can instinctively move about between the heated part and the unheated side with food and water.

This is the fun part. If you have kids, this is the part they will enjoy the most. I still have to encounter a kid who has not been fascinated by chicks.

They can help out in caring for them. As days progress, the chicks become livelier and may even jump out of the warming box, if it is not secure enough – and this is endearing for the kids.

For some chicken raisers, this part is reason enough to raise chickens in their backyard.

Raise chickens in your backyard

Whatever are your reasons for raising chickens, there’s no escaping the fact that you need to shell out some cash to build a chicken coop and purchase certain poultry supplies.
This project can easily cost between  $300 – 1200 or more, but if you have some leftover wood, nails, paint, etc. from previous home improvement projects, then it really need not be that expensive.

Cash Outlay

You can control your cash outlay by using your own design or adapting a design that you pick up from the internet.

There are many designs out there, both expensive and not-so-expensive, and all you have to do is choose what you think will work best for you.

I particularly like the idea of a mobile coop, which I could rearrange in my backyard from time to time.

In this day and age of internet sharing, it is easy to pick up design ideas here and there, and make something of your own.

I won’t attempt to tell you how to do it as there already many existing step-by-step instructions to be found in the internet from professional hobbyists and chicken farmers.

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What I will tell you here are the things you need to consider in your plan and coop design:

• Brand new wood and other materials can quickly jack up your prices. As said earlier, you can use leftovers from your most recent home improvement project.

• Scrap lumber from secondhand stores could significantly bring down your cost.

• If you plan to raise 10 layers, you don’t need 10 nesting boxes. Chickens tend to share their laying boxes, so three or four will suffice.

• A couple of 2”x 2” lumber boards make good roosting places. Chickens want to roost in elevated places at night. If a 2”x2” lumber is not available, a sturdy tree branch from your backyard can equally be useful.

• If you live in a warm climate, make sure there is plenty of ventilation to keep fresh air flowing and your chickens cool. In cold climates, make sure it is warm enough inside the coop and drinking water doesn’t freeze.

• Elevating your coop is optional, but it’s a good idea if you decide to adopt it. An elevated coop is a protection from flooding rain and helps keep chickens dry.

• Putting a window on the south side would allow light to enter the coop all day.

• A mobile or wheeled coop is a practical way to move it around your backyard. A wheeled coop and “deep litter” method to clean out chicken dropping make a convenient combination for cleaning and maintenance.

• With the “deep litter,” you use around 4-8 inches of wood pellets, wood shavings, or other bedding’s on the floor of the coop. Every few days, you’ll only need to rake or shovel or brush to stir the droppings on the top into the bedding underneath and use them as rich compost for the garden.

Conclusion

If you think building your own coop is too much of a hassle for you, there are countless designs in the internet to choose from; all of which can be delivered to you for a price in no time.

As a last piece of advice, check with your city and town officials about regulations. Your coop doesn’t have to look as This is the most important thing that you can do. There are so many great plans for chicken coops available, many designs and ideas are available online for free, or there are some great ones available for a small charge. Getting instructions that guide you through the process step by step is a fantastic way to take the stress out of the job.nice as your own house, but you should at least make an effort to make a coop that won’t be offensive to your neighbors. It should not be too unsightly so as to reduce property values in your neighborhood.

Building a chicken coop and producing free range chicken projects are laudable projects with healthy and profitable returns. However, you should also consider the regulations of government and sensibilities of neighbors to ensure the well-being of everyone.

There are heaps of chicken  diy guides  available but not every one of them will be ideal for your location, climate or Poultry. One of the most effective  ways to save money on your Chicken coop is to ensure that you get the right Chicken Coop Plans and build the Correct roosting place for your poultry.

Start  Building Chicken Coops either Commercially or for your self

Building Chicken Coops

Written By your Chum, Bill Bailey!