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Hello all, We started a chicken flock just over a year ago, and it has been a great success, After a lot of worrying and hand wringing the chicks grew up fine and healthy. My children were fascinated by the whole process, and even got their first official "birds and the bees" lesson (i hope) when the rooster started "man humping" the hens (the kids came up with that phrase). The flock consists of Wyandotte, Americauna, welsummer, and an egyptian rooster. We may not get the best production from this mix but the color variation looks fantastic all nestled in the boxes. We get two shades of brown, blue, green, and pink. My wife's co-workers fight over who gets our surplus! I do have a question for the OP, or anyone else that has kept chickens. The birds obviously went into a molting phase during the winter, but now in June a few of them still have bald patches mostly on the lower back area. I have examined them up close and see no sign of insects, could the rooster be causing this? The hens don't seem to squabble or pick on each other much, though I have seen them pecking each other occasionally. The rooster seems to do a good job of breaking up any fighting amongst the hens. I feed them a complete organic crumble mix plus raw veggie scraps ect (no meat or greasy/salty stuff). They also free range full time on about 3 acres so I don't think overcrowding or boredom is the issue. Overall the whole experience has been great, after the initial set up they are really low maintenance, and not much of a hassle to keep. The noises they make are very soothing and relaxing for me, and even the coop maintenance has turned out to be a nice relaxing chore! Like others have said the egg quality is top notch, be warned you will be ruined for commercially produced eggs after you have eaten these. One last question on predators, does anyone know if the western red tailed hawk is capable of taking a chicken? I also wanted to chime in on cold weather, we got up to -25 degree temps this winter and it did not faze them a bit, not one speck of frostbite. Just keep the wet poop cleaned out of the coop, and keep the wind off of them and they will do fine.
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Jun 15, 2011 07:30
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| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 22:16 |
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