11 Jul 2004
Not gonna do it ...

miss two days without a post, that is! We've just been really, really busy of late. But I did find time yesterday to post some "chicken hints" to a Heathen homesteading list, and as it gives some details of our current farm operations, I figured it'd be OK to reproduce here. The context was a previous post about bears killing poultry

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I've been following the discussion of poultry here with some interest, and thank the gods that the worst killers of my poultry has been (so far, I must add) the occassional coyote and the water tank for the cattle ... which the little buggers tend to drown themselves in!

We keep laying hens and raise meat chickens: the former tend to be rare and/or heritage breeds, but for the latter we go with the standard Cornish crosses available from nearly any hatchery. The rare breeds are actually somewhat easier to care for, but they don't grow nearly as fast, and we sell about 1000 chickens a year, so speed is somewhat important to us. All of our chickens are "free range", and I haven't seen a tick here in a couple of years.

Interestingly enough, the meat chicks also keep the fly problem with cattle manageable - they'll literally ride around on our Highlands and pick the flies right off, should one dare land within reach! The cows seem to like it alot, although the sheep can get a bit disturbed, when a chick get's it's feet entangled in the fleece, and go running off across the paddock! If I had a movie camera I could film "The Charge of the Chicken Brigade" with no problem, although the "horses" would have horns and fleece!

Somebody mentioned to keep the henhouse or coop at least a foot off the ground. DO THIS! It keeps critters (rats, skunks, etc.) away, especially if you have barn cats on the prowl. It's also a lot easier to clean up if you can get under it with a hose/power washer once in a while. And it can provide a quick shelter for the chicks in a sudden summer storm.

Another thing we discovered: straw is great bedding for older hens that will roost, but it's terrible for meat chicks - they'll lay in it and it'll end up discoloring the breast meat somewhat. No difference in taste, but it can look a bit off, and put off some consumers. Use wood shavings or chips instead - we get ours from a local mill for $5 a truckload, which is more than enough for a typical season. My neighbor bought a wood chipper and makes his own - he also no longer has the yearly brush pile from his wood lot to burn off. We "splurged" last time and got a couple of bags of cedar shavings from the co-op and spread them on top - it helps with the odor alot.

A friend taught me a great trick for a cheap brooder: used water tanks from the highway department or local farmers. These are the huge plastic tanks you see on the back of flatbed trucks at construction sites used to spread water to keep the dust down, or water the newly laid sod. They paid us to haul one away! We also sold the valve we salvaged out of ours to a local farmer for $70 - he got a deal, as new ones retail for about $200. And after a couple of hours with a curcular saw and a drill, we had a fashioned a very usable brooder - we have an old screen door that we used as the main doorway (in conjunction with the panel we cut from the tank). We mounted an old rack from a warehouse shelf that we picked up as a holder for the heat lamps, and got an old bathroom vent fan to provide extra airflow. We also cut a hatch in the very top and mounted a roof vent. It kept the little ones nice and warm during our colder April nights. The only real drawback is that at night, with the lamps running, it looks like a flying saucer landed in our yard.

We got a 2000 gallon one, a friend used a 1000 gal. model to good effect as well - same base diameter (about 12 ft.), it's just not as tall. It'll only hold them (about 200 chicks) for a couple of weeks, but it's a lot more secure and manageable than trying to brood in the regular coops or the henhouse.

Just be careful if you get one off a farmer that it's not been used for pesticide applications: most commercial pesticides are solvent based at some level and will actually permanently contaminate the plastic tank. An old herbicide tank can be used, but we have heard that it should be power washed it inside and out first with a strong surfacent soap, and then let sit for six months or so, power washed again, and there won't be detectable residue. YMMV. But overall, I don't think it's worth it to use one, when the water tanks are so readily available. Besides, I cordially despise the mass use of herbicides for weed control, and really don't want to support it in any fashion (although the recycling aspect is attractive).

Another hint, which may regionally applicable. We no longer slaughter and process our own chickens - we'll do one or two for our own use, but to do them in batches for sale, we've found a local Amish farmer that processes for us. He charges us $1.50 per bird. By the time we purchased supplies (ices, bags, usw), set up the facility and spent 8 hours doing 100 chickens, we figured we'd spent between $2.50 and $3 per bird. I know of at least five Amish families in this area that offer this service to their "Englisher" neighbors - and it's well worth it.

I really do like my laying hens - they're kinda cool, in a lizard like way. But I have a decided love/hate relationship with the meat chickens. At $12 to $14 a bird, they're very profitable, and they've very tasty as well, and they keep the bugs really controlled, but I now understand completely where the saying "dirty bird" comes from ... chickens.

A final note: if you're a smoker, be careful where you throw your butts if you have chicks around. They won't hurt the birds, as the chicks won't really eat them, but they will pick them up and trot around, and it's just psychologically disturbing to see a chicken running thru your yard with a cigarette in it's beak... perhaps I could sell some "smoked chicken" ....

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