I'm thinking of raising chickens that lay eggs

Here is the set up I am going to look at tonight... what do you think? they want 700, but are moving... maybe I can get them down... what should I ask?

OK, we have 7 chooks and one rooster, they are in a fairly large home-made cage down the back, we feed them chicken pellets or wheat (throw it over the ground, they love it) We use a scrap bucket which we scrape our leftovers into after meals and then throw in the chook pen, water for drink (obviously) and throw some grass in every now and then, make the wire of the chook house go about 1/2 a foot underground because foxes can dig under it otherwise.

More info later. Gotta go.



Roswell.

700$ seems kind of high IMO, but, those nesting boxes look pretty good,(an easy way to get eggs) still ,they have no where to perch. Chickens like to stretch their wings and fly a little up to a perch.
Maybe, you could just buy the nests and build the pen, yourself?
You would need concrete for 'footings' and chicken wire, and 4 4by4 posts. Also some way to make a door with a latch.

Yes, a black panther ate our chickens near Gainesville, Ga.
I KNOW it was, because one night I heard a womanly scream in the woods, (I thought it was a bobcat) then I heard our chickens cackle and then the cackling got farther and farther away.
The next day, no chickens, no eggs, not even any feather piles, like you usually would find.
I went to my neighbors (she was a widow and a light sleeper) She told me the panther screamed in her back yard, near her turnip patch and when she turned her back light on, it was a black panther.

ALSO, Roswell is right about the grass, too!
Mine LOVED grass and leaves!

They also need small gravel to help digestion, but, sometimes feed has that.
You can also feed them the shells from the eggs.

You can put down woodshavings and clean it out every now and then. (putting down new shavings.)

[edit on 9-10-2008 by Clearskies]

Thanks Clearskies....it looks like it could be added on to if I would want more run room. Problem is moving it home and the price. We could build our own... but would it be worth it right now in this weather? I think the price is a little high too. Salvage places would have windows and stuff for cheap if you wanted to build your own, I just don't know if I feel like building something right now. I am going to go look at it first with the fam and then see what we think.

I also would have to get the ground ready for it as we live on a sloping hill with very few flat areas.

reply to post by seagrass

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Maybe they'll take a lot less for JUST the roost.
the rest should be pretty easy to build.
Also, like someone else said, you don't need a rooster for eggs.
We had about 7 hens at a time.

She sold it to someone else while we were driving there this evening... which is nice because I never would have paid that for this coop. It was worth about $150 tops. So we will make up some plans for building in the spring and raising them from chicks so they are more friendly to us. There are some really nice designs out there to glean from.

reply to post by dgtempe

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Hey dgtempe
Maybe I can help you out a bit. Me and husband have raised chickens for years. It is very easy. No more than taking care of a domestic animal like a cat or a dog.
First off , if you are wanting to breed little chicks then you have to have a rooster. Last year we had around 36 hens to about 2-3 roosters.
And yes they mate, some people think you cant eat the eggs after they are fertilized but that is not true. roosters and hens mate just like any animal. You just have to make sure that when the hen lays the egg, you collect it and refrigerate it.
If you want chicks then leave about 5-6 eggs under the hen and she will lay on them until hatched. It takes about 3 weeks for the chicks to hatch.
We feed ours ground corn that we get at a mill. If the shells on your eggs ever start to get alittle thin, then you need to feed them oyster shells. This helps to harden the shells . Make sure they have water also.

And no need to buy alot of expensive stuff. If you have a outbuilding, that will work. Build you a ladder in the building and just set it up against one of the walls. This is wear chickens like to roost at night. Make laying boxes and fill it with some straw or hay for the hens to lay in.
Thats pretty much it. Its really cheap to raise chickens.
If you want a chicken for supper, grab you one and wring its neck. lol
Remember if you want to eat one of the chickens make sure they are young ones because the older hens make tough meat. Good Luck....

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic

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Cool! I'll be sure to read up on everything you guys have provided me.

Craigslist, huh???
I need to look there too!!!!! Thanks for all the encouragement guys!

I have to do something with myself and during times like these, it just sounds like a great idea- the thought of for years doesnt appeal to me.

Wish me luck!!!!

reply to post by LiquidCrystalz

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Roosters huh?

I hope i dont get in trouble although this is a farm i still have neighbors in back of me....

Let me ask you this, i have a barn which was rented to horses but they are gone now, would such a place work for raising chickens?

reply to post by Clearskies

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Wow! That;s awesome!!!!! Check it out, looks more like a resort for chickens!!!!!

Please let me know!!! Good luck!!!!

Heck yeah! just make it safe for them at night... critters you don't see love eggs too. If you can secure the barn it would be a perfect thing to do with an empty building. Oh and offer your neighbor some free eggs once in a while...lol

if i want the eggs to eat, dont get any males cuz they will fertilize the egg and thats not what u wanna eat. kthxbi.

however, if you do want eggs that hatch, get a male and put him in a separate part of the coop and leave 1 or 2 hens with him

BH, couldn't they just eat worms and bugs and stuff they peck at in the grass?

sorry but...NOOOOOOOO!

if you feed them shells they think they can eat their own eggs and you get none for yourself...

I'll post some pictures of our chook house later.



Roswell.

aw man! i would have loved to have seen some pictures of the inside of that coop it looked really neat.

I was sitting outside a couple days ago, and visualized myself as a child checking the chicken coops for eggs when I visited my aunts, it was so fun!
...and then this thread came up!

I can tell you what it looked like.. she let us look at it even though the lady was there who bought it. It was just about 4x4 square with dollar store tiles that looked like rocks on the floor to make it easier to clean. It had a string attatched to the pop door to close them in (at the top of the gang plank) There were 6 nesting boxes on the back with doors that open so you can reach into the nests. One door on the side to scoop the sawdust into a wheelbarrow. And old windows for light and ventilation. The run was 8x8 and was a little small I thought for 7 chickens. They had no where to go to get out of the rain, so the ground was a muddy stinky mess.(My coop will have a roof over it because it rains so much here.) I think I will actually use the area under the coop for them too, that's a lot of wasted space.. this is the design I like the most right now from backyard chickens... we could put something like that together if we scrounge the bargain building supply stores. I can find old screen doors and windows at junk stores.. we have a place like that about a mile from here.

reply to post by seagrass

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^^^^^^^
Nice!!! That's the best I've seen.


Roswell;
I didn't know that about NOT feeding the birds eggshells!

It didn't seem to affect ours too much, but, I didn't give them shells often.

dg sweetheart, here's a tip I learned the hard way about raising chickins.

Don't name your chickens!! When you have to kill one to eat, and it's name is like "Becky" or "Pearl" it's almost like murder.

I still have some residual guilt and It's been almost 5 years.

Hey sea, why don't you rent that chicken house to me. It's nicer than where I live now.

How much? I'm quiet and well behaved and have good references.

[edit on 11-10-2008 by whaaa]