uBuilder Plans

Q - Did you ever have a chicken as a pet?
I think they're really cute.....so just wanted to know....
A-Chickens make GREAT pets! I have had chickens as pets for about 30 years now. When they are small they do require additional care, mostly keeping them warm, as they eat and drink by themselves from the start. If they are handled as babies gently and often they become very trustworthy adults. I will say the hens make superior pets, roosters sometimes become very nasty and mean. One of my pet roosters, a black Old English bantam, grew up to terrorize the entire family. He would chase my poor sister around the back yard and keep her trapped on the slide of our swing set! We had to get rid of him. Another of my pet chickens used to fly onto my shoulder and ride around like a pirates' parrot! Right now my married daughter has three pet Black Star hens. They come running to her and sit on her lap to be petted. The best thing about pet chickens is that my pet makes a wonderful omelet for my breakfast!
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Q - I would like to know what breed of chickens are good for laying in the winter? We like the brown layers, we also sell eggs to family and friend, and to some who hear we sell eggs.
A- If you are interested in large brown eggs and lots of them I would recommend buying a hybrid egg layer such as a Black-sex link. This breed is hybrid of two very reliable breeds the Rhode Island Red and the Barred Rock. The hybrids will outlay hens of either parent breed. These are also larger hens weighing around 5 pounds and this helps them to winter better. The larger size also makes them nice as stewing hens after they are past the laying years. I usually keep my hens fro two years, before replacement. Other good choices include Black Australorps, Ameraucanas, Chanteclers (which were developed in Canada), and White Rock hens. All of these large breed hens are strong layers and should winter well.

If you want to ensure winter eggs good poultry care is very important. Maintaining good nutrition and providing plenty of fresh liquid water in winter is somewhat difficult. I like to supplement my hens with alfalfa chops or even leafy alfalfa hay in the winter as well as giving them food scraps from my table. They love to scratch around in the hay, and eat lots of it, which helps keep egg yolks nice and dark even in winter. The table scraps I feed include most everything, but potatoes which the hens don't like (some people believe potato peels are poison to chickens) and chicken meat, which can transmit diseases. I believe the scraps stimulate the hens appetites during the winter.

Maintaining conditions that are comfortable for the hens includes good ventilation as well as protection from freezing temperatures. Moisture in the coop is what can cause toes and combs to freeze. Chickens that are suffering from frost bite are in no condition to lay eggs.

Lastly, light is most important for winter eggs. Scientifically a 14 hour "day" will produce the most eggs. The light does not have to be intense, just enough light so the hens can see in the coop to get up and start their day. I use a night light bulb on a timer in my City Biddy. You should not need more than a 60 watt bulb in most coops. Set the timer to turn on early in the morning and then shut off during the day. This way the hens can go to bed naturally at night.
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Q - Ordered straight run help! I ordered straight run on like 8 different breeds about 44 chicks and turkeys. What do I do with the extra males and how long can I keep them before they start fighting? Thank you for your help.
A- Personally I love a fried chicken dinner. It is hard to dispose of roosters any other way. Most people with pets have enough already. If you can not do the deed, I would advertise them in a newspaper. There are lots of folks out there who will still clean their own birds. Just make the price reasonable.
As far as keeping them from fighting, they should be OK until they reach sexual maturity usually about 12 weeks. That is also the time to run your ad. After this time I would separate the boys from the girls, maybe keeping your favorite rooster with the girls. Too many males in the hen house causes competition and fighting, if you decide to keep a rooster you need to be sure and maintain your dominance over him or he could become a dangerous problem. Roosters ARE OPTIONAL. I have hens only and have lots of nice eggs.
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Q - How do you tell a rooster from a hen?
A- Chickens can be manually sexed at hatching. Trained professionals gently press the anal opening and look for the male sexual organ which will protrude. NOT for the beginner!

How to tell a rooster from a hen from visual cues varies with the breed, but generally you can look for these traits:

1. Roosters have a larger comb (fleshy piece of the top of the head) than hens. - Chicken combs come in six basic shapes including: single comb (which stands up straight with several points and is probably most common), rose comb, pea comb, buttercup comb, cushion comb and v-shaped comb.
2. The wattles which are the fleshy appendages under the chickens neck are also larger in the male.
3. Finally, in all but a few breeds (called hen feathered breeds) the feathers of the hackle (neck feathers) and the saddle feathers (feathers on back in front of the tail) are pointed in the rooster and round on a hen.

You do need to wait until the adult plumage is in and the bird is mature to make certain you have identified correctly, but you can get a good idea as chicks just by comparing them.
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Q - Have you ever re-homed battery hens? Is it a good experience?
A- I have never done this, but the first thing that I would do is make sure the birds are a physically healthy as possible. Worm them and give them some Terramycin (an antibiotic) in their water for about a week.
I would also isolate them from other birds until I was sure of their health.
After this, please be aware that most battery hens are at least one if not two years old when they are culled. This means that their best egg laying years are behind them. Most of the breeds of chickens used for battery laying are also nervous flighty breeds like the white leghorn, so their pen will defiantly need a top and they are likely to be quiet wild acting. Many battery hens have had little or NO Human contact. They are fed, watered automatically and even their eggs are collected mechanically.
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Q - I am getting ex battery hens next Saturday. Is there any special food I have to buy to help them settle in?
A- When you first get these hens I would be sure and quarantine them for a period from any other birds you currently own.
I would start them on a commercial ration for laying hens. I would also give them some Terramycin in their water for the first week and then add a water soluble vitamin to their water for another couple of weeks. Both of these are available from Tractor Supply Co. I would be sure to check them for parasites such as lice and mites and dust them if necessary. I would dip both legs in mineral oil to kill any leg mites and I would also worm them within the first few weeks.
Keep in mind these hens are used to very close quarters. So for the first little while I would still keep them in a cage. Gradually get them used to more open spaces. Be aware that they may be missing feathers and so are prone to sunburn, so keep them in a shady location until their feathers improve. Adding extra protein to their ration will help with the feathers.
After the first medical treatments & adjustment periods the hens should be able to be treated just like any other chickens.
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Q - Can a cockerel have claws under wings?
A- There is a small sharp "claw" on the first joint of a chicken's wing. If you look at a raw chicken ready to cook it looks like a little thumb or something. There is a little claw-like thing on this "thumb". Some of the chickens that I clean to cook, have a pretty large claw there.
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Q - I have 8 chickens and none have layed yet will they at night or during the day?
A- Usually hens lay during the day. They should have a nest box set up a quiet spot of the hen house. They will do better if the nest box is in a shadowy spot. They feel safer there and will use it more frequently. They will lay usually in early morning when mature enough (usually around 21 weeks). A chicken laying cycle is roughly one egg every 26 hours and the eggs tend to get larger with age.
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Q - I have 8 chickens, 1 Amber Star, 2 Buff Orpingtons, and 5 other mixed hens. What breed will produce most eggs?
A- Probably the Amber star. Part of the reason for crossing two breeds of chicken to produce a hybrid is that often the hybrid will outproduce both parent lines and should also show good vigor in other ways as well. (Like health) Most of the hybrid breeds like the Amber star have one parent either a White Leghorn or a Rhode Island Red, the other parent can be from many other breeds. Usually the brown egg layers have the RIR parent and the white egg hybrids the Leghorn, but sometimes (in the case of a Red Star) they have both as parents. Another advantage to hybridizing in this way is the chickens are often easier to sex. Many times all males are, for example, white or barred and the females are dark colors.
This is why they are often referred to as sex-links.
Chickens are weird in that unlike people the chromosome that decides the sex of the offspring is passed through the female. So there are actually "girl" eggs and "boy" eggs. Another unusual thing about them is that daughters look like dad and sons look like mom genetically.
So to raise a chicken that lays a lot of eggs you have to select a hen that lays lots of eggs, hatch them, keep her sons and breed them to other hens. The granddaughters of the high egg laying hen (through her son) will be high volume egg layers like grandma. While the good egg layers own daughters, will look and lay like the ancestors of their dad!
WEIRD and WAY TOO complicated.
I have some links to some good poultry websites in our links section. There I believe you will find answers to most of the other questions that you will have as a new chicken keeper.
Welcome to the chicken lovers club!
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Q - Why is bird poo white and every other poo brown??
A- It is both, the white part is the urates- a more solidified form of urine. There is usually a darker clump near the center that is a little more solid (usually brown or green in colour)- that part is the feces.
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Q - I have just got 2 18 weeks old hens, fully vaccinated, how long till they lay eggs.?
Do you have any tips on what I should be doing? I have been putting them in at night and let them out all day.
A- Depending on the breed, they should start to lay at 24-25 weeks. Hybrids start laying earlier and lay more per year, but burn out sooner, (2-3 years) whereas some pure breeds can lay for 5 years or more.
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Q - How Do I Stop My Rooster From Attacking Me?
I have one rooster that I raised with my laying hens that are five months old. He was fine in the beginning but now he wants to jump and claw me every time I go to feed them. I know he is being protected of the hens, but I was wondering if there was any way I could get him to stop. If I separate him from the hens will he get worse?
A- Once they have started attacking it is VERY hard to get them to stop. He thinks he is dominate over you! I am giving you a web site to check out that should help.
The Easy Chicken for Beginners - Keeping your Roosters Sane
shilala.homestead.com/roosters.ht...
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Q - At what age can I safely introduce my new biddies? Do they need to be feathered out and flying, or can the be put with the general population sooner?
A-Introducing new chickens to an existing flock can be a dangerous prospect for the younger birds. If babies are hatched into the flock by a broody hen they are automatically accepted as flock members, but chicks from other sources could be in real danger. The old birds will treat the younger ones as invaders and attack possibly even killing the young ones. Introducing young birds into the flock can be done safely but you must take several precautions.

First make sure the new birds are fully feathered this will afford them the best protection and they will be stronger.
Second if the young birds can be penned separate from the main flock , yet with in sight and sound of each other such as in an adjacent pen, some of the introductions can take place through the fencing which will make the transaction easier.
Finally, on a small home flock, I recommend the use of anti-peck bits on a temporary basis. The device that I prefer is a "C" shaped piece of plastic
that is inserted through the old birds mouth with each end of the "C" clipping into the nostril holes of the beak. With this device attached the birds can eat and drink fairly normally, but can not peck hard enough to break skin and can not jerk out the feathers of the younger birds.

It works like this. Capture your old birds and place a bit securely on each one. This is easiest to do at night. The following day you may introduce
your young biddies to the flock. Watch them with the old birds for a while. The old birds will try to attack and haze the younger ones to establish their dominance. This is normal and ok. The old birds will not however, be able to do major injury to them. After a day or two you can begin to remove the bits from the older birds. Try to take bits off of the birds lowest on the dominance scale first and only remove bits from a few at a time. Watch carefully for a day or so each time you remove the bits from some of the oldest birds. If a certain bird is being aggressive and picking on the young ones, simply re-bit that bird for a few more days. Slowly work your way through the flock until all of the bits are removed. This usually should take two or three weeks. Since the old birds could not harm the young ones, they soon give up the major aggression and get the pecking order worked out sooner with no injuries or fatalities. This seems like a lot of work to some people, but I have actually seen a group of otherwise friendly hens maim, kill and in one instance gut a still living bird! This is really the best approach. This is another reason that many books recommend an "all in - all out" practice for poultry keeping. I am like you however and usually prefer to simply add new replacement biddies from time to time.

If you look in my poultry links there is a link for Smith Poultry and Game supplies. This is where I usually buy my bits, which are reusable by the way.
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Q - If a chicken had lips could it whistle?
A - My cockatiel whistles and yet he has no lips.
Cows have lips, but don't whistle.
My teakettle whistles and yet it has no head.
Trains whistle - wind can whistle - and yet ....
my husband has a head and lips and all he can do is blow out air. Go figure.
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HOUSING --

Q -What is the best housing for my small backyard chicken flock?
A- The City Biddy Hen House of course!