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Small Cabin Forum / General Forum / Chickens
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Maggie
Member
# Posted: 30 Mar 2014 19:04
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Ok my information loaded friends.....
We will not be living yet, on our little piece of heaven for a couple of years.
Do I have to wait until we live there full time to keep chickens or is there a way to take care of them part-time?

Crazy question. But I am curious......

BaconCreek
Member
# Posted: 30 Mar 2014 20:04
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I wondered about that as well. I have been reading in Mother Earth magazine that chickens are something you must take care of everyday. I would like to raise chickens but will wait until retirement.

SandyR
Member
# Posted: 30 Mar 2014 20:08
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I have chickens. We are down to 9 girls.

You need to take care of them every day. They need water every day of they will die. They do drink a lot.

Any more questions? I love talking chickens!!

toyota_mdt_tech
Member
# Posted: 30 Mar 2014 20:25
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If there is wildlife around, everything wants to kill them. a Nice coop, with a fence, if there is a water tray, it needs an incandescent bulb to keep water from freezing. Can fox's dig under the coop? You could lay chicken wire under the floor, then cover it with the dirt, so a digger cant get in. But someone needs to let them out by day and secure them at night. If its left open, the varmints can get in, eat the eggs, kill the chickens. Mesh top on it for birds of prey. Nice thing about chickens, you get plenty of eggs and poultry.

old243
Member
# Posted: 30 Mar 2014 21:27
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They need a constant supply of water, or they will quit laying. You also need to gather the eggs daily or they will likely start eating the eggs. This is the start of a disaster. You will have to start killing off the worst offenders, they are tasty in the pot though, so not a complete loss. I don't think being an absentee farmer, is a good idea.
old243

Don_P
Member
# Posted: 30 Mar 2014 22:37
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Once you get a flock the next thing you learn is that eeverybody loves chicken. This batch of Rhodie layers started as 25 about a year ago, we're down to 13 now, 5 since Christmas, one to a dog we were dogsitting, 4 to a hawk. Still better than a friend who closed up the coop for the night with a possum inside. I'm not sure that he's out of trouble yet Once a prey animal gets a taste you've set up a feeding pattern that is hard to break. With the hawk we were free ranging, they are generally an alert breed but we are in the forest, then we went to enclosure with more and more strings overhead which works for the big redtails but this was a small hawk. He couldn't even take off with them and one of us was there within moments of each attack so we put all 4 of those into the fridge. They are now in a full enclosure of chicken wire with a moveable 10x10 room that we usually use for cornish meat birds (cause those big dumb white birds just sit there and say "dinner time"). We move that around the main run area to give them somewhere new when they wear out the area they are in. We'll move the whole works when they've made it around.

Through the winter we usually give them warm water twice a day when the coop is away from power. When it is close to the barn we plug in a light. Doing that on a timer can keep production up through the winter as well.

Our next batch of meaties will come later next month. I need to make a new moveable pen for them. They need to be moved daily, they are eating and pooping machines. We usually get together with several neighbors and process 20-30 at a time. Many hands, good food and good company make it lighter work. You get to learn from one another, share equipment and tips. We also got our food safety extension agent to give us a presentation on how to process correctly.

We had a taste testing last fall with a heritage bird, one of our cornish and a store bought amish cornish, all cooked the same. The store bought bird was the same size as ours and indistinguishable by appearance so that was blind, nobody was fooled. The heritage bird was obviously different and won best flavor where the farm cornish was best texture and good flavor. You'll never eat another straight out commercial bird given the choice again. You'll also find you're eating real beef, pig, sheep, goat and produce if you raise enough meat or eggs and do it well.

PatrickH
Member
# Posted: 31 Mar 2014 13:37
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A friend of mine was able to by just being there on the weekends he had 3 in a mobile type coop he would get feed blocks he called them for the week and move the coop to fresh grass had a big watering container did this for several years one was killed by an animal and he ate the others he had lots of eggs used a light bulb and hay in the winter, central Wisconsin he moved and has new ones in the back yard. In Montana the only thing we did everyday was collect eggs you can get big or multiple food and water containers there pretty easy to take of.

Maggie
Member
# Posted: 31 Mar 2014 20:49
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Thank you!
I loved all the responses.......

silverwaterlady
Member
# Posted: 1 Apr 2014 06:43
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While I don't know anything about raising chickens, my thought is that you would attract wild animals to your cabin that normally would stay away. I can buy eggs from a local farmer near my cabin. Maybe some of you that don't spend a lot of time at your cabins can as well.

rayyy
Member
# Posted: 1 Apr 2014 07:52
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You have to think more about keeping the predators out than keeping the chickens in.I have lost an entire flock to a fox in the past.He dug a hole under the coop and got in.I have caught a raccoon in my coop who pushed it's way under a corrugated light panel and popped the nails right out as well as a rat that climbed through a opening in the door once.It is amazing how smart these critters can be.A cat once reached through the fencing and snatched a half grown chick,too.Just about the time you think you out foxed them they prove you wrong and out fox you.If you let your chicken free roam they will always be potential prey.Right now I have 7 hens all one year old and all laying 7 eggs a day so now I have eggs coming out my ears!There is nothing better than a real farm fresh back yard egg.You will never want to eat another store bought egg ever again.

TheWildMan
Member
# Posted: 1 Apr 2014 08:01
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you can't leave them alone for more than a day. you can't free range them when your away and they would need to be cooped up. they could easily run out of food or water or a raccoon or fox could get in the coop and you won't have anything left when you get back

old243
Member
# Posted: 1 Apr 2014 12:10
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wild. You would likely have lots of feathers. old243

caveman
Member
# Posted: 3 Apr 2014 18:12
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I have free range chickens that I tend to on the weekends. After being raised in the coop until about 6 months old, I turned them out, there were 6 total. Gave away 1 rooster, ate the ornery one, left one with the hens. They roost in the pen at night with the door open, lay in the nest boxes in the pen and I have placed a chicken feeder that holds about 15 pounds of feed in there, along with two buckets of water.
I keep a baited trap for critters and have caught 5 raccoons, three possums and 4 cats so far. I get the eggs before leaving on Sunday and hope for the best. so far one hen has been taken by who knows what, as the remains were not found. I suspect coyote or dog

SandyR
Member
# Posted: 6 Apr 2014 18:43
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Mine are totally spoiled with kitchen scraps and like to be picked up and squeezed

They also come running to me from across the yard when I call them

We lost one to the cold this year. She was the ornery one.

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