Do you have chickens at your barn?

[Dressage Art]

Do you have chickens at your barn? I'm thinking of getting a couple of egg laying hens, but want them to roam around in my back yard as a free range chickens. Was wondering how are chickens with dogs and horses? Can they stay put in one place or they will wonder off and be eaten by dog and be stumped by a horse?

Please tell me your experience about chickens with dogs and horses.

Disclaimer: I never had chickens, but really want to have just a few.

[Ted the Peep 'Ho]

Yep! They like to roost in trees which doesn't freak me out but freaks out some of the other horses if something scares them and they all fall out of the trees (they don't fly very well). They like to um, "do the nasty" like ALL THE TIME, and when we pass by them, Mom shields my eyes as she thinks I am too young and impressionable. And they all move like Mick Jagger of the Rolling STones, which is very disconcerting. But you do get eggs, which you need to make stud muffin horse treats, so they are worth it. I think they also eat bugs.

[Calvincrowe]

I have a flock of layers (well, I'm down to 4 old biddies, but I still get eggs enough for me and to sell--adding on again this spring!)

I pen mine. They have a coop built inside my barn, a door through the barn wall out into their large, well fenced yard and it is covered with fish line to bar the hawks. I live in coyote country, plus I have 5 dogs who would love to chase/catch/kill my hens. If you want to have a steady supply of easy to hand eggs (as in, not having to search high and low for wherever they've hid them) and not have to replace hens twice a year, then pen them.

If you like poop on everything in your barn, your flower beds dug up, and the fun sight of hens flying for their lives, let them out.

As to horses and hens? They coexist very nicely--few horses harm them deliberately (if you have a dog-stomper..might not transfer well) and most grow to like hens. They do pick through poop piles for tasty bits and your fly population might go down.

They are charming creatures, very talkative and gentle. Easy to care for, but fairly fragile health wise, especially when babies. They need clean water at all times and laying food when the time comes. They'll eat all your gone-bad veggies, too!

[AKB]

We got 6 hens when my daughter took a poultry class in Ag school and had the hens for about 7 years. Our dogs, Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, were always very gentle with the hens. Our horses did well with them. We had to lock the hens in their pen at night, as otherwise foxes would eat them. During the wintertime, we kept them in an enclosed house with a heat lamp and heated water during the colder hours, and in the pen during the warmer hours of the day. Eventually, three died of old age, two were eaten by foxes, one by a terrier. Overall, we enjoyed the hens, even though they were sometimes time consuming. I hear that roosters are much more difficult than hens.

[MistyBlue]

I want chickens in the worst way. Eggs are a bonus (and fresh eggs are WAY better than store bought!) but I really want them for tick control.
Lots of people around here have chickens...they free roam during the day and some are cooped at night and others roost in trees. It's not uncommon to drive by a house or farm and see chickens near the side of the road scratching...they all seem to know the "chicken crossing the road" jokes because they really do watch for traffic before crossing. :lol: Chickens flapping out of trees can be a tad spooky but horses will get used to it. Mine are pretty used to the turkeys that come tumbling 60 feet down from the trees like insane huge feathered bowling balls.
I'd coop them, in the coldest part of winter with a heat lamp. I've seen chickens (had them growing up) who have frozen their parts and it's sad. We have tons of coyotes and many owners do lose a few annually to coyotes if they're not cooped during the dark/sunset hours. I've seen more than one hawk flapping around carrying a chicken too.
If you do a google search there are some pretty intersting chicken BBs that will happily answer any questions you might have. You'd be surprised at how many people are chicken people!

[t. nason]

I know of one trainer that has them at his barn. He said that the horses get use to seeing them fly around. Will say horses at his barn don't seem to spook when the chickens fly around. Also they seem to be smart enough to know when a new horse comes to barn and go up on rafters of that stall.

[gooselover]

I had chickens AND turkeys around my horses and dogs. Unfortunately, we ended up with a case of histoplasmosis that killed two of my 6 mo old english bulldogs. Bulldogs cannot tolerate this fungus at all because of their "no nose" syndrome.

However, everyone got along fine, but the chickens and the turkeys are gone. FYI, turkeys make GREAT pets and are VERY affectionate!

[Chardavej]

We have chickens, when we got them we kept them in a chicken coop day and night for about a week, then after that let them out in the morning and at dusk they will go back in and we lock them up. We have too or racoons and coyotes kill them.

They wander all around the horses and don't freak on them and the horses don't bother them. Now dogs, if the dogs aren't prone to chase them (cats too) they are fine.

We get great eggs and also keep the fly population down and break up and scatter the manure.

[SarahandSam]

We had them wandering around at my old barn. Started off with 4 regular-sized ones and a little bantam rooster. Fairly sure the big ones were all roosters as well. They free-roamed--they came with the barn when the owners acquired it, and weren't too friendly, except the little guy. His name was Henry and he was adorable--would come running when you called and eat trail mix out of your hand. Two of the big ones disappeared shortly after the BOs took the barn, probably from coyotes, and then poor Henry disappeared in the middle of winter--body was found out behind the barn, so he either wandered and froze or died of natural causes outside. The two remaining roosters eventually discovered the nice, warm hen house next door and moved over there permanently. While they were all there though it was fun--they'd sleep on the stall partitions, frequently had little spats where cliques formed and some weren't speaking to each other, and were generally hugely entertaining. My horse liked to sneak up on them as they slept and nudge their tails with his nose, making them wake up and freak out.

RIP Henry: http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a202/sarahlorax/Maya/MayaandHenry.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a202/sarahlorax/Henry.jpg

[Catersun]

I have chickens that when/if the horses move to my side of the road will be hanging out with them. Hubby has pics of his horse with chickens roosting on her back in her younger years. My gang will be allowed to free range during the day again as soon as I get my privacy fencing up on the side where I have a neighbor as they keep trying to go visit. If you live in the south a bonus is THEY EAT FIRE ANTS!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!! I'm allergic to the little monster ants, so this is a HUGE bonus for me. I cackle and laugh the evil witch laugh when they find a new ant hill to pillage. It is wonderful! lol Good Luck with your chickens Yahoo groups Chickens 101 is a great resource.

[JSwan]

I AM UP TO MY EARS IN EGGS!!!!

Green eggs
Blue eggs
Brown eggs

eggseggseggseggseggs

Naked Necks, Ameracaunas, Speckled Sussex, and Australorps.

And Kato, my little yellow friend.

(see rule #8) http://inspectorclouseau.com/rulesofspeech.html

I put 14 chickens in the freezer last week.

No ticks on the dogs, no bugs in the barnyard. Horses don't bat an eye.

Mine are free range, and put themselves to bed at night. I really enjoy hearing them singing, it's quite beautiful.

[4Martini]

how old do chickens have to be to lay eggs? (sorry if this sounds mean, but) Can you get chicks in the spring, eat eggs in the summer and drummets come winter or do you have to keep them for multiple years? How warm do they have to stay- can they just have a stall with a run or do they need heat?

Our city just changed the laws to allow chickens in the city too!

[JSwan]

My chicks arrived at the end of April.

Started laying about a month ago.

Put some in the freezer last Saturday. (guess that will gross out some of you but we raise most of our food) Keep 'em too long and they get tough, and the cost of feed will make any cost savings vanish.

You'll need to read up on care, there are so many breeds and ways to care for them it'd be hard to describe it sufficiently. Some breeds are more cold hardy than others.

And it will also depend on if you want single or dual purpose birds.

Plenty of good info on the Net - I bought my chicks from Strombergs and was very pleased with the chicks. All arrived healthy and warm very active.

At my place we just used a stall in the old barn (actually a machine shed converted into a barn). We put in a raised floor, roosts and nesting boxes (we made our own out of scrap). I raised the chicks in a stock tank with wire over it.

This time of year you might have to be extra careful about keeping them warm. Maybe reading up on it over the winter and then getting chicks in the spring might be safer.

Funny story - young horse was fine with the chickens running around. The other day the Australorps decided to have a hen party near him. He Was Not Amused. Weird horse - a bunch of hens clacking and clucking scared a 1500lb Percheron cross.

[Laytian]

How do you encourage chickens to lay their eggs in their pen instead of while they're roving about??? :eek::confused:

There are a few young hens at the barn, and the owner recently started letting them out during the day to wander around. She tries to get them back inside their pen (not really a coop, it's basically just a large, chainlink pen with a cover on it) at night to avoid the foxes.

They were born last spring and were kept in the pen 24/7 until the last month or so. They had just started laying in the pen during the past couple of months, but now that they're out, they lay them wherever (usually no one finds them -- or maybe the foxes and barn dogs eat them, dunno).

Someone suggested keeping them in the pen until noon or so, saying that hens tend to lay at night or during the morning. The owner tried that, but it didn't seem to have any effect.

Suggestions??? :confused::confused:

[Calvincrowe]

Honestly? Free-range and egg production don't go hand in hand. If you are keeping hens for eggs, then they'll need to be confined with nest boxes available, as they like to lay in secluded places. Loose hens means an Easter egg hunt on a daily basis. They'll lay one egg a day, per hen, anytime during daylight hours. Mine are AM and afternoon layers...

We've always had layers--I just can't butcher, kudos to you JSwan for doing it, and you're right about butchering at about 6 months. Depending on breed, you'll start getting tiny pullet eggs at 6-9 months of age, and they'll lay reliably for 2+ years, after that it can get sporadic.

Layers will, well, lay more reliably than a dual purpose meat/layer. Meat chickens don't lay reliably. Avoid roosters unless you like to watch chicken sex, a lot. And you enjoy noise, or just like to piss off your neighbors. I got rid of my rooster because he tormented my hens. They are much happier without him.

I like Rhode Island Reds--big sturdy girls, big brown eggs, and substantial enough to eat if needed.

I sell my excess egg production to my co-workers. I make enough to buy all my hen's feed each month.

My horses like listening to them (to keep it HR;)) at night when they burble away on their roosts.

[TB or not TB?]

Chickens make everything happy :D Get a llama to guard them. :yes::yes:

P.S. JSwan why are you a greenie?

[Traum]

I had Rhode Island Reds in IL, they were wonderful birds :) I loved my girls, they'd follow me around and ride on my shoulder. And were damn good mousers too! In PA I had two polish silkie hens that roamed loose in the barn during the day. The horses could care less, unless one got closed into a stall, then the girls would scream bloody murder to get let out and the horses were usually pretty amused by that :)

They were smart too. They'd follow me with the feed cart and get what spilled along the way, or I'd toss them some just for fun. When we were on day turnout, the girls would scour all the mats under the feeders all morning. Then roost high on the hay pile all afternoon. I kept them actually in a dog crate in the feed room at night, we had a bad fox problem. I really miss my girls :sadsmile:

[nightsong]

I did. They would chase my mare away from her feed and eat it themselves, So I had to get rid of them. Aren't there disease problems, too?

[ReSomething]

We had some that we got at the feed store. Buy 50 lbs of chicken scratch and get six free chicks. We kept 3, rhode island red sex linked. They make a huge racket when they fly up. Mine were basically egg laying pets, they knew their names and one would perch on my arm (boy was that a shock the first time it happened). Had to move and gave them to some friends. There were dozens of them at the trainng center, little bantams. Every once in a while one would fly up to perch on the rafters (making the huge racket) and my buddy's colt would have a spaz. Hens are great. Roosters not so much.

[eponacelt]

A barn I used to board at had chickens and they were free range, penned at night. Never a real issue with the horses (emus were a different story, though!)

The only incident we ever really had was with my young horse. We don't know exactly what happened, but he was in his field one day, sniffing a chicken, following it around as it made its rounds of the manure piles. This is a horse that has always been too curious for his own good. So another boarder sees him doing this, and turns back to what she was doing. The next minute, she glances back at him and sees the horse, with the chicken in his teeth, flinging his head up and down so that the chicken (now dead) is hitting him right between the eyes. Although we don't know exactly what happened, we think the horse nipped at the chicken and got enough of it between his teeth to pick it up, and then accidentally killed it. But ever since, he's been known as "Bechkam, the chicken killer" To this day, I still wish I had a picture of it.

[WaningMoon]

Chicken can do good such as eat bugs and scatter manure very effectively. But once I learned that botulism serotypes C + D are both present in poultry droppings I kept them contained and finally got rid of them. They are cool birds, I liked my chickens. I could call them and they'd come down out of the trees and three would even sit on my shoulder.

I did like them much better as loose chickens though for sure. And with the chance for botulism existing I chose to get rid of them. Now days though there is a vaccine for botulism so may it would now be okay to have them around loose as long as the horses were vaccinated.When I had chickens it was back in the 70's adn 80's. The article below though still mentions the botulism risk and that you should not spread chicken manure on hay fields too.



http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/info_botulism.htm

[TikiSoo]

How do you encourage chickens to lay their eggs in their pen instead of while they're roving about???

:lol: Could YOU lay an egg while roaming? They generally leave eggs in their "hutch".
My husband brought home chicks every year when science class did the incubater thing. I loved them, had Barred Rock hens and a Leghorn rooster. The dog loved chasing the rooser, never the hens. And no one bothered the chickens, but I did keep them cooped in the barn aisle at night with the dog as protection. Loved having fresh eggs, the watchdog rooster crowing, kept the bug population down to near zero, etc.
I noticed early in the morning, my pony had yellow lips! I looked all over her pasture to see funny roots that she could be chewing. Nope. One day I caught a hen in pony's trough. She decided THIS was where she should lay her eggs. Well, pony decided anything in her trough was a bon bon for her and she'd eat it, shell & all!
Another mis-hap was finding a clutch of 30 or so eggs in the hay loft on a bale. I never thought the chickens would go up there. Ugh, you can't eat these as you might crack one open over a hot frying pan and a half developed chick falls out! Needless to say, my chicken population went from 2 to 20 overnight.

[JSwan]

Chickens make everything happy :D Get a llama to guard them. :yes::yes:

P.S. JSwan why are you a greenie?

A few days ago I think, I had some odd problems logging in. Kept trying to log in, didn't work. Had COTH email me a new password; it didn't recognize my email address. I was embarrassed - thought I'd been banned or something! Nope. Emailed the administrator, no answer. Kept trying to log in different ways. Finally gave up and created a new account. Kept the same name - just removed the space. Still don't know what the problem was, but I'd also had problems replying to posts, couldn't use the backspace key, could not clip text, it was weird. Now I'm not having that problem. I did upgrade some software but would that cause a problem with a BB? :confused:


Why are folks having trouble with hens not using their nesting boxes? Mine free range and I have no trouble. Do y'all need nest eggs? I painted the interior of the nesting boxes with black fence paint, and lined them with hay and put one or two nest eggs in them.

For the top row of nesting boxes, I took an attic ladder we had laying around and took it apart. Then I screwed it into the bottom floor of the top row, and my hens have a little ladder to hop up into the boxes. There is a sloping roof to the nesting boxes, (so birds don't roost there and poop onto the nests), and we put a hinge on the back so the top lifts up - and I store mite powder and meds in there.

I don't have any hens laying eggs in hayracks, or hanging out in rafters. One of them calls in the evening and they make a little line and work their way back up to their coop. They do come down to the barn every evening and scratch around it and get the bugs, but it's part of their regular route. In the morning they wait for me by the back door after they wake up.

Never worried about botulism with chickens and horses. But I agree it's important that to keep everyone healthy, sanitation is important. When we butchered the chickens, we were much more careful than I remember when I was a kid. I fasted the chickens, we used killing cones, and everything was scrubbed with bleach sprays - and we would stop and do a big rinse every few birds.

[Tiempo]

I'm new to chickens, and I just love them!

We call the coop the united nations, we have Polish, American (Americauna), English (OEGB and Buff Orps), Japanese (banties), Spanish (a blue Andalusian) and French (Marans).

I'm on the lookout for Dutch (Welsummers).

The eggs from home kept birds are delicious, nothing like those watery supermarket eggs.

I don't free range them per se as I'm too worried about predators, especially the neighbors dog that killed our kitty and still keeps on getting loose, so I built a large fenced in run that opens to the coop, so they still get to run around and eat grass and bugs.

[birdsong]

I would watch the "girls" gossiping and shopping as they went about their daily activities. One would have an exceptional find and they would all run waddling to check it out and discuss it!!

Bantams (great colors) are fun and do roost safely in the trees...the hen will lay a gazillion eggs and hatch them under her small body...then work so hard to get all the wee ones up the tree and ON THE SAME LIMB underneath her outstretched wings at dusk. Sometimes having to come back down calling them to follow only to start all over again because of one little fellow that just couldn't figure it out.

Sigh...its the small things in country life that make it so wonderful!!

I gave up on them though finally when the raccoons kept chewing through to get them from the coop....the last one to go was a real pet too...she is still missed.

[Woodland]

We have free range chickens - they really keep the bugs down! And the eggs are wonderful! No roosters - no way! Too loud and the half developed chick eggs would put me off eggs forever. I have to hunt eggs every day and try to get them before the dogs do.

How do you keep the chickens over the winter - will they freeze? They are in a pen with my ponies right now. But I move the ponies in to the barn in the winter.

[theoldgreymare]

We had chickens (of several kinds) for some time. Two things to know....One: Do not let them free range and roost in trees if you have owls in your area. Owls pick the sleeping chickens off tree limbs and do unspeakable things to them. Two: If you pen them, be sure that your pen is very secure if you have black racer snakes in your area. These snakes love eggs more than we do and will do whatever needed to get them.....even constrict a defensive mother hen to death.

These are things I learned the hard way. Although I loved the fresh eggs and miss the chicken's antics (you've seen nothing funnier than a tiny, ticked off bantam rooster chasing a 16.3 gelding around the pasture) we just were not able to protect them from predators enough so we gave away what we had.

Many chicken breeds are also great mousers and love to eat "pinkies"/newborn mice. We never had a mouse in the barn or house while we had chickens.

[Dressage Art]

WOW, they do sound as amazing animals! We went and got 2 americanas today :D I was planning to get a different kind, but was told that the other ones ate their own eggs and are no good, but those 2 are for sure a guaranteed layers, but now it's too late for them to lay anyway, since it's already so darker and colder :( Oh well....

We bought a regular small chicken hutch http://www.pet-dog-cat-supply-store.com/shop/index.php?page=shop/flypage&product_id=16948 and will let them loose in a couple of days. We'll see how that will go.

[Traum]

THIS was one of my favorite sights in the mornings :D This hen was raised as a school project, then give to us when she got too big for an apartment :lol: They named her Nugget, poor thing, which I couldn't change because she knew her name. She was a better mouser than the two she's dining with!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2221/2079539200_23ae91567b.jpg?v=0

[Blue Yonder]

We're onto our second batch of laying hens. Ours are free-range during the day, and we stall them at night. Yes, stall. They live in an extra stall. They also prefer to lay there, under their high class, top-half-of-an-old-igloo-doghouse. They just get rolled into barn chores -- get eggs, lock up chickens, let out chickens.

Not one horse here has had a problem with them. Even the little 4yo stud tolerates them easily, sneaking into his pen and stall to eat anything he's dropped on the ground. Very cute!

My composting manure pile is Chicken Mecca. It's their happy place. My barn is bug-free, flea-free. I love my ladies, and the organic, free-range blue/brown/white eggs are the absolute best!

It's a little late to get them this year -- ours start arriving in feed stores down south around Valentine's Day. If you don't want to work through a feed store, you can mail-order them from www.idealpoultry.com. They have a great selection of chicks, ducks, geese, turkeys, etc. It's quite fun to pick from their inventory!

[JSwan]

Not one horse here has had a problem with them. Even the little 4yo stud tolerates them easily, sneaking into his pen and stall to eat anything he's dropped on the ground. Very cute!


Funny you mention that. My horses didn't seem to mind either. I have a 4 year old gigantic Percheron cross who didn't seem to be overly concerned when he first saw them. He just seemed curious.

Then one of the Autralorps started talking. I mean just jabbering away cluck cluck Cluck CLUCK CLUCK, about 40 feet away from where I was standing with the Perch, holding his lead.

Well, this enormous horse raises his head, his eyes turn into saucers, snorts, and starts walking backwards, never taking his eyes off the 3 pound black hen.

On his face was plainly written - OH MY GOD THEY TALK!!!!!!!!!!!!


I too think it is hysterical when one gets a giant bug and makes a certain satisfied cluck, then the rest of them run up and try and steal it. Looks like an old Benny Hill comedy episode.

[Catersun]

I really must get a video of the chickens on an ant hill... all the happy clucking and scratching is hilarious.

[amdfarm]

Who knew chickens could be good for entertainment, too, especially combined w/ horse antics. :)

I will have chickens someday. I used to farm sit for some people that had chickens, horses, a golden retriever and many barn kitties. They all lived just fine together. The chickens were the kids 4-H projects so they always had chickens and/or chicks. They kept the chicks in an old corner stall in the barn w/ heat lamps and such and they stayed in there until they were old enough to join the adults in the coop area. They had a nice coop. I would collect the eggs every morning, much to some of the hen's dismays, feed them, refresh water and let them out. Their coop was partially enclosed (coyotes are a problem for them around here), but was inside an unused paddock inside a small pasture and they roamed all over that area and around the yard by the barn. They had eletric fence around the bottom of the pasture to keep varmints away, the chickens learned quickly how to avoid getting zapped. In the evening when I fed again, they'd go coop themselves. The horses, cats and dog never bothered them. One big happy family.

The coolest thing was finding the green eggs and then having green eggs and ham for breakfast. :) I forget the breed that lays the green eggs though, they had several breeds and some of them were very pretty. The kids did a very good job w/ them.

[imapepper]

We had chickens at the last barn that I boarded. I loved them. They made me giggle. We would send one of the other boarder's son to catch them for me :) The only bird that occasionally freaked my horses out was the peacock. When he decided to fan out to flirt with the chickens :rolleyes: the horses really couldn't figure out what he was :lol: I will have chickens if I ever get a farmette :D

[Dressage Art]

I keep hearing that people get chickens in the spring every year... but what do you do with them in the winter? Do you butcher them? Yourself or pay somebody to do it? Or do you just keep adding to your flock :lol:?

[ponygirl]

Love, love, love my girls. I have 8 of them, all hens. They are a joy to have around. 3 polish, 1 silver dorking, 1 ameracuana, a blue cochin etc,. They mean business when they are bug hunting. I have them in their coop while at work and they are out when I get home and on weekends. All come when called. They give me 6-8 eggs a day which supplies my family as well as co-workers with fresh eggs. Total entertainment!

[HOH]

We have free range chickens at our barn. I hate them. There is chicken poop everywhere. I think if they were in a coop, I could tolerate them.

[riverbell93]

I don't know what the deal is, but the chickens come and go at the barn where I ride. We're currently in a hen-free state, and I don't miss the roosters a bit. Idiot aggression in a feather package.

Many chicken breeds are also great mousers and love to eat "pinkies"/newborn mice. We never had a mouse in the barn or house while we had chickens.

:dead: Another reason to be a vegetarian.

[zagafi]

The barn where I board has chickens, ducks, goats, sheep, mini-donks, a ferret, and a llama.

If you leave a stall door open, you WILL return to either chickens or ducks in the stall, which was interesting the first time I experienced it. I had no idea how my OTTB would react, but he walked (gingerly) in and sort of shooed them out gently with his nose. No drama whatsoever...and it was actually pretty cute to watch him be so careful with them.

Now the llama...that's another story!

[authentic pony]

I day dream about when I can finally get my farmette and have hens! They are so cute and the eggs must be fantastic (have never eaten anything but store bought :( )

I have a couple of pretty stupid questions, though...

How long do they live for?
Do they lay in the winter? How are they in cold climates ie: north east and canada? Do you just keep them cooped up all the time if there is snow?
And a really embarassing one :o You only get eggs with chicks in them if you have a rooster, right?

Oh and can you guys please post pictures of your hens?!?! :winkgrin:

[ThatScaryChick]

I have a question for all of you with experience with owning chickens, how long do the eggs stay fresh outside (before you go out to collect them)? And when you put them in the fridge how long do they last? Is it the same with store bought?

[ponygirl]

I day dream about when I can finally get my farmette and have hens! They are so cute and the eggs must be fantastic (have never eaten anything but store bought :( )

I have a couple of pretty stupid questions, though...

How long do they live for?
Do they lay in the winter? How are they in cold climates ie: north east and canada? Do you just keep them cooped up all the time if there is snow?
And a really embarassing one :o You only get eggs with chicks in them if you have a rooster, right?

Oh and can you guys please post pictures of your hens?!?! :winkgrin:

www.backyardchickens.com will become one of your favorites :)

[LostCreekFrm]

I love my chickens! I have joked many times that I love my chickens more then my horses! They are so much fun to watch and the eggs are amazing! Most of my chickens are bantams, which are a smaller chickens. I think that they do better in free range situations, as mine are. They are out all day and come in at night to roost. I have to lock them in a coop at night or the raccons and other predators will try to eat them. they live anywhere from 2-6 years I would say. I have never had any issues with the horses except for when the chickens are on the roof of the barn crowing, my one mare doesn't like when they do that. When I just got my new filly, she looked at them funny for the first few days but is now used to them. They are so much fun, you should definitely get some!

[gottalovethecowgirl]

I have a question for all of you with experience with owning chickens, how long do the eggs stay fresh outside (before you go out to collect them)? And when you put them in the fridge how long do they last? Is it the same with store bought?

i have 63 laying hens and one handsome rooster lol.

the time that they can be out there is about 1 week in the summer and in the winter it is like a fridge anyway so i give them about two to three.

if you have those adventurous layers. that like to lay say on top of the hay piles or in them lol. there is a test to see if they are still good. Get a bowl or cup full of water and drop them in there and if it floats it is a bad egg if it sinks it is good

[ponygirl]

I have a friend who has a black australorp that is 9 yrs old, so they can live for quite some time. I am somewhat addicted to chickens now as I never knew they were so much fun, nor did I know that they came in so many beautiful breeds. I had a mille fleur roo who I rehomed as he became very aggressive. Gorgeous though but typical of a mille fleur.

[ThatScaryChick]

i have 63 laying hens and one handsome rooster lol.

the time that they can be out there is about 1 week in the summer and in the winter it is like a fridge anyway so i give them about two to three.

if you have those adventurous layers. that like to lay say on top of the hay piles or in them lol. there is a test to see if they are still good. Get a bowl or cup full of water and drop them in there and if it floats it is a bad egg if it sinks it is good

Thank you gottalovethecowgirl. I never heard of the water test. That is a cool way to test an egg to see if it is bad.

[summerhorse]

A friend of mine lost a rooster at 12 years to a raccoon! I had lots of birds but couldn't take all the little funerals from predators (dogs, coons, possums, hawks, etc etc. etc.) The last raid on my chicken house took the rest of them and I said no more. It would take too much money to redo the coop completely to make it secure again (raccoons and weasels can tear chicken wire). I miss them though. I had one hen that died at 10 or 11 and another killed by the coon at 11 and a guinea killed by the coon at 8. I had quite a few in the 7-8 age range.

[Trevelyan96]

My neighbor and I both want chickens really badly, but we live in a sub, where the only 'livestock' allowed is horses. I keep plotting to get some anyway, and let them free range and just claim that they are 'wild chickens, I just feed them the same as the wild birds' Do you think that will fly? Problem is, winters get cold in MD, so I'm not sure how much shelter they need. I do have an extra stall to put them in at night. Do I dare? ;)

[Calvincrowe]

Chickens do pretty well in cold weather (all those fluffy feathers!) but I'd for sure have an enclosed space for them, so an open stall might not do in really cold locations. I have an enclosed coop-- well, it is the space under the stairs to the loft, which is perfect for 10 or so hens. A heat lamp would be fine in a cold climate. Plenty of fresh water is really important.

Most towns/cities allow 3 hens per household, for you "city dwellers" ;) and they make wonderful pets! Check out your codes/laws. 3 eggs a day is a great addition to your food supply, and they eat up all sorts of veggies/scraps/etc. that don't make it into the compost bin or the dog bowls.

[mayhew]

We have fifty-some-odd chickens who free range during the day and sleep in their coop at night. We also feed them in their coop, and have their nesting boxes there, so they lay many of their eggs in the nesting boxes. We get to know where the others are laid, as they like to lay in the same place every day, so looking for eggs isn't a big deal. We've had chickens for a year and a half now. The 2007 chicks are going to stay with us until autumn of next year, and then I'll either give them away (I know a few people who would like to keep a few chickens, but not be over-run with eggs) or eat them. I haven't had any problem with the horses and the chickens. The donkey will chase them occasionally, and I swear he is the reason we lose a few in the water trough every year, but I've yet to come up with a solution to that. The cats know better than to mess with a chicken, and the only dog problem we've had is the neighbour's dog. Our dog did want to chase them at first, but we kept him on leash whenever he was with them when we first got them, and now he knows that he isn't to touch them.

Chickens are fantastic. They are so fantastic, in fact, that I am currently considering moving all of the horse stuff in the tack room up to the house for the winter (I'd be moving it anyway, since the tack room isn't heated) and turning the tack room into an inside chicken run for when it is too cold to let the chickens out this winter. (If you live in a very cold place, you do have to watch out for their combs and wattles getting frostbite and falling off). That the thought would have even crossed my mind is boggling. The whole reason we moved out here was so we could have horses, and now I'm already turning the tack room over to the chickens! But it's easy to make money off of chickens, unlike horses, and you can buy a new one every week and still not be considered a hoarder, or go broke, and there's just so many varieties and colours and personalities.... On the other hand, the horses do have their advantages. I'm fairly sure the horses wouldn't eat my body if I died in the barn. The chickens..... not so much.

[Tom King]

We just rebuilt our chicken pen today for probably the fourth time in 20 years and used this stuff. I think if it had been available to start with we wouldn't have had to redo it so often.

http://lawn-and-garden.hardwarestore...ng-603326.aspx


Ours range during the day and come in at night. If you let them freerange all the time and have roosters you will end up with a whole chorus of crowing early in the mornings. Don't ask me how I know.

[blackstallion]

I've had turkeys (my favorite), guinea birds, ducks, geese, and chickens. The guinea birds probably do the best job on the bugs, and they are serious talkers and guard birds! They even let me know when I was in the yard! The only trouble I have had with horses is food aggressive horses do not like chickens under their feed bowl at dinner time, and I have had overly playful young horses who have run down and stomped birds in their paddocks. The few chickens I have now are young and fast enough to get out of the way. They also keep my barn pretty dusty with all their scratching, so do have to wet down with the hose a few times a year.

Chickens are omnivores (like pigs) so they are good for table scrap clean up. They LOVE pasta noodles, vegatables, egg shells, etc.

[Dressage Art]

My neighbor and I both want chickens really badly, but we live in a sub, where the only 'livestock' allowed is horses. I keep plotting to get some anyway, and let them free range and just claim that they are 'wild chickens, I just feed them the same as the wild birds' Do you think that will fly? Problem is, winters get cold in MD, so I'm not sure how much shelter they need. I do have an extra stall to put them in at night. Do I dare? ;)

Most towns/cities allow 3 hens per household, for you "city dwellers" ;) and they make wonderful pets! Check out your codes/laws.Ditto, in most places you can get a couple of chickens and claim them as "pets" and pets are allowed ;) So take a "pets" road instead of "wild birds" road. So give them names and treat them as pets. Roosters are not allowed tho, only hens. Now, go shopping!!! :lol:

[JSwan]

Ours range during the day and come in at night. If you let them freerange all the time and have roosters you will end up with a whole chorus of crowing early in the mornings. Don't ask me how I know.


Tom - you mean you don't like a bunch of roosters crowing at 2am? :lol::lol: That's what mine did. And my coop is close to the house. They free range during the day and put themselves to bed at night.

The funniest thing was when they were just starting to crow. The first time I heard one of them issue this tortured, rusty gurgling sound I thought a fox or raccoon was on a murder rampage in the coop.

So I rush out there barefoot, in my nightgown to find a bunch of sleepy pullets and some roosters practicing their crowing.

It's a lot quieter now that I've put most of them in the freezer. I kept one rooster - he's quite a specimen. He used to attack me but now he's much friendlier. I think he's wondering what happened to the other birds! I'd come in, grab two, come back a few minutes later, grab two more....... :lol:

They started to run up and wait for me outside the back door during my canning sprees this summer. I fenced off the vegetable garden, but after I harvested and cleaned and chopped everything up in the kitchen, I'd toss the scraps outside for them.

I had too many watermelons and cantaloupes so they got most of those. VERY happy chickens.

[dbts]

When I was a girl my family kept chickens (for meat). In bitter cold Wisconsin you have to keep them warm in winter. Our neighbors chickens froze their feet and were crippled and grotesque afterwards. My personal chickens roosted on my ponies' backs during winter and survived well. Down side is grooming trails of chicken poop off the ponies' flanks. We had Leghorns and Bantams. Roosters were extremely bad tempered and I was severely attacked frequently. It is humiliating running from a chicken. I fought them with brooms, but they laughed and would simply hop over every swing I made at them. Once my brother fell and the roosters jumped on him and drew blood all over. They are vicious. Our revenge came in autumn when they were butchered for the freezer. The ones I kept as pets I used to walk on a leash in the city (string tied around their legs). My teacher drove by while I was strolling with them and she told me she laughed all the way home. Yes, I go back a long way with chickens....

[kmp2707]

I love my hens too. We have had them for years and the only complaint I have had is when they all decided to boycott the hen house and move into the barn one winter. They found that roosting on saddles was quite comfy and of course left poo everywhere. The boarders were not too happy with me.

I went through a bad spell this spring with something taking out most of my flock (12 birds in 2 nights) so the remaining ones have since been locked up in the coop. I also have been given 2 roosters and 8 more hens so my flock is back where I like it to be with 10 to 12 hens. Although, I have offered to take the hens from a friend of mine who is looking to get rid of them as well and will have closer to 20 for the winter.

The eggs are the best, I sell what we don't eat, which help with the cost of layer food.

Here are a couple of funny pics of my youngest daughter with 2 of our favorite hens a few years ago.

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2399583890061566193RpUkMH

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2596545360061566193NwodJe

[BramblewoodAcres]

I have a few dozen free-range chickens, guineas, turkeys and ducks. They all mingle with the horses without issue and I absolutely love having them around. In fact, the turkeys like to hang around the horses legs and pluck bugs off them. The guineas and chickens take care of poo piles in short order and I haven't pulled a single tick off any of my animals since the fowl have been around. The guineas are also snake hunters. I've seen them all swoop down on a snake and kill it and eat it. So, no snake problems either.

My fowl all put themselves away at night and they get locked up in the coop so the predators can't get them. Sometimes we lose one or two during the day to hawks or wandering foxes or stray dogs. I've never had a problem with the free range chickens not laying in the coop nest boxes. If they know the coop is "home" and clean nest boxes are provided, they will lay eggs at "home."

Someone asked why chicken herders get new chickens every spring...well, I know for us we always end up losing a few to predators during the year, so we replenish our flock in the spring.

As far as wintering chickens...the chickens with smaller combs/wattles do better in cooler climates. The chickens with larger combs/wattles do better in hotter climates. The larger combs/wattles do have a tendency to get frost bite in very cold weather. I've never lost any of mine to cold and I don't use a heat lamp...the amount of heat those little bodies all cuddled together can produce in an enclosed space is pretty amazing. But, they do need an enclosed space with roosts for their comfort and happiness.

[3mares]

We have 6 hens and we love them! They all have names and unique personalities. They too put themselves to bed at night - we just go out and shut the coop door to tuck them in.We got them this spring and 4 of them are laying now - usually in the nesting box during the day, except for Stacey, who prefers my expensive second cutting hay. She does get upset when we need to use the bale she lays on.
Horses coexist peacefully as do the cats.

[AnnaCrew]

Here we do believe that horses and poultry birds at the same stable is not a good idea. I do not know how it works in details, but there are researches showing that dust created by poultry birds makes horses allergic and could lead to heaves + few more allergies (like skin) so I would never keep poultry birds and horses together even in the large barn. At present I have a rescue - a young injured mute swan who probably must stay with us the whole winter. Barn with horses would be ideal but as one of mine already has serious case of heaves I will keep swan away from the stable.

[mayhew]

I have a question for all of you with experience with owning chickens, how long do the eggs stay fresh outside (before you go out to collect them)? And when you put them in the fridge how long do they last? Is it the same with store bought?

It depends on the weather. I collect them every day, but they probably don't need to be collected more than every other day. They stay fresh a very, very long time in the fridge--over a month. Much longer than grocery store eggs, as those eggs are ancient by the time you put them in your fridge.

I've never had the oppurtunity to test this out, however, as the demand for our eggs is so high that they never stay in the fridge longer than a day or two.

[mayhew]

I think the greatest thing about chickens, as opposed to horses, is that they are so stress-free. They're alive, or they're dead, and there isn't a whole lot you can do about it either way. No colic, no laminitis, no abscesses... well, they might have all those things, but they won't let you know. They'll just be laying there dead unexpectedly one morning. So long as you provide them with the basics of life, they are happy. If, for some reason, you can't turn them out for a few days, they don't become raging lunatics like some TBs I know. They don't care if you change their feed. In fact, they like it. You would have to have ALOT of chickens to equal the amount of poop that one horse would create. If they get out of their pasture, they don't take off running down the road toward the highway, intent on killing themselves and whatever morning rush-hour traffic they can get into. You don't have to buy them blankets and bridles and other fancy things. No one at the barn turns their nose up at you because their chicken is better bred than your chicken. You don't have to check fuglychickenoftheday.com to make sure you're not featured on it. Quite low-hassle critters, all in all.

[MistyBlue]

Okay, if I knew how to make a website I'd consider starting a fuglychickenoftheday one...that made me snort out loud, LOL!

[Dressage Art]

No one at the barn turns their nose up at you because their chicken is better bred than your chicken. :lol: :lol: Yep, and horses are never bred well enough, there always will be somebody who has a better bred horse and walks with their nose up ;)

My chickens are not laying eggs now... (I did just got them) I was told that they do not lay during the fall and winter. Do you have heating lamps for yours to lay eggs?

[RiverBendPol]

I have 3 hens, 5 months old, who just started laying a few weeks ago. They are Buff Orpingtons, big and beautiful, the same color as my Yellow Labs. Chickens are a most delightful addition to the barnyard. They are always cheerful and chatty, interested in the goings-on. Dogs, cats, horses all get along well with the hens. Homegrown eggs are more delicious than you can imagine.
I keep my girls in a pen attached to a woodshed. It is all totally animal proof. My girls are out free-ranging all day then I put them in around 4-5 PM now to prevent murder-by-fox.
I have a light inside their house that goes on at 4:30 PM, turns off around 10, then goes on again around 5 AM, turns off by about 7. This will continue all winter. When it gets really cold, they'll get a heat lamp to keep their water(and the girls themselves too) from freezing. Once they get on the roost at night, they are sleeping till light. Once I let them out for the day, they do go back to their house to lay their eggs in their nesting boxes.
Delightful addition.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-Buff_Orpingtons

[Vandy]

I was told that they do not lay during the fall and winter.

Our hens do lay all winter, although their production drops significantly. We have six hens, 2 barred rocks, 2 production reds, and 2 black and white speckled ones whose breed I am ashamed to admit I have forgotten. They live in an outdoor coop without electrical access, so I haven't used a heat lamp since they were baby chicks living in my barn office (which, to make this horse related, my clients just LOVED - not! )


I know they're only supposed to lay 1 egg per day per hen, but ours don't follow that rule. Our daily record this past June was 14 eggs in a 24-hour period between 6 hens! I don't know which one(s) are the super layers, since they all live and roost together - I've been tempted to separate them to figure this out!

Our hens are all very sweet, I think because we got them at 1 day old and handled them a lot as chicks. Now at 3 years old, they will still happily jump into anyone's lap and cuddle. A little bizarre, I know. My favorite thing about them is how they cluck like crazy and jump up and down in excitement when they see me coming.

[JSwan]

mayhew - :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: Bravo!!!

I think if anyone started a "fugly" chicken website the poster child would have to be the Naked Neck Turkens.

They've got a face only a mother could love.

One way to keep them laying through the winter is to keep their coop lit for a few hours into the evening (or morning). Laying is triggered by the length of the day.

I remember that horse people used to do that and swore it kept their horses from growing a long winter coat. I never bothered to look to see if there was any science supporting that theory. But my little pea brain tells me that hormones and seasons are responsible for all sorts of thing, why not coat length?

[mayhew]

They do slow down in fall and winter, but we've never had a day with NO eggs. Going to a new place can throw them off of lay. Are they this year's pullets, DressageArt?

[mayhew]

Ugh. And to think, there are people out there breeding these naked necks just for their hideozygous nudity!

Our flock would definitely have to be on there. Hens all missing feathers from being turned loose with the roosters, cockerels breeding with their own sisters, complete disregard for the sale-ability of the cross-bred misfit featherless chickens I might be creating... And you know where they're all going to end up? Yep, on a dinner plate.

Except for my beloved silkies. They're my forever chickens.

[ShayDarra]

We had a brief stint with chickens (ultimately decided they were more trouble than the eggs were worth and the stench in the chicken coop was at times overwhelming) and also got a free rooster from a neighbor. We did not know at the time that an existing flock may not take well to a newcomer! Almost killed him when we introduced him. My husband saved him in the nick of time and we nursed him back to health. Tried again with the same result. So "Pepe" became a free range rooster. Perhaps because of experiencing emotional trauma, he was one bad ass rooster!!

At the time, my two Labs lived in a big fenced in yard and Pepe would run at their fence with his spurs pointed at them. AND, he would do the same to me when I was walking to the barn. Finally, after he spurred me and drew blood when I was wearing shorts, I told my husband Pepe had to go. Couldn't find a home that wanted him so Pepe went to the great chicken coop in the sky.

Moral of the story: Beware of free range roosters with attitude!!

SD

[jeano]

If you want really beautiful chickens for eggs and meat and that make superlative pet chickens check out any hatchery's website (Murray Mc Murray, Ideal, etc) and investigate the Black Sex Links. (I had two that were either extra chicks or got in with the barred rocks I ordered by accident--they look just like them as babies.) They are a cross between a barred rock and a Rhode Island Red and the cross gives the hens iridescent black feathers with an attractive redfeathered breast. The cockerels look like barred rocks. For some reason the hen birds have extremely mild tempers and like people more than other chickens I have had. Mine were arm chickens from the day we got them, open the brooder and they would climb up your hand and refuse to leave. They would perch on my shoulder and head and liked being picked up even as grown hens. And the cockerels were tasty.

However, under no circumstances do you EVER want to do what I stupidly did, which was to Google Black Sex Links for more information on their temperaments. What I got information on took months to eradicate from my email.....

[JSwan]

Ugh. And to think, there are people out there breeding these naked necks just for their hideozygous nudity!

Our flock would definitely have to be on there. Hens all missing feathers from being turned loose with the roosters, cockerels breeding with their own sisters, complete disregard for the sale-ability of the cross-bred misfit featherless chickens I might be creating... And you know where they're all going to end up? Yep, on a dinner plate.

Except for my beloved silkies. They're my forever chickens.

:lol::lol::lol:

Well, as long as it's not on a French dinner plate!!:lol::lol:

Don't forget caponizing - a Fugly chicken site would strongly suggest that 99.99% of roosters would make good capons!:D

Yes, one has to be very careful googling sex links. I don't even want to imagine what would come up.

Oh my. Double entendre......

[MintHillFarm]

I have a chicken, 2 ducks and a goose that live happily with my horses...I set up a stall with a small door (that I can close) out to their own paddock, so they come and go. All the horses are much less spooky with the cackaling and honking that these guys do. I have had chickens over the years that roosted in the rafters over the horses and ate alongside them looking for grain. As long as you can keep them out of your hay room/loft that's helpful, so they don't mess up the hay. I don't keep roosters though, they really harassed the hens.

[MSP]

I am a member of the chicken club! I have had ducks for years but just got the girls in July.

I have 10 Wyandottes, all hens. Going for eggs only! I have a large fenced in backyard and keep the flock there. I will eventually try to get them to wander around the barn yard for insect control. The horses don't seem to even notice them.

I built a hen house for them, with a run and they get locked in to the hen house at night and in the pen when I am not home.

Mypetchicken has small quantity ordering available for those that don't want a large flock. Most hatcheries have a 25 minimum order. http://www.mypetchicken.com/default.aspx

And I second http://www.backyardchickens.com/ great forum, all you need to know to raise your own chickens.

The silver hen is Petunia. She arrived rather limp and was a runt. Now she is the head mistress of the house! Where ever she goes the rest follow!

Pictures are around a month old, the girls are 17 weeks now and I can't wait for my first eggs!

[mayhew]

However, under no circumstances do you EVER want to do what I stupidly did, which was to Google Black Sex Links for more information on their temperaments. What I got information on took months to eradicate from my email.....

LOL. I have made exactly that mistake. Shame I can't eradicate the information from my brain.

[Dressage Art]

They do slow down in fall and winter, but we've never had a day with NO eggs. Going to a new place can throw them off of lay. Are they this year's pullets, DressageArt?


They are both 2 years old and they are Americaunas. We picked them up on a spot when chance came up, so we didn't think what breed and what age to get. We were told that they do not lay in the fall and winter, but will start laying again in the spring their beautiful blue and green Easter eggs.

They are our pets, but eggs would be a huge bonus ;)

[Tiempo]

I think the greatest thing about chickens, as opposed to horses, is that they are so stress-free. They're alive, or they're dead, and there isn't a whole lot you can do about it either way. No colic, no laminitis, no abscesses... well, they might have all those things, but they won't let you know. They'll just be laying there dead unexpectedly one morning. So long as you provide them with the basics of life, they are happy. If, for some reason, you can't turn them out for a few days, they don't become raging lunatics like some TBs I know. They don't care if you change their feed. In fact, they like it. You would have to have ALOT of chickens to equal the amount of poop that one horse would create. If they get out of their pasture, they don't take off running down the road toward the highway, intent on killing themselves and whatever morning rush-hour traffic they can get into. You don't have to buy them blankets and bridles and other fancy things. No one at the barn turns their nose up at you because their chicken is better bred than your chicken. You don't have to check fuglychickenoftheday.com to make sure you're not featured on it. Quite low-hassle critters, all in all.

OMG!! Fuglychickenoftheday...that is too funny!!

Funny thing is, I think all my chickens are beautiful, but one of the prettiest is the only mutt in the group...check her out, we named her Jessica..

http://i36.tinypic.com/hrbg5k.jpg

I'd gone to pick up 2 Buff Orpington hens from a CL ad, and the guy had this girl running around in the sale pen and I couldn't resist! I'm thinking of looking for a roo that looks as much like her as I can find, pehaps a blue orp to see if I can replicate the look. Who knows, maybe I can be the founder of a new breed :)

That's another nice thing about chickens..guilt free breeding :D

I do plan for sure to breed my banties, I have and adorable pair of mille fleur OEG banties and an equally adorable pair of buff Japanese banties.

Today I picked up a wooden dog house at a garage sale that I plan to use as a breeding coop for the little ones, I've named it the bantie love shack :D:D

We call the flock the Chicken United Nations as we have breeds from so many countries, Marans (French), Japanese, English, American, Spanish (blue Andalusian), Polish and I hope to find some Welsummers (Dutch).

[kookicat]

I want some now!

These are lovely- anyone have them with horses?

http://www.mypetchicken.com/Silkie_Bantam-B100.aspx

[mayhew]

Our two Silkie pullets haven't had a problem with horses thusfar. They are the sweetest birds we've ever had.