Keeping Chickens Newsletter · Keeping Chickens Newsletter Published July 2012 by Haider : This is some of my Aseel hen pictures. Katie: I love your newsletter and reading about other

Keeping Chickens Newsletter

Published July 2012 by www.Self-Sufficient-Life.com


If you know anyone who may enjoy this newsletter please let them know that they can subscribe at: www.KeepingChickensNewsletter.com

July 2012

Vol.1

Hi Welcome to my Keeping Chickens Newsletter. Thanks to everyone who has sent in their keeping chickens tips, stories and photos etc. as usual, if you have anything chicken related (tips, photos, stories, questions, coops etc.) you'd like to share in future issues of the newsletter or blog posts then just email [email protected] and I will do my best to answer / include them. Best Wishes Gina



Subscriber Letters

Tom : Your last newsletter had a report from Mari regarding a fox attack. I am plagued by urban foxes and they have no fear of humans. Normally my girls are behind electric chicken netting and a double line barrier of normal livestock electric fencing running at a height of four and ten inches. While moving the run from one part of the garden to another, I let the chooks out. A fox dived amongst them and took the first one from between my feet. Chasing it, I made it drop the bird in order to escape, but it didn't actually run away. It merely doubled back and tried it's luck again with another one. Now I was the one running round like a headless chicken as the fox dodged up and down the hedge between me and my next door neighbour, nipping out to grab another chook when I was looking in the other direction. Each time I got within a couple of feet of the fox, it dropped the chicken but I was unable to coral the birds and keep the vermin at bay. Fortunately another neighbour was having building work done and three guys hopped over the fence. They managed to drive off the fox while I rounded up all but one of the birds and put them in the chicken house. The fox came back twenty minutes later and made a grab for the last one, a Silver Sussex. Luckily for both of us she's a substantial lady and although she lost a lot of feathers from her back I was able to rescue her from the fox too and Charlie only got a mouthful of black feathers.

The local council will not remove urban foxes, in spite of there being five living on a smallish building plot and under a couple of neighbours' sheds. I had thought foxes were territiorial, but these five seem to get along together, despite living close enough together to share a bad case of Mange (only the old dog fox looking healthy but I think he doesn't actually live underground with the others). Sadly we have misguided neighbours further up the street who actively encourage the brutes by feeding them by hand or leaving food out for them.

The point is, however, even letting them out under "supervision" won't necessarily stop a fox attack although it can limit your losses to one bird/attack. Tom Peg : I have had my chickens a year now and did not realize how they would tear up flowerbeds!...I did fence most of the flowerbeds off with what I had on hand, 18 inch poultry netting and 24 inch woven wire. In some beds that could not be fenced I laid poultry netting or woven wire on the ground over the area then anchored it with wire stakes or rocks. A chicken would only try once to scratch in the area and never come back! Problem solved!..

200 Eggs a Year

Chicken Care Guide

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS

http://www.self-sufficient-life.com/Keeping_Chickens/200eggs-ChickenCare.htm



Haider : This is some of my Aseel hen pictures.

Katie : I love your newsletter and reading about other people's chickens from all over the world. We fell in love with chickens two years ago and now we have around 20, all different.

This is Lucky. She escaped on the day we bought her and it went down to -12 that night - we were sure she'd die, but the next morning she popped out of wherever she'd been hiding with frost on her feathers but otherwise fine ... but she hasn't done that again ;-)



We've probably got the most unusual "chicken coop". We converted the Boot when the kids grew out of it. Its made of fibreglass - we've had no redmite in it in two years. 14 of the girls sleep in there, the bantams up top and the large fowl at the bottom. The Dog Kennel doubles up as an isolation pen and its where we put new chooks for a week or two so that they integrate into the flock without fighting.



This traditional wooden coop is what we started with. After all, we were only ever going to have a maximum of four chickens... !!

I love the Egg Skelter I bought on eBay (UK / US). It takes the headache out of which eggs to use up first.

This is Chloe on sale at Holsworthy Market in Devon when we bought her. She laid three eggs in the following 10 days, which we were told would be fertile because she had been running with the cockerel.

http://goo.gl/piId4

http://goo.gl/nlJFK



When I got home, Dotty was broody, so we put all three eggs under her and one hatched! So this is my freebie chick, Ellen. Keep up with the good work! Katie Rourke Dowding. Ascot, Berkshire, UK

Di : Hi All, Here are some pictures of my three girls we have had them for over a year now. They were 20 weeks old when we got them in April 2011. They have always appeared happy and healthy! Even laying in the winter most days, which we weren't expecting. We are novices and are learning all the time!! Sarah Hetty is a Speckledy, Daisy is a Road Rock and Jemima is a Blue Ranger. Many Thanks Di X



Washing chickens – I have put a guide to washing chickens by D.E. Hale on the blog here :

http://successwithpoultry.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/how-to-wash-chicken.html

How To Make A Hen Saddle

Simple Sewing Project


Mari : I love seeing all the pictures and reading the stories :) thanks for doing this :) attached is a recent picture (sepia) of part of my remnant flock. BTW-My flock will be expanding to 25-30 soon plus the guineas. So I am seriously considering a LGD for my situation. Looking at the Akbash or Kangal Turkish breeds. I sure enjoy watching my chickens.

http://www.keepingchickensnewsletter.com/Books/hensaddle.htm



Shawn : Just read my newsletter and as always, LOVE IT!!! Three years ago I survived a Wallenberg Stroke. I had to learn to walk, see and control motor skills. the first year was difficult even though recovery was going quickly. The second year was even more difficult as we did not see the milestones like we did in the first year. This is when my neurologist strongly suggested a hobby. Well I'd always wanted to raise chickens so I began by reading everything I could get my hands on - magazines, chickens for dummies, online articles, etc.

Morning ritual!

In January of this year I decided it was time to begin my new adventure into the world of chickens! My husband, and care taker, took me to numerous places looking at chicken coops. We found the one we both loved and began. The runner was actually built weeks before the coop arrived!

Gathering at the feeder! On Fridays they get "special stuff" veggies and fruit!



Once the coop arrived I spent a week installing a ceramic tile floor, nothing was too good for my girls. I bought a sizable hamster cage at a second hand store and prepared it for my first arrivals. With everything in place, I was ready to buy chicks! Pumpkin & Peaches (Golden Comets), Pickles & Pearl (Buff Orphington's) and Henny & Penny (RI Reds) were first to arrive. Once the girls were old enough to move to the coop, which was the longest night of my life! We then added Leather, Lace, Wilma, Betty, Oreo & Cookie (Silver Lace Wyandotte's) to the family. These girls are now in the quarantine brooder in the coop and will be transitioning out this week. Then we are going to add 12 guinea's.

My grand daughter who loves the girls as much as I do. She calls them all "nay-nay's babies". I only hoped for half the joy and happiness raising these ladies has brought me! My stress levels are down, my grandchildren are learning first hand about "babies" and growing and tending to chickens! Kindest regards, Shawn Denise Vaughn, Greer, SC

http://selfsuff1.chickcoop.hop.clickbank.net/



Our brooder

Scott and Vicki : We have lots of wildlife roaming near our property (raccoon, opossum, deer, turkey, cougar, etc.) Polly and Anne (Australian Shepherds) keep most of the critters out of the fenced area of our yard. They cornered a raccoon a week ago outside the fence and Polly is still healing a nose wound. The chickens roam free during the day and we finally started leaving the dogs in the yard with the chickens. They don't even look at them twice. The dogs usually want the bread scrapes I feed the chickens or the cottage cheese. The dogs also eat chicken poop. We asked the vet about it and she said that dogs in the wild will eat 20% of their diet in some form of dung and not to worry about it.

The girls being watched over by Yoda the cat. Although he's taken too many little

birds in our yard, plus moles and chipmunks, he's never tried the chickens.

We lost 2 birds to egg binding this last year. One Buff Orpington and one New Hampshire Red. Sad, but a fact of life on the farm. We also have an unbreakable brooder. We use to put her in cold water, lock her out of the hen-house, etc., but now we just let her brood. We'll throw her out of the hen-house and she'll eat and drink some, then right back to the box she goes. She has a nasty temper when



brooding and the other birds don't like it. She puffs up and makes aggressive noises. The other 5 birds are giving us 4 eggs a day on average.

About hen-house bedding. Like many people we use the wood pellets, but I've found I like to spray new pellets with water. The pellets swell and turn back to sawdust. Then, I use a kitty litter scoop to pick up the chicken poop. I shake the scoop and the sawdust filters through leaving the poop to be thrown in a bucket for composting. This way we're not throwing a lot of wood pellets away. The hen-house is clean and we save on pellets. Keep up the good newsletter, Scott and Vicki, Mohawk Valley, Oregon

Chris and Jennifer : We enjoy reading your newsletter, we are new to chickens and we thought we would share our success with breaking a broody Buff Orpington. She had just been laying for about a month and suddenly she did not want to leave the nesting box. Our first attempt to break the broodiness was a morning and afternoon dip in a bucket of water. No change. Then we started

removing the nesting box so she could not get in and set on the nest, it made no difference if there was an egg in the box or not. After about 2 weeks of that we went to plan C. We used a small live trap from Harbor Frieght to isolate the offending (slacker hen) , we feed her tasty treats (stale pastries) and kept her isolated in the pen for 30 hours straight suspended from a

tree. After removing her from isolation, voila she was back to her old self. Now we are just waiting for her to start laying again. I have attached a picture of our coop. Thanks! Chris and Jennifer Dale Janet : Does anyone have any information on taking care of hens with an impending storm? I live right in hurricane territory and if a storm came, I would have to leave. I worry about how to care of my hens. I don't know any other chix people around here to ask. Janet, Fernandina Beach

http://www.self-sufficient-life.com/1/OffGrid5



Glennis : Hi Gina, I've been following for a while now, and haven't had anything to share but sad tales of raccoons getting my hens, until now! For some reason, hens seem to love kitty litter boxes...the enclosed kind. My girls prefer them over all else...as you can see. This morning, I found a "litter" in the litter box!

I knew this mama had a clutch of eggs beneath her. Our other banty hen came out with 2 Buff Orpington chicks last week (surrogate mama). I got a surprise when I looked in on her this morning...I could see half a shell at the back of the box. When I lifted her left wing, I found a tiny little peepster looking up at me. When I lifted her right wing, I found 3 more!!

She's a sweetheart, and let me lift her up...we counted 6 babies...SO far! They're preciously tiny...these are all banty chicks. I see a couple of the Orpington eggs are still in the nests...we have 2 nests going. We'll be waiting to see what happens next! Best wishes, and thanks for the great newsletter!! Glennis, Oroville, CA

Ten Acres Enough How A Very Small Farm May Be Made To

Keep A Very Large Family

Ten Acres Enough is a self-sufficiency classic written by Edmund Morris, and is his personal story of his journey from city businessman to farmer. In this book Edmund details the first 3 years of his 'back to the land' experience and explains honestly what worked for him and what did not.


http://www.self-sufficient-life.com/TenAcresEnough/selfsufficientliving.htm

Documents

Keeping Chickens Newsletter · Keeping Chickens Newsletter Published July 2012 by Haider : This is some of my Aseel hen pictures. Katie: I love your newsletter and reading about other