Chickens

[halfwaynowhere]

my chickens are great... I just switched them from scratch to lay mash... they are getting close to that age where they'll start laying. Right now I have three hens (due to zoning restrictions, I can't have roosters). I've got a rhode island red, an australorp, and a brown leghorn. Next spring, I'll be hopefully getting a cuckoo maran, an ameraucana, and a gold laced wyandotte, if I can get the feed store to special order those breeds for me. I can't wait for the fresh eggs this year, and next year, I should have a nice variety of shell colors...

[Ginevive]

Neat! Chix are cool to have around. We have 2 roosters now that were raised together and don't fight. We want to add a few laying hens soon but have not yet. Roos are LOUD and we shut them in the barn overnight so that they are protected from predators and also so we don't get woken up at 5am with them at the window! They are free-range during the day and can well defend themselves. One is a Rhode Island red and the other is a white.

[Royal_Rodents]

[/QUOTE]Oh I wouldnt put it past them, chickens are cruel animals. One time a crow got into the coop and they beat the crap out of it before I could even get to it. Once we caught it we released it, it was flying low, about 4 feet, it felt good to save the lil guy..... that is until about 100 feet of flying later, the dog jumped up and got it.[/QUOTE]

[myanney]

Nice variety of breeds...I had Rhode Island reds for a long time, and they slowly got replaced by Orpingtons, and later some Barred rocks, Comet mixes, and Transylvanians. Also a lone Blue Andalusian roo, who is beautiful but beginning to be a bit unpredictable. My Cochin rooster was my favorite, I miss the old man.
Does anyone have a problem with the same individual hens consistently producing thin-shelled eggs, even when oyster shell is provided?

[evan385]

I can't see the picture or I would tell you exactly what it is. I used to have over 200 chickens not too long ago. Along with a few goats, twenty geese, fourteen ducks, few big turkeys, some guineas, meat rabbits etc. Down to less than 100 chickens now due to selling and animals eating them but i'm getting 200 hens soon along with at least 20-30 more geese