I use dirt for litter. Just plain old dirt (or any soil). Never smells and never needs replacing. You can even grow small nibble plants on it - chicks love them.
I'm very sad I live all the way over in the UK here and can't try any of your chickens, you all seem like very pleasant, informative people and your livestock look very happy and well looked after :) And that always comes through in the taste!
Wow, those Cornish Cross grow much faster than I imagined; they're huge at 2 weeks. I understand that they reach maturity at 8 weeks but I am impressed. They're about the size of my 7 week Easter Eggers. I've only purchased chicks locally but I have 2 shipments from 2 different hatcheries coming in the next 8 weeks. Cool to see how they'll arrive. Great video and thanks for sharing.
Algae is naturally occurring. Unless I am to buy filtered or distilled water there is algae in the water. As a matter of fact it is likely that you drink algae on a daily basis. It does not look pretty, I'll admit that, but it is in every livestock water trough, especially if you water from a creek or pond, and will not hurt the animals.
No, they don't eat the sawdust to my knowledge but it wouldn't hurt them if they did. Chickens will eat some pretty crazy stuff. When we process we will have some drop jaw moments if we open the crop up to see what is in it.
That was super interesting information. What breed are those Chickens? Can I ask where you order them at online? I want to know because my family wants to get a few for eggs since we have a good size yard, but they don't really sell them in our more urban area.
hi I am so thankful I came across your channel, it gave me a little insight on how to start taking care of my own chicken. I have a few questions, I am raising chickens in my yard to have fresh and eggs and I think they are so easy and adorable to raise with my young girls. where did you order them? and whats the names of the chicken you buy.
The chickens in the video are Cornish Crosses. These are strictly meat birds and do not make for good pets. If you are looking for some to keep as back yard birds you will need something like a Rhode Island Red, Buff Orpington, Wyandotte, or Barred Rock. You can find these through Murray McMurray Hatchery.
Lol aw i've always wanted chickens in my backyard, but the thought of the work that I would have to put in to take care of them, and also I tend to get attached to animals, so I wouldn't know what to do with a lot of chickens or 4 incase my mother wanted to kill them for consumption. Also living in a urban area is so hard to have a small farm haha.
what I do with my chickens, is just let them out of the coop when they're done laying, they live off the land and natural selection does its course. I don't think it's that much work but it can be, I personally think it's fun.
That's a wonderful brood house- looks like the cold frames I use, but bigger. The pen is also a great idea! We raised two batches of cornishes last year, and we're just about run out of them now in the freezer so thank goodness spring is coming. We are going to try a later maturing one this year to see what we think about it (Murray's Pioneers). What do you do about predators in the pen, sorry if you've been over this before.
The pins are fully enclosed with chicken wire. For the most part, we don't have too much trouble. If you watch some of our other videos, you will find one that says bear trouble. That has been the biggest predation problem we have had with the meat chickens. Our rabbits are another story. We have yet to figure out how to keep varmints out of the rabbit pins. We had one rip open the wire on the pin last year and kill a breeding pair. And on another occasion rip open a growing pin and release six kits. Thankfully I used a box trap and caught five of them back.
Hi may name is Stephen Waweru Founder of Spread Wing Ministry I like keeping portly farm. Last year I worked out with friends and we purchased 1235 egg incubator from china, Our target is to start a hatchery businesses in Africa, we are based in Nairobi Kenya. Our challenge is how to get money to buy the first eggs to hatch. I need help with money to by eggs. our target is, in two years we will have a chicken lone which we will be giving it out to the poor family, in return. they will pass the same number of chicken they where give to someone ells in the community. +317-997-9445 is my US phone please help me give hope to a willing family in Africa, give them opportunity to put a plat of food on the table. Stephen@spreadwingsministry.com
The French Family Farm maybe use hardware cloth instead of chicken wire? Ive heard pretty much anything can get through chicken wire except chickens heh. I have another question.. how often do you move these grow out pens.. or do you? Im considering this myself... just got tired of reading horror stories.. read one about the conditions of laying chickens and went out and bought me some ISA browns... now i just heard that some of the head cutters on meat chickens "miss" and the birds are boiled alive... yeah thats not cool... so now looking into cornish crosses.. (im the last person to guilt anyone though.. its a very small percentage and they dont sell those birds but still.. if more that are able to grow there own WOULD grow there own there would be less need for factory farms.
Summer Noybn We move the pins everyday. That helps us get pretty even distribution of the manure on our fields. This MUST be done for the health of our birds and our fields.
The French Family Farm hmmm. How long before you can move them back to the spot they started at? I have probably 5 acres i can use for pasture.. the rest is wooded or buildings trying to figure out if i have enough land to move it every day for 8 weeks without repeating spots!
I'm a total urban dweller so I no nothing about farming, but this is interesting to me. I have a few questions. Do all of your chickens become food eventually or do you keep some for eggs? Or, do you just collect the eggs as they come knowing that all the chickens will become food? Also, instead of ordering chicks, why not just let the eggs be fertilized and produce your own chicks?
It will depend on how many you plan to raise. Why are you raising them for only three weeks? Ours will spend two weeks in the brood house and the remaining six weeks on our field. Also, do you have a place for them to go at the end of the three weeks or are you going to butcher them?
Thank you for the great information. I just got 6 babies from a feed store and one limps and sits a lot. I checked for any bumps or abnormalities nothing stood out as different. The feed store told me they had gotten lost in the mail for 2 days. We had 2 die hours after we got them so we went and replaced those and while I was there one was dying in the store. I'm thinking during shipping the chicks leg might have gotten hurt. We've had them over a week and all are thriving but the one still limps and sits down a lot. She is eating but is smaller and the smallest of the 6. Any advice you could give would be helpful. Thanks
How big is your brooder does it sit outside with a close lid all the time how do u keep it from getting to hot in the inside with the heat lamps running could u send me some pictures of it
I want to start a poultry farming in Tanzania East Africa let me know the formula for hand mixing chicken food for these called country chicken others termed them as kienyeji ones.
Hi, my chicken is more then 1 year old but she not sitting on her eggs. I hav done nice place with hays, she goes there and lay and goes away Do u know why she is not sitting on her eggs?
I should have been clear about that. No, none of them died. The twenty six we moved out had come in two weeks earlier. The chicks going in and the chicks put on the field were on the same day.
Florida I read this and decided to order plymouth rock.. can you give any tips from them? Also I heard that it is bad to give new chicks pine shavings bc they will eat it. Is this true?
I've never had Wyandottes myself. Every thing I have read about them says they are a big bodied bird and are cold hardy. I think they may become stressed in high heat due to their size. Where are you located?
I'm gonna get a hutch.Should I just put my chicks in there, or make a brooder that's inside? Also do you have any suggestions for the bedding and the feed that I should use?
That will depend on how cold it is getting at night and how well sealed the hutch is. If it's not and your hutch is drafty, you may want to keep them inside for a few days and then move them to the hutch. You want to be able to keep the hutch about 90°F for the first week. after that you can start to slowly wean them off of the heat. As far as bedding we use pine shavings or sawdust. There are some who have commented on this video and said that you shouldn't use sawdust. We have been using sawdust or pine shavings for several years now and have successfully raised over 3000 chickens bedding them on sawdust. We also use hay, but it doesn't do as well because it mats together.
I would keep them inside for a couple of weeks at least. Your main concern will be later this summer when it gets really hot for you. This time of year should be the easiest for you. In the summer you will want to provide plenty of shade and water for them.
You can use anything carbon based, hay, wood chips, peanut hulls, yard waste, ect. I will say, though, hay is my least favorite. I only use it in a pinch. I would be careful of using wood chips that have been in a pile outside for a long period of time (ie. mulch). I would be concerned about mold. You don't want your chickens to develop respiratory issues which can lead to poor growth or even death. When it comes to knowing when to add more bedding, the key is if it starts to smell like ammonia you need to add more bedding. When you are done brooding your chickens you can use the bedding for compost.
I like straw instead of wood chips. I am raising layers and therefore have them a lot longer. Straw is better to compost and does not compress down so much.
Glenn Schlorf they wont eat the shavings if you feed them. They may try a little bit but once they find the food they will be fine. Lots of people use shavings and their birds live through it. Relax.
Ummm for hundreds of years straw has been bedded for all farm animals. I grew up on a farm shavings are not good for chickens period I don't care frankly where you got your misinformation wheat straw is really good for chicken bedding because of the pieces of wheatbgrains they can pick through. Mites come from other things. You are talking to someone who raised 400 plus chickens
