Almost Canadian

Our new arrivals - 27 day old chicks.

They are White Leghorns if anyone is interested

Piff Poff

Layers or eaters?

dbd33

They'll be layers. I reckon that'll be 20 eggs a day so I hope AC knows some Muslims. (My best customers started ordering during Ramadam "if you fast all day you need protein at night" then seemed to get hooked.)

Piff Poff

Egg tastic then

neighbours have just massacred their eaters, she was telling me two of them got up and ran once their heads had been chopped off -stuff of nightmares that I have one in my freezer awaiting roasting

Tootlepootle

It's the image the name conjures that is most probably worse than the reality!!!

Almost Canadian

You are correct.

My youngest daughter has already started taking orders from the locals, although we eat a large number of eggs a day.

Do you heat your coop during the winter, or is insulation sufficient (I appreciate that the amount of insulation will have a bearing)?

Almost Canadian

I wanted to get dual purpose breeds (I know that sounds bizarre) so that, when they stopped producing, we could have something to eat. I was shot down by those that must be obeyed in our house, so layers they are. Those that must be obeyed have not been able to explain to me how to deal with the ones that finish producing. I anticipate that our coop will be full of old birds in relative short order. As we intend to keep them "free range" I hope that predators will keep the numbers manageable.

dbd33

We don't heat the coop but do have a heated water fountain. A few years back I had a cock with a frostbitten comb, it looked ugly but didn't seem to be a problem beyond that. There haven't been any other cold related problems but the coop is insulated and the door closed at night. More chickens is better as far as warmth goes.

The snag with free range chickens is that they're competition for any vegetables you might be growing, bright red peppers in particular, and keen consumers of colourful flowers. Ours are now in a large fenced (but not fox, hawk or coyote proof) area.

Three year old layers can be made into chicken stock, if you've the patience to process them. I wouldn't rush to go through that again.

This being the photo thread, and this being Canada, here's one of our driveway, a hint of what's soon to come.

Almost Canadian

Thanks for the advice.

I had read that, in an insulated coop, they should be alright as, I assume, they acclimatize. I am in the process of insulating it at the moment and we had electricians run a number of power outlets to it so we have the ability to install heaters should be need to do so. I anticipated that we would need a heated water fountain.

Our coop is situated in our hay field (approximately 9 acres) and we intended to simply allow them to run free throughout that area. Your previous comments about some of your chickens providing additional nutrition to the animals that ate the bales made us think that, perhaps, we should be placing a fence around the coop to give them an area of 3/4 or so where they could remain relatively safe when we hay.

I had no idea that they would go outside throughout the winter. I assumed that they would remain indoors until spring.

I really don't care if ours wish to range all over our property, particularly if they come back to roost at night (as I am led to believe they will). We don't have a vegetable patch as of yet (a project for next year) so we don't have any concerns with them eating such things.

We have a large number of hawks and coyotes where we are. I have never seen any foxes, but I am sure they must exist. I guess time will tell how well they do.

dbd33

Our chickens venture out timidly in the winter, they don't seem to mind frozen ground but are reluctant to walk on snow.

Almost all the chickens I've had came home to roost but one batch chose a clump of trees rather than the coop. That was ill advised as, before we'd worked out how to get them back into the coop, they were but a pile of feathers on the ground.

A colleague here, a rival egg supplier, lost her flock last week. She assumes the predator was a fox but that's because she's unwilling to consider the more likely culprit; the neighbour's dog. I think that, were I still in a location where I heard yipping at night, I'd fence the chicken area though that does mean sacrificing the charm of seeing far flung chickens, some of them on horseback(!)

Oakvillian

<utterly fails to stifle a childish guffaw...>

dbd33

And that was the detuned phrasing!

This is the creature in question...

Simon Legree

Is that what is meant by "choking the chicken" ?

dbd33

I hope so as I once choked six in an afternoon and I wasn't on Church St.

Calgaryscot

The recent super moon