Poultry

Attentive mother

What do some people find fascinating about chickens? It can't be their

intelligence because we have bred most of that out of them. Could it be their
many pretty varieties or perhaps because we are often able to associate their
behaviors with our own - hen pecked, pecking order, chicken (scared), (a
pretty) chick, a rooster (pride), crowing (boasting), etc.

Shortly after we bought the house, we went to the 4-H fair, purchased
chickens from the kids and kept them in a coop we built in the garage.
Eventually, we constructed an outdoors pen behind the garage with entryway
and ramp to the inside. We didn't have a rooster as we were afraid he would
disturb the neighbors. We found out that without a rooster, the hens did not
treat each other very well, a lot of squabbling and fighting. The lowest hen in
the pecking order led a miserable life! After deciding to try having a rooster,
life in the coop became much more tolerable for all the hens. He has a
powerful calming effect on the ladies. That doesn't mean they are afraid of
him. We had one rooster who could never keep feathers on his chest because
the hens would pull them out and he let them. Why they liked him this way,
was only known to them.
 Eggs

Relaxing in the nest Eggs waiting to be collected

The main reason for having chickens is to have fresh eggs. Who knows how
old the eggs in the supermarket are. Some say that having fertilized eggs is
more healthy. Selling the extra eggs to our friends helps pay for the feed. The
fact that our chickens can get out and walk around all day instead of being
forced to remain in a cramped cage also improves the quality and is more
humane. We make sure that their feed contains no animal byproducts. People
immediately see the difference in the color of the yoke and many taste the
difference also.

When away from home, we feel guilty having to throw away table scraps as
this is their daily treat which they look forward to each afternoon. Having a
large vegetable garden means that all the weeds, old or unused parts of the
plants and caterpillars picked off the plants are happily consumed by them.

Broth

While some like old

hens, we do not.
However, when
boiled with herbs
and spices, the
resulting broth can't

Roosts are made of small diameter trimmed trees

be beat. My wife freezes the broth and when she says we need more chicken
broth, I know what that means. The first poultry that I killed was a turkey
when we were living in South America many years ago. It was Thanksgiving
up in the USA and I wanted to have a real turkey dinner. We bought the
turkey at the 'mercado' or marketplace and brought it home live in a burlap
sack between us in the bus. After fattening it up a little more, we killed and
cleaned the bird and invited friends over for a 'North' American Thanksgiving
dinner.

My belief is that we shouldn't have chickens if we are not capable of doing the
whole process. Years ago we had friends who let their chickens die of old age
because they didn't have the heart to kill them when no longer productive.
Our young daughter was playing with one of their old hens and carried it
over a puddle of water whereupon it had a heart attack.

There are many ways to butcher a chicken but the most humane way I have
found is the method usually used in processing plants. We place the bird
upside down in an inverted home made funnel with its head sticking out the
bottom. A sharp knife to the throat kills it and it's position allows the blood to
drain out. Once drained of blood, I tie string to it's legs and dip it into a pan of
very hot water which loosens up the feathers. Now the carcass is tied by the
strings to a horizontal post to
easily pull out all the feathers.
There are always fine hairs left
which are carefully burnt off
using a propane torch. The bird is
then given to my wife who guts,
trims and washes it well. Now it
goes into the pot for broth. I never
liked cutting a chicken's head off
with an axe and watching it run
around for a while minus it's
head.

Roosters
Our favorite rooster has to have
been Godzilla. He was one of the
mail order light brahma chicks we
ordered after building the chicken
house and starting to raise
chickens again following a few Godzilla
years hiatus. The breed is large,
white with some black feathers and white 'stocking' feet. They are quiet, good
layers, can be used for meat and will sometimes brood eggs and care for the
chicks.

Mother hens scratch the soil and upon finding something, make a unique
cooing sound to call the chicks to eat. When we bring up table scraps and
throw them into the pen, the rooster runs to the food but rarely eats it. He
makes the same cooing sound, picks up food, throws it back down and
watches the hens eat. Eventually, he will eat some if it himself. This behavior
is not isolated to a particular rooster. The pen has its own small terrace and
stone walls. The roosters like to stand up there watching their harem. They
usually don't allow serious squabbling among the hens. Don't think they are
brave enough to protect the hens though. One evening, I found some of the
hens huddled in a corner of the pen and the rest in the coop. A skunk had
gotten in and was calmly eating the feed. It knew I was there but took it's time
and then moseyed over to drink water before leaving. I had to watch how he
got out in order to fix the breech in the fence that it had found. Where was the
rooster? He had the intelligence to hide with the hens that were in the coop!

When the chicks grow and we end up with more than one young male, we
butcher the others for the meat when they reach the right size. It is cute to see
the young roosters trying out their squeaky voices and sparring with each
other. The remaining young rooster eventually challenges the older and wiser
one. The winner (usually the older one) gets or keeps the harem and the
looser mopes around hoping the old boy will die of old age which eventually
does happen. The winner keeps an eagle eye on the other in case the second
one gets too close to the hens as sometimes happens.

If we allow a broody
hen to have chicks,
she must be
separated to
incubate her eggs in
peace. After they
hatch, it is fun to
watch her care for
the chicks and see
the chicks climbing
all over her.
Eventually they
must be returned to

Most roosters take good care of their hens

the chicken yard. If she is high up in the pecking order she will be able to
protect the chicks from the curious and, perhaps, dangerous other hens and
the rooster. On the occasion when Godzilla was the king of the roost, we
reintroduced the mother hen and chicks. It became apparent that she was not
high up in the social order and the other hens were pecking at the chicks. All
of a sudden, Godzilla ran over and chased the other hens away! That evening
after dark, I went up with a flashlight to see if the mother had dared to take
her brood up the ramp into the coop. She had decided to sleep under the
ramp and who was sleeping with her and the chicks? There was Godzilla!

Years ago, while our children were still in school, a young rooster somehow
got into the pen with the hens. When we found him, he had a bad head
wound. We treated him but now had to keep him away from the hens and the
young chickens as well because chickens are attracted to an open wound and
peck at it. We had to leave him outside, supply him with food and water and
hope for the best. Well, he loved his freedom and was scratching for food
everywhere. He got in the habit of following the kids out to the front yard
where they got on the school bus. The driver got a kick out of it. Later, he was
introduced back into the chicken yard and was afraid of all the hens and, of
course, the old rooster. Eventually, his turn did come and he did an excellent
job.

When another was a chick, he was rejected and badly pecked by his mother.
He survived and we raised him with his sister. When he came of age, he was
very cruel with the hens and they constantly tried to escape from this vicious
fellow. Needless to say he was still young enough to go into the stew pot!

Chicken House
A few years ago, we decided to have foreign exchange students from Europe.
The students would stay for a school year, study in the high school and take
part in all the senior activities. The spring after our first exchange student
arrived, our daughter, now through college and working, proposed having
chickens again. We were willing but did not want to have them in the garage
as before. I decided that the area of the garden with all the big stones would
be the ideal place to build a chicken house. We agreed to go 50-50 purchasing
the materials and building the structure.

In a book about caring for chickens, I found a drawing of the kind and size of
building we wanted for a flock of thirty although we usually have only
around twenty. It is 12' wide x 8' deep x 8' high in front and 5' in back. The
sloping shed roof has a large overhang in front and back, allowing it to
remain cooler in summer and keeping the rain water away from the windows.
Inside, the area is divided by a screened door and wall into an 8' x 9' area for
the chickens on the western end and a 8' x 3' area for storage of hay or
shavings and food on the east end. When baby chicks arrive in the spring, the
brooding area is set up here. The door to enter the chicken house is in front
and enters into the storage area. The screen door then opens into the roost and
egg laying area. The remainder of the screened wall also supports a four bay
nesting area for the chickens to lay the eggs. Long (round!) roosting poles
stretch across the room. There are two screened double hung windows on the
tall south facing side of the roost area and, on the north side are two wide
windows only 1' high, hinged on the bottom and always partially open
summer and winter. The rear overhang protects these windows from the
weather. The west wall has a rectangular entrance only just large enough for a
big rooster to squeeze through. A section of the wall on this end is hinged to
open into the chicken pen allowing the old hay or shavings to be easily tossed
out into the chicken yard. There are 4" of insulation in the walls and roof and
the floor is a sandwich of plywood with 2" of styrofoam insulation in
between.

CADD drawing showing framing layer

Based on the design in the book, I made measured drawings using a CAD
program. The sub floor consisted of a frame of 2 x 6's which would be placed
on a pier foundation. As I said, that area of the vegetable garden had rocks
which were too large for me to move. I took advantage of them to use as the
bases for the piers. First, I laid out the outline of the sills in string at the height
the floor frame would sit, which was that of the highest rock.The string
outline included the joists between the four sills. Knowing now exactly where
all the sills and joists would be, I built up the rest of the piers starting from the
large rocks and using smaller rocks and mortar. I made sure that each pier
would end up under a joist and that the tops of all the piers were level with
each other.

South facing poultry house with North side has two small windows
two large windows left open during which are left slightly open even
the summer during the winter

With the help of our daughter and

exchange student, we built the 2 x
6 frame of sills and joists on top of
the pier foundation. Although the
rocks on which the piers were
built are in a random pattern
under the frame, they do support
the rigid frame very well, the
structure above

being quite stable. Next, exterior

plywood was screwed to top of
the frame. On top of the plywood,
2 x 4's (full size, not nominal)
were laid, wide side down,
around the outside (like a picture
frame) and screwed to the base .
The 2" thick styrofoam insulation
was placed inside this frame and

Poultry pen protected from rain and snow

the second layer of plywood placed on top as a floor. The wall framing was
assembled, then the roof joists and then the exterior plywood sheathing for
the inside walls. After the insulation was applied, the exterior siding
consisting of 14" x 1" (rough) vertical pine boards was attached. For the roof,
exterior plywood was used, insulation applied between the rafters and then a
plywood ceiling. The kids worked very hard and were proud of their work.
Much of the framing and plywood were recycled from the roof platform and
crane which had been used in the construction of the fireplace chimney the
summer before.

The next step was to build a large pen so the chickens could get plenty of
exercise outside.The garden is surrounded by a heavy duty 2" x 4" mesh fence
4' high. At the back of the garden, the fence runs along the top of the terrace
wall. Part of that became the rear of the pen. The 5' high wall plus the 4' fence
made the rear of the pen 9' high. This slopes down to 6 feet at the front where
it is attached to the rear of the chicken house and extends another 10' to the
south. There, a door opens into the pen. The resulting space is about 12' deep
x 20'wide. 2" x 4" x 12' 'rafters' supported a chicken wire roof to fully enclose
the pen. Chicken wire was also placed 6" into the soil except at the rock walls
to prevent animals from digging under.

At times the pen would become very muddy. Eventually, I decided to cover
the pen with 4' x 8' sheets of transparent corrugated plastic roofing material.
To do this. I had to add 2 x 6 rafters to the smaller ones and a cross support
and two posts. The roof now has to support the snow load. The sheets are
attached to the rafters using battens on top and long stainless screws through
to the rafters.

With a roof on top, we now feed and water the chickens in the pen all year
round instead of in the house. The chicken house stays cleaner much longer
now.

Raising Chicks
 " I think we're too big for the
"Food, we want food"
brooder"

Expecting the hens to replace themselves has not worked out. We have tried
incubating the eggs ourselves and, when we have varieties of hens that will
lay on the eggs, have let the hens do it. Both cases have resulted in almost half
being males. The easiest method has proven to be buying the chicks mail
order.

In this way, we get to experiment with different varieties of chickens, are able
to order the quantity we wish, don't have to worry about the mother hen,
introduction into the flock or having too many males. We purchase from Ideal
Poultry because they allow us to buy a smaller quantity and have a good
choice of varieties.

The chicks are ordered for arrival in April or May. We choose the variety or
varieties and the quantity, usually 16 females and two males. In this way, over
half the flock gets replaced each year. If the rooster is good, he will die of old
age but we must always have a younger apprentice ready to take his place.

Two days before the

chicks arrive, the
brooder is prepared.
The storage area of
the chicken house is
cleaned out and an
18" high wall
attached across the
front to form a pen.
The sensor bulb of
an indoor-outdoor

Young chicks in the brooder

thermometer is situated in the center of the pen floor and the thin tube
protected by a board. The thermometers on the wall register the temperature
of the room and that of the area directly under the heat lamp where the chicks
will be. The lamp is turned on and raised or lowered until the center of the
floor registers 100 degrees and then left on. Wood shavings are spread across
the floor. A special medicated feed for baby chicks is purchased.

When the post office calls, we retrieve the container of chicks. Some postal
workers are fascinated by the chicks and some have said the chirping drives
them nuts. Air mailing of chicks is based on the fact that they do not need to
eat or drink for three days as they still carry nutrition from the eggs within
them. Most of the chicks will find the food and water by themselves but some
need help. It is not unusual for one or two chicks to die in the first day or so.
The lamp is adjusted up or down between day and night to maintain the 100
degree temperature in the center. The chicks gather in there when cold and
move to the outside
when hot. As the
chicks get older, the
heat lamp is raised
higher until they do
not need it at all.
After a month or so,
the chicks graduate
to a second kind of
feed without
medication.

When the chicks are

able to escape over
the gate, it is time to
transfer them to a
Growing chicks in their intermediate pen
larger pen. They are
still too young to be placed with the hens. I built a 6' diameter, 4' high pen of
chicken wire with chicken wire over the roof and also buried into the soil. A
tarp protected the roof and three sides from the sun and rain. There, the
chicks enjoyed jumping, flying around and climbing on the large rock in the
pen. When the chicks are large enough to eat the layer pellets and run from
the hens, they are introduced to the chicken pen. It is a necessary but
traumatic time for them. By Thanksgiving, they should should be laying and
it is now time to start culling out the oldest hens.

For years the system worked well. Then one summer, a few days before the
fourteen chicks were going to be transferred to the large pen, my wife went
up the garden and thought it strange that the small pen was still. Upon
investigating, she found all the chicks dead or missing. There had been a
massacre. The only chicks left in the pen had been eaten or were intact except
for their heads which had been bitten off. There was a hole dug under the
fence. The animal had tried in various places and had finally found a spot
where the buried chicken wire had rusted through and no longer protected
the chicks. We do not know what kind of animal it was but it was fairly large
and wasn't satisfied with filling it's stomach but in killing all the chicks which
were the size of a large partridge.

New chicks were ordered and we started over again with only ten chicks. This
time, I abandoned the small outside pen and built another into a corner of the
large pen which was protected with much stronger fencing material. We
couldn't understand how the chicks, now about the same age as the previous
ones, were disappearing. First it was one and then two and then three. The
last time, a few feathers were left around the fences. An animal, small enough
to fit through the 2" x 4" mesh, was killing the chicks a few at a time and had
the strength to be able to pull the large chicks through the mesh and carry
them off.

I don't think it was the same animal as butchered the first chicks because the
methods used were different in each case. The only animal that I know of
small enough to squeeze through is a weasel. It did not go after the larger
chickens because they could not be pulled through the mesh. Eventually
though, it could have killed and eaten the hens right inside the pen or gone
inside house through the little entrance. I didn't wait of course. I spent a day
covering the pen with a second layer of the smaller mesh chicken wire and
checked all the buried wire. Between our gardens, the orchard and the
chickens, a game (battle) goes on between us and that wild world around us
as to who is going to get the fruits of our labor. Obviously, it is often not us.

Having acquainted you with some of the experiences we have had over the
years with the chickens, perhaps you can now understand why some people
find chickens fascinating.