Chickens

[fenwoman]

I let some of my cochins out today for the first time in weeks. I keep them indoors usually in cold damp weather. I just looked at the clock thinking I should shut them away and realised. It is 4 pm and still light out.
Folks, spring is on it's way and the days are getting longer Yippee!
I spent all afternoon catching the bantams in the aviary block in order to ivomec them and give them all a pedicure. Then I fixed about 20 feet of fence in the bantam paddock which blew down last week. Tomorrow I'll clean out some chicken houses. Aren't chickens fun.

 

[grahamsokel]

I let some of my cochins out today for the first time in weeks. I keep them indoors usually in cold damp weather. I just looked at the clock thinking I should shut them away and realised. It is 4 pm and still light out.
Folks, spring is on it's way and the days are getting longer Yippee!
I spent all afternoon catching the bantams in the aviary block in order to ivomec them and give them all a pedicure. Then I fixed about 20 feet of fence in the bantam paddock which blew down last week. Tomorrow I'll clean out some chicken houses. Aren't chickens fun.

All my chickens have to be locked in long before 4pm it was pitch black here at 4 tonight

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

They will actually instinctively go inside their chicken house if you leave them out- you don't need to catch them and bring them in. Does their house have anywhere for them to roost in high up above the floor or do they just have to sit on the floor at night?
Cochins are bred to have very feathered legs, which can become easily dirty. Bamtams which don't have such greatly feathered legs can be let out in any weather they choose to go out in though. You can improve the drainage and cleaness/hygene of the pen greatly by having sand instead of dirt (the chickens will also greatly enjoy dust bathing in the sand during warmer and drier weather as well, its good for chickens to be able to dust bath as it helps keep parasite levels down on the chickens).

I was brought up on a farm and kept bamtam chickens for all of my childhood and early teenage years, i do miss having them a lot even to do this day (i moved out at 16 and went to college and rented out my own place, then bought a house years later). My garden is too small really to have a decent size pen and house to keep them in.

 

[fenwoman]

They will actually instinctively go inside their chicken house if you leave them out- you don't need to catch them and bring them in. Does their house have anywhere for them to roost in high up above the floor or do they just have to sit on the floor at night?
Cochins are bred to have very feathered legs, which can become easily dirty. Bamtams which don't have such greatly feathered legs can be let out in any weather they choose to go out in though. You can improve the drainage and cleaness/hygene of the pen greatly by having sand instead of dirt (the chickens will also greatly enjoy dust bathing in the sand during warmer and drier weather as well, its good for chickens to be able to dust bath as it helps keep parasite levels down on the chickens).

I was brought up on a farm and kept bamtam chickens for all of my childhood and early teenage years, i do miss having them a lot even to do this day (i moved out at 16 and went to college and rented out my own place, then bought a house years later). My garden is too small really to have a decent size pen and house to keep them in.

Thank you for the information but with 30 years experience breeding and showing I don't think I need it lol. Cochins do not have perches. They are too prone to damaging themselves when they jump down. All of my fowl are kept indoors during the winter bad weather.
I specialise in Dutch bantams and cochins and mine are far too valuable to be left out at night.
my poultry website

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

They will actually instinctively go inside their chicken house if you leave them out- you don't need to catch them and bring them in. Does their house have anywhere for them to roost in high up above the floor or do they just have to sit on the floor at night?
Cochins are bred to have very feathered legs, which can become easily dirty. Bamtams which don't have such greatly feathered legs can be let out in any weather they choose to go out in though. You can improve the drainage and cleaness/hygene of the pen greatly by having sand instead of dirt (the chickens will also greatly enjoy dust bathing in the sand during warmer and drier weather as well, its good for chickens to be able to dust bath as it helps keep parasite levels down on the chickens).

I was brought up on a farm and kept bamtam chickens for all of my childhood and early teenage years, i do miss having them a lot even to do this day (i moved out at 16 and went to college and rented out my own place, then bought a house years later). My garden is too small really to have a decent size pen and house to keep them in.

Thank you for the information but with 30 years experience breeding and showing I don't think I need it lol. Cochins do not have perches. They are too prone to damaging themselves when they jump down. All of my fowl are kept indoors during the winter bad weather.
I specialise in Dutch bantams and cochins and mine are far too valuable to be left out at night.
my poultry website

Well its your chickens, do what you will- you don't have to listen to anyone here.
When i kept chickens though i never once had a single problem with the chickens damaging themselves flying up or down from their roosts. Chickens instinctively don't like to sleep on the ground at night due to predators like foxes and stoats- in the wild, you are extremely unlikely to find any chickens sitting out at night on the ground. In the wild, a chicken on the ground at night is a dead one. So i am sure they prefer having the option to roost than no roost option at all (its a bit like providing caves for common pleco's- in the wild they spend a lot of them time under cover, so feel less stressed in captivity when given the option to take cover). You'll always find the people who have bad chicken casualties due to foxes are the owners who keep their chickens on the ground. Chickens will also instinctly not go out in bad weather if they have any choice as well.
My point is, is that chickens are more than capable of making their own basic day to day descision and do not need people to put them to bed and things- chickens will make these choices on their own very easily given half a chance.

When i kept chickens they put themselves in at night when the sun started to go down, and flew up onto their roosts in the chicken shed to sleep on at night- early in the morning, they'd fly down and let themselves out (we specially designed out chicken pen to be fox-proof but also allowed the chickens to enter or leave it at any time. At one point we had 160 bantams of various different breeds and cross-breeds and never had any problems with this regime even in such great numbers, so i know these things from experience.
Though i suppose if you force a chicken to stay on the groun its entire life, its not going to learn how to roost properly and nor will it build up the muscles in its wings to fly, and if you breed them like that over generations, then they probably will lose a certain amount of their natural ability to do these things well. I'm not a big fan of the fluffy or overly feathered breeds of bantams since they often suffer a lot of issues in their day to day lives that other chicken breeds would not due to the way they have been bred.
Its like that even with a lot of breeds of dogs now days- bulldogs look nice but are often so incapable of doing normal and natural tasks that other dogs would not have a problem with (like giving birth or breathing normally), that they need constant care from people due to the way they have been bred, which is often purely for their appearance when it comes down to it.

 

[black angel]

I just wanted to say I love your chickens fenwoman and would have liked some myself but I dont think the neighbours would appreciate them.
Out of interest whats the smallest easiest breed and the minimum number you should keep?

 

[fenwoman]

Well its your chickens, do what you will- you don't have to listen to anyone here.
When i kept chickens though i never once had a single problem with the chickens damaging themselves flying up or down from their roosts.

And do you have experience of cochins or other very heavy breeds?

Chickens instinctively don't like to sleep on the ground at night due to predators like foxes and stoats- in the wild, you are extremely unlikely to find any chickens sitting out at night on the ground. In the wild, a chicken on the ground at night is a dead one.

Oh I agree, but since we are not talking about wild chickens but the largest ornamental breed kept,things are a little different.

So i am sure they prefer having the option to roost than no roost option at all (its a bit like providing caves for common pleco's- in the wild they spend a lot of them time under cover, so feel less stressed in captivity when given the option to take cover).

But domestic fowl are very far removed from their wild cousins and the large ornamentals especially so.

You'll always find the people who have bad chicken casualties due to foxes are the owners who keep their chickens on the ground.

No actually you find people who have fox casualties are the ones who do not have secure housing and runs or electrified netting as I do. In 30 years poultry keeping I have never had any of my birds taken by foxes or other predators.

Chickens will also instinctly not go out in bad weather if they have any choice as well.

With all due respect, you seem to know nothing about chickens at all. All of my birds (some 200) will happily go outside in bad weather. The only thing they dislike is strong wind.

When i kept chickens they put themselves in at night when the sun started to go down, and flew up onto their roosts in the chicken shed to sleep on at night- early in the morning, they'd fly down and let themselves out (we specially designed out chicken pen to be fox-proof but also allowed the chickens to enter or leave it at any time.

I would be very interested to hear about this design and we will both become millionaires within the month. BTW birds are as likely to get struck by a fox at dawn as after dark. Foxes aren't daft and will wait underneath roosting places for pheasants to come don to the ground at first light.

At one point we had 160 bantams of various different breeds and cross-breeds and never had any problems with this regime even in such great numbers, so i know these things from experience.
Though i suppose if you force a chicken to stay on the groun its entire life, its not going to learn how to roost properly and nor will it build up the muscles in its wings to fly, and if you breed them like that over generations, then they probably will lose a certain amount of their natural ability to do these things well. I'm not a big fan of the fluffy or overly feathered breeds of bantams since they often suffer a lot of issues in their day to day lives that other chicken breeds would not due to the way they have been bred.

Since you appear to know more than I do, please explain what these issues that they suffer with.


I can assure you that I am learning about fish and don't know much, but am actually quite respected within the poultry world, for my knowledge. If as you suggest, my birds were not fit becausae the larger ones are not allowed to roost, they would drop dead from heart failure and would not be placed so highly at shows. I didn't win 'Best soft feathered light fowl bantam' with a poor quality bird. I don't have a window full of first prize cards won by birds in poor physical condition.
I respect your opinion, but please do not try to teach me to suck eggs (pardon the metaphor).
30 years in fowl should have given me some experience I think.

 

[fenwoman]

I just wanted to say I love your chickens fenwoman and would have liked some myself but I dont think the neighbours would appreciate them.
Out of interest whats the smallest easiest breed and the minimum number you should keep?

The smallest breed I keep are Dutch bantams but I understand Seramas are even smaller. However, the smallest isn't necessarily the easiest. My Dutchies for example lay tiny eggs and the cockerels are shrill little devils. The southern European birds like Leghorn, Ancona and Andalusians are also noisy and fairly flighty. For a begiiner, one of the prettiest, most docile breeds with good laying capabilities are the wyandottes which come in a range of colours and markings. I think I have pictures of some of my laced wyandottes on my site. The silver laced in particular is very pretty indeed. I recommend a minimum of 3. You don't have to keep a cockerel. 3 pullets will be good so that if one dies, the remaining bird isn't left lonely. You get a decent sized egg from the breed too, about a supermarket medium. Wyandottes are a very quiet breed too and they become so tame that you can pick them up and pet them happily. I sell a lot of my stock as garden pets to be handled by responsible children. Since I hatch most of my chicks indoors in the incubators, and they go into brooders in my study and are handled daily, my lot are usually very tame right from the start. Of course they have to be calm on the show bench anyway.
You might be pleasantly surprised at your neighbours, especially if they get a gift iof some fresh eggs every so often. Apart from a gentle clucking through the day and the 'egg song' once a day they are very quiet indeed.

Last year a nice woman with 2 children came to buy some birds and I told the little boy to listen for the egg song. He looked sceptical as I told him that the chicken would sing "big big bigbig EGG"! when she laid.
Several months later I was in town and the same boy came over to me all excited and told me that he had heard one of his chickens singing the egg song and she said exactly what I told him she would say. That was priceless

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Well its your chickens, do what you will- you don't have to listen to anyone here.
When i kept chickens though i never once had a single problem with the chickens damaging themselves flying up or down from their roosts.

And do you have experience of cochins or other very heavy breeds?

Chickens instinctively don't like to sleep on the ground at night due to predators like foxes and stoats- in the wild, you are extremely unlikely to find any chickens sitting out at night on the ground. In the wild, a chicken on the ground at night is a dead one.

Oh I agree, but since we are not talking about wild chickens but the largest ornamental breed kept,things are a little different.

So i am sure they prefer having the option to roost than no roost option at all (its a bit like providing caves for common pleco's- in the wild they spend a lot of them time under cover, so feel less stressed in captivity when given the option to take cover).

But domestic fowl are very far removed from their wild cousins and the large ornamentals especially so.

You'll always find the people who have bad chicken casualties due to foxes are the owners who keep their chickens on the ground.

No actually you find people who have fox casualties are the ones who do not have secure housing and runs or electrified netting as I do. In 30 years poultry keeping I have never had any of my birds taken by foxes or other predators.

Chickens will also instinctly not go out in bad weather if they have any choice as well.

With all due respect, you seem to know nothing about chickens at all. All of my birds (some 200) will happily go outside in bad weather. The only thing they dislike is strong wind.

When i kept chickens they put themselves in at night when the sun started to go down, and flew up onto their roosts in the chicken shed to sleep on at night- early in the morning, they'd fly down and let themselves out (we specially designed out chicken pen to be fox-proof but also allowed the chickens to enter or leave it at any time.

I would be very interested to hear about this design and we will both become millionaires within the month. BTW birds are as likely to get struck by a fox at dawn as after dark. Foxes aren't daft and will wait underneath roosting places for pheasants to come don to the ground at first light.

At one point we had 160 bantams of various different breeds and cross-breeds and never had any problems with this regime even in such great numbers, so i know these things from experience.
Though i suppose if you force a chicken to stay on the groun its entire life, its not going to learn how to roost properly and nor will it build up the muscles in its wings to fly, and if you breed them like that over generations, then they probably will lose a certain amount of their natural ability to do these things well. I'm not a big fan of the fluffy or overly feathered breeds of bantams since they often suffer a lot of issues in their day to day lives that other chicken breeds would not due to the way they have been bred.

Since you appear to know more than I do, please explain what these issues that they suffer with.


I can assure you that I am learning about fish and don't know much, but am actually quite respected within the poultry world, for my knowledge. If as you suggest, my birds were not fit becausae the larger ones are not allowed to roost, they would drop dead from heart failure and would not be placed so highly at shows. I didn't win 'Best soft feathered light fowl bantam' with a poor quality bird. I don't have a window full of first prize cards won by birds in poor physical condition.
I respect your opinion, but please do not try to teach me to suck eggs (pardon the metaphor).
30 years in fowl should have given me some experience I think.

Thanks for all the sarcasm and ego, But i do know what i am talking about and i have had experience with cochins as well as many other breeds. You obviously cannot accept it when people don't completely agree with you due to your sarcastic tone. Experience counts, but doesn't make you an expert- i could keep a goldfish in a bowl for 10 years and plenty of people could tell me how pretty it looked but that would not make me an expert (you seem to believe that years=knowledge, which it does not). But thats a different debate altogether.

a. Bantam chickens retain a huge amount of their wild instincts (just like pretty much all domesticated animals), even we as human beings do. Physically they not a great deal different from their wild relatives, unless you include all the over-bred breeds with weird mutations.
b. Obviously with the fox casualty thing, if you don't make the enclosure secure you will get foxes. But are you argueing that if a fox broke into a chicken house, chickens which had nowhere to fly onto away from the fox would somehow survive better than ones given places to roost? My point is that roosting area's give chickens a great deal of protection from foxes as they are no longer sitting ducks so to speak.
c. With the weather thing, i was referring to bad weather as in properly bad weather (gales or large downpours of rain) and not just a damp day in an english autum, but when it comes down to it, its obvious they prefer dry and warm weather to wet and windy.
d. Lol congratulations on all your awards, i'm sure that makes you the expert word on chickens then- never mind everybody else. I never said i had more knowledge than you, i was offering my opinion and the reasons for it (which so far you don't seem to have given me any real sound evidence against my opinions) but you seem be using any excuse to stroke your ego.
e. With the fox proof pen thing, very simple solution- put foundations under the fencing so the fox can dig under it, and create a study open hatch connecting the chicken house and pen so the chickens can go in and out as they please- use a properly constructed building for teh chickens too.
It doesn't take a genius to think of that idea, but unfortunately most people cannot be bothered to give chickens anything more than a house with the durability of a rabbit hutch and a wire fence or cage going around it. Build strong foundations and have strong walls, and you'll have safe chickens .
f. I never said your birds were unfit, but you said you can't allow them to roost because they might hurt themselves, then there's gotta be something wrong with them IMHO (which as i said probably comes down to overbreeding or over-protection of the bird so it can't learn these things for itself). A healthy chicken should be able to roost without any problems at all, are you denying this?

 

[fenwoman]

I disagree that large fowl should necessarily be able to perch. Jumping down from a perch causes fractures, bumblefoot, ligament strain and the like. Try dropping 14lbs of spuds from a height of a couple of feet and feel the thud it makes. I am considered rather excentric in the cochin world as my birds free range in summer. Most serious breeders and exhibitors won't let their cochins range .
I was not sarcastic but trying to explain my views without causing offense. Yes I suppose I do have an ego. I am proud of the way that I keep my fowl and of the husbandry knowledge I have and I am proud of the fact that my birds do well at shows and that people ask my advice. Should I display false modesty?

There are lots of species I know nothing about and will freely admit this and happily take advice from people who DO know. However, chickens is what I know and I'm happy to say so. We will have to agree to disagree. Not sure what you mean about 'overbred' though. A breeder may line breed but would never dream of inbreeding. Chickens, dogs, cats and other animals including fish are bred and shown with exaggerated points. Does a wild betta look anything like one of the show bettas?

 

[grahamsokel]

I am not getting into this argument but i do agree in some ways with fenwoman about some of the bigger birds damaging legs when jumping down from perches.I know of some of my friends that have had birds break legs

I myself do not have any of the massive breeds and all of mine have perches although my silkies will not use them but i am convinced they are a bit brain dead

I lock all of mine in every night before dark as in the summer of 2006 i lost 10 call ducks and 6 chinese goslings all in 1 night due to a badger breaking into the pen and ripping them to shreds

during the day all of mine have free range over 10 acres and the water fowl have a natural pond and stream but in bad weather i dont let my hens out as they hate it

 

[wendywc]

All I want to say is.... WOW. fenwoman, those are some gorgeous chickens on your website.

 

[grahamsokel]

All I want to say is.... WOW. fenwoman, those are some gorgeous chickens on your website.

OMG i had not clicked on The link to your site If i visited you i would think i had died and gone to heaven you have some stunning birds

 

[black angel]

I just wanted to say I love your chickens fenwoman and would have liked some myself but I dont think the neighbours would appreciate them.
Out of interest whats the smallest easiest breed and the minimum number you should keep?

The smallest breed I keep are Dutch bantams but I understand Seramas are even smaller. However, the smallest isn't necessarily the easiest. My Dutchies for example lay tiny eggs and the cockerels are shrill little devils. The southern European birds like Leghorn, Ancona and Andalusians are also noisy and fairly flighty. For a begiiner, one of the prettiest, most docile breeds with good laying capabilities are the wyandottes which come in a range of colours and markings. I think I have pictures of some of my laced wyandottes on my site. The silver laced in particular is very pretty indeed. I recommend a minimum of 3. You don't have to keep a cockerel. 3 pullets will be good so that if one dies, the remaining bird isn't left lonely. You get a decent sized egg from the breed too, about a supermarket medium. Wyandottes are a very quiet breed too and they become so tame that you can pick them up and pet them happily. I sell a lot of my stock as garden pets to be handled by responsible children. Since I hatch most of my chicks indoors in the incubators, and they go into brooders in my study and are handled daily, my lot are usually very tame right from the start. Of course they have to be calm on the show bench anyway.
You might be pleasantly surprised at your neighbours, especially if they get a gift iof some fresh eggs every so often. Apart from a gentle clucking through the day and the 'egg song' once a day they are very quiet indeed.

Last year a nice woman with 2 children came to buy some birds and I told the little boy to listen for the egg song. He looked sceptical as I told him that the chicken would sing "big big bigbig EGG"! when she laid.
Several months later I was in town and the same boy came over to me all excited and told me that he had heard one of his chickens singing the egg song and she said exactly what I told him she would say. That was priceless

When I looked at your hens it was the silver lace which caught my eye. I have a large garden but couldnt let any of them roam because of the dog. I do have a decent shed that i could convert but what size of run would they need?
I would of course have to talk hubby round but i think in the future it would be really nice to have.

Also on the point of roosting hens, my dad had around 30 or 40 of them when he lived on a farm, your normal brown and black type hen commonly seen on farms and they had a two roomed barn to sleep in. One room had stacked bales with gaps for them to roost and aslo batons across the top set at around 5 feet for them to roost on. The other room was just a straw bed on the floor and the majority of hens preferred the straw bed and didnt seem to want the roosts provided.

Just to say as well, that peoples husbandry of animals differs greatly and we should respect that.

 

[fenwoman]

All I want to say is.... WOW. fenwoman, those are some gorgeous chickens on your website.

Thank you

All I want to say is.... WOW. fenwoman, those are some gorgeous chickens on your website.

OMG i had not clicked on The link to your site If i visited you i would think i had died and gone to heaven you have some stunning birds

Any time you are down this way, pop in to visit them
Some of my Dutch bantams are also pictured on the Dutch bantam club website.