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Some questions about chickens
Richard asked me some questions this morning that others might also be curious about. I'm no expert so maybe more experienced chicken people could chime in too.......
What kind of squabs do you have?
Our hens are Marans', Hamburg, a mystery bantum that we think is probably a Dorking / Campine cross. We will be replacing the Hamburgs with Polish girls soon. The Hamburgs spent 2 years on a much larger hobby farm as part of a much larger flock. They're very flighty and don't seem very well suited to our setup. One of them isn't laying at all although the other one does lay every day. I'd be happy to give these pretty girls to someone in the city who would take them both and has a large enclosed run as they do like to escape in spite of having their wings clipped. A more quiet environment than we have here would be best.
We will be adding a Buff Orpington to our flock too as we want to have eggs through the winter and they are excellent winter layers. They're also super friendly and too large to get away which makes them excellent city chickens. If anyone else wants one/some, please contact me.
With your chickens did you ever have them get sick ? or any of them die ?
No one has been sick yet but we did have a broken toe. I took her to our vet but he'd never treated a chicken before and I ended up splinting it myself. This experience got me thinking though and I've suggested a "Chicken First Aid" workshop to Ross. Hopefully we can get something like this set up. If anyone knows a good vet for chickens in the city, please add them to the "Local Resources" discussion.
did you get rats under your coop ?
Surprisingly, no. They seem to prefer the wild bird seed. I have traps around my coop and in the feed area and have not caught anything in 2 months. My neighbours have them on their porch under the bird feeders but I haven't seen one here all year.
how many eggs do you get a day ?
We average about 3 eggs a day
What do you feed the chickens ? how much does it cost to feed the chickens ? Where do you get the feed for the chickens ?
We have pellets, oyster shells and scratch for our chickens. The pellets are a complete food. The oysters shells are needed for laying hens as a calcium supplement. Scratch is just a corn based treat that is useful for buying their love and getting them to go where you want them to go. Our chickens hardly eat any pellets as they free range our large yard all day and seem to get all the nutrients they need from outside. Chicken food is cheap, especially if you buy it in bulk. I have room to store feed here so anyone who is interested in maximizing our buying power and minimizing trips to the feed store should contact me. I've been buying my feed from Westway Feeds on the Langley Bypass since it is close to where I've been picking up free compost but apparently Roddick's is good too and a bit closer.
If the chicken is sick what do you do ?
I just bought a book that covers some health issues. There's a lot of information online. Backyardchickens.com has an extremely active forum full of very experienced chicken people so that would be a good place to post a question. Hopefully this group will develop into a useful resource and a good support everyone too.
What kind of squabs do you have?
Our hens are Marans', Hamburg, a mystery bantum that we think is probably a Dorking / Campine cross. We will be replacing the Hamburgs with Polish girls soon. The Hamburgs spent 2 years on a much larger hobby farm as part of a much larger flock. They're very flighty and don't seem very well suited to our setup. One of them isn't laying at all although the other one does lay every day. I'd be happy to give these pretty girls to someone in the city who would take them both and has a large enclosed run as they do like to escape in spite of having their wings clipped. A more quiet environment than we have here would be best.
We will be adding a Buff Orpington to our flock too as we want to have eggs through the winter and they are excellent winter layers. They're also super friendly and too large to get away which makes them excellent city chickens. If anyone else wants one/some, please contact me.
With your chickens did you ever have them get sick ? or any of them die ?
No one has been sick yet but we did have a broken toe. I took her to our vet but he'd never treated a chicken before and I ended up splinting it myself. This experience got me thinking though and I've suggested a "Chicken First Aid" workshop to Ross. Hopefully we can get something like this set up. If anyone knows a good vet for chickens in the city, please add them to the "Local Resources" discussion.
did you get rats under your coop ?
Surprisingly, no. They seem to prefer the wild bird seed. I have traps around my coop and in the feed area and have not caught anything in 2 months. My neighbours have them on their porch under the bird feeders but I haven't seen one here all year.
how many eggs do you get a day ?
We average about 3 eggs a day
What do you feed the chickens ? how much does it cost to feed the chickens ? Where do you get the feed for the chickens ?
We have pellets, oyster shells and scratch for our chickens. The pellets are a complete food. The oysters shells are needed for laying hens as a calcium supplement. Scratch is just a corn based treat that is useful for buying their love and getting them to go where you want them to go. Our chickens hardly eat any pellets as they free range our large yard all day and seem to get all the nutrients they need from outside. Chicken food is cheap, especially if you buy it in bulk. I have room to store feed here so anyone who is interested in maximizing our buying power and minimizing trips to the feed store should contact me. I've been buying my feed from Westway Feeds on the Langley Bypass since it is close to where I've been picking up free compost but apparently Roddick's is good too and a bit closer.
If the chicken is sick what do you do ?
I just bought a book that covers some health issues. There's a lot of information online. Backyardchickens.com has an extremely active forum full of very experienced chicken people so that would be a good place to post a question. Hopefully this group will develop into a useful resource and a good support everyone too.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Vicky on
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Here are my answers -
What kind of squabs do you have?
I got my chickens from a farmer in the valley through the Fraser Valley Poultry Fanciers Association - 2 Barred Rock, 1 Red Rock, and 1 Black Arucana.
With your chickens did you ever have them get sick ? or any of them die ?
None have died or been sick although I did see one sneezing the other day....
did you get rats under your coop ?
Our coop is enclosed with 3/4" wire mesh, small enough so baby rats won't get through. So far it has worked well. We did this because we know there are rats, mice, raccoons, and skunks in the area.
how many eggs do you get a day ?
We also average 3 eggs / day. We are trying really hard not to buy eggs, but we can go through a lot (we're a family of 4). It's interesting, before we would pay with $, now we pay with time (3 days for a good breakfast for us all!).
What do you feed the chickens ? how much does it cost to feed the chickens ? Where do you get the feed for the chickens ?
I feed them organic mash from the Canadian Organic Feeds. It's difficult to find organic (I ordered from TISOL once and got one from Otter Coop called Whole Earth - beware - this in NOT organic!). A 20kg bag only costs $11 if you pay in cash and go pick it up. We also give them scratch, grit, and crushed eggshells as one of ours was laying soft eggs (basically a sac with no shell).
If the chicken is sick what do you do ?
Thankfully I haven't had to deal with this, but I fully agree that a Chicken First Aid workshop would be great. Or developing a list of vets in the city that have knowledge of chickens.
Hope it helps, good luck with your mission. -
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the Whole Earth feed is made with 'premium ingredients' but is NOT organic. I feed them mash because that's all the place I get it from makes. The hens make less of a mess with pellets, but by adding a bit of water to the mash, it makes it less powdery (it's really just crushed up materials). The gentleman at Canadian Organic Feeds is very friendly, and I'm sure he wouldn't if you called him to ask some questions. The reason I feed them the feed is that it has been developed to meet all their nutritional requirements. We do supplement with greens or other scraps (no tomato or potato), but as I'm still a newbie, thought it best to go with what's been tried and tested.
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Permalink Reply by David Williams on
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Hi,
We would be interested in maximizing our buying power with you! We need to get some feed this week - do you have any right now you would be interested in selling and we can figure out a system for shared purchases in the future? You can email me at maggie.baynham@gmail.com.
Thanks, David and Maggie -
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Permalink Reply by Julia Smith on
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I've emailed the feed manager at Otter Coop to see what we can do... will let you know what I find out.
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