Chickenology

Anyone raise chickens? How about from 1-3 day old chicks?

I have a batch of 26 coming next week and trying to prepare. I raised around 8 about 20 years ago but about all I remember is putting them in a box and using a heating pad when I saw they were cold. They did fine until my dogs killed them at a year old. But from what I'm hearing temperature is critical, especially keeping them at 90 degrees the first week and lowering no more than 5 degrees a week for next 4 weeks. I'm trying not to go overboard with specifics but I'd feel like a failure if they died.

At first I thought I'd just put them under their new coop in a wired off area with shade but it's getting 105 degrees out and will probably be steady 110s for the next couple weeks, then there is the monsoon storms that will be starting. Hardly anything is said about how warm they can be. Now I'm thinking to start them in my shop which has evaporative coolers but apparently now I need to buy thermometers to find out what is going on with the temps. I told a girl at the feed store I was thinking about putting them in the shop with the coolers but was concerned about the temp dropping at night. She seemed pretty confident saying just turn off the coolers at night and turn them on in the day I 'd be fine, but maybe I'm letting all these internet chicken opinions get into my head but I feel I should check it out.

Besides the temperature there are many other considerations. Whether or not to vaccinate, I decided to have them get the Marek vaccination.

There were 83 different breeds to choose from at the hatchery not counting the Bantams. Minimum order of 25, at least 5 of each breed, so keeping in mind the color of eggs, tameness of the birds, if they were flighty, calm, if they were broody, how big and what they looked like I finally narrowed it down to 5 breeds. One of my choices was not available but the 3rd generation owner of the hatchery was listening in on the phone call so I asked the secretary to ask him his favorite and replaced it with that one. Ordered all hens but they only guarantee 90% accuracy of sexing so I figured I'd probably get a couple Cockerels but the secretary told me that often they are 100% accurate so I threw in a cockerel making it 26.

The breeds I picked are:

BLUE ANDALUSIAN - white eggs

AMERAUCANA - blue and green eggs

BUFF ROCK - brown eggs

SALMON FAVEROLLE - cream eggs (The hatchery owner's favorite, they have an extra toe.)

WELSUMMER - dark chocolate eggs

I'm happy with my choices and should have some awesome looking chickens and great farm raised colorful eggs, if they live, but didn't really want 26 chickens. These chickens average over 200 eggs a year each. Doing the math, that comes to 5,000 eggs a year! If I manage to talk someone into taking of say 10 of my fine purebred chickens that's still 3,000 eggs a year or 8+ eggs a day, could easily be a dozen a day.

I bought a couple waterers but now hear they can easily drown and/or get wet then cold and die so I need to get a "no drown waterer".

Other than that I still need to finish my nesting boxes, perches, ventilation, ramps, and perhaps owl proof night doors on their chicken mansion...

 

I had English Mastiffs at the time and would let my chickens out of the coop to free range but suddenly one day I found just the feet of one chicken, a half eaten chicken and a dead one. So I locked my chicken in their coop but the next night the dogs broke through the wire and finished them off.

Buff Orpingtons are very similar looking to the Buff Rocks I ordered. I actually read a thread comparing these breeds but came away thinking the BRs were more calm... I can't believe how far I've come in "chickenology" to actually be able to discuss this subject.

 

I've learned a lot about protecting against predators over the years and chickens being a favorite on the menu and on the bottom of the totem pole for what seems about everything out there I'm fortifying by every means I can come up with. Such as, I've lost 3 small dogs to coyotes but spent over $1.500 building an outdoor 60' x 80' pen attached to the house with a concrete footing around it and so far, 2 years, so good. I have one big dog but she'll never get through the new fencing I just finished around my ...mini-farm pens. I'm still considering a Livestock Guardian Dog also, might go see one this weekend.

 

I have white racing homer pigeons that have a lot of freedom out of the coop and their worst predator are these small hawks a little smaller than them that come and hunt them in packs time to time. Although over the years they have learned pretty well to escape them and seem to pass the trait down. These pigeons fly much faster (fastest bird in the world actually) so the hawks must dive on them when they aren't looking but they've learned to keep a watch out and will fly up high.

I'm thinking of building a 12' wide, 8' deep and 8' high run with a roof (maybe shade instead of wire) right in front of their coop within the fenced pasture area where the chickens will range so they can escape. I hear the cockerels will keep watch and warn the hens of danger and they say this is good reason to have cockerels because they also will fight.

BTW, the place I bought my chickens also carries game birds. Stromberg's Chicks | Live Birds for Sale, Hatching Eggs, Poultry Supplies

 

I'm thinking I prefer to have them all the same age to start with (I've read about "pecking order" and hens that won't accept what they don't hatch) but hope to have some broody hens out of them for the future as I might try to raise some purebreds for sale to pay for feed and supplies - and just for fun.

 

Currently I pull into my property and hear my sheep start to baa, my pigeons cooing at me and dogs howling and wonder if the chickens will join in the serenade.

 

My garden area is 280' away and has not been defend-able against the prairie dogs and rabbits but I have a new fence design in mind that has wire 2' in the ground so can't be dug under and can't be climbed by the prairie dogs either so I'm thinking of moving my garden close to my ...mini-farm... where I can wheel barrow over the dropping and rotor till them in. Seems a perfect way to keep things tidy and get some good soil.