Beyond The Fringe Farm Critters Thread - Chickens, goats, pigs, cows, etc

[SlowLoris]

I'll start off.

I am currently managing chickens, turkeys, ducks, mini pigs and Jersey cows.

In the past I have had goats and sheep. I had to give up those because of the coyotes and bobcats. I didn't have a barn to lock them up at night.

How's the relationship between your toms and the chickens? Do you keep them separate? Do you have a Rooster for the hens?

Sorry if I'm overly curious. After being away from it all those decades it's rushing back into and I like it.

I would like to have 18-24 Bantam chicks. Love their eggs even though they are small. We grew up calling them Banny Chickens.



EDIT: They eat the ticks as a bonus.

I have a Polish rooster that is a jerk. He chases the Rhode Island Red rooster away from the hens. He also challenges the Tom turkey once in awhile. He roosts in a tree at night. My daughter brought him home because he is cute. Yeah.

I have a chicken house, a duck house and a turkey house. They are all turned loose during the day to roam the front fenced in acre. At night we herd them into their houses and lock them up. They tend to stay in their own group and don't fight each other.

[IDR]

I was born and raised on a ranch/farm. I raised so many f@*&G chickens that the thought makes me sick. If am am going to raise anything it would be goldfish. I am done with all that. 

[Arkansas Ted]

I'll start off.

I am currently managing chickens, turkeys, ducks, mini pigs and Jersey cows.

In the past I have had goats and sheep. I had to give up those because of the coyotes and bobcats. I didn't have a barn to lock them up at night.

How's the relationship between your toms and the chickens? Do you keep them separate? Do you have a Rooster for the hens?

Sorry if I'm overly curious. After being away from it all those decades it's rushing back into and I like it.

I would like to have 18-24 Bantam chicks. Love their eggs even though they are small. We grew up calling them Banny Chickens.



EDIT: They eat the ticks as a bonus.

I have a Polish rooster that is a jerk. He chases the Rhode Island Red rooster away from the hens. He also challenges the Tom turkey once in awhile. He roosts in a tree at night. My daughter brought him home because he is cute. Yeah.

I have a chicken house, a duck house and a turkey house. They are all turned loose during the day to roam the front fenced in acre. At night we herd them into their houses and lock them up. They tend to stay in their own group and don't fight each other.

Very nice SL. Ducks as well? Sweet.  The Polish Roster......12 GA with  No.6. or cut his spars off. I can't believe I'm remembering all this stuff. 
I'd like to get a pair of Donkey's to guard the cattle and be a field security system. I know if things go south with our society, I'll have to buy geese and, as much as I hate to type this, Guinea hens. Maybe even a female EMU. We all know how mean female EMU's are.

[FlyoverCountry]

I was born and raised on a ranch/farm. I raised so many f@*&G chickens that the thought makes me sick. If am am going to raise anything it would be goldfish. I am done with all that. 

Caviar rather than eggs? 

[IDR]

I was born and raised on a ranch/farm. I raised so many f@*&G chickens that the thought makes me sick. If am am going to raise anything it would be goldfish. I am done with all that. 

Caviar rather than eggs? 

I love chicken eggs. But raising chickens is a full time job and I am retired. 

[Arkansas Ted]

I was born and raised on a ranch/farm. I raised so many f@*&G chickens that the thought makes me sick. If am am going to raise anything it would be goldfish. I am done with all that. 

I with you brother. Summer jobs. Hauling hay at night, tromping greens, hauling watermelons, cleaning the chicken processing plants. Catching 60K to 80K broiler chickens then clearing out the chicken shit from 60 X 800ft broiler house. I still don't like memories of the broilers.

[FT.]

In my early years of life I worked on many farms.
Usually taking care of and raising calves and feeding 
beef cattle.

Calves are some strong rambunctious and greedy animals
Always, when two are in a pen together, one is faster at
drinking its formula than the other, and would start in on
the others bucket .  Trying to manhandle it away
never worked,  they are too strong, even at a young age, had to use a rubber hose to beat them back so the less agressive one could finish
its formula.

Beef cattle would always hear my truck pulling in and already be 
lined up in the barn waiting for the 5 gallon buckets of grain to be poured into the trough.  

[FlyoverCountry]

Animal husbandry is a chore but before Roundup ready beans we were paid $3/hr to walk soybean fields and pull the weeds in 100 degree heat.  
We'd wear holes in our gloves and get blisters before the end of the day.
Irrigating corn with a trench and pipes that looked like a horseshoe wasn't fun either.  We moved the pipes to every other row every day.  There's no place in the world with less breeze and higher humidity than a corn field

[Southern Belle]

This Felicity, the only remaining shetland sheep of 3 we purchased when we bought our acerage.  The other two were Buttercup, Felicity's Aunt, and Goldie, who was a lovely golden brown.  They have sadly passed, and we have been looking for a friend for Felicity for about a year.  We are finally getting her a new friend this weekend, courtesy of our shearer.  This baby doesn't have a name, so we will do that once we get a chance to meet her.

We also have chickens and a custom built coop, designed by me, from back in 2009.  We got our chicks from mail order, and raised 12 of them in our kitchen when we still lived in town, in our spare bedroom and in a Home Depot storage shed as their first coop.  We had no freakin' idea what we were doing, but we WERE moving to the country, once we found a place! 

We finally moved, and my husband moved our pullets and 2 Roos roaming free in the back of my BMW station wagon. 

Once we got the coop delivered we painted it to match our other buildings in barn red with white trim on Labor Day weekend 2009.  We placed the coop underneath a huge evergreen tree to provide shade and an easy source of bugs.  We wanted them to be free range, but even with two Roos, we have an abundance of Raptors in the area so we created a giant run underneath the tree attached to the coop, with tarps above and chicken wire from top to ground, about 7 feet high.  We also buried hardware cloth wire under the floor of the coop to keep critters from coming up through the floor.  Haven't had any break-ins. 

We also have a radiant radiant heating panel plugged into thermostatically controlled electrical outlet.  It turns on at 38°.  The coop also has a window that opens so it can bring in air and air out during the day.  The one thing I wish we had done was install an automatic door opener for those mornings when ya want to sleep in 

Currently we only have a Roo and a Hen.  We want to re-expand our "flock" and are actively working to do that.  Might spend a penny now for that door opener too!

[IDR]

I was born and raised on a ranch/farm. I raised so many f@*&G chickens that the thought makes me sick. If am am going to raise anything it would be goldfish. I am done with all that. 

I with you brother. Summer jobs. Hauling hay at night, tromping greens, hauling watermelons, cleaning the chicken processing plants. Catching 60K to 80K broiler chickens then clearing out the chicken shit from 60 X 800ft broiler house. I still don't like memories of the broilers.

My dad had a full time job to support his farming habit. So I was the oldest of four and had to help dad milk cows in the morning then do it almost by myself in the evening. Sometimes dad would get home to help me finish up. I had to beg my brothers to feed the calves and chickens. Then I had anywhere from 50 to 250 chicks in a shed I was trying to get to selling size. I spent many a sleepless night caring for those little bastards. But they made me enough money so I could be on the alpine ski racing team. Fuck no wonder I never got that good, I was always so freaking tired.