Author Topic: New to chicken keeping, help! (Read 2662 times)

Whitebag · « **on:** August 20, 2009, 07:43:41 pm »

Hi everyone,
I've kind of aquired a number of chickens, I know I have 3 Marans and a lovely white Bantam (almost certainly all hens) from one source. I also have 7 others, 6 of which appear to be identical (breed unknown) and the seventh might not even be a chicken?

. May be hens may be roosters not sure yet.
They're all living very happily in a very large secure enclosure in a big new coop my son and I built as per the many instruction manuals available on the good old WWW.
They are very content are extremely sociable with each other and with me and the kids.
I believe they're all between 16 and 20 weeks old. I'm feeding them layers pellets now as that is what I was recommended to do.

I'm learning as I go thanks to the internet but a have a couple of simple questions which I keep getting very different answers to.
1. How much should I be feeding them?, roughly will do
2. Is it best to feed at a particular time of day?
3.When should I expect an egg or two?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

MARSZ01 · « **Reply #1 on:** August 20, 2009, 07:54:46 pm »

Hello There,

You should expect your first eggs when they are around 20 weeks old. People feed chickens at different times of the day, depending on what is most convenient I would think. We feed ours twice daily, because we let them out in the morning to roam the farm freely and it encourages them to come out of their coop and in the evening to get them back in, before the foxes appear! As far as I'm aware it doesn't matter much when, as long as it is at regular times. Chickens run like clockwork and do not like their routine disturbed. As for how much to feed them, we stick to my grandmother's old rule - a handfull per chicken and one extra for luck

. Hope that helps.

Good luck, Petra

Tullywood Farm · « **Reply #2 on:** August 20, 2009, 08:26:30 pm »

Hello

If your chickens are young, the combs on their head will be pink, once they turn to bright red, they should start laying eggs.

They spend their first 21 weeks making feathers, and once mature and their feathers are all grown, they will start going into red combs and start laying eggs.

Hens can only make feathers of eggs, as they need a lot of protein to make both, and cannot do it naturally.

I hope you enjoy your hens, if your not sure what sex they are in a few weeks the cocks willstart fighting over the ladies, the best thing to do if you have a lot of cocks is move them into a separate pen and feed them corn for the table.

Welcome to the forum from Me, Julie, my husband Joe (chicken specialist - has bred over 50 different breeds) and our 11 year old pig advisor and shower, Tara x x x

Julie

Rosemary · « **Reply #3 on:** August 20, 2009, 09:56:51 pm »

Hi and welcome.

I feed layer pellets (organic by personal preference) ad lib and "some" mixed corn in the afternoon / teatime. That way, they can eat as much as they need. For preference, they will have corn over pellets, so don't feed too much corn or feed it in the morning or they won't eat the higher value pellets.

Whitebag · « **Reply #4 on:** August 21, 2009, 03:29:52 pm »

Hi all,

Thanks a million for the info I already feel a lot wiser, we'll just have to wait and see and enjoy the daily routine of checking the nest boxes to calls of "any eggs, any eggs, any eggs?"

Thanks again
Ciarán