What kind of chicken?

[Janet Jinkner]

I assume, since this is hen and harvest, that most people here either have or want chickens. What kind do you have? What kind do you want?

I have several Rhode Island Reds, a bunch of auracana/americanas, two white brahmas, two barred rocks and a bunch of what I call my psycho-killers. They are not really psycho, and they are not killers. A friend stuck that name on them when I told him what they were. A friend who lives pretty far out in the woods had gotten a couple of barred rock hens for eggs. These barred rock hens had mated with the feral chickens that lived in the nearby woods. These feral chickens were escaped fighting cock stock that escaped many years previous and had successfully lived in the woods for many (up to 30) years. Like I said, they are not really psycho or killers, but they WILL go broody at the drop of a hat. I like 'em.

What I would LIKE, is to get a few black Langshans. Those are really pretty birds. They are like the RIR of China.

What does everyone else have and/or want?

[Lisa]

Hi Janet

I've got a few different varieties - Isa-browns which are my main layers (they're a commercial crossbreed, very calm, don't go broody easily and good layers), Anconas (very fast runners, black with white dots, tend to go broody, lay very white eggs), Light sussex (big, white with some black), a couple of aracuanas, and two Barnevelders. I also have a pair of buff pekins, which have so far hatched 5 chicks. I've got them in four different groups at the moment - isabrowns and one ancona in a big mobile chicken tractor, my geriatrics - the barnevelders, a bantam rooster and one other in a small mobile tractor, the pekins and light sussex plus chicks live in the bottom of the bird aviary, and I have one stubborn ancona still trying to hatch a plastic egg and one aracuana together in another big run. I have to do some rearranging soon but need to fence off part of the big run to rest it - heavily mulched and sown with lucerne and other greens. I'm also getting an aracuana rooster so hopefully will get some more chicks.

Does anyone plant a crop for the chickens to eat? I was told lucerne was good but I want to give them plenty of variety.

Lisa

[Edson]

We've got mostly Dominiques, with a few Buckeyes mixed in. The Doms were all girls but the Buckeyes we got straight run. We had to get rid of the roosters. They were wicked aggressive. They'd draw blood with their spurs even through jeans sometimes. And attack anyone any time. We replaced them with two nice guys - a Buff Orpington rooster and an Americana rooster. Sadly, the Buff died of unknown causes, but the Americana is great. It'll be interesting to see how any offspring turn out....

The Dominiques are great foragers, and the Buckeyes are even better. They'll range out for 100-200 yards from their pen. (They laughed at our 4-foot fence as they flew over it.)

The downside of both Buckeyes and Dominiques is a total lack of eggs in winter. Hopefully we can add some winter layers to the mix some day...

[Chris]

We have a couple of Orpington's and some unknown to me varities. It seems that our Orpington's are the most active ones of the bunch. We plan on getting some more this spring. Now to decide which ones...

[Crunchy Chicken]

If I ever get approved for having chickens in our community, I'd like to get two Red Star chickens for laying and maybe a White Polish crested just 'cause they look fun. Seattle only allows a handful of chickens in the city so I'm fairly limited.

[Matt Mayer]

I have two brown and white chickens that lay brown eggs. I have no idea what kind they are because my friend stole them from her Dad and she didn't know when she gave them to me. He didn't notice he was missing two from his 40 or 50.

[Carrie Cox]

We have 6 hens: a Buff Orpington (our 1st egg layer, very reliable, very calm, our friendliest bird yet), a Dark Brahma (didn't start laying eggs till she was 8 - 8 1/2 months old, not a reliable layer), 2 Partridge Cochins (at almost 9 1/2 months these buggers still aren't laying yet!), and 2 Americaunas (they're our noisest and most flighty birds, but we didn't get them until they were already over 4 mos old; they just both started laying, are laying very good size blue & green eggs, our most reliable layers). Our birds are all almost 9 1/2 months old, with the exception of the Americaunas who are almost 7 1/2 months old. Also with the exception of the Americaunas, they're all extremely quiet. All of the birds are very friendly though, our Buff Orpington definitely being the friendliest, coming up to be petted even by our 5 year old.

[Sealander]

I have three lavender Araucana hens and rooster at present. Very amiable rooster, never shows the slightest aggression towards humans. I don't know if that is a breed characteristic or just him. The girls are good layers but did not start until 10 months old - they did come of age while heading into winter though so that may have delayed development. They don't lay for about 3 months in winter here. I have 7 more Araucana chicks coming on, will keep some and sell the rest. Also got some Silkie chicks that are going to be pets/broody hens. All the Araucana hens went broody this summer, and I set them on eggs, but next year I'll let the Silkies do it. I also have one Dorking, who will be sold soon - she is too noisy and spends most of each morning squawking about one thing or another. I'd like to have a couple of Marans too, for the chocolate brown eggs but they're not easy to find here.
The Araucanas definitely seem to prefer to keep to their own breed. Even with the chicks, I have 4 Silkies and 1 Araucana chick that were hatched together, and the Araucana is always off on her own, investigating things, while the Silkies congregate together.

[Susan]

I have four Rhode Island Reds, they are the breed that seems to tolerate the heat and the cold best. We just got our first egg yesterday, and another today. They are not even five months old yet; other than the emergency vet visit to amputate Lovey's toe (cat got her through the wire) they've been trouble free. I'm really excited to have eggs as everyone has been telling me I wouldn't get any until next month at the earliest.

I recommend them to anybody, they are very friendly and interactive. And more fun than watching television!

[Lori]

We have lots of chickens or chooks as we call them. Some large white sussex who are living on borrowed time. We got them because they looked so attractive and yummy but they eat three times the amount of smaller breeds and don't lay as much so they really don't crunch the numbers. If I could free range them they might come up to scratch but I can't due to the puppy (see picture). I have some crossbred araucanas which are very flighty but great layers and mums. Then there are the non-descript light toffee coloured ones which are bigger than bantams but smaller than large ones and they are my pick. Run on the smell of an oily rag, lay like mad and good mums as well. I'm hoping to keep this breed kicking on as best I can.

To feed them, we grow cereal crops, mainly in winter which is our dry season. Rye, barley and winter wheat are cut for them with sunflowers and sorghum during the summer. We grow lots of arrowroot which we can harvest and boil for food and also many many pumpkins and chokos are cooked for the chooks. When they are boiled, which we do in a great big copper pot over a campfire outside, we stir in some pollard and make like pumpkin vege porridge. Also, coming into spring, we give them lots of sour milk which gives them a protein hit and also calcium. I just buy cheap cheap powdered milk for this.

[Janet Jinkner]

Lori, those non-descript toffee colored hens that are smaller than large hens but bigger than bantams are very likely game hens. Game hens are wonderful and they do make very good mothers. And they fly. I've had them fly over a 6 foot fence and across a small field. The eggs are not huge, but they are a decent size. This is also the breed that gives us fighting cocks. There's really nothing wrong with fighting cocks if you let them be just roosters. They can be very attractive. Just don't train them to fight, that's all. My psycho-killers are decended from game chicken stock and I like them real well. They do NOT fit the name I gave them.

What's a choko? What's a pollard? How do you make your brew for the chooks? How many chooks do you have altogether, and how much land does it take to grow the grains that you grow for them? I'd love to be able to start providing a bit more for our chickens from what we've grown rather than what we have to buy.

We also grow a lot of pumpkin and winter squash, but I dry them and feed them to the rabbits, goats and sheep. At least what we don't put in pie, that is. It looks like squash pie for dinner again tonight... and breakfast in the morning too! Pie is good food for breakfast. Better than some of that too-sweet breakfast cereal you can buy at the store.

[Lori]

Hi Janet - chokos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chayote

They are sechium edule or sayote apparently - I just looked them up. They grow like weeds, die off in the winter and come back in the spring with a flush of fruit. Its not uncommon for us to pick them with wheelbarrows. We eat lots as a vegetable and traditionally they were used to stretch canned fruit in pies. Pollard is like bran. Bran is the outside husk of the wheat seed and pollard is like the skin off the kernel. Its brown and dry like bran but is finer and supposed to have more nutrients. We chop up chokos, pumpkins and arrowroot with an axe, throw in the boiler skins and all and boil until they are soft or we are sick of putting wood on. Then mix in the pollard to give a sort of porridgy look and feed out when cool. Good for pigs too.

So, dried pumpkin? How does that work? We only eat as a vegetable - boiled, baked, mashed, stir fried, frittata etc. I've never had a pumpkin pie. Last season we had simply hundreds which make it a very economical stock feed and we had plenty for tea. Ummmmm pumpkin scones! But drying it sounds like a good way for us to make the most of it.

We have about 20 chooks at the moment and just keep the grains rotating in small beds that are about 6 x 3 yards so there's always something ripening to stretch out the other stuff. Sugar cane is good for them too and thats like weeds around here especially since the bottom fell out of the sugar industry and no one is harvesting it anymore. We sweep up all the fallen fruit like guavas, longans, grapefruit, peachesm nectarines etc and feed them out so they don't harbour fruit fly. Every little bit helps.

We grow a climbing green been called phaseolus epicure. We eat it as a green bean but if left to dry out on the vine it yields lots of hard brown seeds about the size of a black eyed bean. These are also suitable to throw into the chook boilup and I have even fed the dogs with these. Also madagascar beans all make less input and money to enjoy the chooks.

[Alison Kerr]

I'm not allowed any livestock in my current neighborhood - only 2 dogs and 2 cats.

If I were allowed, I might go with ducks. I know people who've kept ducks and I really like them. Otherwise, I don't know much about hens. I like the traditional little red hen, and the ones that have barred black and white feathers look nice to me.