[Jacob-list] Chicken Info Please

[Penelope]

Sometime around 11:29 6/11/00 PDT, athome mom typed:
>Hi All,
>
>I've been reading with interest the comments on how chickens will
>keep down the fly population. I am seriously thinking about adding
>some to the farm, but I'm am not versed in chickenry, could someone
>please tell  me how to get started and how many I need.

	We keep hens, no roosters, along with our sheep and goats.  (On a side
note, the sheep and goats are in the same pasture, but separate for
feeding.  We separate almost everyone in to ones and twos for feeding,
except the six sheep, who get to sort themselves out with six buckets in
their pen.)  The hens are a couple of hundred feet off to one side of our
house in the "chicken hilton" (the name was already on it when we moved
in), and the ruminants about the same distance in the other direction.  The
hens are closed in to their coop at night, eat, drink and lay eggs there,
and are free to roam by day.  They  make it into the ruminant area, but
don't spend all their time there.  We haven't had any trouble with chicken
droppings in feed, hay or fleeces, but I do keep my eye out.

	My favorite chicken book is _Chickens In Your Backyard_.  I wish there was
a goat or a sheep version of the book actually.  Our hens are Rhoad Island
Reds, Barred Rocks, and Aruacanas (blue eggs!), and this year a few
Whinedots too.  We've tried twice to find Buff Orpingtons locally, but
without success, and we don't keep enough to order a box of 25 from any of
the companies.

peace
penelope
--
"...Shine my life like a light..." (the indigo girls)
Penelope Jacob pcj at efn.org  in the hills of Yoncalla, Oregon 
CCA / Birth Doula (CEF), birth activist and all around birth radical...
The circle is open but unbroken. 

Working on baby #1 - due for birth at home in September or October 00