Taking On Livestock, Part I
(Page 4 of 8)
March/April 1987
By John Vivian
Chickens don't need a lot of space, but you must provide a predator-proof, well-ventilated, draft-free coop with at least two square feet of floor space per bird. You can use a corner of a shed or barn, build your own coop (see Fig. 6), or adapt a metal or wood prefab lawn building. Each bird needs a foot of roosting space, and you should add at least one foot-square nesting box (two feet off the floor) for every four mama hens (Fig. 7).
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An outdoor run is also essential to an aesthetic home poultry operation. The birds need fresh air and space to move around, dust to bathe in, and bugs to chase just to look contented-and that's leaving out the health benefits. A couple of square feet of sun space per bird is fine, but the more room the better. Birds kept in too close confinement peck one another excessively, a practice that can draw blood and lead to cannibalism.
Pens made of chicken wire fencing held on steel stakes will do the job fairly inexpensively. If you don't clip wing feathers after every annual molt, build the fence at least six feet high. And if you've got potential predator problems, reinforce the bottom. A two-foot-wide band of small-mesh welded wire extending a good six inches underground should work.
Add automatic dry feeders ($20 each) and waterers ($20 each), and-egg collecting aside-your flock will need service no more than once or twice a week. With a neighbor coming in to tend the birds in exchange for the eggs, you can enjoy those occasional vacations away from the place that make coming back such a delight.
Chicks come in lots of 25 from large hatcheries, at about 65e or more per bird "as hatched"-50:50 male and female. (You can get them from a local feed store or poultry breeder, or through the Sears Farm Catalog.) You'll have to tend those babies carefully in a brooder for a few weeks. The girls will grow up in six or seven months to give you a nice family-sized flock of 10 or 12 layers. They'll produce about four eggs each a week for six to eight months a year. Production drops in winter, but can be extended for almost the full year if you augment the sun with electricity to provide 16 hours of light a day.
They'll manage just fine without a rooster, but I like to keep two males for breeders, as fertile-egg providers, and for the pleasure of hearing them trying to outcrow each other when they welcome the sun. Slaughter the cocks you won't be keeping when they reach broiler size at eight weeks, or caponize (castrate) them and harvest still tender roasters at 11 to 15 weeks of age.
Chickens can be highly productive. A broiler like a Rock Cornish cross yields nearly a pound of meat for every two pounds of feed. A good egg-layer like the Leghorn (pronounced "leggern") gives about a dozen eggs per five pounds of feed. And dual-purpose breeds—such as White, Barred, or Plymouth Rocks (Fig. 8), and Rhode Island or New Hampshire Reds-give a fair supply of both products.
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