I think at this time its worth taking a minute to advise all the new fanciers and poultry enthuasiasts to the hobby of poultry keeping of some of the do's and donts of buying poultry and poultry housing,because of the huge uptake in poultry keeping this season ,any amount of new so called poultry breeders and poultry house makers have come to the market place,some being a definite addition to the hobby ,and others are definately only here to make a quick buck at the cost of the unsuspecting new fancier,itseems common practice for some of these so called poultry dealers to buy as much stock as they can at the poultry fairs around the country and then advertise and sell them as their own birds, there is one big problem with this practice and that is ,nobody knows what conditions these birds came from or what disease they are carrying ,youmight think that it is no big deal , but when you bring them home and put them in with your own beautiful orpintons and in the weeks after your own birds start dropping off it is then it becomes a big deal for you. Remember this , it is easy to keep disease out through regular cleaning and good husbandry, but when you get one of these diseases in ,it is extremely hard to get them out without culling ruthlessly and even at that your runs can end up contaminated. And before any one says it,i am not feathering my own nest , this is purely good free advice ,because for anyone that knows me or has got housing or birds will agree , i will pick you the very best birds in the pens which are always freshly cleaned and dressed with shavings, as for our poultry houses they are for the serious poultry keeper looking for something that will last for many years and have recieved the highest praises from those in the hobby,
Buying Birds
When buying birds you will be sourcing birds in a couple of forms
In the next few paragraphs i will go through the pro's and con's of purchasing birds
For bio security reasons this is probably the best way of aquiring your birds but you need to be patient and look further down the line to when your birds mature and reap the benefits ,always get 3 times as many eggs as you want , ie if you want to end up with 10 hens get 30 eggs , from this you could possibly have 2 or 3 infertile 2 or 3 that wont hatch 1 or 2 losses during rearing and half of the surviving birds could be cockerals out of what pullets you are left with you can pick the best birds and move on the rest , the draw back to this way is surplus cockerals and what to do with them, it is not always possible to sell on cocks and for this reason it is advisable to cull a certain amount if not all of them as they are recognised, it cuts your feed bill, it saves on over crowding which causes a whole host of its own issues, and it is good husbandry if done in a humane manner.
Day old chicks are ideal for the completely green new poultry keeper , mostly parents who want their children to experience the whole show from chick to hen and back . There is not much to taking chicks and turning them into growing birds and then hens ,with good advice from the breeder when purchasing them any one can do this, again the most important factors are heat , feed, water and regular cleaning of the litter , and the advantage of buying and collecting is you get to see the breeding stock and see what your birds are likely to turn in to , the same disadvantages apply with the cocks as above
This is where you are at the mercy of who you are dealing with and a little bit of experience helps,and in the vast majority of cases you will be treated just fine,but it is important to see the premises and form an opinion for yourself, dont be afraid to ask questions if there is anything you are not sure about
If you are lucky to be in the right spot at the right time this is an ideal way to pick up quality birds again providing the source is reputable
Buying Housing
In the next paragraph or so i will attempt to explain the good points and bad points of poultry housing,your poultry house is the most important part of your set up ,there is nothing worse than coming out in the morning to see the fox has scratched his way through the side of your local pet shop (chineese made ) hen house and to find that all your valuable birds have made a 3 course meal for the fox at your expense,so whether you buy a house or have a go at making one here are a few pointers to be aiming at.
Q. Will we be able to look after hens if we buy them
A. Four things your hens will need are ,feed,water, a safe place to roam and a predator proof house to roost at night .
Your hens will be quite happy to eat household scraps, supplemented with some layers pellets or layers mash which would have all their needs rolled into one feed.
Water shortages will result in egg shortages and hens need plenty of water all the time as they drink a suprising amount of water, more than you would imagine .
Ranging, it is important to keep the area your birds are going to live in free from predators and the same goes for roosting , they need a secure house , predator proof and dont forget that a fox probably patrols your garden every single night so dont ever be tempted to say AH I WONT BOTHER LOCKING THEM UP TONIGHT ,THEY WILL BE OK FOR 1 NIGHT, because that will be goodnight for your birds .
Q. Should we start with day old chicks,growing birds or adult hens
A. Again like the question before the answers are the same in part as far as looking after any of them , but
there can be different reasons for choosing one or the other.If there are children involved ,day old chicks are always a great way of getting them involved from the start, and day old chicks really are not much bother at all, the disadvantage of this is that most suppliers only supply as hatched chicks ,which means a mixture of male and female birds , which is ok if you are looking for table birds as well as layers
Growing birds are probably the best option for ending up with the correct amount of females you want as nearly all breeds would be able to be sexed at 6-8 weeks old ,and they are also finished with heat at this time,
Adult birds are more suited to the experienced keeper as buying adult birds can be sometimes a game of cat and mouse, the birds are often older than stated and sometimes may be almost finished laying so it is often best to go to a recomended trusted supplier, and you also run the risk of infecting resident birds if you have any, and for this reason it is best to start with day old chicks or growing birds altogether.
Q What type of house will we need
A Hens are not too fussy about the look of their residences , any secure shed or out house can easily with not too much carpentry skills ,be converted into a poultry palace with the addition of some roosts and laying boxes. If you want something easier on the eye or maybe your skills are limited in this direction , this is where we can fill the gap with our range of poultry housing
Q. Will we need a rooster to have eggs
A. No. The hens will lay the same with or without a rooster or in the case of an over armourous rooster they might even lay better without him ,but the eggs collected will not be fertile so would be no good for hatching if this was part of your plan . But all is not lost ,if you want chicks and you have a broody hen you can always buy some hatching eggs and she will do the rest or you can put dummy eggs under her and buy some chicks for her and she will take to these providing they are slipped in under her at night
Some people love to hear the crow of a rooster in the morning, this is not always possible because your neighbours may be less than impressed with their new alarm clock
