Asked the fella to text me the types these are, so here goes, in chicken lingo…
Appenzeller Spitzenhaben, the one with mohawk
Pita Pinta Asturiana, Orange and white speckled
Auracauna, White with tiny black spots and rumpless
This dude has a load of crazy cool looking chickens, goes over my head with some rare stuff.
He had just got done messing with a swarm of honey bees so had to leave grandkids in truck. That sucked as they would have loved walking this guys backyard. Several types of critters…
Had the 3 year old grand standing in entrance with door open and gave him a slight push to go in. Hahaha he was backing up going no, no, no, hilarious stuff!
Nice setup, VERY NICE! I actually used to travel the Southeast nearly every weekend many years ago showing chickens. You’d be amazed at the little tips and tricks we used to make them show ready.
Never heard of the spizenhaben. If you have a true pita pinta, that’s a rare breed. We used to have a bird auction every other weekend at Bells Crossroad and a dude had some, really bragging them up. On the Araucana, I’ve had a few growing up and one for a pet. She was a really cool chicken and her eggs were a light bluish color.
Even at the big size your girls are a big red tail could likely attack them. I keep my layers in a pen and the Bantam/game mix birds on the yard. (30ish years now) what yard chickens survive do and what the critters get keeps them in balance … mostly. I’ve done a few yard bird perlous (sp?) to keep the population down.
On the mealworms, they will love you forever for those! buy you a bag of oyster shells or get some yourself and beat em to a pulp with a hammer. Make the egg shells stronger for you. Specially if you have “little ones” gathering the eggs. Chickens will eat anything, even some high protein dog food can help with egg production. If you weed your flower bed, throw the weeds in with them, if it’s bad for them they won’t eat it, but will probably enjoy most everything you throw in. Even table scraps. Mashed potatoes… green beans… broccoli… stuff the grands won’t eat… cake… dang near anything.
I’ve just had 4 hen’s come out of the “woodwork” with biddies over the last week. This little girl hatched out from the azaleas last week with 12, she’s down to 8 now.
My layers are ISA browns (with one dominecker mixed in). Of all layers I’ve had I like these the best for gentleness and layers. When the first start up You’ll get some double yokers from them, then they level off to mostly year round egg production.
Dang, Fred, I knew you would chime in. Appreciate it as well. That Pita Pinta is supposed to be the real deal.
I have 4 sections from and old dog pen I think I’m gonna rig up something next to coop area to let them have a little room to roam with wire top and portable as I will be moving coop around to provide fresh grass.
Maybe I can snag some oyster shells as you mentioned…
Do I need some gravel/fine pieces for them to process food in their gizzards?? I guess the busted up oyster shells would work??
So I assume tossing the old egg shells back in there would be good as well??
Got them late yesterday and one egg this morning. Amen!
doubleN, I don’t like to give them the old egg shells unless you really grind them up super small. This can actually encourage them to eat eggs ( or so I was told many years ago ??) …
on this note, some will argue that chickens will start eating eggs if they are craving calcium so give them egg shells… other will claim this make them eat eggs. ? I don’t know. I just give em some oyster shells and a variety of foods.
Like you have done, the clean shavings make for cleaner eggs!
Unless you can move that coop , such as a chicken tractor, they will pick that grass area clean within a few weeks. Then you’re left with bare ground and a pile of manure where they roost.
An automatic waterer will benefit you, when the temps rise in July-August, that plastic waterer will develop algae and will be a chore making sure its full.
That is a nice coop, but doesn’t give them a lot of area…I used to free range my hens, then hawks, dogs, and grey fox put a stop to that. My flock currently roams a 40’x 12’ , fully enclosed run.
Been messing with chickens since 1979, my grandfather gave me his hens when his health started declining , lots of fun, and we never run out of fresh yard eggs.
agreed on all points, although i’ve been watching others post because my experience is minimal.
adding a run and an auto waterer would be great, and you’ll eventually have rats helping themselves to their food unless yard cats keep them down. my answer was to take the food in every night, big PITA
our birds never became intentional cannibals, but the few eggs they dropped and broke were eagerly consumed. crushed oyster shell is free like Fred sed.
When ours stopped being fun for the kids I gave them away, but it’s partially because we are in a neighborhood and the reds we had were noisy and tearing up the yard. been thinking about a couple muscovy ducks, they are tree ducks that don’t need to swim and are apparently also silent. sounds nice.
Muscovy quiet?!! . No sir, those rascals are MESSY and can get Loud. Had many a hen hatch off a batch of 18+ and most survive. Had over a hundred once, poor pond was turned into a mud hole and the bank got screwed up. Only duck I’ve ever had that wasn’t a mess were some wood duck that we raised. Caller Ducks may be a good option for you? They will still mess up the water dish, but are tiny and cute. I could never get the mom to set, so I put eggs under a Bantom . My youngest daughter has em all now.
They may be quiet at times… but certainly not all the time.
When I was breeding and showing chickens I only had Mille Fleur d’Uccles for show but had a few Auracauna just for the colored eggs and a couple Cochins because they are great at laying on a batch of eggs. They had good dispositions, were quite hardy, and the eggs were much better than store bought.
As long as they are not the big “wharf” rats, the hens will actually eat a mouse. Really. On the big rats, you’ll see their tunnels if you get them. Water hose will flush them out and you get to play whack a rat.
