Velvet
Sparrow's Chicken Information Site
~~~Throughout this site, simply hover your mouse over each picture for a pop-up caption to explain what or who it is.~~~
INTRODUCTION: A LITTLE ABOUT ME
I have raised and owned chickens for eggs and pets here in Southern California
since I was a child, and I get lots of questions about keeping them happy and healthy. I grew up on a small farm where we had a mixed fruit orchard, a large vegetable garden, horses, chickens, rabbits, turkeys,
ducks, guinea pigs and quail. We raised chickens, turkeys and rabbits for meat and eggs, and had a few as pets. On our farm we did most everything ourselves--from building horse corrals to harvesting and canning
our own vegetables, fruit and jam, to slaughtering and processing chickens and rabbits for food. I'm glad that I know how to do all of these things, and I commend those who make the choice to raise their own food
and meat--it's tastier and healthier than supermarket produce and chicken by far. Being self-sufficient is very fulfilling and empowering, and gives you a true sense of the circle of life and how intimately connected to it
we all are. But these days I keep my flock for eggs and entertainment, so that is primarily what this website will focus on. You'll find no butchering instructions here, but you will find info on how to successfully keep
baby chicks in a box in the kitchen! :)
My current flock of 36 or so birds is a mix of different breeds, standard size
and Bantam birds, hens and roosters that range in age from 6 months to 10
years old. I keep a mixed flock of many different breeds but try to stay
away from the more aggressive breeds. Your experience will depend on the
temperment of the breed of birds you own, their individual personalities
and how they live.
I'm not a big-time breeder or rancher, but here are some of the things that
I do, that have worked for me for many years. Your experiences in your part
of the world may substantially differ from mine. Some people might
disagree with what I do, and I might disagree with what they suggest. Ask
5 different chicken people a question, get 6 different answers. :)
Also--I AM NOT A VET. If
you think you need a vet, call one right away.
If you have any questions please feel free to email me at my NEW email address as of January 2012:
velvetsparrow@gmail.com
CHICKENS IN A NUTSHELL
The average chicken hatches after 21 days of incubation, is old enough to be on it's own (away from mama) at 2 months, reaches puberty (hens begin laying eggs, roos begin mating hens) at 6 months old and have a
life span of 9-13 years, give or take a few years either way. Their life span, of course, depends on their health and lifestyle, and individual birds may begin laying or crowing earlier or later than average. Personality
traits and behaviors vary widely from breed to breed. Chickens are by nature and instinctually very social flock animals, and do NOT do well raised singly, without other chickens. In the absence of other chickens,
your lone chicken will bond to YOU or any other pets you have, such as the family dog. Chickens (and birds in general) have the intelligence and emotional level of a 2 year old human child. It's important to realize
that chickens have very definite individual personalities, and can and do feel and display strong emotions such as affection, jealousy, fear, sadness and revenge. They can form special bonds to other specific birds or
humans, and mourn them when they die. If you want to expand your knowledge of chickens, DON'T just stick to books and websites on chickens--read up on other birds such as parrots and cockatiels. They have
been around as pets much longer than chickens have, and people have studied their behaviors more. You'll find that what is true of caged pet birds is also true of chickens--a bird is a bird when it comes to behavior
and emotions!
As a rule, young birds will be very energetic, playful and stupid. They haven't had the life experiences to wise them up that old birds have had. Young birds are more prone to dumb accidents because they are
exploring the world. Young birds are also more friendly towards humans because they haven't learned the hard way that most humans suck--they can be mean or absentminded. In this respect young chickens are
like young children, innocent and trusting. If you want your chickens to be tame, handle them frequently when they are young.
Very old birds tend to be mellow and their life experiences have shown them to expect anything and take it in stride. Older birds may not always want to be picked up and handled, but they will come around and hang
out with you and keep you company. The older hens tend to be the ones whom the other chickens look to for wisdom, watching how they react to new things.
In the middle are adult birds that are in their prime. How they react to you depends greatly on how they were raised as chicks--if raised by other chickens in a barnyard, with minimal human contact, they will tend to
be wilder and less apt to approach you. Birds that have been raised by humans or handled a lot when young have learned to trust and love humans, some to the extent that they seem to think that they ARE humans,
and prefer to hang out with you rather than the flock.
TO ROO OR NOT TO ROO?
Do your hens need a rooster? Well, strictly speaking...no. Hens can get along perfectly fine without a rooster. Hens will lay eggs and even go broody (set on a clutch of eggs in an effort to hatch them) with or
without a rooster. Roosters merely provide fertilization for eggs, which you have to have if you plan on hatching any chicks from your hens' eggs. Roosters also provide an important part of the flock--the leader,
protector, provider, lover and father figure. In my opinion, hens are much happier with a roo than without and the flock is more of a cohesive family and community unit with a rooster present. Hens take as much joy in
following a rooster around as he does in escorting them around the yard. You will get a truer picture of chicken behavior in a flock with a rooster than without.
Also, to dispel some common myths: fertile eggs are no healthier than infertile eggs. There is no danger in eating a fertile egg, they are not poisonous. You may have heard horror stories of people cracking open an
egg to find a half-developed chick; well, with supermarket eggs this is impossible, since the hens that lay those eggs are kept in huge battery cage farms and never see a rooster, much less ever see the sun or have
their feet touch the ground. Usually fertile eggs you find in the grocery store are marketed as such and are much more expensive because when you mix hens and roos together, you can't just cram them by the half
dozen in a cramped wire cage--they must be housed in runs, which takes up more room per bird and so is more expensive to the egg farm. The egg companies that sell fertile eggs are relying on myth and
superstition to command higher prices for their eggs based on the mistaken belief that they are healthier or somehow instill fertility or virility in whoever eats them. Since eggs must be incubated by either a hen or an
incubator for at least week and a half before a chick begins to form that you can REALLY see, anyone who cracks open an egg and finds a chick has found themselves a two week old egg. Yuck! This story is mostly
an Urban Legend.
SO WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE IN SUPERMARKET EGGS?
Basic supermarket eggs are from 'battery hens'--White Leghorn hens that are crammed 5 or 6 each into small cages, where they barely have room to stand and moving around is almost impossible. White Leghorns
are used because they have been bred to be dumb, docile and egg laying supermachines who can tolerate the horrible, overcrowded conditions of battery farms.They have a trough of food and water before them 24
hours a day, are kept inside huge buildings which are lit 24 hours. The more hours of light a chicken gets, the more eggs it lays, which is why in a backyard flock egg production drops in winter when there are fewer
hours of daylight, and picks up again in spring when the days get longer. The poor hens never see the sun or a rooster, and never get to touch the ground, get grass or greens to scratch or dustbathe in. It's pretty
much Chicken Hell, and the eggs that they lay are pale, higher in cholesterol and semi-tasteless. Do some Internet research on 'battery hens' and I guarantee it will horrify you.
Brown eggs vs. white: Basic supermarket eggs are all the same, no matter the color. People perceive brown eggs as healthier and so will pay more for them--it used to be that brown eggs WERE healthier because
Rhode Island Reds, the most common commercial brown egg layer breed, do not tolerate being housed in overcrowded battery cages and HAVE to be kept in runs, which DOES promote better eggs. Sadly, many
white eggs are now simply dyed brown--viola, cheaply produced white eggs altered and sold as 'brown eggs' without ACTUALLY coming from different chickens.
Some supermarket eggs are sold as 'fertile': That is, the hens have been kept with a rooster who may or may not have mated them. As with Rhode Island Reds, roosters cannot be kept in battery cages and need
room to mate the hens, so they cannot be crowded into wire cages. The egg farm's solution is to pack them cheek by jowl into large runs, still inside a building that is lit 24/7. They never see the sun or green grass.
The eggs are only slightly better than common battery hen eggs, and the birds suffer greatly from overcrowding and boredom, which leads to pecking each other and egg eating.
'Free Range' eggs: Same as 'fertile' eggs, without the rooster.
'Pasture' eggs: the best choice. Pastured chickens are free range birds that have been allowed access to sunlight, grass and room to roam around. How MUCH room is up to the egg farmer. Most backyard flocks
fall into this category.
Meat chickens, sadly, are kept along similar lines to egg chickens--most of those you see wrapped in plastic at the market are Cornish Cross birds, bred to live only a few weeks, during which time they eat constantly and gain weight quickly, so much so that if kept alive past 6-8 weeks, they get so heavy that their legs cannot support them and they 'go down on their hocks', meaning they cannot stand, or their legs or hips simply break, leaving in agony. Keeping a Cornish Cross alive past it's man-made, artificially-contrived lifespan is cruel, because there is no avoiding them going down on their hocks. If you raise this breed for meat, slaughter them on time. Many people choose instead to raise old-time dual purpose breeds (for eggs and meat), which take longer to reach maturity and carry less meat, but are generally easier to care for, cleaner and healthier for you in the end. But ANY time you raise your own birds for meat and/or eggs, if housed properly, their product will be leaps and bounds healthier for you and MUCH better tasting, to the point of it being astonishing to people who have never tasted home-grown eggs or chickens.
BOOKS
A great bird book is Robert Stroud's "Stroud's Digest on the Diseases of Birds".
He was the "Birdman of Alcatraz" and spent many years writing the book. This one is my bible. I
have many bird books and it's always the first one I turn to. It's arranged
in alphabetical, common-sense laymans' terms and covers illness, injuries,
handraising babies, diagnosing and treating at home, etc. It has many valuable
illustrations and great descriptions of common illnesses with a "no BS" style--he
tells it like it is. It was written in the 1930's, so many of the
drugs he recommends are outdated or have been surpassed. But the basic knowledge
is VERY sound, helpful and doesn't change, and he is aiming to help the average
person with what would be on hand at home. Mr. Stroud obviously spent many,
many years raising and observing birds and has passed his wisdom along.
Two more great chicken books are "Chickens In Your Back Yard" by Rick and
Gail Luttmann and "The Chicken Health Handbook" by Gail Damerow. The
Luttmann book is beginner-friendly, comprehensive and very entertaining.
The Damerow book has tons of info and is invaluable for chicken health. Some or all of these books may be OOP (out of print) and so harder to find, try used book stores or online.
WEBSITES
I have no affiliation with any of the following sites, I've just found them
invaluable sources of poultry information, because usually when you need
chicken information, it's an emergency and you need it NOW. These and other links throughout my site go to specific pages, general links are also on my 'Links' page. Some chicken
and poultry sites that have been around for years are:
Feathersite: Fantastic,
comprehensive site on every breed you can think of, with many pictures of
adults, chicks and eggs, with links to breed clubs. Invaluable for helping ID birds. Includes ALL types of poultry, not just chickens!
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKPoultryPage.html
The Coop: A great resource with tons of info and a message board.
http://www.the-coop.org/
The Easy Chicken: by Shilala, another great site with valuable info and a message board.
http://shilala.homestead.com/title.html
A great page on Shilala's site on taming not only roosters but chickens in general
is here, well worth the read:
http://shilala.homestead.com/roosters.html
It has great insight on chicken psychology, explains the pecking order and
shows how to help introduce new birds to an existing flock as well.
This technique WORKS, I've used it!
Welp Hatchery has this page on common poultry health issues, with symptoms, causes and treatments--invaluable when you are trying to diagnose a problem on your own.
http://www.welphatchery.com/poultry_health.asp
Poultryhelp.com, a service of Rocking T Ranch, is another great source of poultry info:
http://www.poultryhelp.com/home.html
Also, many hatcheries have information sections, tables and charts
that are invaluable.
Another valuable site is Brown Egg Blue Egg, run by a Silkie breeder friend of mine, it has many
articles on chicken health and stories, plus something you won't find in books--the wisdom of Alan's personal experience:
http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article.html
Good info in all of the articles at Shagbark Bantams, including an article on cell migration that can help save
your bird when it has suffered a serious injury:
http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/contents.htm
Surprisingly good educational page for adults on the parts of a chicken egg
and chick development here at Enchanted Learning (which is a FANTASTIC site
for kids!):
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/birds/info/chicken/egg.shtml
GREAT page from the The University of Georgia College of Agricultural &
Environmental Sciences Cooperative Extension Service on how to identify fertile
eggs vs. infertile, candling, stages of development,hatch mortality, etc.:
http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/B1166/B1166.htm
Good info on assisting a hatching egg at Lovebirds Plus, written for lovebirds but has general
info that works for chickens as well:
http://www.lovebirdsplus.com/assisted.html
On the UPA (United Peafowl Association) site, great instructions for placing
a chick with Spraddle Leg in a splint (also called hobbles or a chick shoe), it also works with leg injuries and curled toes:
http://www.peafowl.org/ARTICLES/1/
How to clip wings, good info on the right way AND the wrong way, with complete illustrations at Birdmart.com:
http://birdmart.com/wings.html
copyright 2003-2012 by Velvet Sparrow