One
of my top tips from our Short, Sweet, and Self-Sufficient
Guide to the Working Chicken is “Don’t name your
chickens!”  Chickens
are so personable and individualized that I find it hard to follow my
own advice, but the truth is that a working chicken flock needs
constant management.  And “management” is often a euphemism for
slaughtering and eating birds that are no longer pulling their weight
— hard to do if those birds have pet names.



How do you know when
it’s time for a chicken to go in the stew
pot?  In my opinion, aggressiveness is the first and most
important factor.  If your rooster scares your three year old out
of the coop, that rooster has to go.  But on our farm, chickens
also have to pull their own weight, so we try not to let even kind hens
linger too far past their sell by date.



We keep our layers in
three different tractors, each with a specific
age and breed of bird, so it’s pretty easy to tell who’s falling down
on the job when production plummets.  Currently, we have three
Golden Comets who are probably pushing
their fourth birthdays, a pair
of two-year-old Golden Comets, and a trio of two-year-old Barred
Plymouth
Rocks.  I would
expect the farm’s eggs to be flowing primarily
from the young Golden Comets and Plymouth Rocks, but in fact we get
most of our eggs from our oldest biddies.  What’s up?



The Plymouth Rocks are
supposed to be a good multi-purpose chicken,
feeding us both eggs and meat, but my record-book shows that our Rocks
have been averaging about an egg per bird per week for months.  If I were
more on top of our flock, I probably would have
eaten the Plymouth Rocks this spring.  As it is, we butchered the
three along with some of our Dark Cornish last week, and will be
grinding the meat up for potstickers shortly.



The young Golden Comets
didn’t get the ax this week, but we’re not
thrilled with their production — half an egg each per day. 
(In contrast, our three old girls are averaging three quarters of an
egg each per day.)  I suspect that one of our young Golden Comets
is
laying thin-shelled eggs that get crushed in the nest, despite the
supplemental calcium I tossed in along with their laying feed this
month.  Now that we have a spare tractor, we’re going to split up
the disappointing duo and figure out who’s laying and who’s not.



We attribute a large
part of our four year old Golden Comets’
productivity to our homemade chicken
waterer, along with
their great ability to forage.  I toss cupsful of Japanese Beetles
and June Bugs into their tractor each week because I don’t trust our
other chickens to catch the beetles before they fly away.  Maybe
the insect protein keeps them young.  Or maybe our old biddies
just lay so well because of the subtle hint Mark pasted on the inside
of their nesting compartment?

I
received 25 chicks on Tuesday.  I had a water bottle hanging in
the
brooder for them.  I let them settle for a while, then reached in
and
began to tap the Aqua Miser waterer.  Several of the chicks
went to it
and tried.  Most ignored it.  I went outside to finish the
work I was
doing there.  A hour or so later, I went back in and heard the
strangest sound coming from the brooder.  I quietly crept over and
peeped in.  The chicks were gathered in a circle around the
waterer and
taking turns pecking it to get water. It was almost like a machine gun
they were doing it so quickly. I have not had to worry about water.



I
used the waterer with one little lone chick before the others
arrived.  It took it a couple of days to do for itself.  I
trained it
by taking a Coke bottle top and using it to tap the waterer enough for
it to get a drink from the top. By the second day it still took one
drink, but without enthusiasm. The third day, it ignored the bottle top
completely. This thing really works!



I
have discovered a couple of things that you might want to post on
your web site. 

• If you leave the water in the
  container too long it
  will get algae in it and that will stop up the waterer. Fresh water
  needs to be added/changed often enough to keep that from
  happening. 
  How often will depend on the weather, including humidity, and the
  water. 
• I was wanting to use something
  smaller than a 5-gallon
  bucket, but larger than the one gallon plastic bottle I was
  using.  I
  was in Lowes the other day, and as I was standing in line to check out,
  I noticed the water cooler water bottles stacked in a rack by the front
  door.  I went over to look and discovered that there was a 3 1/2
  gallon
  bottle for $5-$6.  I bought it, took it home and put two waterers
  in
  the bottom.  I used a coat hanger to put through the holes I
  drilled to
  hang it by. A hint for this kind of bottle:  The type of water
  cooler
  the bottle is designed for, has a small post in the center.  The
  paper
  seal is peeled off the bottle top and when the bottle is turned over on
  to the water cooler, the little post in the cooler punches the center
  of the plastic cover back up into the bottle where it stays until it is
  taken for a refill.  The plug has an edge around it it keep it
  from
  coming out, however, I used a small pocket screwdriver and pried one
  edge in enough to get hold of it with a pair of needle nose
  pliers.  I
  was able to put the plug out.  I now use it to cover the hole. The
  lip
  keeps it in place.  The worst part of using this bottle is that a
  funnel has to be used to replenish the water. To me, having a clear
  plastic water bottle so I can see how much is in it and how it looks is
  worth using the funnel.

Thought
you like to hear this.



Walt      
(AKA Santa)

Troy,
TN



P.S.
I like them so much, I just ordered three more waterers.