Rooster Shamblin Chicken Enthusiast Extraordinaire

I am a guy who has always been fascinated by chickens and especially the rare and fancy breeds. Mother always had mixed farm flocks of leghorns, barred rocks, rhode island reds, buff orpingtons, and dark cornish game. It was my job beginning at seven years old to gather the eggs each day and make certain the chicks and hens had access to clean water. It was a pretty big chore since chickens scratched hay litter into their water on a regular basis. Hens are bad about pecking you when they are sitting in the nest laying eggs. Solved the problem by wearing cotton gloves to gather eggs. While growing up we had some roosters that seemed pure evil and would chase me and my brother around the poultry yard. These were old roosters with very long spurs who always roosted up high in the barns or trees to avoid ending up as chicken and dumplings. With old age most breeds of roosters get cranky. Since we lived in a moderate climate very few times chickens combs would become frozen. To prevent lice we painted the chicken roosts with diesel. This seemed to work well for us unless we let sparrows build nests in the hen house. Rats are drawn to the feed in the hen house so we eventually had to pour a cement floor. Quit losing chickens to rats and weasels. Never make the mistake of leaving a hen house door open at night. Dogs cats skunks and raccoons can wipe out half your flock in one night. Most people have a wire pen made onto their hen house so the chickens can get sunshine and take dust baths. If yours has no top keep and eye out for hawks looking for a chicken dinner. When feeding oyster shells just feed a little at a time because chickens don’t like to eat dirty oyster shells. Always kept our feed in an old freezer to prevent mice from chewing holes in the bags and soiling the feed. Bought my first chickens in 1970 when I was twelve years old. Made the money helping my uncle while he painted a church. Ordered 25 rarest of the rare chicks from murray mcmurray hatchery. Saw their advertisement in a magazine in the school library. Each year we butchered a hundred fryers plus numerous hens who quit laying. However I had decided to raise some chicks as pets. I sent the hatchery a postcard and they mailed me a catalog filled with the most beautiful and unusual chickens I could imagine. Tried for weeks to choose which breeds I wanted however I couldn’t make up my mind. So I settled on an assortment. When they arrived the chicks were just adorable. It was the first I had seen of feather legged breeds like cochins and top knot chicks like polish. That year I got hooked on having chickens as pets. Each year I would order more chickens from many hatcheries. My mom and dad never made me butcher any of my chickens. When I got a big surplus of chickens it was very easy to sell them because I was the only person around with exotic chickens. When ordering straight run chicks you never get fifty percent pullets. My straight run orders were generally seventy five percent cockerels. Light breed cockerels are worthless if you plan on eating them. They have very little meat and it takes lots of feed to fatten them for butcher. Some people prefer light colored chickens for eating since you cant see the pin feathers. Scraping dark pin feathers takes a few minutes longer. Some people skin their chickens when butchering but we never did. We just killed ours and dipped them into five gallons of hot water so we could pull out their feathers. Next mom always dressed them and put them into ice water for a few hours before freezing them. Our family always ate home grown meat fruit and vegtables because mom did not want us eating pesticides which could give us cancer later on in life. Chickens that eat lots of grass lay eggs with more vitamins and better flavor. If you eat a chicken young like the ones in grocery stores they lack very little flavor. It tastes time to put flavor in chicken flesh. If you plan to incubate eggs never wash them in cold water because it affects the membrane inside the egg negatively. Instead use hot tap water to wash them off for a few seconds. When chicks arrive from the hatchery you need to dip their beaks in water. The first water you give them should have a little sugar added. The first week I generally give the chicks chopped boiled eggs, shells and all. It gets them to feathering out more quickly. If you have a fenced yard its nice to free range your chickens part of the time. Heavy breeds seldom fly over fences and light breeds can have their flight feathers trimmed. Chicken tractors are a neat pen which can be moved across the lawn giving the chickens an endless supply of green grass except in winter. In fall I plant some winter wheat for the chickens. It reduces the feed bill and makes the egg yolks nice and orange with loads of carotene. You must be careful when switching chicken feeds as this will put your chickens into a moult. Leave a light on in the hen house and you will get more eggs. Tomorrow I will begin telling you about each breed of chicken so you can choose the breed or breeds that best fit your needs.