New to chicken keeping - will update!

[Rtrak]

We live in Central Portugal, our neighbors are typical Portuguese and keep chickens, some for eggs, some for eating. I showed a general interest in the birds and my neighbor Tereza suggested we get some more between us. I thought this a good idea as it would give me an introduction to keeping the birds with guidance from someone experienced. Tereza ordered the birds and I collected them from the merchants accompanied by Tereza & Carlos' young grandsons Tiago & Diogo. The birds were already in cardboard boxes, the number twelve was mentioned (my Portuguese isn't good), we paid and brought the birds home. I'd already collected a pile of pine needles which Carlos had spread on the floor of the chicken house. When we opened the boxes there were 34 birds, most of them yellow, and some of them a bit bigger and brown! They must have seen my surprise then reassured me that the other 12 birds would be ready this Saturday! (I'd thought maybe 6 birds would be enough for the two of us) I feed the birds in the morning and afternoon during the week and Carlos will do the weekends. They eat some sort of yellow grain from a sack, most goes in a hanging dispenser, a smaller amount in trays on the floor (not hygienic to me) The drinking water goes in another hanging dispenser but to my amazement the water is mixed with milk, brown sugar or red wine! The birds seem happy enough but there are so many of them. Tereza mentioned that we only need two cockerels, one for them and one for us so it looks like I'll be building my own enclosure hopefully before they get much bigger!. I intended letting the scratch about during the day and going in the enclosure at night unlike Carlos & Tereza's birds that never leave the housing. I've got visions of chasing birds all around the village now! I've been reading stuff on the forum so I know there's plenty of info' about. If anyone's interested I'll update.

[Green Aura]

Blimey, 34! Check out any of Julie Sherris's threads - she's the only one around who has birds on that sort of scale, I think.

Good luck.

[Millymollymandy]

Yeah, um, good luck! That's quite a lot to take on in one go. Have you named them yet?

[Rtrak]

Hi you two and thanks for the advice, just off to feed them now. I think numbering them may be the option, if we get the other twelve tomorrow and split them 50% we'll still have 23 each! My Belgian friend will visit later, she speaks perfect Portuguese and may get to the bottom of it, maybe we're selling the 'brought-on' birds to others? (keeping the best for ourselves maybe?).

Millymollymandy, you subscribed to my water mine post a while ago, I added some more photo's yesterday including one of the salamanders, have a look when you get a chance.

[Millymollymandy]

I did have a peek but didn't have time to read what you wrote - will go and do that.

Are you going to be eating some of these chooks - cos if they're all hens you are going to have an almighty amount of eggs! I hope you do give them a run outside as I hate seeing poor birds stuck inside horrid little sheds (like some of my French neighbours ). Haven't heard of putting wine or anything else in drinking water though , apart from cider vinegar which is supposed to be a tonic (I think).

It's quite amusing that you don't really know what's going on with the birds (in a nice way of course). Adds fun to the experience of living in a foreign country with funny foreign languages I guess!

[KK21]

Have you named them yet?

We had a few chickens while living in South Africa, but my wife foolishly gave each of them names ..

Result, not chickens could be eaten .. only the eggs were consumed.

Not that I minded really, I've always bought chickens from Sainsbury's or similar, so wouldn't really have had much of a clue with something moving. Our neighbour there would have helped, but the chickens ended up as pets.

Good luck !

[Rtrak]

We went back to the merchant on Saturday morning and we've now got a total of 49! Also more water and grain dispensers. I think I understand a bit more now, as our birds are young, we will in time have to sex them. We choose the laying birds and two males, fatten up the rest and eat 'em. Then we should have what I wanted in the first place, three or four layers which I'm sure will be enough for two of us! Really don't fancy eating my own birds, sure Tereza and Carlos will! Going to check old posts now for housing ideas.

[Rtrak]

Well, about another four weeks has passed, these birds are getting much bigger now and eating loads. We've lost 3 of the smallest chicks, our neighbours are quite philosophical about it, no attempt to find out what had gone wrong, shrug their shoulders and throw the corpses to the dogs. The remaining 46 birds have been split into two groups now, living about 100m away from each other which is a bit of a nuisance for feeding. From what I gather, we'll sex the birds soon then prepare the males for eating (I guess by fattening them up). By the law of averages we'll then have about 23 females, I expect we'll maybe eat some of them too or sell them at 'point of lay' maybe? I've re-stated I only want about three birds, they have four already so watch this space.

My hen coop is coming along nicely, the run has a concrete floor with a central drain. the frame is made from my harvested mimosa that grows like weeds here. It's high enough for me not to bash my head on the roof frame (the Portuguese are generally smaller than us) I've installed a water supply and will get some mesh next week. The neighbours seem intrigued that the birds will have a 'house' to roost and nest in, over here they drape sacking around the run to keep the elements out and the birds fend for themselves. I'm pacing the construction so that it'll be ready for my birds without me having to accommodate the whole 'flock'.

That's all for now folks!

[JulieSherris]

Heehee, I missed this the first time around!

G'luck with your birds..... I've found over the last 2 years that the more laid back you are, the more laid back THEY are!
Seriously.

I have ummm..... I have lost count of the amount of birds I now have!
OK... there's 4 muscovy ducks, 1 drake. Maisie has just gone broody, so has been moved today to a broody box & is sat on 7 eggs.
Then there's 9 assorted ducks & another 2 drakes - good egg pumpers & extremely reliable all year round.
Eating roosters = 10 in various pens - soon to be 6 or 7 once the freezer has been tidied! (Although the granddaughter INSISTS they get named before they die, or it's not fair)
Turkeys... 1 stag whose days are numbered - he HATES my hubby, so he has to go (and I trained him so well too!!)
Another 'stag' that I am quite sure is laying eggs, & 3 turkey hens who are quite delightful.
2 guinea fowls - both males, no use to anyone, but they're fun!
3 roosters who are 'keepers' for no other reason than that they are pretty/fun to have around/the girls like them.
And laying girls.... ok, after 3 trips outside, and a double check, we have 28 - phew!

So that's a total of 64 feathery friends out there, with 2 of the hens working their magic in the broody boxes, so how many more to come is anyone's guess!

The nice thing about having several different hen houses & then letting them all free during the day, is that they really don't care if I bring new birds home - there's very little squabbling & they get used to new faces pretty quick - well, they have to!

There's also the kitty, 3 bassets & 2 lambs in the mix - the hens eat the lamb pencils, the lambs eat the layers pellets, the dogs eat everything & the kitty is learning how to be a good mouser - bliss!! (But never a quiet moment)

[Rtrak]

Sorry I've not checked-in for a while, it's been really hectic here, I swear the weeds and grass grow back as soon as they're cut down! I think I've done my last brushcutting now until September, the grass will go brown and stop growing in the next few weeks due to the heat.

I've got five small hens from the original forty nine, two dark grey ones, one white one and two brown ones. Of the remainder some have been killed and eaten by our neighbours and there are about 20 left that are apparently due for the 'chop' later today. The whole experience is something I wouldn't repeat, certainly not with Portuguese animal hygiene standards. I won't give more details on this in case it upsets someone, as it did me.

I've made a high security enclosure about 3m x 2m and high enough for me to stand up in. It's got a concrete floor, chainlink sides and corrugated steel roof with a secure door. I laid the floor to a fall and put a drain down the centre so it stays dry and I can hose it out easily. I'm in the process of building a house onto the run, this should be complete in the next week or so. I use my old UK 'wheelybin' for storing food etc and the chicks use the 'caddy' to sleep in / on, the floor is scattered with pine needles. Outside I've fenced an area around and orange tree so they've always got shade, they love having dust baths and eating the ants as they go up and down the tree. No sign of eggs yet, the neighbours say white hens don't lay many eggs, not a problem with two of us and five hens? The cats ( gatos preto & branco) have no interest in the hens, Daisy our Jack Russell glances at them as she passes. Rrrags (Portuguese rolling 'R') our 18 month dog is fascinated by them, they aren't bothered by him but are wary of the other pets. I'll post some pictures soon, camera's on charge at the moment.