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We have 7 chickens available if anyone needs a starter flock.
The reason: we are removing the hens (1 to 3 yrs) to get our own flock to 25 and of breeds we want to work with.
These seven will at least double, probably triple, their number by September, with clean water to drink, a roost in shelter from heavy rain and wind and a safe place to range, plus the occasional coconut, banana, taro root, etc to keep them close to home.
Available:
one rooster (Plymouth Barred Rock)
six hens (one Blue Orpington, one BO cross, and four other
RI-Red/Plym. White Rock /jungle-fowl cross); laying eggs now.
Price: Whatever you can spare, other than $, that you think would be a fair trade and useful for us. Or, 2 hours pulling weeds.
982-5549
James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park
Posts: 210
Threads: 59
Joined: Nov 2006
Mr. Weatherford,
I can do 2 hours pulling weed. However, I will not be on the island till 3/14. If you still have them by then or want to keep them for another month, I definitely will contact you.
canhle
canh Le
Posts: 1,779
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Joined: Aug 2006
Canhle,
Let me know when you get on island.
quote:
Originally posted by canhle
Mr. Weatherford,
I can do 2 hours pulling weed. However, I will not be on the island till 3/14. If you still have them by then or want to keep them for another month, I definitely will contact you.
canhle
James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park
Posts: 264
Threads: 60
Joined: Jul 2007
I adore keeping chickens and have raised many flocks on the mainland. Now in Hawai'i I am yearning to get chickens again (not necessarily yours - I have to be sure first) but I have a few raising-chickens-in-Hawai'i questions for any experienced chicken-philes out there in punawebland:
1. What does "a safe place to range" entail? What's been holding me back is the fear that I won't be able to keep them safe from rats, mongeese, wild dogs, or other predators, especially nocturnal predators. I have five acres and lots of good stuff for them to forage, but no fencing.
2.Do they have to be shut in at night to be safe? This would be a problem for me since I'm not an early riser. If I had them in a pen at night, wouldn't mongeese be able to get through fencing?
3. What are the hardiest breeds for Hawai'i? On the mainland I tried to keep mainly bantams because they're tough, can fly up into trees when danger is near, and don't need as much care. What's a "jungle fowl?"
Mahalo for any tips.
Oh, and do any of you chicken-keepers ever leave your flock for long periods of time and let them fend for themselves?
Posts: 1,779
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"safe range": away from the road, not so small the birds end up in the neighbor's garden, away from dogs, etc.
"closed in at night": I think this is best just to 'domesticate' the birds; although we seldom do it. Unless there are roaming dogs, this is not necessary.
Breeds: we are raisig the biggest birds possible(Reds, Plymouth Rock, Deleware, and Jersey Giants). Since we have lots of fruit trees, we had rather the birds stay on the ground, except for the roost perch we built in their shelter; and big birds are, in general, a lot more docile and easy to handle. Also, since we use the birds to help us turn a very large compost pile (20' x 20' x 8') the big birds can do more scratching. These big birds do just fine and are vigorous foragers.
'jungle fowl' is a generic term for the local birds (small, often brown, sometimes reddish/black), some of them used for cockfighting.
James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park
Posts: 73
Threads: 18
Joined: Dec 2005
Maud,
My experience with the jungle fowl is that they will not lay eggs when kept in a coop. Even if you raise them from hatchlings. They are terrific buggers, but a real pain to keep off the lanai's, and even out of the house! They defecate everywhere! They lay their eggs all around in the jungle, so if you aren't into foraging in the jungle... The plus side for them are of course how beautiful they are. Also, they're extremely hardy, good at defending themselves from local predators. They'll roost high up in the trees at night and come when you call them. I had a flock of them here for about 9 months - found plenty of babies, yet never got one egg to eat from them. But, between the poo and the roosters crowing ALL the time, and the lack of eggs for the trouble, they just had to go. Also of note - they don't make a good meal either!
Think about just sticking to domestics. If you start them off in a coop, you can turn them out and they will return to the coop at night to roost. They'll have shelter and hopefully will lay most of their eggs in the coop - as long as you provide nest boxes.
Mongoose can be a big problem here - they go after eggs, babies and even the adults. Only way around that is to keep them cooped up, use small holed fencing for a run - include the fencing on the top and on the bottom (you can bury it in the ground).
Good luck! With the price of eggs on this island, having a small flock of chickens is certainly worth the effort!
Aloha,
Punacat
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Remember, mongoose are diurnal. If you're asleep so are they and not bothering your chickens. Rats are a bigger danger at night and will try to steal eggs. I never had a chicken attacked, but then again, I had one big rooster (someone made a sexing mistake before I bought them, but it was 1 out of 2 dozen, so no big deal). He was a big, funny, fairly friendly Rhode Island Red and he watched over his hens. And he only crowed first thing in the morning (about 7am) and at night when it was time to go to the roost at dusk. OK, when I came home, he would run at me crowing "feed me, feed me" loudly (the hens would follow clucking at me), but got quiet as soon as I threw them some scratch.
I did have an impromptu chicken house for them at night, and right when it got dark and everyone was in there, I would close it for the night. They did fine.
And this bears repeating -- chickens LOVE centipedes. My chickens would find a centipede and fight over who got to eat that tasty, tasty treat (well, to a chicken anyway). Within a couple of months, I never saw a centipede again. There was much wailing and gnashing of beaks in the chicken community once the centipede population had been eaten.
John Dirgo, R, ABR, e-PRO
Aloha Coast Realty, LLC
808-987-9243 cell
http://www.alohacoastrealty.com
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Such good tips & advice - thank you all so much. If I had to pick the best news of all the posts, I'd pick "chickens love centipedes." Whoo-ee!n That alone will propel me into chicken keeping (soon...when I'm ready)
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My neighbor just got an incubator so soon we may have some baby chicks available occasionally. She's going to set some mixed breed/primarily auracana eggs (green, blue & brownish colored) later this week so in 21 days there should be some baby chicks. My chicken flock is also mixed birds but it may be replaced with a Rhode Island Red flock later this year and then we can hatch the purebred eggs in the incubator. So that's our plan - at least at this moment. We will see how it works.
"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson
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