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Chickens?
retroxler58
Member Posts: 32,693 ✭✭✭
Anyone raise chickens for egg or meat? Hobby?
Otherwise?
Interesting comments to share?
Otherwise?
Interesting comments to share?
Comments
Fresh chicken and duck eggs are the best!
Every couple of weeks I'd kill a duck or chicken for dinner. No hormones in that meat.
Will say that those hens that are free range during the day lay the best tasting eggs. They also keep the area free from bugs.
The yard birds are free range, and it's always an Easter egg hunt around here.
I have an old galvanized 8 hole double decker egg layers box in their coop.
I will get 12-15 eggs in it everyday for awhile, then it dwindles down to 2 or three.
The girls and I go for an Easter egg hunt, and will find huge piles, tucked behind something out in the weeds.
Bought the only way to rein them in, is lock them up with food and water for a week. Then they just lay in the layer again.
We found goats make great watch dogs. Built a huge pen around the coop, and out into the pasture. Goats eat weeds, mostly leaving the grass untouched, and sleep next to the door of the coop at night.
Haven't had a problem with * since we got the goats.
They'll be going home to their owner soon, so I'll have to start locking the chickens up at night again.
The last rotten egg I broke kept me away from eggs for quite a long time.[xx(]
Chickens are a lot of fun but roosters are a PITA IMO.
Best of luck. But unless you know how to make the hen house completely safe from Predators they will get more than you. I can't tell you how cause I have not succeeded yet.
Will say that those hens that are free range during the day lay the best tasting eggs. They also keep the area free from bugs.
Predator proof is fairly easy.
10x30 four foot high chainlink enclosure with one gate.
3/8ths inch rebar, as much as you need, and the ability to weld. I use a Lincoln stick welder.
I built a rebar quonset-type frame with four ribs and three horizontal members making it completely rigid. It stands about twelve feet at the peak with two vertical supports inside the pen. On that, I used galvanized dog fence wire with aluminum fence ties.
My dogs keep the ground clear and hawks can't get at them from the air, plus they can't get out so all my biddies and eggs are safe.
ADDENDUM: I built it over 20 years ago and it's still serviceable and I use it as a dog kennel now.
quote:Originally posted by grumpygy
Best of luck. But unless you know how to make the hen house completely safe from Predators they will get more than you. I can't tell you how cause I have not succeeded yet.
Will say that those hens that are free range during the day lay the best tasting eggs. They also keep the area free from bugs.
Predator proof is fairly easy.
10x30 four foot high chainlink enclosure with one gate.
3/8ths inch rebar, as much as you need, and the ability to weld. I use a Lincoln stick welder.
I built a rebar quonset-type frame with four ribs and three horizontal members making it completely rigid. It stands about twelve feet at the peak with two vertical supports inside the pen. On that, I used galvanized dog fence wire with aluminum fence ties.
My dogs keep the ground clear and hawks can't get at them from the air, plus they can't get out so all my biddies and eggs are safe.
ADDENDUM: I built it over 20 years ago and it's still serviceable and I use it as a dog kennel now.
No Dogs here.
I do really like fresh eggs from chickens that not only get grain but bugs. It really adds to the flavor.
we have had chickens and ducks for many years , wife keeps them as pets
over the years , * and a random hawk(s ) over they years have picked off a few and most just die from old age .
we have a fenced in area apx 20 x50 feet and a couple shelters they can get into ,
wife also lets them run the property most of the time unless we have a garden out [B)]
our cats leave them alone even mingle with them ( exceptions the very young chicks or ducklings I thing they pick them off )
we give away a lot of eggs and also feed them back to the chickens . scramble them while warm the cats and dogs will eat some but do not like them as a rule snub them 99% of the time
Chicken wire on a rebar frame with an open bottom & a cam to lower the wheels hooked to a slot machine lever.
Looks pretty Mad Max, but he has 4 birds that look happy.
The rooster, though....
Farm chickens to eat and for eggs. Chickens don't need refrigeration until you eat them and only if there's left overs.
Best Regards - AQH
They wanted 49 cents apiece for their empty 12 hole cartons and right across the road, the supermarket was selling grade A large eggs for 49 cents a dozen![:0]
Knowing the great difference between free range eggs and those anemic off the shelf ones, I did buy the empty cartons.
Still sometimes feel like a person has to really pay, pay, and pay some more to get the best. Kind of ironic though!
He raises chickens now, but is thinking about getting into raising pheasants again. I'm encouraging him wholeheartedly to do so
But, if You have Chickens, predators, all of them, face in from all the surrounding Counties, and begin their stalk.
Miss the eggs.
I also lost all my Guinea Fowl, four hen turkeys, and one Tom turkey to Foxes.
I had 18 pullets disappear form inside the barn last Spring, not sure what got them, but I think Foxes dis it too.
I have ten new pullets in a fenced in coop right now, that I think may grow to egg laying age, but I have to watch them closely. The predation where I live is so bad, I could probably trap a Fox, Coyote, *, Possum, or skunk everyday and not put a dent in them.
Trinity +++
I got mine from
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/phoenix.html
But they are only available in the spring.
Phoenix.
I got mine from
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/phoenix.html
But they are only available in the spring.
They must have to rest up after the Fall/Winter Tournaments[:)]
Neighbor has a rolling coop in his yard.
Chicken wire on a rebar frame with an open bottom & a cam to lower the wheels hooked to a slot machine lever.
Looks pretty Mad Max, but he has 4 birds that look happy.
The rooster, though....
My sister wants to build a chicken tractor since she got a new house out in the country... (Still just down the road from Thomas Hospital....) .
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/
The website has good accurate information in different categories.
I find the most useful categories are: Chicken care articles and Hatching. Don't think there is a forum?
Also: Back Yard Chickens: https://www.backyardchickens.com/
They have a huge forum with many topics(one million with 18 million replies.)[:0] Their "coop" section contains,, thousands? of different coops.
Site has a link at top of main page FORUMS and one is titled: Emergencies / Diseases / Injuries and Cures
This is an EMERGENCY forum, Post If you have a problem right now and need advise. Best to review what's being said and keep the link for future use.
...For big eggs there are several breeds, I like the Sexlink hen, docile and lay HUGE eggs. I feed a mix of regular Dumar chicken feed, lay crumbles...and sometimes mix corn in with the chicken feed.
I also treat them to meal worms ever so often, they are CRAZY about those things!
...If you get chicks or young chickens, when their combs & waddles torn bright red, theyre ready to lay...doesn't mean they will though.
Sometimes they get unhappy for some reason and go on an egg strike [;)] and don't lay hardly any eggs, then sooner or later they perk back up.
...IF you start out with say a dozen, then want to add some later, you have to keep them separated in the coup from each other for awhile or the new ones may get murdered by the original hens. Just keep the new chicks in a cage where the original hens cans see them and somewhat enter act with them without actually being able to get to them! You have to let the original hens get used to the new hens and accept them before you let them all together.
...Regardless of how long you let the original hens get to know & to accept the new chicks/hens...they will still fight and find their own pecking order...no Roosters needed!
...Some breeds are better for eggs, some for meat...just read up on which type you want and go get 'em. Chickens are actually smarter than you think!...[;)]