Types of chickens I have: Barred rock Rhode island red Australorp Black jersey giants Wyandotte Its just too much trouble to raise chickens for the meat. Well, unless you do not like factory raised meat that is. The coop is 8 feet long x 6 feet wide. the bottom is going to be fenced in so the chicks can get under the coop via a trap door. I thought about making a run for them, but the neighbors let their dogs out to run free. The dogs are small, only a couple of pounds, but still big enough to kill the chicks.
I'm moving to a new place later this month and am going to try chickens for the first time. I'll come back here for advice.
Are you familiar with 'Backwoods Home' magazine? There is lots of info there. If you can't find it on their site and you know the year/issue, let me know and I can give you a copy. I have them all. Chickens - the most valuable animal on the homestead by Jackie Clay Issue #109 Save time and energy with the fenced chicken coop/garden by John Silveira Issue #44 We built John Silveira's chicken coop/garden by Suzy Lowry Geno. Published 0704 From Mother Earth News/Grit CommunityChickens.com - How to Raise Chickens - From Grit and Mother Earth News
You can buy chicks? I usually rent. Lol. I have read in some of the survival fiction and some online sites that they have their types of chickens. They balance the amounts such as egg layers and the ones for meat. Most I have heard about have a balance though not many have said they were too much work. Never been around an industrial process so don't know much about it, though I do know they are work. Not sure of the cons vs. pros aspect. Can anyone put a stat on that?
I have 15 chickens, 14 hens and a rooster. They are all the same kind, barnyard mix of Easter Eggers and whatever. They lay about every other day for sure and sometimes every day, but I don't keep track. I get blue, blue/green, green, tan, cream colored and brown eggs. Why I call 'em Easter Eggers, colored eggs. They are mostly hatched right here on the place, except for my original 4 hens I ordered a couple years ago. I have an 8x10 building to house them in, with a roost and nest boxes for the hens to lay their eggs in. Also a large fenced in lot to keep out the predators that roam the area. I have a hanging feeder that I keep feed in all the time for them and two waterers, one inside and one out so they always have water. In the winter I have a heater for the waterer to keep it from freezing. The kind of chickens I have do not make the best choice for meat chickens, but when I do hatch some out, the roosters go in the pot at 4-5 months of age, as they get kinda tough if you keep 'em around much longer. Being roosters, they also bother the females and try real hard to crow, sounding kinda like sick roosters until one or two become dominate, then the others are afraid to try to crow. At about 3-4 months, I will separate any females out of the coop I use for raising chicks in and put them in with the older hens. They don't get along at first, but in time do adjust to each other. There is always a pecking order if you have more than one chicken and it's best to let the hens determine who is who. You should always try to have at least 3 hens if you have the room. TSC usually won't sell less than 6 chicks any more. You used to be able to buy as many or as few as you wanted. Royal King just opened a store here and they have the 6 chick policy as well.
A little more recent pic of the chickens. Here we have 4 types - barred rock, rhode island red, silver laced wyandotte and either an australorp or jersey giant.
Melbo - I saw this and thought of your construction background. Looks like an interesting design. Chicken Tractor | Summer In A Jar-Food Preservation Classes
I have 20 hens and 1 happy rooster. The three types I have are Rhode Island Red, Barred Rock and Buff Orpington. When they are in full production mode 14 - 16 eggs a day is normal, but when in slow mode production drops to 5 - 8. Below link is from a local coop and has good info on the different types of chickens. Poultry Round-up | Grange Co-op
Wuh. All I can think about after reading that is the chicken farm we took over in Al-Karmah, Iraq. That place was awful.
The Grange co-op website is generally a good site to flag in the favourites folder. Lot's of good practical homesteading information there.
One of my poor chickens got beat up by the neighbors dog. Had he not bolted for the road, he would have been dead, I just didnt have a safe shooting lane for where he was and the direction he went in. I put the shotgun away and went to have a chat with the neighbor. I was as polite as I could be. I explained to him that if his dog sets foot on my property again I am well within my legal right to kill it (this fact was conveyed to me by the town dog warden who is also a State Trooper). Right now I have her in the house (caged of course) and we are treating a couple puncture wounds. They dont appear to be too bad but she does have a pretty large contusion on her back. We shall see how she does. Right now she seems quite comfortable.
Hope she heals up quick. Your lucky, anything (coyote, bobcat, eagle) that have went after my birds have killed them. Have not lost a bird in over a year and a half since I will shoot them on sight except the Golden Eagles.
Update: Today she is up and around. Let her loose in the screened in porch for a few hours and she walked around and had some BM's we could check. She has been eating and drinking well. Wounds are closed up and the contusion has decreased by 50%. Im sure she will be fine.
Hey if you guys want to check out a blog my wife does, it has a lot of chickens in it, even a pic of me on a roof. In the older posts our Friend built and designed a chicken tractor in out back yard with my kids. It is a good design and he sells the plans if you want them, or just look at the pics and try to build one your self. We are hatching now the 2nd generation of chickens right now, and I will be building another chicken coop, that is not a tractor. My Hauser Homestead
