All the ugly parts of raising chickens, everything you need to know about including the yucky part!
VIDEO HERE (10:47 minutes)
All the ugly parts of raising chickens, everything you need to know about including the yucky part!
VIDEO HERE (10:47 minutes)
I've had chicken off and on since the early seventies. More on. I love em. Eating store bought eggs sucks. I have six Buff Orpington we raised from peeps. I hadn't lived in this state a year but finally got the coop and run built about the eighth month. First batch of peeps arrived all dead. They sent another batch and all lived and are alive today. They should be laying the end of August.
ReplyDeleteI just picked up four Buff Orpington pullets last weekend. Chicks, really - at 6 weeks old, they still cheep and their feathers are fairly downy. They just at the age where they're starting to explore their coop and henhouse.
DeleteI've never gotten birds this young, and I'm enjoying watching them day by day.
Are your Buffs really friendly? Ours have been hopping into our hands from the first day we brought them home.
DeleteMine? Not yet. I go out several times a day to pick them up and talk to them and they're not freaking out any more when I reach for them, but they don't come to me.
DeleteAfter a couple of years, raising chickens got to be too much for me. So I turned to keeping a few turkeys. That is when I discovered keeping chickens wasn't so bad after all.
DeleteI handled my chickens to ensure they are friendly. Now every time I step out of the house they mob me. I have been giving them the results of my Japanese Beatle traps or kitchen scraps, so I know they are just hoping for food. I let them free range. The cows don't seem to notice but the calves are a bit curious.
DeleteI raised barred rocks for a few years.
ReplyDeleteToo much chicken crap everywhere.
I spent more on chicken food than i would have on eggs, so they gone.
Like the video says, you're not going to save money if you raise chickens.
DeleteMyself, I raise them for not only fun, but I love the taste of fresh eggs and I eat 2 of them every morning.
The lady down the road supplied all the eggs I could want. 25 cents/dozen, bring yer own cartons.
DeleteI purchased several 55 gallon plastic drums with screw on lids for feed. I get bulk corn and milo for my girls. Saves a lot of money in a year.
DeleteJeez, Rick. You could make a killing selling her eggs. Went to the store yesterday and a dozen jumbos were $5.15 a dozen.
DeleteWell, Beans, what I was doing was baking a lot. I made a lot of fruit pies using the fruit tossed out at the market (nothing bad, just people won't buy fruit with so much as a blemish). I'd get the fruit for fifty cents a bushel or something like that. I'd sell a 9" pie to the restaurant in town. That was good money. I'd make ten or more pies per week.
DeleteI also did a whole bunch of fruit canning. Me and GF had it down to a science, my kitchen was full on production. I'd sell to fruit stands and restaurants in half the county. Then we picked up a family owned business which ran a U Pik berry farm. We'd sell canned fruit to the berry farm. It was real popular with locals and tourists alike. Real money there.
It was a lot of fun and a money maker. Still, after a a couple of years I moved on because I'm one of the restless ones that Robt W. Service wrote about. And in those days I was as short sighted as a dog, living in the moment.
If my last published it may have done so twice. I apologise. It did say there was an error in publishing so I hit the button again.
ReplyDeleteNope, you're good.
DeleteI haven't ran across any doubled up comments since I took my birfday break. Maybe blogger did listen to my bitching and fixed it.
I just learned something about cooking eggs that I sure like. Get um cooking then splash a little water, maybe a tbls. in the pan and cover. Watch em cuz the top of the egg will cook/steam really fast. Like within a minute. I like a runny yolk but hate a slimy egg. I cook mine hot cuz I like the edges crisp. Once crisp I toss in the water and cover.
ReplyDeleteI also eat two eggs a day since I was a kid. (Damnation I'm 62 and they haven't killed me yet) My friend/neighbor keeps me in eggs and I slide him some ground beef or pork for his generosity. We also trade our garden grown produce. WDT's.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this. I just started into this in February with 20 chicks (3 have died). We have 3 Rhode Island Red hens, 1 Rhode Island rooster (Duke), 2 silver laced, 2 leghorns and the rest are Cinnamon Queens. I let them out of the coop in the morning and they run the fields and are now venturing into the woods - at least at the tree line. They are now laying 9-12 eggs per day and I am having to give them away as I am running out of room to store them. At least my eggs for breakfast are fresh every day.
ReplyDeleteWe would make custard when the eggs got ahead of us. Do not wash your eggs. They have a coating to make them last a little longer.
Deleteyou can freeze them.
Deletescramble and freeze in silicone ice trays. remove and vacuum seal to reuse trays.
or dehydrate. I'd like to try this, but haven't found silicone layer for my dehydrator trays. they lasts years as powder.
Realizing we're going to experience very rough times ahead, we committed to setting in 4 Golden Comets to make sure we have eggs. The girls are 15 weeks old now and watching them grow from peeps is astounding. Their growth is noticeable each morning.
ReplyDeleteTractor supply has a great value on a coop.
The sentinel...powder coated metal frames which bolt together, and coated 1/4" wire welded in place.
We witnessed a Hawk dive after one of our girls and bounced off the coop in distress.
We haven't seen it since.
Most recipes call for an egg, or two. I have a hard boiled egg every morning.
We're laying up feed in food grade buckets with gamma lids for their food security.
Should store well in the climate controlled shop.
Comets are a very curious breed, quiet, but competitive in nature...
If one has, "whatever", the others will have a fit until they too can obtain said object...
or one of their own. We're looking for our first eggs sometime around October.
Here's an idea for extra eggs: https://theoldwalshfarm.com/water-glassing-eggs/#What-is-water-glassing-eggs?
ReplyDelete