the self reliant homestead: chicken questions

[freemotion]

It doesn't matter what the description says in the chicken catalog, many modern chickens rarely go broody. I have had several different types of heavy layers (dual purpose birds) and rarely have a hen go broody. When one does, she is worth her weight in gold, though. She will teach her chicks to free-range even if she came from an incubator herself. We haven't had to feed much to our broody-hen-raised chickens....the difference is startling. I've heard that the bantam breeds are pretty close to 100% broody and could be used to incubate eggs, also the Old English Game hens, but the roos will fight to the death so aren't suitable for a flock situation.

I laughed the first time I saw a dual purpose rooster in the pot, it looked so strange. We are used to it now and don't expect the mushy white meat that you get in the store.

As for eggs....they are a wonderful source of protein and the two of us can average eating 6-8 a day when available. This includes breakfast (3 each), lunch on occasion, and using them in cooking, like cheesecake, quiche, deviled eggs, etc. Remember that the homestead birds won't be laying year-round in the same quantities, but will lay heavily in the spring and then slow down for the rest of the year. A second fridge is very handy, as unwashed eggs will keep in the fridge for four months.

Goats are wonderful and very good for a homestead. I love my goaties!

Pigs are an easy and economical source of meat and valuable fat for the self-sufficient homestead, too. They are probably the easiest to feed on the cheap or even for free if you get out there and glean or let people know you are looking for stuff for them.

 

[rty007]

when it comes to meat, you should also consider, "what will I be mentally capable of killing/ processing."
Take me for example, I can kill and process a chicken, rabbit, goat, sheep that is not a problem at all. I know I am horrible, horrible person.
I have never been put against killing a cow, but I think I could do it. But sure as hell couldnt kill a pig. I dunno why, dont ask me why, I dont know!
I just froze, started crying, gosh. Nasty scene really. I mean I really dont know what happened to me. A buddy of mine whom I was helping went:
"dude, you just killed a whole bunch of cute but bunnies. And you cant wack the hog...?!?!"

 

[Marianne]

when it comes to meat, you should also consider, "what will I be mentally capable of killing/ processing."
Take me for example, I can kill and process a chicken, rabbit, goat, sheep that is not a problem at all. I know I am horrible, horrible person.
I have never been put against killing a cow, but I think I could do it. But sure as hell couldnt kill a pig. I dunno why, dont ask me why, I dont know!
I just froze, started crying, gosh. Nasty scene really. I mean I really dont know what happened to me. A buddy of mine whom I was helping went:
"dude, you just killed a whole bunch of cute but bunnies. And you cant wack the hog...?!?!"

Hey, I can't whack any critter, other than a bug. We eat a lot of vegetarian meals. If SHTF, we'd be all vegetarian.

 

[Beekissed]

hey. im a newbie to this self sufficiency stuff and i stumbled on this forum and i wanted some avice on how to perfect a self sufficient homestead. i know that economy is bad so i have a few questions. . . .

for a family of five how many laying hens would we need? we eat eggs pretty frequently, and i sumtimes cook with them. i have beed reading into it and id like a dual purpose breed, that will set eggs for me. any suggestions on breeds?i have been gartening for a few years now. how big should a garden be if iwant to eat regulary from it durin the summer, spring, and fall and my family is of five. plus can or dry enough for winter.

thats what im planning on now, id like two other meat sources that economical to raise and maybe some dary goats in a year or two..

thanx

shella

Do you wish to sell the excess eggs to defray feed costs? If so, I'd recommend a flock of 25-30 layers and one roo. I'd also recommend you buy breeds that are hardy to your climate, good laying genetics and can reproduce themselves consistently. I'd stay away from game or ornamental breeds and stick with standard, dual-purpose breeds that have consistent performance down through the ages.

I'd also develop a plan for how you intend to keep your top layers and get rid of those who aren't, what you will do with your excess roos or retired hens, how you will keep your broodies and biddies separate from the flock until time to integrate them and get all your housing and fencing needs in place before you get any animals. I would read up on different approaches to animal husbandry of all types of animals, do research on breeds, research housing, feeding and watering solutions and predator control issues.

Do you have anyone to kill animals for you or do you intend to do so? Do you have a plan on how you will do this? If not, you probably need to do some research on that as well and decide long before you get animals what your approach will be to killing/culling sick and suffering animals or butchering those you intend for meat. If you won't be doing these, who will? Do you have a local processor that will process chickens or the other types of meat animals you plan for such as rabbits, goats, sheep, pigs, etc.

All of these questions are those you need to be asking of yourself before you venture into growing your own animals for food and this and the sister site links at the bottom of the page are a good place to start but you might also check out magazines and books at your local library about the subject before you get too far into it.

ETA: Glad to have ya!!

 

[Shella]

wow, thanks for all the great info and welcomes. ive really been thinking about this in the past days. ive had time to research and ive come up with some goals here to do by the end of next year.

1. get my garden in full swing with stuff we will eat and lots to can and preserve
2. get a chicken flock started im really liking buff orpingtions from what i read. which hatcheries are good places to get good birds? what is the basic care? housing? what about feeding?

these are two fairly big goals, which willl need some work. but im ready!

 

[Marianne]

At the bottom of the page here, you'll see a link to backyard chickens. They have a learning center there that will teach you the basic care of chicks and chickens. Here's the link to the page - http://www.backyardchickens.com/lcenter.html

You need to get their shelter planned out and going pretty fast. Those chicks grow way too fast! I like mine right next to the garden so all the chicken litter can go in there for fertilizer. There are all kinds of fancy and not so fancy coop pictures on the backyard chicken forum, too. Your chickens won't care if they live in a fancy place, but they'll need basic shelter.

Everyone has their favorite place to get chicks - I just bought mine at Tractor Supply one time, Orschelin's the other times. I have a small flock, though. The bigger hatcheries usually have a 25 chick minimum order, I think.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

Everyone has their favorite place to get chicks - I just bought mine at Tractor Supply one time, Orschelin's the other times. I have a small flock, though. The bigger hatcheries usually have a 25 chick minimum order, I think.

yep. and sometimes its a good strategy to order from the closest hatchery so your chicks have less time in transit. and now is a great time to pick up some bargains as their season winds down. sure you'd have to over winter them, but you'll come out swingin in the spring with tons of eggs!

Storey's Guide to Chickens is a great place to start to figure out what you need to do - and a lot of it depends on your climate.

 

[pinkfox]

we got ours from healthychicksandmore.com
their price for sexed hens seems high compared to hatcheries but theres no additional shipping charges and you can order as few as 10!
we have ben impressed with our girls, great shipping we ended up with 2 lots of 10 and in both orders we lost a total of chick!

there not show stck by any means but they lay heavy, and even lay well through ct winter withno additional light or heat e got 5 eggs a day from 8 hens!

we haven't had one go broody, but w also remove eggs multiple times a day.

 

[gettinaclue]

I can't really offer to much more...

I have a family of 4 (that's me included). We have 1 Buff Orp (her eggs are a medium on the egg scale I got for Christmas and this is the third time since the spring she has gone broody), 3 RIRs (a good medium egg) 2 Barred Rock (a good large egg), 1 columbian wyandotte (a small egg - medium on a good day), 1 White Orp (medium egg) 2 Easter Eggers that haven't started to lay yet and 1 Polish roo. I'll get another roo later for breeding. My son has named this polish roo so he's here for the long haul (DS is 6 and named the roo EYEBALL ) I'm not complaining though, I love to hear him crow. Any way, back on topic....I get about 3-6 eggs a day, depending on where everyone lays and that is more than ample for us. The small eggs don't bother me at all. They're little kid sized and they make good boiled egg to take with me to lunch. They taste just the same. I also like to seperate the white of the small egg and add it in with the large egg when I bake for a jumbo egg. Don't want to waste the yolk though - scramble them and feed them to the chickens.

I let mine free range and that really cuts down on the feed bill quite a bit, but I still love to throw them some scratch and BOSS in the morning along with any tomato scars I cut out when I freeze my tomatoes in the a.m.. I also throw random kitcken scraps out to them, or it goes in the compost pile. It's RARE we throw any food away. I even give them my french fries on the rare occasion I buy some fast food. They love them.

I do offer this one piece of advise....FENCE YOUR GARDEN/RAISED BEDS IF YOU FREE RANGE YOUR CHICKENS. The first time I planted anything, they ate almost every single seedling despite the fact there was a yard full of fresh grass and bugs to eat, so I had to redo all that work. I wasn't a happy camper LOL. I also grew beets for them this year and they ate all the greens while the beets were still in the ground but didn't care for the beets themselves so I pulled them all, chopped them and threw them in the compost pile because we don't like them either LOL. They also like raspberries, poke berries, black berries ... ask me how I know LOL - just one of the dangers of free ranging without proper fencing.

I bought my chickens as chicks from a couple of different farms. I've had more luck with the chickens at the first farm I tried, so I'll go back to them the next time.


I look forward to seeing your steps and progress.