the self reliant homestead: chicken questions

[Shella]

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

 

[k0xxx]

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

To give you an idea, we currently have 8 hens (we started with 16, but over time lost some to hawks and the extreme heat this summer) and we get get anywhere from 5 to 7 eggs a day. We have Buff Orpingtons, which are a decent dual purpose breed that will also get broody.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Buff orpington are a good dual purpose breed as k0xxx stated. They are also very friendly. In their prime, they lay nearly an egg a day. I would say you could get 5-6 eggs per hen a week.

Grow as big a garden as you can manage. A garden is a lot of work. If you make it too big right away, you may end up overwhelmed. You also need to consider your climate, how much rain you get, the heat, do you get frosts, does it freeze or snow?

Check the index on here and check some of the subjects out. As eager as you might be to jump in, do a bit of research and take your time. Tackle one or two projects and then move on to another. And be prepared for failures, we have had our share of them. And then we learn from them.

Good luck.

 

[pinkfox]

the way im hoping to do my hens is to have a flock thats primarily layers and add a couple of hens from a breed with a tendency to go broody specifically for hatching replacemnts. that way you can get a great laying breed and still have a good hatch rate.

so for example that might mean a flock of rhode island reds with a couple of cochins or buff orphs.

but there are many good dual breeds if your wanting eggs and meat with a broody factor, the buff orphingtons definatly come to the front of my mind. nice big bird, good layers tend to go broody, lovely personalities and i find them very pretty birds!
Rocks (barred, partridge, white ect) are also lovely laying hens who will go broody and also make nice meaties.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/breeds/breed-chart

great chart!

right now we have a backyard flock of 8 hens, mixed flock, and getanything from 5-7 eggs a day.
our flock has 2 EE's, 1 barred (plymouth) rock, 1 columbian rock x, 1 partridge rock, 1 dark bramah, 1 speckled sussex, 1 Silver laced Wyandotte.
we also had 1 ee, 1 buff orphington and 1 black australorp but lost those 3 over the past year.
i have to say of the hens we have i LOVE the speckled sussex, the EES and the Bramah the most...
but the rocks and ees seem to be the best layers of the group an would definatly dress out the best of all our hens should we ever need to...(but there back yard birds and pets, so theyll never meet the stock pot lol)

id say a dozen birds would probably keep you in enough eggs to eat regularly AND get plenty of baking done.
if its just daily eggs for breakfast though id go 6-8 birds.

cant help you on the garden though, im stll learning on that front.
i think the key to figuring out how big of agarden youd need is to first sit down and figure out what you eat.

one of the things i think alot of poeple do is plant things they think they should plant rather than focusing their space on food they will eat and enjoy...
so many people grow cucumbers around here, but many admit they dont lIKE them...so there always being given away...personally i think thats silly, why dedicate space to something your just going to throw out or give away...
so make a list of what you like, what you dont like then what you eat on a regular basis, what youd like to eat on a regular basis if it wernt so expensive and what you eat for special occasions...and plan accordingly fomr there.

for example, if you eat alot of tomatoe based sauces and want to make your own then planning a garden around that, with plenty of sauce tomatoes, bell peppers, basil, onions, garlic thyme ect would make sence...
if you hate tomatoes with a passion, you wouldnt plant many (or any if noone in your family eats them)

remember, youll only look after it if you enjoy it, so focusing on what you want out of the garden then starting bit by bit and working up would be the best idea.

in termsof additional meat sources, i think the 2 best "beginner meats" are rabbit and quail (cortinux if you want lots and fast and like quail eggs, or bobwhite if you want a more self sufficient breed as bobwhite will brood, cortinux however wont and need an incubator for the eggs if you plan to hatch)
both can be raised in small areas, eat relitivly little, are VERY easy to learn how to process (theres nothing easier than quail honest!) breed easily and readily with little human interference. ect.
and rabbit especially is an EXCELENTLY healthy meat source!

 

[TanksHill]

 

[snapshot]

Welcome Shella! I was raised on a farm but am new getting back to it myself! I have already learned so much here!

 

[Marianne]

Welcome!

I'll say ditto to what everyone else has said. Take it slowly, just a couple steps at a time, it does get tremendously overwhelming! Someone recently posted an online magazine article from Backwoods that talked about the self sufficient homestead.

http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=10699

Called Hard Core homesteading, lots of stuff covered there!

For gardening, I get the most use from tomatoes. I freeze more than I can these days, and I aim for a years supply of spaghetti sauce, stewed tomatoes, ketchup, chili sauce, salsa, etc etc. I also got a years worth of potatoes and lots of cucumbers. Otherwise, I grew more bugs than anything. I'm okay with over ripe tomatoes, or too big cucumbers, the hens love them!

BUT today I ate three ripe grapes. The first ones this plant has produced in the 4 years I've had it. Yay! Some things just take time. )

 

[rty007]

When it comes to gardening, they say you can produce about 1-1,5lbs of produce per sqr feet. of growing space. then you can grow about 2,5-3,5 form a regular organic green house and about 4-7lbs in a hydroponic/aquaponic setup. Depending on your soil/expierience/time to spend in the garden. You have to decrease that amount.

 

[Shella]

thanx for the warm welcome. that helps a lot, ive had my eye on the buff orps, they seem really nice. for my garden id like to intercrop some, so i save space.

 

[BarredBuff]

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

Im gonna say that you will need probably 12 to 15 hens. They will provide enough for you and your family plus a little to supplement to their feed buying. Like everybody else has said, the Buff Orpington is the perfect breed for a small Homestead. They will brood, large and meaty, and lay really well all year plus are cold hardy. I have them and I adore them.

As for garden size Im not to sure. Im a little puzzled about that. We have a fairly big one but were canning more than we used to so I think an expansion would be good. I grow some food stuffs for my poultry and rabbits. I'd like to do the same for the goats Im getting in the spring.

As for two additional meat sources I suggest Muscovy Ducks (they taste beefy) we are butcherin some of them tomorrow. Also rabbits Im building up my foundation stock for them now, I have a processing board all I lack is the guts to go through with it. Im planning on that this winter.