Homesteading Chickens

Currently have 6 chickens. My wife's father had them and she always wanted some too, so I agreed. That's been several years ago.

 

Well down another rooster. My mixed breed one decided to go after my littlest yesterday. Went over like a fart in church of course. Thought he was smart and ran in between 2 stacks of wood. Ole .22 zipped right through.

Actually should have done it sooner as he was showing signs of being aggressive. Still have a Silkie rooster that seems pretty docile. Maybe it's cause I had 2.

 

Dinner!

 

No unfortunately the first shot was center mass and messed up a lot of meat. He jammed his way in there pretty good.

 

Saw this interesting concept on FB Good insect control

 

I refuse to let my dogs in the garden.
Not purposely.

 

Currently have 51 layers (21 soon to be "retired"), 160 meat birds, and 10 turkeys (first time with those).

 

I wish you well. I tried the meat bird and turkey thing. I didn't come close to breaking even with cost compared to what I could buy domestic chicken at the butcher shop. The only part that worked well for me was eggs. Nothing like those home fresh eggs!
Once I processed the meat chickens, my family wouldn't eat them. You would have thought I was trying to feed them a pet.

 

Neither do we...and that's fine. They taste better and I know what they've be fed, not fed, and how they were raised....and that's worth something.

 

We used to have almost 100 layers. My wife was able to move all the eggs with people on standby if she ever had extras. After about 2 years she got sick of washing and delivering eggs.

Now we just raise meat birds. We usually raise around 150-200 of them a year. It is some of the best eating chicken that I have ever had. A lot of years we go into winter with no chicken because she has them all sold. We are fortunate to have a processor local who will butcher them for $2 a bird, then I think its another $.50 a bird to have them halve or quarter it. Then another $.50 to have them vacuum seal the bird.
For $3 a bird to have it ready for the freezer, I won't bother butchering them myself.

 

The meat birds consumed 80 lbs of feed and 26 gallons of water yesterday....1 week to go on one batch and 2 weeks on the other.

 

I misjudged on these guys... I should get them butchered this week, but I changed the date to half next week and half the following.


I catch myself every time. I had them scheduled to get butchered this week, but two weeks ago I looked at them and thought they are never going to make the weight....
Between week 6-8 they put weight on fast.

 

I watered them by hand when I started doing chickens a few years back. It didn't take long to get sick of carrying water.

I ended up putting in a automatic fountain. It makes life soooooooo much easier.

 

Wouldn't a fox carry off the chicken. While a coon would just eat half and leave the carcass?

 

A fox is gonna get the heck outta dodge....grab and run. A coon or opossum will drag them out of the coop and eat them nearby.

 

Post the pics. I'm going with coons or a possum.

 

I had several birds found in the pen without heads. They were at the edge of the chicken pen. Seems the chickens were not smart enough to keep away from the wire cage. I haven't have birds in some time now but wish I could. My wife isn't agreeable to having them now.

 

After 5-6 years of having chickens for eggs only (wife is vegetarian so not a lot of demand for meat) we've gotten to where we need to slaughter some roosters. They are beating the cr@p out of the hens. Any advice for our first time slaughtering? Planning to hang them upside down, slit the neck and let them bleed out. Hot water to loosen the feathers before plucking. I'm good with cleaning them after that.