Homesteading Chicken Coop Build, Chickens, Pond, Garden & Projects

Last evening my younger hens and 2 of the older hens, decided to walk up a pine branch that over hangs my woodshed. Probably 30-40 feet off the ground.
They must of liked the view because they decided to camp out there overnight.

Hopefully it wont be a new trend. Crazy chickens.

Also my wife has discovered that you don't plant flowers with free rangers.

 

Chickens lay according to hours of light and age, the light does not have to be sunlight no rooster required in fact the hen is less apt to get hurt. I had 5 black Jersey Giants and one of them started crowing on my birthday in 2008, freezer bird that same day.

 

We processed our meat birds (jumbo cornish cross) a couple of weeks ago. Five families go in on them. I start them for the first 3 weeks or so then each guy takes their share and we raise them separately before combining them all again come slaughter time. We ordered 140 and they shipped 146. We ended up with 125 making it to slaughter time 60 days after being hatched. I don't know what it was about these birds but they were the biggest we've ever had. We ended up with 8 birds weighing in at 9 pounds or more and they averaged 7.33 pounds each which was by far our best. They consumed just under 4,000 pounds of feed and after calculating for all expenses, ended up costing $1.97 a pound. That was the first time in the last 4 years we were under the $2 mark and they taste just as good as ever. Pictured is the fridge they stay in overnight until we cut and wrap.

 

Will you grow more now that the harvest is done?

 

We miss having our own meat birds….store bought chicken just doesn’t even taste like chicken

 

I really miss having chickens as well for the eggs, they were just better!

Life just got really busy and seems I am the only one who ended up caring for them on a day to day basis. They don't require much care but they require some for sure.

 

Next year I plan on raising some meat birds. Pretty sure not as many as jrider though. Maybe 50 or so. Figure a chicken dinner each week.

 

The coop looks good!

You've made alot of changes to your place since I was last there.

 

We all do 1 round a year together so not until next spring.

 

I only take 25-30 each year but that's generally close to 200 pounds. It's plenty for my family of 4 but we also raise our own pork and beef.

 

Honey bees and black bears are worse than brock brocks and black bears. Me hungry already me is.

 

I have already weighed in on this matter so WW knows my feelings on this.

 

I built a bunk house/small cabin through the woods on a path adjacent to our main cabin a few years ago. It is 10’ X 16’. It is a nice spot to hang out, have an happy hour, and/or read. During summer trips and during our hunting seasons we typically have someone sleeping out there. We had guest from Sweden stay out there one deer camp. He called it a “stuga” which means “small dwelling.”