Raising chickens for meat and eggs...

[Jojo F.]

A few other moms and me want to start our own chicken co-op but realized none of us know very much about raising chickens!! Hit me with all that you know, have experienced, tips, tricks, etc.

TIA!!

Oh, I should add that we are in the Northeast and get a bit of snow:

[mean_jeannie]

IME chickens are absurdly easy. All they need is a shelter and a fenced in area. Chain link is fine - except that chicks can pop through! So never mind, I just remembered chasing chicks so one really does need chicken wire.

Chickens are fabulous pest control so if you are zoned chicken friendly, I would volunteer to have the chickens at my house.

You will need a rooster if you intend to cultivate some eggs to chicks. If you primarily want just eggs, a rooster is unnecessary.

This link looked pretty okay. http://www.backyardchickens.com/

I haven't read too deeply into it. Have fun! I love chickens! Don't name them though - it makes it harder to butcher them.

[mean_jeannie]

Oh yes, I have had chicken coops and less refined shelters. I would recommend building coops if you want chicks. Otherwise, just for eggs, the chickens will make their own nests in the crooks of tree roots and such. Less labor than building coops, but sometimes literally an egg hunt!

Handle your chickens a lot so they are used to you and trust your presence. You should be able to pick up any one of your chicken without too much trouble. Tuck their feet under their bodies and carry them in the crook of your arm and place your other hand on their back/neck for security. Many chickens enjoy petting behind their necks.

If I think of anything else, I'll add on! LOVE Chickens! :

[MaterPrimaePuellae]

No chickens yet, but I want some so badly! This is the hatchery whence Martha Stewart buys her chicks (per her website, anyway): www.mcmurrayhatchery.com I requested their catalog, and it is SO cool. I would much rather have some of the heirloom breed chickens than the kind they typically have at feed/seed stores.
I think Guinea Hens are supposed to be very low maintenance (though sometimes loud), and they are known for eating ticks. According to McMurray, they are the only breed that you could totally "pasture" and not have to supplement their diet with feed. I don't know this from personal experience, though, only from reading in books and online.

ETA, I seem to remember reading that the guineas make good "guard" animals for chickens, too, because they often alert loudly when there are predators.

[OceansEve]

Check out some library books and check out BYC as PP mentioned. They are EASY! and Fun to watch

[Attached Mama]

How you house chickens really depends on where you live - temperatures and predators.

For chicks, a coop is not necessary. We just kept them in a box on our front porch for a few weeks. Then when they were big enough to hop out and made a ton of dust to wipe down off of everything, we transferred them to a larger container in the barn (you could use a garage). Once they were large enough to not escape thru the cracks under the door of the barn, we let them free.

Many people find a run is necessary if you don't want to lose all of your chickens to hawks in a few short weeks. Once they realize there are chickens running free, they will return for more. A run with netting over the top will protect them. We had a run along the side of our barn - a great big one. Using just metal stakes and chicken wire and orchard netting on top, the chickens had plenty to scratch thru and no hawks attacking. Every few weeks, it takes about an hour to move the whole run to make sure your grass isn't killed completely.

However, foxes can get in the run - they figured out how to just jump on top of the netting and break it to get in. We have lost 4 chickens this year to foxes. They are a major problem in our area! They are brave, come in broad daylight, and don't care if our dog is 15 feet away. They are so quiet they will even sneak up on him. No, they aren't rabid. This is common fox activity when there is a high population of foxes.

So we are almost done now building a portable chicken tractor. Unlike most, ours will have to have flaps to lay on the ground all around it made of wire so the fox can't dig beneath to get in. But then I think we will at last be able to free range our chickens with no problems.

Another option is to make your run and use electrical wire thru it and electrical wire on top of it. However, you'd have to also place the chicken wire down into the ground several inches to prevent digging underneath - and that is not easily movable.

I am always amazed by people who are able to let their chickens just roam free and hardly lose any at all! You are lucky!!

I also agree, it's best to handle them frequently. Roosters can be fun, but you need to watch them around children especially.

We make ours forage for most of their food (except the last few weeks when they have been mostly inside the barn while we build the run). Then we feed them scratch grains. Most all chicken feed has soy in it which does make the eggs high in estrogen so is like eating soy food. Depending on your thyroid/health, that may be something to consider. There are companies that make soy free organic feed, but none near me. Some are crazy expensive. One is not expensive, but their shipping is the same price as the food - thus expensive.

HTH!

[steffanie3]

Originally Posted by MaterPrimaePuellae

No chickens yet, but I want some so badly! This is the hatchery whence Martha Stewart buys her chicks (per her website, anyway): www.mcmurrayhatchery.com I requested their catalog, and it is SO cool. I would much rather have some of the heirloom breed chickens than the kind they typically have at feed/seed stores.

If you are getting them in the early spring, you could request different breeds from the feed store. That way you don't have to order as many and any loss risk is thiers. My local store can get a lot of different breeds, but not many requests for them so they stick with some of the more common.

Ideal Poultry is one of the hatcheries where you can place smaller orders. I just received chicks from them today in fact :

Backyard Chicken has a lot of info and the Country Living forum here has chicken threads too

[mean_jeannie]

Originally Posted by Attached Mama

I am always amazed by people who are able to let their chickens just roam free and hardly lose any at all! You are lucky!!

Eek! I guess so! You have awesome info in your post! I even asked my mom and she was just like, "No, we didn't worry about predators!" WOW!

Thanks for posting, such an informative read for me!

FWIW We had chickens in Puerto Rico and in urban Tampa so it could be quite a different scenario. No foxes, that's for sure!

[Jojo F.]

I you mamas!! So much info!!

Now, add a cow to the mix. How much work is a cow for milk or even meat? Once the cow has had a calf is it really necessary for her to keep getting pregnant to produce milk? Shouldn't we just keep her well fed and "stimulated"?

[OceansEve]

DH has done research on this and Yes, she has to have a calf to continue milking. I forget how long the milk usually lasts, but you can artificially inseminate, then sell the calf for veal or for whatever. I would say meat wise, unless you have an ENORMOUS freezer, look at your local coops and see about buying a fraction of a carcass. If you really want to raise your own for meat, maybe find someone willing to go half with you on costs then you can split the carcass in the end. This is all from books mind you not experience, some say you need 5 acres for grazing, some say much less. Around here you have to have 2 acres min for 1 hoof stock.

[AJP]

Keeping a cow is a lot of work, but totally worth it if you have the space and willingness to do the work. And yes, they have to keep having calves. It will vary individually how long a cow will continue to give milk in any appreciable amount, some are more persistent milkers than others, but generally it's considered pushing your luck to stretch it more than about 18 months per lactation. There may be instances of some cows continuing to produce indefinitely without being pregnant again, but you couldn't count on it. I've heard of some goats doing that, but only small amounts of milk.

It takes me about an hour and a half per day for cow duties, including milking, cleaning up the milking equipment, cleaning up manure in their night-time pen (which they hang out in during the day sometimes too, I'm sure they come in from the pasture just to poop, like the cat does), feeding, etc. It's a big commitment, but very rewarding. It's a lot more work than keeping chickens. Taking care of my chickens takes maybe 15 min. per day.

[medaroge]

wow. You all amaze me!

[Attached Mama]

the nice thing about a cow.... you can use the whey from cheese to provide the protein source for your chickens. FREE, organic protein that is not soy based is a huge savings!! Plus you can use a chicken tractor to follow along where the cow has been. The chickens will scratch thru the cow patties eating the parasites which will in turn NOT infest the cow since they are eaten. More free, organic protein. You have to time it just right tho... read some of Joel Salatin's stuff.

signed
Dreaming of Owning a Cow

[kl5]

This is a great discussion. My chickens LOVE the whey I give them after making fresh goat cheese every other week. We live in the city and will, sadly, not have our own personal dairy producer until our situation changes. But I have been obsessed with the idea for quite a while.

Here's a really good article from Mother Earth News: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Susta...eep-A-Cow.aspx There was another one I read a while ago on the same subject, but I was unable to find the link.

[ChristieB]

Originally Posted by Attached Mama

I am always amazed by people who are able to let their chickens just roam free and hardly lose any at all! You are lucky!!

I'm always amazed, too. We don't have chickens yet, but are making plans. Your experiences have been helpful. Thanks for sharing them. We live in the woods (coyotes, bobcats, hawks, black bears - not sure if they're a worry, and possibly foxes), so we've always known that we can't free range them. We'll need to build something very preditor-proof.



As for the cow, we've talked to a lot of people about raising a cow for meat (we don't eat dairy, so I know nothing about raising dairy cows). We'll be doing that next year with one or two cows. It's a lot less work than I've heard dairy cows are. You need to make sure that you have enough land for them to graze, and that depends on the amount of grass, and an extension office near you could tell you that. You need to provide water, salt, and maybe some hay in winter (unless you just want to butcher in the fall). If they'll be roaming in the forest, like ours will be, you'll need check periodically to make sure there's nothing wrong with them. I've been told that hay helps bring them in (it's a treat). And if you keep the water and salt in the same area, that helps, too.

We're leasing BLM land that borders ours, and we already have a brand chosen and everything.

[Amberoxy]

Hi, We make Kefir everyday and I end up with extra Kefir grains. Could that be a source of protein for chickens?