[Food] Production - Poultry (was Backyard Chickens)

mystiek

Thanks for the green egg advice. We used them last night and noticed they had a little bit stronger? egg smell than the white ones we normally get at the store. They were delicious and nobody turned green from them. My husband ended up eating a bologna sandwhich. I'll show him your post to reassure him.

CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1394

That's just because they were fresher. Most of the time, the eggs you get from the store are about a month old by the time you get them to your kitchen. Farm fresh eggs are generally a bit stronger, and the yolks are more orange. If they're less than a week old, it's difficult to boil and peel them cleanly - simply because they're still full - the liquid inside has not started to evaporate yet.

Just wait till he eats some. Once he tastes the difference in farm fresh eggs vs. store bought eggs, he won't go back Smile

K

Ludi

I need to share a turkey tragedy. Sad

Yesterday I let out the turkey moms and chicks for the first time to forage in the yard. In the evening, the moms had not returned to the coop and were being difficult to catch so I waited until after dark. When I picked them up, the 2 babies were nowhere to be found. I looked for them for about an hour and finally gave up. They disappeared with no trace - no feathers, no little body parts. Just gone. Sad

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mercurygirl · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jan 29, 2006 Posts: 1184

Sorry to hear about your turkey babies, Ludi.

I'm going tomorrow to look at a small chicken house I found on craigslist for $100. We have a friend who always has chicks and wants to give us some, yay! So I will have chickens soon.
I don't have a lot of room, so how many should I get? We go through at least a dozen eggs a week, sometimes more. I'm thinking 3 is not enough, maybe 5?

Ludi

5 is a good number to start with. That will give you an average of 3 eggs a day if they are decent layers.
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CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1394

Sorry to hear about your little turkeys Ludi Sad

Maybe a hawk carried them off? That's what usually happens around here if one just up and disappears. Hawks don't go for our full grown chickens, even the banties, but I have to carefully watch my babies and Junior chickens. We've had several carried off - a couple right in front of me Sad

Mercurygirl,
A chicken will, on average, lay an egg about every 24 hours. Some breeds are better about being on time. Some breeds will almost quit laying on you in the winter. If you're just wanting eggs, then white leghorns are about the best choice. They're light breed birds, so they eat less and they're prolific egg producers. However, there are many dual purpose birds (both meat and eggs). Depends on what you want them for.

As for housing, you need to have about a foot of roost space per adult bird (more is better). If you're wanting a dozen eggs a week, you could get away with just three birds. If you get 4 eggs a week from each bird, that still gives you a dozen. When I started we bought four chickens. Now I have about 100. Smile

Chickens are kinda addictive lol.

Oh, don't be surprised if, when you bring your birds home, they don't lay eggs for a while. Moving chickens upsets them. Sometimes it will be a week or two before they'll start laying. Sometimes a move will put them into a molt. If that happens, feed them crushed red peppers. It'll help bring them out of it faster. And always keep out free choice oyster shells to help with their calcium.

You're gonna love having chickens. Be sure to let us know how it goes Smile

Kathy

Ludi

We heard screech owls in the woods while we were looking, but screech owls seem too small to have gotten the babies. I just don't know. Sad

Thank you all for the sympathy.
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Shannymara · Master Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 5391 Location: Oklahoma

So sorry about the turkey poults, Ludi. Sad

I am visiting friends in upstate NY right now, and they say a mink got all 6 of their hens, 1 per night. There are so many poultry predators. I've probably listed these before, but we've personally contended with coyote, bobcat, owl, hawk, snake, raccoon, dog, and opossum attacks in the past. Crying or Very sad

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mercurygirl · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jan 29, 2006 Posts: 1184

Hey Shanny. I'm from extreme western NY. Isn't NY pretty in the summer? Very long, cold winters, though. I have a plan B there. Smile

My source with chickens swears by their portable solar electric fence to keep varmints away. Of course, they lock them up at night.

Thanks for all the info on chickies, ladies. I actually have a to-do list that may delay them for awhile, but I'm still checking out the little house. It looks homemade and very sturdy.

careinke

Well Glisten hatched her eggs today. Six of the seven managed to make it. This is the first time I have had a hen hatch eggs. She seems to know what she is doing. Hopefully everything will work out. Here she is making sure I don’t mess with her babies. I can take a hint!!

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Cliff (Start a rEVOLution, grow a garden)

wisconsin_cur · Moderator Joined: May 10, 2007 Posts: 2919

yes they do seem to know what they are doing.

We let our mothering hens free range and I watched the other day as the 18 month old was watching the baby chicks. I knew what would happen, having a good idea what would unfold and knowing that no one would get hurt.

Child approaches chicks, hen warns child but child does not read the signs. mother hen knocks child down.

what I did not expect, however,was,

terrier comes to child's rescue and almost attacks hen.

Luckily the terrier is very responsive to verbal commands and while he stood between the hen and his boy, did not attack the hen.

boy learned that mothers protect their young,
I learned that the terrier will protect his boy.

five more hens are setting on clutches of eggs... I hope this is a banner year for hatching.
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grommit

"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable."
John Kenneth Galbraith

Homesteader

Yesterday the 50 lb. bag of layer pellets I purchased was $12.50. Two weeks ago it was $10.75. Over the winter it was ~6.80.

Shock

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CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1394

careinke,
Yes, she does look serious, doesn't she Smile

Beautiful chicks Smile

Homesteader,
Feed prices are going through the roof for all of my critters. Thankfully since it's summer, and there are bugs everywhere, I've been letting the chickens free range and thus, am feeding them less grain. I have stopped buying laying pellets for now. I'm just buying scratch grain to supplement their bugs and such. This winter, though, we'll be buying pellets again... if we can afford them!
K

Ludi

We buy whole corn for the chickens, and cracked corn for the turkeys. We've never fed layer pellets - too expensive!
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WisJim

Here's a picture of the new summer home for our new chickens. The old girls get to stay in the old coop, but the new ones will be in the orchard this summer.

The open sides are covered with 1" chicken wire, and the floor is plastic "hardware cloth" of about 3/4 inch mesh.

They are enclosed with a 150 foot long fabric/electric easily moved fence.