Raising Chickens

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straightlinespeed

straightlinespeed

Sometimes I pretend to be normal
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Looking for people that have experience raising chickens, looking for tips, suggestions, dont do it, do it, all opinions. We are considering getting some for the eggs, and probably to butcher at some point, but not sure its worth the cost to care for them over the cost of just going and buying eggs from the store.
 
Do you live in town? Couple guys raise them at work and I get fresh eggs from them and they are 1000x better than store bought and are a few days old :glasses7:
 
Store eggs are close to no good by the time they get to the store.I like to know what they are fed so I have about 20 right now and at there best 18 eggs a day and when its cooler outside with less daylight around 8 or 9 a day.Be prepared though with chickens you will have mice and a occasional rat if there is a farm near.
 
We're in the process of buying land and putting up 2 layer barns. They're all organic, GMO free, free range, pastured birds. Although I'm sure you're not lookin for advice on that big of a setup! Lol
 
straightlinespeed said:
Looking for people that have experience raising chickens, looking for tips, suggestions, dont do it, do it, all opinions. We are considering getting some for the eggs, and probably to butcher at some point, but not sure its worth the cost to care for them over the cost of just going and buying eggs from the store.
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We're getting ready to put up a coop and do the same. Build a good coop (including fencing/solid roof over the top), racoons, hawks, foxes etc will get the chickens if you don't. Build it so they can be inside at night with a door you can close. Have a heat source for colder months.

I suggest buying the chickens at the 6 month old mark, so you don't have to wait too long for eggs.

Feed them grain, free range chickens don't taste as good as grain fed, IMO.

If you have a garden area, you now have some purdy good fertilizer, lol. Till it in, in the fall.

Enjoy those fresh eggs!
 
66340SEDAN said:
Do you live in town? Couple guys raise them at work and I get fresh eggs from them and they are 1000x better than store bought and are a few days old :glasses7:
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Yep, I should have stated that.. I live in a Subburb so Im limited on the amount of chickens we can have. I also believe we can not have any roosters.

wannadrag said:
Store eggs are close to no good by the time they get to the store.I like to know what they are fed so I have about 20 right now and at there best 18 eggs a day and when its cooler outside with less daylight around 8 or 9 a day.Be prepared though with chickens you will have mice and a occasional rat if there is a farm near.
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No farms near me for miles and miles. Its good to know though about the production of them... I was thinking maybe starting with 6 chickens. That is probably all the more I have room for.

75slant6 said:
We're in the process of buying land and putting up 2 layer barns. They're all organic, GMO free, free range, pastured birds. Although I'm sure you're not lookin for advice on that big of a setup! Lol
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LOL, nope for sure not that big.. just a small coop....
 
Bad Sport said:
We're getting ready to put up a coop and do the same. Build a good coop (including fencing/solid roof over the top), racoons, hawks, foxes etc will get the chickens if you don't. Build it so they can be inside at night with a door you can close. Have a heat source for colder months.

I suggest buying the chickens at the 6 month old mark, so you don't have to wait too long for eggs.

Feed them grain, free range chickens don't taste as good as grain fed, IMO.

If you have a garden area, you now have some purdy good fertilizer, lol. Till it in, in the fall.

Enjoy those fresh eggs!
Click to expand...

We do have Fox's running around our neighborhood and I honestly didnt even think about that. Thanks for pointing that out.

Yep we have a garden so that is a good point as well. Hope the neighbors can put up with the smell.

So the cost of grain or whatever we feed them.. Is that going to cost us more than if we were to just go and buy a dozen eggs once a week for a month? I dont want the cost to outweigh the production. I do understand the startup cost will be high, but once established?
 
75slant6 said:
We're in the process of buying land and putting up 2 layer barns. They're all organic, GMO free, free range, pastured birds. Although I'm sure you're not lookin for advice on that big of a setup! Lol
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Funny you have put in organic because if you check free range birds cannot be considered organic if they feed on the grubs and insects from the ground.

To the OP we raise our own and tell all of the people buying eggs let them set in the fridge for about 2 weeks or when boiled they will not want to peel as being too fresh. Once you raise your own you will never again get store eggs.
 
We had a night light by our shed that was a supermarket of morning insects for the chickens!

Those eggs in the mornings' breakfast tasted like Heaven!

The non-performing chickens tasted very good also.

In addition, the colorful Red Roosters are walking-talking yard art.
 
I'm not too up on the grain cost, BUT, if you have more eggs than you can eat, sell some and put that money toward the feed.

If you have 6 chickens and they give you 1 egg each per day (maybe, maybe not), that's 3 and a half dozen a week. We usually go through a dozen, although I'm not home Mon. thru Fri.

Don't forget to wash them with a mild bleach/water solution. We just use a rag dipped in it to wash, then rinse.

Fresh eggs are soooo much better than store bought.
 
chryslerfat said:
To the OP we raise our own and tell all of the people buying eggs let them set in the fridge for about 2 weeks or when boiled they will not want to peel as being too fresh. Once you raise your own you will never again get store eggs.
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Thanks for that tip!

eestatic said:
We had a night light by our shed that was a supermarket of morning insects for the chickens!

Those eggs in the mornings' breakfast tasted like Heaven!

The non-performing chickens tasted very good also.

In addition, the colorful Red Roosters are walking-talking yard art.
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Another good tip! I dont think we are allowed to have Roosters being we are in the city.

Bad Sport said:
I'm not too up on the grain cost, BUT, if you have more eggs than you can eat, sell some and put that money toward the feed.

If you have 6 chickens and they give you 1 egg each per day (maybe, maybe not), that's 3 and a half dozen a week. We usually go through a dozen, although I'm not home Mon. thru Fri.

Don't forget to wash them with a mild bleach/water solution. We just use a rag dipped in it to wash, then rinse.

Fresh eggs are soooo much better than store bought.
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Thats a lot of eggs, I didnt think of that. I think it would be easy to get rid of the extra ones, either to neighbors or coworkers. Thanks for the tip on cleaning them. I agree that fresh eggs are so much better than store bought.
 
My FIL had about 30 chickens, and would average 24 eggs a day (14 dozen a week). He would keep enough to feed the two of them, and sell the rest. All of us kids would get the eggs for a dollar a dozen, and that was just about enough to buy the feed.
 
we live in the sticks. we keep about 10 head. right now we have 9 laying hens and a rooster. they free range and we throw out some laying mash and cracked corn every day. lock them up in coup at night. if in town, either a good yard fenced or keep them fenced in wire yard. keep out dogs and fox ( or coyote)...you can make a movable large "cage" to move around your yard too. look at the grocery for a mag on chicken ranching. it is for the hobbiest/ surburban chicken guys. lots of info for the novice, and it will get you into the thing.

we get on ave 225 eggs per hen per year. prod. varies by breed and time of year. not near too many in winter months, they will molt and stop laying for a period. we buy a bag (50# of laying mash and a bag of cracked corn every ?? 3 months?? just guessing. here that's $15 for that. we sell generally 1 or 2 doz eggs every week and use quite a few. sell for about $2 a doz here.

young layers here vary in costs, but generally $6- 10. baby chicks are like $2,50 couple days old, and then you need a brooder. big box with drop light if not cold weather. and they eat grower, more expensive feed.

the main things is like they said, NO comparison in taste, plus you what they are eating. ( bugs are good protein!?)) commercial eggs are how?? old when you buy them?? fed no telling what.?? broilers are fed lots of antibiotic and growth stuff in their feed????? plenty of people around here eat only brown farm eggs, and country raised meat birds. we sell our extra eggs to lady ay church, $2/doz. hope this helps.
 
Also research what type of chickens you want to raise/keep. Some are a bigger ***** to deal with. I've raise leghorns in the past.
 
remember that chickens do not want to be pies
 

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chryslerfat said:
Funny you have put in organic because if you check free range birds cannot be considered organic if they feed on the grubs and insects from the ground.
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The pasture has to be completely chemical for 3+ years in order to be organic. So technically the grubs n such should all be organic too :D
 
My dad once told me about when they had chickens when he was younger. One of the roosters would fly at them sometimes when they went in the pen, but grandpa wouldn't do anything about it. Then one day, that rooster charged grandpa....

He was dinner that night....

(You didn't f*ck with grandpa...)
 
krazykuda said:
One of the roosters would fly at them sometimes when they went in the pen, but grandpa wouldn't do anything about it. Then one day, that rooster charged grandpa....
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My father in law had one that really liked to try and spur ya when you went into the pen.

Well, they were on vacation and I had to feed the birds. He used to keep a broomstick in there just to keep the rooster at bay. I went into the pen, and grabbed the broomstick and headed to the feed trough, he tried sneaking up behind me to spur me, I gave that broomstick a wicked swing at him and clocked him right up side the head, he flopped around, and I thought I had killed him, lol. He eventually got up and went to the back corner of the pen and stayed clear of me.

My FIL came home, and started feeding the chickens again, and he mentioned to me one day, ya know, it's funny, that rooster just goes to the back corner of the pen now when I go in to feed the birds, he hasn't tried to spur me at all.

I just sat there with a big grin on my face.
 
I agree with the comments about commercial eggs vs eggs from your own hens. We buy our eggs from private parties cuz don't want the hassle of having the chickens around. But the eggs are better and fresher. Recently we started buying duck eggs from some friends.

Also, the myth that brown eggs are better for you than white eggs is a false one. The only difference is the color of the shell!
 
bighammer said:
I agree with the comments about commercial eggs vs eggs from your own hens. We buy our eggs from private parties cuz don't want the hassle of having the chickens around. But the eggs are better and fresher. Recently we started buying duck eggs from some friends.

Also, the myth that brown eggs are better for you than white eggs is a false one. The only difference is the color of the shell!
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True on the color we also have green,pink and blue egg layers.
 
Ask around to see what breeds do well in your part of the country. The larger breeds (Brahmas, Buff Opringtons, etc.) don't do well in the heat here in AZ, but my Great Grandmother was a big fan of Buff Opringtons in Missouri.

Aracaunas/Americaunas do well here (and lay green eggs) - they're generally among the more productive for us. Polish are fun (more personality, plus they look like Motley Crue ca. 1984), but lay small eggs. Hard to go wrong with Barred Rocks.

Roosters suck.

And yes, fresh eggs are the best. (Tell your neighbors to start saving their egg cartons)
 
Thanks for your input everyone! I will be doing more research on it as well as attending a class our city puts on about what is and isnt allowed in our town.
 
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