Recent content by Jackschicks

Hey, I found a link for you that shows you what it looks like. I bet you have it growing in your yard already. The article says to plant it in full sun but it grows all over my yard in both sun and shade...

Purslane is either a weed or an herb which will grow almost anywhere here in Texas - shade or sun. Great for the chickens because it is high in the Omegas. I grow a bed of it back behind the chicken pens for them to forage in when they are out and also give them what I weed out of my gardens...

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I will put your ideas to work and see what is most efficient. Funny, I had heard grits clogged up their digestive system and tried that before without much of a result. Grits are cornmeal, just in a different form. Maybe mixing it with sugar water will...

Yes. but the ants just pop up again. Nothing really kills fire ants, they just move to another spot. Yesterday before moving the coop I sifted Diatomaceous Earth over the ground I was moving the tractor to - this morning the ants are back. I guess what I am trying to determine is if the ants...

I am raising my first batch of Cornish Cross in a tractor and having a major problem with ants. Fire ants(and other ants) are terrible here in Texas. I have been putting Diatomaceous Earth on the mounds that pop up in the tractor but all that seems to do is slow them down for a few hours. I...

I have raised layer chicks many times before but this is my first time raising meat chickens. I should have 25 Cornish X arriving tomorrow. I have always fed my layer chicks Nutrena chick crumbles for the first month or so followed by Nutrena 22% gamebird grower until I switch them over to...

My daughter and I make chicken sausage from my old laying hens and we grind the schmaltz up along with the chicken and seasonings. Keeps the sausage nice and moist and gives it a really nice flavor!

2 Dominiques 3 Langshans 3 Jersey Giants 2 Buff Orpingtons 3 Easter Eggers 3 Welsummers 3 Silver Grey Dorkings 20,836 + 19 = 20,855 That's a LOT of chickens!!!

Here in Texas in the suburbs of Houston I sell my eggs for 2.50 a dozen. At the local feed stores I pay about $13 for a 50 lb bag of laying pellets. I sell enough eggs that it covers the cost of my feed and mine & my families eggs are free. I have 16 laying hens of 7 different breeds for a...

I guess it really depends what you are looking for and where you live. Some breeds are more cold or heat hardy. I think it depends on where you get your chickens also - hatchery or breeder. I also wanted to experiment with different breeds plus I wanted a colorful egg basket so I ordered a...

For me, the first ones to lay were the Dominiques at 20 weeks, then the Welsummers at 22 weeks, then the Jersey Giants at about 23 weeks, then one of the Buff Orpingtons at 23 weeks, then one of the Silver Grey Dorkings at 25 weeks along with the other Buff Orpington. At 28 weeks the other...

No, I think if we lived somewhere else we might have done that but our property is flat and low and we have a heavy clay soil so drainage can be a problem, especially after heavy rains (which we have had plenty of this last year). Boards on the bottom would just rot and interfere with...

minou33, Attached are a few photos, pardon the mud! It has been raining for days here in my part of Texas. Our experience has been that if you try to stretch more than 8 feet between posts it becomes too flimsy and unstable. On one small section at the back of our property we actually put...

minou33, We have used stock panels to fence our property and it works really well. The panels are 5 ft tall and 16 feet long and are easy enough to work with. The only difference between a stock panel & a hog panel is the size of the grid. The common price per panel in my neck of the woods...

What's the old saying -- the best fertilizer is a farmers footprint?? I think if you garden organically, you have to spend a lot of time in your garden. I spend a lot of time hand picking caterpillars and snails off of my plants. I just go along with a little bowl and pick them off and then...