Recent content by ncarper

Quote: I don't want to get too hung up on the accounting question. People correctly point out that they've already purchased their backyards, so why would you impute that cost to raising chickens in the backyard? That's a good point. My bias is to err on the side of strict fiscal accounting...

Quote: We are responding to the question of whether someone can make a profit raising chickens in the backyard. It's a legitimate question. In order to determine if a profit exists, you have to know two things: Your revenue and your costs. If you're selling eggs for the table, you're...

Great video! Thanks for posting.

People keep mentioning “real costs” in factoring how much it takes to raise chickens. In these real costs they include: personal labor(time), land, and taxes. Here’s my question to those who always mention these “real costs”. Do you figure these real costs in everything you do at your...

Trampledbygeese wrote: What do you guys do when you catch a feral cat? Kill it!

Info for Oklahoma: Spoke with a man from the Dept of Ag today. The exemption is for processing only and not for selling. You can only process 1,000 chickens that you raised and sold live on your farm each year; you can sell as many live chickens as you like, but can only process 1,000. The...

Why are so many conflating individual rights by fighting bills that will have more of a curtailment impact on corporations than individuals or small businesses? Because they are spending huge money to convince you of that. It's the corporations and big businesses that have the most to gain...

I finished reading this book about 2 weeks ago. Incredible; can't wait to get started. I travel from Oklahoma to Northern Virginia about twice a month with work. Next spring I plan on taking the time to visit Poly Face on one of my trips.

What do you want to vaccinate for and why?

I would put a singe strand of electric fence wire around the outside perimeter. I would use an insulator that extends 5 inches out; if you're concerned about digging put the wire about six inches off the ground. Use a strong fence charger, ground it well with a copper plated rod and keep the...

Chris09 is right, look for a local feed mill. I would only buy feed from a box store like TSC as a last resort. In Oklahoma where I live feed is considerably less at mill compared to TSC or Orschelns.

I've been using electric poultry netting for over a year and a half now with no problems. It does and excellent job keeping preadators out and creates enough of a physical visual barrier to keep my chickens in. In the time i've been using it I've only had two instances where a chicken flew...

Feed them to the pigs

I think the best option is the 30.06 option, however, I think a better longterm option might be electric poultry netting. I've been using electric poultry netting from Kencove for just over a year now and have never lost chicken to a predator. I would suggest the netting that alternates the...

I had a broody hen stop sitting after 3 of 12 eggs hatched. I'm not sure how long she was off them before I got to them, but I'd guess it was about a day. I knew she was done so I put the eggs in my incubator and was able to hatch out 6 of the remaining 9 eggs. It tooks probably 2 days or so...