Silkie Chicken - 8 weeks old, that is awesome! I might try this chicken tractor idea... only thing is, I don't want to have to process 20 birds myself. I wonder if any place local would do the dirty deed for me?
Hi! I'm not against eating them and I was thinking that filling the rest of the order with meat birds would make sense, but I'd have to have a separate/larger coop to keep them? At what age are they good to eat?
Hi, I am thinking about when the best time to order chicks would be for me? Where I live (Upstate NY) it can be kind of cold at night until about the end of June. I would like to keep chicks in a brooder in the garage with a lamp and then transfer them to the coop as soon as they are able...
Hi! I am planning to order some chicks in the spring. I would like to order from Welps or McMurray but they both seem to have a minimum order of 25 chicks. I really only want about 4 chickens.
How do you deal with the extras? Sell them on craigslist or the local feedstore? Wait till they get...
I was at home depot last night getting ideas for my future chicken coop, and I saw melamine coated plywood. Now that seems like it would be easy to clean, bright and nice for the inside of a coop. Anyone use it? How do you like it?
Any potential downside? Thanks!
Hi, I just learned that hens really produce the most eggs up until age 2 but can live to be 10.
I am wondering if different breeds are different in this respect?
Will a more commercial/production breed, like "sex link" red or black produce "and egg a day" early and then not much after that...
I was just reading an article about how commercially raised hens are considered "spent" at the age of 2? In other words, they don't produce as many eggs. And they can live to be about 10, but they are normally killed and replaced with younger hens who produce more eggs.
I worry that I will be...
That is genius!!! I am so impressed with the cleverness of this idea! If we ever build a house we will need to incorporate this into the plan. Right now we don't have enough property and our garden is already in place, etc. But man, that is super-smart! :-)
Ok I am thinking about getting some chickens. Here are the breeds I am considering:
Buff Orpington
New Hampshire Red
Also, I'm interested in Sex Links -- such as "red star", "golden buff", "gingernut ranger", etc etc. (but I have a hard time telling what the difference is between these? Are...
I'm new to poultry. I would like to build a coop and have a few chickens for eggs. It occured to me that it would be cool to also have a Thanksgiving turkey (for next year). Would it be ok to raise it right in the coop? or would it not get along with the chickens?
Breeds I am thinking of: Buff...
Wow Farmer Brown, I really like the larger coop. Thanks for posting the pics. Yours came out very nice. :-)
orcasislandchickens I like yours too. The shingles are pretty. :-)
Hi Farmer Brown, thanks for the info. I see on ebay that they offer plans for the larger coop but I haven't seen pictures of it. I wonder if you get a chance if you would be willing to post pics of your coop? I see a small one as your avatar but it's hard to get a good idea from that.