Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[GreenGoddess]

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Most times I have mixed chicks/eggs available.. I don't get a whole lot for them ($3/dozen eggs or $2.50/chick) but I do have a few repeat customers that want anything and everything I can give them.. With 14 hens/pullets last summer, I had enough eggs to do about 60 in the bator and sell several dozen eggs per week... I will now have 19 pullets/hens so I should have plenty of eggs again...

I also have a lavender orp quad now... Those eggs will be sold specifically to build my new coop... It will be about 40' long or so and will be sectioned off with runs coming off... One section will be an incubator/brooder/grow out pen. Another section will be a storage "shed" and I will have a garden with one or possibly two guineas to keep the bug population down.. Another section will be for 2 nigerian dwarf does (specifically for milk), two sections will be a lav orp breeding project pen, three sections will be for my "barnyard" mix chickens...

I've got the plans for it already.. I'm just waiting for the laying to start picking up...

I would just like to say that I am not planning on getting rich by any stretch of the imagination but I do believe (based on past experience) that I can make enough money to cover what I want/need to do.. I don't think that's a far stretch...

Goddess

 

[Tracydr]

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Actually Al, I was rambling so not very clear I guess. I free range my layers.... I plan to tractor my $15.00 meaties lol! Plans are about 4x8 tractors for 25-50 birds depending.... not going to stuff em in there like sardines but will try to go with common sense.... Just wanted to know how much you fed how many in your 2 day moves.

Incidentally... You place an entire bale of wheat straw every two days? Isn't that expensive? We pay anywhere from $3.00-5.75 a bale depending upon size and where.

Well ............ see I think 25-50 meaties in a 4'X8' tractor is really super cramped, I put that many in a 12'X30' tractor and so a full tight bale is fine, I get my wheat straw bales from my farmer neighbor's pasture, during bailing season as I help him swath, rake, bale and load. In return I get a couple of hundred bales of prime seeded wheat straw for free.

My tractors are homemade from 2" tube steel with a heavy skirting of chain link secured with heavy metal stakes, the sides are clad in 4'X8' sheets of super heavy duty expanded metal that will last for decades and is impermeable to anything know to mankind, it has one end that is covered on top and sides with sheet metal for bad weather, and a large lift lid on top so I can feed, water and throw hay. I put a trailer hitch on the end and small 13" car wheels on the other end so I just pull it with my truck or tractor to fresh pasture.

I'd love to see a picture of your tractor sometime. You can put it on the meatie forum.
Someday, when I move, I'll do like Al does.
4x8 would be really cramped. I have a 2x8, raise 12 and at 4 weeks I throw them in with the Pullets as they get cramped. From 2-4 weeks, I often let them run loose, in the tractor at night. I can't imagine 25-50 in a space of 4x8.

 

[Tracydr]

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They still look like Dino feet. But they still make great stock.

 

[Tracydr]

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I never could keep the white, pearl or lavender guineas. They seem to be predator bait. I used to raise about 300 keets a year, hatching all in small batches in my silly Little Giant bator.

 

[jvls1942]

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I never could keep the white, pearl or lavender guineas. They seem to be predator bait. I used to raise about 300 keeps a year, hatching all in small batches in my silly Little Giant bator.

I usually hatch and sell week old keets.. I hatch about 300 a year. I have several styrofoam incubators for back up, but I use three GQF sportsmans for most of my incubating.. I have modified some egg trays so that I can stack them and set over 500 eggs in each of two of the GQF's.. I use the third one for a hatcher unless I get over stocked with eggs, then it gets interesting.. Many times I will take small batches of eggs and let the chickens or turkeys hatch them.. depends on what is broody at the time..

 

[Tracydr]

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That's a great idea! I don't have any trees (except for one small on in the front yard) but my husband is growing bamboo out back and of course I will have my garden in the spring... Could till it straight into the ground... Or maybe compost some of it for a later time...

Goddess

I actually give the blood back to the chickens. It's gone in seconds. The guts and feathers go in the freezer until trash day. If I had a hot compost pile, which I will this spring, the guts/feathers would get buried in the middle.

 

[Tracydr]

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I'm always amused to read on a forum that something "can't be done" when I've either done it or seen it done. I've also read here that you can't plant forage for chickens, because they'll immediately graze it down. Good thing I didn't know that in the spring, when I was planting the buckwheat and peas my birds grazed on for four months.

But then, I also read that if you let them forage, it'll throw off the carefully-balanced feed that the nutrition experts have formulated. So, overall, I'm waiting for Chicken Protective Services to come take my flock away and declare me an unfit chicken parent.


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+1.

Er, I mean, I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!

Amaranth goes a long way. Greens and high protein grain. Then, you need cool season crops. Kale, mustard, collards are easy and produce a lot. Fenugreek is popular and higher protein, as is crimson clover but the clover is slower so I'd mix it with kale/oats/annual rye and some mustard.
Quinoa and chia are other easy high protein, cool season grains.
Plant some boss seeds anywhere you have vertical spaces for the summer and get big beatiful sunflowers.

 

[scottcaddy]

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Thats how I was taught the use of the word 'cull' , to get said critter away from the rest of your critters <BG> one way or another.
Thanks Scott

 

[mississippifarmboy]

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Thats how I was taught the use of the word 'cull' , to get said critter away from the rest of your critters <BG> one way or another.
Thanks Scott

Yeah, I learned the hard way once when I mentioned my cull pen. I was asked why I had a pen of dead chickens?

My cull pen is just that. It is any bird that is not being kept for a future breeder. Meaties? Culls, I won't be breeding them. Off color, incorect legs, toes, combs or size? Culls. It doesn't mean there is anything at all wrong with them, just that for some reason they are not going to be feed for the next year or so....

I might kill a cull to eat, might sell them, give them away or whatever. To me cull just means "Non breeder, will not be over wintered"

 

[ajlynco]

Tracydr- I'm a newbie when it comes to gardening, could you tell me when I should plant the items you listed. I read that I could plant black oil sunflowers and mix beans with them. Any thoughts on that?
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Amaranth goes a long way. Greens and high protein grain. Then, you need cool season crops. Kale, mustard, collards are easy and produce a lot. Fenugreek is popular and higher protein, as is crimson clover but the clover is slower so I'd mix it with kale/oats/annual rye and some mustard.
Quinoa and chia are other easy high protein, cool season grains.
Plant some boss seeds anywhere you have vertical spaces for the summer and get big beatiful sunflowers.