Dumbest Things People Have Said About Your Chickens/Eggs/Meat

[roseyred]

Our English Setter has got almost as many chicken dinners this year as the raccoons.  Truly, the dog doesn't eat them, she just kills them and partially buries them.  Anyway it is aggravating.  I do let the chickens free range for a few hours each day when I am home to supervise. 

I spend much more on feed than we make selling the eggs.  The going rate around here is $2.50 for farm fresh, free range eggs.  Regular store bought white eggs go on sale quite frequently for $1.00, so I really can't raise the rate and keep my customers.  My chickens eat 2 bags of layer pellets each week.  Plus there is the cost of straw, scratch (which I only buy about 1 bag every other month), medications, etc.   Maybe someday, there will be a better balance of finances and raising chickens, but at this point at our little farm, the chickens are very much costing us more than we make.

I give mine away for free but I would like to say you could ask more per dozen. your eggs are higher quality than the store bought eggs. Quality over quantity is how I live.

 

[bigmrg74]

same my older dogs pete and sally would never attack my birds it was funny because they where both about 50-75lbs but my new dg pepe goes out once in the morning before the chicken get let out and stays inside the house until they go up in the evening it is kind of stressful but he is by far the best ratter I have ever owned he even kept a raccoon treed for over an hour when I was away from home

Kinda sounds like my old Jack Russell here. About 3 years ago we had left him and his daughter out in the fenced in back yard because we were going to be gone all day during the summer. Anyways, sometime during the day a woodchuck went and climbed the chain link fence to get inside of the yard. Best guess as to why he would do that because he wanted to get at the water in the little kiddie splash pool we had out in the yard for the dogs. Anyways, those two must have spent the day tag teaming that woodchuck until my dad got home and went to figure out what all the ruskus was about, and finished him off with a pitchfork. Zack was hurting for a few days after that. Even now with him a few more years older and half blind, I have not let him be loose with the girls outside when they're free ranging.

The Mini Aussie pup we have now, she herds the girls around without much of a worry, other than I wish she was just a little bit bigger so that she could bully the girls a little more. I've got one white chicken who doesn't like to listen to her much.

 

[patvetzal]

We have a four year old Golden Retriever who will stand up to a full sized deer ( well, barks at it until it leaves our flower garden) but backs of from our RIRs....

 

[lazy gardener]

I spend much more on feed than we make selling the eggs. The going rate around here is $2.50 for farm fresh, free range eggs. Regular store bought white eggs go on sale quite frequently for $1.00, so I really can't raise the rate and keep my customers. My chickens eat 2 bags of layer pellets each week. Plus there is the cost of straw, scratch (which I only buy about 1 bag every other month), medications, etc. Maybe someday, there will be a better balance of finances and raising chickens, but at this point at our little farm, the chickens are very much costing us more than we make.

Outpost, how many birds do you have? I sound like a broken record, but if you want to cut your feed costs, you might try fermented feed. It's not at all difficult. All you need is a bucket. All of the tools you use for FF need to be non metal. The benefits are: The probiotics in the FF give the birds a healthier gut, so they are better able to absorb the nutrients in the feed, and the fermentation process also makes the nutrients in the feed more "bioavailable". I have 16 birds, and they go through 50# of FF in 3 weeks. I also sprout grains and BOSS for my flock. That also extends your feed dollar, while giving them superb nutrition.

 

[duluthralphie]

Outpost, how many birds do you have? I sound like a broken record, but if you want to cut your feed costs, you might try fermented feed. It's not at all difficult. All you need is a bucket. All of the tools you use for FF need to be non metal. The benefits are: The probiotics in the FF give the birds a healthier gut, so they are better able to absorb the nutrients in the feed, and the fermentation process also makes the nutrients in the feed more "bioavailable". I have 16 birds, and they go through 50# of FF in 3 weeks. I also sprout grains and BOSS for my flock. That also extends your feed dollar, while giving them superb nutrition.

I would like to try FF, BUT I know myself, I am too lazy and lack the follow through needed to feed it regularly.....sigh

 

[lazy gardener]

It's no more involved than dumping some feed and water in a bucket. But, of course, just dumping dry pellets in a gravity feed feeder is as easy as it gets. Either way, enjoy your flock.

 

[dekel18042]

I wish someone would write a recipe "Fermenting Feed for Dummies." (That would be me..) I would love to ferment feed. Perhaps I was trying it on too small a scale. I have 16 birds total. I put water over feed. Nothing seemed to happen. Then I tried adding yogurt and another time vinegar and both batches went moldy and were thrown out.
When it gets really cold out I cook cream of wheat or oatmeal for my chickens (sigh!)

 

[OneMountainAcres]

I would like to try FF, BUT I know myself, I am too lazy and lack the follow through needed to feed it regularly.....sigh

trust me, I'm about as lazy as it gets lol. I have a 5 gallon bucket on my counter for the winter. In the summer it sits in the garage. I just take one of those 1 gallon ice cream buckets and fill it with dry feed every day on my way back in from taking the food dishes out to the flock. I dump that into the 5 gallon bucket and use the sprayer from the sink to fill the bucket back up with water. Give it a stir and that's it until tomorrow. I use a cheap plastic ladle that I bought at Walmart and drilled holes in to scoop it out of the bucket.

 

[duluthralphie]

trust me, I'm about as lazy as it gets lol. I have a 5 gallon bucket on my counter for the winter. In the summer it sits in the garage. I just take one of those 1 gallon ice cream buckets and fill it with dry feed every day on my way back in from taking the food dishes out to the flock. I dump that into the 5 gallon bucket and use the sprayer from the sink to fill the bucket back up with water. Give it a stir and that's it until tomorrow. I use a cheap plastic ladle that I bought at Walmart and drilled holes in to scoop it out of the bucket.

I am just trying to picture the bruises and how badly I would bleed if I keep a 5 gallon bucket of anything , let alone rotting food in our kitchen...

 

[lazy gardener]

I hear you there. My hubby is none too pleased with my FF and sprouts, and other chicken related things in the kitchen. And, in the spring, that's where I have to set up the incubator b/c that's where the most stable temp is!