Hello.... and what am I thinking?

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creekrocket

creekrocket

Songster
8 Years
May 9, 2011
182
8
103
Savannah, Ga
Hey ya'll...Im the last person that you would imagine wanting to raise chickens.
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Im an avid hunter, mostly turkeys, and also enjoy animals. I have a five year old son that Im constantly thinking of what he and I, and his mom, can get into and learn. I want to give him something fun to learn and do while Im doing it to. He's still a little young to get out and go hunting with me, so I figured raising some chickens would be fun for us both.....my wife kinda rolled her eyes when I told her that. I definitly have no clue at this, but have been reading a lot on ya'lls forum, and I really find this stuff interesting and want to get into it. I have no intentions of raising any award winners or record breaking layers. All I would like, is to have about five chickens at one given time. I would like to have them for their eggs(occasional) and their meat. Hope I didnt offend anyone by the meat comment.
Thanks in advance for any and all the help that is given.
Doug Lewis
 
hi and welcome
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Chickens are exceptionally easy to care for, and as long as you do look after them they certainly look after you.

I have found a nice shed converted into a nesting area for mine, lots of fresh hay and sawdust, clean water daily, good food and lots of corn makes happy chickens. they do prefer to be able to roam over grass, but if like me you have to cage them off due to having kids playing in poop a GOOD sized coop is always good and works well.

mine have plenty of room to scratch, eat drink, dust bath and even jump for bugs and they are plenty happy. Out of 12 chickens I get roughly 6-8 fresh eggs a day (minus broody hens and youngsters) so I have happy neighbours and family!

With regards to keeping five that works well in my experience, but if you wanted them for meat too, you would need a rooster in that pack, and four layers will take a long time to get babies hatched and grown for that to be worthwhile, so would the meat option be better left and have five hens for fresh eggs?

the reason I say this is because your hens may not get broody so you may need to incubate the fertile eggs which is a very precise matter to be followed or it doesnt work.

Or if you did want the meat route you could have a larger flock.

Please bear in mind I am only making suggestios and I am not trying to tell you that youre opinions are wrong, just something to think about to try and help
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Good Luck
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Thanks Haych, Im in residential neighborhood, so the rooster thing is defintily out. As far as the meat thing goes....I was just thinking about butchering one every now and then and replacing her with another. Until then, I was planning on just taking the eggs for us. Hope Im not living in a pipe dream....?
 
Welcome to BYC, glad you decided to join us. Good luck with your birds. Chickens are good family fun and it's always good for kids to know where food (really) comes from. Plus they are just so darn entertaining.
 
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I also live in a residential area. I have hens for eggs, and I also have 6 cornish x for meat. They won't be around that long, and babies of egg breeds take so long to get big enough to process it's a lot easier to get a few just for meat.
 

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