I can't believe how many chickens you guys have

[the_eagle69]

Quote:
You sell that many eggs a week? To regualr customers? Just wondering.

Yea i do it has been crazy the past 6 months i pull about 20 to 25 eggs a day for hatching when the weather permits. the rest are sold had 34 dozen built up yesterday got 114 eggs today and have 3 and half left now.

 

[Elven Dreams]

WOW. That's a LOT of eggs!

I was planning to start with just four or five hens... I think I will end up with more! lol I KNOW when i see them in the feed store I'll go crazy. PLUS I already have a list of about five people who want to buy eggs! lol I don't even HAVE chickens yet!

So now to work on a brooder... chicks come in at the end of the month!

:yiipchick:yiipchick

 

[MoonbeamQueen]

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Well, husband now tells me netting is not going over the whole chicken side. He plans to make extensions to the chain link posts and just add netting or fencing to the extended part. I am not convinced this will work. We'll see, I guess.
The chickens will definitely get the veggies too so I've got to keep them out of my garden side. I suppose I could also clip one wing on everyone.

 

[selinagil]

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I have 8 hens and 1 Roo---I get enough eggs for our family of 3 and plenty to give away to people who need them. If you keep a roo you could also hatch your own if something happens to some or just some to butcher for meat, since you want to live sustainably. I agree though that 50 or 100 is alot of upkeep for someone--especially if you work. Happy chick raising!

 

[Nostalchic]

6 or 8 hens would be perfect, but there are laced ones and pencilled ones and partridge ones, buffs and blacks and spangled ones, silky and fluffy, docile and flighty, brown egg layer and blue egg layers - and then there is the (in)convenient necessity of ordering AT LEAST 25 from some hatcheries, as you explain to your sig other, so what's a girl (or guy) to do?
And if you like animals at ALL, chickens are so much fun to watch, very busy little bodies, interesting group dynamics, enthusiastic fans of you and all the cool stuff you bring them to try out...
And THEN there are the eggs...

 

[PamsPride]

What do you do with all the eggs??
Why, incubate them of course so they multiply!! Then they will grow up and give you more eggs to incubate!!!
I have decided that hatching eggs is as eggciting as doing crack...only cheaper!! And you don't get in trouble for getting your friends addicted!!

 

[cockadoodle]

When I first saw this thread I immediately thought of my father. He grew up on a family farm in Holland back in the late 40's. 50,000 hens. Talk about a lot of eggs

I have 4.

I don't know how they did it honestly, but it does explain why he absolutely cannot stand chickens anymore.

~Mark

 

[sweet_peeps]

Quote:
Very, very true.
I want to get gold laced wyandottes, barnevelders or welsummers, speckled sussex and a few others.

But since i'm the only one that takes care of the animals, I have to pace myself.

It gives me something to look forward to in the future!

 

[KinderKorner]

Alright since everyone seems interested, I would like to post some things that I have found very helpful in the fencing smarts.

My farm has goats, cats, dogs, horses, and chickens. I have 7 different types of fences! And overall I have found ONE that I believe does the job for everyone!

Chainlink is pretty good. Except the fact that it is easily dug under, bent out enough to crawl under, and can be stretched and jumped over. My goats get out daily with 6' high chainlink, with crowbars drove into the ground around the botton every 4' to keep them from digging under. My chickens also fly right over, and some how my cats mange to squeeze in. So chainlink just doesn't work well for me.

Right now I am in the process of bulding a large 6 run/ 6 coop chicken housing. It has 2"x4" squared fencing called 'non-climb' 6' high around the entire thing. It is strong enough to keep dogs out, and it can not be stretched and pushed out like chainlink. You can bury it a few inches undergroud to keep from diggin under, or like me you can put concrete blocks around the botton. I then have poultry netting across the top to keep my chicks in, and racoons out. You can buy it at buchheits, really cheap. it looks like chicken wire only bigger diamonds.

Between the runs I have simple 6' chicken wire. All of this works out great! But as 6' high fence can get expensive. For our pastures and gardens we have contrived another plan.

I have 4' tall, 2x4" square fencing again. With an electric rope or ribbon across the top. It keeps stuff from crawling or flying other. My horses don't lean on it. Goats can't push it out and crawl under, or jump over. After trying all different kinds of fencing, this is the absolute best! It works greats for larger areas where you don't want to spend a ton of money with 6' fences. And it keeps everyone of my animals on their proper sides of the fence.

Once my chicken coop is complete. I would like to post pictures, and design, to help with others ideas.

 

[rw1647]

Wow, I'm almost glad we have a limit of six hens, since we're in the city. We are real animal addicts in this house! We just got a shipping date for our first chicks from MPC and are getting 5; 1 Black Australorp, 1 Buff Orp, 1 delaware, and 2 EEs. Once they start laying well, about how many eggs would be reasonable to expect per week? Neither of us are big egg eaters, maybe a couple each per week at most, but we raw feed our dogs and currently feed them 1/2 dozen a week or so. The chickens are primarily to be pets, but obviously "functional" ones, so we picked breeds that are supposedly decent layers, so I'm curious.