- Thread starter
- #31
Hip Hillbilly Acres
Crowing
Now THIS is practical, useful, encouraging information. I can not thank you enough for taking time out of your busy day to respond and help. I realize time is valuable. I am thinking my goal of setting up in August is realistic allowing for enough time to read all that I need to. Even at this early point I am very interested in Dixie Rainbow breed (dual purpose), making the coop as you described above (hubby will handle that). The homestead does not have much grass so I will be looking into chick feed (I read unmedicated may be the way I want to go . . . more research needed). TSC has mixed chicks. If too many roos; yeppers they will be culled at the proper time.You can save money by building coops out of pallet wood, substituting cut-down buckets for waterers, using dried grass clippings for bedding and nesting materials, cut-down half milk crates as best boxes, etc. I have maybe $200 in my two coops, two chicken tractors and all the feeders and waterers.
Our chickens are healthy, thank God, and we've only had a small handful of losses to predators. We look at chicken keeping as a food source, not as pets. We cull excess roosters at 6-8 months and old, unproductive hens when they slow down laying between their second and third year.
We also raise turkeys for meat. That's where the feed bill gets expensive. Broad breasted turkeys are gluttons but they also free range very well; to put weight on quickly, heavy feeding in the morning and in the evening combined with free ranging all day is necessary. Turkeys eat a lot of grass and are top-tier predators on bugs, lizards and mice and mine are right at 25 lbs in 5 months.
Best luck!