- Apr 22, 2013
- 3
- 0
- 7
Hello. My name is Shane and I just joined this group.
I live on saltspring Island BC canada.
I have wanted chickens for awhile, my primary reasons were-
1) We have a three year old child, and my brother next door has a 2 and 4 year old, I beleive in having childern grow up known and understanding and experiencing where food comes from. For the same reason we have a good sized garden.
2) I am distrustfull of both the global econonmey and dependence on centralized food distribution. I am NOT a survialist, and 95% of the families food is still store bought, but I want to have the knowledge to raise my own food and slowly increase the amount food the family consumes grown on my own property.
I found out the local poultry society was having a work bee to build small mobile coops. The modivation was to help people that want backyard chickens to get a start, and some of the memebers wanted a small mobile coop for broody hens, or to isolate small populations of there birds for different reasons.
I like being part of community projects, and have some carpentry skills, so I voluntered to help with the work bee and get a coop for myself in the process.
I had no ideal what type of bird I wanted! I was going to buy some hatchery layers to get egg production going right away and figured that was a good start for "practice" and then in a few years when they were dried up, figure out what breed I wanted.
However a contractor friend of mine that I had no ideal raised chickens was breeding Black/copper Marans and felt they were a good breed for the wet coast climate and had a gentle nature for being arround childern. I went to check out his opperation and found I liked the look of the birds a lot, the eggs also were very attractive, and sure enough, my child could walk arround them and none of them got very stired up or excited. I kept a close eye on the rooster, but even he was very calm and seamed rather unconcerned with my excited childs presence. This was a good sign for me.
I had the coop at home already, and much to the delight of my son, I took 6 young hens (about the size of paint quart cans, with there adult feathers just in) right there. He also gave me three young roosters suggesting when they start fighting I pick the one I like most to keep and roast the other two!
I have had them a week and I am shocked ho fast they are growing on the organic growth feed I was given to start them on. (I was told when that bag was empty its the right time to switch to lower protein mix)
They are in a mobile coop that I can move to give them fresh grass underneither every day. Right now I am keeping them in the coop till they are comfortable with me, the childern and there new home, but I intend on semi-free ranging them in my 50X 100 fenced gardena area, and just protecting the garden boxes I do not want them in.
I am not a "breed purist" and have no intention of "raising marans" aside from my own uses of meat and eggs. However from all the reading I have done on the breed, these appear to have all the charactistics of a "real" maran, with the lightly feathered feet and eye and skin color and all that. Although this is kind of cool, I could really care less as I just want a resonably healthy breed for meat and eggs.
At this point I will just be happy when they start laying eggs and I can eat the two surplus roosters, but I am already thinking of plans for my property for expanding. I would like to get to the point where I am breeding my own replacements and suppling 100% of my families chicken meat needs from my own production.
I live on saltspring Island BC canada.
I have wanted chickens for awhile, my primary reasons were-
1) We have a three year old child, and my brother next door has a 2 and 4 year old, I beleive in having childern grow up known and understanding and experiencing where food comes from. For the same reason we have a good sized garden.
2) I am distrustfull of both the global econonmey and dependence on centralized food distribution. I am NOT a survialist, and 95% of the families food is still store bought, but I want to have the knowledge to raise my own food and slowly increase the amount food the family consumes grown on my own property.
I found out the local poultry society was having a work bee to build small mobile coops. The modivation was to help people that want backyard chickens to get a start, and some of the memebers wanted a small mobile coop for broody hens, or to isolate small populations of there birds for different reasons.
I like being part of community projects, and have some carpentry skills, so I voluntered to help with the work bee and get a coop for myself in the process.
I had no ideal what type of bird I wanted! I was going to buy some hatchery layers to get egg production going right away and figured that was a good start for "practice" and then in a few years when they were dried up, figure out what breed I wanted.
However a contractor friend of mine that I had no ideal raised chickens was breeding Black/copper Marans and felt they were a good breed for the wet coast climate and had a gentle nature for being arround childern. I went to check out his opperation and found I liked the look of the birds a lot, the eggs also were very attractive, and sure enough, my child could walk arround them and none of them got very stired up or excited. I kept a close eye on the rooster, but even he was very calm and seamed rather unconcerned with my excited childs presence. This was a good sign for me.
I had the coop at home already, and much to the delight of my son, I took 6 young hens (about the size of paint quart cans, with there adult feathers just in) right there. He also gave me three young roosters suggesting when they start fighting I pick the one I like most to keep and roast the other two!
I have had them a week and I am shocked ho fast they are growing on the organic growth feed I was given to start them on. (I was told when that bag was empty its the right time to switch to lower protein mix)
They are in a mobile coop that I can move to give them fresh grass underneither every day. Right now I am keeping them in the coop till they are comfortable with me, the childern and there new home, but I intend on semi-free ranging them in my 50X 100 fenced gardena area, and just protecting the garden boxes I do not want them in.
I am not a "breed purist" and have no intention of "raising marans" aside from my own uses of meat and eggs. However from all the reading I have done on the breed, these appear to have all the charactistics of a "real" maran, with the lightly feathered feet and eye and skin color and all that. Although this is kind of cool, I could really care less as I just want a resonably healthy breed for meat and eggs.
At this point I will just be happy when they start laying eggs and I can eat the two surplus roosters, but I am already thinking of plans for my property for expanding. I would like to get to the point where I am breeding my own replacements and suppling 100% of my families chicken meat needs from my own production.
