Newbie With A headache, Please pass the Tylenol..../introduction

[d.k]

*Welcome, Fred/Denali! Welcome to the funny farm! Got my own query. DO you write for a living?? Cuz if not, what a shame! I'm thinking a nice column maybe a la Dave Barry??

 

[pattycake]

Hi Fred. Welcome!

I have a family of four, too, and we now eat a LOT of eggs. Let me tell you, we love them so much, plus we're healthier, I swear. There are a lot of vitamins and protein in eggs, and my doctor just told me that there really isn't a cholesterol problem with eggs, that was all a myth. Yay! I eat about two a day.

We have 13 hens and a rooster. You can see my breeds below -- all brown eggs. I chose them as good winter layers because our winters are long here. We now get between 9 and 12 eggs a day and have enough to give away, plus we put out an egg stand once every week or two.

The best and most consistent layers are the Rhode Island Reds, the Jersey Giants, and the Delawares. Apparently leghorns give good white eggs, but I think plain white chickens look boring. Everyone likes our brown eggs, too.

I just ordered six more chicks for this spring, because I couldn't help myself, and I know we can sell all the eggs.

I was going to do meat chickens, too, but my kids talked me out of it. I would do it totally separate from the egg layers, because the egg layers are too much like pets.

This is what I'd do: Order 25 meat chickens in spring and keep them in a tractor or a movable pen so that they have access to clean grass every day. They grow fast and poop a lot and I think they'd make an awful lot of mess in a coop. You can look up "pastured poultry" and see what I mean. Then you have them butchered about 6-8 weeks later.

-- Oh, about coop size: you need four square feet per chicken in a henhouse and another ten square feet in a run. HOWEVER! I noticed that my chickens rarely use the full run space. Most of the year they free range, and in the winter they like to snuggle up in the henhouse. So I think it would be okay to skimp a little on the size of the run. I wouldn't skimp on the size of the henhouse, though.

 

[Churkenduse]

Fred, on a serious note:

when you open the door to the coop or nesting box and reach in and grab that first absolutely incredible warm moist egg your spirits are going to soar so hi you are not going to believe it.

I promise from the moment your hand touches that first wonderful little nugget you will be absolutely hooked and you will want more, and more, and more.

I am going to move so I can get more and more, and I am single.

GET THE PICTURE MY FRIEND.?

Friends, does that about sum it up???

 

[miss_thenorth]

Hello Fred! I just hafta say your post was te first one I read this morning, and it put a smile on my face! I couldn't respond right away-b/c I had to take my son to his first orthodontist appt. (OUCH! $$$$$)

Anwyays, I currently have brown egg layers--not sure of the type--they are either red/rocks or sexlinks not sure they were a product of a broken home and I didn't get alot of info--just the hens I have 6 and they provide enough for my family of 4 with a dh who eats alot of eggs. Then I aquired some OEGB mixes--5 hens and a roo. not alot of eggs from them but they are pretty.

my plan was to do meat birds too. this year I will probably order some cornish crosses, but next year I was planning on doing dual purposes birds. Someone on this board suggested barred rock hens with a RIR rooster, which (if my terminology is correct) produce sexlinks. The males will be evident immediately as they are a different colour than the females. Barred rock hens are good layers and they go broody so they will sit on eggs. the males can be housed separately and those are the ones you would butcher. That is my plan. I know alot of people on this board like the incubators, but I would rather let the hens doo all that work for me. JMO.

Enjoy the sight and the insanity!

 

[airmom1c05]

Amen to letting the hens do all the work. This link will tell you everything you need to know about that:

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Broody-Hens-2.html

P.S. Best to read all five parts; I just noticed I linked you to part 2, but you can get to all of them from any part.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Awesome sight Airmom, I have saved it to my favourites!

 

[MissPrissy]

Welcome, Fred. How's that headache doing now?

 

[JaciesCoop]

Welcome to the crazy, wonderful world of chickens!

Jacie

 

[JaciesCoop]

Quote:
I agree and did the same thing. That's the best explanation of broody that I've have seen.

Jacie

 

[Chickee's Mom]

Welcome Fred, your name caught my eye right away, do you live any where's close to Denali????
OMG what a beautiful part of the world that is.
Started out with 8 hens and a roo, can't even count how many I have now, it is an addiction.

Make the building just a weeeeee bit bigger, you will apreciate it later.