The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

I was off since early yesterday afternoon so I’m just getting caught up. Wanted to comment on a couple of post s from yesterday…. sorry it’s “old news”! Here goes:


Quote:
I remember Bee saying that she would teach her roosters respect by making them wait for the ladies to eat first. She accomplished that by taking some kind of stick out with her and pushing him out of the way until the ladies got their fill. Eventually they learned so that she only needed to point at them and give them “the evil eye” and they’d stay back at a distance and wait for the ladies. If I understand correctly, they eventually just let the ladies eat first on their own after a little “training”.


Quote:

Yep...that about sums it up.

And Aoxa – I do LOVE those photos!

Had a lot of other things I'd have liked to respond to but, hey, you snooze, you lose. Enjoying catching up!

 

[Leahs Mom]

My husband wanted everyone to know he won the battle

He took a bamboo pole & knocked them out of the tree as they were trying to roost 4 of the 5 moved to another tree. Tonight the 1 that he couldn't get last night started for the usual place but he ran her off & she went down with the other 4

Hopefully it's going to last

Yay for Hubby! Hope that does the trick!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Tom is my favorite, reminds me of a Muscovy drake in a weird sorta way.

and yep My goose Missy must be cutting teeth she chews on everything.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Sorry about the math before
It is important to become self sustaining with the natural approach
To do it you need numbers and be realistic.
This hobby can get way out of control with out planning
Chickens are so much fun
I am sure most of you have spoken to people who have a 5 foot square box stuffed with birds and they are buying more and hatching more...

Balance

I so agree, we practice birth control here with all our flock.

 

[aoxa]

The eggs in the store for $1.50 are the caged mass produced forced eggs. Your local farm fresh cage free eggs are more than that, the free range organic were almost $5.00 last I looked sometime during the summer. I sell mine for $3.00 like stonykill and I have to turn people away because they sell so fast. It took a while .... the first year customers were sporadic, but once word got out that was it! People are all about their fresh eggs ......

Eggs in the grocery store here are over $3 a dozen.

My eggs are $4
My parents pay me $5
Free ranged is almost never really free ranged.

I had an article on the front page of the paper and have people WAITING for eggs from us. Next time your hen lays a massive double yolker, call up the news paper They will do an article about it.
Reason we did it was we read another one in the paper about a large egg - and our eggs have been bigger. Got us a lot of attention and a good customer base. I wasn't there to do the interview, my very gay friend Dylan (who lived with us at the time) was there. Everything is all exaggerated. He's very flamboyant.

Excuse the reporters spelling. Bard.. and Marg... Plus Dylan used a duck egg to compare Dott's egg to, so the picture is confusing.

My Penny has laid bigger.

 

[aoxa]

I was off since early yesterday afternoon so I’m just getting caught up. Wanted to comment on a couple of post s from yesterday…. sorry it’s “old news”! Here goes:



I remember Bee saying that she would teach her roosters respect by making them wait for the ladies to eat first. She accomplished that by taking some kind of stick out with her and pushing him out of the way until the ladies got their fill. Eventually they learned so that she only needed to point at them and give them “the evil eye” and they’d stay back at a distance and wait for the ladies. If I understand correctly, they eventually just let the ladies eat first on their own after a little “training”.

Yep...that about sums it up.

And Aoxa – I do LOVE those photos!

Had a lot of other things I'd have liked to respond to but, hey, you snooze, you lose. Enjoying catching up!

Boys usually grow out of the greedy stage without intervention. My boys who are 8 months old are now waiting for the chicks to eat before them. The girls all peck the chicks away (who aren't chicks persay.. they are 11 weeks old.)

Jagger will not eat any treats I throw out at all. He gives every single tidbit away. I've seen other roosters call for a minute, and if no one comes, they eat it. Not Jagger. He will call until someone comes. They always do. Jagger's a hot commodity.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I had an article on the front page of the paper and have people WAITING for eggs from us. Next time your hen lays a massive double yolker, call up the news paper They will do an article about it.
Reason we did it was we read another one in the paper about a large egg - and our eggs have been bigger. Got us a lot of attention and a good customer base. I wasn't there to do the interview, my very gay friend Dylan (who lived with us at the time) was there. Everything is all exaggerated. He's very flamboyant.

Excuse the reporters spelling. Bard.. and Marg... Plus Dylan used a duck egg to compare Dott's egg to, so the picture is confusing.

My Penny has laid bigger.

Wow...good idea. Never would have thought to call the newspaper!

And...right now just through my husband's work, I have a waiting list for folks that want eggs. I think I could sell many more than I'll ever produce.

 

[aoxa]

Wow...good idea. Never would have thought to call the newspaper!

And...right now just through my husband's work, I have a waiting list for folks that want eggs. I think I could sell many more than I'll ever produce.

 

[aoxa]

Delisha,

thanks for the tips on recall with Clem. I'll give it a try

 

[stonykill]

I'm not sure how many chickens the math was based on. I have not counted my chickens in a long time. Yet I know if someone is missing. So I guess I don't need to count.

But.... the number is around 75 chickens and 11 ducks. I spend $28 a week on feed. Many are pullets just coming into lay. Even still on these short dark days I can collect a minimum of 7 dozen eggs to sell. We keep 18 pullet eggs to eat and I keep my parents in at least 1 dozen pullet eggs a week. This week I had so many pullet eggs I gave my parents 2 dozen.I get $3 for chicken eggs and $4 a dozen for duck eggs.So even in the dog days of winter I'm only a few dollars behind a week. I more than make up for it either in the longer days when egg production is way up or by selling a few chicks. At the end of the year I at least break even on my birds. Good enough for me. Free enjoyment.

The eggs in the store for $1.50 are the caged mass produced forced eggs. Your local farm fresh cage free eggs are more than that, the free range organic were almost $5.00 last I looked sometime during the summer. I sell mine for $3.00 like stonykill and I have to turn people away because they sell so fast. It took a while .... the first year customers were sporadic, but once word got out that was it! People are all about their fresh eggs ......

I should also add I never have to buy shavings. I make my living as a woodworker. Always planer shavings to clean up and put in a pen.

One of the places I sell eggs resells them in NYC. He pays me $3 a dozen. That is what he pays wholesale for fresh eggs. Then brings them down to his market and resells them for a large profit. Many times when a customer comes here to pick up furniture they will buy eggs and all of them tell me $3 a dozen isn't enough. But they are usually from NYC. $3 is the limit here. In NYC I bet they pay $6 to $7 a dozen for real farm fresh eggs.