The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[loveourbirds]

Quote: my wife and i have been doing this for the last 3 years. we started with 6 and are now at about 600. it is very rewarding, but if your market is like ours; expect to spend $40,000 - $50,000 to keep up with orders for the first 2 years. with our current figures things might balance out in 5 years. we work as a breeder farm and not a hatchery, most hatcheries contract eggs from other growers/breeders. thats why you get some not so great chickens. we select specific trio's from several for our breeding, always working for better quality, better egg production, faster growth or other traits depending on breed.

if your really interested, and are thinking along the lines of what i just said; send me a PM and i'll walk you through some of my expenses up to date. there are ways you can cut some of my costs - if your willing to do the work.

edited to fix redneck lingo

 

[camilleathome]

Camille, who is going to drive the truck?

Mom to start and me to practice once I re-aquire my beginners. Eventually itll be ours fully XD

 

[aoxa]

Mom to start and me to practice once I re-aquire my beginners. Eventually itll be ours fully XD

Than you can drive to visit me!!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
Okay. Mine doesn't have the strip over them. Maybe I should add?

 

[Sally8]

I went out and snapped a few pic's after the rain. The temp is still down but the humidity came back and so will the heat tomorrow

These 3 are the result of driving to A &J Poultry looking for Buff Orpington's



The 4 turkeys found something worth looking at. All sorts of edibles popped up out of the dirt after it rained


These 2 are Edie's sisters. I think that's what I'll call them. I rarely name any of the hens


One of the Super Blue Egg Layers (EE's) has much darker legs and is much larger in size. They both lay nearly white eggs. So much for "Super Blue"

These are my Columbian Wyandottes. "The Wyandotte sisters, Wynonna and Naomi" I bought them when I had 1 egg hatch and needed "friends". The 2 BCM roo's are George and a roo with a messed up comb. Never saw a roo with such a funny comb and they are brothers.


This is dear old dad to all my babies. His comb is full of ff (What didn't get frost bitten last winter) He's a good protector and very calm in temperament. He's also quite large compared to anything else I have.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Thank you for posting. I actually think your coop is quite nice looking. I really wanted to see how you were doing your hardware cloth too. Do you have the stapled parts covered w/ wood strips or are they just stapled and left uncovered?

Quote: I want to see this! What did they use to scent it to draw the bugs in?

 

[mlowen]

Thank you for posting.  I actually think your coop is quite nice looking.  I really wanted to see how you were doing your hardware cloth too.  Do you have the stapled parts covered w/ wood strips or are they just stapled and left uncovered?

I want to see this!  What did they use to scent it to draw the bugs in?

On the old thread I read, they used a store-bought Japanese beetle trap with the bag cut and emptying into a pipe. One person said they slid down & just flew away and someone else suggested the shallow pan with water. Then someone else said they used a metal pipe (like downspout, I think) so the chickens could hear them scrabbling as they fell. A different site had an "organic" recipe to attract them into a jug of water to drown. If I can find it again I'll post the link. I'm thinking of trying some kind of hybrid contraption, with natural lure into pipe to chickens. We'll see.:/

 

[armorfirelady]

I went out and snapped a few pic's after the rain. The temp is still down but the humidity came back and so will the heat tomorrow

These 2 are Edie's sisters. I think that's what I'll call them. I rarely name any of the hens This is dear old dad to all my babies. His comb is full of ff (What didn't get frost bitten last winter) He's a good protector and very calm in temperament. He's also quite large compared to anything else I have.

We didn't get any rain but the humidity is less. I was laughing to myself when I caught myself thinking thank goodness it finally cooled off then looked at the temp-85. Amazing that feels cool after the past week of 90s Edie's sisters are def whiter than her. They could be triplets tho they look so much alike. I miss George. I have a hunch he will get as big as Wrinkles tho. He is so big now for 13 weeks. His father is stunning tho. I don't normally name mine either. The big girls are called by their zip tie color to tell them apart. But my friend Nick who came with me to get the tots wanted real names for them. And I do believe Edie knows her name. Probably cuz I am always telling her to be nice to Lucy. When I say her name she looks and me & tilts her head & looks like she is saying "what ? I didn't do it ".

 

[SallyinIndiana]

A touch late on the gluten thing, but I find it odd that people with the extreme allergy, the ones who have to worry about flour dust being anywhere near their food,would want to eat at places that have flour of any kind in the kitchen. I also find it strange that the people who are the trendy followers can't or won't take the time to know what is gluten free.
That said I find it strange if I want to order a salad and the waiter does not know what is in it or a sandwich and the toppings aren't known.

OK, I need people to give me a slap around the earhole.

I have this dream of starting a chicken business; selling chickens, hatching eggs, chicken necessities like coops, feeders and waterers, feed, bedding etc via an internet business as well as drop in and collect.

Due to past mistakes regarding finances, I am really scared to commit myself but lately I think I am getting more and more signs that what I want to do is the right thing.

I wanted to sell eggs to pay for my girls feed and bedding and now I have more orders for eggs than I can fulfil.

I had somebody stop at my house tonight asking if I had any 1 day old chicks to sell as her broody only hatched 1 chick and she promised her kids that they could have chicks to raise. She is returning on Monday to buy 4 chicks (pullets) to give her chick some friends and also to increase her laying flock that are getting to the end of their laying life.

One of my colleagues at work asked when my chicks would be ready as POL pullets as her sister is looking for chickens.

My job is looking more insecure each day so I know that I need to be prepared in case the worst happens and my position is made redundant.

When I wanted to purchase some POL pullets, there was only 1 person within a 10 mile radius of my home that had stock. So I am thinking there is a space in the market for somebody like me who can offer what I plan to offer.

All these signs tell me that I should just go for it and set up my business but I am so nervous that I am holding back.

Am I just seeing things or do I need a good slap to get on with it.?

My advice, and I'm not a professional breeder. start very small with one breed, make sure you have the basics down about breeding and following the SOP. Then gradually add more and different breeds. Don't quit your day job or invest a huge amount of money until you know that you will be able to maintain breeder quality on lots of breeds. Send the poster in OH that PM asking for advice.

 

[wlhtx]

Best wishes all, too busy lately. Too much stuff on this thread which seems to not pertain to the subject matter, it's a bit of a friends hangout group; while there's nothing wrong with that, just makes it a bit too time consuming for me and some others to visit.

Thanks to Bulldogma for starting the thread, I'm sure it's helped many people.

Chooks4life, I ran across another thread where someone read a magazine article regarding the health benefits of feeding garlic to the chickens. They were looking for additional info and I pointed them in your direction since you have set forth the best info on the subject that I have read. I do not personally feed as much garlic as you since, at this time, it's just a little too much for me to do - BUT, I wanted you to know that I appreciate the very informative info you put out on this thread and others. Always seems well thought out and helpful - even if I do not personally follow it to a tee. Thanks.