Chickens - A Fowl Discussion

Discussion in 'Crops & Gardens' started by Faye Fox, Jul 18, 2022.

  1. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    With the absents of a rural living forum, I guess chickens would best come under crops since their poo makes good crop fertilizer if used correctly.

    Over the years I have had several breeds of chickens. Starting at about age 6, I went into the egg business. My folks financed my venture and I paid them back with eggs and money I made from selling eggs. I had a waiting list for new customers. I started selling for 25 cents a dozen and by my teen years was getting 50 cents a dozen for the general run eggs and 75 cents a dozen, for select eggs.

    I had my laying hens in a large chicken tight wired pen with a top to protect against predators with wings. I planted insects attracting plants around the pen so the hens didn't damage the plants, but did eat a lot of grasshoppers. They lived mostly on feed store-bought special blend crumbles with a side of mixed grain. Lots of oyster shells and water were always available.

    I gave up the egg-laying business using White Leghorns and several hybrids that layed maximum eggs over other breeds. I tried the dual meat/egg birds but feed was to expensive for the amount of eggs and butchering chicken was not my favorite thing and wasn't a money maker. I even tried the meat varieties and capons, but one year of that was enough. During my pre-teens and teens, I won a pile of blue ribbons from showing my chickens both egg, meat, and duals.

    All those years I had a flock of free-ranging game chickens that hatched their own chicks and sometimes I had them hatch and raise special select Leghorns, but found the incubator was easier and less loss. All in all my most profitable was buying just select pullet chicks and not having to deal with killing unprofitable rooster chicks.

    When I moved to the mountains, I had only Aracunana-colored egg layers that lived in a large fully chicken wire pen that had three parts. Two feet of the wire was buried to stop digging predators. One part, the largest, had special insect attracting plants for them to forage and could be closed off while plants grew, one part they kept bare where I threw homegrown triticale and crushed corn (scratching area), and one part was for hens with chicks.

    I had all the eggs I needed and had buyers for eggs to eat and eggs to hatch since I kept a rooster on duty. I got a premium price for those eggs back in the 70s and 80s and finally gave it all up when I moved to the outskirts of town.

    An 18 cartoon of local range-fed brown non-GMO, no antibiotic, organic eggs are so inexpensive around here that keeping chickens doesn't make sense. Besides an 18-pack lasts me a couple of weeks.
     
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    Last edited: Jul 18, 2022
  2. Bruce Andrew

    Bruce Andrew Very Well-Known Member
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    Fayemeister: My uncle had a big (at the time) egg/meat farm when I was a kid. He got out around 1963 as I recall. Another uncle who was a dairy farmer also had a few chickens for eggs. It was my aunt's job to tend to them.

    I've had chickens a couple of times during my adult life. They are interesting to watch. The last time, about 15 years ago "Crazy Lori" was living with me and she wanted chickens so we got a few. It was her responsibility to lock them up at dusk. She got drunk one night (quite often, actually) forgot about it, and after it got dark the only thing left of one chicken was a pile of feathers, lol.

    My uncle's egg/meat farm:

    Unck's Chicken farm.jpg
     
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  3. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    We had poultry of all kinds for years while we had kids at home, but weaned ourselves from it when I fell. We got back into it this spring with 10 hens--6 Barred Rock and 4 Sex-Linked--to add to two left over hens from our previous life. The new hens should start laying next month I hope. We used to keep hens for a few years and when they stopped laying they got pressure-canned. I don't know if I am up for that any more...we'll see. Leghorns and other big-time layers don't survive here well and don't produce well if they do.
     
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  4. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    Both my grandmothers raised chickens. The one who lived near us in town had both white ones and brown ones. She would always give us both brown and white eggs. We never had to buy any until she quit raising them. My father swore the brown ones were better. I don't know...
     
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  5. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    I can't tell any difference in the taste of brown and white shell eggs. I think the difference is just the shell. I can tell a difference with the colored Aracunana eggs. They were stronger and darker yoked. The thing is brown eggs sell for more these days because supposedly they are more nutritioius. I think if both white and brown egg layers eat the same diet, there wouldn't be any different. Back in the 1960s, brown eggs sold for less.

    I know one great aunt had a few Rhode Island Reds that ran loose in the yard to lay brown eggs for her use and white leghorns in her vast henhouse for selling white eggs commercially. Her RIR's did better forging and were also great for chicken soup and the few she lost to predators were minimal since she had trained dogs for protecting livestock that also keep the hens safe. Her only losses were from owls.
     
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  6. Bruce Andrew

    Bruce Andrew Very Well-Known Member
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    I only had barnyard chickens, who knows what breeds were mixed in. I had some of those types that lay aqua-colored eggs, but I don't think they were purebred.

    Other than the placebo effect, I don't think shell color makes any difference. What does matter is if the chickens are free-range and eat bugs, seeds, etc. as nature intended, then the yolks are much darker and, I would guess, more nutritious.

    FWIW, I read somewhere that for its size, an egg has more nutrition in it (that humans need) than any other type of food.

    I had roosters, and I always wondered what I would get when I cracked an egg in the frying pan. But, nothing nefarious. :)


    chicken_and_egg.jpg
     
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  7. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    I do love how nice the coop is though, and the chickens arrived today from their house they moved from. Daughter was so happy to see them, her husband surprised her with the hens coming home. No more traveling to the other place to care for them or worry. I told her I have 5 hen pullets she can take back neck visit. They are 4 months will be laying soon.
     
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  8. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    My friend/handiman built me a chicken tractor and put plastic coated wire fencing all around and underneath it, double layered. I thought, Nothing is going to get in here! I found something had been digging under the food area. Turns out it was a squirrel, not a fox. But he didn't get in.:p
     
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  9. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    Wanna get me some barred rocks!
     
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  10. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    Uhmmmm barred rocks are a breed of chicken:rolleyes: The black and white striped ones in the picture.
     
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    Last edited: Feb 24, 2023
  11. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    My chickens are out of the tractor now. I will get some young stock later to put in it. Last nite as I drove away, I saw the biggest hawk I had ever seen fly across the front of the farm and park itself in a black walnut tree.:eek: I hope the rooster is outside after dinner before the hens. He is a big 'chicken' and will warn anyone of big birds.
     
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