ImTheCaptain
I disagree with you
i'm with racer; chickens are awesome. awesome eggs, fresh meat and they're good for your yard
Who knew Racer was a prepper?
Geez, guy. It was a joke. You are taking this chicken deal very seriously.
I'm wrapping up plans for building my coop right now and thought I would start a thread to gather wisdom, ask questions, share progress, etc.
Initial plans are to build a 10x6 covered pen with a raised coop inside. Planning to make it tall enough to walk into so that cleaning/feeding/etc require less bending over. Going to use the deep litter method to limit cleaning and spread the composted litter on my garden every spring. Between that and a new worm composting setup I'm about to build, I shouldn't need to buy any soil amendments for the garden going forward.
The coop will support 8 birds, but I'm probably going to start with 4 at first and go from there. Planning to buy some Black Australorps from my buddy who raises heritage poultry for meat (Buckeyes) and eggs (Australorps). His flock are proven layers and the larger size and dark color will hopefully serve as a deterrent to the hawks in the area. If I decide I want more birds, I will probably grab some New Hampshire Reds because my grandfather raised them.
Anyone else have yard birds?
who takes care of your hens when you go out of town? Its hard enough for me to find folks to tend to my cats and dogs
LOL. Not really a prepper. Homesteader might be a better word. I grew up in a farming family/area, so it's part of what I am. I'm sure there's some nostalgia involved, but ultimately, I'm just not impressed with the way animals are treated or the chemicals they are treated with in our food system. Doing what I can where I can to steer clear of it.
My advice is get more birds than you think you need. Predators, disease, molting and seasons take their toll. If you have room for 8, get 8.
Don't count your chickens before they hatch.
I have access to plenty of birds if I need a replacement. I'd rather start with a few while I get things figured out.
I was certain that five chickens would have been enough for two people in our house. I was wrong (thanks, hawks/Obama). I now have close to 20, (it is a lot easier to share with my neighbors than it is to have a backyard coop and have to drive to the store to get eggs).
Don't have chickens but have friends that do, and their experience has been the opposite, ie overestimating consumption resulting in eggs piling up. Good layers will produce about an egg a day during their prime. These friends usually show up at our place with a couple dozen eggs which is why I don't have chickens of my own.
A good hen will lay one egg per day during her prime during the season. Most of them stomp about Thanksgiving and don't start again (at that pace) until Easter (thus the term, "Easter Egg Hunt"). So...in our case, we had five birds, one has gotten sick, and three were hit by predators (despite being cooped and placed in a run; had a hawk get into the run by placing its weight on the wire until if flexed at an unsealed seam. Came out the next day to find the hawk IN the run, and black Australorp feathers everywhere. Incidentally, that hawk was flexing Mother Nature's "Come at me, bro" look.
So...five birds quickly became one bird, who lays at a rate of about 5 a week, 30 weeks out of the year. 5 a week ain't cutting it for our family, so this year I ordered about 20 birds.
Your friends may have 30 birds, but I can assure you they're not piling up eggs on the eight birds I recommend. Of the eight birds, say he keeps seven, and of those, you get five eggs a day. Two for breakfast, per person, and one hard-boiled egg for lunch/over a dinner salad, and you're red-lining during peak season.
I was certain that five chickens would have been enough for two people in our house. I was wrong (thanks, hawks/Obama). I now have close to 20, (it is a lot easier to share with my neighbors than it is to have a backyard coop and have to drive to the store to get eggs).
How much land do you need for 20 birds? I took a class on raising chickens at the Organic Growers Conference in Asheville back in March. One of the things they stressed the most is to have enough land so you can rotate the birds when they have picked clean that part of your land.