There is nothing I enjoy more than watching my chickens chase flying insects around the farm on beautiful, warm days. Now that it is winter, they really only have the opportunity to chase each other as well as an occasional squirrel. I enjoy my flock completely. I will always have chickens on the farm.
I chuckled at the calendar my mother gave me for Christmas. 12 months of darling chicken coops. Complete with exterior paint jobs of the rich and famous, curtains, play equipment and well thought out gardens. My girlies get treats from the garden but left to their own devices they would destroy it completely in the first ten minutes. Don't get me wrong, I love that city dwellers and suburbanites are taking back some power in the realm of homesteading. I guess that it is just upscale instead of down home.
I also can't completely understand the blog I ran across the other day which hosted recipes for chicken treats. The ingredient list included foods that were-well, human. Do chickens need treats? I mean homemade treats. Not the leftovers that mine receive every day. I mean treats made from "scratch"? I'm just not feeling it. Chickens eat their body's weight in ticks every day. They are awesome foragers and feasters on the bad bugs that destroy crops. If we start making them applesauce, butter and oatmeal treats, it might taint their perception of their job here on the farm. Bug control.
Egg laying is obviously their job as well. I get 20-27 eggs a day after the molting season is over. I'm so looking forward to those days again. Only a few more weeks now~ as the days get longer and longer.
Part 2 of this blog will focus on my experiences in setting up the farm for chickens. I wish my grandparents had written down their procedures of that very same thing back many decades ago. They raised thousands of chickens on this farm for egg production. They sold all over New England. I would deeply cherish just one little peek into that production. I have pictures of the building they erected for the purpose of taking care of the chickens. Fascinating.
I hope you will think of purchasing chicks this spring as either a first time venture or to expand your flock. They are some of the easiest animals to take care of!
Do you sell your eggs?
ReplyDeleteI've been toying with the idea, but John says I can't have outdoor animals since I have trouble taking care of the ones indoors!
Maybe when spring comes (or we get some as an Easter gift!) I can change his mind!
For now I get to enjoy the ones next door who have come up here to visit. They even come to greet me when I go to see Porkchop and Noname. Is there something I can give them too?
Please keep this thread going. You are a storehouse of knowledge!
I do sell my eggs, Sara.
ReplyDeleteMy girls get those things that get pushed to the back of the refrigerator. We waste very little food around here, but no one is 100%.
They love anything that isn't greasy, salty, rotten or potato peels. Anything that has a nasty/strong taste will make your eggs taste nasty. Just like a mother can pass along bad things through her milk to her child, everything you give your chickens should be what you would eat.
Some people cook up the eggs and feed them back to their chickens. I find this practice to be cannibalistic and will not do it. My girls get a full hopper of layer pellets to eat-every day- year round. In the summer, they don't touch the pellets. In the winter I can't keep it full. The "experts" say to feed laying hens layer mash as the pellets take too much of the chicken's body energy to break down the material, therefore they don't lay as much. I say horse pucky. Not here!
I can only share what I know and mostly, I am learning right along side you!
I was thinking of bread crumbs and crumbled up crackers that I have been saving for the birds. What about unsalted popcorn?
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ReplyDeleteAll of that is good stuff! I give them salted popcorn-against my own advice- but their favorite around here is fresh fruits and veggies!
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