10 things I have learned about chickens
1. chickens do not all start laying eggs at 20 weeks.
2. Many chickens don’t lay until they are 8 or 9 months.
3. You must feed free range chickens in order to get eggs.
4. You must feed chickens at least 1/2 of their daily calories from egg layer feed to get feed.
5. chickens eat 4 oz. of food per day.
6. It takes a long time for a heritage bird to reach butcher weight.
7. a 5 lb. bird will not give you 5 lbs of meat. After 5 months, it will get slightly larger than a store bought cornish game bird.
8. meat has to age in the fridge to become tender.
9. it is harder to eat home butchered meat (mentally) than store bought.
10. Homegrown and butchered meat tastes much better than store bought chicken.
We must all have chickens on the mind today as back forty posted this questionnaire this morning as well.
1. Do you have a particular favorite breed of chicken, and if so what is it and why do you prefer it? Or if more than one, which ones, etc? araucana hens, barred rock cocks, blue cochins.
2. Do you use your chickens for your family, to sell, or both? Meat, or eggs, or both? family for meat, eggs to sell and for family
3. What advice would you give to anyone wanting to start out raising them, other than reading some good books on the subject? read a lot, start small, don’t spend a lot of money.
4. Do you primarily keep your chickens in a coop/enclosed chicken yard, or do they roam your property? free range closed in the coop at night
5. Do you ever let them into your garden? If no, do you have a fence or something to keep them out? we do not have a way to fence them out. We have not had a problem with them in the garden except for an occasional pecked potato, and some apples (that are in the pasture not the garden area)
6. Do you ever use a chicken tractor, and if so, is it for meat birds only? do you use electric/ net poultry fencing? I’m interested in which has worked for you and which has not. What has been your experience with pastured poultry ‘a la the Joel Salatin sort (follow behind the livestock grazings at the optimum time), if that applies? no. We may use one next year for meat birds.
7. Do you keep chickens year-round, or raise them for seasonal processing? hens year round, meat ( cocks) only in the warmer months.
8. How many chickens of a certain type do you raise at one time (what works best for you as far as how many to raise at a time?) We aim for 75, currently we have around 45 (we just finished butchering for the year), our coop can hold around 200 when the are free ranging, 100 in the winter.
girl……my dadgum welsummers didn’t lay the first egg until they were 8 months old! i think that 20 week stuff only references the productions hybrids…..but you can bet i was checking nest boxes from 20 weeks on! LOL
Question: Do chickens really run around with their heads cut off?
Thanks, Robin, for your great post and answers to my questions
They looove pumpkin!! it’s great to smash a pumpkin up for them in the winter so they can peck out all the good stuff–your eggs will be really golden like the summer pasture ones too! I keep a pumpkin/squash pile in the basement-the nicest ones we eat-we use the others as supplement to our cracked corn since we don’t like to buy commercial feed. That 20 week number gets us all–I think it’s a running hatchery joke that they have a chuckle over coffee about every year!
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PermaKent Permaculture Ideas of J. Kent Hastings » Blog Archive » A Dozen Tips For Raising Chickens said this on November 13, 2008 at 12:58 am
20 weeks seems to get us all! Mrs, F we don’t cull ours when they are free, they are restrained in a killing cone when they are bled out. Dandelionmom, we do supplement our birds with tons of food, all the non-meat kitchen scraps go to the birds, as well as any past it’s prime produce. The pumpkins though they have to share with the cows!
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Good Post About Raising Chickens | Fowl Visions said this on November 14, 2008 at 8:30 am
I agree that some birds don’t lay until over the 5 – 6 months. I think people feel a chicken is a chicken but the breeds vary and mature differently. Some are never good for meat, they are too skinny and bony.
Free rangers don’t need to be fed to lay eggs if the forage is decent. You will also see that different breeds of fowl have different nutritional requirements as well, but typically they will find all they need to lay well without feeding them, except in the winter months. If you want to assist them in producing eggs, provide oyster shell for them. Good luck!