Thursday, January 12, 2006 - I'm No Chicken Expert, But Here's My Experience With Chickens |
Yesterday, Melanie at Jubilee Farm
asked about numbers of chickens needed. We are just figuring these
numbers out for ourselves, and it is really a trial-and-error process
for us. There are many factors involved.
We wanted our chickens to be free-range, grass-fed chickens. So
originally, we just let them roam around the yard. That turned out to
be a mistake, as there are more chicken predators in our area than we
were aware of. Our trouble over the last year was mainly due to hawks
and a mink. So we lost a number of chickens (and ducks) last year, and
would have done better to order more than we thought we needed. We also
got one chick (a hen) from the hatchery that died at about 2-3 days
old.
At first we were just interested in eggs, and planned to have around 6
laying hens. But the egg-laying really slows down in the winter and
when they begin moulting (usually in the fall, I guess?). We thought 6
would be plenty, but now I'm thinking we could probably use closer to
12. That would give us more than we need in times of plenty, and
hopefully would supply us with enough at other times (especially if we
could freeze some when there was more than enough).
As far as meat birds go, we just started doing that last fall, and we
got our birds too late. Not sure how we'll do that this year - we may
just get our meat birds already butchered from an Amish family down the
road. We haven't decided for sure yet. I would still like to do it
ourselves, but that is largely up to my husband, since he is the family
butcher (he does a great job, too - just doesn't have much spare time).
As far as numbers go, we just figure out how much chicken we eat a
month (we eat about 3 per month for a family of 5), then multiply it by
how many months until your next chickens will be ready. We eat a lot of
beef, so we use less chicken than many families, maybe. Also, we have
never ordered a large number of un-sexed chickens of a dual-purpose
breed for both meat and eggs.
I guess my biggest advice for new chicken owners would be to order a
few more than you think you'll need, and protect your chickens from
predators by using a moveable pen (chicken tractor) rather than letting
them run free (unless you'll be out there with them, of course).
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About Me
I'm a midwestern gal, living my dream life on 7 acres in the country. I love Jesus, my husband, three children, Daisy the Wonder Goat, and our chickens. I'd still love to someday have a miniature jersey milk cow.
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