esshup, I think you two are going to be really busy with 50 birds. Good luck to you two. We're thinking about trying it but not with fifty(WOW)!
Yeah,Scott. You better start looking for lots of egg cartons. Fifty hens will give you over 20 dozen eggs a week. We don't wash all of our eggs, but at least a third of them need washing. That is a lot of egg washing (warm water and a little bleach).
Not too many eggs. The 50 birds will be Cornish X and they probably won't be around longer than 8 weeks, just long enough to get to butchering size. I'll get them in 25 bird batches. I only plan on having 6 layers.
If you're anything like me, you won't realize how many eggs you don't eat till you're getting 6 a day. That said, I really hate buying eggs now that I've grown my own so a surplus is way better than a deficiency. Fresh eggs are far superior to ANY store bought eggs.
Give me some shade, a lawn chair, and a glass of sweet tea and I can kill a couple hours just watching chickens be chickens.
"Forget pounds and ounces, I'm figuring displacement!"
If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1) And we surmise that: BG(>)HBG(F1) while GSF(<)HBG(F1) Would it hold true that: HBG(F1)(+)AM500(x)q.d.(=)1.5lbGRWT? PB answer: It depends.
We raise chickens. Actually we hatch eggs and sell eggs and chicks. We have over 50 hens and the lay rate fluctuates from 10 eggs a day to 30 eggs a day. We stepped the chickens so the first half started laying, laid for a year then got the second batch so they would start laying during the down time of the first batch so we would have eggs year round. Even at that there will be down times because so many hens will be trying to set and when they set they don't lay To keep them laying requires at 8 to 10 hours of light so during the dark months they get a night light. Just burying the chicken wire won't work. You do have to turn it under but you bury about a foot of it so the edge is AWAY from the upright. That way digging predators who come right up and start digging will hit wire. But there are other predators like weasels. we got hit with a miniature type of weasel and it will go right through the wire. They don't kill to eat. They just kill as many as possible. I found that to combat them and other four legged types it's best to run a board along the bottom so you have created a wooden wall about 8 inches tall all the way around. Confounds them.
If you don't have a ready market for eggs or chicks then you are wasting your time. A sign on the road doesn't really work. We only make money because there is an auction for small animals and eggs here. When the auction was shut down we couldn't afford the chickens any more. Now there are two auctions and we are rolling again. You really should let them out to forage during the day or they won't be able to pay for their own feed.
I'm currently having the fox chicken problem. I let mine free range. At one point I was loosing 1 a week. I've put a radio in the chicken house and it seems to be helping. My chickens rock around the clock. Knock on wood. I currently have 6 black sex links, 5 buff brahma bantams and 10 mixed brown egg layers. I get a green egg now and again. I have more chicks coming weds. 10 white leghorns pullets, 2 Roos and 10 more buff brahma bantams. I have 15 ducks too. Lol. They are making my pond muddy. Going to have to do something about them. I love the eggs but I like my clean water better. Ducks also suck in the way they will not go to bed till completely dark. The chickens go to bed with the sun. I'm currently trying out this incubator. 3 eggs took. Hatch day is Sunday. I had poor stock from a friend I'm guessing. The eggs sat out all day at work too. So I spdont know. I currently have no roosters is only reason I used his but my daughter loves it all and it makes her smile. She is going to sell the eggs for her collage/car account. Really I'm just paying for feed, chickens and money is recycled back into her savings. The non-gmo eggs bring the best money around here so that's the route I'm going. There's a sizable niche market. Anyway I could talk about chickens all day just like I can ponds. Better head over the back yard chickens forum. Brinsea Mini Advance Hatching Egg Incubator. http://amzn.com/B008HVM5SY
Last edited by John Wann; 05/27/1403:42 AM.
If you ain't gonna fart, why eat the beans? . RES,HBG,YP,HSB,SMB,CC,and FHM. .seasonal trout.
One more tip. I've learned at the auctions you never know what your going to get. IMHO your better off ordering chicks in the mail from cackle or Murray. I prefer cackle. I bought 6 laying hen and a bourbon red turkey a few weeks ago. The chickens are ok layers being mutts but the turkey was a spawn of the devil. It attacked everybody who walked through yard. I had to carry a metal pipe to do the chores. It went after my daughter and it then left this world. It would sit at my back glass gobbling just waiting for somebody to open that door. I slow smoked it for nine hours and we sat down for dinner. I sliced into to find nothing but fat. I think it had breast cancer or something. Turkey is suppose to be a lean meat. My cousin doing the dirty work
Last edited by John Wann; 05/27/1404:06 AM.
If you ain't gonna fart, why eat the beans? . RES,HBG,YP,HSB,SMB,CC,and FHM. .seasonal trout.
I've hatched both pheasant eggs and quail eggs in it and have had 95+% hatch rates.
That turkey would have less fat if it had to use it's wings!
My neighbor when first getting into raising poultry went by the book. "By gawd, if it says they'll be ready for butchering in 3 1/2 months then that's how long I'll feed them". He ended up with 50# birds! He said they were bow legged and they had to cut in half just to fit in the roasting pan.
I have a Brinsea Mini Advance now. I'm now getting into hatching some rare black copper Marans. That turkey came from auction. We know why they sold that thing now.
If you ain't gonna fart, why eat the beans? . RES,HBG,YP,HSB,SMB,CC,and FHM. .seasonal trout.
I've hatched both pheasant eggs and quail eggs in it and have had 95+% hatch rates.
That turkey would have less fat if it had to use it's wings!
My neighbor when first getting into raising poultry went by the book. "By gawd, if it says they'll be ready for butchering in 3 1/2 months then that's how long I'll feed them". He ended up with 50# birds! He said they were bow legged and they had to cut in half just to fit in the roasting pan.
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