The hobby, project, or whatever one wishes to call it concerning people raising chickens in their backyard or at their home appears to be getting more popular in recent years. It is something that is not difficult and will provide meat and eggs for the family.
I strongly recommend that it is understood that it is generally as, or more expensive to raise chickens for either eggs or meat yourself than to buy at them at the local store. I do know you won’t find the quality in any of the stores. Possibly a farm market or just some small scale chicken farmer selling a few eggs out of their home would compare, but the eggs in the supermarket, just aren’t of the quality you get from having your own chickens and eggs.
The picture to the right shows some chicks I recently ordered. It includes Barred Plymouth Rock, New Hampshire Red, Buff Orpington, Silver Laced Wyandottes, and Rhode Island Reds. The darker one’s are the wyandottes and barred rock, and the lightest are the orpingtons. It is almost impossible to distinguish between Rhode Island Red and New Hampshire red as their colors can be almost identical.
These chicks are what I believe to be some of the most popular, “dual purpose” breeds. They have similar egg laying characteristics other than I feel the Buff Orpington does actually lay a few less eggs per year than the others. It is a little heavier and might even be classed more as a “heavy” breed. It also has white skin when dressed for the oven.
Tags: Barred Plymouth Rock, buff orpington, chick, chicken coops, coops, dual purpose, Feeding Laying Hens, hobby, new hampshire red, rhode island red, silver laced wyandotte
It is easy to see the very small dark red dot where the feathers are missing which is when Sophie was mostly healed. In the second picture, it shows how the feathers stick out. I didn’t notice on my camera, that the picture was blurred, but it does show the damage.
I won’t name the hatchery they came from at this time, but I am not now, and never have been Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: nasty, nasty rooster, rhode island red, wyandotte
The breeds and varieties as listed in the Standard of Perfection are as follows:
I also posted the years they were admitted to the standard.
Large Chickens Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: American, asiatic, english, standard of perfection
This site, as well as my new forum at Backyard Chicken Farming Forum are just on the internet to provide basics for those that are new to raising chickens.
Chickens are a great asset to any gardener as they provide fertilizer and a supply of meat that Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: blog, experience, forum, Help For New Chicken Farmers
There are a few ways to get new chicks if one decides to raise a flock of chickens. Generally people will get them from a friend, or possibly from a local farmer or feed store. There are other ways in that you can purchase an incubator and a few eggs and start your flock that way. Generally people use the local feed store or mail order. I almost always use Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: buying baby chicks, dead chicks, mail, post office
The chick the child is holding was hatched on May 20, 2009 and shows the light golden color of the chicks. Not visible are the wing feathers which are already something over an inch long. This makes the chick 5 days old at the time of this writing.
Tags: black orpinngton, buff, introduced, original orpington, orpington
Killing cones made of sheet metal are popular for killing chickens at home. I have also seen them referred to as funnels because that is exactly what they look like. They just hang on the wall, and the chicken is put in it with it’s head hanging out of the funnel. I am not sure if some people would do well with Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: dimensions, funnels, killing cones
I only order chickens every year or two and this year I chose Mt. Healthy Hatchery. They send orders of 15, instead of 25 so it is a plus for small farmers.
I e-mailed them about an order this morning and got Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: chick, hatchery, mt healthy, murray mcmurray, orpington
Chickens eaten as broilers can be bought as straight run which is generally half female and half male, all females, or all males.
If you are planning on raising meat and eggs for a family, probably the 50 chicks would suffice for a family of 4 as I mentioned in another Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: broilers, chicken, fryers, Meat Birds, roasters
You will be much happier with egg production in the winter if you provide artificial light for your chickens. Light rays reach the pituitary gland of the chicken through the eye, stimulating increased laying.
Loading ...Another benefit of the light is Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 14 hour day, light for chickens, production
The worst thing I have ever run into concerning health was legmites which I will discuss later. It is much better to take a little time to prevent problems than to open a chicken hospital.
Nutritional Diseases is one of the main areas and I think with the present trend for a “Healthy America” we are Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: chicken, cholera, healthy chickens, newcastle, nutritional disease, virus, worms
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