Garden Features: Chickens

that’s wonderful.
Thanks XO. I love “one stop shopping” :)

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan

Thanks XO for the additional information on care of chickens.
Sharad

-- Bagwan-- “If someone feels that they had never made a mistake in their life, then it means they have never tried a new thing in their life”.-Albert Einstein

I keep swaying “get chickens / don’t get chickens” “think of the benefits / think of the work” .. sigh

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan

Eh.. I did the math how much eggs are costing me per dozen.. This does not count in the $12 50# bag of oyster shells, nor the $9 bag of grit I need to buy once in a while (every 4-5 months?)..

Also doesn’t count the $1k for the building (estimate.. I gave up keeping track.. For the sake of my sanity).. Also doesn’t count the cost of chicks, lamp, feeders and all that other stuff to get started, or the 5-6 months of food till they start laying.. ;)

A 50# ($8) bag of feed lasts 19 days…......
That’s 2.63 lb a day between 12 chickens….....
Total of 78.9 lb in a month gulped down….....
Cost is about $.16 per lb…..
At 30 days, that’s $12.63 a month for chicken feed…...
11 laying hens, we get 6 eggs a day on average…....
6 eggs a day over 30 days is… 180 eggs…....
Those 180 eggs cost us $.07 each…..

That makes it $.84 a dozen.

We got 7 eggs today.. :)

As far as work goes.. It’s really not much… So long as the shavings are DRY and stay such, you can leave them in place… I’ve got 6 or 7 bags of shavings down.. I just add more when I think the poo is getting thick..

I get up… I go outside.. I open the pop door… I get eggs..

I get bored while working, take a break at lunch and go outside, collect more eggs.

Before supper I wonder out, go pester the rooster… Get more eggs if any.

Sun goes down, I go outside… Go in and harass the rooster some more, loving him up and ruffling his feathers while he’s roosting… Close the pop door.. Get any final eggs.

Now and then I need to feed and water them.. It’s really been less work than I’d have expected.

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

only a fool would put their chickens in the garden…...............like me.

-- Central northish Ontario

oh sure.. add that bit about “less work than you thought” ...

I chuckled at the “didn’t count this.. and didn’t count that.. and didn’t count this.. ”
all those items are regarding the fun of it all … you’re right – they don’t count in the price of eggs.
thanks for calculating it..

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan

There was a time I only ate free-range, fresh-from-the-farm eggs. It was easy. The egg lady came to the office every week with her wares. One day, she did not come so I decided to drive to her farm and pick them up myself. It was a hot and humid August day. I drove up the long driveway to her house. When I rolled down the window and took a whiff, I almost passed out. Chicken poop stinks to high heaven. You haven’t smelled poop till you’ve smelled chicken poop. From that day forward, I bought my eggs at the supermarket.

Rabbit rearing is far nicer. They are easy to feed – they love grass and lettuce and stuff like that, they multiply like there is no tomorrow, their poop – nice little pellets – don’t smell and make perfect fertilizer, and their meat is so lovely and tasty. Plus, you can use their pelts.

Kill the Easter Bunny, you say? Well, don’t think of it that way. You have to kill a chicken too, if you want it for supper.

I know all this because my mother used to raise rabbits in our back yard. I must say the kids at school were horrified when I told them we had one for dinner. I’ll never forget the way they looked at me – like I was a murderer or cannibal.

-- Erika, Hastings, ON

LOL! Erika, I don’t know who was more truamatized….the children who found out that people eat the Easter rabbit or you…....having to live with that ‘look’ planted in your mind.
My father was a hunter and trapper. When I was growing up, we had rabbit, squirrel, deer and whatever else was in season on our supper table——sometimes even bear or moose. Youngsters today do not have a very realistic view of makes their life so good. :-)

-- 'To plant a Garden is to believe in Tomorrow'

I get a little miffed at the people who keep chickens in this condition thus making chickens the blame for something that is a human error….Dog poop smells, cat poop smells worse and chicken poo smells but if they are kept clean and in sanitary conditions then there are no smells…Nobody has ever smelled anything on my chickens.

-- Xploreorganics, 5b Canada, LFD 06-20

liquid chicken manure is even worse than fresh/decomposing.
I don’t mind the aroma of manure – typically – but I draw the line at liquid c.m. GAG

We raised/ate rabbit for many years. A friend of mine said that we ate bunny. No we ate rabbit.
(The rabbits were named BBQ, Charcoal, cinnamon, ... ) It was our source of food.

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan

Oh Iris43, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad. What I smelled was the poop, not the chicken. They were running free so they pooped all over the place. In any case, I just meant to say that rabbits are easier to raise – less troublesome – lower maintenance – than chicken. Of course, they don’t lay eggs, either.

And yes, what do kids nowadays think? Where do they think the ingredients for their burgers come from? Or their hot dogs? I think it would be a good idea to send them to live on a farm for March break. Much better than getting wasted on some beach in Florida or wherever.

What say you?

-- Erika, Hastings, ON

Ha Erika, I don’t feel bad, just don’t like the bad reputation chickens get because their owners don’t clean their poop. Had a neighbor with 5 dogs Free range too lol) and he only cleaned their yard once a year…way worse than chicken poop ;)

-- Xploreorganics, 5b Canada, LFD 06-20

i would love to be able to have a few chickens, citiy hall is agains it :)))))

-- south shore montreal, zone 5a, whish it was 9

Try a few of these Mario…My Blog

-- Xploreorganics, 5b Canada, LFD 06-20

wow this is hilarious….thats a goodlooking bird that silkie….maybe…..

-- south shore montreal, zone 5a, whish it was 9