Monday, October 26, 2015

Chickens


We've been having chicken problems lately.  We keep having chickens "disappear."  Yes, we could finish the coop and put them in there, but I really like free range chickens and we have sooooo much other things to do right now before winter.  Hubby did catch a young possum eating one of the chickens the other night.  Needless to say, we won't be having problems from him anymore.  But, we still came up one missing chicken last night.  It could be a raccoon, another possum, or even the hawks that we have flying around here.  I still haven't put it past dogs.  We are keeping watch closely.
We will find out it is and catch it.

 Well, we had gotten all the way down to only 3 hens and 2 roosters. (Why are the hens always the ones that are killed?) This past weekend, after only having 3 eggs for our breakfast, I started looking on Facebook livestock sites.  Chickens were going for $10-$15 a piece!  Even for VERY young ones.  I noticed on one post where this person commented wanting to trade his chickens for something.  I messaged him and asked if he would like to sell his chickens.  He did, but I would have to take them all.  24 chickens for a VERY cheep price. Yes sir!  

The chickens were a mixture of ages.  I don't think any were over the age of 2 yrs though.  Some haven't even started to lay yet. He also had 6 roosters with them. That helped me out because I was at the point were I was having to buy chicken broth.  NO MORE!  Wooo  Hooo!!  I see some good chicken and dumplins in my future.  Some of the roosters are young so I'll be able to have a good sized roasted chicken for Thanksgiving.  We aren't big fans of turkey around here.  We do like our chicken though.  

The hens haven't started laying yet, well, at least where I can find the eggs.  I figured between them molting, changing locations, and the shorter days, we wouldn't be getting a lot right now.  They will come into it soon, I hope.  I refuse to buy store eggs.  EEEEEWWWWW.   Plus our neighbors will be a lot happier when they can get our good farm eggs too.

Early next spring, I'm hoping to put some eggs in the incubator and see what we get.  Hens or roosters will help us out.  I tired of spending money on chickens that we can raise ourselves. I'm also tired of spending money on store bought meat.  I'm just waiting for it to all be recalled.  Everything else is.....

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, chicken farmer.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

we had a coyote get a roster this week and a huge owl almost got a hen but i scared it away. never had too many problems. we pray psalm 91 everyday over our household and land. Al in N.M.

small farm girl said...

Al, that's a good psalms!