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Tag: chickens

  • 3 Reasons Why Ducks Are Better Than Chickens

    3 Reasons Why Ducks Are Better Than Chickens

    When most people think of animals for their back yard they quickly think of chickens.  And while there is good reason so many people think to raise chickens, there are also reasons why ducks may be the preferable livestock for your backyard farm.

    Ducks don’t crow

    Not everyone starting their homestead has 15 acres in the country.  Some may have less than an acre with neighbors right next to them that don’t share their passion for raising animals and growing food.  Keeping this in mind, it is not hard to think of how a rooster could degrade the relationship one has with the neighbors.  Ducks, on the other hand, don’t crow, and don’t cackle loudly after laying an egg, or when in preparation to lay an egg.

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    Ducks don’t destroy everything

    It’s true that ducks will eat all the grass available if they are confined, just as chickens will.  But they can be allowed into an established garden without causing total devastation.  Ducks do not kick and scratch the way chickens do which will destroy the roots of plants and ruin mulch.  Plants will recover from losing some leaves a lot faster than they will if they are uprooted and kicked into the path.

    Ducks are better at egg laying

    Ducks do not decrease egg production in the winter the way chickens do.  The eggs they do lay are more nutritious and have a taste that is often preferred over chicken eggs.  With a thicker shell and membrane, they also last longer than chicken eggs do.

    You may already have a flock of chickens in your yard now and may be skeptical of replacing birds that you have come to appreciate.  But as your chickens become chicken dinner you might want to make some room in your flock for some different birds and give ducks a try too, if it doesn’t work out you can always have roast duck instead of fried chicken.

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  • How to Safely Let Chickens in the Garden

    How to Safely Let Chickens in the Garden

    One of the most serious drawbacks to having truly free-range chickens is that they can go anywhere they want to and they tend to want to go to your garden.  This makes sense since, hopefully, your garden is a healthfully functional natural environment filled with potential prey (many of which you would be happy to see eaten) for your chickens.

    Keeping Chickens Out

    The downside of chickens in the garden when your chickens do what chickens do, and  start kicking and scratching until they have unearthed the roots of your plants or even kicked your plants clean of the garden.

    One way to combat this is to put chicken wire around the garden.  This can be costly, even if you opt for the cheaper “bird netting” made from plastic.

    And this solution still doesn’t allow your chickens to be much benefit to your garden, it just keeps them from being a pest. Preferably your chickens will eat potential pests and fertilize your garden while leaving it undamaged.

    Letting Chickens In

    One of the best ways to get the benefits of chickens in the garden without damaging your plants is to take the plastic bird netting and lay it on the ground, over your mulch, and between your plants.  This will work whether you are growing in wooden raised beds or directly in the ground.

    Areas like paths or fallow plots and beds are not necessary to cover.  Concentrate on active beds, especially those with young vulnerable plants.  The bird net can be stretched out to the size of the bed and cut to fit, one wide strips
    are most versatile, “holes” can be made to accommodate the plants by using twist ties or landscaping stakes (or even sticks) to pull the net away from the plants and keep it secure.  Stakes or twist ties can also be used to combine multiple pieces of netting.  While holes could be cut in the net, that will make it more difficult to reuse in the
    future.

    This will allow for your flock to roam and feed to their heart’s content while cleaning out potential pests from your garden like caterpillars and slugs-and holding your mulch and your plants in place.  They will even help fertilize as nature takes its course, and with chickens, that’s pretty often.

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  • How to Breed More Self-Reliant Chickens

    How to Breed More Self-Reliant Chickens

    Any parent can tell you that taking care of a baby is a full-time job in and of itself.  And anyone experienced in animal husbandry will know that raising baby animals can be nearly as difficult.  So with everything you have to do in your daily life, taking care of twelve baby chicks, for example, can seem like quite a chore.

    The Problem 

    Unfortunately, since chickens have been highly domesticated for specialized purposes like egg laying or meat production, they have lost the genetic drive to raise their own young.  This means that people who choose to raise these birds are stuck buying new chicks year after year or incubating eggs, then having to set up a separate (sometimes indoor) pin for them, with a heat lamp and other supplies not necessary for adult chickens.  And there is still always the chance that some of those chicks will die.  How can this be avoided?

    Breeding Better Mothers

    One possible solution is to raise multipurpose chickens like Rockbarred chickens. This breed is good for both egg laying and meat production.  But since they still rarely “go broody” and care for their chicks, you can also get two or three Bantam hens (depending on how large of a flock you are going for).  Bantams are much smaller chickens so they are not raised for their meat or eggs, but they are closer to a wild chicken and will go broody and raise their own chicks.   This will make multiplying your number of chickens near effortless.

    A downside to this is that over time your flock may be made up of smaller chickens since they will be part Bantam.  But since you would have to buy new chicks anyway that’s not really much of an inconvenience, and it will take several generations before much of a difference is noticeable.  On the other hand, your chickens may also start to show an interest in raising their babies. While this solution would not work for someone that is looking for high egg or meat production for commercial sale, it may be just the trick for those that want to establish a less needy flock of backyard birds that still provide plenty of eggs and meat for personal consumption.

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  • Chickens vs. Rabbits

    Chickens vs. Rabbits

    When most people think of small scale backyard animal husbandry, they tend to think exclusively of chickens.  And while chickens are not without their own advantages, they are certainly not the only small animal that even a new backyard farmer can raise, one such animal is the rabbit.

    There are many benefits to having either chicken or rabbit. Both animals produce sustenance, and can provide the backyard farmer with plenty of nutrient rich manure for the garden, as well as have their feeding needs reduced by keeping them in a mobile pen.  Not every backyard farmer has the same resources available to them and what might work for one might not be right for the other, so here are some considerations:

    Gestation Periods

    Rabbits generally gestate for about 30 days.  This is around a week longer than chickens take to hatch.  However; a doe rabbit can get pregnant as early as the next day after birthing a litter of 12, while a mother hen will take considerable time off from reproducing eggs in order to care for her new chicks.  This is important to consider when thinking of your animals as a direct food source.  You can’t eat the same animal twice, so when resources and space are tight it is a great advantage to have animals that can reproduce new “future meals” for you quickly.

    Once hatched, most chickens will take about 6 months to reach sexual maturity for hens, and maximum size for roosters.  Compare this to 3 1/2 to 4 months for rabbits and once again you have your next meal coming much quicker with rabbits than with chickens.

    Food Provision

    But just how big is that next meal going to be?  Rabbits average in weight from 1 to 4 pounds, while chickens can weigh can anywhere from 2 to 9 pounds.  That being said, the larger chickens are those that have been breed for their meat and for their eggs, but they have lost most of their brooding instincts and therefore the hens will often not incubate the eggs they lay even if they are fertilized, and will show less interest in raising and caring for chicks.  So while your initial chicken dinner might be larger than your rabbit alternative, it won’t do you too much good down the road when you are all out of chickens.

    Care

    As mentioned, both rabbits and chickens can be fed scraps from the garden or even from the household vegetable scraps, and both can be given mobile pens to move around the homestead. However, while you can in certain environments let chickens go free range, this can be harder for rabbits. Rabbits also need to be watched carefully, as they can get very sick if their enclosures aren’t clean enough. Of course, if you live somewhere with a cold winter, it’s the same for chickens.

     

    Whether or not chickens or rabbits are preferable for your homestead will depend on what you’re looking for and what you have available for them, and these are some of the factors you can consider. If you can’t decide, hey-you can always get both!

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  • The Ultimate Guide to Chicken Coops (Infograph)

    The Ultimate Guide to Chicken Coops (Infograph)

    Raising chickens is awesome, but you definitely need to have everything they will need to thrive. In most cases, this will include a properly constructed and well-equipped chicken coop. Even free-range chickens will need somewhere to roost at night. There are many options out there for homemade chicken coops, and this will probably be the best option for most people as you can customize it to your flock size, climate, and budget needs.

    There are a few crucial components to a chicken coop, which this great infograph from Gardenaholic.com put together. They also have a great article on how to raise backyard chickens if you’re interested in more information.

    The basics that this infograph covers are appropriate roosts for the chickens, as they like to perch to roost, or sleep, a horizontal bar set up in the coop is a great option. They will also need nesting boxes-they like to burrow into small, safe places to lay their eggs. Food and water is of course crucial as well, you’ll need a sturdy, easy-to-access container for both food and water that can’t be accessed by potential predators.

    Speaking of predators, securing the coop from predators such as foxes, coyotes, birds of prey, raccoons and other animals who look at live chickens as a delicious meal. They will also need lots of fresh air so good ventilation in the coop is key.  They are also very vulnerable to too much rain or heat, so they’ll need plenty of overhang for shade and water protection. A dust bath is also great to add to your coop so your chickens can clean off-which is really fun and cute to watch, by the way.

    Overall, this is a great little guide to what you’ll need to consider for your chicken coop. You can also look at Pinterest and YouTube to see what other people have done for their ideas-this is great to get an idea of what works in real-life scenarios for a chicken coop.

    Your coop doesn’t have to be fancy-it just needs what the chicken will need to be comfortable, safe and happy. Happy chickens means more eggs-so that will make you happy too!

    chicken-coop-diy-budget-checklist

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  • Caring for Your Chickens in Hot Weather

    Caring for Your Chickens in Hot Weather

    Did you know that chickens have a higher body temperature than humans? As a result, they will almost always feel increases in heat faster than we do, which means that they can really suffer on hot summer days. So how can you ensure that your chickens stay healthy and cool all summer long? Follow a few simple tips.

    Provide Cool Water and Shade

    Chickens will naturally gravitate toward shady areas to stay cool on hot days. Provide yours with plenty of shade, and put their water in the shade, as well. Basically, if the water is out in the sun or far away from where they’re hanging out to beat the heat, they’re not going to go get it, and they’re going to get dehydrated. So maximize shade and make sure there’s water there, too.

    Scatter Frozen Veggies and Juicy Fruit in the Chicken Yard

    Fresh fruits and vegetables are attractive to chickens, but frozen veggies, like peas and baby carrots, are also good pecking food, as well. If you have any old frozen vegetables in your freezer that are freezer burned and unappetizing to you, just open them up and throw them to your chickens. They’ll love them!

    Do You Have a Dust Bath?

    Chickens also cook off by taking dust baths. So, if you don’t have one already, provide an area without any water or grass, where your chickens can roll around in the dirt. Don’t be surprised if a shallow pit starts to form – that’s just from your chickens wallowing around and rubbing in the dirt until they get down to the cooler soil under the top layer.

    These three simple tips can go a long way toward keeping your chickens healthy, hydrated, cool, and well fed this summer. Try out one or all of them today and see how well they work.

    Sources:
    http://hencam.com/faq/hot-weather-care/
    http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/04/beat-heat-helping-chickens-survive-high.html
    http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-care-for-chickens-in-the-hot-summer-months

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  • The Suburban Chicken Blueprint [eBook]

    The Suburban Chicken Blueprint [eBook]

    Click the image below to download your complimentary copy of The Suburban Chicken Blueprint.

    Inside You’ll Learn:

    • Why raising chickens can be the best and easiest way to reduce your grocery bill and eat healthy
    • How to raise chickens in almost ANY environment
    • How to keep your chickens happy and healthy
    • Countless timesaving tips and tricks
    • And much, much, more…

    Suburban Chicken Blueprint

    Download The Suburban Chicken Blueprint

     

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    Try “Right-Click, Save Link As” to download.
    To print, you can navigate through your File >> Print… or look for the print icon in the lower right-hand corner of the .pdf document when viewing.

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