Posted on 10/31/2010 5:55:53 PM PDT by Bean Counter
My apologies. I read “$8/50 pound” as “$8.50/pound.” Kudos to you for sharing this!
Depends on location. If you can keep feed relatively cool and dry, free from insects and rodents, you've got it made. No easy task in some parts of the country.
Easier by far to let the poultry range, supplement with table scraps, and grow some grain every year that you can crack/grind.
thank you for telling me about your chickens. they sound like so much fun! i’m always over at the chicken coops when the ocean county fair happens to look at the varieties of birds and watch their funky personalities. i’d try raising a couple hens myself but i rent and cannot do that.
this is a shame because with the uncertain economy, i wouldn’t mind having a hen around. i worry a lot about my parents.
Bump
Thanks! The coop really is a bit of stability in troubled times, and the fresh eggs are very welcome to everyone who gets them. Retail, large brown “organic” eggs are going for right around $3.50 a dozen out here, and with inflation already hitting food products, half a dozen eggs goes a long way. I don’t claim my eggs to be organic because there are strict requirements for that label, but my eggs are every bit as good if not a bit better...
I encourage everyone who is serious about being prepared for whatever may happen, to consider raising a couple of chickens for eggs. It isn’t hard to do, and you don’t need an enormous coop to be successful. With six hens I am harvesting a kilo of eggs every three days...and two of those hens (the Jersey Giants) are not particularly good layers, yet. They will fit our largest roasting pan very nicely though...
I have egg production numbers for the year!
June 2010: 2 eggs; 84 grams total; 2.963 oz.; .185 lbs
July 2010: 86 eggs; 4415 grams total; 155.735 oz.; 9.733 lbs
August 2010: 154 eggs; 8117 grams total; 286.319 oz; 17.895 lbs
September 2010: 134 eggs; 7512 grams total; 264.978 oz.; 16.561 lbs
October 2010: 140 eggs; 8923 grams total; 314.749 oz.; 19.67 lbs.
November 2010: 131 eggs; 7,928 grams total; 281.787 oz; 17.61 lbs.
December 2010: 118 eggs; 7,497 grams total; 264.445 oz; 16.53 lbs.
2010 YEAR TO DATE PRODUCTION
765 eggs, 63.75 Dozen 44,476 Grams; 44.476 Kilograms; 1,568.846 Ounces, 98.053 Pounds
Not bad for a backyard chicken coop with six hens that didn’t start laying until the end of June!
I did find an inexpensive electric panel heater and installed it in time for the cold weather. It’s 150 watts, and is on a thermostat that turns it on at 35 degrees and off at 45 degrees. The last couple of nights has been the first test of it, and so far it’s promising. The coop stays in the low forties at night when the outside temperature is in the mid twenties. The important point is that the girls aren’t holding their eggs...today we got five!
From a self-sufficiency standpoint, you can see how even a small coop and just a few hens can be a big plus for any home, and a real asset from a prepper’s point of view.
Happy New Years!
http://123buildingchickencoop.com/Organic-Homemade-Chicken-Feed.php
Homemade Laying Feed:
Mix:
65% of grains (wheat, oats, barley, corn, milo (sorghum), brown rice and millet.
10% Alfalfa meal or ground hay
20% of fat/protein (oils seeds like sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, plus flax seeds, dried peas, lentils, cooked soybeans or soybean meal)
5% hydrated lime for calcium egg formation
1% trace mineral salt
—
Sounds pretty cheap to me. We have a lot of leftover wheat from our seed cleaning operation. I have been thinking about using some of it like this. I have a grist mill also, so it would be easy to do.
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