Yes, chickens.
I can remember when you sort of swore them off. They ARE a lot of work. Especially now that my daughter and my wife make ME do almost all of it.
We have a flock of 25 @ present. Kinda more than I want, and I keep 5 of the 7 roosters isolated so as to not have too many rooster fights and or beat up hens from over-mating. We need to harvest some of those roosters but they are all very handsome, esp. the ones that are part Easter Egger.
The birds from eggs laid here are all mixes and seem more resilient than store bought breeds, and many are very nicely colored. Most still lay extra-large size eggs. The negative is that we seem to hatch 3 roosters for every hen, and most of our broody hens are getting old and rarely broody. Every once in a while a predator gets one, or a hen just gets weak and keels over, but, again, that happens much more often with the store bought birds. Almost as a rule, if I buy six of a store bought breed that is a great layer breed, 3 will be gone in 2 years, and the other 3 will survive much longer if a predator doesn’t get them. It’s like the great layers tend to burn out early...
At present we have one easter egger that lays HUGE (3 oz.) eggs fairly often. Not only is that unusual for an EE, she’s our friendliest bird. So I’m hoping she holds up...
One advantage of 20+ free-range birds is that they eat a lot of insects. Biggest disadvantage is their effect on the back yard... Biggest surprise is that we are on a moderately busy road with a speed limit of 55, meaning most people drive 65, and we’ve never had a chicken hit. USUALLY they stay off the road itself, tho’ I’ve chased them off it a number of times. That’s much better than the record of neighbors’ cats and dogs (and one of our cats, once.)
My daughter’s 2 cats are quite “respectful” of the chickens - hahaha.
Yes, there’s been a gap since 2015 since I had chickens. The space where Beau was going to build me a good-sized coop cor co-opted for more dog kennel runs.
Anyway, taking the plunge again. The new coop area inside the barn is quite luxurious. I knew Beau would ‘over-build’ it. I might even move in there, LOL!
He decided against a new building and is repairing the old barn. It burned to the ground in 1950, and was re-built, but not to his standards. I cannot WAIT to slap fresh paint on it! The house looks so nice now with the new roof and paint-job that it makes the other outbuildings look pretty shabby.
All it takes is time and money, right? ;)