Chickens

Chickens are handy to have on a farm…from bug and weed control to eggs and meat! It helps that they’re pretty cute too!

We had too many roosters and decided to have a butchering day. Roosters are a great addition to your flock, but you don’t want too many! Those roosters made many meals for our family!When the rooster to hen ratio is off, roosters become a nuisance to the hens and instead of promoting a safe, calm environment, they stress the hens (too much chasing and mounting). A good rooster to hen ratio is: 1 rooster to at 10 to 12 hens. If you’ve never butchered a chicken, get on YouTube and find a video or get someone who knows to come over and show you how! We don’t like to kill anything, but it’s our belief if you’re going to eat meat, you should be willing to raise and butcher it. Here’s a couple of good videos about butchering.

If you’re interested in raising chickens but never have, start small and get more once you have the hang of it. Chickens are relatively easy to care for as long as you have your infrastructure set up before getting them. Protecting them from predators is of great importance! Having chickens is rewarding…less bugs, less weeds, fresh meat, and delicious eggs! We normally choose breeds that are both good foragers (means less feed costs for you) and good layers. Some of the breeds we’ve enjoyed are: Buff Orpington, Barred Rock, Speckled Sussex, Cinnamon Queen, Rhode Island Red, Jersey Giant, Cuckoo Maran, Ameraucana (a bit skittish but great layers), and Australorp.