Mankind has domesticated dogs for hunting, cats for pest-control, horses for transportation, cows for meat and dairy, and chickens for omelets. The chicken is a truly remarkable bird with many praise-worthy qualities. Here are several benefits of keeping chickens in your own back-yard. You may choose to house a few hens in a small pen, ...
Farmers have been raising chickens for centuries. Not only do they produce delicious eggs, but when matured can be used for some great meat. Chickens are fairly easy to raise, but can be very vulnerable to predators and disease. Simple shelters and feeding areas need to be constructed to house the chickens and keep them ...
Homesteaders and those with small family farms, as well as those in rural and even suburban areas with large backyards, often think of branching out from produce farming to raising chickens. This is a logical step. Chickens are easy and inexpensive to acquire and raise. You don’t need to butcher them because they have worth ...
If you’re going to own chickens, you’re going to need to know about feeding them. A few points about chickens that people sometimes don’t realize: No, you don’t need a rooster to have eggs. The hens will lay whether they’ve got a guy around or not. You only need a rooster if you want fertilized ...
Several years ago, our family started raising our own chickens as a hedge against rising egg prices. Our community, like many others, allows its residents to raise a few chickens in their back yard under certain conditions. These conditions include limits on the size of the flock, no roosters, and protecting neighbors from undesirable noise ...
With the upsurge in organic foods, there has also been an increase in the number of people seeking to raise their own chickens (and to thus get their own supply of eggs.) If you happen to be one of those people and want to know what breed of chicken will provide you with the most ...
When I was about ten-years-old, our science class incubated chicken eggs. The end result of this experiment was two adorable, furry little chicks. Knowing that my mother was a sucker for any sort of animal, I volunteered to bring the chicks home to care for them. My mother – aka ‘the sucker’ – fell for ...
Chickens can be a wonderful addition to any small farm or rural homestead. They can be raised for meat, eggs, or both. Chickens will also provide you with some free entertainment, keep down the local bug population, and eat your weeds. In my opinion, the best way to get your first chickens is to find ...
I took it into my head a few weeks ago to maybe get myself a couple chickens so that I could have a constant supply of eggs. Not that eggs are particularly expensive or anything, its just that since I have a couple acres, I thought I’d get into country life and get a couple ...
Growing up in farm country I was raised on farm fresh eggs. Not eggs that were labeled ‘farm fresh’ but rather eggs that were acquired straight from the source. Given the increase in the price of eggs at the store, the concerns over chemical use, and the problems with factory processed meat, raising chickens in ...