Stormcrow's Hobby Farm

[U_Stormcrow]

And this is how I ended up with over 50 hens, not sure exactly how many.
I have had a lot of predator losses last year. Down to 40+. This year looks about the same. Tuesday I Had a hawk death of a pullet that just started laying. Today I found a dead hen in a coop...no trauma.

**fingers crossed for you**

Hopeful the hawk moves on quickly, and the other was just some random act of genetics/internal accident. Hard to monitor behaviors right now, it being so (to me, at least) cold out.

 

[Molpet]

I still buy store bought chicken - I can't compete on price. I don't buy nearly as many store bought chickens - but if I want a young fryer, I can spend $10 and a few hours of my labor buying, raising and butchering one young meat bird, or I can buy a 12# bulk bag of (badly butchered - clearly mechanically) leg & thigh quarters for the same price.

I enjoy my hobbies, yes, but I'm not stupid.

Yeah when they have a turkey on sale for 49 cents a lb and it costs me 7 dollars a lbs for my heritage... I end up buying one or 2... I still raise my turkeys though.

 

[Molpet]

**fingers crossed for you**

Hopeful the hawk moves on quickly, and the other was just some random act of genetics/internal accident. Hard to monitor behaviors right now, it being so (to me, at least) cold out.

I had lost enough I have room to keep them locked in, it's been cold or snowing so they aren't to eager to get out.

 

[NanaK]

And this is how I ended up with over 50 hens, not sure exactly how many.

I only intended on 12 hens and a rooster. I have room for way more. I think the most has been 36 or so. Right now there's less than 20. Over the last few years I've had a few old girls pass. I did not raise chicks last year so..........I'm in chick withdrawl in a bad way! I also need a rooster.
Will either buy hatching eggs or chicks or both this year!

it being so (to me, at least) cold out.

Yikes! It has been freezing! We had some sleet/freezing rain slushy mess Friday. Thankfully it was gone Sat.

 

[NatJ]

I started raising poultry because I don't like how they are raised. Mine have a good life and hopefully a quick death. Fighting or hormonal boys make it easier. I used to sell the pullets because I haven't been able to dispatch a perfectly good girl.

I start with the assumption that every chicken is good to eat. The ones that are also good for laying eggs (hens) or breeding/eye-candy (some roosters) stay around longer before they get eaten.

I'm inconsistent in whether I name chickens or not. Ones with some distinctive feature tend to get names because that's easier than describing them every time I want to talk about them. Some of the names do resemble descriptions. (Snowy, Goldie, Maximus and Minimus for the bigger and smaller of two cockerels, Peanut for the smallest pullet in a particular group, and so forth.)

When I was young, my mom kept chickens. At first, every spring we bought a new batch of pullet chicks. Every fall when the new pullets started to lay and the older hens were expected to molt soon, we butchered the older hens. We were allowed to give them names and treat them as pets, but they still got butchered at the same age each time. At a later time, mom kept hens and a rooster. Each year she would hatch a new flock and butcher the older birds, along with butchering most of the young cockerels.

We lived in Alaska, so we had a sturdy snow-proof chicken house for the winter, and another pen that was only used in the summer. Each spring the older flock moved into the summer pen, and the sturdy chicken house was used to raise the new chicks. Butchering happened in the fall when it got too cold for chickens to live in the summer pen. The chicken house would only hold a certain number of chickens for the winter, so that was the limit on how many to keep. By replacing the whole flock, we never had to deal with integrating older & younger birds, and we never had to decide which hens were worth keeping for another year. My mom was interested in eggs and meat, not the individual chickens as pets, and this system worked very well for that purpose. It also got me used to the idea of eating every chicken at some point, rather than having some as pets that get to live longer. As an adult, of course I can do things differently, and sometimes I do, but I think those experiences had a big effect on what I expect when raising chickens.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Looks like egg production is back!

(Yup, found the hidden nest)

 

[NanaK]

You hit the jackpot!
If I found that here there would be a broody Marans on top.

 

[Molpet]

Looks like egg production is back!

View attachment 4026287(Yup, found the hidden nest)

With the snow and hawk I have them locked in.
One coop I haven't had an egg since August. They have been locked in this whole time because I thought they were slacking.
Another coop I had a couple this fall nothing this winter.
A 3rd had a couple in December and then quit. I found the dead hen in there this morning.
The one with the hawk kill has 3 laying this week. Would have been 4 except for the hawk killing a pullet.

 

[Sally PB]

So far, hubby takes care of euthanazia when needed

At the beginning of keeping chickens, hubby told me he was happy to eat the unborn young (eggs), but would have no part of killing any chickens or eating them. And he has had fresh chicken and knows how much better it is.

So taking any animal life is up to me. Like the two cockerels who were two too many. That's part of what I signed up for when I got chickens.

 

[fuzzi]

takes all kinds.

I am somewhat lacking in the normal allotment of human empathy - not that I'm uncaring, rather that I find my way to necessity easier than most. I care enough to ensure its swift and cleanly done.

My wife absolutely could not do it. But has no issues eating the results, even animals we've named. I know that naming, for some, is the line they can't cross.

I don't name the chickens that I am planning to rehome.

I know I can kill them, as I dispatched a rooster last year for trying to kill his own chicks. His name was Samuel and he was SO handsome, but was a head.

His son, Zacchaeus, a good boy!

And Zack's also better looking!