Do you have chickens?

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Permalink Reply by Penelope on January 24, 2009 at 8:38am

Older birds are delicious. You can't fry or roast them because they're tough, but you can pressure cook them, or boil them. They make great chicken/noodles and chicken and dumplings, coq au vin, etc. We're used to buying young chickens at the grocery. I imagine older commercial laying hens are sold to places like Campbell's soup or ground to use in fur animal feeds, etc.

Chickens will lay eggs longer than the three years, but just not as many eggs per year, not good for business, of course, but if you are merely eating your own eggs or sharing them with friends, you may be willing to keep feeding them a while longer. What breeds do you have? My favorites after raising many varieties are New Hampshires or Rhode Island Reds, nice gentle birds.

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Permalink Reply by Joy Williams on January 24, 2009 at 12:50pm

I have 1 arauncana, 2 single comb leghorns, and 3 New Hampshire Red. The Reds are definitely the friendliest. Good to hear you can eat them when they are older, now I just have to determine whether I actually COULD eat them after raising them all these years. I'll probably just let them go...

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Permalink Reply by Penelope on January 24, 2009 at 1:45pm

go where? in the woods where dogs and raccoons and coyotes will eat them?

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Permalink Reply by Joy Williams on January 24, 2009 at 2:44pm

well..... there's that.

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Permalink Reply by Joy Williams on January 24, 2009 at 4:21pm

Well I'll keep them for as long as I can, but I'll run out of room at a certain point, so it's either *me* eating them or wild critters eating them. I have seen other loose chickens around here. Is there a home for old chickens?

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Permalink Reply by farmgoddess.com on January 24, 2009 at 5:05pm

If you start feeding predators and they know there is easy food by your farm they will keep coming. When the loose hens are gone they will start trying to break into your pens. One year I would find headless hens in my pen probably from raccoons trying to pull them through the fence. I had loose hens and roosters running around but they grew smart and came into the barn before sun down.

Its probably best not to let too many run loose. Figure out something to do with them or spray something to keep predators away.

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Permalink Reply by Joy Williams on January 24, 2009 at 5:11pm

ok, well this is good advice, thanks!

Though at one point or the other I expect predators to notice I have chickens!

Our chicken yard is covered, and the fencing and chicken wire is buried one foot into the ground.

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Permalink Reply by Joy Williams on January 24, 2009 at 5:13pm

Btw, we have a lining of chicken wire behind the no climb fencing, so I don't think the raccoons will be able to get their paws in there.

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Permalink Reply by Penelope on January 24, 2009 at 6:43pm

You can advertise in your local newspaper or online classifieds. They're good food, so I'm sure someone would take them off your hands. If I lived close by, I would :-)

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Permalink Reply by Joy Williams on January 25, 2009 at 12:56am

I'll try that. On further reflection I realize that the poor things would probably starve if I let them wander off, and that would be cruel. And that's the last thing I want to do.

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Permalink Reply by farmgoddess.com on January 25, 2009 at 5:29am

They are very resourceful when it comes to food. They spend all day searching for bugs, eat grass, dirt, just about anything. I give my laying hens canned jack mackerel, canned salmon, sardines whatever is on sale. Its good for them, full of protein and I swear my eggs taste great.I make oatmeal and brown rice for my dogs, I buy bulk, to help keep them healthy and offset food cost. (I have a lot of big dogs) and the chickens love rice and oatmeal. When I garden they get tomatoes, watermelon, all kinds of good stuff. They LOVE shredded cheese too.

But their all time favorite treat is marshmallows. Those tiny little ones. I can herd any animal out here on the farm by luring them with a marshmallow. I don't give them to them all the time. That is definitely a treat but there isn't an animal out here that doesn't love them, including my dogs.

Permalink Reply by Penelope on January 25, 2009 at 8:27am

About feeding chickens: besides grains, bugs, produce, etc., they need things like small rocks, crushed oyster shells, etc. in order for them to grind food in their crops, and to produce nice hard eggshells. They eat just about anything. I've found pieces of glass, small nails, etc., in crops when I've butchered them.

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