A short (really short!) video of our chickens! LOL

[hippywife]

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b163/hippywife/photos/?action=view¤t=MVI_0725.flv

[JDPriestly]

1. Love it. Home on the range.

[hippywife]

4. They do provide hours of entertainment! LOL n/t

[Sanity Claws]

2. Are they laying hens?

Assuming they are layers, are they considered free range? Do you market the eggs to farmers markets or to a big chain store?

When the hen has reached the end of her laying life, do you slaughter her? I ask because I bought a laying hen at the farmers market to see what the meat would be like. I knew it would be tough but it was still tough after simmering for a couple of hours in a tomato based sauce.

I hope you don't mind all the questions, but I have been making an effort to patronize small farmers at farmers market and am interested in learning more about where our food comes from.

[hippywife]

3. They are all hens.

The five Black Jersey Giants are the only ones laying so far. The five Buff Orpingtons should start laying this winter. We got those breeds because they are winter hardy. The one oddball we think is a Rhode Island Red mix that our neighbor gave us. She should start laying pretty soon now.

Since only five of them are laying, we get anywhere from 1 to 5 eggs a day. Usually average about three. This is enough for our own needs and some extra to give to friends and family. We could eventually sell them to our coop when they all are laying, but then we'd have to haul them all the way to OKC.

It is impossible to get organic feed here unless we pay big bucks for it and for shipping. The only other option is to have a custom grain mix milled which is cost prohibitive for such a small flock. They do mostly free range and we supplement their diet with some scratch, kitchen scraps of fresh fruits and veggies, both from my kitchen and the kitchen where I work at a retirement center. I give the girl in the kitchen some eggs occasionally for saving me all the scraps she does. What the chickens won't/can't eat, goes into the compost pile layered with the chicken litter when the pens are cleaned out. We just bought some dried fruit and sunflower seed mix and another big bag of sunflower seeds from our local Audubon Society fundraiser to possibly supplement their winter diet, if they'll eat it. We don't know yet.

We don't currently have any plans to eat them when they stop laying. Who knows. Not sure if I could. I have heard that at that point they are best for stewing for meals like chicken and dumplings, maybe for stock, too. The tomato sauce might have been too thick. It takes a higher water content to really tenderize a tough piece of meat.

Thanks for supporting small farms. It's definitely a win-win for everyone. :hi:

[tabatha]

5. Could you grow sunflowers next year for feed?

[hippywife]

6. Yes, if they end up liking them.

I can't imagine they won't but you never know. We bought the stuff we did primarily to help out the Audubon but we have seeds to grow our own, too, but just never got them planted this year.

:hi:

[bvar22]

7. Love the video!

I don't usually play videos because my Dial-Up is so slow, but I knew I had to see this one.
LOL.
I called Starkraven in to see the video. We watched it several times....smiled and laughed. Starkraven said, "Oooo, we gotta get some Buffs. They're beautiful". We also noticed the the Red seemed more aggressive then the others. Our Reds are too. They are the first to come running when called, and snatch food from the others more often, though they all will do this given the opportunity.


Ours DO eat Sunflower seeds, but it isn't their favorite. They eat them last.
Their favorites are meat scraps, eggshell, live bugs, and fresh corn on the cob.
I watched one of our hens chase a small bird yesterday. She didn't catch it, but came close.
I am surprised at how carnivorous they are. I now have no doubt that they are the direct descendants of the carnivorous dinosaurs.

We lost one of our hens to the neighbor's dogs last week. I was watching from the house at the time, and was able to chase the off dogs or we would have lost more. It freaked me out, and really, really pissed me off.
We now leave them in the chicken yard protected by a 6' chicken wire fence, and only let them out when a "lifeguard" is on duty. The chicken yard is very large, and I'm expanding it even more today. They have plenty of room, but I miss having them in the yard all day. OTOH, the front flower gardens are recovering.

Last week was hard on the chickens. In addition to the dogs, a possum was INSIDE the coop one evening when I went to close then in at sunset. The next night, a 6' gopher (rat) snake was on the roosting bar in the coop. The possum was dispatched, and the gopher snake was relocated several miles away.

We now have 7 hens and Elvis the Rooster. They are giving us 5 - 7 delicious eggs/day....more than we can eat. In addition to the eggs, they are a source of endless entertainment. We love our birds. They are much more intelligent than we expected, and they have individualized personalities. We had not planned to name them, but they all have names now.

Elvis


Pied Piper


:hi:

[hippywife]

8. I always love all the colors of your chickens!

Ours look so bland in comparison! Elvis is such a handsome rooster, he almost makes me want one.

We purposely don't feed ours any meat but I have seen them chasing each other over a baby mole one of them has caught, or a snake or lizard. The red isn't agressive at all. The blacks are the bullies of the yard. We've taken to trapping them in one of the pens with some food so the others can feed in peace. It doesn't matter how much food they already have, they bully the buffs and the red out of theirs. They really make me mad sometimes!

They do look like dinos when you watch them run from the side. That same tread and pacing!

All of ours look so much alike that it's been impossible to tell them apart. I wish we had some more colorful ones like you do so we could. The only one is the red which came to us named and she does come when she's called and takes food from my hand. It's really funny that everytime we open the door to step out for anything at all, they all come running thinking they're going to get something to eat.

I'm sorry about the dog and the possum. We have to watch that, too. Our dog just lays around and watches them. The red even goes up and stands next to her. The buffs do sometimes, too. However, there are bird dogs across the road so we have to be vigilant because one is always loose to roam and sometimes the other two are let out of their kennel to run the hay fields. We can't say anything because our dogs, and everyone else's, roam the road, too. It really doesn't matter if we lock them in the garden and the pens anymore, though. The red and the buffs can all get out. They're usually out by the time I get home.

Glad to provide you and K. some giggles. They really are fun. LOL

[hippywife]

9. The other thing the black chickens

have taken to doing is scratching in the compost pile. It's a pallet composter and they squeeze between the slats. I'm going to be stapling chicken wire to it this weekend to stop them because it is full of their litter in addition to the scraps. I don't want them developing any diseases from that, but at the same time they are processing our compost in record time. :shrug:

[hippywife]

14. I think you jinxed us, B!

I came home yesterday to find a small pile of blond feathers and one of the buffs missing. We never let them out when we aren't here, but like I said, they find ways out. I just let them all out when I got home and not half an hour later I had to chase a strange dog in the yard, not the one across the road.

Last night we herded them all into the big girls pen, which we were planning on doing for winter anyway. The fence is higher and it has smaller openings in it. It wasn't a very happy gathering at first but luckily it was close to bed time so it worked out. Yet, when I got home Rambo and one of the buffs were wandering the yard. Gonna have to clip some wings again, I guess.

[LWolf]

10. Makes me feel right at home.

As a matter of fact, I'm on my way to do evening chores, and I'll be surrounded by my flock while I'm trying to get them done.

:hi:

[hippywife]

11. It is really kind of fun

to have them following around on your heels while you walk around. LOL

As long as you don't have on your good shoes and don't care where you step. :rofl:

Enjoy your flock! How many do you have now? Do tell all about them! :hi:

[LWolf]

12. I have, er...

(counting) 8 hens and 1 rooster. 3 buff orpington hens, 1 orpington/wyandotte cross, 1 orpington/easter-egger cross, 1 orpington/australorp cross, 1 australorp, 1 easter-egger.

And one buff orpington rooster.

The rooster and 4 of the hens are part of the flock I started with in '05; the rest come from some of the chicks I let them hatch out. This was the first summer that nobody got broody, so no chicks this year.

There is an older picture of some of them, and some that have gone on, somewhere in this forum...let me look:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=268x1072#1091

[hippywife]

13. That's a nice little flock.

Don't you really enjoy having them around? I really didn't expect to enjoy them so much. LOL Except when the big girls are picking on the little girls. They can be so mean and greedy.