Anyway, keeping chickens can get out of hand, but they are also great pets for the kids and we only keep them for eggs (no slaughter as the kids would go crazy) and it’s well worth it.

I like to thin the eggs are healthier, too, as the chickens get to roam around, scratch for bugs, and get fresh food and left overs from the kitchen.

I also get fresh eggs from back yard geese that I love to use for baking and scrambled eggs. For trivia, one goose egg equals three chicken eggs, roughly, depending upon the size of each of course.

I so wish we could have chickens in town here. I’d love to have fresh eggs. Any “farm” animal is a violation of our city ordinance. Weird that I can keep ducks in the back yard but not chickens because ducks are not “farm” animals. Politicians…go figure

Comment by H. Houlahan — May 10, 2009

You are absolutely right. :)

Between the basement and the barn, and three heat lamps, it’s not been very difficult to care for truly epic quantities of poultry this spring, to whit:

15 adult layers + one roo
21, now 16, ducklings, now 6 wks old
102 colored range broilers, now 3 wks old
4 cornish cross “control” broilers, all named Eric Cartman
14 purchased egg birds, 3-5 weeks old — golden comets, Delawares, and Ameraucanas
7 chicks hatched under the broody Orpington on Thursday
Guineas are gone. I objected to them assaulting my chickens all day.

Casualties have been light, with <2% mortality. I lost one guinea to an owl when I didn’t coop him at night — my fault. His mate became egg-bound and more or less exploded — she gave no indication of being ill before she dropped dead. (I traded the remaining guineas and some ducks for chicks.) One colored ranger died in a freak feed-trough accident.

I’ve got one Delaware chick that has been “wrong” since I got her (?), but seems happy enough and is eating and drinking and not being picked on, so I’m leaving her be. I suspect a neurological problem — her breeder may have helped her out of the shell. One ranger had a very bad case of ADR last week; I put him in a box with a heat pad, food, and molasses water, and after 36 hours he was perfectly fine. And Henery the rooster broke his leg; the fracture is now stable, but he doesn’t want to walk on it. I’m experimenting with some corrective splinting.

This sounds like a lot going on, but it’s really not so bad. I’m busy building the range shelters for use starting next week, but that’s a one-time project. I’m just leaving the potato-bin brooders in the basement, for future brooding and as handy sick bays. The most troublesome to care for have been the ducks, who are extremely stupid, excessively dirty and stinky, and are housed down by the pond now.

It really all came down to having weatherproof housing for everyone during the fluffy stage. And now that my set up is in place, it will only get more streamlined.

Sorry about Einstein.

I bet the eggs from your own chickens are the best that you have ever eaten. So fresh!