>>21038627The past two years i had a garden, i didnt have one this year because i was too busy
Sometimes i talk about my chickens on /pol/ people tell me that im lying, im not sure why. They free range on about 1/4 of an acre fenced in. I have 1 speckled hen, 1 rhode island red hen, one brahma hen, and a pair of white silkies. The silkie hen loves to get broodie and i let her. Last fall she hatched 3 chicks, all wound up hens but one half brahma chick died not too long ago. I have another 3 pullets 15 weeks old, 2 are half brahma one is pure silkie. I had 2 chicks hatch 2 weeks ago but one was scooped up by a red tailed hawk.
Maybe people think im lying about having chickens because of pecking order? Like, its impossible to freerange chicks because adults will pick on them? Idk. it does happen but not too often because the mother hen typically teaches the chick away from the flock.
They don't go through food very fast at all, most of their diet comes from eating plants and bugs. I should probably switch from layer feed to all-flock feed, and get a seperate feeder for oyster shells. Biggest issue i have is hawks, which my fake owl sometimes fails to deter and hawks like going after white targets. I havent had an issue with raccoons since i fenced them in with welded wire and t posts. I have an unbaited trap that occasionally nets me raccoons, which i'll either eat or release depending on size
I killed my first hen a few weeks ago. An old speckled that had a limp, almost never leaves the coop, and hadnt laid an egg in over a year, meaning it just ate feed all day. If it had foraged for food instead i wouldnt have killed it. The meat was very gamey and tough, but putting it in a meat grinder to make chicken burgers worked out very well.
As my chickens continue to reproduce i'll start getting roosters, which i'll let get bigger and i'll eat them
