Its cheaper to just buy eggs.

Ones a black silky rooster. Digger is his name diggin's his game

I have them on a high protein diet. Crushed egg shells and meal worms.

As well as all our old veggies and fruit chopped up. And corn chop's

I'm getting 4 eggs a day. Browns and blues.

I rotate through other roosters for competition and meat.

Inherited when I moved here.

As it is with the birds and critters I go through a bag of chops every 4 weeks.

Start small. You can easily make a couple hens spit out eggs faster than you can eat them.

Farmer Dan! I knew I liked you for a reason.

Btw! 50 punch is still working great. It's all I use. Opens them bastids wide open.

Dan, I have NO doubt or illusions about that, but there's something to be said for knowing EXACTLY how your food is being grown / cared for. Gonna have some dual purpose birds for eating as well.

Gonna start with 15 as there's a minimum when ordering chicks from McMurrays but we have neighbors who also raise them and will probably become benefactors of a few. Thanks for the reply and feedback Josh!!

Yupper, read that as well Jamie. Thanks

One word of caution, if you get any roosters, you and everyone within about 25 miles will be awoken every day....EVERY DAY....by a crowing rooster at about 4-4:30. If you have neighbors, they WILL complain. Take it from someone who has seen others go through that. My hen, BTW, made noise, but in 7 years, we never drew a single complaint about her. Also, if you garden, chicken poop makes good fertilizer.

One other thing, make sure you protect the bird from predators. Where I live, it is simply too rural to safely keep chickens, otherwise I'd have some. We have raccoons, coyotes, foxes, hawks, eagles, and a gazillion other things that would eat the chickens. I'd search online for a good forum for recommendations for food, coop, etc.

One last note: why do shelters for chickens always have 2 doors? Because if they had 4, they'd be chicken sedans. 😉

One of these days Lou.....one of these days. I had read somewhere that the chickens dig the spent grains. Maybe I'll get with some home brewers or SunKing brewery and see about sourcing some. Nice to see ya brother, so what is this surgery your recovering from??

I hope your on the mend and expecting a Full Recovery and look forward to seeing and herfing with you soon!!!!!

Well....look who the chicken drug in PAC!!

Not planning on any roosters but who knows, we have neighbors around us that have them and to be honest I'm LESS bothered by those roosters than I am by dogs who Never stop barking and we have those too. We are gonna start with six hens, two each of three different "dual purpose" birds. Buff Orpingtons / Silver laced Wyandottes and Barred Rocks, all suppose to be of good temperment...good layers and Good eatin if we decide to go that route when their laying days are over. I am re-purposing our sons playhouse I built him when he was very young and it's hopefully predator proof as we have virtually ALL of the ones you mentioned here as well. The "run" will be a heavy duty 10'x10' dog kennel that we don't use and once ready will be allowed to free range the yard when I'm home. I have joined a forum called BYC { BackYardChickens.com) and it is a treasure trove of great info!!! We're pretty much ready to go just waiting on our chicks from Murray Mc Murray hatcheries which arrive May 11th. Nice to see ya here and posting, hope it occurs more often.

Pau

PS Love the chicken humor!!!!!

Still, even in the armpit of the state, Tacoma, damned dogs could still wake me up at night. BTW, boom boxes were all the rage then, I lived 7 blocks from the cop shop and 2 blocks from a fire department. I kid you not. Dogs or someone trying to break into my 64 sq ft apt. is about all that could wake me after 2 months living there.

BTW, if you eat corn of the cob (I make no assumptions either way), save the cobs for the chickens. They will strip the little bits of kernel on the cobs thoroughly, and love it.

Pac, isn't it UnAmerican to not like corn on de cob??? Love it!!!! And we're fortunate to have a farmer nearby who grows some of if not THE BEST I've ever had. Well yesterday we went down S to visit another BYC

( backyardchicken) farmer and came home with (2) 3 week old American Bresse chicks to get our flock started. They were / are originally a french breed and are considered one of The Best chickens to table for a meal. On May 11th we'll receive our other six chicks from the hatchery, No turning back now.....