Buying Chickens

[SirPeale]

Wow...you can buy live baby chicks for less than a buck, shipped!

http://www.welphatchery.com/

I want a farm so I can raise chickens!

[Ixliam]

That's great... I know what I'm giving for Christmas next year!!!

ROFL!!

Brad

[SirPeale]

I'm serious!  I've actually been doing a lot of reading about poultry raising, gardening, etc.  I'd love to get a plot of land and do this.

Here's some stuff I've been reading lately:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/whizbangchickenpluckers
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DropOut
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VermontHomesteaders

[ChadTower]

We had some chickens where I used to live.  They smell BAD.  I'm not kidding, really really bad.  Plus, every other day, one would disappear.  Larger animals would come out of the woods and take them for lunch.  Chickens are a total PIA, they're filthy, and there are no fun things to do with them that don't include sauce.

[Daniel270]

but just imagine all those EGGS you're gonna have when they mature......

[ChadTower]

Eggs are cheap.  Land is not.

[RacerX]

If you get a contract with a company like Tyson to raise broilers, you can do pretty well.  The chickens stay in long, narrow houses (in cages) until they mature at 6-8 weeks (IIRC).  Cleanup is easy.  The entire house tips up, and you just get a dozer in there and clean up all the feathers and poop.  Then you can sell that for feed.

But, yeah, you don't want to live next to them.   

[grueinthebox]

Depending on how many chickens you want, you don't really need much room...  My little sister has been in FFA for a few years now, during which time we've had both chickens and turkeys in the backyard and/or the garage (in a pen, not roaming around) when the school district's ag barn was out of pens.  They don't really smell that bad as long as you keep their area clean.

We usually get them in groups of 25-30 at a time...  The real pain in the butt is when it comes time to butcher and find freezer space for them all.

Sure are some good eatin', though.

[Sephroth57]

grue, is your name inspired from KOL?

[SirPeale]

Yeah, problem is I live in a second floor apartment.  So no chickens for me for a while.

[Daniel270]

grue, is your name inspired from KOL?

I was thinking of the Zork PC games, myself....

[grueinthebox]

grue, is your name inspired from KOL?

Since I have no idea what KOL is...  Daniel270 is the winnar!

KOL...?  Really bad internet service for Koreans?

Back on topic, you could do chickens in a second floor apartment...  Just empty out one of the closets.  You didn't want your security deposit back anyway, right?   

Added bonus: your neighbors see you butchering chickens on your porch, you'll never have to worry about telling them to turn down the stereo again...

[locash]

My brother has a small flock (18-24 birds) and I have never noticed any bad smell.  He has a small pen fenced off on the side of his backyard and there are a couple of coops inside it.  I imagine if he increased the numbers some it might start to stink, but if you keep it reasonable you shouldn't have any problems.

His biggest problem is roosters.  He paid extra (it was like +$1/fertilized egg) to get only egg layers, but still ended up with 4-5 roosters.

[Sephroth57]

ah well i guess KOL got that reference from Zork, im too young to have played those text games =p

KOL is a online browser based MMORPG, see the huge thread in this forum. Theres a familiar named Grue in it

[SirPeale]

My brother has a small flock (18-24 birds) and I have never noticed any bad smell.  He has a small pen fenced off on the side of his backyard and there are a couple of coops inside it.  I imagine if he increased the numbers some it might start to stink, but if you keep it reasonable you shouldn't have any problems.

His biggest problem is roosters.  He paid extra (it was like +$1/fertilized egg) to get only egg layers, but still ended up with 4-5 roosters.

I'd do it at my mother's house (she lives about 1/2 hour away) but I think she'd say "NO" quite loudly.  Certainly has enough land, but I think she'd find she'd be dealing with the chickens, and not me.  She'd be right - I don't go there enough.

[ChadTower]

Buy your mommy some chickens, man.  Just buy her some chickens. 

[SirPeale]

She'd hate them. 

[Sephroth57]

this board gets weirder every day

[Dartful Dodger]

Back on topic, you could do chickens in a second floor apartment...

[SirPeale]

this board gets weirder every day

Weird to someone in your position, maybe.  The older I get, the more I want to be self-sufficient.

I've especially been concerned about the stuff I put in my body.  More specifically, the stuff I'm putting in my *children's* bodies.  Have you read some labels lately?  There's some really scary stuff in there.  Did you know there's MSG in practically everything?  They disguise it, by calling it 'yeast extract' and whatnot.

This Spring we're going to attempt to have a small garden (there's some space in the backyard, kinda shady, but we'll give it a shot).  *Maybe* I'll talk to my mom about chickens.  I don't care so much for the eggs, but the meat would be nice.

[Sephroth57]

i wasnt trying to be like insulting or something, im just saying thats pretty fricken random to be like, hey i think i want to raise chickens, lol.  but yeah i wouldnt be able to do that, youre gonna be able to cut off a live chickens head and take all the feathers off??

[Shape D.]

once you cut the head off though it wouldn't be live when youre pulling off the feathers.

[SirPeale]

i wasnt trying to be like insulting or something, im just saying thats pretty fricken random to be like, hey i think i want to raise chickens, lol.  but yeah i wouldnt be able to do that, youre gonna be able to cut off a live chickens head and take all the feathers off??

LOL, it's not random in my head; something I've been thinking of for a while now.  I wouldn't mind raising a pig, either.  One pig would be meat for like a year or something.  Now THAT I wouldn't be able to butcher.  Not that I'm squeamish, but getting the cuts of meat right, I lack that skill.

Plucking chickens, I would probably build a WhizBang Chicken Plucker.  Check some of those links I posted above.  Oh, problem is you actually have to join those groups...heh.

There's a way to kill a chicken bloodlessly (until afterwards, anyway) but I haven't figured out how to do that from the written description.  You break it's neck in a certain way, and the blood goes into the skin of the neck.

[Shape D.]

I friend of mine is a pig farmer. they have to be the worst farm animal i've ever seen. they eat alot, theyre loud, and they are by far the smelliest farm animals I have ever sniffed.

[SirPeale]

My uncle raises pigs.  A lot of it has to do with how you keep their pen.  Keep it clean, they'll be fine.  Keep them in mud and don't clean up after them, you're going to have smelly animals. 

[Luxury]

buy alpacas!
www.ilovealpacas.com

i visited an alpaca ranch after seeing the commercials for them.

[DrewKaree]

Who's up for saustrich 

Peale, if you're going for a garden, go online and get a bunch of seed catalogs sent to you NOW - RIGHT NOW.  Don't wait for spring, it'll be too late.

Also, see if your local library has "The Vegetable Gardner's Bible".  The guy is from your area, I think he's actually from Vermont, but I know for certain he's at least in a surrounding state.  You've got some qualities in your area that will require a touch more preparation or planning.  Your kids will find it pretty fun, too.

[Mameotron]

Peale,

I picked up this book at a garage sale a few years ago, and I can't WAIT to buy some land, get out of the stinkin' city, and start my own garden.

Amazon.Com Link

It was published in 1978, but still it has a wealth of info and can really get you inspired to grow your own food, year round, in a greenhouse heated by nothing more than the sun's rays.

BTW, you really need to know what you're doing to slaughter a hog.  They are actually tricky to kill quickly.  As a teenager, I witnesses a botched slaughter and I still can't look at a pig the same.

[DrewKaree]

Bark like a dog

Squeal like a pig

SOOOOEEEEE!



Peale, are you one of those kinds who are looking into (or maybe you already are) being "off the grid" as well?  That kind of stuff really interests me, but everything I've read thus far on it lead me to believe you pay for it up front, instead of month to month, and it takes A LONG LONG time for it to pay for itself, plus if there's any repairs to be done, it's pricey to fix too.....I'd like to retire with nothing more than property taxes and a cell phone bill to pay for each month, and becoming self-sustaining.

Depends on whether my parents slowly whittle away my retirement account or not 

[SirPeale]

I'd LOVE to get off the grid - or, at the very least, hook up some wind power to suppliment what we take, possibly even hydro power (if we lived on a stream/river.

I know how hogs are slaughtered, and I've got no intention of doing it myself.  I *could* but I'd rather pay someone to take my pig, go away for a day, and come back and pick up the chops.

As for gardening, I've done it before - just not here.  I might do it @ my mothers, she does one every year.  Just need to actually *go* up there.

[Ixliam]

I play KOL, and they got the grue reference from Zork. I love those old Infocom games and remember getting Zork and Enchanter (along with many others) for Christmas/Birthdays. Nothing like playing those on my CoCo with 64k ram!!!

Beats my Timex Sinclair with massive 2K ram (which I still have)!

Brad

[Trimoor]

I have raised chickens twice now, and I love them.  I only get eight at a time, so they're more manageable.
They make great pets.

Mature females lay 1-2 eggs per day, so you had better like omelets.  I occasionally get jumbo or double yolkers.  (You always know when you're getting a jumbo from the shrieking of the poor chicken. ).  They laid the best eggs I ever tasted.  It must be all the bugs they ate.

Be carefull about getting a rooster.  He's hilarious to listen to when he's first learning to crow, but then he starts crowing all day long.  Read the second half of the previous sentence a few more times to understand how annoying this can be.

They get locked in a coop every night for protection against animals.  (we only had one break-in.)  I hope you like climbing trees.  Every night, the chickens all fly up into a tree, and I have to throw them out.  I tried spraying them with a hose, but they became resistant after a week.  (You'd think they would fly down after having a stream of water shot at their ass for five minutes.  Maybe they liked it.)

I never had to worry about what to do with them.  They disappeared one by one as winter approached.

Good times.........

[Gunstar Hero]

Random is right!

You never know what a BYOAC visit will get ya!

[Bones]

I've especially been concerned about the stuff I put in my body.

[SirPeale]

Yes Peale, be afraid. Be very afraid.

Oh, I am!

I went to the store yesterday to do some shopping, as we're nearly out of food.

EVERYTHING has MSG in it.  Even friggin' canned VEGETABLES have it!  Not all, no, but a lot did.

As for the chickens roaming free, that's what a chicken pen is for.

[SeaMonkey]

This really should be in the Buy Sell Trade forum.
**snicker**

[Pieman2004]

A kid up the street from my parents house has a bunch of chickens. He keeps them in a shed type setup with a pen to the side. I never really noticed he had them, but once I was over there when he had to feed them or something. Apparently he shows them, you know like in FFA. I didn't realize there were "show" chickens. I think they were quite expensive as well.

[Bones]

I didn't realize there were "show" chickens. I think they were quite expensive as well.

I would enjoy eating an expensive prize chicken. Maybe something endangered with some roast veggies and pepper sauce as well.

I figure endangered animals must taste good or they wouldn't be endangered. Take panda soup served in an ivory bowl for instance....

[RetroJames]

Now if I could just find a good source for cheap lasers I could have an army of Chickens with lasers on thier heads!

MWWAAHAHHHHAHAHA .... AHAH ... ha ... he ... ahem

[Stingray]

I live pretty deep out in the boonies and own a few acres. I've never actually owned chickens, but I did have a small group of them that just showed up one day a few years ago. Eventually we started feeding them, they spent most of their time in the trees. They hung around for about a year and then apparantly moved on. If they were laying eggs I don't know where, I never found any. Probably the racoons were getting to them before me.

-S