by Texas Homesteader ~
Did you know you could get chicken food for FREE??! Over the years I’ve learned a thing or two about feeding our hens. I’m always looking for ways to get chicken food for FREE! Thankfully it’s pretty easy to do.
by Texas Homesteader ~
Chickens waste a LOT of feed! So we made an Inexpensive PVC chicken feeder that’s SUPPOSED to cut down on wasted feed. But did it work as advertised? Check it out & see…
by Texas Homesteader
Have you ever had to deel with a broody hen? That’s when she collects a whole clutch of eggs and sits on them trying to get them to hatch.
During that time she doesn’t eat much, and she doesn’t lay any more eggs. Her main focus is on hatching those eggs into baby chicks. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes not.
by Texas Homesteader ~
I’ve learned how much healthier free-range eggs are. But I’ve learned so much more about them too. Read all the benefits of raising your own backyard flock of free-ranging chickens.
by Texas Homesteader
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Last year we dipped our toe into the raising-chickens waters. We bought day-old chicks and raised them until fall when we sold them (we didn’t want to attempt to overwinter last year) Oh how much fun they were to raise! We free-ranged them and they made quite a dent in the grasshopper population and an incredible impact on the fly reduction on our cows in the barn pens.
Oh yeah, and they gave us FRESH EGGS! We knew that as spring drew closer we’d consider again if we wanted to raise chickens. The verdict is in: Um, YES PLEASE!
by Texas Homesteader ~
Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning – which apparently makes for some grumpy roosters!
by Texas Homesteader ~
The most common colors of chicken eggs sold in the stores are white or brown. They taste the same and have the same nutritional content. But white or brown – how do I know what color eggs my Ideal 236 chickens will lay? Well read on for the surprising answer!
by Texas Homesteader
Back in April we bought day-old straight-run chicks. Three Black Minorcas for their larger body frames and three Ideal 236 for their larger egg-laying abilities. After the chicks grew their feathers we put them in a mobile chicken tractor and moved them to fresh grass every day. The chicks grew & grew!
When they outgrew the chicken tractor we moved them into the chicken coop in our 1880’s barn. We let them out each morning to free range and locked them securely back in the barn each night.
The baby chicks now looked like grown chickens and Interestingly enough the Black Minorca roosters have different colored cheek patches. We anticipated they would have large white patches and one of them does, but the other on has large red patches on his cheeks instead.
