Tag Archives: chickens

Posts on raising backyard chickens on www.TexasHomesteader.com

Teaching Free-Range Chickens To Come HOME

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Last year we tried our hand at raising chickens for the very first time.  We bought day-old chicks and raised all that fuzzy cuteness into adult chickens/roosters.  We ended up with four hens and two beautiful roosters but someone STOLE both of our roosters!  Can you even believe that??!

Aaaanyway not wanting to overwinter the hens due to predator issues we sold them last fall. But only after I had preserved many of the excess eggs by freezing  them. 

I used those frozen eggs all winter and about the time my freezer started running low on my supply we decided it was time to raise chickens again this year!

See how we get our new chickens to free range during the day yet come back to the coop each night to be locked securely from predators. #TexasHomesteader

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Once Again, We Have Chickens!

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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!

Our chicken breeder raises various breeds of chickens, so we bought laying hens. I loved raising chickens last year, here we go again! #TexasHomesteader

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Peeling Very Fresh Eggs Easier

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by Texas Homesteader~ 

I’m preserving or using up my fresh eggs from our pastured flock as quickly as I can.  ‘ve made breakfast burritos using eggs and cooked sausage wrapped in a tortilla & frozen for quick grab-n-go convenience.

But I still want to make sure none of our fresh eggs go to waste.

I recently made egg salad with several of them but as many of you know, boiling & peeling very fresh eggs is a challenge indeed. I was surprised that I had no trouble at all with them. Here’s how I did it: 

Trying to peel boiled eggs? Wanna know the secret of peeling VERY fresh eggs easier?? No more mangled mess! #TexasHomesteader Continue reading →

Chicken Update: 21 Weeks – WE HAVE EGGS!

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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.

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Frugal Low-Waste Chicken Feeder

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by Texas Homesteader~ 

This is our first year to explore raising our own chickens. They have been so much fun to raise so far, and they are doing an amazing job of severely reducing the massive load of grasshoppers in our barn pasture, as well as almost eliminating the fly load on our calves when they’re confined here near the barn. 

Truly organic pest control – I can get used to this!

Using items picked up second hand we constructed a large chicken feeder that doesn't waste feed. See how! #TexasHomesteader

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