I just started making my own chicken scratch mix. It's stuff that we eat normally, oats, lentils, chia seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, quinoa, wild rice (2 of my chickens go CRAZY for uncooked rice), wheat berries. When I ferment their feed, I add minced garlic. In the yard, they get to eat the wild chicory and common mallow and the Queen Anne's Lace and blackberry bushes and dandelions and all the bugs they can dig up, in addition to half our lawn grass being wheat grass, with some wild broccoli and wild mustard. I keep their coop in the outdoor rabbit den, and there I use the deep litter method with hay (grass and alfalfa) and they're always eating the loose alfalfa leaves. The only corn I give them is fresh corn, which my bunnies will eat the husks and cobs. Occasionally I get them meal worms, but those are getting so expensive that I'm going to have start my own couple worm farms. Sometimes they also get bacon bits, a can of tuna, or some shredded cheese. If it gets really cold, I'll sometimes feed them some shredded coconut. Then they also get fresh meat when I harvest my rabbits. It might sound like a lot of money, but when you eat the same grains/seeds/nuts you feed your chickens, it is a LOT easier to buy in bulk without going outside your normal budget. I keep 2 five-gal buckets of their feed on hand at all time, and it leaves more than enough for us to use.
It is funny, our chickens are free ranged we live where ticks are a big problem. Our chickens clean them up. Yes they do seem to poop on the front steps and we are always hosing it off. My gardens are fenced in to keep the chickens out. This is what works for our farm. They are usually by the house in spring and late fall and winter. Otherwise they are up by the house in the morning and evening and the rest of the time they are in the fields and woods searching for more bugs. We really appreciate our girls. We have a lot of beautiful wildlife around that brings ticks to our property and chickens is our solution.
Thank you for sharing this video. I’ve been raising chickens for 20 years. I do the same thing you do. The eggs go into the incubator three times a year. Roosters are butchered. The soup stock is wonderful and so is the meat. Older chickens are also butchered. They are mainly for the delicious eggs. So for all the newbies out there, don’t be discouraged. Just need common sense. And you’ll be just fine. Take care e blessed and enjoy.
A lot of good info shared here. I have a couple of comments, based on my own experience, that others might find useful. I feed my chickens a lot from the house, but I do not feed them rotting food (mold, etc.) With that being said, many chicken owners let their chickens dig around their compost bin. The 10' fences are good for keeping chickens in, but there are many types of varmints that can get over that fence to get the chickens. Maybe you enclose them in a building at night? Even then, hawks can get them during the day. In my neck of the woods I cover the outdoor pens with chicken wire. Yes, it can be a pain in the winter when the snow sticks to it, but I don't lose birds like the other people around here. And I don't need to rush home before dark to be sure to close them in. Another point is that wild birds can mingle with your chickens and give them diseases. Putting dirty eggs into an incubator is a good way to hatch bacteria. The idea that the coating the hens put on the eggs will protect it is not correct. Contamination will easily breach it. Wash dirty eggs in cool water and dry them with a paper towel. It will NOT hurt the eggs. If there is a stain on the egg after cleaning (obvious breach of the film), then it should be sanitized. I've been hatching eggs for 35 years. Literally hatched thousands. I even created an entirely new breed of chicken. I've seen it all. Only clean eggs should go into an incubator. I once hatched a batch of eggs that my wife accidentally took for eating. She washed them thoroughly (and roughly) and put them into the refrigerator. The next day I found my eggs neatly tucked away in the fridge, clean as buttons. They hatched as well as my other eggs. With that being said, if your hatching eggs are clean from the nest, then do not wash them. That music drove me nuts. I had to mute. I would have been more interested in you talking about what you were doing instead. I guess I am accustomed to watching cooking show where they talk about everything they are doing. Much more interesting that way and I learn more. I like to eat roosters as much as you do. My old roos are put into a pressure cooker and made into a stew. Yum! Nothing better! You are correct about the taste. Roosters up to the age of 18 weeks are butchered like the pullets and used similarly. The key is to butcher them just as they begin to crow. After that they will need more cooking time. Good to meet another poultry enthusiast!
You can even give chickens road kill. The old timers did that all the time, especially in the winter when they are in need of protein. FYI, you can fill the run with wood chips as a sort of deep mulch bedding too. It turns into really nice compost after a couple of years. Also, that chicken you made looks DELICIOUS!
I recently saved 3 chickens from the bio industry! They weren’t laying enough for the big industries so they were going to the slaughterhouse. They still look a bit poor but I see some new feathers coming true. And they lay eggs everyday! I won’t eat my chickens (and any other animal), and I love their personalities. But I am happy to eat (which was a long time) and share their eggs! It’s nice to eat eggs without guilt 🤍
We've had chickens for over 15 years. We have given every egg away they have laid. That's our way of giving back to God what he has given to us. We have blessed hundreds of people with free eggs. No charge. My husband thinks you have a soft voice. I agree. I love your videos. We do eat eggs for our household. Sorry I didn't mean to imply that we don't eat. My bad
@Cynthia Fisher sorry. I didn't mean to imply that we don't eat them. I don't eat them but my husband does. I just meant we don't charge ever for eggs. We should but my husband says no.
We give our eggs away too but not all. We keep what we need, which isn't much since there are only 2 of us here but I'm glad that we can give them away.
Really appreciate this video. You where the first person my wife started following years ago. And we just bought a old farm and got some chickens. I have some understanding of how to care for them but I kept finding people tell me sooooo many things that I wasn’t supposed to do and to do. And most seemed a little extreme. Thanks for helping me know what what I can feed them. That is was I have been trying to research.
No tomatoes and not to much store bought food, especially one that contains corn. I used to feed them corn every day, which is very bad for their liver. But potatoes, apple, carrots, salad, oat soaked in water, eggshells, a little bread now and then... all healthy for them. every two or three days I cook this for them, also add some cinnamon and bazil which is good for them, and that's it. They'll love it 😀
I'm keeping chickens for the first time this year, just four to start, but my coop can hold about twelve so I have room to grow. I'm excited to put them to work turning my compost!
We are adding a higher fence this year and thinking we would have to enclose the top. I would like to know if owls, eagles, other predators have been a problem for you.
So glad you shared they are a darker meat and the visual. If that's what it looked like and I hadn't known I'd have been nervous. This gave me confidence in eating a roo.
Thank you for sharing honestly. That's something I always try to do as well. Chickens have almost become novelty and I want people to understand how it really is. We love our chickens but it's not always pretty. :)
👍great tips: unique egg laying boxes that detach from the wall so you can remove all the old bedding by dumping it on the floor instead of shoveling it... Also 10 foot high fence so you don't have to clip all their wings...... Walk in coop very high up and no walls on bottom so you can do deep litter very high
I no longer use laundry soap, instead I use laundry balls. These are plastic hollow balls or eggs like mine that contain ceramic pellets that clean your clothes by electostatics. I didn't think it would work, but one of my dish cloths was horribly stained with red gelatin andafter it was washed the stains were gone.
This really brought me back to the chicken days. We would butcher 50 chickens on a Saturday afternoon. Those were never named and referred to as the frying pan special. Our problem was always snakes finding a way in and getting in the nesting boxes for eggs. Do you have snake issues?
Good to see this - in the UK here now all poultry are locked down and undercover due to bird flu - this has been the same for several winters in a row and miserable for the birds and owners - also any newbies watching this from the UK in UK it is illegal to feed kitchen/garden feed food waste to livestock including poultry due both to our hangover EU food hygiene regs and Foot and Mouth regs and feed must be logged for food traceability requirements which drive us all crazy :(. It's a different world. Fantastic to see you guys and your farm :) reminds me of how it used to be here :)
I'm new to Azure, have gotten a few orders now and really like them. I didn't realize I could get my layer feed from them too! Which layer feed do you use? Looks like they have several options. Thanks!
We've had laying hens for 15 years, and ended up with our first accidental rooster 4 years ago. One big daddy turned into 5, but my 10yo daughter raised the chicks, named them all, and won't let us touch the noisy buggers! 😆
Thank you for posting this! I have a cooking question. You saved the stock from cooking the chicken all day, do you also save the bones to roast and simmer for more stock or are those bones (for lack of a better term) worn out? I love making broth but I just always save and freeze bones until I have a lot then I just let them simmer in the crockpot for 24 hours. I'm just a very visual person who retains knowledge better when I see someone do it. I really appreciate all the videos you post, I've learned so much! Also, do you feed the chickens their bones and meat back?
Interesting on chickens. I come from a long line of chicken raising women. Ha I have 5 and a rooster free range right now they lay all the eggs we can eat and more. I give them chicken feed I buy , right now I’m giving a soy free and have decided maybe all feed isn’t created equal.. I don’t know? I think the main thing is that they can run outside and peck. I give them any slop and scraps and they love it including any tomatoes I have a garden and can tomatoes and have always given any and all 🍅 leftovers including cans gone bad,so that was a new one on me. I always keep oyster shells for them so they don’t break their eggs. I throw my egg shells on the garden though not sure why I was taught to do that and figured it’s because they’d learn to eat their eggs. I keep my eggs in a basket on the counter if you don’t wash them you don’t have to refrigerate them but once you wash them or refrigerate them you need to refrigerate them. If you use this method they really peal nicely when hard boiled(after about a week). I have some blue green eggs(1 hen) for the first time and always shied away from those until someone told me they are healthier. Now I go for those they bust open when you hard boil them though. We always would cook our old hens an roosters for broth.So good,yours broth looks delicious.Enjoy your chickens really the only animal I like.Are they animals or fowl?not sure.:)
Hard boil your extra eggs and them mash them with a hand potato masher. Give that to your birds, shells and all. It will not make them eat eggs in a nest. They don't see it as eggs.
Спасибо за Ваше успокоение, я тоже в этом году собираюсь начать наслаждаться, но только не цыплятами и курами, а утками🦆☺️. Думаю, это почти одно и тоже 😊 🧡🤗
We did have chickens at one time but we found that the feed cost way more than to just buy eggs. That is perhaps because of the town we're in and not having enough suppliers.
@@fatjuniesfarmette6030 It isn't about the price of the eggs it's about the price of the grain being so high. I don't even know how things look now with inflation. We only had a Tractor Supply in town to get grain from.
Hi Shaye. Thanks for this video! Just what I was needing since I'm getting chicks soon. Can I ask what brand your greenhouse is that you did the opening of the video in? This looks like one I've been seeing as I've been shopping around and just wondered what it is and how you like it?? Thanks!
It's so nice to hear someone finally tell the truth about those glam chicken coops. They make lovely fantasies but are totally unrealistic. Now someone needs to own up about having a chicken in the house roaming around...... Unless there is a secret way to housetrain a bird, that has to be most disgusting. The new issue of Country Living has a duck wandering about the house.. For goodness sake, why would any sane person even want to try that? Have they not considered the risk of Avian Flu or just good old food poisoning? Thanks for the truth about keeping birds.
Good idea to butcher the roosters, I just can’t bring myself to do it. I wonder why they caponize young roosters if the meat is good to eat when they mature?Or do you butcher them before they fully mature?
What's with the filthy eggs in the incubator? I was told to never put dirty eggs in for hatching. I was also advised when I got my first chickens 8 years ago to give them food grade DE once a week and I would always have clean eggs. I have done this and my eggs are always clean. Does it not matter?
I was told it’s really not good to have 😬 poop on the eggs while incubating- introducing a breeding ground for bacteria. We only hatch quail so far in our incubator so is that different for chickens?
Had chickens for 12 years but the rat population got out of control so we gave the hens away and the rats vanished too -- very sad about losing the girls but the rats were too much to deal with
Thank you so much for sharing your insight and knowledge of information on all aspects from gardening cooking and sharing your family life on the Homestead ❤KATY FRONM HONEY
I was surprised to see how poopy the eggs were, as that is generally a sign that your chickens have internal parasites and need a anti-parasitic or de-worming. Of course being so messy, chickens will roll an egg in poop, or somehow get poop on an egg, and an occasional bit of poop on an egg here, and there, is nothing to be concerned about. But all of those eggs you put into the incubator looked to be completely covered in poop as if they came out that way. I am not generally one to tell people online 'how to do things' as I can imagine how much unwanted and unnecessary advice that you get. And having kept chickens for so long you may have already know this. But I mentioned it just in case you were somehow not aware that if your chickens are laying eggs that come out poopy it usually means they have internal parasites. Anyway, hope this was helpful, and if not, ignore it of course!
It is not true about parasites and dirty eggs. With that being said, some hens have a problem in that they will will poop while laying an egg. I call those birds culls. You are correct that dirty eggs should never be put into an incubator. It causes more bacteria to grow and gives the bacteria time to get past the film the hens put on the eggs. Sometimes springtime can be very muddy, making it nearly impossible to collect clean eggs. Simply wash them immediately in cool water and then dry them with a paper towel. I've been doing this for 35 years. Cleaning an egg does not ruin an egg for hatching unless you are crazy rough with it. In experiments, dirty eggs always had worse hatches. I once purchased two dozen hatching eggs. Upon getting them home, I found several were cracked (threw them out). They others were dirty, the bacteria had breached the shell and it was already between the shell and the membrane. I seriously sanitized them. I got an 85% hatch rate.
Tomatoes aren't healthy for them, just for anyone who doesn't know. I cook my chicken every two or three days fresh food with for example potatoes, apple, salad, oats with water and eggshells. Also cinnamon is very healthy for them. And the other 1 or two days, they get bought food but for every day it's not healthy.
@@andy38andrews96 because from all I knew tomatoes contain solanine which is poisonous for chickens. But I checked and you are right: if red, they're not poisonous anymore, just when green. 😊 So thanks for asking :-)
Why are people getting chickens if they have not done the research first?! I've been doing my homework for years in the hopes of one day being able to have them in my city or me .moving to the country.
@@paularunyan8588 Asking a question is not putting anyone down. Always best to encourage one to know what they are getting into as this what's best for both human and chicken.
I have to ask...why are your eggs so dirty and poopy?? I've raised chickens for 30 years in every condition imaginable and never have I seen such dirty eggs. I would never load a incubator with such germy eggs. That's a no no and never ever put such contaminated eggs on a kitchen counter near food either. An egg that dirty actually pushes all that contamination thru the shell when you wash it and if you don't wash it there's no way your not depositing straight up poop germs in your food. I'm shocked to see this from someone who teaches food cooking classes. With all do respect I say this. People see this and think this is ok. It is not. You can die from e coli or salmonella. If occasionally I gather an egg that dirty, it goes straight into our compost bin. I won't even feed it to my dogs. It's not worth the violent diarrhea and vomiting that one speck of ingested chicken poo can cause. A lot of other good advice in the video tho.
I just started making my own chicken scratch mix. It's stuff that we eat normally, oats, lentils, chia seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, quinoa, wild rice (2 of my chickens go CRAZY for uncooked rice), wheat berries. When I ferment their feed, I add minced garlic. In the yard, they get to eat the wild chicory and common mallow and the Queen Anne's Lace and blackberry bushes and dandelions and all the bugs they can dig up, in addition to half our lawn grass being wheat grass, with some wild broccoli and wild mustard. I keep their coop in the outdoor rabbit den, and there I use the deep litter method with hay (grass and alfalfa) and they're always eating the loose alfalfa leaves. The only corn I give them is fresh corn, which my bunnies will eat the husks and cobs. Occasionally I get them meal worms, but those are getting so expensive that I'm going to have start my own couple worm farms. Sometimes they also get bacon bits, a can of tuna, or some shredded cheese. If it gets really cold, I'll sometimes feed them some shredded coconut. Then they also get fresh meat when I harvest my rabbits.
It might sound like a lot of money, but when you eat the same grains/seeds/nuts you feed your chickens, it is a LOT easier to buy in bulk without going outside your normal budget. I keep 2 five-gal buckets of their feed on hand at all time, and it leaves more than enough for us to use.
It is funny, our chickens are free ranged we live where ticks are a big problem. Our chickens clean them up. Yes they do seem to poop on the front steps and we are always hosing it off. My gardens are fenced in to keep the chickens out. This is what works for our farm. They are usually by the house in spring and late fall and winter. Otherwise they are up by the house in the morning and evening and the rest of the time they are in the fields and woods searching for more bugs. We really appreciate our girls. We have a lot of beautiful wildlife around that brings ticks to our property and chickens is our solution.
We do the same, by letting the chickens free range, to keep the ticks at bay!
Are predators an issue?
Thankfully not, we have other animals that protect the chickens, and we haven't had any issues with hawks,
Thank you for sharing this video. I’ve been raising chickens for 20 years. I do the same thing you do. The eggs go into the incubator three times a year. Roosters are butchered. The soup stock is wonderful and so is the meat. Older chickens are also butchered. They are mainly for the delicious eggs. So for all the newbies out there, don’t be discouraged. Just need common sense. And you’ll be just fine. Take care e blessed and enjoy.
A lot of good info shared here. I have a couple of comments, based on my own experience, that others might find useful.
I feed my chickens a lot from the house, but I do not feed them rotting food (mold, etc.) With that being said, many chicken owners let their chickens dig around their compost bin.
The 10' fences are good for keeping chickens in, but there are many types of varmints that can get over that fence to get the chickens. Maybe you enclose them in a building at night? Even then, hawks can get them during the day. In my neck of the woods I cover the outdoor pens with chicken wire. Yes, it can be a pain in the winter when the snow sticks to it, but I don't lose birds like the other people around here. And I don't need to rush home before dark to be sure to close them in. Another point is that wild birds can mingle with your chickens and give them diseases.
Putting dirty eggs into an incubator is a good way to hatch bacteria. The idea that the coating the hens put on the eggs will protect it is not correct. Contamination will easily breach it. Wash dirty eggs in cool water and dry them with a paper towel. It will NOT hurt the eggs. If there is a stain on the egg after cleaning (obvious breach of the film), then it should be sanitized. I've been hatching eggs for 35 years. Literally hatched thousands. I even created an entirely new breed of chicken. I've seen it all. Only clean eggs should go into an incubator. I once hatched a batch of eggs that my wife accidentally took for eating. She washed them thoroughly (and roughly) and put them into the refrigerator. The next day I found my eggs neatly tucked away in the fridge, clean as buttons. They hatched as well as my other eggs. With that being said, if your hatching eggs are clean from the nest, then do not wash them.
That music drove me nuts. I had to mute. I would have been more interested in you talking about what you were doing instead. I guess I am accustomed to watching cooking show where they talk about everything they are doing. Much more interesting that way and I learn more.
I like to eat roosters as much as you do. My old roos are put into a pressure cooker and made into a stew. Yum! Nothing better! You are correct about the taste. Roosters up to the age of 18 weeks are butchered like the pullets and used similarly. The key is to butcher them just as they begin to crow. After that they will need more cooking time.
Good to meet another poultry enthusiast!
You can even give chickens road kill. The old timers did that all the time, especially in the winter when they are in need of protein.
FYI, you can fill the run with wood chips as a sort of deep mulch bedding too. It turns into really nice compost after a couple of years.
Also, that chicken you made looks DELICIOUS!
I recently saved 3 chickens from the bio industry! They weren’t laying enough for the big industries so they were going to the slaughterhouse.
They still look a bit poor but I see some new feathers coming true. And they lay eggs everyday!
I won’t eat my chickens (and any other animal), and I love their personalities. But I am happy to eat (which was a long time) and share their eggs! It’s nice to eat eggs without guilt 🤍
We've had chickens for over 15 years. We have given every egg away they have laid. That's our way of giving back to God what he has given to us. We have blessed hundreds of people with free eggs. No charge. My husband thinks you have a soft voice. I agree. I love your videos. We do eat eggs for our household. Sorry I didn't mean to imply that we don't eat. My bad
You haven’t eaten any of them?
@Cynthia Fisher sorry. I didn't mean to imply that we don't eat them. I don't eat them but my husband does. I just meant we don't charge ever for eggs. We should but my husband says no.
@@kittyball9487 Ah, ok. I give mine away as well. I tell people at church I have an egg ministry, lol!
How lovely ✨
We give our eggs away too but not all. We keep what we need, which isn't much since there are only 2 of us here but I'm glad that we can give them away.
Wow!! I’ve had chickens for around 2 years now but THIS video was the best one I’ve ever seen! Thank you for sharing your chicken wisdom!!
Really appreciate this video. You where the first person my wife started following years ago. And we just bought a old farm and got some chickens. I have some understanding of how to care for them but I kept finding people tell me sooooo many things that I wasn’t supposed to do and to do. And most seemed a little extreme. Thanks for helping me know what what I can feed them. That is was I have been trying to research.
No tomatoes and not to much store bought food, especially one that contains corn. I used to feed them corn every day, which is very bad for their liver. But potatoes, apple, carrots, salad, oat soaked in water, eggshells, a little bread now and then... all healthy for them. every two or three days I cook this for them, also add some cinnamon and bazil which is good for them, and that's it. They'll love it 😀
This video is perfect timing. Chickens are so easy, love having them as pets / neighborhood livestock!
I'm keeping chickens for the first time this year, just four to start, but my coop can hold about twelve so I have room to grow. I'm excited to put them to work turning my compost!
We are adding a higher fence this year and thinking we would have to enclose the top. I would like to know if owls, eagles, other predators have been a problem for you.
So glad you shared they are a darker meat and the visual. If that's what it looked like and I hadn't known I'd have been nervous. This gave me confidence in eating a roo.
You never cease to inspire me! Thank you ❤
Thank you for sharing honestly. That's something I always try to do as well. Chickens have almost become novelty and I want people to understand how it really is. We love our chickens but it's not always pretty. :)
The best real deal of chicken keeping video by far and bonus cooking too! Applause from another chicken momma!
👍great tips: unique egg laying boxes that detach from the wall so you can remove all the old bedding by dumping it on the floor instead of shoveling it... Also 10 foot high fence so you don't have to clip all their wings...... Walk in coop very high up and no walls on bottom so you can do deep litter very high
I no longer use laundry soap, instead I use laundry balls. These are plastic hollow balls or eggs like mine that contain ceramic pellets that clean your clothes by electostatics. I didn't think it would work, but one of my dish cloths was horribly stained with red gelatin andafter it was washed the stains were gone.
I feel so inspired after watching your videos. I love the practical and reality that you bring to life in your pocket of the world.
Love this natural take! Thank you! Very helpful!❤
I love it. Just enjoy your chickens!
Thanks for sharing! I was drooling over that recipe.
We butchered some roosters a couple of months ago. Good meat.
I love how you make things so simple.
Hi I connected after a gap and I find you have become very professional in your approach and you work with a finesse 👍🏼👍🏼good to be back 👍🏼👍🏼
Loved this video! This is my kind of 'how-to.' No fuss and realistic.
This was great! I loved the full spectrum perspective ❤
KEEPING IT REAL!!!!! YES GIRL!!!!
we aways had a rooster for Christmas, family favourite.
We use PDZ with our wood chips. Keeps extra dry.
This really brought me back to the chicken days. We would butcher 50 chickens on a Saturday afternoon. Those were never named and referred to as the frying pan special.
Our problem was always snakes finding a way in and getting in the nesting boxes for eggs. Do you have snake issues?
Good to see this - in the UK here now all poultry are locked down and undercover due to bird flu - this has been the same for several winters in a row and miserable for the birds and owners - also any newbies watching this from the UK in UK it is illegal to feed kitchen/garden feed food waste to livestock including poultry due both to our hangover EU food hygiene regs and Foot and Mouth regs and feed must be logged for food traceability requirements which drive us all crazy :(. It's a different world. Fantastic to see you guys and your farm :) reminds me of how it used to be here :)
Loved this
Perfect! What else is there the say.... Blessings to the Elliott Homestead!
I'm new to Azure, have gotten a few orders now and really like them. I didn't realize I could get my layer feed from them too! Which layer feed do you use? Looks like they have several options. Thanks!
always appreciate you, Shaye ❤
We've had laying hens for 15 years, and ended up with our first accidental rooster 4 years ago. One big daddy turned into 5, but my 10yo daughter raised the chicks, named them all, and won't let us touch the noisy buggers! 😆
No recipe for the rooster? What's the gravy you poured on? I must know 😂
They have so much space there, they are kinda free range hens.
The roosters are so flavorful!
Thank you for posting this! I have a cooking question. You saved the stock from cooking the chicken all day, do you also save the bones to roast and simmer for more stock or are those bones (for lack of a better term) worn out? I love making broth but I just always save and freeze bones until I have a lot then I just let them simmer in the crockpot for 24 hours. I'm just a very visual person who retains knowledge better when I see someone do it. I really appreciate all the videos you post, I've learned so much! Also, do you feed the chickens their bones and meat back?
Interesting on chickens. I come from a long line of chicken raising women. Ha I have 5 and a rooster free range right now they lay all the eggs we can eat and more. I give them chicken feed I buy , right now I’m giving a soy free and have decided maybe all feed isn’t created equal.. I don’t know? I think the main thing is that they can run outside and peck. I give them any slop and scraps and they love it including any tomatoes I have a garden and can tomatoes and have always given any and all 🍅 leftovers including cans gone bad,so that was a new one on me. I always keep oyster shells for them so they don’t break their eggs. I throw my egg shells on the garden though not sure why I was taught to do that and figured it’s because they’d learn to eat their eggs. I keep my eggs in a basket on the counter if you don’t wash them you don’t have to refrigerate them but once you wash them or refrigerate them you need to refrigerate them. If you use this method they really peal nicely when hard boiled(after about a week). I have some blue green eggs(1 hen) for the first time and always shied away from those until someone told me they are healthier. Now I go for those they bust open when you hard boil them though. We always would cook our old hens an roosters for broth.So good,yours broth looks delicious.Enjoy your chickens really the only animal I like.Are they animals or fowl?not sure.:)
Hard boil your extra eggs and them mash them with a hand potato masher. Give that to your birds, shells and all. It will not make them eat eggs in a nest. They don't see it as eggs.
How long does your chicken stock last how do you plan to store it?
Спасибо за Ваше успокоение, я тоже в этом году собираюсь начать наслаждаться, но только не цыплятами и курами, а утками🦆☺️. Думаю, это почти одно и тоже 😊 🧡🤗
Great as always, thank you ❤️
What is the green herb added at time mark 14:04 ???
This meal must have tested scrumptious. I enjoy your content very much. Be Blessed
I want to see you catch one. That's sometimes that's the hardest part😋
Givin' the straight talk! Good video. Country life isn't idyllic, and you don't want it to be. You're focused on results and efficiency, not looks.
We did have chickens at one time but we found that the feed cost way more than to just buy eggs. That is perhaps because of the town we're in and not having enough suppliers.
That should make you question the nutritional quality of the eggs you’re buying so cheap, & probably the conditions in which they’re produced..
@@fatjuniesfarmette6030 It isn't about the price of the eggs it's about the price of the grain being so high. I don't even know how things look now with inflation. We only had a Tractor Supply in town to get grain from.
About how old is the best time to butcher a roo? Mine are about 4 mos and it's just starting to get a little cooler, so I'm ready.
Thank you!!
Hi Shaye. Thanks for this video! Just what I was needing since I'm getting chicks soon. Can I ask what brand your greenhouse is that you did the opening of the video in? This looks like one I've been seeing as I've been shopping around and just wondered what it is and how you like it?? Thanks!
If it's no trouble, would you mind sharing the incubator you have please?
I read this in the middle of the night when breastfeeding my baby and read "children" not "chickens". 😅 I thought it was an odd way to phrase it.
It's so nice to hear someone finally tell the truth about those glam chicken coops. They make lovely fantasies but are totally unrealistic. Now someone needs to own up about having a chicken in the house roaming around...... Unless there is a secret way to housetrain a bird, that has to be most disgusting. The new issue of Country Living has a duck wandering about the house.. For goodness sake, why would any sane person even want to try that? Have they not considered the risk of Avian Flu or just good old food poisoning? Thanks for the truth about keeping birds.
Good idea to butcher the roosters, I just can’t bring myself to do it. I wonder why they caponize young roosters if the meat is good to eat when they mature?Or do you butcher them before they fully mature?
Beautiful dog!!! Guards your livestock?
What's with the filthy eggs in the incubator? I was told to never put dirty eggs in for hatching. I was also advised when I got my first chickens 8 years ago to give them food grade DE once a week and I would always have clean eggs. I have done this and my eggs are always clean. Does it not matter?
I agree, free ranging is overrated 😅
Heck, we even used to give our chickens roast chicken carcasses 😅 I've watched mine eat whole live mice (!) and whole frogs (!!!)
Ha, ha…
I wonder why you find that funny? If somebody served you up human flesh and told you it was pork, you would eat it too.😬
@@oh_k8They’re CHICKENS!
@@cynthiafisher9907 Remember when your ilk thought it was funny to feed dead beef carcasses back to cattle? That turned out not to be funny afterall.🙄
@@oh_k8 My ilk? I don’t think it’s a good idea to feed chicken to chickens.
❤Do you deworm your chickens? If so how?
Hi,
I really want chickens and to give them vege scraps etc.. but I’m terrified of rats trying to get the food. How do you manage this plse?
I was told it’s really not good to have 😬 poop on the eggs while incubating- introducing a breeding ground for bacteria. We only hatch quail so far in our incubator so is that different for chickens?
Do you wash the eggs you use for cooking?
What was the herb you put into your gravy?
Do you roast your chicken and vegetables for stock or just slow boil?
That looks like a food dehydrator
What incubator was that you are using?
Had chickens for 12 years but the rat population got out of control so we gave the hens away and the rats vanished too -- very sad about losing the girls but the rats were too much to deal with
What are you cooking? 😄
Thank you so much for sharing your insight and knowledge of information on all aspects from gardening cooking and sharing your family life on the Homestead ❤KATY FRONM HONEY
I was surprised to see how poopy the eggs were, as that is generally a sign that your chickens have internal parasites and need a anti-parasitic or de-worming. Of course being so messy, chickens will roll an egg in poop, or somehow get poop on an egg, and an occasional bit of poop on an egg here, and there, is nothing to be concerned about. But all of those eggs you put into the incubator looked to be completely covered in poop as if they came out that way. I am not generally one to tell people online 'how to do things' as I can imagine how much unwanted and unnecessary advice that you get. And having kept chickens for so long you may have already know this. But I mentioned it just in case you were somehow not aware that if your chickens are laying eggs that come out poopy it usually means they have internal parasites. Anyway, hope this was helpful, and if not, ignore it of course!
It's called mud and ice season 🤣
It’s a sign that they’re chickens, lol
It is not true about parasites and dirty eggs. With that being said, some hens have a problem in that they will will poop while laying an egg. I call those birds culls.
You are correct that dirty eggs should never be put into an incubator. It causes more bacteria to grow and gives the bacteria time to get past the film the hens put on the eggs. Sometimes springtime can be very muddy, making it nearly impossible to collect clean eggs. Simply wash them immediately in cool water and then dry them with a paper towel. I've been doing this for 35 years. Cleaning an egg does not ruin an egg for hatching unless you are crazy rough with it. In experiments, dirty eggs always had worse hatches.
I once purchased two dozen hatching eggs. Upon getting them home, I found several were cracked (threw them out). They others were dirty, the bacteria had breached the shell and it was already between the shell and the membrane. I seriously sanitized them. I got an 85% hatch rate.
2:05 but this is free range?
❤️❤️❤️
Rooster rillets first????
Her: “ sometimes we have too many chickens, so what do we do? Butcher them 🥰”
Me: 👁️👄👁️
Completely forgot that people eat chicken for a second
👍
Tomatoes aren't healthy for them, just for anyone who doesn't know.
I cook my chicken every two or three days fresh food with for example potatoes, apple, salad, oats with water and eggshells. Also cinnamon is very healthy for them. And the other 1 or two days, they get bought food but for every day it's not healthy.
Luca McKenzie: Why? I am almost 85 years old and have fed my chickens cull tomatoes and tomato peels for most of my life. I have never had a problem.
@@andy38andrews96 because from all I knew tomatoes contain solanine which is poisonous for chickens. But I checked and you are right: if red, they're not poisonous anymore, just when green. 😊 So thanks for asking :-)
My chickens have always eaten tomatoes, and, the plants at the end of the season.
@@lucamackenzie9229 experience tells me they eat what they want. They are dinosaurs with cast iron guts.
@@paularunyan8588 🤣💪🏼
Why is Rex always on a leash? Isn't he livestock guardian dog?
Why are people getting chickens if they have not done the research first?! I've been doing my homework for years in the hopes of one day being able to have them in my city or me .moving to the country.
If they're watching this, they are obviously doing research.
You can be ready to go info wise in an hour. Let's support them, not put them down.
@@paularunyan8588 Asking a question is not putting anyone down. Always best to encourage one to know what they are getting into as this what's best for both human and chicken.
I have to ask...why are your eggs so dirty and poopy?? I've raised chickens for 30 years in every condition imaginable and never have I seen such dirty eggs. I would never load a incubator with such germy eggs. That's a no no and never ever put such contaminated eggs on a kitchen counter near food either. An egg that dirty actually pushes all that contamination thru the shell when you wash it and if you don't wash it there's no way your not depositing straight up poop germs in your food. I'm shocked to see this from someone who teaches food cooking classes. With all do respect I say this. People see this and think this is ok. It is not. You can die from e coli or salmonella. If occasionally I gather an egg that dirty, it goes straight into our compost bin. I won't even feed it to my dogs. It's not worth the violent diarrhea and vomiting that one speck of ingested chicken poo can cause. A lot of other good advice in the video tho.