Still have my favorite pet hen buried next to my wife's flower bed in a mahogany casket. Ethel was a sweetheart. So many stories. She was a dark Brahma.
We just got some Brahma chicks and the one that I claimed as “mine” is the sweetest girl. She falls asleep in my hands everyday and I will be so sad when it’s her time 😢❤
@@keithbantleman5245 yes! I have 4 chicks and I can immediately tell them apart and know their individual personalities. One of them is a sweet, sleepy gal. Ones a nutcase who never shuts up. Ones a little bully! I love them 😂
@@cmwHisArtist ChatGPT says “Stores may require a minimum purchase of six live chickens to ensure responsible chicken ownership and provide optimal living conditions in small flocks.”
Chicken poop is fantastic for the garden. And if you are kind, loving and respectful most of my hens are still laying after 5 years. I have the garden gals( my older girls) and my hip hop hens(the young and fun ones). They are separate to help reduce the sass and attitude.
yeah, our neighbor gave us his hens as he couldnt care for them anymore and they were 6+ years old and still laying until 2 years later when 1 had a stroke and the other stopped laying.
Eggs in all females, human and otherwise are finite. Being kind, loving and respectful does not change the number of eggs a chicken has left in the chamber. Proper nutrition will surely enable chickens to lay the maximum number of eggs that they are genetically predisposed to lay. Some lay more frequently than others. If you chicken lays an egg 6 out of 7 days, it will run out of eggs sooner than a chicken that lays 4 out of 7 days. No chicken will run out of eggs in less than 5 years. It's a mathematic impossibility. Restricting food (semi-starving) will reduce the number of eggs laid. That MIGHT increase the years of a chickens productivity, but can not increase the overall number of eggs produced.
@@jeremycherny2041 that’s awesome. I can’t eat chicken anymore. They are very smart ( some more than others) and if you pay attention you can clearly see they have complex emotions.
I had a chicken that got when I was a kid and she lived well over 8 years. She would still lay eggs up until she passed. She was one of the original chickens I first got when my mom got me into 4H. She was an awesome hen, really friendly but knew how to hold her own out there haha. Miss her a lot
@@kelleyleblanc5025 I can confirm. They most certainly do have complex emotions. My flock is like a group of middle schoolers. They operate primarily on jealousy. But every interaction has meaning to them. It's something I wasn't really expecting. Culling cockerels is something I loath, but must do. It sucks to basically betray a small animal that wants you to help it.
My grandparents had chickens. None were named. No petting or cuddling occurred. The culls were separated from the laying hens, kept in a barn stall. Sunday dinner was fried chicken. As the oldest boy, I was taught to catch two culls and bring them to Grandma. She killed them, plucked them and we ate them for Sunday dinner. It was never an issue. It was how we lived.
My grandparents raise chickens too, and they were healthy and they laid eggs every day. And once in a while my grandma what butcher a chicken for dinner. She always fed them table scraps such as lettuce potato pillings and apple pillings and carrots. I heard that some companies that make chicken feed are putting poison in the food. Just like the government is doing to us
Same here 😂 we never named our chickens 🐓 but still treated them with respect and kindness and once they were too old to lay we ate them, and my neighbor she let them out of the farm to live in the wild. That was their retirement to run free in the wild. Because they aren’t meant to live forever they are prey animals, if they live longer they will suffer a lot of health issues and have have poor quality of life.
I lived on my grandparents farm. There were about 240,000 chickens (no roosters), 14 cows and 10 hogs, (on average) and a 1 acre garden. It was a lot of work but damn we ate good!
home raised vs store bought is not a big ordeal on meat flavor. all meat needs to be preped and seasoned. the eggs do taste different they are more flavorful. the biggest gain in home raised is you knowing what is in your food.
I've got 3 chickens who are 3 years old. They don't lay eggs anymore, but nevertheless enjoy their lives as free running chickens on 1 hectar of land and loads of snacks. Oh and yes, I named them!! Love my girls!
Composted chicken manure creates the greenest, most beautiful lawns! My Dad always used chicken manure as long as it was available. After the 1980's we had a difficult time finding chicken manure for sale at the local nurseries and garden stores.
Best fertilizer ever! I had sand spurs in my yard and they only grew ankle high. One day walking around my yard, I thought I was stung on my thigh by a wasp. I looked down and there was a sand spur on my thigh. In all my 40+ years, I had never seen sand spurs grow that tall. I had fertilized my yard with chicken manure.
I've nursed gravely injured chickens back to health. I've had to put some down. I've had to clean-up messes left by hawks and coyotes. I've fought escape artists and raccoons and opossums.She's right - EVERYTHING wants to eat chickens. If you're not prepared to deal with the reality of that and all it entails, don't get chickens. But they really are amazing livestock. If you let them forage, they'll eat pest insects like ticks and mosquitos. They'll fertilize your lawn (and your porch). And in my experience, they do better with a rooster so you need to deal with the noises from that. And if you know how to make it, chicken tea fertilizer is the best fertilizer you can get. And for anyone wondering, a chicken's maximum lifespan is around 9 years. Their egg production starts dropping by about 10% per year after age 2. So that means, they should lay eggs their entire life. If you have a prolific layer, they can still produce well up until they die of old age. I have Rhode Island Reds, Easter Eggers and Cinnamon Queens. The Rhode Island Reds are easily the best layers. I once had 9 eggs one day from 6 reds. Reds are poor flyers. My Cinnamon Queens and Easter Eggers are hard to keep in the coop. So if you're looking for the best egg layers that are easy to contain, get reds.
@Viva 1 I usually give them 1-2 cups of that mixture in the morning and then again around 6pm. I have a TON of hawks around my property, so I am afraid to let them roam unsupervised, but I did build them a 30ftx10ft run that they spend the whole day in. They seem to find lots of bugs. Im still new to this so im not sure exactly how much they need to eat to provide a steady supply of eggs. They are about 1.5 months old now.
@Kay G Ya I boil the whole thing for about 30 mins then let it absorb the remaining water. I sometimes give then eggs too and a handful of chicken feed when I check on them during lunch just incase the beans arent enough protein. Plus they eat a bunch of bugs all day. What nutrients am I missing?
I Can safely say we have saved on chicken eggs 🤷♀️. You can and will absolutely save money as long as you aren’t spending thousands on the the coup and like you said buy expensive feed. It is so inexpensive feeding our hens and they lay great. Idky she would tell people “you’re not going to save any money I can almost guarantee that.” Cause no she can’t. Everyone’s different when it comes to budgeting the money for chickens. It must be just a hobby for her. That’s why it’s so expensive… for her that is.
@@loreylane3918 Exactly. We have worm farms and fly traps that supply much of our chicken's food along with natural foraging and feeding them scraps from the garden that they enjoy it's almost costing nothing to keep them fed at this point!
@@SamStone1964 Not even close to being true. You can do worm towers and fly traps and supplement the majority of their food without them being free range.
@@-a-s-a-s- I have mulch pits full of earthworms but only some of my chickens eat them. No flies in winter. I breed mealworms but don't get many because it's too cold. I grow kale and collect greens and grass and they have dozens of different greens growing in their coop. I leave rotting logs around for insects. But they need more protein so I buy mealworms and minced meat. I buy whole seeds which I usually sprout or at least soak. I also buy pellets which contain meat and fish meal. It's Winter here and I'm getting maybe one egg a day. So yes my eggs are incredibly expensive. But I adore my chickens and I'd have them even if they didn't lay eggs.
The initial investment to get started is a lot, but over time it does pay off, I disagree concerning what you said about eggs. Farm-raised chicken eggs are ten times healthier and safer than store-bought eggs, the price of eggs are going up and soon enough getting eggs in the store is going to be hard to come by. Having your own chickens means you have a secure food source. Also if you do not store your extra eggs by water glassing, you can sell them.
Unless something else happens, eggs aren’t going anywhere, price hikes are artificial and it’s proven, supply shortages are temporary and artificial as well, or due to outbreaks or some crazy situation and it’ll balance out after awhile Always better to have your own supply tho!
@@Gibbypastrami it is much better to have your own supply I agree with you. But soon it is a fact, food security will be a problem in the United States because of what is coming.
Yes, of course the eggs will be safer and healthier if you raise your own chickens right. The reason I started raising my own was purely taste, though. I had been buying eggs at the grocery store, using them only for baking or binding foods in recipes. I figured I was losing my tastebuds because I was getting old. [I was about 27.] Then one day in the health food store, I picked up a dozen organically raised eggs, even though they cost 4X as much, because what the heck. I was astounded by how good they tasted! That's when I concluded organic was the difference. And I never looked back.
Yeah, I raised my eyebrow at the egg comment. I have 4 laying hens and my fridge always has eggs so I’m always boiling them and giving them back as snacks 😂 they’re pets so they (and the three roosters) get extra spoiled with whatever they want 👀
We have a brown americana that got attacked by a dog. She was absolutely mangled and bloodied. She couldn't lift her head for a few days, and didn't stand for several weeks. But now she's up and running around and has been laying well for the last year.
We’re raising a chick inside and my mom has decided we’re going to have to bite the bullet and get chicken diapers. She sits on the back of my neck whenever she gets a chance and doesn’t stop talking at all.
I don’t know why any one does this I’m 12 I have 15 chickens and every day I go to a restaurant that is vary close and I take a bucket and get their scraps which means my eggs are free and I also sell eggs and make a lot of money and my chickens free rang
@@marykay8587 I have vegetable gardens and my chickens have unlimited access to greens. But I have to buy their protein and grains which is very expensive.
Chicken poop is excellent for compost. If you have a garden like I do, create a compost bin, throw their bedding/poop combo in there once a year and you'll never have to buy soil.
I just agree. I saved a lot of money on buying the chicken feed to feed my chickens and follow them with my chickens lay every day. I had 12 hens and I was getting 18 eggs at 12:00 everyday 7 days a week
I saw a short about an experiment in an European country, when they fed chickens kitchen scraps they supposedly got enough eggs and reduced landfill waste… but not sure if that’s actually true since I’ve only seen the short 😂
It was about Belgium. They offered three chickens to any household that wanted them. 2000 households volunteered so 6000 chickens were given out. In the first month approximately 100 tons of food waste was kept from going to landfill. The theory being that if one in three households had enough chickens to eat the food scraps of those three houses there would be no commercial egg industry.
@@drivingmissmolly I would gladly participate if that meant not having caged chicken eggs in grocery stores. We are already planning a large covered coop but we will also let them out in the yard when we are outside.
Just lost one to sour crop today. We did everything we could. Even the vet said we did everything right. She refused to eat or drink after getting sour crop
We had 22 dozen eggs per week and in winter 15 dozen eggs per week..they never stopped laying!! It takes good animal husbandry..my husband was studying poultry at San Louis Obispo, CA. We had 50 hens and two roosters and only lost 2 hens in the 5 yrs we had them. We gave them all away and the lived out their natural lives!!
My hens cost a fortune each month, feed them organic pellets, proper cooked vegetables, medication when needed and bedding changed weekly.. Worth every penny!! when they stop laying, their will always be part of my family... I have 14 garls
I've recently gotten a bunch of chickens (a few at a time) I don't think people realize how awesome they are and how much work it takes to take care of them.
My girls, when they started laying eggs, would come to my door and made a ruckus until I let them in. They would then sit on my lap for me to stroke their backs until they laid the egg. I could swear they were crying from the pain until after the first 4 ot 5 eggs. They had possums living in the coop with them, and at night, those who wanted to stay outside the coop on their eggs, would get along just fine with the raccoons that would visit.
This was such a great video!!! So many truths I wish I had known before I got started! We love our backyard flock but seeing them get injured and even hurt each other is so hard! Lots of learning & trial and error along the way
Chickens are wonderful animals. I would say we spend more money than if we bought eggs from the store, but it is such a wonderful experience. Although it comes with many things to be wary of and lots of work to give them a good environment, it was completely worth it and I don’t regret a second of it.
Had chickens since..eggs or not we keep them as pets. Most have been rescues and some have been great layers. We have an Easter egger who is 14, been with us since the beginning and she’s still doing great. Chickens are a great first pet in my opinion
You are absolutely right about culling them having to know and when its needed its hard to be able to do that I stopped naming mine in hopes I wouldn't be so sad after I lost my first one her name was Penny its crazy but I still miss her
If anyone’s looking to get chickens, I HIGHLY recommend Black Austolorps and Smoky Pearls. Great layers and if you raise them right they will be SUPER affectionate and they are AMAZING layers. Rhode Island Reds are great too, but they don’t live long and are prone to egg issues.
😂 I remember reading a TH-cam Comment about someone who kept two Chickens in a Apartment as Emotional Support Animals. They didn't want to be on the Nests that he bought for them but only wanted to sit on the Pillows. So I guess that's also a important Consideration if you should decide to keep them inside🤭
We had chickens. Not a lot only four at a time. We kept them in a special garden for them. Fresh food wether it be veggies or bugs. We also had rabbits. They were separate. But my Dad used rabbit pellets for fertilizer in our lawn. And he also sold it.
I personally find that, depending on how many chickens you have, they can mostly pay for themselves. We own about 25 free-range chickens, and get atleast a dozen eggs every other day. By selling them for around $4-$5 per carton ($3 less than conventional store bought where Im from) to neighbors and friends, we make about $25 every few weeks, which is enough for two bags of complete feed. As theyre free range, they dont need as much feed in summer and spring, when they lay the most, as they mostly scavenge for bugs and plants, so the feed lasts around 2 - 3 weeks; The same amount of time it takes to make about as much for the next round of feed. Granted, if youre looking for profit, there isnt much there, but if you just want an outdoor pet that, depending on the area and your egg and feed prices, can often pay for their own feed, they're definitely a great choice.
I had chickens for about 4 years now. But they were my dads. But I took care for them and some time this month I'm buying my own chickens and the are americanas the most beautiful chickens I ever seen and I want to raise the right ✅️ thanks for all your help
My Grandparents had 1¾ Acres. We had many of our families near their place and we would grow between 150-200 Chickens and would take a couple of weekends and a few days during the week to process and Can, Freeze, and Cook fresh chickens. Got a few eggs too, but we grew them mostly for the meat. Yum, I miss chickens that taste like a chicken!
When I was really young, we had chickens, about 20 of them. Named them all, and referred to them by name when serving them. Parents grew up on farms, so this was considered normal. Knew from early on, they were to supply eggs and become food, so we cared for them like pets, and always culled them away from the flock, so the tasted better and the flock stayed unstressed. It also taught me some handy skills that I used much later in live when euthanising animals hit by cars. Amazingly easy to snap a neck when you disassociate your feelings from reality.
WOW! Your yellow Silkie looks EXACTLY like mine that I had! But he was a rooster and we have backyard Chickens so we had to give him and 3 other roosters away but we have three beautiful hens now!❤
Out of 19 chickens.. I've lost 4. 2 to unknown, 1 to I believe coccidiosis. I'm new to chickens.. now I have a light brahma that something isn't right with. checking tomorrow for mites or something.. I hate learning as you go but sometimes that's the only option.
I learned in a poultry group (they didn't like the term 'chicken club), that if you have 200 chickens in your basement, they would generate enough heat to heat your house. Never tried it out, lol
I had one batch of chickens for 7 YEARS and a few were STILL laying eggs a couple times a week! And while you may not save money on eggs you get the incredible experience that comes with raising chickens! I might argue they’re better than dogs! Chickens are AMAZING for kids too!
You can always eat a rooster. We eat a lot of the wild juvenile ones that pester the hens. We do have a 2nd hand rooster that we don't know how old he is, but he is super calm and brings great energy to the flock
if you have land to graze your flock. i highly recommend it. youll cut down on your feed bill and chickens will clean your yard like crazy. and let them eat through your garden area in the off season. a proper sized cage with an open bottom and just move them to the next space when the grass is gone. chickens love grazing.
Chickens are great! My aunt has a dozen or so hens and one cowardly rooster! The rooster acts almost exactly like a chicken, the only difference is that he is much louder :)
My girls were rescued from a factory farm. One was so bad that apart from afew downy feathers she was completely bald and missing a toe. Also one of mine was an escape artists. She, would be sitting on top of the pen every morning.
She speaks the truth. My dad bought what he thought were all hens and about a month and a half in we noticed one of them looked “different” than the rest. Turns out he was a boy.
Yeah, when we got our third batch of chickens we thought only one of them was a rooster. There was four roosters in that batch including the one that was a rooster
I agree with you I e been raising chickens and ducks for 15 years. My best advice DO your research on raising them! Some chickens can live up to 13 years.
Do you have to keep the chicken nuggets in a separate coop? I keep mine with the chicken strips and they do fine until the chicken tenders show up. Harland Sanders
RAPID FIRE QUESTIONS: I really want to own a chicken, but I'm not sure if I could just get one, or if I need to get two. Do chickens have friends? Do chickens need to socialize? How do I know what food is best for my chicken? How can I tell if a chicken is happy or unhappy? Do chickens prefer being outside over being inside? What's the best material to put on their feet?
It's really easy to tell if you're buying hens are roosters just by stretching the leg and the wing at the same time if the wing is complete all the way to the Body in one uniform pattern it is a hen.. if the wing is shorter near the body and longer on the outside of the primary flight feather it is a rooster. Plus the hens will all have little pin tail feathers well before the roosters get any tail feathers at all. The Roosters also have a small unilateral nub on the inside of their foot. The hen does not have that unilateral nub. I hope this helps I've been raising birds now for quite some time and was doing it on a professional level for Perdue Farms and now I'm just backyard bird raising and we have an entire humongous Army running around our yard right now LOL😅😅😅😅
Came within a couple of days of culling a hen because she would bully the others and not let them eat until she had her fill. Luckily me and her had a heart to heart and she sat in a separate cage for a day and came back cured.
I read that hybrids decline in health shortly after they pass the laying and or processing age they were bred for (8weeks-2years-ish). I plan on buying heritage breeds because I love them and want them around a while. If I breed for meat I’ll raise and process turkey or something different I think.
I have over 20 chicke s right now. I feed them table scraps, and they free-range graze all spring and summer. I give them grain for treat and supplement for winter. I sell over 5 doz eggs a week, which pays for the treats and supplement feed. So my eggs are essentially free.
Free ranging during the day or while you're home can cut down on feed. Pasta is cheap, rice and pinto beans are cheap. Feed them your food scraps and maybe a friendly neighbors scraps as well? If you feed only commercial feed you're going to break the bank for sure!
I've been through all of that, I don't ever want to cull a chicken again. I cried the whole time and even though my mom peocessed it, I still couldn't eat it. My dogs loved their chicken soup though.
Ya i didnt understand why she said ur not saving money on eggs? I have 12 and spend maybe $30 a month of food for them and can get 10 eggs a day. So many eggs the dogs get to eat eggs just about everyday as well.
Two best things about your neighbor having chickens:
- an economical source of eggs
- not having to mess with chickens
😂😂😂😂
We just gave 60 eggs to our neighbor last night. She's probably thinking this same thing 😂
I have chickens and my neighbors come and get eggs from me so now I know why
I gave my neighbor 2 dozen a couple days ago and a couple of my moms friends and dads friends a couple dozen😂
Still have my favorite pet hen buried next to my wife's flower bed in a mahogany casket. Ethel was a sweetheart. So many stories. She was a dark Brahma.
We just got some Brahma chicks and the one that I claimed as “mine” is the sweetest girl. She falls asleep in my hands everyday and I will be so sad when it’s her time 😢❤
We have had chickens for two years now. I didnt expect to get so attached to them. They have great individual characters.
@@keithbantleman5245 yes! I have 4 chicks and I can immediately tell them apart and know their individual personalities. One of them is a sweet, sleepy gal. Ones a nutcase who never shuts up. Ones a little bully! I love them 😂
How old was she
@@JJ-bv2gp maybe a week old? She doesn’t do it anymore
I got chickens today!!! Little chicks! They are so sooo cute!
We had to buy a minimum of 6 at Tractor Supply. At 3 weeks old, I knew one was a rooster because he had an attitude. He crows every morning at 4:30.
Lol same 😂 he ended up being just perfect for the flock tho❤
Why do you have to buy a minimum of 6?
@@FantasyFi13 ….I have no idea…I’ll bet someone reading this does, though.
@@cmwHisArtist ChatGPT says “Stores may require a minimum purchase of six live chickens to ensure responsible chicken ownership and provide optimal living conditions in small flocks.”
At my tractor supply, they made us buy 4.
Chicken poop is fantastic for the garden. And if you are kind, loving and respectful most of my hens are still laying after 5 years. I have the garden gals( my older girls) and my hip hop hens(the young and fun ones). They are separate to help reduce the sass and attitude.
yeah, our neighbor gave us his hens as he couldnt care for them anymore and they were 6+ years old and still laying until 2 years later when 1 had a stroke and the other stopped laying.
Eggs in all females, human and otherwise are finite. Being kind, loving and respectful does not change the number of eggs a chicken has left in the chamber.
Proper nutrition will surely enable chickens to lay the maximum number of eggs that they are genetically predisposed to lay. Some lay more frequently than others. If you chicken lays an egg 6 out of 7 days, it will run out of eggs sooner than a chicken that lays 4 out of 7 days.
No chicken will run out of eggs in less than 5 years. It's a mathematic impossibility.
Restricting food (semi-starving) will reduce the number of eggs laid. That MIGHT increase the years of a chickens productivity, but can not increase the overall number of eggs produced.
@@Cree_Moneynope, but it changes how often they lay, which I think is what the original commenter meant.
@@thefluffyeastereggeryes! it’s scientifically proven that love and respect have a direct correlation with protein synthesis and ovarian productivity.
I still have 2 girls that are 5 1/2 years and they still lay me 5 eggs a week with fall off. They are spoiled pets!
We never culled chickens. Some of our best layers were 4 to 5 years old.
@@jeremycherny2041 that’s awesome. I can’t eat chicken anymore. They are very smart ( some more than others) and if you pay attention you can clearly see they have complex emotions.
I had a chicken that got when I was a kid and she lived well over 8 years. She would still lay eggs up until she passed. She was one of the original chickens I first got when my mom got me into 4H. She was an awesome hen, really friendly but knew how to hold her own out there haha. Miss her a lot
@@copyshy awe that is so sweet 🥰. Thank you for sharing!
@@kelleyleblanc5025 I can confirm. They most certainly do have complex emotions. My flock is like a group of middle schoolers.
They operate primarily on jealousy. But every interaction has meaning to them. It's something I wasn't really expecting.
Culling cockerels is something I loath, but must do. It sucks to basically betray a small animal that wants you to help it.
My grandparents had chickens. None were named. No petting or cuddling occurred. The culls were separated from the laying hens, kept in a barn stall. Sunday dinner was fried chicken. As the oldest boy, I was taught to catch two culls and bring them to Grandma. She killed them, plucked them and we ate them for Sunday dinner. It was never an issue. It was how we lived.
My grandparents raise chickens too, and they were healthy and they laid eggs every day.
And once in a while my grandma what butcher a chicken for dinner.
She always fed them table scraps such as lettuce potato pillings and apple pillings and carrots.
I heard that some companies that make chicken feed are putting poison in the food.
Just like the government is doing to us
Same here 😂 we never named our chickens 🐓 but still treated them with respect and kindness and once they were too old to lay we ate them, and my neighbor she let them out of the farm to live in the wild. That was their retirement to run free in the wild. Because they aren’t meant to live forever they are prey animals, if they live longer they will suffer a lot of health issues and have have poor quality of life.
Is freshly killed chicken very different from store bought?
I lived on my grandparents farm. There were about 240,000 chickens (no roosters), 14 cows and 10 hogs, (on average) and a 1 acre garden. It was a lot of work but damn we ate good!
home raised vs store bought is not a big ordeal on meat flavor. all meat needs to be preped and seasoned. the eggs do taste different they are more flavorful. the biggest gain in home raised is you knowing what is in your food.
I've got 3 chickens who are 3 years old. They don't lay eggs anymore, but nevertheless enjoy their lives as free running chickens on 1 hectar of land and loads of snacks. Oh and yes, I named them!! Love my girls!
Composted chicken manure creates the greenest, most beautiful lawns! My Dad always used chicken manure as long as it was available. After the 1980's we had a difficult time finding chicken manure for sale at the local nurseries and garden stores.
Best fertilizer ever! I had sand spurs in my yard and they only grew ankle high. One day walking around my yard, I thought I was stung on my thigh by a wasp. I looked down and there was a sand spur on my thigh. In all my 40+ years, I had never seen sand spurs grow that tall. I had fertilized my yard with chicken manure.
I was going to ask if chicken poop would be good for my flower garden!
I've nursed gravely injured chickens back to health. I've had to put some down. I've had to clean-up messes left by hawks and coyotes. I've fought escape artists and raccoons and opossums.She's right - EVERYTHING wants to eat chickens. If you're not prepared to deal with the reality of that and all it entails, don't get chickens. But they really are amazing livestock. If you let them forage, they'll eat pest insects like ticks and mosquitos. They'll fertilize your lawn (and your porch). And in my experience, they do better with a rooster so you need to deal with the noises from that. And if you know how to make it, chicken tea fertilizer is the best fertilizer you can get.
And for anyone wondering, a chicken's maximum lifespan is around 9 years. Their egg production starts dropping by about 10% per year after age 2. So that means, they should lay eggs their entire life. If you have a prolific layer, they can still produce well up until they die of old age. I have Rhode Island Reds, Easter Eggers and Cinnamon Queens. The Rhode Island Reds are easily the best layers. I once had 9 eggs one day from 6 reds. Reds are poor flyers. My Cinnamon Queens and Easter Eggers are hard to keep in the coop. So if you're looking for the best egg layers that are easy to contain, get reds.
The pasta, beans, rice, corn, and oats I feed my chickens costs me about $20 a month. How is that not cheaper than eggs?
What? Feed the table scraps and let them roam outside their coop during the day
@Viva 1 I usually give them 1-2 cups of that mixture in the morning and then again around 6pm. I have a TON of hawks around my property, so I am afraid to let them roam unsupervised, but I did build them a 30ftx10ft run that they spend the whole day in. They seem to find lots of bugs. Im still new to this so im not sure exactly how much they need to eat to provide a steady supply of eggs. They are about 1.5 months old now.
@Redacted Smith god damn. Their chicken coop is bigger than my place. Ask your chickens if they want a room mate. I'll pay rent 😅
@Kay G Ya I boil the whole thing for about 30 mins then let it absorb the remaining water. I sometimes give then eggs too and a handful of chicken feed when I check on them during lunch just incase the beans arent enough protein. Plus they eat a bunch of bugs all day. What nutrients am I missing?
@Kay G Awesome thanks for the advice!
You can absolutely save money on eggs if you do it right and don't be dumb and do stuff like purchase expensive feed.
I Can safely say we have saved on chicken eggs 🤷♀️. You can and will absolutely save money as long as you aren’t spending thousands on the the coup and like you said buy expensive feed. It is so inexpensive feeding our hens and they lay great. Idky she would tell people “you’re not going to save any money I can almost guarantee that.” Cause no she can’t. Everyone’s different when it comes to budgeting the money for chickens. It must be just a hobby for her. That’s why it’s so expensive… for her that is.
@@loreylane3918 Exactly. We have worm farms and fly traps that supply much of our chicken's food along with natural foraging and feeding them scraps from the garden that they enjoy it's almost costing nothing to keep them fed at this point!
If you can't freerange them due to predators then you have to buy a lot of food and it is expensive.
@@SamStone1964 Not even close to being true. You can do worm towers and fly traps and supplement the majority of their food without them being free range.
@@-a-s-a-s- I have mulch pits full of earthworms but only some of my chickens eat them. No flies in winter. I breed mealworms but don't get many because it's too cold. I grow kale and collect greens and grass and they have dozens of different greens growing in their coop. I leave rotting logs around for insects. But they need more protein so I buy mealworms and minced meat. I buy whole seeds which I usually sprout or at least soak. I also buy pellets which contain meat and fish meal.
It's Winter here and I'm getting maybe one egg a day. So yes my eggs are incredibly expensive. But I adore my chickens and I'd have them even if they didn't lay eggs.
The initial investment to get started is a lot, but over time it does pay off, I disagree concerning what you said about eggs. Farm-raised chicken eggs are ten times healthier and safer than store-bought eggs, the price of eggs are going up and soon enough getting eggs in the store is going to be hard to come by. Having your own chickens means you have a secure food source. Also if you do not store your extra eggs by water glassing, you can sell them.
Unless something else happens, eggs aren’t going anywhere, price hikes are artificial and it’s proven, supply shortages are temporary and artificial as well, or due to outbreaks or some crazy situation and it’ll balance out after awhile
Always better to have your own supply tho!
@@Gibbypastrami it is much better to have your own supply I agree with you. But soon it is a fact, food security will be a problem in the United States because of what is coming.
Yes, of course the eggs will be safer and healthier if you raise your own chickens right. The reason I started raising my own was purely taste, though.
I had been buying eggs at the grocery store, using them only for baking or binding foods in recipes. I figured I was losing my tastebuds because I was getting old. [I was about 27.]
Then one day in the health food store, I picked up a dozen organically raised eggs, even though they cost 4X as much, because what the heck.
I was astounded by how good they tasted! That's when I concluded organic was the difference. And I never looked back.
@@grovermartin6874 they truly are so much better tasting and more nutrient Dense. I realized they even cook up better! I love my little hens.
Yeah, I raised my eyebrow at the egg comment. I have 4 laying hens and my fridge always has eggs so I’m always boiling them and giving them back as snacks 😂 they’re pets so they (and the three roosters) get extra spoiled with whatever they want 👀
We have a brown americana that got attacked by a dog. She was absolutely mangled and bloodied. She couldn't lift her head for a few days, and didn't stand for several weeks. But now she's up and running around and has been laying well for the last year.
Easily one of the most powerful summarys I've seen about chickens
#11 : if you regularly put them on your shoulder, you'll regularly have chicken squat down your back
LOL I can attest to this that this is very true 🤣🤣
We’re raising a chick inside and my mom has decided we’re going to have to bite the bullet and get chicken diapers. She sits on the back of my neck whenever she gets a chance and doesn’t stop talking at all.
Further, breeds like the Isa browns are superior layer's while rarely broody.
My sis has Isa Browns and they are beautiful and lay pretty eggs.
I don’t know why any one does this I’m 12 I have 15 chickens and every day I go to a restaurant that is vary close and I take a bucket and get their scraps which means my eggs are free and I also sell eggs and make a lot of money and my chickens free rang
Some of us don't live near a restaurant.
@@SamStone1964so make a vegetable garden
@@marykay8587 I have vegetable gardens and my chickens have unlimited access to greens. But I have to buy their protein and grains which is very expensive.
@@marykay8587 a lot of people come into it not wanting to do all that though, they just want chickens and easier ways to feed them.
Wow. That's a reality check. Thank you very much! People should definitely know these things before they get committed or overcommitted.
Just so you know I love videos like this find. I have an 11 year old one-eyed chicken who laid eggs and tall shoes 9.
Chicken poop is excellent for compost. If you have a garden like I do, create a compost bin, throw their bedding/poop combo in there once a year and you'll never have to buy soil.
You gain this with chickens
An amazing and quirky pet you never knew could happen
I just agree. I saved a lot of money on buying the chicken feed to feed my chickens and follow them with my chickens lay every day. I had 12 hens and I was getting 18 eggs at 12:00 everyday 7 days a week
I saw a short about an experiment in an European country, when they fed chickens kitchen scraps they supposedly got enough eggs and reduced landfill waste… but not sure if that’s actually true since I’ve only seen the short 😂
It was about Belgium. They offered three chickens to any household that wanted them. 2000 households volunteered so 6000 chickens were given out. In the first month approximately 100 tons of food waste was kept from going to landfill. The theory being that if one in three households had enough chickens to eat the food scraps of those three houses there would be no commercial egg industry.
@@drivingmissmolly I would gladly participate if that meant not having caged chicken eggs in grocery stores. We are already planning a large covered coop but we will also let them out in the yard when we are outside.
Just lost one to sour crop today. We did everything we could. Even the vet said we did everything right. She refused to eat or drink after getting sour crop
Sad. What is sour crop?Thanks.
For the future … flush out hens crop… tube some caffeine into crop…. feed some soda crackers… finally worm that hen with ivermectin!
Same with ours :(
We had 22 dozen eggs per week and in winter 15 dozen eggs per week..they never stopped laying!! It takes good animal husbandry..my husband was studying poultry at San Louis Obispo, CA. We had 50 hens and two roosters and only lost 2 hens in the 5 yrs we had them. We gave them all away and the lived out their natural lives!!
Yea but ur feeding them henhouse layer pallets an probably keep lights on them a lot more an keep the hen a house
My hens cost a fortune each month, feed them organic pellets, proper cooked vegetables, medication when needed and bedding changed weekly.. Worth every penny!! when they stop laying, their will always be part of my family... I have 14 garls
I've recently gotten a bunch of chickens (a few at a time) I don't think people realize how awesome they are and how much work it takes to take care of them.
You should always know where your food comes from
This is the most reasonable warning video for those considering chickens I've ever seen.
Saving this to forward to friends!
Very well said, thanks ❤🐔
My girls, when they started laying eggs, would come to my door and made a ruckus until I let them in. They would then sit on my lap for me to stroke their backs until they laid the egg. I could swear they were crying from the pain until after the first 4 ot 5 eggs. They had possums living in the coop with them, and at night, those who wanted to stay outside the coop on their eggs, would get along just fine with the raccoons that would visit.
This was such a great video!!! So many truths I wish I had known before I got started! We love our backyard flock but seeing them get injured and even hurt each other is so hard! Lots of learning & trial and error along the way
Chickens are wonderful animals. I would say we spend more money than if we bought eggs from the store, but it is such a wonderful experience. Although it comes with many things to be wary of and lots of work to give them a good environment, it was completely worth it and I don’t regret a second of it.
In Canada you also have to insulate where they live because in winter they can freeze to death.
Great basic advice! A video that has value, hats off!
Thank you for this very realistic summary not only showing us the nice sides of having chicken!
As someone who has 50 chickens this video is amazing and a VERY geed video for people who are starting to get chickens 😊
Had chickens since..eggs or not we keep them as pets. Most have been rescues and some have been great layers. We have an Easter egger who is 14, been with us since the beginning and she’s still doing great. Chickens are a great first pet in my opinion
Thank you this was really helpful! 😊
Beautiful silkies!❤ I have silkies too! I do TH-cam on all my chickens and I can certainly agree that chicken Math is real!
You are absolutely right about culling them having to know and when its needed its hard to be able to do that I stopped naming mine in hopes I wouldn't be so sad after I lost my first one her name was Penny its crazy but I still miss her
I love the simplification of hen, rooster and chicken. Should be applied to other areas as well.
I understand that chickens are very intelligent
They are very intelligent, inquisitive and entertaining.
They are dumb as hell lol
These chickens are SO beautiful!
Bro roosters can be so cute (when they’re not trying to murder you lol) I love the little dance they do where they skip around you 😆
If anyone’s looking to get chickens, I HIGHLY recommend Black Austolorps and Smoky Pearls. Great layers and if you raise them right they will be SUPER affectionate and they are AMAZING layers. Rhode Island Reds are great too, but they don’t live long and are prone to egg issues.
Your chickens are gorgeous. Good job.🙂🐔🐓
Smart info the girl knows
Listen, she speaks the truth♡
After your videos We Got chickens. Best descision ever. I love em so much.
😂 I remember reading a TH-cam Comment about someone who kept two Chickens in a Apartment as Emotional Support Animals. They didn't want to be on the Nests that he bought for them but only wanted to sit on the Pillows. So I guess that's also a important Consideration if you should decide to keep them inside🤭
We had chickens. Not a lot only four at a time. We kept them in a special garden for them. Fresh food wether it be veggies or bugs. We also had rabbits. They were separate. But my Dad used rabbit pellets for fertilizer in our lawn. And he also sold it.
I personally find that, depending on how many chickens you have, they can mostly pay for themselves. We own about 25 free-range chickens, and get atleast a dozen eggs every other day. By selling them for around $4-$5 per carton ($3 less than conventional store bought where Im from) to neighbors and friends, we make about $25 every few weeks, which is enough for two bags of complete feed. As theyre free range, they dont need as much feed in summer and spring, when they lay the most, as they mostly scavenge for bugs and plants, so the feed lasts around 2 - 3 weeks; The same amount of time it takes to make about as much for the next round of feed. Granted, if youre looking for profit, there isnt much there, but if you just want an outdoor pet that, depending on the area and your egg and feed prices, can often pay for their own feed, they're definitely a great choice.
We are going to be getting into chickens in the next year. I had chickens growing up so I’m pretty familiar with them. Looking forward to it!
I had chickens for about 4 years now. But they were my dads. But I took care for them and some time this month I'm buying my own chickens and the are americanas the most beautiful chickens I ever seen and I want to raise the right ✅️ thanks for all your help
Free range makes eggs free and most chickens lay 5 years
YOU "Y'all" ARE FOR SURE the cutest "chick" on the internet‼️‼️Thank You for your content‼️‼️
My plan for an accidental rooster is fried chicken.
I have a few I’d offer up to be made into Fried Chicken
This is the most REAL chicken intro ive seen-
My Grandparents had 1¾ Acres. We had many of our families near their place and we would grow between 150-200 Chickens and would take a couple of weekends and a few days during the week to process and Can, Freeze, and Cook fresh chickens. Got a few eggs too, but we grew them mostly for the meat. Yum, I miss chickens that taste like a chicken!
I always wondered about your cooking videos good to see you again 🤗
When I was really young, we had chickens, about 20 of them. Named them all, and referred to them by name when serving them. Parents grew up on farms, so this was considered normal. Knew from early on, they were to supply eggs and become food, so we cared for them like pets, and always culled them away from the flock, so the tasted better and the flock stayed unstressed. It also taught me some handy skills that I used much later in live when euthanising animals hit by cars. Amazingly easy to snap a neck when you disassociate your feelings from reality.
WOW! Your yellow Silkie looks EXACTLY like mine that I had! But he was a rooster and we have backyard Chickens so we had to give him and 3 other roosters away but we have three beautiful hens now!❤
Was informative ❤ thankyou ❤
Out of 19 chickens.. I've lost 4. 2 to unknown, 1 to I believe coccidiosis. I'm new to chickens.. now I have a light brahma that something isn't right with. checking tomorrow for mites or something.. I hate learning as you go but sometimes that's the only option.
Awww whats wrong with your brahma :(❤
If they stop laying egg for months then they are laying somewhere else or they don’t have enough protein
Or they are moulting or it's Winter.
I learned in a poultry group (they didn't like the term 'chicken club), that if you have 200 chickens in your basement, they would generate enough heat to heat your house.
Never tried it out, lol
Them chickens are adorable
Your chickens are beautiful.
I had one batch of chickens for 7 YEARS and a few were STILL laying eggs a couple times a week! And while you may not save money on eggs you get the incredible experience that comes with raising chickens! I might argue they’re better than dogs! Chickens are AMAZING for kids too!
Thank you so much for treating them with respect
I love my buff orpingtons, when they see me they and do their little waddle run to me and so cute
Well done! Very good tips!
The last point hit me very hard this week. The smallest of the bunch was getting beat up and plucked bloody.
This lady knows what she's talking about!
Lol I love the first suggestion to triple ur coop size lmao soooo darn true!!!😂😂😂❤❤❤❤
Awesome. My latest book involves a chicken, paramedic Chris and the runaway chicken.
You can always eat a rooster. We eat a lot of the wild juvenile ones that pester the hens. We do have a 2nd hand rooster that we don't know how old he is, but he is super calm and brings great energy to the flock
Thank you so much for this from a chicken rescuer
Great Advice! Thank you!
if you have land to graze your flock. i highly recommend it. youll cut down on your feed bill and chickens will clean your yard like crazy. and let them eat through your garden area in the off season. a proper sized cage with an open bottom and just move them to the next space when the grass is gone. chickens love grazing.
Chickens are great! My aunt has a dozen or so hens and one cowardly rooster! The rooster acts almost exactly like a chicken, the only difference is that he is much louder :)
My girls were rescued from a factory farm. One was so bad that apart from afew downy feathers she was completely bald and missing a toe. Also one of mine was an escape artists. She, would be sitting on top of the pen every morning.
She speaks the truth. My dad bought what he thought were all hens and about a month and a half in we noticed one of them looked “different” than the rest. Turns out he was a boy.
Great tips! Very true plus one thing you left out they develop a personality and an attitude. Be prepared for diva chicken!
Yeah, when we got our third batch of chickens we thought only one of them was a rooster. There was four roosters in that batch including the one that was a rooster
Had me subscribed with that "hey y'all"
I agree with you I e been raising chickens and ducks for 15 years. My best advice DO your research on raising them! Some chickens can live up to 13 years.
“Buying chickens is almost certainly not going to save you money on eggs” 😂😂😂 TRUTH!
Do you have to keep the chicken nuggets in a separate coop? I keep mine with the chicken strips and they do fine until the chicken tenders show up. Harland Sanders
What the hell are you talking about?
@@treycopeland1368 I'm simply writing poultry 🍗. No foul meant unintentionally bro. 🐓
@@RUHDD4HVN Ornge jues is good on wendas
RAPID FIRE QUESTIONS: I really want to own a chicken, but I'm not sure if I could just get one, or if I need to get two. Do chickens have friends? Do chickens need to socialize? How do I know what food is best for my chicken? How can I tell if a chicken is happy or unhappy? Do chickens prefer being outside over being inside? What's the best material to put on their feet?
It's really easy to tell if you're buying hens are roosters just by stretching the leg and the wing at the same time if the wing is complete all the way to the Body in one uniform pattern it is a hen.. if the wing is shorter near the body and longer on the outside of the primary flight feather it is a rooster. Plus the hens will all have little pin tail feathers well before the roosters get any tail feathers at all. The Roosters also have a small unilateral nub on the inside of their foot. The hen does not have that unilateral nub. I hope this helps I've been raising birds now for quite some time and was doing it on a professional level for Perdue Farms and now I'm just backyard bird raising and we have an entire humongous Army running around our yard right now LOL😅😅😅😅
It depends on the species especially if they're mixed breeds.
"Everything wants to eat chickens." 😅 I thought only of myself.
Came within a couple of days of culling a hen because she would bully the others and not let them eat until she had her fill. Luckily me and her had a heart to heart and she sat in a separate cage for a day and came back cured.
I read that hybrids decline in health shortly after they pass the laying and or processing age they were bred for (8weeks-2years-ish). I plan on buying heritage breeds because I love them and want them around a while. If I breed for meat I’ll raise and process turkey or something different I think.
I have over 20 chicke s right now. I feed them table scraps, and they free-range graze all spring and summer. I give them grain for treat and supplement for winter. I sell over 5 doz eggs a week, which pays for the treats and supplement feed. So my eggs are essentially free.
Free ranging during the day or while you're home can cut down on feed.
Pasta is cheap, rice and pinto beans are cheap. Feed them your food scraps and maybe a friendly neighbors scraps as well?
If you feed only commercial feed you're going to break the bank for sure!
I've been through all of that, I don't ever want to cull a chicken again. I cried the whole time and even though my mom peocessed it, I still couldn't eat it. My dogs loved their chicken soup though.
We've been keeping chickens for decades. What are you gonna tell us? Spring, Summer and Fall, we don't pay anything for feed and get plenty of eggs.
Ya i didnt understand why she said ur not saving money on eggs? I have 12 and spend maybe $30 a month of food for them and can get 10 eggs a day. So many eggs the dogs get to eat eggs just about everyday as well.
@@carvedfromlife8949 These people that are rather new to keeping poultry don't know any better and tend to be a know it all.
@@theone5404 lol ya kinda confused me, they are easy to tend to for the most part. Are yours running free around ur property?
@@carvedfromlife8949 half of the time, they run around.
@@theone5404I have too many predators to free range so I pay a lot for feed.
The amounts of eggs I got from my chickens did not offset the amount feed I had to buy for them
Same. My eggs are ridiculously expensive but I don't mind because I adore my chickens.