I agree, they’ll scratch big holes and damage the roots. Plus you’ll get a lot of hot nitrogen fertilizer that will likely kill the roots. I would do the plantings around the run, on the south and west sides. I put some big stumps in my run, for the chickens to sit on.
1 Like
Normally, we fence chickens out rather than fence them in.
1 Like
Mine mostly leave roots alone. And I pick up the poop daily so it never accumulates. Haskaps may be the only challenge.
I had a tropical jungle in there before.
4 Likes
dont forget to add they eat your grass till its all gone LMAO
2 Likes
Yes.. I did this in the adjacent block to the coop and all but the most undesirable weeds were eradicated. That however did give me a fresh slate to sew white clover which is doing nicely.
1 Like
a chick paradise!
1 Like
I’d be curious to know who all on this thread gives their chickens flax seeds? I saw one or two mentions when I skimmed.
From my reading, fed at about a tenth of their total diet, flax seed will slightly increase omega-6s and substantially increase omega-3s in chicken yolks.
That’s an 18x increase in DHA, and a pretty good increase in ALA too. EPA is doubled but still not very high.
1 Like
My NCO feed has flaxseed in it.
But I think I posted previously in this thread that mine get occasional whole sardines. But yeah, the flax would be a nice addition for those who can’t get sardines for cheap in “bulk”.
Does anyone here grow and feed pot marigold petals for darker yolks? My birds were never interested.
1 Like
A question here for anyone who has chickens. If you count up all the costs of having chickens, does it save you any money or is it just a hobby which might even cost more money than you would spend on eggs? Or do you even consider the costs?
I made a quick calculation, and what I already suspected: we are spending much more money on everything needed for the chickens then we would ever spend on eggs. We have a dog to protect the chickens from predators (our chickens are free range), which also costs feed and medical costs. A lot of eggs are broken before we find them, and/or eaten by the chickens themselves, or by rats or other animals. The eggs that are not broken or rotten are covered with chicken shit. Not just an occasional bit, but completely covered. Everything together, we are spending 500-600 euros a year to have these chickens. Not to mention all the damage they are doing by wreaking havoc in the vegetable garden, and destroying my seedlings. And guess what? When I need eggs, I am still buying them because there is barely anything good to find. 
Making a fenced area for the chickens is not an option for now as that is too big an investment, plus we would need to feed them all summer long which would raise the costs substantially.
So… is there a way to make the chickens profitable, or is it just an expensive hobby project?
1 Like
I don’t have any chickens and don’t plan on having any chickens at my age in the Orchard. I did have a few show chickens 60 years ago when I was a youth. So I find the different chicken breeds very interesting in particular how they would mesh in an Orchard environment as it relates to cost-effectiveness and sustainability in particular as you transverse across different Growing zones. A zone 4 chicken has got to be a great deal different than a zone 9 I would think.
2 Likes
If manure and not mowing and total bug removal has value then they are worth it.
I feed my dogs 2 dozen eggs per day and i average selling 5 dozen per week.. give or take. That breaks me even in my gut.. but I probably lose $10-$20 per week all said and done. If i didnt feed them to my dogs i could up the profit but then they would eat more dog food which probably isnt as good for them as eggs.
IF i had to do it all over again i would wait until the block that has fruit trees is a few more years older and i would go with bantams.
I know some folks that free range bantams locally and they feed them nothing. In my heart i feel for the birds but every waking minute of the day they are out scratching and hunting and somehow that seems like what they want to do. They lay eggs and hatch them and then the chicks are also not fed anything.. and they then grow up to do the same thing. Nature vs Nurture…
My chickens have a life of luxury but it costs me money in what i think is the best feed. I dump loads of woodchips in their pen and they pulverize it into dust and manure..which i later on lay onto the walkways of my orchards… which is alot of work but i enjoy it.
All said and done i think its a fools game to do it the way i do it..but its a hobby and i enjoy it…most of the time. But there are times that it does become another ‘chore’.
The folks i sell my eggs to.. all say that they are amazing tasting. So there is that. I can tell that they are stronger than store bought but maybe its in my head.
I have about four 5 gallon buckets of egg shells that i give back to them as feed.. but i have excess that i have no idea what im going to do with other than feed it back to them. I guess if i was more of a gardener i could get creative. I toss some into the compost pile but im not super sure it makes any difference.
I am growing tomatoes this year so manure will be used also. But i am not sure its ‘worth it’ versus good fertilizer.
In 5 years or so the spoils and excess fruits will surely warrant chickens.. but by that time my current chickens will be elderly..
Poor planning on my part but at the time I was into it albeit early.
I lost 5 trees to them as they girdled and destroyed them.. so that was poor execution on my part for not having tree guards on young trees… however the block that i let them free range in is much healthier otherwise this year.
So in summary.. i think 6 good forager chickens or 12 bantams would have been wiser for me. No plans to sell eggs and not feed them other than winter would be a wiser plan with more mature fruit trees. I kept one rooster which was the tamest and friendliest.. i wish i didnt. He takes too much advantage of some of my more docile chickens. And is more protective than i like sometimes.
Final thoughts.. i wish i would have thought things out better and made different decisions…and waited a bit longer for where i want them to free range.
4 Likes
It’s not monetarily profitable for me, but my goal has always been to make a better egg to eat. Lots of fun memories with them along the way too. No regrets even if these suckers price out to $10/doz.
2 Likes
You are not going to get rich, but you can make a small profit, if you don’t factor in cost of your own labor. Our flock ranges between 90 and 120 hens. We sell at one farmers market and delivery to about 15, few of whom get eggs every week. Price is $6. We can net a couple thousand in a year.
2 Likes
50 years ago I had an uncle that made really good money as a side job producing show birds in his backyard. He just had a small lot in a subdivision built a lot of cages. He really got into the chicken shows and breeding the hobby turned into a profitable business wasn’t uncommon for him to make three or $400 on a show quality chicken, but it was a lot of work
2 Likes
I don’t think we’ve broken even yet. The return on investment for the building materials might never come just given how expensive materials are and how cheap eggs are.
We just have four hens, so feed costs are very low. Kitchen scraps make up a pretty decent part of their diet. Feed costs will be slightly, as in maybe 10%, higher once I start feeding flax, but the resulting eggs will be roughly double the previous value.
Since it’s just a few hens, I use a movable coop. It rests on some PVC trimboard runners to make moving it easier and to prevent rot from getting into the frame. It’s treated wood, but ground contact is hard on wood no matter what, nevermind the friction and wear.
I generally move them daily, sometimes twice a day, but they would be fine in the same spot for a week or so if I’m busy.
5 Likes
during the laying season , i catch alot of invasive perch here and feed it to the girls. freeze them whole in portions and take out what i need every few days. they love it and it saves me about 1/3rd. to half in feed. only thing left is the head and spine that breaks down in the woodchips in the run over winter.
2 Likes
I’m near the coast and could definitely catch my weight in trigger fish pretty quickly to feed them but with the processing, the cleanup, the freezer space, and the potential fishy eggs I don’t think it’d be worthwhile for me. And honestly the feed cost just isn’t a big concern personally, it’ll be years before it even catches up to the material costs. If I was much less busy and had many more chickens it’d be a different story.
4 Likes
I really like your design seen a lot of what they called chicken tractors. I’ve never seen one with that A-frame chicken run and a chicken House with a removable top makes a lot of sense. Chickens are really not that tall you don’t need square sides. Does it slide pretty well on the PVC trim ?
2 Likes
I’ve been raising chickens for 6 years and it’s one of the smartest decisions I’ve ever made.My girls are more than egg layers, they’re my pets. Each one has a name and they come, when I call them. I’ve gone through several flocks and now just raise English Orpingtons. They aren’t super eggs layers, but they’re gorgeous birds, very docile, and let me handle them. I built them Ft. Knox, and no predator can get to them. They also have an attached 18x28’ covered run. I don’t really care about how much their feed cost, because they provide me about 75 gallons of composted manure every year that I till into my watermelon patch, and I get the best watermelons you could ask for.
I’m down to 9 hens, but am getting 11 new grow outs next month. Every time I go inside the run, it’s like walking into an art gallery. That’s how beautiful they are.
8 Likes
well besides 2 toulouse geese, i just added 3 1 month old black runner ducklings. a friend that works at t.s.c saved these from being culled and offered them to us. they are good egg layers and all 3 are females. the wifes in love.
4 Likes