to be honest it depends . are you buying their food or growing it ? buying food in winter is about 45 a month for 26 hens in summer i grow their food and cost is water only . mullberries, comphrey ,amarenth , Grass Squash and much more . just for them my stuff is on my side of the fence LOL .
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Youâre having a particularly bad time of it!
First to address the main question: do we break even on our chickens. I would say we could if we wanted to because of the price of eggs vs our local feedâŠif my darn hens would stop going broody! If you want eggs, donât get a broody breed, period. I can sell a dozen eggs for $2.50-3.00, and their feed is only about $12 per 50lb bag. I donât buy organic; if I did, I would lose a butt-ton on them because I have no connections with people who have the that kind of money to spend on eggs, including ourselves. We have 12 acres of woods and open land, and because our mower breaks down constantly, our grass and weeds often go to seed summer through autumn. Our chickens hardly eat any feed during this time (maybe 1/5 or less?). I do not have a guardian dog; I do have a collie that I shut in the yard area during the day and let run loose at night. He has to be kept separate from the chickens when Iâm not with him because he likes to âplayâ with the rooster (he harasses the rooster into attacking him). He is invaluable to us not only as a pet, but also as a property protector (deer and rabbits are everywhere here, and I feel safer with a dog around), so his costs arenât included in the cost of eggs.
We have lost a few hens over the years to unknown predators, and a few more to stray dogs, but the overall the cost of replacing them is nothing compared to keeping a guardian dog. I have a neighbor who lives closer to the woods, and she often has possums and coons get into her barn; she also has two livestock guardian dogs to protect them and her two sheep; she also breeds chickens for show, so a death in her flock is a far greater hit than a death in my flock. She has told me that the costs of hatching, growing out, and showing her birds breaks even or is greater than the money she makes off themâand sheâs won several times.
Now to address your problems.
The first thing I would tack are the broken, poopy, and missing eggs. The ones that are broken could be getting eaten by your dog; itâs a common problem for chicken keepers, and if your dog can get to the eggs, he/she has likely learned that they are delicious. I would make sure the dog cannot get to the eggs very easily. This could mean to reduce the size or height of the pop door, or keeping the dog separate from the chickens like I do. I have heard that most eggs are laid before noon; maybe you could keep the dog separate until noon? If it isnât the dog, then itâs likely either weak eggshells or egg eating chickens; the dog will have kept predators away unless the dog doesnât notice rodents. If itâs egg-eating chickens, get rid of your flock and get a new one; they arenât worth it unless theyâre pets. If itâs weak eggshells, then make sure they have good layer feed and oyster shells, and reduce or eliminate treats for a while to see if it clears up. From there, you can find out how many of what type of treats you can give them without ruining their eggshells.
Dirty eggs: I suspect one of two problems, or it could be both: first is that your chickens are experiencing loose stools, which then get on the eggs when they lay the, or sit on the nest to lay. This one is very likely if you have weak shells, because one food issue can cause both problems. I get this problem sometimes if I give too many leftovers they arenât used to. I have a bunch of old dried beans that donât cook right anymore, so Iâve been cooking them up for my chickens. If I give them too many at once, they get loose poops and dirty eggs. The second time Iâve had a problem with dirty eggs is recent, when I couldnât afford to put a floor in the coop, so it sits on the ground. When the ground gets wet, the rain soaks into the coop floor, which then gets muddy now matter how much bedding I throw on it. When the coop is muddy and wet, all the mud and poop sticks to the hensâ feet, and then transfers to the eggs.
for the number of eggs youâre getting, you can get a new flock that lays better, and/or I suggest locking them in the coop for a few days to a week if the coop is large enough (this is where a small run would be helpful). I have done this to retrain my hens to lay in the coop.
For the chicken run ( fenced area): it doesnât have to be large or fancy. A small fenced area of chicken wire of plastic netting would be fine for short-term locking the chickens away, such as to retrain them where to lay their eggs. You can let them free range most of the time. I would highly recommend fencing in your garden. A 4â high fence without a board on top (if they can see the fence top, theyâll fly up to it and over) is usually sufficient. Again, an inexpensive material like chicken wire or plastic netting would be sufficient to keep the chickens out.
Good luck!
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i have 25 chickens buy 2 bags of organic feed every 2 months their main food is mullberry , comphree,amarinth,and table scraps once in a while they get meat about 1 to 2 times a week. but im over loaded with eggs . i give them to my neighbors because my hens are Loud
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Our chickens freerange and track a lot of mud on and after rainy days. Dirty eggs result.
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I have some ISA Browns that are super chill and egg laying machines. The black sex links i have lay small eggs and go off of laying at times for no reason that I can tell. They also seem to try harder to escape, are harder to catch, and harrass other chickens more. Love the Isa browns.
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Going forward i think i have made my decision as to which chickens that work best for me here. New Hamphire Red. They run like crazy every time they see me.. they greet me and are super interested in what im doing. When i throw scraps or buckets of stuff in the pen they are on top of it. When i let them in the orchard they are wildly on the hunt for bugs. I have not seen them broody yet at all. I have 3 of them and i clearly like them the best. I did like the Buckeyes but with some more time and age the New Hampshires are just more enjoyable to me. They seem to fit the best for what i have going..whereas the boutique birds seem to have various issues with molting or skiddish or broody.
I had a dog attack last year and lost a dozen birds.. this year i had a coon attack and lost another 6. The New Hampshires survived both.. so i reckon their instincts are better.
Several good youtube videos on them and the comments agree with my findings as well.
I have been feeding back eggshells with success.. I put the shells in 5 gallon buckets and smash them down each time.. i let the flies or whatever small flies seem to enjoy eating the nutrients and lay maggots.. then on to the coop mixed in with scratch.
Shells are good and strong and it seems to be a good thing..as they enjoy eating them.
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I went on a long road trip through a lot of small towns. I saw a lot of chicken tractors so that they could free range . So of course some weâre pretty elaborate. The one I like best is just a simple A frame design. Built with metal tubing and chicken wire and two wheels on one end. look really lightweight and easy to handle. I think you just prop up one end heard your chickens in there and just move it to different spots until youâre ready to remove them after all chickens are not that tall.
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If you can find Black Australorps, they are a great breed to have. Mine was poisoned by a psychopath who couldnât stand that I had them. Rat poison.
No nonsense birds, they eat weeds, mice and anything they can get a hold of.
I once put an acrylic mirror in the coop, the rooster broke it, kicked it to pieces. I then glued one to a thick plate, he broke that too. Got kicked on the hand by one, blood everywhere.
Donât get rid of your more aggressive roosters, they have to be like that to protect your hens and chick.
I gave mine Comfrey, dried and fresh, fine chopped Khakibush (Tagetes minuta) (the whole plant), Oregano, Nasturtiums and more and they never got sick. Most âweedsâ have amazing health properties. They would eat the Comfrey down into the ground and it does not survive.
There is a chicken place in the US I once saw who feed their chickens similar foods to counter health problems. Canât remember.
If they do get out of the coop. just know they will destroy flower beds, it looks as if someone was digging there. But they do very well if you have a compost heap by scrubbing it down, you just have to work it up again.
I called them EFF chickens, they are black with red caps on (you can google EFF), foreign parasites hired to make trouble here.
Good consistent layers. I now have hyline browns and man are they a finicky chicken. The Black Australorps did better.
Iâm trying to find some Khaki Campbell ducksâŠ
And this is how you put your chicks to bed at night in the winter.
An 83g egg (my biggest), a starter test run egg, and your normal 50 to 65g eggs.
If you can free-range your chickens.
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The best and cleanest water supply is with drinking nipples fed from a reservoir. Saves you from having to wash the drink holders every day.
Let me add someâŠ
Rats would climb in under the hens to get the chicks. The hens are blind in the dark so I put small LED lights in front of the entrance, the hens would then peck the rats and can kill them, like in the video.. I donât buy chickens if their beaks are clipped. It causes all kinds of problems.
Sorry about the hysteriaâŠ
I wear the same colour clothes every day. If you wear different colour clothes they donât recognize you and avoid you, or maybe you just donât look ok.
Hens have a strict hierarchy, even if one has a problem they donât show it so another doesnât get the idea it can change the status. You have to check them once in a while.
If something happens, each roosterâs hens will run and accumulate around him for protection. There once was an eagle here that tried to get a chicken, he did not succeed. I did not see it, the neighbor did.
The roosters look like they have long pants on, feathers hang to their feet. I got my initial roosters from parent stock. They were huge ! The hens were around 5kg and the roosters even more. Their spores grow to massive.
Sometimes very large eggs are doubles, they donât hatch, the large one above was a single. I jokingly said we can breed Emu sized Australorps if you follow the trait.
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Very impressive looking bird I wouldnât wanna tangle with it
Had a massacre last night. 13/15 dead. The support beam on my run rotted and something broke a piece off and pull the fence open some. Iâm sure it was a family of raccoons. The fact that two survived is both a miracle and hopefully proof the racoons took a licking. My rooster died last month from disease, I feel like the animals have been more inquisitive because of that.
Moral of the story, if your coup or run is getting older and made of wood, look into replacing or reinforcing. I always checked the fencing for rust holes, never thought about the wood.
The remaining two have been locked into the hen house with a piece of diamondplate and 2x4 strapped down over the door. Hopefully that keeps everything out while I repair it.
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@sharq Iâm sorry, thatâs horrible. We lost one of my big, sweet langshan boys from a raccoon that got into the run before the coop door shut at dusk. We have a mobile coop and there was a rut that allowed it to slip beneath the skirting. My husband locks one of our coops manually and saw it in the doorway and chased it away, but it had already killed my rooster and we couldnât save him. He had such a deep, funny crow, very ghostly sounding. We called him Vlad. If they hadnât been attacked while asleep I think they would have easily killed the raccoon.
We reinforced everything and one or more raccoons did come back, left scratch marks all over, but couldnât get back inside any of the runs or coops.
I hate them so much. Theyâre âcute,â but disgusting creatures.
*Edited to add: it was a bachelor coop. Vlad was always last in, very much the dominant one, but easily picked up or fed by hand. Truly a gentle giant. We have another langshan (also a big boy) and three spicy easter eggers. Iâll miss Vlad a lot.
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I too hate raccoons. They had destroyed my pear crop for a couple years. I couldnât get rid of the rat problem because of raccoons thatâs a whole other story. I donât have chickens but I did use motion activated alarm that has flashing lights, shotgun blast or dog barking to keep them out of my pear tree and I have video proof it worked I got it from Amazon. it was like $30.
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I removed 4 coons this year with traps. I dont need them here for what im doing.
I dug a little furrow then put honeybun and marshmellows in a small bowl under the trigger of the trap under the trap. I put cinder blocks on the trap to weigh it down. They want the bait so bad that they stand on the trigger and try to fish it out⊠even while trapped they dug out every morsel.
Some locals have luck with sardines in mustard.. as they coon hunt and train their dogs with live catches. But another old timer told me to use this bait to catch them all.. even the smart ones.
My coons had bloodlust and my chickens are blind in the dark.. so they murdered 6 in total to get the eggs.
My fault entirely on leaving the eves open for summer.. they are now wired in and the coop is predator proof.. but the lesson was learned.
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Has anyone ever heard of taking an old trampoline and made a chicken tractor out of one or a chicken pen ?
Iâve never even heard of this concept until my son was trying to convince me to take his kids old, trampoline off his hands and raise chickens. Thatâs a no go, but it is interesting.
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I have. I have been tempted to grab an old trampoline off craigslist to use as a pen. Not enough room to move it around my yard though.
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