Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Wife thinks she wants to raise chickens. Is it worth it???

Only way you can get skinny, yellow, delicious chicken is to throw the young some alfalfa if they are raised in a pen. Good fried chicken is worth more than eggs.

Its not a financial proposition. Its something she want to do. Support her. It will keep her more than busy and you will have plenty of free time for your own pursuits.

Hard question to answer Rob without knowing more about your setup. How much room have you got and such. Real eggs are the best especially if you have room to free range the chickens.

Financially, the answer is no. You can't beat farmers at their own game for the most part, otherwise they'd be doing it that way already.

In every other aspect, the answer is yes. And since it is your wife's project, why wouldn't you already have facilitated her? When momma's happy, everybody's happy!

yes

If you don't make the effort to keep the chickens safe, then it is not worth it. Nothing like homegrown eggs and meat. There is also a good entertainment value plus if you make them a kid's project they learn a lot about responsibility for care of animals.

During the winter months egg production will drop off or stop, but we put a light on a timer in the coop to artificially extend daylight hours so they will keep laying.

An electric element keeps the water from freezing in the winter.

Some of the baby chicks we got early this spring.

I was thinking about those little chickens ya got Roundoak. Have ya lost any and are the kids still liking them? Also, do you ever hear from that guy that "borrowed" a chunk of your wood pile? I hope he is doing well.

Keeping one's wife happy, within reason and I would place chickens there, is good business IME.

Meat chickens only take 6 or 7 weeks to grow and they're done and in the freezer (does your wife like strangling chickens?). They'll cost more than Costco's chickens but they're worth it.
Layers are worth it if you don't mind paying $12/doz for eggs.

Definitely worth it. Especially if the wife's doing the work. I'd get a few more than you want. Always end up loosing one or two. We bought 12 still have nine. Usually have 7 eggs a day. Enough for our use and a some friends, etc.

A bag of feed lasts a while, and the manure is great for your lawn, garden, etc.

Chickens are easy. They don't really "pay out" but the ability to have fresh eggs is great. Also, if you plan on butchering them later it's nice to know what they have (and haven't) been fed. It's also a great tool for kids. Mine love getting the eggs and helping put them up at night.

You mention them crapping on your deck, etc. If you're worried about that chickens aren't really much of a problem. Ducks and geese on the other hand are different. They'll walk a half mile to crap on the sidewalk.

Lost a couple chicks and yes, the kids are still enjoying them and surprisingly, they learned about the bird flu endemic and thought the two chicks died because of it. Lots of questions which shows they care.

The young man you refer to and his family are doing well...thanks for asking.

Wayne

Penned in a small space the yes the eggs can get expensive. A free range chicken will forage around 80% or it's feed. When you add the fact the will eat kitchen scraps then the cost goes way down.

Daughter and SIL recently just completed a fenced in pen made out of an old tool shed. Everyone chips in with the feeding and cleanup and Mom makes sure it is done right.

Started with 5 hen chicks. One of which turned out to have a pretty good set of pipes and had to go back for an exchange. After watching the fun they are having, I'm thinking those Chickens are going to give more than eggs.

Keeping the cats, coons, mink, weasels, dogs and what-not out is not for the timid. Would be easier in a townie setting than out where we get run over by coons. A 40 lb plus boar coon gets into wherever he wants into......

I have a dozen or so ranging around the house. Lock them up at night. I get 1 year old layers every spring and make soup out of them in the fall. Yes get chickens.

They're stupid easy.

Had three, my dog killed one. Bag of $14 feed lasts a couple or three months easy. I usually get two eggs a day. Probably 10 a week average.

I usually let them out for the day when I'm around. Little fuggers follow me everywhere.

BTW- if you free range, be careful of what is out. I ferried the garden with fish fertilizer and the birds must of gotten into it. We had a few eggs that tasted like rotten salmon azz.

If you have some space, not a postage stamp lot, they are quite easy. Make a fenced pen 6 feet high and they need a house to roost in and layer nests. You have to buy feed, but they also are garbage disposals, they will eat almost anything. Two things I've done that help a lot, one is a waterer that is a bucket suspended about a foot above the floor in the house that has watering valves. They learn to hit te little levers with their beaks and they drink. No mess, just keep water in it. The second was pricey, but I bought an automatic door to the house. It's photo-operated,pens in the morning daylight, closes at dark. No worries, no intruders. Oh, and use a light on a timer in the winter. Set it so they have 12 hours of "light" and you'll have eggs all year.

Roosters will do that sometimes... you need to make some dumplings to go with them!

Being serious, keep small children away from them, they can really hurt a child with their spurs.