I am living on 40 acres and thought about chickens.
What happens if I want to go prairie dog hunting for a week?
Do I beg the neighbors to feed them?

nope just get you feeders and waters big or or numerous for the number you got and go enjoy, they don't need petted and played with everyday!!!

free range and watch the bugs disappear

No

I've had chickens for years, and have made changes to make it almost hands-off easy. Inside their house, I hang a 5 gallon bucket that has chicken waterer valves screwed into the bottom. Very cheap valves, they just bump/wiggle the finger with their beak on the valve and water comes out. A feeder can be made out of PVC pipe, an elbow and it will keep running feed for quite a while. Easy to find designs on line.

The one thing I spent money on was an automatic door. I put this on the house, it is controlled by photocell. It opens and closes and uses a 6 volt lantern battery. They go in to roost at night and varmints can't get it for supper.

That gadget there makes me think about getting some chickens. Keeping varmints out is a big job and requires a tight pen. Mink, possums, coon, foxes, coyotes all love chicken, of the animals that we have here. Not to mention the snakes, especially the chicken snake. You can make nesting boxes slanted so that the eggs roll to the outside and you can gather them and not enter the pen. I have seen them but do not know the slant that it takes to make them roll out. miles

My nephew is making a fair bit of coin selling eggs from some show chickens that he raises. Enough to buy a new gun every couple of months. He only does it as a hobby.

http://adorstore.com/

I waited a long time before buying one, thought it was too much money, but it has been great.

I'm thinking about this myself recently. I have found in the past year that store bought eggs tend to upset my stomach and true "fresh" eggs do not. Store bought "fresh" eggs are actually 6 months old or older and this may somehow be changing the protein compounds and causing me issues?

Anyone else having this problem?

Me.

Sometimes to the point that I nearly feel that I need to go to the hospital. Severe cramps.

Fresh eggs don't do that to me.

Henhouse and chickens are on my list to do. Soon.

Besides, nothing tastes better than free range eggs.

I keep chickens free range. I don't lock them up at night but my dogs keep them safe. I can't envision going back to store bought eggs. I try to ensure active layers year round.

I just ordered 50 Ancona and 50 Penedesenca pullets for June delivery. Am hoping to sell some eggs at a small profit. If I can't sell enough, I'll sell the started pullets.

Sorry for your dilemma my Friend, but It is good to hear I'm not the only one this happens to. I wonder if it is because I'm aging? Never bothered me until about a year ago. Started out happening if I ate two at a time so I cut down to one, now it is if I eat any at all. We can bake with them and I am fine but to eat any straight up my stomach knots up like you describe.

Man...I miss my eggs.

I was raised free range on a 200 acre farm with thousands of acres of farms around us who's owners lived in town and allowed us to hunt.

We raised chickens, parents bought 200 chicks each spring, mom kept some for layers, we ate lots of chickens.

We had 50 or more hens who laid pretty much daily. Mom sold the eggs I gathered and washed. Town dogs that wondered by were worse than coyotes or Foxes. The chickens free ranged and were shut up at night.

Free range eggs are wholesome, natural like bird eggs our ancestors ate.

Eggs from containment or cages are fed mash or grains that produce weak yellow yolks and watered down whites. I can taste the mash in any store bought or restaurant egg.

They taste like chicken feed. I do not like them.


Every chance I got I bought free range chicken eggs.

My wife was a city girl, She grew up eating store bought eggs, never knew the difference, until I found a source close by. She can tell the difference.

Fast forward 60 years, I retired and bought 160 acres, we bought cows and chickens. I scrounged around and bought 4 10x10 dog pens and made a large pen. I made a 4x8 foot enclosed pen similar to a rabbit pen. I kept it in the barn and raised the chicks we bought.I built a small house in the big pen and closed the top well with chicken wire. Yes I did have to pop a cap on raccoons and possoms with a 22 at first. They will bite the head off a chick that sticks it out through the fence. I put an 18" piece of wire around the bottom.

I had a mix of chickens, Rhode Island Red, Black Sex Link, easter eggers and their green or blue eggs and a few others. By fall we were getting lots of eggs and sold the excess.

Was it worth it? We have surplus roosters in the freezer and we have some of the best tasting eggs you can find.

I did the big water and feed thing for when we were out of town.

Then my wife wanted to move closer to the kids. Yes I was between the rock and hard place. I agreed only if we bought a farm closer to the kids.

Now my wife wants chickens again, can't stand them yukky store eggs.

No you don't have to pet them but some will pick you out as a personal pet. The Rhode Island Reds and Sex Links were friendly. The Ameracanas were not, except for one. She would fly up on our shoulder and ride a round just like the pirates parrot. She enjoyed us. NAturally she got the first treat, smart girl.

If you have room for a small flock you should get enough eggs for yourself.

Roosters are not required for eating eggs.

It is worth it. Our new 80 acres will have chickens and more cows.

I once read an article about how eating eggs from chicken feed only causes stomach issues. Sorry don't remember where or I'd send you the link.

If you can't get chickens find a farmers market or a farm where you can go buy 3 or 4 dozen. They keep a long time in the fridge. I used to have some of the old book series on how pioneers/farmers made things and lived. They kept eggs all winter by sealing them in plaster.

And that mash or meal taste I detect in eggs, I can taste it in pen raised hogs and any fish farm raised fish.

My son free range raises a few hogs and one for me. City folks who eat it are amazed at the difference in the pork.

Sorry to be so long. Free range food is healthier. Cattle raised free range like buffalo is also a healthy red meat.OK I'm off the podium and healty good egg rant. Go find a real egg and be happy.