Getting started with raising your own chickens for eggs? Congratulations! Having your own eggs will give you a nice start into the world of raising your own food, plus the taste is unlike anything you can get at the store! Now that you’ve decided to get your pullets, what should you be feeding them, how…
little girl holding a chick
Congratulations! Raising and processing your own chickens is a huge leap towards great nutrition and self sufficiency! At first, processing your own meat birds can be confusing. How long does it take to get the bird ready to go into your freezer? Processing a broiler takes 5.5 minutes if plucking by hand and 4 minutes…
Deciding to hatch your own eggs can open up the world of poultry to you and your family! With a bit of planning and care during incubation, you can have a great hatch with a still air incubator. Successful still air egg incubation requires starting with fresh, unwashed fertile eggs and monitoring the incubator for…
You want to raise chickens, but you’re not sure how much space you need for the birds. We’ll cover the area you’ll need for the brooder, pen space per bird, chicken tractors and area needed for chickens in your yard. Chicks in a brooder need .5 sq. ft. each for the first 4 weeks, then…
Raising your first batch of broilers? Super! Now you need to know how to house and care for your new chicks. For a batch of 25 broilers, you need: 16″ diameter heat circle in a 4×4 brooder area for the chicks, followed by a 62.5 sq. ft. (or larger) grow out pen to be used…
Thinking about raising your own meat chickens this year? You’ll be glad you did! Broilers are a fast and easy way to put quite a bit of meat in your freezer. If you don’t plan to butcher the birds yourself, you are going to need to find a processor and figure out pricing. How much…
A happy, healthy chicken will naturally “fatten up”. So the real question is: what do we as chicken owners need to do to make sure that our chickens are happy and healthy? Chickens need plenty of water, appropriate feed, grit and a comfortable place to live to naturally reach ideal body condition. Great news, whether…
Tired of paying extra for name brand feed in those fancy 50 pound bags? You have some options. Have you considered making your own chicken feed? Feed for laying chickens is made from ground corn, soybean meal, calcium carbonate and poultry mineral mix. You can mix up your own poultry feed, we do it all…
Tired of paying for brand name broiler feed at brand name prices? Those 50 pound bags can add up, especially when your broilers get close to processing size! What are your feed alternatives? Can you make your own broiler feed? Broiler feed is made of ground corn, soybean meal, calcium carbonate and poultry mineral mix….