RSS

Archive | Raising Chickens RSS feed for this archive

Being Your Own Vet

January 2, 2013

1 Comment

Vetting Your Animals

Most preppers put a lot of time and effort into planning ahead for the care of their family members.  We store food staples, first aid items, clothing a size or two ahead, ammunition, and so on.  That’s definitely a wise plan.  But how well stocked are you for your animals? Some medical skills are multi-species, […]

Continue reading...

How Old Are Your Chickens (and Why It Matters)?

November 19, 2012

14 Comments

What do you do with an old chicken?

“Ugh, this is like eating a boiled tennis ball.” That was our first experience with eating one of our own chickens. It wasn’t Laura’s fault though; it had nothing to do with her cooking. She’s got excellent culinary skills. Over time we learned what was going on. Books Smarts vs Experience When we first began […]

Continue reading...

Five Signs Your Chickens Are Eating Their Own Eggs

June 19, 2012

4 Comments

An egg eating chicken is hard to reform

Several of our chickens have developed a really bad habit: they’ve begun eating their own eggs. It’s a nasty habit that’s hard to break. In fact, we’ve seldom rehabilitated an egg-eating chicken, so I don’t hold out much hope that this time will be any different. But we’ll see. Egg-Eating Chickens How can you tell […]

Continue reading...

Do You Have What it Takes to Raise Backyard Chickens?

March 6, 2012

41 Comments

can you raise chickens?

The simple fact that you even find yourself reading this article probably means that you satisfy the first requirement of raising backyard chickens: desire. Obviously, without a strong desire to keep chickens the occasional hassles and burdens of doing so would quickly become overwhelming, leaving you wondering why you ever got started with such a silly idea in the first place!

Continue reading...

Can I Keep Chickens in My Backyard?

February 17, 2012

9 Comments

backyard chickens

If you have made the decision that you would like to try your hand at keeping some chickens in your backyard, there are a few considerations that you might want to make first, and although you have probably thought of some of these, there just might be a few that might come as a surprise.

Continue reading...

Backyard Chickens, part 16: Wintertime Issues

January 10, 2012

11 Comments

winter barnyard

January has its icy fingers in us after a couple of rather mild days.  Now the time has come in earnest when we will have to bundle up when we go out and take special care with the animals. How is wintertime flock management different? 1.  Keeping drinkable water available While you may have struggled […]

Continue reading...

Why Turkeys are Probably Not the Way to Go

November 1, 2011

15 Comments

turkeys in your prepping

As I mentioned in some previous pieces, we have raised turkeys for about 5 years.  We’ve enjoyed them to some extent, but we have decided they are not a species we would recommend for preparedness. A Little History Turkeys are considered to be indigenous to North America.  They were found in wild flocks by explorers  hundreds […]

Continue reading...

Backyard Chickens, part 15 (What to do when your birds eat their own eggs)

October 25, 2011

3 Comments

chickens that eat their own eggs

Most of the time, if your poultry has appealing nesting boxes, they will contentedly leave their gifts for you and go about their business scratching for insects and seeds, bathing in the dust, etc.  Occasionally, one or two will develop a very bad habit of eating eggs. How does this happen? It usually starts with […]

Continue reading...

Useful Things to Do with Eggshells

October 3, 2011

6 Comments

How to use eggshells

Hopefully, your backyard flock of poultry is paying dividends now with daily gifts of healthy protein.  If you are fortunate, you are now spoiled by the delicious difference between anemic store-bought battery hen eggs and golden-yolked, nutrient-dense free range chicken eggs. But what to do with all those eggshells? One of the things that preparedness […]

Continue reading...

Laura’s Prepping Diary: 9/24/11

September 24, 2011

9 Comments

I am a big fan of  Craigslist and other places where I can pick up useful items at pennies on the dollar compared to their original cost.  This was my treasure for today: WARE Premium Hutch + Rabbit Run for $30!!  The list price for these 2 items new is a little under $400. It […]

Continue reading...