 Our laying hens are a real joy given they provide us farm fresh eggs every day, and they have real personality. Winter is a rough time for the hens, since the shorter days tend to have an effect on their biological clock. Additionally, they can become stressed by the cold, snow, and lack of fresh pickings (bugs, worms, grubs, etc.). The length of day is difficult to control but easily minipulated by putting a light on a timer in the coop. This helps keep the biological clock thinkings its still summer and all is a go for laying eggs. We still see a real reduction on daily production due to other weather conditions, mainly the cold. There is little we can do about this except eat a few less omlets, (omlet recipe will be featured in our recipe section coming soon). |
Like the laying hens, meat birds can also be a real joy to have around, the only difference is the joy starts the day they go into the freezer. They are not a lot of fun while their being raised. We keep them from 8-12 weeks depending on the desired size. With the feed we use, they can be 5-7 pounds at 8 weeks and 7-12  pounds at 12 weeks. We feed them a grain mix we have concocted at our local feed mill, (we will post the recipe soon). This feed contains no animal products, no gowth hormones, and other than the first week to 10 days, they receive no antibiotics. We've found that our reletively small batches don't warrant these additives. We generally have 50 to 100 meat chickens at any given time. |
