Concrete Chickens

[Coastie dad]

At Hawg's request Im starting this thread.
We've been experimenting with chicken feeds for a few months. I acquired 100 cinnamon whatever from a grower that was told to destroy them. He lost a contract with a company whom shall remain nameless. They were 9 months old when we got them.
These birds didn't know what the outside of a chicken house was. We couldn't get them to come out into the yard for almost a week. We finally mixed these hens in with our others, and they began to get the hang of being farm birds.
(The rooster's reaction to all those hens was comical, and the story can only be repeated in potty mouth...)

Anyway, all these birds knew was an egg pellet feed that was supplied by the company. So we had to change the diet. And those birds knew nothing about anything but feed from a trough.
OK. On with the story. This is getting xerographica long.

We came up with a mixture of chicken scratch, egg pellet, and whole corn. This mix jumped production up. The birds went through a molt, and we did put light on them.
But the mill wanted a price and quantity to mix for me I just couldn't afford. So, I took an old electric concrete mixer, cleaned it up, and use it to mix.

Set the drum at an angle, and I mix in half a bag of pellets, then half scratch while it's turning. This mixes pretty well. Then I put in the other half of each bag. While it's turning, I add 4 of the big coffee cans of whole corn.

When I like the way the mix looks, I set a metal trash can under the drum and slowly tip. The running mixer feeds it into the can still turning and mixing.

Each drum equals out 100 pounds plus the corn, and costs me about $17. Still a little high, but considering I don't have to purchase by the ton, it's doable. I'm feeding 104 hens, two roosters, 20 Quail, 5 guineas, and 7 ducks on about 125 pounds per week. Only the roosters and drakes aren't giving eggs.

I sell the eggs here at work for $3 per dozen. So we get all we need, plus any the kids want, and still the chickens pay their own way and help support the rabbits. To put it in perspective, within three days they produce enough eggs to feed us and themselves for a week.

I don't think I've ever written a post that long when I wasn't ranting about something.

[Inor]

Wow! When you said you had chickens, I figured you had 5 or 6!

[Coastie dad]

Yeah...I don't always go into detail. We thinned out rabbits too. I'm down to 3 bucks and 6 does. But the Quail bring in the Mexican market. They love boiled Quail eggs for parties.

[Baglady]

Great set up. Now if you have a market for your chicken chit, and sell the red worms out from under your rabbit chit, you'll be seeing a tidy profit!

Just don't forget to pay your taxes for that income...

[Baglady]

Seriously tho, ours had better egg production when we fed some corn with our layer crumble.

[Coastie dad]

Casa de Pollo produce:313631373138

[Coastie dad]

The chickens have run of the rabbit shed. It's a big lean to attached to the coop in the chickens yard with drop down tarps for sides. The cages allow the droppings to fall through, and the chickens scratch around for stuff, so to speak.
The scratch mix has some corn in it, but that's why I add the whole corn. We get better looking yolks and stronger shells.

In the pictures the white eggs are duck eggs. Pay no attention to the color difference in the two buckets...that was just the lighting I guess. In reality they are still the same shade.

[Baglady]

Wow! That's a lot of eggs. I'd hate to have to wash all those.

[Coastie dad]

That's what the wife and granddaughter are for.
In MY market economy, they show their appreciation through labor.
The tasks they deem the most important are the ones they contribute labor towards.



I get stuck with the other crap.

[Inor]

So out of 104 chickens, on average how many eggs do you get per week?

Mrs Inor has designs on raising some chickens once we get the house build done. But there ain't no damn way in hell that I am signing up for keeping 104 chickens!!!

[Targetshooter]

Yeah...I don't always go into detail. We thinned out rabbits too. I'm down to 3 bucks and 6 does. But the Quail bring in the Mexican market. They love boiled Quail eggs for parties.

Quail eggs are good , I eat them .

[Coastie dad]

So out of 104 chickens, on average how many eggs do you get per week?

Mrs Inor has designs on raising some chickens once we get the house build done. But there ain't no damn way in hell that I am signing up for keeping 104 chickens!!!

Right now we are doing about 40+ dozen per week. When we had temps in the twenties we got down to as low as 10 dozen per week. Our best month, before cold weather set in, we were averaging 80+ eggs per day.

That's just the chickens. When the quail are at full steam, we usually get about 8-12 eggs per day.

It can be a job sometimes.

[Coastie dad]

I know my numbers fluctuate, but all kinds of factors play in. For instance, we had a hawk hanging around. Took out a chicken or two. That week, we got hardly any eggs. A sudden temperature change can cause a drop or a spike.
The wife keeps a more accurate tally. I'm going off of he top of my head right now. She tallies each day and notes temps, weather, feed, etc.

[hawgrider]

We started with factory birds a few years ago we used to get them from a guy who had a state contract. It is funny watching their first couple weeks of freedom. They don't even know what a blade of grass is. Let alone the scraps from salads and what not that the wife throws out to them. Ours mainly free range most of the year and that lowers the feed cost. In the winter though they are wimps and will go into the covered run I have for them but if there is more than a 1/2 inch of snow they want nothing to do with the main free range area.

The feed-
Ok I'm no 20 or 30 year chicken keeper but I got a few years under my belt now... I'm a little surprised at the ratio of your mixture. I know a lot of folks feed different mixtures from mash to pellets and fodder. We use scratch as a treat only and the reason we do that is if the hens get too fat they will stop laying. So I'm a little surprised at the ratio of scratch, whole corn, and layer feed. I'm not saying its wrong and maybe Ive been led to believe the wrong info ?
It may also be the difference that maybe your birds are not free ranging because of how many you have?

Our yolks are deep orange and the shells are hard as a rock. So that tells me we have a good ratio of free range food and supplemental feed.
Now all that said it does cost me more dough to feed a quality layer feed than if I was using more scratch and whole corn. So this is interesting to me as maybe we could be using more scratch which would lower costs?


Good thread Coastie I always like to hear what others are doing with their flocks

[Coastie dad]

Our birds were young and thin as rails when we got them. All they knew was the house. We feed twice per day with 2-3 scoops from a coffee can. We tried free ranging some of them, but they would lay where ever, and several didn't come home to roost, so to speak. I would go out after dark and find them huddled under the yard light, 20 yards from the coop.
We started getting the hard shells after introducing the corn into their diet. At first they refused to eat the corn. They would literally stand and look at it. We're now getting the golden yolks and full flavor.
The scratch is cheap, and made at the mill in town. We use it not only to cut the pellets, but to teach the hens to scratch at the dirt. Sounds funny, but these girls knew nothing. Turned free, I believe most would have died in a week.
The nice thing is they are very social towards people. Most of them clamor for attention. The granddaughter brings friends over and grab a chicken each to pet and carry around. They will follow you around like a dog.

[Coastie dad]

Hawg, you need to remind me this weekend to get pics of the feed tags so you can see what's in the scratch. And pics of the feed after mixed.
I'm thinking that when spring comes I'll have to adjust my mix again .

[hawgrider]

Our birds were young and thin as rails when we got them. All they knew was the house. We feed twice per day with 2-3 scoops from a coffee can. We tried free ranging some of them, but they would lay where ever, and several didn't come home to roost, so to speak. I would go out after dark and find them huddled under the yard light, 20 yards from the coop.
We started getting the hard shells after introducing the corn into their diet. At first they refused to eat the corn. They would literally stand and look at it. We're now getting the golden yolks and full flavor.
The scratch is cheap, and made at the mill in town. We use it not only to cut the pellets, but to teach the hens to scratch at the dirt. Sounds funny, but these girls knew nothing. Turned free, I believe most would have died in a week.
The nice thing is they are very social towards people. Most of them clamor for attention. The granddaughter brings friends over and grab a chicken each to pet and carry around. They will follow you around like a dog.

We had to go thru a short training process with the factory birds we had. I took golf balls and put them in the nesting boxes they caught on with in a couple weeks. We also introduced the birds to the coop for most of a day(kept them in there) when we first brought them home and they then had a instinct to know where to come back at night.
Also we had to teach them how to roost on a perch.... stupid birds.

Now that sounds easy and it was for less than a dozen birds. But I can see how the training would be a huge undertaking with a hundred birds...WOW!

[hawgrider]

Hawg, you need to remind me this weekend to get pics of the feed tags so you can see what's in the scratch. And pics of the feed after mixed.
I'm thinking that when spring comes I'll have to adjust my mix again .

That would be great I am interested in saving a few bucks we just break even at 3.00 a dozen for our eggs.. barely.

[hawgrider]

I acquired 100 cinnamon whatever from a grower that was told to destroy them..

From the Picture they Look like ISA browns which is the typical factory bird they lay way over 300 eggs a year. They will burn themselves out in about 3 to 4 years though. We did fairly well with the ISA's. Eggs all winter from those egg laying machines.

We are down to just one old ISA brown she is 4 years old still lays a couple eggs here and there she was our best layer for several years. We went to Black sex links, Barred rocks, Ameraucana, And Black copper French Maran only 9 birds.

[Coastie dad]

I've got barred rocks and americaunas also. Training was easier once we took the birds out of quarantine and integrated them with our older chickens. Our rooster put the training on them too. He's a leghorn, and when he starts crowing if they don't come to him he flogs hell out of stragglers.

[hawgrider]

I've got barred rocks and americaunas also. Training was easier once we took the birds out of quarantine and integrated them with our older chickens. Our rooster put the training on them too. He's a leghorn, and when he starts crowing if they don't come to him he flogs hell out of stragglers.

With all those hens that rooster has got to be happier than a pig in shit LOL!

[Coastie dad]

Yeah....it was pornographically comical the first few days.

[Xerographica]

"This is getting xerographica long." Heh... heh.

"I acquired 100 cinnamon"

At first I was like *head scratch*. Then I realized that you were talking about chickens.

Don't keep all your eggs in the same basket. Your farm as a whole seems quite diverse... if some disease wipes out all your chickens then you've still got your rabbits, quails, guineas and ducks. The potato famine was the result of too many eggs being in the same basket.

That was very innovate to use a concrete mixer to mix your chicken feed! I love the idea of getting the balance right.

About that ratio of roosters to hens. When I was in the Army the ratio was the opposite. The "hens" had the pick of the litter. This is useful when it comes to thinking about the labor market. Liberals think that they help workers when they increase the minimum wage and impose all sorts of worker regulations and benefits on employers. But all they end up doing is making it harder to be an employer. In economic terms, liberals increase the "barrier to entry". A higher barrier to entry means less employers. When there are a lot less employers to choose from... then the employers will have the upper hand. They'll have the pick of the litter. They'll have the leverage and the power. If the barrier to entry was as low as possible, then there would be a lot more employers. As a result, they'd have to compete for workers... and good workers would have the pick of the litter.

[hawgrider]

I have no roosters. Im not in the chick business. Eggs only. My small flock is expendable. I don't think coastie is in it for the chicks either? Some chicken keepers only keep a rooster or two around to help protect the flock.

[Baglady]

A couple of weeks ago something dug under the fence on the Buffs side. Our Buff rooster had bloody feet from fighting with (what we suspect was a rat). 2 days ago I picked up a Leghorn hen, and when she objected the Leghorn rooster came running. I love that the roosters are so protective of their girls!

[Coastie dad]

My barreds and americaunas will go broody. But these production hens don't have a clue. That mean ass rooster will fight anything. He got launched across the yard everyday for a week before he finally conceded my wife was meaner than him.

[Sparkyprep]

Quail eggs are good , I eat them .

I've never tried quail eggs, but I do like to hunt and eat quail.

[Sparkyprep]

Great thread! Thanks for this. There is no way that I would ever have 100 chickens, but I would love to have about ten. The wife doesn't want them. She says that they are nasty birds. LOL.

[Coastie dad]

I'm not going to lie. A wet day followed by a warm one can make it pretty ripe around Casa de Pollo.

[hawgrider]

Great thread! Thanks for this. There is no way that I would ever have 100 chickens, but I would love to have about ten. The wife doesn't want them. She says that they are nasty birds. LOL. no worse than than pigs and cows. And mixed with compost the poop makes the garden grow.

[hag]

Great thread coastie

[Coastie dad]

Ok, Hawg, as promised:3156

[Coastie dad]

31573158

Sorry I couldn't get the feed picture better. I may try again later.
100# cost just under $17.

[Coastie dad]

3159



Here's a few of the pecker heads I turned into the garden to start removing grass.

[hawgrider]

Excellent thanks. Question... whats Milo?

[Coastie dad]

Maybe up north they call it grain sorghum?

[hawgrider]

Maybe up north they call it grain sorghum?

Yes sorghum exactly lol

[Coastie dad]

3161


Accidentally put scratch on twice. Here's the pellet feed.

[Coastie dad]

So 16% protein on the egg pellet and 8% on the scratch. I figure this spring I'll boost my pellet ratio up. Right now brown farm eggs bring 50 cents to a dollar per dozen here. So, I truck them down to work with me and the urbanites give $3 a dozen because they personally know the grower and have them delivered.

[Arklatex]

So 16% protein on the egg pellet and 8% on the scratch. I figure this spring I'll boost my pellet ratio up. Right now brown farm eggs bring 50 cents to a dollar per dozen here. So, I truck them down to work with me and the urbanites give $3 a dozen because they personally know the grower and have them delivered.
$3 is a fair price to charge imo. One of my coworkers does the same thing you're doing and charges $3 per dozen. I don't know what eggs are going for at the supermarket since we get all our eggs from him.

[hawgrider]

We get 4.00 bucks a dozen for free range eggs to strangers. 3.00 bucks to co workers. Family is free.

[Coastie dad]

All depends on location. My neck of the woods, everybody has chickens.
Down south around the rock, the pseudo health hippies pay for the experience.
See, it's kind of like a market, where people provide this demand for my supply...and they vote for my eggs by buying from me...

Sorry...temptation...

[hag]

All depends on location. My neck of the woods, everybody has chickens.
Down south around the rock, the pseudo health hippies pay for the experience.
See, it's kind of like a market, where people provide this demand for my supply...and they vote for my eggs by buying from me...

Sorry...temptation...

Atta boy coastie

[Targetshooter]

I've never tried quail eggs, but I do like to hunt and eat quail.

me to.