Oct 13 2008
Fall Chicken Update
I have been quite busy and have not had a lot of time to blog. It has been a while since I have sit down and wrote about my chickens. I am still busy raising chickens and it is loads of fun.
I am now at 24 hens and one rooster of the full size chickens and I have 3 hens and one rooster of the bantam chickens. I was getting 12-15 eggs a day but as of the last few days, I am only getting nine eggs a day. This is ok because I am having a hard time finding a steady market in which to sell the eggs. I am trying to get to the break even point where I can supply my family with eggs and the excess can pay for the feed. The last month I have just about paid for all the feed with egg sales so it makes raising chickens cheaper.
I am preparing for what looks like a possible very cold winter. We have already received sub-freezing weather here and it is not a good sign for what is to come. I and hoping to get the chicken barns covered good for the winter and i am hoping have more chickens together will keep them warm. The banties are alone just the four of them but they sleep huddled up. I hope this will keep them warm and safe all winter. They have all gained some extra weight during the garden harvest season so that should also help keep them warm.
Around the rest of the homestead, I am preparing for winter by cleaning up the garden and getting the house winterized. Over the weekend, I installed plastic to weather proof the windows and I cleaned the furnace and vents. I still have to get the plow on the ATV and get it in good running condition to be prepared for the snow.That is about all that is happening right now. What are you doing to get ready for winter?
Good luck with selling enough eggs to get free eggs. I haven’t been able to do it in 30+ years of raising chickens.
I do know that leftovers from the house help, and the more time running free helps, might even put you over the hump in the warmer months. Feeding the right stuff from the garden also helps, but it is quite difficult to make anything that resembles a profit.
If the chickens are in a draft free environment they do winters pretty well. Probably some frost bite on the combs. This usually heals and does little aside from making the combs look lousy.
I have done about the same as you. I got my plow ready, plus my snowblower, cleaned up the garden, taken out the a/c, and just settling back.