I LOVE opening the door in the morning and watching them come running out! Chickens are fascinating birds and fun to watch. All the different colors and markings are amazing.
We have about 50-60 chickens, most being layers, a few roosters and about eight meat birds that need to be butchered soon. Of our eight turkeys, we have two left, no thanks to Shep!
Besides killing the turkeys, Shep is a good chicken herder. He helps to get stragglers in at night, which makes our job much easier if we want to close the coop before it gets dark.
Chickens help cut down on wood ticks and mosquitoes, as do Guinea Hens, which I hope to get some of next year.
This year we have a variety of different chicken breeds: Barred Rock, Production Red, Black Australorp, Black Sex Link, ISA Brown (Gold Star), Silver Laced Wyandotte, Buff Orpington and Americanas (which lay light blue, green or pink eggs). We also have a dual purpose birds: Rainbow, Red Rangers and Asian Blues.
There is a beautiful rooster and a hen (Buff Orpington) from a previous year. She is the only laying hen right now. The others should start laying in October and we hope to be able to bless people with some fresh, free range, "organic" eggs. We feed them transitional feed - non-GMO, all-natural and no chemicals used. It is like organic, just not certified (thus, a little cheaper.)
As you can see in the video, after all the others come running out, they go in to eat some grain. The rooster takes good care of his hen. He even keeps watch outside the little shed when she lays her eggs.
After a second hen was nabbed one night (before we had the nice chicken coop), these two now reside with the miniature horses, roosting on the fence.
If you come visit after October, we might be able to send you home with some fresh eggs!
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