I-search Brainstorm
Topic; Raising Backyard chickens
What I know.
I have four of them. They are entertaining to watch. They are stupid animals. It is hard to tell a male from a female when they are young. Some of mine are laying eggs but I don't know which ones. I am happy with just four right know. My family enjoy having them. I have Rhode Island Reds. It is cheap to buy chicks. They will eat most anything. People have kept them for hundreds of years in their back yards. They seem very utilitarian in that when they stop laying eggs you eat them. They are a very good conversation piece when friends visit.
What I do not know.
What kind of diseases do they get? How long will they live? What do they look like when whey are sick. How do you clean a chicken for cooking? Does there coop need to be insulated in the winter. How cold is too cold for them? What does a bad egg look like? How do I keep other critters from getting in the coop. How often do they lay an egg? If I let them out of the coop will they come back at night? How can I keep them from digging out of the coop. Can they get hitchhikers like fleas or ticks? How upset will my girls be when one is in the stew pot? Why one pair are colored so similar but different from the other pair? Does this have to do with sex? If I decide to grow more how do you time them out for the best production? Should I just buy more chicks or hatch them? How do I keep the coop from rotting from their waste? How much chicken shit to spread on the garden? Can I find this information in books or is it one of those things that only farmers know about? What do I need to plan on for the long term? Are they becoming pets?
I just saw a picture this weekend of someone teaching backyard poultry raisers how to slaughter and dress their chickens....
ReplyDeleteGreat questions! All worth asking.
Until a fox ended my 30 year oddysey with bantams one bloody spring week, I had a nice free-range flock of 20-30 birds. Imagine, if you will, me standing shotgun in hand 30 feet from the fox who had a squawking hen in her mouth--but the fox was right directly in front of my wife's car. No shot there, unless I wanted to buy a new radiator and front grill! In a second the fox had slipped around the rear and was long out of range.....