From the first January chicks, to switching to fermented chicken feed, to the impulse Araucana buy, to weathering raccoon attacks, to focusing on integrating birds of different ages, to processing my first chicken for dinner, to this latest endeavor: 25 new egg layers and 23 new meat birds.
 |
| The dark ones are egg layers, and the light ones are meat birds. |
The egg layers will get integrated into the flock as per the other chickens we've had. It really gets easier each time - I've done it twice now.
 |
| The meat chickens, the yellow ones, are Cornish Crosses. |
 |
| The egg layers (dark) are a mixture of Black Australorps, Barred Rocks, and two Blue Andalusians (one of which is the blue chick to the far right). |
The meat chickens will be moved to the sheep overwinter area for now, and be processed in late September. It'll be interesting seeing the Cornish breed grow literally side by side with heritage breed egg layers. Right now, they're all just tiny few-day-old chicks of the same size. I expect that by this time next week, they will be markedly different sizes.
Hello, I am new to your blog and saw on your profile that you were not always living in the country. I too have a dream for my family to move to a self sustaining farm and maybe run a CSA to serve the community around me. The question is how does a family of four, raised out in the suburbs, with no land or experience, make such a transition? Perhaps you have a past post you could share or have some advice that can point me in the right direction. Thanks and God Bless!
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks for writing. I don't have a past post on this, but it's a good idea for a future post! Basically, take it one thing at a time, and learn from your mistakes. We started with gardens, then added donkey, then chickens, then sheep, etc. This year we added a lot and it's a little wild, but we've had some previous experience. Also, books and magazines and blogs and forums are great for mining information. I learned 90% of what I know about homesteading from Google searches.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, and visit again soon.
Hey, Anon: See my latest post for a more thorough response:
ReplyDeletehttp://homesteadcatholic.blogspot.com/2014/09/homesteading-when-you-dont-have-a-clue.html
God bless!