Our Homesteading Series. Laying Hens

Our first chickens

I remember like it was yesterday.  We went over to our friends house to visit, like we had so many times before, however, little did we know, this time would be different...

                           
As we made our way outside to our friends chicken coop, we found our interest growing.  There they were, pecking around in the yard looking for bugs. What can I say... We fell in love with them!  

(We are in transition do to job change. However, I have 3 years of homesteading under my belt that I can still share until we are up and rolling again)

On the drive home, we discussed where we would begin our "chicken" journey.  What breed would be best for laying, and what about meat chickens...Did we even want to  go down that road??                    
 Once we established what LAYING hens we wanted, we made our purchase.  We chose to go with... Rhode Island Red, Plymouth Rock Chicken, Sussex, Australorp and Frizzles. At one time we had around 35 chickens.  (NOTE: To keep a good healthy flock, buy local if you can. We always purchased our baby chicks from our local feed store. Or  buy full grown chickens from a reliable source. Keep in mind that at times no matter how careful you are, you can still end up with a sick chicken. So keep your new baby chicks / grown hens separated from the flock until you know they are healthy)

New baby chicks

    A frizzle chicken is a type of chicken with feathers that curl outwards, rather than lying flat as in most chickens. (when breeding frizzles, it's best to breed a Frizzle bird to a non-Frizzle bird. Otherwise you can end up with an offspring that carry to much of the F gene making them come out almost "naked" (weak or no feathers)

                                                        

  These were a few of our Frizzle chickens

                                                     
         What did we feed our chickens? They free ranged and we supplemented their diet at times with Flock Raiser.  

Our chickens were free ranged 

                     Our chickens  also enjoyed fresh goat milk

Our chickens enjoyed fresh milk

                                                       

                Here is a picture of "Big Red" AKA...The Rooster.
A little information about roosters... To many will stress out your birds, Resulting in lower egg production. The reason is roosters do what roosters do. (talking about mating here) When you have too many roosters, they tend to "attack" the same chicken more then once. So either keep them separated from the hens, or do not have more then a couple of roosters.
                                             

Big Red

The next photo is a picture of my husband and son getting the chicken coop ready.

My husband and son
Did we know what we were doing? Sorta:) But that is all part of the adventure.

Our first chicken coop

                                                                            
 Chickens are not picky. As long as they have a clean place to lay eggs, they are happy. If you do not clean out their boxes (whatever you choose to use) they may stop laying in them / you will find eggs elsewhere on your homestead! 

Broody hen

Note: If egg production goes down, you may check to see if a hen is broody (laying on eggs to hatch) If that is what you desire, then separate her from the rest of the flock. Around  21 days, you will have baby chicks

Cleaner boxes also mean cleaner eggs!

Proof they will lay under the right conditions!

                                                                                 
     Around 6:30AM chickens want out (when the rooster starts crowing, it is time) They love to free range. Looking for bugs, baby snakes, mice, Etc... Yes, I said mice! We saw ours eat just about everything:)

Morning time!

                                               
As evening approaches, the chickens all start to come home to roost. You do not have to worry about gathering them up, they will gather themselves up:) (Be careful if you do free range your chickens. Other animals may take an interest in them for dinner. Especially, Hawks)   
                                                    

       If you decide want to keep your birds in a fence or simply keep them from "flying" over into areas like the garden, clip their wings. Hold the chicken, spread out the wing, and clip all the bottom / outer part of the wing.  

I do not own this photo

       Cut right along the white line (Not above where the small feathers are) The feathers below the white line are called flight feathers.  It does not hurt the chicken.

Q&A

    Are chickens friendly? Yes. Here is a picture of my husband with our Grand-baby. And yes, that is a chicken on his head!
                                                     
     Do chickens get along with your other animals on your homestead? Yes. This picture is our rooster (Big Red) standing on our goat:)
                                                   

Our rooster (Big red)  standing on our goat

         What about eggs? Do you get enough to feed your family?                       It depends on a few important factors.  1: Are they old enough to lay eggs. (Around 4-6 months old) 2:Is it winter? If so keep them warm in their chicken coop. (You can also add a heating bulb to add even more warmth) Also chickens need sunshine and light. Even in the winter months be sure and let them out of their coop. 3: Are they stressed by roosters? Remember, I told you earlier, to many roosters trying to mate with the hens causes stress. Stress = lower egg production! 4:Is their boxes clean? Refer to photo above. Clean laying boxes = more eggs / cleaner eggs.
5: How many eggs can you expect to get a day? 1 egg per chicken per day. 6:How big? Color of egg? That depends on the age and breed of your chicken. The smaller the egg, the younger the hen. 

Our eggs 

                                   

We always gathered eggs in the morning and evening.

                      When eggs were gathered in the morning,I always checked for freshness. I put all eggs in a full sink of cold water. If they stay on the bottom and lay to the side, they are fresh. If they stand up, they need to be used first. If they float to the top, do not use! Finish by laying on clean towel to air dry. 
                                                        

Our eggs

                       The difference in a farm fresh eggs VS store bought.
                      The deeper orange color is from a hen off the homestead that free range and had a great natural diet. The lighter color egg is from the store. The darker the yolk, the better their diet was.

                           Can you eat a fertilized egg?                           
   Yes, you can eat them. They taste the same and as long as they haven't been under a broody to start the incubation it is pretty much exactly the same as an infertile egg.

                                                                                   


Can you sell fresh eggs? Yes and no. Every state has its own set of rules. In CA I could sell them on my homestead, however, I could not sell them off my property. I also could not advertise price. Only "eggs for sale". 

I hope this post has been helpful. Be patient homesteading takes time:)

For further information, please refer to a good "chicken" book. I like this one...   

Disclaimer...                                           

For educational purposes only. Not intended to take the place of you seeking "professional" advice. The above information is simply has been my experience from my homestead.



Watch our homesteading videos at: RandS Farmer
                                                                                     

How I cut our electric bill from $900 a month to $120!

 When living in CA with my family, the one thing that was a "strain" for our family was our electric bill. ( I also met others who were having difficulty) I remember this one lady at Walmart who was checking my husband and I out. She was inquiring about if we were going camping. I informed her we were setting up our "bedroom" for our back deck (more on that later) She went on to say that she had just recently had her electricity shut off. She was simply trying to stay cool and in the process ran up a huge bill like we did. I shared some of my energy saving  tips with her, and went on my way.   

             Continuance of our story...

Even though we lived in a large 2 story home, we didn't use the upstairs AC. We only used the AC downstairs. 

However, even with partial use of AC, our electric bill was still outrageous.  At one point we owed over $3000 to the electric company! (We were on a balance payment plan)   

So what did I do to make such a drastic change in our electric bill? Several things. A couple of things may look familiar to you, however, I bet there is one that is not:)

       Lets start with the dryer!

                     A dryer uses a lot of energy.  One way I cut our electric bill was to unplug my dryer all summer. I did not use my dryer all summer long. Instead, I used a clothesline to dry my clothes.
                                                   

              
There are many different types of clotheslines. You can buy them or build them. If you live in an area where you cannot use a clothesline (You probably should move) then go to Walmart and for under $20 you can use one of these...
                                                        

Here is my towels drying. And yes, we have moved from the "gated community" that didn't allow clotheslines outside!

Here is a picture of a homemade one. So pretty!

Photo Credit unknown

Next, I used drapes to block out the sun until the sun had moved 
around. Our home had a wall that mostly consisted of 2 large window doors.  Here is a pic below.
                                                   

Our living room

As you can see, I have the curtains pulled open (for photo) However, during the summer from around 10:00AM until 4:30PM I kept them closed. If not, our living room heated up greatly. The drapes were purchased at Target. Great investment! I did the whole house. You can buy many different types of drapes.
  This picture below is a picture of curtains and drapes. Curtains are thinner and are not going to do a great job at keeping the sun out. Drapes however are much heavier. They work very well. You could also use shades under your curtains, or just use shades. I went with drapes since we did not have windows. Our whole front wall was 2 large doors that opened up onto our back deck.

Finally, I get to the source that greatly, greatly cut our electric bill. Not using our Central air!! However, without it, our house at times was well over a 100 degrees inside! Tooo hot!

So how did we handle no AC? Let me share a couple of different ways we survived:)

1: We bought cheap window fans and put them into the windows at night. We left them on during the night to blow cool air into the house during the night. This lowered the temperature, so come morning our house was not already 90 degrees (did not raise electric bill hardly at all)  2: We "camped out" at night.I turned our back deck into our "bedroom". Thats right. For a great part of the summer, we slept under the stars (on air mattresses) falling asleep after a movie and popcorn! 

Here is my son, Josh. It is morning:)

     I set up a "movie station" with our laptop and an old table.

                                                         
Kids enjoying the air mattresses during the day.

     

You can also pull out your own mattress and use that. Just lay a rug down first. We did that also.

One more photo

One summer, we bought a 4 man tent and put our mattresses in that. Again, sleeping under the stars / staying cool!

A few times the kids had sleep overs with their friends, and we even had guest who came with their kids and joined in:)

Add a box fan (one you use in your window) and you will be waking up feeling really cold:)

Night time



During the day, the kids played in our pool, or spent time at the river. Drapes kept the heat out, and the fans helped cool off our house during the night. 

I remember the PGE man asking me on the phone what steps I took to pay off our bill / keep our bill down. I gladly shared with him my strategy to staying cool and cutting cost.

I hope this has also been helpful to you:)

Sandy  

Hubby makes dinner!

                                                                   Meet The Hubby

                                                                                       

My husband, Roger

                                                                Menu for tonight...

                                                                             Potato Delish!

                        Recipe Feeds 8 -10
Ingredients:
2 # Lean Ground Beef
1 # Ground Pork
3 cans of Cream of  Campbells Mushroom Soup (Do not add water to soup)
3 packets of Ranch Dressing Mix(Hidden Valley)
5 # Red Potatoes
1 # Colby Jack Cheese                                 

Visual of soup and ranch seasoning

1/2 # thin sliced bacon
3/4 cup of milk                           
1/4 cup of butter


Peel and cut potatoes into 1" squares, then rinse and boil for 5-7 minutes, you don't want them done.

Grate your cheese, and set aside.

Brown Beef, and Pork in a skillet
Mix soup, ranch, milk and butter in sauce pan and simmer.
Once meat is brown, mix all the ingredients and continue to simmer.

Cook bacon crisp, and crumble.

Once everything has simmered 5-10 minutes your ready to assemble the casserole.

Put 1/2 the potatoes in a Large  deep casserole dish and cover with meat mixture, and 1/2 grated cheese, then add all the potatoes and cover with rest of meat mixture. 

Bake for 20 minutes at 375. Then add bacon and cheese topping and finish baking for 10 minutes. Let stand for 5-10 then serve with your favorite topping. (My wife enjoys it with sour cream)

                                                        
   

                                                                               

                                                                                 

Proverbs 31 :16 Consider before you buy...

Ladies, before you go shopping, mediate on Proverbs 31:16

           "She considers a field and buys it."
 
           
                                           
The key word here is... Considers. She considers before she buys. No impulse buying! Take time to think about what you are buying / how much it will take from your family budget to make those purchases. 

  I know for me in the past, at times, I have been caught up in all the "hype" of shopping. Another words, the quality is not always why you pay an ridiculous amount for an item. Most of the time it is simple the Brand you are paying for. I finally realized after awhile, the expensive things I was buying, in actuality, were not my favorite items.

However, because we are brain washed into believing that the more you pay / certain brand names make the item "special", I would always ignore what I truly liked based on it wasn't expensive. 

Now, do I own things that cost a bit more then cheaper items? Yes. However, the reason behind the purchase was not selfish or sinful. Meaning, I wasn't in greed or "endangering" the needs of my family. Many times we buy things because of how it makes us feel. The problem with that is, stores use that to help market their merchandise. Satan used that in the garden with Eve. "This tree can make one wise!"  Heck yeah! Eve was all over that. (Adam also) So your feelings cannot be the only "wisdom" you take to the store with you.

I might add here ladies, carrying a certain purse or wearing certain clothes / perfume,  Etc... (which cost more then you can usually afford) does not make your problems go away or make you more special. At the end of the day...It is just a purse, Etc...

So stop and consider before you buy something. Ask yourself, Do I really like this item? Can I afford it? (Afford does not mean you have money to buy it. It means all the needs of your family are met, and the funds used to make the purchase will not effect you negatively afterwards)

                                                                                   

                                                Photo credit unknown

                                                                         

             Lets say you want to purchase a handbag. 
       The handbag below sure catches the eyes attention. However, so does its price! $45,000 dollars!! I have seen it on E-bay for even more. Might want to "consider" this before allowing your flesh to mortgage your home to buy it. 
                                                  

                                                                         

8. LV Tribute Patchwork Bag - $45,000

     For me, I will settle on something that is a bit more "budget" friendly. Here are a few handbags that I purchased for myself.

  I have always liked the handbags sold at Payless. (yes, they sell more then just shoes) This purse was one of my purchases from there. It was $29.00 dollars. It has a very causal / country feel to it. 
                                                       

Payless  $29.00 dollars

  This purse was purchased from...Cracker Barrel!
That store has some of the most beautiful things you ever saw. Jewelry, clothes, purses, candles, Etc... It was also around $30.00 dollars. Perfect for all seasons, and it holds so many things.

Cracker Barrel $30.00

This purse is a little more on the elegant side.  I have received many compliments on this purse. Where did I purchase it? I have to say...Cracker Barrel! Around $30.00 dollars also. Great purse for a more elegant "dress up" feel. 
                                                         

Around $30

    Keep in mind ladies, Proverbs 31 (Wisdom) was written not only to help the king find a wife, it was written for us too. The world is always trying to tempt us to live according to its standards, not the way of the Lord. You have to be alert! Do not let yourself put your family in hardship because you fell for a lie of the enemy. (I have done this in the past) 

If it has the "ringtone" of causing you to stray from your budget, or be dishonest, or forsake what you know the word says, then you need to pull away from it. It is not from God.  

Adam and Eve were tempted, and so was Jesus. The only difference... Jesus did not give in to the "tempter" of this world! He remained faithful to what God desired.

I hope this has planted a few good seeds into your hearts. I know it has mine:)