Chickens?

What farm would be complete without chickens? Kris is all excited by the idea and has chicken pamphlets from the grain stores. The one from Tractor Supply has color pictures of each breed and gives you a blurb on their high points. The big high point for all of them is the price. $2.49 to $2.99 for chickens, $3.99 for Guinea hens, $4.99 for ducks, Turkeys are $8.99 and you can get a goose for the same price. (Lets all just leave the "goose" price alone. Proves my theory that our humor develepment stops when we reach fourteen.)

So based on the prices for chicks, it makes absolutely no economic sense to own chickens and therefore, they are a must have for our farm. By the time I build a chicken coup and get feeders and waterers etc., we will have the price per pound of chicken on the hoof up near $10. Well, at least we will know what they ate. So what will they eat?

We have decided that we want them to be "free range" chickens and guinea hens (at $3.99 how can you pass guinea hens up?) Free range is all the rage in organic markets and higher end meat markets. Ours will have a cornucopia of things to munch on. Bugs will probably be one of the staples for sure, probably seeds and grasses, leaves and- always a chicken favorite- stuff they scratch out of the horse poop. This should give them a flavor you just can't get from commercial chicken feed. As poop goes, horse poop is not wet enough to support maggots from flies. Fly maggots are desirable for chicken protein in the more serious "free range" operations.

Cows on the other hand put out a wet manure ideal for maggots. If we are to progress past the "mom and pop" stage of free range chicken production, we will have to get a cow or two get our maggot production up to snuff. Sure, there will be the flies that make it past larvael stage, but once you start looking at flies as part of your feed program, you become more appreciative of them. "Wow, look at the meat on that sucker."

So, today, I will start the chicken coop and Kris will probably start looking at cows on line after she makes her pick of the chicks from the "final four." I'll be glad when March madness is over.