Comments on: Backyard Chickens: 5 Things I Didn’t Know

By: Mamma Mayhem

Mamma Mayhem — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:30:46 +0000

Instead of a traditional coop, a friend of mine built a “chicken tractor.” Essectially, it is a mobile coop with the idea of the chicken clearing a garden plot for you. They eat the pests, till and fertilize. You rotate the tractor and they do it all again for the next garden plot. Healthiest veggies you’ve ever seen!

By: Oatbucket

Oatbucket — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 03:04:01 +0000

We have 10 backyard chickens and they do eat everything. However instead of having a seperate compost pile, the large chicken pen IS the compost area. We dump everything from food scraps to goat shed bedding, to leaves, to end of the season garden plants in there. Nothing will keep your compost turned like chickens and they LOVE to scratch through it all. Then come spring, we have some of the loveliest, black soil to dig out of the chicken pen and use in the various gardens.

By: Maven Koesler

Maven Koesler — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:27:52 +0000

One recommendation if you do decide to raise broilers. Go with the Red Broilers or Black Broilers rather than standard White Cornish x Rocks. They are the same type of birds, but the colored fowl seem to be way hardier than the whites. I get mine from Ideal Hatchery in Tx. The whites can drop dead at the surprise of a sonic boom or a door slamming. My Reds ALL reached maturity, and I currently have one Red rooster left who is fast approaching 2yrs old. He’s fast, and my egg hens seem more fond of him than their Black Jersey Giant roo.