Our New Ladies!
We finished butchering our older ladies, we cycle our ladies out every two years.
That way the oldest our hens will be is 2 1/2 years old.
Still young enough to be edible without being extremely tough.
When raising chickens you have two good options and one really bad one.
1. Cycle out your chickens every few years to keep a young egg laying flock.
2. Keep your flock until they die of old age, because they are family.
#1 problem with #2 is space. Most cities have limits on how many chickens you can have at a time.
We can't afford to feed a non laying flock.
3. Give away your two year old flock to someone new to chickens who doesn't understand you just gave them a whole flock of birds that will cost them a lot in feed cost and produce fewer eggs.
#3 May sound terrible, yet every spring I see people "giving" away egg laying hen's all 2 years old and healthy.
I am not a fan of #3.
Our Hen House
We finished butchering our older ladies, we cycle our ladies out every two years.
That way the oldest our hens will be is 2 1/2 years old.
Still young enough to be edible without being extremely tough.
When raising chickens you have two good options and one really bad one.
1. Cycle out your chickens every few years to keep a young egg laying flock.
2. Keep your flock until they die of old age, because they are family.
#1 problem with #2 is space. Most cities have limits on how many chickens you can have at a time.
We can't afford to feed a non laying flock.
3. Give away your two year old flock to someone new to chickens who doesn't understand you just gave them a whole flock of birds that will cost them a lot in feed cost and produce fewer eggs.
#3 May sound terrible, yet every spring I see people "giving" away egg laying hen's all 2 years old and healthy.
I am not a fan of #3.
Our Hen House
Silver Laced Wyandotte's
Esther – Purple
Celia – White
Arya – Pink
Sookie – Yellow
Black Astrolorp's
River – Red
Katniss – Green
Nicci – Purple
Lena – Pink
Rhode Island Red's
Ginny – Yellow
Jensen – Red
Saphira - Green
~~~
As you can see, we've put bands on the legs of our ladies.
Normally as a rule, you don't NAME an animal you will eat at some point in time.
However when it comes to my chickens and the fact that they aren't a quick turn around animal.
We name and band them - it helps us keep track of each animals health.
If you need to keep track but not get attached
(which you will do anyway chickens are fun & quirky)
band and label by color.
We got our new hen's in January, so they should start laying in the next two or three weeks!
A few are starting to show signs of squatting - which shows they will soon be laying eggs!
Also like all my hens, my ladies are named after some of my favorite written characters.
Esther – Purple
Celia – White
Arya – Pink
Sookie – Yellow
Black Astrolorp's
River – Red
Katniss – Green
Nicci – Purple
Lena – Pink
Rhode Island Red's
Ginny – Yellow
Jensen – Red
Saphira - Green
~~~
As you can see, we've put bands on the legs of our ladies.
Normally as a rule, you don't NAME an animal you will eat at some point in time.
However when it comes to my chickens and the fact that they aren't a quick turn around animal.
We name and band them - it helps us keep track of each animals health.
If you need to keep track but not get attached
(which you will do anyway chickens are fun & quirky)
band and label by color.
We got our new hen's in January, so they should start laying in the next two or three weeks!
A few are starting to show signs of squatting - which shows they will soon be laying eggs!
Also like all my hens, my ladies are named after some of my favorite written characters.
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