What are you all raising......

Just curious as to what everyone is raising and how large your flocks are.

I am currently down to just 2 hens. I think they are either Dominiques or Silver Laced Wyandottes, I'm not sure as they were given to me by a family friend's relative. They actually provide just enough eggs for our family. After these girls are gone I probably will not replace them. It is no longer cost effective to run an electric light in the coop throughout the winter months as well as the rising cost of their feed for the few eggs we are getting. I will miss the fertilizer when they are gone though, but not the work cleaning out the coop and run. lol

The house we bought came with chickens. We lost 4 from hawks this summer and are down to 6 gals and 2 roos.

We presently have Rhode Island Reds. 5 roos and 20 hens. We'll be butchering all but 12 hens and 1 roo when Joe takes leave in about another week. Our neighbor is coming to help with the butchering, so hopefully it won't be too bad.

Our girls just started laying a couple of weeks ago. The eggs are still small, but we're getting quite a few. I'm hoping with this batch of chickens we'll get them to hatch out some babies for us so we don't have to buy any more.

We have a couple of buyers for the eggs. The last time we did chickens we managed to sell enough eggs to keep their feed plus the feed for the goats bought, so I'm hoping that's going to work out this time too.

I can't let mine free range because of the hawks. I had to build a roof over the run to keep them from trying to grab my girls.

Ours don't free range either. Their coop is completely enclosed for the same reason. We never lost a chicken to predators, although we came close when someone's cat clawed their way into the coop from the top. That was before we got roosters. Now the cats stay clear.

We had cover for our girls and the hawk found the smallest hole. It took us forever to figure how it was getting in. The only way we knew was the last girl was pulled half way through the hidden hole and a white spray was left behind.

Yep, seems like if a predator is determined enough, they are hard to stop. We've been blessed.

We have 25 Easter Egger hens, 7 Buttercup hens, 1 Buttercup roo and 1 Easter Egger roo, and two game hens that were supposed to be good incubators. HA! We've had them two summers and not one time have they offered to set. We are hoping to sell eggs to help with the cost of our feed and we do eat eggs several times a week. I also want to hatch chicks to sell if we can and to replenish our flock.

Along with the hens we have 8 Khaki Campbell Ducks and 2 drakes. When they lay we sell those eggs to a lady that makes cakes to sell but I also want to try to hatch some ducklings to sell also.

Then we have two geese but I'm not sure if we have a goose and a gander or two of the same gender. I don't know how to tell them apart.

There's five turkeys that we are raising. I'm planning to hatch some next spring if we have any hens in the bunch and sell some of them and put some of those in our freezer.

To end this list we have six guineas. I'm not sure if I'd like the taste of guinea meat but I would like the eggs and to hatch some of them to sell.

If we can sell some eggs and hatch some young ones to sell and put in the freezer then maybe that will cover the cost of our feed. One of my neighbors told me Monday afternoon that they had extra land that we can plant corn and peas on next spring if we want to. I'd love to raise some of the feed for our birds and of course the peas would come in handy too. Both for us and the birds.

There's my novel about what we are raising. LOL

Mississippi Momma, sounds like you have quite a flock. So far we haven't had any luck getting a hen to hatch out eggs, with the exception of our last flock. Had a hen that hatched out two. One we found dead right after it hatched. The other died within a couple of days. Not sure what we're doing wrong, but we have a new flock now and are hoping for better results.

Right now I have mallard ducks, pekin ducks, mixed up chickens, and two turkeys one male and one female. The turkeys think they are giant lap dogs. they were hand raised and fed icecream. This makes feed time intresting. I always have to bring them a treat.

LOL I'm picturing a lap turkey. My dogs would have a fit!

The lady I got them from were their second owners. The first ones were to old to take care of them. They sat in tier yard and the turkeys sat under thier feet and ate from thier hands. They push thier heads on you to be petted and if you sit down they are in your lap. This is the most tame livestock I have ever owned until we got the dog/goat. She thinks she is a dog too.

My original 4 girls used to all gather round when they heard me coming out with treats for them. I used to feed them from my hand too, but not the blood thirsty pair I have now. They'd try to take my hand off if I tried to hand feed them.

1 beautiful Golden laced bearded Polish hen, a couple of black cochin hens, a couple buff cochin hens, one Rhode Island Red hen, one Production Red hen, a slew of buff orphington/buff cochin mixes. Unfortunately, I had to confine my birds. A hawk got 17 of my babies last summer in a matter of days. I was not very pleased about that. I can let them out when I work in the garden, but I don't feel comfortable doing that when I'm inside.

I have Buff Brahma, Light Brahma, Dark Brahma, Golden Campine, Buff Orpingtons, Australourpe, and some mixed "mutts." The Buff Orpingtons are great birds, but somehow are the first to get taken by predators. I think they are more trusting than the other breeds. The Golden Campines have been excellent layers of medium sized white eggs, even during the winter months while the Brahmas are on strike. My experience with that breed (Campine) is some are very flighty and don't like people, while others are very loving and follow me around the yard.

All my birds have names, even the roos headed to the stewpot. I can't help it.

bad habit naming livestock, hard not to though. Dad named a couple steers one year, Ferdinand and T-Bone ... both ended up dying of old age

We're down to just Buff Orpingtons. We have 8 hens and one rooster. Planning on getting some chicks this spring, but not sure yet what kind I'll be getting. We still keep ours completely enclosed to prevent predators from getting them. We don't know our birds, although we joked around about calling them names like nuggets, sweet and sour, etc.

Sonshine, did you get more chickens yet? Last year at this time, I got mine with no problem. This year, I noticed the same hatchery (Ideal) is sold out of most of the good chicks until April!

Mountainmama, we've been debating on whether to buy more or not. I prefer letting ours hatch out their own, but so far we haven't had a baby chick survive.

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PATRICE IN IL wrote:I can't let mine free range because of the hawks. I had to build a roof over the run to keep them from trying to grab my girls.

I have seen advertised little shirts that you can put on your hens so that hawks won't grab them. Has anybody ever used these? Hawks are becoming increasingly hazardous in these parts as well.

I've not seen those. Not sure how that would work. Hawks will bite their necks and kill them right on the ground without even carrying them off.

Around here, if it's not hawks, it's the crows terrorizing the chickens.

I can't have my chickens at home because of the hawks, but at the farm, I don't have a problem. I don't know if it's because it's more wooded here than out at the farm, or what.

I know one day I heard what sounded like a squeaky gate, and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I finally realized it was coming from overhead and looked up to see a pair of bald eagles fly over. I'm thinking this might have been B4 I started to let my chickens loose cuz I looked over at their pen and they were all hiding under the coop!

I've never heard of putting little shirts on them to prevent them from being snatched. I have heard of people putting chicken aprons on the hens so the roosters don't do much damage to their backs.