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Raising Poultry on the Homestead
Our Idea of Self-Sufficient Poultry
Everyone has different goals on their farm of why they are raising chickens. Some do it for pets and decorations. Some people strictly raise chickens for eggs. Others are hardcore, growing nothing but meat in a short period of time.
After my Lyme disease diagnosis, cancer, and spine disease, I wanted to raise the healthiest birds possible. My focus on the health and well-being of the birds. Growing healthy DNA, fats, and calcium the poultry would provide for me on the table.
My goals have always been a natural environment for foraging, pasture rotation, evening lighting for bug harvesting, fresh organic produce from the garden all summer, and non-fluoridated and chlorine-free water in the non-freezing months.
I have been raising poultry for two decades, and I am still learning new and better ways as my homestead continues to expand, becomes more labor efficient, and grows closer to the land.
Our Poultry Program: Welcome
We started our poultry program with mail-order chicks from a local hatchery. I started with 15 chicks but found it would take six times than that to sustain ourselves on meat and eggs in addition to other meats.
Chicks need to be kept at 99 degrees for two or more months until they shed their down and are fully covered in feathers.
Over the years, I found that raising chickens was easiest to do in steps. I do not start chickens on any bedding because they tend to eat it. Wood or paper shavings can cause blockages and kill baby poultry.
I start our poultry in small brooder pens with wire floors. I always put clean towels down that I change twice a day to protect their feet from getting caked up feces on them. Dirty feet quickly leads to bumbles (sores) that cause leg problems and sometimes leg failure that leads to death.
Turkeys will peck at dirty feet until they poke holes in their feet, and once a sore starts, they won't stop biting at it.
Turkeys will also peck at their feet if they are hungry or deficient in nutrition.
As soon as the birds learn to eat and drink regularly, they are ready to leave the small brooder cage.
In my third year raising chickens, I learned that the always-on brooder lights were stressing out many birds, and they would die from lack of sleep. We built a brooder that heats with ceramic heater bulbs (no light).
Using a digital plant-heat-mat controller, we could automatically set the brooder temperature to have the heat regulated. A few lamps were always on, as an emergency back up. The rest ran on the thermostat to kick on and off to regulate the entire brooder floor area.
The thermostat was helpful because as the birds aged and outside temperatures got warmer, we could easily turn down the heat during the day.
Then, we put lights on timers underneath the brooder to simulate day and night cycles so the baby chickens would sleep all night. I stopped losing chicks the first year we did this.
Using a digital plant-heat-mat controller, we could automatically set the brooder temperature to have the heat regulated. A few lamps were always on, as an emergency back up. The rest ran on the thermostat to kick on and off to regulate the entire brooder floor area.
The thermostat was helpful because as the birds aged and outside temperatures got warmer, we could easily turn down the heat during the day.
Then, we put lights on timers underneath the brooder to simulate day and night cycles so the baby chickens would sleep all night. I stopped losing chicks the first year we did this.
Winter storms can wreak havoc on your new flock. Having an emergency heat source for chicks is essential. What will you do if the power goes out? What will you do if the temperature drops to record lows?
We ran the generator to heat the floor size brooder when the power went out, but we had chicks in the brooder cages that had to be brought to the house to warm by the woodstove.
Poultry gets power before we do. I had to take the coffee pot up to the barn to make the morning's coffee.
We ran the generator to heat the floor size brooder when the power went out, but we had chicks in the brooder cages that had to be brought to the house to warm by the woodstove.
Poultry gets power before we do. I had to take the coffee pot up to the barn to make the morning's coffee.
This photo is of another winter storm. We had to rescue baby birds in the middle of the night. After finding flashlights and dressing in snow gear, I couldn't find my way to the barn in the blinding wind and snow. In all, it took twenty minutes to get up to the barn. I used a cooler to bring the chicks back to the house in blizzard conditions. Our woodstove had time to cool after we went to bed, so I used Hot-Hands to revive the cold-stunned chicks.
Gracie is very concerned.
Gracie is very concerned.
Chicks need room and plenty to keep them busy, or they will peck one another. We would expand the floor space by fencing off part of the barn.
They are still too little to go out on pasture just yet. Where we live in Kansas, owls and hawks hunt during the day and can quickly fly off with a chick this size. They are also too small to perch at night to stay high up from snakes or other predators.
They are still too little to go out on pasture just yet. Where we live in Kansas, owls and hawks hunt during the day and can quickly fly off with a chick this size. They are also too small to perch at night to stay high up from snakes or other predators.
Poultry of all ages doesn't understand new surroundings. Chicks and new birds added to your flock need to be caged in, close to the coop, until they learn the caretakers, doors, waterers, and feeding schedules.
Year after year, I kept running into problems with the health of the chickens I got from hatcheries. I assumed it was because they weren't bred from a lineage of birds that toughed out disease and the Coccidiosis parasite. You can get your chicks vaccinated or medicate them, but I wanted a robust bird that could handle the elements in nature just like wild turkeys do.
I also wanted chickens that were strong enough to forage and that didn't need commercial bag-feed to survive. It was too expensive to feed 80 chickens a high dollar NON-GMO feed, much less organic. I needed to ween out weak birds from the flocks by selecting the strong birds year after year and start hatching my own.
Having birds out on open pasture exposes them to wildlife in the area. Wild songbirds carry diseases that chickens can get. I lost dozens of birds to Mycoplasma gallisepticum or Mycoplasmal conjunctivitis. American Goldfinch, Evening Grosbeak, and Purple Finch can all carry this disease that can be fatal to poultry—identified by loose eyelids, crusty beaks, and air sac infections.
Mycoplasma infections can lead to leg lameness. This photo one of several chickens I had that went lame, causing the feet to become useless. The affected birds were culled. The remaining birds that showed little or no symptoms were used for my breeding program, along with birds that didn't suffer from any coccidiosis infection.
Another known cause of curly toes and splayed legs in young chicks is a B-2 deficiency, but in this case, the onset of lameness was in a two-year-old hen, on open pasture with a bug light at night, to eat June bugs by the hundreds. Bugs are very high in B vitamins.
I still live in an area where the wild birds at the feeder have this disease, and my poultry is no longer affected year after year. I also haven't lost a chick to a "pasty butt," or a coccidiosis infection, in over six years by breeding up the genetics instead of medicating them.
I also wanted chickens that were strong enough to forage and that didn't need commercial bag-feed to survive. It was too expensive to feed 80 chickens a high dollar NON-GMO feed, much less organic. I needed to ween out weak birds from the flocks by selecting the strong birds year after year and start hatching my own.
Having birds out on open pasture exposes them to wildlife in the area. Wild songbirds carry diseases that chickens can get. I lost dozens of birds to Mycoplasma gallisepticum or Mycoplasmal conjunctivitis. American Goldfinch, Evening Grosbeak, and Purple Finch can all carry this disease that can be fatal to poultry—identified by loose eyelids, crusty beaks, and air sac infections.
Mycoplasma infections can lead to leg lameness. This photo one of several chickens I had that went lame, causing the feet to become useless. The affected birds were culled. The remaining birds that showed little or no symptoms were used for my breeding program, along with birds that didn't suffer from any coccidiosis infection.
Another known cause of curly toes and splayed legs in young chicks is a B-2 deficiency, but in this case, the onset of lameness was in a two-year-old hen, on open pasture with a bug light at night, to eat June bugs by the hundreds. Bugs are very high in B vitamins.
I still live in an area where the wild birds at the feeder have this disease, and my poultry is no longer affected year after year. I also haven't lost a chick to a "pasty butt," or a coccidiosis infection, in over six years by breeding up the genetics instead of medicating them.
Getting the birds off of bag feed wasn't easy. Many generations of birds raised next to feed dishes had genetic memories of feed dishes and not foraging. Large scale poultry breeders raise birds in pens year after year, and some poultry doesn't understand what grass is or that it is edible.
I wanted to grow beans for our poultry to provide them with extra protein. After some experimentation, I discovered raw beans are toxic to poultry. They contain a compound in them that is a trypsin inhibitor. It stalls weight gain and, in some cases, can kill poultry. Cooking the beans thoroughly stops the effects of this compound.
Soy-based feeds also have ill effects on poultry unless the soy has been roasted. This is why high-protein poultry feed is costly, it has been heat treated. Soy can have large amounts of glyphosate, so we never use soy as a feed.
I have purchased numerous styrofoam incubators and even built a few of my own, trying to get great hatch rates. I wish someone has told me not to waste money or time on cheap foam, building things from scrap in my early years. The money I wasted over the years in buying chicks, small foam incubators, and incubator parts far exceeded these high-end units' cost.
Buying professional incubators pays off quickly!
Buying professional incubators pays off quickly!
Aside from power outages, these incubators are relatively foolproof. Keeping the correct humidity keeps from getting "shrink-wrapped" chicks that can't hatch from the shell properly.
Turkeys are also prone to "drowning" if they pip with too much moisture in the shell.
It is a little known fact that temperature affects the sex of the unhatched chick. Click here to see the National Library of Medicine Institue of Health Article on the study. At lower incubation temperatures, more males hatch. At higher temperatures, more females hatch. I have been using this method for years, and it does prove to be true. In the years we want to focus on meat, we hatch at a slightly lower temperature for more roosters. In years we need to focus on eggs we hatch at the top of the incubation scale, a steady 99.8 degrees with a 54-55% humidity.
A glitch in your incubation can cause crossed sexes in birds. I have processed quite a few egg-laying hens that have small testicles. This can happen during the early stages of egg collection if the eggs are allowed to get cold or chilled. Click here to read more.
Aside from power outages, these incubators are relatively foolproof. Keeping the correct humidity keeps from getting "shrink-wrapped" chicks that can't hatch from the shell properly.
Turkeys are also prone to "drowning" if they pip with too much moisture in the shell.
It is a little known fact that temperature affects the sex of the unhatched chick. At lower incubation temperatures, more males hatch. At higher temperatures, more females hatch. I have been using this method for years, and it does prove to be true. In the years we want to focus on meat, we hatch at a slightly lower temperature for more roosters. In years we need to focus on eggs we hatch at the top of the incubation scale, a steady 99.8 degrees with a 54-55% humidity. Our incubator tends to fluctuate up instead of down, so knowing your incubator's quirks can help you decide on your set temperatures.
A glitch in your pre-incubation can cause crossed sexes in birds. I have processed quite a few egg-laying hens that have small testicles. This can happen during the early stages of egg collection if the eggs are allowed to get cold or chilled in the early spring laying season. The result is in a rooster that never fills out in size and tends to have hen characteristics on the tail feathers, comb, and wattles.
We hatch our ducks, geese, and turkeys first. These birds are more affected by stress and crowded conditions. They also have a more challenging time learning to eat. Chickens will often crowd the dishes confusing turkeys, and they forget to eat.
Gathering chicken eggs for hatching two months after the turkeys and waterfowl get their jump-start helps eliminate chick loss. Chickens grow quickly and more robust. Once their legs are strong and they are eating well, they are added to the flock to be kept under watch until turned out to pasture.
Turkeys are also prone to "drowning" if they pip with too much moisture in the shell.
It is a little known fact that temperature affects the sex of the unhatched chick. Click here to see the National Library of Medicine Institue of Health Article on the study. At lower incubation temperatures, more males hatch. At higher temperatures, more females hatch. I have been using this method for years, and it does prove to be true. In the years we want to focus on meat, we hatch at a slightly lower temperature for more roosters. In years we need to focus on eggs we hatch at the top of the incubation scale, a steady 99.8 degrees with a 54-55% humidity.
A glitch in your incubation can cause crossed sexes in birds. I have processed quite a few egg-laying hens that have small testicles. This can happen during the early stages of egg collection if the eggs are allowed to get cold or chilled. Click here to read more.
Aside from power outages, these incubators are relatively foolproof. Keeping the correct humidity keeps from getting "shrink-wrapped" chicks that can't hatch from the shell properly.
Turkeys are also prone to "drowning" if they pip with too much moisture in the shell.
It is a little known fact that temperature affects the sex of the unhatched chick. At lower incubation temperatures, more males hatch. At higher temperatures, more females hatch. I have been using this method for years, and it does prove to be true. In the years we want to focus on meat, we hatch at a slightly lower temperature for more roosters. In years we need to focus on eggs we hatch at the top of the incubation scale, a steady 99.8 degrees with a 54-55% humidity. Our incubator tends to fluctuate up instead of down, so knowing your incubator's quirks can help you decide on your set temperatures.
A glitch in your pre-incubation can cause crossed sexes in birds. I have processed quite a few egg-laying hens that have small testicles. This can happen during the early stages of egg collection if the eggs are allowed to get cold or chilled in the early spring laying season. The result is in a rooster that never fills out in size and tends to have hen characteristics on the tail feathers, comb, and wattles.
We hatch our ducks, geese, and turkeys first. These birds are more affected by stress and crowded conditions. They also have a more challenging time learning to eat. Chickens will often crowd the dishes confusing turkeys, and they forget to eat.
Gathering chicken eggs for hatching two months after the turkeys and waterfowl get their jump-start helps eliminate chick loss. Chickens grow quickly and more robust. Once their legs are strong and they are eating well, they are added to the flock to be kept under watch until turned out to pasture.
My first batch of home hatched chickens!
I always keep a broody hen or two around and allow them to hatch and raise their offspring. I think it is a good homestead habit. It is good to keep this instinct alive, especially if, for some reason, there wasn't any electricity to run incubators. Some chickens are better than none.
Never ever collect eggs in the dark!! Snakes love to eat chicken eggs and will strike if grabbed. Build or buy nest boxes with good lighting. If you have to collect eggs in the dark, use a flashlight! This can be a reasonably common experience depending on where you live.
If you want beautiful pastel-colored eggs, you need to raise Araucana chickens. The color of the egg does not affect the flavor. Flavor and texture is affected by feed and care of the poultry.
Turkey, goose, and duck eggs are also delicious. They make extra-large deviled eggs! Poultry raised on pasture has healthy fats in the yolks that protect the heart.
French chefs swear by the loft duck eggs give pastries and loaves of bread.
I'd say this is most likely because the duck eggs come from small farms and not commercial poultry facilities.
French chefs swear by the loft duck eggs give pastries and loaves of bread.
I'd say this is most likely because the duck eggs come from small farms and not commercial poultry facilities.
This broody bantam hen hatched and raised four wild turkey chicks.
On a hike in our woods, we came across a turkey nest and found the carcass of the hen nearby a coyote had caught and eaten. The eggs were covered with frost, but I thought I would take them home and give them a chance with this little bird that wanted to sit on them. She was barely large enough to cover all four eggs.
The hen hatched all four chicks. I was sad to discover that "wild" doesn't leave animals once in captivity. They have genetic memories of living differently. In two months, the little turkey chicks started leaving the mother hen and eventually returned to the wild.
On a hike in our woods, we came across a turkey nest and found the carcass of the hen nearby a coyote had caught and eaten. The eggs were covered with frost, but I thought I would take them home and give them a chance with this little bird that wanted to sit on them. She was barely large enough to cover all four eggs.
The hen hatched all four chicks. I was sad to discover that "wild" doesn't leave animals once in captivity. They have genetic memories of living differently. In two months, the little turkey chicks started leaving the mother hen and eventually returned to the wild.
Poultry doesn't come without chores. They are a lot of work when cared for correctly but worth the time and effort. Clean coops make for healthy birds and delicious eggs.
Our Poultry Program: Portfolio
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