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Thread: Raising Chickens

  1. #21
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    Depending on the breed, you might be able to see the developing embryo. Shine a strong flashlight "through" the egg and look at the silhouette on the opposite side. Even a 4-6 day embryo is visible. Called "candling", some egg shells are too thick to candle. If the egg is NOT fertilized you will have a nice round silhouette (the yolk). A fertilized egg will have a red thread coming out of the yolk. Oh yeah, a dark room helps.

    Otherwise, open them in another dish as Hopeak suggested.
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  2. #22
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    Another good point about guinea fowl: They will go out of their way to kill every snake they come across. They are very efficient at it too. That was the main reason one of my uncles let them go on his ranch. In no time they brought the rattle snake population under control. One of the funniest things I've every seen was about 30 guinea fowl chasing a fox out of the barn yard one morning.
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  3. #23
    Senior Member nell67's Avatar
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    I beLIEve it,the obnoxious little beasts,as ugly as they are,they are very good at pest control!
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    I had the pee waddin' scared out of me when I was a kid. I walked under a tree on my uncle's farm and three of those cretins were sitting on a limb. All three opened up when I walked under the tree and they nearly gave me a heart attack. Probably the fastest I've ever moved! All these years I've suspected they saw me coming and decided to pull a practical joke on me.

    Has anyone eaten Guinea Fowl?
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  5. #25

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    We have chickens in the bush.
    Our chickens range free in central B.C. with lots of preditors and we have never lost a chicken to them. We have two dogs.

    Roosters do protect thier hens and can be aggressive towards you as well.
    We always end up eating them.

  6. #26
    Senior Member nell67's Avatar
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    I haven't,but have inquired of several who said they have,and it's like dark meat of the chicken?
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  7. #27
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    I know you can eat both the bird and the eggs but I've never had either. At least not that I can remember.
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    You can eat both. You'll need a hammer to crack the eggs though.
    1. If it's in your kit and you don't know how to use it....It's useless.
    2. If you can't reach your kit when you need it....Its useless.

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  9. #29
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    As I remember, the guinea eggs are smaller than a chicken's. Am I right?
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  10. #30
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    Raising chickens is easy all you have to do is
    bend over grasp chicken now stand up. You have now raised a CHICKEN!
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  11. #31
    Senior Member nell67's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fletcher View Post
    Raising chickens is easy all you have to do is
    bend over grasp chicken now stand up. You have now raised a CHICKEN!
    Hey Fletch,never look a chicken in the eye when you have it raised.....
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    We had chickens when I was a kid. Unless you can let them range - you are better off buying your eggs at the store. If you have to buy feed, you soon pay for the price of the eggs.

    Funny, the things you remember. It takes 75 chickens to keep a hen house warm enough in the winter (at least where I live).

    For predators, we had the most trouble with weasels (ermine). Seems like they can get into anything and they kill just for the love of it. Other than weasels, most of our problems were with skunk and owls. Sat up many nights with the .22.

    My father was particularly adept at shooting skunks in the backbone so they wouldn't spray. I'd try, but I never could do it as well as he could.
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  13. #33
    Senior Member nell67's Avatar
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    RBB,I range the chickens,but give them feed when the ground freezes and they cant scratch to find foodstuff.

    For feed I,I glean the farmers feilds after the harvest,dry the corn,and have it ground and add vitamins and minerals,just took the first load of corn to be ground 1140 pounds plus the v&m cost just under $18,and have enough feed to feed the chickens,goats and pigs for about 2 months,I will be picking up more corn this week,with the "hurricane" that came through in September there was alot of blow down in the feilds,and the farmers equipment is not picking it all up,2 hours of picking up corn off the ground feeds for awhile and is well worth the time to pick it up.
    plus,you control what is in the feed,I don't like the proccessed feeds that you can buy pre bagged,too many additives in them.
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    Quote Originally Posted by nell67 View Post
    RBB,I range the chickens,but give them feed when the ground freezes and they cant scratch to find foodstuff.

    For feed I,I glean the farmers feilds after the harvest,dry the corn,and have it ground and add vitamins and minerals,just took the first load of corn to be ground 1140 pounds plus the v&m cost just under $18,and have enough feed to feed the chickens,goats and pigs for about 2 months,I will be picking up more corn this week,with the "hurricane" that came through in September there was alot of blow down in the feilds,and the farmers equipment is not picking it all up,2 hours of picking up corn off the ground feeds for awhile and is well worth the time to pick it up.
    plus,you control what is in the feed,I don't like the proccessed feeds that you can buy pre bagged,too many additives in them.

    I had no Idea, there were women like you still alive. Somehow I can see a Nell's workout video around corn. Stoop-grab-drop in bag, stoop grab drop in bag, feel the burn. I always wondered why people "worked-out" after spending the whole day avoiding work.

  15. #35
    Senior Member nell67's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hopeak View Post
    I had no Idea, there were women like you still alive. Somehow I can see a Nell's workout video around corn. Stoop-grab-drop in bag, stoop grab drop in bag, feel the burn. I always wondered why people "worked-out" after spending the whole day avoiding work.
    LMAO!!!! Actually,I carry 2 five gallon buckets and fill them up,then carry then back to the trailer,still a nice little work out hopeak! I make a lot of trips back to the trailer
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    Do you have a much, much, older sister.........

  17. #37
    Senior Member nell67's Avatar
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    Sorry hun,my oldest is 13 months older than I,and not nearly as energetic!
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    O'Well at least I have my 8 Labadoodle puppies.

  19. #39

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    Quote Originally Posted by wareagle69 View Post
    ok hopeak said you can eat the fertilized eggs if you get to them quickley enough so how to tell ifn an egg is fertilized?
    2nd yup i agree that goats help keep predators away my neighbor has goats and chicken which are free range and he has not lost a one, and we do have lots of preds wolves oats and weasels plus owls and hawks and turkey vultures
    USDA graders use a process called candling I believe, they're amazingly fast and efficient at it, ridiculously so if you've ever seen them do it. Basically, in a dark room, backlight the egg with a powerful flashlight or other isolated beam of light. You'll be able to see the inner contents of the shell.

    http://www.geocities.com/heartland/b...1958/eggs.html
    http://www.nifty-stuff.com/candling-eggs.php

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  20. #40

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    Quote Originally Posted by RBB View Post
    We had chickens when I was a kid. Unless you can let them range - you are better off buying your eggs at the store. If you have to buy feed, you soon pay for the price of the eggs.

    Funny, the things you remember. It takes 75 chickens to keep a hen house warm enough in the winter (at least where I live).

    For predators, we had the most trouble with weasels (ermine). Seems like they can get into anything and they kill just for the love of it. Other than weasels, most of our problems were with skunk and owls. Sat up many nights with the .22.

    My father was particularly adept at shooting skunks in the backbone so they wouldn't spray. I'd try, but I never could do it as well as he could.
    It isn't entirely about saving money, I realize that with most hobbies (Gardening etc) when you factor in the time, labor, and money that goes into it, you're really not saving money over store bought produce.

    It is more a lifestyle choice. You grow your own food because it can taste better, being fresher, because you can grow what you want, such as rare varieties, because you know what is going into it and how it is treated, because you want to be self sufficient, or, at least, partially self sufficient.

    And, you know, you could get creative with feed too. You could grow your own feed, or just save seeds from your garden and toss to the chickens, they don't just have to eat a homogenous corn mixture do they? I had 3 GIANT (and I mean giant) 18 inch sunflower heads I harvest a ton of seeds from... but they had been largely attacked by insects so I didn't eat them, I fed them to the squirrels, could have easily fed them to chickens.

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