Animals

Raising Meat Chickens: 5 Things I Learned the Hard Way

Let me share with you what I learned from raising meat chickens so that you don’t make the same mistakes on your homestead.

****Warning! There are graphic pictures at the end of the post! ****

I had this romantic vision of raising meat chickens on our homestead.

I would order a bunch of chicks, raise them to maturity, slaughter them humanely, and fill my freezer with healthy meat for my family.

Well, that sounds great, but it didn’t happen exactly the way I planned it.

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So what happened?

I ordered and received 15 chicks from my local IFA (feed store) on August 24th. They were white, slow growing boilers. I ordered 15, just so I had some cushion in case I lost a couple. Atleast I would still have 12 or 13 to harvest.

We decided to keep in them inside the house when they were little so that we could watch them and keep an eye on the cat.

When they were about 2 weeks old, we had a heat wave outside and I turned back on the air conditioner (it had been off for over a month by then).

Without me realizing it, the chicks got too cold and 3 died. I turned off the AC and cried. Now we have 12 chickens left.

On September 26th, the chickens were getting big enough, so we moved them outside. We built a pen close to the house so we could keep an eye on them and hopefully keep the predators away.

About a month later, we woke up one morning and found that the kids had forgotten to put the chickens away for the night. 4 chickens had been killed by what we think was a fox (one was missing, 3 were dead). Now we have 8 chickens left.

About a week later, I look outside during the day and I see a large dog in the chicken area. I go out to see what was going on and find that the dog had killed 5 chickens and was stuck in the pen area. I located the owner of the dog (it was a construction worker who was working on a house down the road and had brought his dog to work). He paid us for the dead chickens. Now we only have 3 left.

But the story is not over yet. With only 3 left I knew that my meat chicken efforts had failed.

But a couple of weeks later, a friend of mine called with a question. “Some friends down the road want to get rid of some hens that aren’t laying anymore and I thought you might want them. They don’t want to butcher them but you can.” Sweet! How many? 10 hens.

So now we are back to 13 chickens to harvest. We butchered them the day after Thanksgiving, and boy were we grateful!

My older boys rigged this post for the chickens to hang from.

I don’t love butchering day at all, but we got through it. I will post more next year when we get a better system going. Until then, DaNelle from Weed ‘Em & Reap has an awesome video to help you get through the process. She’s rocks!

Butchering Basics:

First, we made sure they didn’t have any food that morning.
We hung them upside down on this post, 2 by 2.
Next, we slit their throats and let them bleed out on the ground.
We dunked them in hot water to loosen the feathers.
Then we plucked them.
After that, we cut out the parts we don’t want to keep.
Finally, we put them in Ziploc bags for the freezer.

5 things I learned about raising meat chickens:

Don’t keep the chicks in the house with the air conditioner on.
Make sure your chicken pen is secure from predators.
Don’t forget to make sure the kids do their chores (even when you feel like a constant nag).
Always get more chicks than you think you want, just in case something goes wrong.
Come up with a good system to slaughter your chickens quickly and efficiently.

How will I do things different next year?

I will raise chicks in the spring and butcher in the summer (and only do one batch a year).
I will keep the baby chicks in the garage (but away from the cat).
I will build a secure coop for them (separate from the laying hens).
I will keep better records so that I know how much the chickens cost (total cost).
I will rent a chicken plucker to make the job faster at the end.
I will use the Food Saver machine to seal the birds for the freezer.

Do I think raising meat chickens is worth the hassle?

Yes.

I know how the birds were treated and what they ate.
I know they were butchered humanely.
My children are learning the skills of raising and harvesting their own meat. These are skills that are not learned in school and could save their lives one day.

So yes, as much of a frustration and hassle as it was, I think it was worth it. We have learned from our mistakes and will do better next time.

This was a new skill that we learned on the homestead this year. It feels great to learn new skills and therefore become more self sufficient. And although we may be still working out the kinks, it is a big step forward. Check another goal off the list!

Have you had struggles or triumphs with raising meat chickens? Let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!

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7 Lessons I Have Learned From My Honeybees This Year

by Julie Gropp

I got my first honeybees this April. I was so excited to add honeybees to our homestead. There are so many advantages to being beekeepers: honey, pollination and beeswax to name a few.

But becoming a beekeeper has a big learning curve attached to it.

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So today I wanted to share what I have learned in the past 5 months about beekeeping. I hope this post helps others to avoid some of the pitfalls I fell into this summer.

Lessons I have learned from my bees so far this year:

Buy more than one hive: I bought one hive to start with, because that is all I could afford. But it is very hard to see if one hive is doing okay with nothing else to compare it to. Also, if one hive is really producing well, you could give some comb to the lesser hive to help them out. So next year I will be getting atleast one more hive (hopefully more) to alleviate this problem.
Get a mentor: There are so many parts and things that could go wrong in a beehive that you really need to have someone that can look at things for you and help you figure out what to do when things go wrong. You can read books and watch YouTube, but nothing compares to having someone show you what to do in real time.
Check on the bees regularly: Out of site, out of mind. Our honeybees are out in the back of our property where no one will disturb them. This also means that I haven’t been checking on them as much as I should. They have a water source and they were fine. But I should have opened the hive up more often (about once a month or so) to check on them. It would have made it easier to see when something was wrong.
Buy a NUC instead of a package of bees: I bought a package of bees (because it was cheaper) but next year I will be buying several nucs for our new hives. Nucs come with not only the bees and queen, but also honeycomb, pollen and honey inside. This helps the bees have a better chance of producing enough honey for themselves if they don’t have to start from scratch.
Use spacers in the boxes: I learned from a friend that you can buy metal spacers to put in the boxes on the sides. The frames sit in the spacers and make them equally spaced through the box. This helps the bees to build uniform combs and makes it look better too.
Give them something to start with: As I mentioned above, because I only bought a new hive and bees, my bees had to start from scratch. This made it harder for them to get going in the spring. So next year I will either start with combs already built (if my bees don’t die) or I will buy nucs that already have comb in them to give the bees a jumpstart on the year.
Don’t add extra supers too early: One of the things I did wrong was to get into a hurry to put another super on top of the hive. I should have made sure they completely filled the first one before I added another.

Now I don’t know if my hive is going to make it through this winter. I had a good friend with many, many years of experience come look at our hive. He doesn’t think the bees have enough comb and honey to sustain themselves through the winter.

We added food (sugar water) in the hive for them. Hopefully that will stimulate their production until winter hits and give them extra strength through the cold months.

I will be very upset if I lose my honeybees this winter, but I knew it was a possibility when I started. Anytime you start something new, there is always a learning curve.

If you have people to help you, you can reduce the risk but it is still there. I share with you what I have learned this summer so that you may not have to learn things the hard way too.

If I do lose my bees this winter (I’ll keep you updated), I can start over with the same materials and have some comb for the new bees to start with in the spring. Hopefully this will help them produce more comb and honey for the next season.

Even though I am learning what not to do this year, I am really enjoying becoming a beekeeper. These little creatures are so amazing. They are just fun to watch and see what they can all do when they work together.

Do you have any beekeeping tips to share? Let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!

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Raising Healthy Meat Chickens for Beginner Homesteaders

by Julie Gropp

When I began my homestead journey, I had never even seen a chicken up close. I grew up in the suburbs of a big city and no one I knew had chickens in their backyard.

Fast forward to today. We have been raising our own chickens for about 5 years now. We have had mostly laying hens, but we have had to butcher a few roosters that got out of hand.

Old, grumpy roosters don’t usually taste very good, even if you pressure cook them for a long time. They are just past their prime.

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This fall, we are starting something new (and checking something off the goal list!) and raising purely meat chickens. Unlike the dual purpose breeds we have had in the past, these chickens are going to be raised strictly to be slaughtered for meat.

Why raise chickens for meat?

Organic chicken at the store is very expensive. And even though it says organic, you never know exactly how those birds were fed or treated. By raising an animal yourself, you can control what they eat, how much room they have and how they were butchered.

We want our chickens to have a good life before they end up on our table for dinner. Factory farms don’t provide them that.

How are meat chickens different from laying hens?

Meat chickens only live about 10-12 weeks depending on breed. Laying hens can live many years, depending on your preference.
Meat chickens are bred to have large breasts which are good for eating.
Meat chickens grow fast and eat constantly if you don’t watch them. Laying hens grow slower and don’t mature for several months.
Meat chickens have more health problems if they grow too fast. You must watch and care for them more closely than laying hens.
Meat chickens don’t forage much for their own food. They will eat until they die on the food you give them, so you have to regulate their food 12 hours at a time.
Meat chickens poop wet poop and they can make a large mess quickly. Their coop will need to be cleaned out more often or if they are in a chicken tractor it needs to be rotated often.

Will raising my own meat chickens save me money?

The chickens I bought at the feed store were $2.14 each. I was originally going to buy them online from a hatchery, but they were going to charge me $50 extra for shipping! So I ordered through my local IFA and they didn’t charge any shipping because they were already ordering fall chickens for their store.

Cost varies depending on where you live and how much your feed will cost. You will want to add your feed cost to the cost of the birds and divide by how many birds you butcher.

The reason I say by how many birds you butcher instead of how many birds you bought (we are starting with 15), is because meat chickens are notorious for getting sick or dying of health problems. Most likely you will lose a few before butchering day.

When you compare costs, you need to compare with the organic birds at the store. Don’t just compare to any bird because your’s will probably be healthier than even the organic chickens at the store.

I will update this post at the end of the 12 weeks and let you know if it was cheaper to grow our own. Even if it isn’t cheaper, the quality of the food is much better than store bought.

What do I need to get started?

Just like raising regular laying hens, there are a few things you need to get started. I discussed those things in this post about baby chicks, but I will add them here too.

Chick waterer

Chick feeder

Plastic or metal container to put them in

A wire lid (you can make one out of wood scraps and chicken wire)

A heat lamp with red bulb

Chick starter

Wood pellets or pine shavings for bedding

Raising Meat Chickens

Once your meat chickens get bigger (probably a couple of weeks because they grow fast), you will need to move them outside. You can buy(or make) a separate coop for them or keep them in a chicken tractor that moves around for less cleanup.

You don’t want to put your meat chickens in with your regular hens and rooster. The meat chickens will eat everyones food and maybe even the eggs. You will also have to clean out the big coop more often if the meat chickens are in there too.

An Awesome Resource for Raising Meat Chickens:

The best resource I have found on raising your own meat chickens is by Marjory Wildcraft of The Grow Network.

She has an awesome video series that tells you everything you need to know about the process from chicks to butchering. When you buy the video, you also get some awesome bonuses: 2 videos and 2 e-books on raising chickens. The videos by Justin Rhodes are funny and helpful.

Anyways, I can’t say enough good things about this DVD and the bonuses. You can buy the digital version or get the DVD in the mail.

As for my family, we are starting our journey raising meat chickens. Today on our Facebook Group I will be doing a Facebook Live from our garage (where we are keeping the chicks) to show you our set up. If you are interested, you can join the Facebook Group Real Food Homesteaders and watch the replay anytime.

We hope that by raising our own meat chickens, we are taking charge of the quality of our food. If this interests you, please join us in raising your own meat chickens.

Edited: Here’s what happened with our meat chickens: Raising Meat Chickens: 5 Things I Learned the Hard Way.

If that isn’t possible where you live right now, see if you can find local farmers to buy your chickens from so that you can know that your food was raised in the best way possible.

Have you raised meat chickens before? Leave your suggestions in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!

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7 Types of Manure and How to Use It on the Homestead

by Julie Gropp

Homesteading can be dirty, stinky and frustrating. You can come in the house (hopefully mudroom or garage) covered in poop, dirt and sweat. Today we are going to hit on one of those: manure.

Manure isn’t something I usually talk about here on the blog, but for homesteading it can be very important. Manure is the natural waste product of animals on the homestead, and by utilizing it properly you can increase yields in your garden and orchard.

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7 Types of Manure and How to Use It on the Homestead

Cow Manure:

Needs to be aged before it can be applied to the garden.
Fresh cow manure contains high levels of ammonia and pathogens.
Good for all-purpose fertilizer, but not as high in nitrogen as others.
If not aged, fresh manure can be harmful to you and your plants.
It needs to age atleast a year in compost before use.
Cow manure has a 0.5-0.5-0.5 N-P-K (Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium) rating.
Make sure you only use manure from horses that aren’t eating grass or feed that contains herbicides (which might kill your plants).

Horse Manure:

Needs to be aged before it can be applied to the garden.
If not aged, fresh manure can contain E Coli bacteria and can also burn your plants.
Horse manure needs to age atleast 3 months in compost before use.
Good for all-purpose fertilizer, but not as high in nitrogen as others.
There is a chance there will be weed seeds in the manure.
The aged manure will smell earthy (not stinky) and be crumbly like commercial potting soil.
Horse manure has a 1.5–1.0–1.5 N-P-K rating.
Make sure you only use manure from horses that aren’t eating grass or feed that contains herbicides (which might kill your plants).

Goat/Sheep Manure:

DOES NOT need to be aged before use.
Can be put directly into your garden box for fertilizer.
Sheep manure is high in phosphorus and potassium.
It is dry and usually odorless.
Goat/sheep manure is about an 1.5–1.0–1.8 N-P-K rating.

Chicken Manure:

Needs to be aged before it can be applied to the garden.
It is high in nitrogen and phosphorus.
If not aged, it can be harmful for you and may burn your plants.
Chicken (or turkey/duck) manure needs to age atleast a year in compost before use.
Chicken manure rates at about 1.7-2.4-1.7 N-P-K rating.

Rabbit Manure:

DOES NOT need to be aged before use.
Can be put directly into your garden box for fertilizer.
Rabbit manure is about an 3.5-1.0–1.8 N-P-K rating.

Cat/Dog/Pig Manure:

Not recommended to use as garden fertilizer.
May contain parasites and pathogens that are harmful for humans.

Human Manure:

Human urine and feces can be used as fertilizer.
I would not do it unless in a survival situation.
I do not recommend it.
To find out more, check out this book: The Humanure Handbook by Joseph C Jenkins

Tips for using manure:

Compost it with wood chips, straw or other “browns” for the best fertilizer.
Don’t use fresh manure on plants without composting first (except rabbit, goat and sheep manures).
For conditioning your soil-use 40 lbs of manure for 100 sq ft.
For poor soil or new garden beds-use 80 lbs of manure for 100 sq ft.
To give your garden a boost, add 1-2 inches of compost to the top of your beds.
You can add fresh manure to the garden after you harvest and let it sit all winter to age before the spring growing season.

Taking advantage of your “natural” resources:

Organic fertilizer is expensive. Why not use what you already have? By composting manure from your own animals, you save money and use more of your own resources. Now that’s self reliant!

Animal waste may not be something you think of as an asset, but for your homestead it totally is. You are feeding and caring for an animal, and you want to reap the benefits of whatever they produce.

So whether it is eggs, meat, fur, honey or manure, those products are very beneficial to your family and homestead. By using things your homestead is already producing, you are being a provident homesteader.

What kind of manure do you use on your homestead? Let us know in the comments below. And if you found this helpful, please share. Thanks!

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18 Ways to Keep Your Homestead Animals Cool in the Summer Heat

by Julie Gropp

It’s hot outside! July is usually our hottest month here in SW Colorado, but I know around the country it can get really hot for several months in a row.

So today I wanted to talk about ways to keep your homestead animals cool in the summer heat.

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Sudden temperature changes can really be hard on outdoor animals. Last year we got a spike in temperature in May and we weren’t ready for it. We lost our rabbit buck because he got overheated. We were really upset about it and from then on we kept a closer eye on the weather.

On our homestead, we mainly raise chickens and rabbits as our livestock. Therefore, those are the animals I am mostly going to discuss today.

Basic Tips for All Animals To Keep Cool in the Summertime Heat:

Make sure they have fresh water to drink.
They need a shady place to rest in the heat of the day.
A ventilated area is recommended so that air can circulate and keep them cooler.

Tips to Keep Your Chickens Cool and Happy in the Summer:

Make a shallow area of water (such as a kiddie pool or shallow plastic bin) for them to put their feet in to keep cool.
Add a fan overhead in the coop to circulate air.
Freeze fruits or vegetables in an ice block for the chickens to peck at.
Use a mister outside of the coop to keep them cool (if they choose).
You could spray the grass with water (or a sprinkler) and then let them out in the cool grass for a little while.
Make sure there is a dirt area where they can dig and stay cool.
Have a tree or bushes for shade.

Tips to Keep Your Rabbits Cool and Happy in the Summer:

Freeze a water bottle and put it in the rabbit cage for the rabbits to lay by to cool off.
Use a mister over the cages to keep them cool.
Plant a tree near the rabbit cages to shade them in the summer (and a wind break in the winter).
Use a sprayer to spray them down in the heat of the day.
Provide something cool for them to lay on (like a wet towel or cool tile).
Make sure they have shade to get under during the hottest part of the day.
Put ice in their water bottle.
Brush them to decrease excess fur.

The animals on our homestead are very precious to us and we want to make sure we are taking care of them, especially in the summer heat. I hope these 18 ways to keep your homestead animals cool will give you some ideas to help your outdoor animals as well.

How do you keep your animals cool during the summer heat? Let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!

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6 Ways to Use Eggs on the Homestead

by Julie Gropp

Eggs, eggs, eggs! Most homesteaders start drowning in eggs about this time of year. Your laying hens are producing an abundance and you don’t know what to do with all of them!

What do you do with all of those eggs?

You can read here about how we lost our chickens last fall to a fox. Therefore, we started over with chicks just this spring. We have 12 laying hens now, but they aren’t quite old enough to produce yet.

Therefore, we don’t have the egg issues most homesteaders are experiencing in the summertime. But we have been in this position many times in the past, and here are some things you can do to manage your over abundance.

How to use eggs on the homestead:

Give them away-Share the wealth with your friends and family. I’m sure they would love to have some colored, fresh eggs from your homestead.
Sell them-Set up a sign in your yard or take them to the farmers market. Wherever you sell them, you can bring in good money selling fresh eggs in your area.
Freeze them-Crack a dozen eggs into a freezer bag (or ice cube tray) and freeze them for later. Then you can use them in scrambled eggs or omelets.
Keep them in the pantry-As long as you don’t wash them, eggs can be kept in the pantry for several weeks at a time without refrigeration. Fun fact-Stores in Europe don’t keep their eggs in the refrigerated section. They are on the shelf with other goods. When keeping eggs in your pantry, try to use them in order so they don’t get too old. You can date your cartons or have some kind of system of putting new ones in the back. Whatever helps to keep you organized.
Try some new egg dishes for your family-Move over boring breakfast! Here are some fun egg recipes that will help your family eat up more eggs daily.
Dehydrate them-I haven’t done this yet, but you can dehydrate eggs and store them for later. Here is a post about just how to do that!

Eggs can be a valuable commodity on your homestead. There is nothing quite like getting a fresh egg from the chicken coop and making your breakfast with it the same day. Now that’s fresh food!

How do you love to use your eggs? Let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!

If you are thinking about getting chicks this spring, I have prepared a free class called “Taking Care of Baby Chicks” that will walk you through taking care of chickens from chick to hen. I hope it helps you get the confidence to raise chickens on your own.

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Animals

Let me share with you what I learned from raising meat chickens so that you don’t make the same mistakes on your homestead.

So what happened?

Butchering Basics:

5 things I learned about raising meat chickens:

How will I do things different next year?

Do I think raising meat chickens is worth the hassle?

Lessons I have learned from my bees so far this year:

Why raise chickens for meat?

How are meat chickens different from laying hens?

Will raising my own meat chickens save me money?

What do I need to get started?

Raising Meat Chickens

An Awesome Resource for Raising Meat Chickens:

7 Types of Manure and How to Use It on the Homestead

Cow Manure:

Horse Manure:

Goat/Sheep Manure:

Chicken Manure:

Rabbit Manure:

Cat/Dog/Pig Manure:

Human Manure:

Tips for using manure:

Taking advantage of your “natural” resources:

Basic Tips for All Animals To Keep Cool in the Summertime Heat:

Tips to Keep Your Chickens Cool and Happy in the Summer:

Tips to Keep Your Rabbits Cool and Happy in the Summer:

What do you do with all of those eggs?

How to use eggs on the homestead:

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