Chicken Tips

I would like to share with you the mistakes I have made in the past two years of raising chickens and my tips that might just save you some of the grief we have taken upon our selves.

1. Books will tell you that if you wish to have tame your chicks that you should handle them and get them to eat our of your hands. Well, the handling is a great idea because it allows the chick to become comfortable with your picking it up as you may need to do if there is ever an issue you need to address. It is also a good idea to become aquainted with the chicks body condition as it progresses in it's growth. However I do NOT recommend feeding them by hand unless you are going to be showing them. We wanted our chicks to love us so be did as the books said and now we have full grown chickens who believe that our chubby little hands are a source of food. I can tell you that a peck from a hungry hen is not going to make you love your chicken.

2. Do your best not to buy chickens at a time when they will be old enough to lay in the middle of winter. We purchased our day old chicks at the end of June thinking we would have eggs by Thanksgiving and to this date we have none. The chickens needs 14 hours of light to lay an egg and even here in the south we do not have that much daylight. We started turning on a light in our coop from 6am-9pm a week ago and I will keep you updated on how that works out for us but it is quite possible we may not get any eggs until spring since we did not start this practice months ago. Live and learn.

3. If you really want your chickens to love you give them warm oatmeal when it is cold outside. It is also an added source of protein which is also nearly necessary during the winter if you wish to increase your winter egg production. Of course protein does not have to be in the form of warm oatmeal but it is pretty inexpensive and they love it a lot! Adding cayenne pepper is also well promoted as a sure fire way to get your flock to lay well, however I recommend growing your own cayenne peppers and then drying/grinding them yourself as then you can be sure of what is going in your chickens. Of course you could purchase organic cayenne but that would be quite costly as it is recommed to add an entire bottle to a bag of feed. Hot Peppers are one of the easiest plants to grow organically as they have few pests and drying them is easy as well. Cayenne is known to have stimulant, blood pressure-regulating, digestive and anti-flatulent properties so keeping it on hand for home use is an added bonus. The stimulant properties are probably the reason it works so well in helping hens to lay!

To dry hot peppers simply remove them from the plant once they have ripened sufficiently. We grew cayenne last year and harvested several pounds from one plant, as they turned red we would remove them and lay them to dry on an unused dresser top. In the summer it did not take very long at all for the peppers to dry but later in the fall it did take quite a while. Once the peppers are dry (they will be quite shrivled) you should be able to hear the seeds inside rattling around. From that point store the dried peppers in a tupperware container or in a ziploc bag. Once you have quite a handful you can begin to process. I simply place mine in the food processor but if you only want to grind a few you can use a coffee grinder (used only for spices/herbs). We have accquired quite a collection of glass jars so we have one labled for cayenne and simply add to it as needed. Keeping your spices in a cool dark cabinet will allow them to store for a longer period.

That is about it for now. I hope these tips help someone!