You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, right?

[jimLE]

You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, right?
Those broken eggs may cost you more pretty soon -- assuming you can even find some eggs to buy.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/10/investing/egg-prices-shortage-bird-flu/

Egg prices have tripled at some supermarketsbecause of bird flu, bedeviling consumers, restaurants and others as they scramble for solutions.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2015/06/09/egg-prices-up/28734967/

 

[Brent S]

You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, right?
Those broken eggs may cost you more pretty soon -- assuming you can even find some eggs to buy.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/10/investing/egg-prices-shortage-bird-flu/

Egg prices have tripled at some supermarketsbecause of bird flu, bedeviling consumers, restaurants and others as they scramble for solutions.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2015/06/09/egg-prices-up/28734967/

My chickens are looking better by the day!

 

[Dani]

Haven't bought eggs for years now . . . glad I don't have to

 

[Brent S]

Haven't bought eggs for years now . . . glad I don't have to

I've questioned the value of chickens with the cost of laying crumble, but still enjoy raising them. I've decided recently to eat a little more chicken. I'm going to reduce my girls down to 4 or five and keep them in the chicken tractor so they can forage a little better. Between keeping them out of the garden and my dogs getting them, I can't let them range free.

 

[Gazrok]

I can get what you mean about buying the crumble. But, I spend about $15 a month on it, and I've always got at least 3 dozen eggs in the fridge at any given time (usually 2 flats actually). In a SHTF situation, there are other things I can feed the chickens too.

 

[jimLE]

i have been thinking of getting chickens.i guess i waited way to long to do that..on account im sure the cost of buying egg laying chickens/hens will go up now..

 

[Dani]

A friend keeps her chickens in her garden, but it is fenced. I asked her about if the chickens ate her produce growing and she said no they just eat the bugs and fertilize. Haven't tried it myself and I do wonder if she may be missing something there. We let ours free range in the backyard and that reduced our cost of laying pellets

 

[jimLE]

does her chickens go into the yard at all? on account it seems like to me,that they'd do better if they had more space for free ranging..

 

[Brent S]

I can get what you mean about buying the crumble. But, I spend about $15 a month on it, and I've always got at least 3 dozen eggs in the fridge at any given time (usually 2 flats actually). In a SHTF situation, there are other things I can feed the chickens too.

If I got rid of my dogs, which I got to protect the birds, then I could let them forage!

 

[Brent S]

A friend keeps her chickens in her garden, but it is fenced. I asked her about if the chickens ate her produce growing and she said no they just eat the bugs and fertilize. Haven't tried it myself and I do wonder if she may be missing something there. We let ours free range in the backyard and that reduced our cost of laying pellets

When I did let them range they would trash the mulch around all the plants. the little buggars could throw it three feet scratching thru it! I have a feeling they would eat a good portion of your stuff.

 

[Gazrok]

I don't let mine range, as there are simply WAY too many predators in our area, not to mention our own cats and dogs. In addition though, hawks, bobcats, stray cats and dogs, snakes, etc. We spent a lot of effort making the coop snakeproof. A really determined bobcat MAY get in, but probably not before one of us heard the commotion. We've only seen one in all the time we've been here (though we've seen him a few times).

 

[Dani]

She lets them in the garden on a daily basis, but they do have their own yard. She lives up in Canada and I have not actually seen her set up. I have used chickens as a garden cleanup but not when produce is growing. Guess I was to scared of what Brent went thur with them trashing the garden, but with the cutworm problem I have been experiencing this year, I just may give it a try. Has destroyed so many potatoes and no have moved on to my squash plants. I am getting frustrated with it honestly. Just glad that I put some of the squash plants in another area so that I can get some this years.