Okay Who's raising (suburban) backyard poultry

I still LOATHE chickens.

 

And now

...we are going to get chickens.

 

I live in a small town,inside city limits,half a mile from the courthouse.I've had chickens for several years.They are noisy,indeed.There are chickens and at least one horse closer to town than I am.A block from the courthouse the other direction lives a miniature horse.We had a courthouse cock for a while,folks would come from all over and feed him on the wall around the courthouse.He didn't make it across the 4 lane hiway one day.

 

Chickens are definitely some of the dirtier animals to raise in a town setting, we always had them when I was a kid and they SMELL, they CACKLE, and they will kill the grass if you have them in a grassy area for any length of time.

The eggs may be better for you and healthier but who knows if the hens will survive when the shtf and you sure can't take them with you if you have to be on the run...just sayin.

 

It seems like having enough chickens for one or two eggs a person per day would be a good idea for long term food survival.

How much does it take to feed chickens (corn) and how much land does each chicken need to survive off of insects and whatever else they eat off the land if you don't have corn to feed them?

 

I can't help you on the suburban part but as far as the breed I wouldn't waste time with anything but Buff Orpingtons. We have tried lots of breeds but none of them can compete on a survival basis. For one they are a bigger breed so you get more meat and they are less prone to predation due to their size. They are better foragers than most breeds so you have less input. The egg laying ability is good, some breeds will out lay them but we haven't any that will out lay them on a grass based system. Buffs are also one of the few breeds that will sit on their own eggs and hatch them, under a long term SHTF you will need replacements. Rosters will breed hens for 10+ years. But hens after the first year start dropping off in production, after the 2nd it isn't worth keeping unless they good at setting.

BWM

 

Was wondering what you think about Rhode Island Reds? All we have are Rhode Island Reds consisting of 5 2yo hens, 6 1yo hens, 9 pullets and a young rooster. Just wondering how you think they measure up to the Buff Orpingtons.

 

We have had RI Reds but they are a smaller bird, so it is easier for preditors to kill them. If anyone doughts that it makes a difference they should raise a small breed and a large breed together and see which get killed at a higher rate. You can get around this by putting them in chicken tractors, but this does increase your work load. I don't know about you but around here there's never enough time in the day as it is. The RI's will out lay Buffs, but we haven't had any that would sit and reliably hatch chicks. To us this is a deal breaker, because if the bird can't reproduce on it's own in a long term SHTF you will end up not having chickens when you need them the most. Now I will tell you we have only had a few RI's so we haven't enough to get what I would call a good sampling of the breed.

Now as far as the birds your looking at, the 2y/o birds are past their prime and unless they will sit, IMHO all they are good for is table fare. The 1y/o's and pullets are the ones you want. As far as the rooster goes here are some of the things we look for in a rooster.

1 He has to have some @$$ in his pants. You don't want a rooster that gets ran off buy the hens. If that happens you won't have eggs that will hatch.

2 We also look for rooster that's not mean with hens or they will try to get as far away from him as possible and end up getting ate by something other than you. So your looking for a balance here, listen to the rooster if he finds some food does he call the hens over and share it with them or does he run them off of it, or does he get ran off of it. We look for one that will call the hens over and share his find with them, but not get ran off of it.

3 We also judge them on size, we want a rooster that is large for the breed (we do this with the hens as well). Bigger chickens=fuller bellies

Hope this helps.

BWM

 

BWM, thank you for the advice. Interesting info on rooster selection that I will have to watch for when he gets older and realizes he is a rooster.