Good Day Everyone! We Have Egg-Citing News
That's my little egg jar. We just started it last week after a lot of our pullets started laying, and with almost 50 birds we need a little help buying their food now. The girls are officially supporting themselves. I can't believe we've come this far in only a year and a half!
As many of you may know, up until this point we were only trading eggs and giving them away. We are still doing trades, actually last week @marionbowes traded us two pots of soup, cookies and muffins for 2 dozen eggs, I mean, how could I ever stop trading? We decided to begin selling just enough to cover the layer feed because the cost was getting a little out of control. And already in a week we have enough to buy a bag of food!
How Our Journey Started
In March 2016 our neighbour Debbie needed to find a new home for her rooster Sider. She thought of us because she knew we wanted to get chickens, and she thought this would be the perfect kick in the ass to get some hens. We happily adopted Sider and for a pretty long time it was just him, the bachelor, roaming our land and living in a little shed that we have since torn down.
Our first chicken coop.
And he had a lot of house time too lol! Hey, it was raining and cold out that early in the spring...
And then he actually lived in our house with us for a while too while his new chicken mansion was being built. We finally got word on getting some hens! We were going to get 8 of them from a factory farm, which at 18 months old consider the hens 'spent' and they get rid of them at 1$ a piece.
The New Coop!
Ahhh what can't @hendrix22 do? He is the best homesteader, always caring for the animals and building everything we have with his own two hands. He's put up both our greenhouses, and one of them was completely FREE with pieces of wood that he'd found around, some plumbing pipe for the frame and managed to score some free poly too! It was his idea to use cedar on the new coop, and the red paint, which I was against at first just because the project was taking so long, but now I'm extremely grateful because it looks amazing and the wood will last way longer.
Brendan and his Dad working on the new Chicken Run.
All Ready For Our First Hens To Come Home ~ July 2016
(Video 2:01)
Even if you just watched that video and didn't read the article, it's plain to see that factory farms must be shut down. One of the ways we can stop these monstrous operations is by raising your own flock. By raising a couple animals. If every home has a small amount of their own animals, these evil businesses would be shut down forever!
For "spent hens" they sure lay good still. We have had them for over a year now and they are still laying! What a shame our throw away culture, tossing out these beautiful animals just because they don't lay an egg every day anymore. We're grateful for anything we get from them. They had such a hard life, I would not care if they didn't lay at all. They are my friends and I'm glad they get to live a life of peace and freedom now.
Adding To Our Flock
This is when things really got going for us. I found an Ameraucana Mother Hen for sale with 6 chicks for 50$ so we drove right over to pick them up. It's really hard to find hens for sale around here, people hold on to them like gold, and I can totally relate. Someone wanted to buy one of our hens from us, and I said no hahahhaa! Man, after raising them, caring for them, and 5 months later they finally start laying, you don't wanna sell that. Not even for $1000 I wouldn't! They are priceless to me.
Big Mama and her 6 chicks in August, 2016.
And well, in 5 months Big Mama's babies started laying eggs and we got our first real taste of homesteading! It was so wonderful and exciting when our chicks started laying their first eggs, some were pink and some were green :) We started trading and giving away eggs and it was very fulfilling.
January 2017
We Found Out Ameraucanas & Easter Eggers Love To Be Broody!
Big Mama had been broody twice already since she came to live with us with her 6 chicks. She's a chick hatching machine. I think it's because she doesn't like to be mated all of the time, so she just hides in her nesting box hatching batch after batch of eggs to keep those horny roosters away from her sweetness. I don't know why, but she is the favourite of any roosters we have had. She was almost mated to death by Sider... :'( We actually had to say farewell to him because it was either her or him, he wouldn't leave her alone, and would even block the water and food dishes from her so that he could mate with her.
And if she wasn't enough on her own, suddenly her original chicks started going broody too! The Easter Egger Chickens all went broody at the same time, and we had 4 hens sitting on eggs LOL! Our flock grew exponentially. In the summer they all went broody again and we hatched even more. Then in early fall they went broody again, so we decided to sell chicks and now we are happily populating St. Margaret's Bay, Nova Scotia with our breed of chicken LOL!
(Video 4:31) 36 Chicks hatched!!!
Which Brings Us To Today
I have piles and piles of eggs now that all of the Easter Egger's pullets are laying and our chickens are finally sustainable. With a few sales here and there the girls completely pay for themselves. All in the matter of a year and a half! Our next venture is going to be pigs in the spring. We are going to keep them in the forest because everything I've watched and read shows that pigs are amazing foragers and will scoff at their feed if they live in the forest because there are so many goodies for them to find in the wild, they hardly need anything from the store.
Our goal is sustainability, self-sufficiency and building a strong community so that we don't need factory farms and grocery store giants. I mean...imagine if you will, what it would look like right now if the supply chains were disrupted. We'd all be FUCKED!
Once again, thank you for witnessing our journey...
That is such a cool story, it's great that they pay for themselves already.
You guys are awesome homesteaders. That coup is amazing!
Great job Bowes family.
Thanks for tha LOVE!!!! Always! xoxo
I didn't know you and also that you were amazing. So, I created a post asking people, "Let's Find Amazing Steemians" and that is how I found you. Loved your profile and followed you. Loved this post and loved what you're doing by yourself. This is the best ever lifestyle!
Thanks to @davedickeyyall for nominating you as Amazing Steemian! Yes, you are amazing!
Wow, thank you so much @ilyastarar and @davedickeyyall!
Ahh..such a storey and I have been fortunate enough to watch it from start to now..today. I watched those sick white chickens that came first, dull and lifeless feathers. Those chickens did not know how to peck for food or jump on the roost. They wandered around aimlessly in circles. Within a few months of everyone keeping good table scraps and being out free in the yard they finally starting acting like chickens. We started eating their tiny eggs. A few more months go by and they realize that they are chickens and start acting like a chicken. Strutting and pecking around the round, laying good size eggs and looking healthy with good colour. More and more chickens have come to the plethora of birds roaming around in that yard. This has not only been a wonderful opportunity for my 3 grandsons but also for my husband and I. City folks who purchased eggs at the store. What a difference an egg makes. We have all learned so much about nature and about eggs. Even though I will never be an egg expert like Lyndsay I can truly say they make for better cakes and breads and not to mention breakfast. So yummy ..so get crackin and get to Hacketts Cove to purchase a dozen of the finest.
The girls have come so far, it's incredible. Thank you too for all the lovely baskets of food you send over trading for eggs, it really makes our day!!!!
I am thinking that the egg jar is too small my friend. Besides, egg cartons hold eggs way better! Unless you meant that the jar was for your egg money! lol You know me. Words are important! bwahahaha.
Bravo to you! I take it that you trade egg cartons too, that way you don't have to buy them. We happily receive cartons from who ever has any to share. We only accept the paper cartons as we don't want foam or plastic to deal with. But we have never had to buy cartons to deliver our yummy eggs to those who value off-grid yummy food. Bravo to you. Next: A goat! hehehehe
HAHAHAA!! Yes, the money jar, you got it lmao!! We have been pretty lucky with people giving us egg cartons, though we bought a stack of them recently, and yeah, no styrofoam!! I'm asking the folks who are buying eggs from us bring the cartons back for their refills.
An amazing chicken story! A year and a half and see what you have accomplished with your small flock. I am glad to see that the factory farm chickens are doing so well. Perhaps it's the nice digs, good food and love? It is really exciting when things on the homestead start paying for themselves. Nice going!
Thanks so much for always encouraging and supporting our Tribe Ceci! xooxoxxo
Chickens of independent means... That is good that you can cover the costs of the feed.
I try to get organic feed when I can but it is hard to get here in the UK as well. I only know of one feed merchant that sells it near here and she is over an hours drive away.
Amazon amazingly did sell it for a while but seems to have stopped now.
Just did a quick search on the web for organic chicken feed suppliers in Nova Scotia. I couldn't find any but did find this cool site selling islands in Nova Scotia :
Just need a few big, big upvotes and you are sorted. Take your pick...
Best I could find for organic chicken feed is this :
YESS!! AHAHHAHAHAA!! That's why we moved to NS, because of the inexpensive land. You wouldn't believe what you could buy here...it would blow your mind...
So much mayhem! I love it! I'm amazed at how quickly you went from no chickens to as many as you have. I started this summer 'renting' 2 laying hens, then a week later called the farmer to tell him I wanted to keep them, built a coop, and asked the farmer to bring over one more hen. So now I have 3, on a 1/4 acre lot, and I just today finished installing the automatic open/close door to their coop. Something tells me that if i had more land, I'd end up with 100 birds too. Chicken math right? I totally get it now.
Bwa hahahaaa!! Yesss!! You've totally got it! Chicken Mayhem, and they are addictive so watch out and you can get quite a few onto 1/4 acre! :) :) :) :) :) Great job on the auto door too btw!
So cool to follow your journey to independence!
I'm renting in heavily regulated suburbia now, I'd love to break away, obviously. I can hear roosters in the distance when walking the dog in the morning, but they're banned on my street.
Too bad someone couldn't breed a stealth chicken. It'd have to be grass green so it blended in with the lawn... And ultra quiet... able to be house-trained... Either that or have plumage that made it look like one of those useless rag-mop dogs - no one would suspect a thing until it laid an egg XD
Yeah, who ever thought that having a few chickens would be a rebellious act hey? Our ancestors are rolling in their graves...
Your egg-citing news was so much fun to read! 50 birds is a lot! It is cool to see the progression of your coop and set up over time. It’s great that you are able to start selling eggs to support the whole process. Store-bought eggs taste bland and boring compared to fresh eggs, and I know lots of people who are very willing to pay extra to get farm fresh eggs! (Myself included)
Thank you very much! I'm actually semi-allergic to eggs, and I wish that I could enjoy them, they always give me a bad stomach. I could only imagine how much better our eggs taste than the ones from the store, our neighbours sure appreciate them. I hope one day you can have a couple of hens, you would LOVE it!
Have you ever tried eating just the white or just the yolk to see who the culprit is.?
I have been able to eat just the yolk, but then one time in every say 10, it gives me horrible cramps. So now I just don't even chance it anymore.
Allergy Man here to say, that was me, and I gave up eggs for a solid seven years. I didn't even use them in baking when I was doing the baking, but didn't worry about it when someone else did the baking and ate that anyway. After seven years, I discovered I could eat them again with no problems! I didn't know why until I worked at the specialty hospital (National Jewish), and took a continuing ed course about allergies.
Turns out, I had accidentally done an actual allergy treatment plan: sometimes, if you avoid the allergen for long enough, your body stops freaking out about it, like it forgets, and you get your tolerance back. The same thing happened for carbonated drinks with me ...no soda or sparkling water for those same seven years, as well as cow's milk! Now I can drink it just fine.
Now, I'm not going to try this for any of my dangerous allergies (hello, latex foods and also stevia, which threaten to swell my throat shut), but potatoes are one that result in an unhappy belleh like eggs used to. So maybe in seven years, I'll be able to eat potatoes again! Hahaha.
Anyway, all that to say that after several years of avoiding them, it might be worth a shot trying again. ;)
Thank you so much for sharing your journey Allergy Man! I will take your advice and not "cave" in for a few years!! Like...7 by the sound of it!
Sorry about that(semi is still good), a friend of mine can't even taste an egg or its bye product. I wish I had a source for fresh eggs like you, fortunately, I love them so much and use them for all sort of baking, toast bread and hot applications, though I don't like them fried, still love them.
I am definitely counting my blessings that I can eat eggs in baking! I hope one day you can find someone local to buy eggs from, or be able to raise your own hens @kryptocoin :)
Sure, I look forward to that. Thank you
Aww how sad that you don’t get to enjoy them! No matter how good they are, it wouldn’t be worth a stomachache. 😔 I have never tried eggs from a hen before( that I know of), but I bet they would be really good!
Too bad I don’t live closer to you! You would definitely have a regular customer for eggs. 😊 I’m currently trying to find someone in my area that I can buy from regularly. I have purchased eggs from friends before, but they just have a few chickens and so they don’t have leftover eggs very often.
@raised2b and I have talked about raising either chickens are quail at some point in the future to have a fresh supply of eggs. We are apartment dwellers at the moment though, so that dream is a little ways away!
I wish you luck in finding a local source! And sending out all the good vibes I have to you and @raised2b that you live the life you dream of <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Aww thank you!! ❤️
It may be the feed that you are buying too. Do you get it from the local mill or an organic farmer next door? I wonder if you got the hens on better than organic feed if you would then be able to eat the eggs. We had bees a few years ago and they only foraged on wild flowers due to no crops being near here. Our friend who cannot eat honey could eat our honey! What the bees foraged on made a huge difference!
Yes, it could be the feed, we get ours from a local feed store, but have never been able to source totally organic feed yet! The best we can do is get non medicated. They actually laughed at us when we tried to get organic feed, saying "Do you know how hard that would be to make sure every ingredient is organic?" .... Where do you get your girls' feed @wwf?
We work at getting feed from local farmers but it has been hit and miss. During the summer, they eat outside, but in winter we get feed from the mill when the locals don't return calls or don't grow feed without chemicals. :( Working on it!
I get that. They are adorable; and, indeed "living in a chicken paradise."
I'm sure the rooster was quite content in the original coop; but, the new mansion is quite the upgrade.
Those are some of the most beautiful eggs I've ever seen...literally!
Wow, bartering and selling...I can't say enough how cool that idea is. So often, I fail to realize that your channel is about homesteading. To see things coming together in pics is inspiring.
Thanks so much for your posts! These snippets are actually archives for your children, and someday their children, to reflect on for many decades to come.
@lyndsaybowes you are one blessed lady!
Peace.
Thank you so much for this really uplifting comment SpiritualMatters! I am really smiling, thinking about how blessed we are, and that these snippets could be here for our children one day...
I'd love to send you over some of these pretty eggs, too bad we aren't neighbours!
✌!