It’s not easy raising chickens for meat.

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 25 Oct 2012, 10:28

If what you want is cheap, easy meat then rabbits are better than chickens.

Little John · Post by **Little John** » 25 Oct 2012, 10:43

UndercoverElephant wrote:If what you want is cheap, easy meat then rabbits are better than chickens.

Yep. As long as it's green they'll eat it

hardworkinghippy · Post by **hardworkinghippy** » 25 Oct 2012, 11:30

How do they know which are the weeds and which are the plants?

Peter, They don't care but I know what they'll eat and what they won't eat and where they're likely to make dust baths, so I protect the vulnerable veg with a combination of sticks, cages and fruit boxes.

I've a set in Flickr here with lots more photos of the chickens doing their thing in the garden : http://www.flickr.com/photos/hardworkin ... 288270606/:

Blue Peter · Post by **Blue Peter** » 25 Oct 2012, 11:35

hardworkinghippy wrote:Peter, They don't care but I know what they'll eat and what they won't eat and where they're likely to make dust baths, so I protect the vulnerable veg with a combination of sticks, cages and fruit boxes.

You obviously know your chickens, judging by your plants. Does laying a few sticks on the ground (e.g. around the borage?) keep them off then? And a few upright sticks away from the courgettes?

Peter.

hardworkinghippy · Post by **hardworkinghippy** » 25 Oct 2012, 11:49

Yes, that works for certain plants. Here's an example - these two photos are taken from the same view :

The sticks help to keep dogs off too. (We've got 5 mini-diggers )

Blue Peter · Post by **Blue Peter** » 25 Oct 2012, 12:29

hardworkinghippy wrote:Yes, that works for certain plants. Here's an example - these two photos are taken from the same view :

Very interesting. What are those plants?

Peter.

hardworkinghippy · Post by **hardworkinghippy** » 25 Oct 2012, 13:41

Pumpkins.

I often use pumpkins to start off a new part of the garden as the chickens really clean around them well and we grow a lot because the pigs love them and they keep well for us too.

Blue Peter · Post by **Blue Peter** » 25 Oct 2012, 13:54

Cheers.

I take it that you don't have problems with foxes during the day?

Peter.

hardworkinghippy · Post by **hardworkinghippy** » 25 Oct 2012, 14:52

Yes we do.

Foxes take the odd chicken - but only one at a time because we shut them up at night. It's rare though because we have six dogs and we're here all the time.

the mad cyclist · Post by **the mad cyclist** » 28 Oct 2012, 18:06

For anyone who is interested, here are a few photos of my homemade chicken killing cone. I made it last year when I had 10 cockerels to dispatch; at our place it’s a one-man operation. The only alteration I would make is to enlarge the neck hole. It’s a bit of a struggle getting their heads through, and since I concuss them first, I don’t want them regaining consciousness before I do the business.

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 28 Oct 2012, 23:51

the mad cyclist wrote:For anyone who is interested, here are a few photos of my homemade chicken killing cone. I made it last year when I had 10 cockerels to dispatch; at our place it’s a one-man operation. The only alteration I would make is to enlarge the neck hole. It’s a bit of a struggle getting their heads through, and since I concuss them first, I don’t want them regaining consciousness before I do the business.

I used a 36" plastic traffic cone with the tip cut off. Like you I found that I had to cut off more of the tip to make the hole bigger but I had let the birds get past optimum size. Small turkeys by size, 10 pounds dressed or better. A disagreeable job that is only better if you can do it smoothly and with one sure stroke to be as humane as possible.