Jones I have three chickens. Their names are Henny-Penny, Mrs. Grey and Beyonce.
They pop out enough eggs to keep me happy, and any extras I give to the Food Rescue guys at market. I am good with this set-up. When I first planted my pear orchard behind the barn, I was looking for ways to control pests organically, and ran across an article saying chickens are great pest control for orchards.
They clean up all the dropped fruit, and eat bugs. Um, OK. So I got 25 little peepers and when they were old enough, turned them loose in the orchard.
It worked great! They look nonstop for things to eat, and put themselves to bed at night. I couldn’t ask for anything better. At the same time, they started to pop out eggs that were fantastic! The yolks were orange, not the watery yellow you get in the store and really tasted good — pretty much like everything else you get fresh off the farm.
Life was good. They popped out so many eggs that I took them to market where our friends had the same reaction that I did. This got me thinking “.
.. If 25 chickens produce roughly 20 eggs/day and feed is X amount then I’m going into the egg business and get my orchard cleaned at the same time!” Plus, if 25 chickens are good, then 250 chickens must be better.
My girls were sweethearts and I had one (her name was Butterscotch) that would hop on my shoulder and help me feed and water the others. We had a bond. Well, I found a supplier who would sell me 250, year-old pullets.
The next day I drov.