Poultry

The full title of this new publication is “Scaling-up Egg Production: Management, Markets, Regulation and Finances.” As you can see, it’s got everything you need to get going on the right foot.

Diversity is a good thing, and chicken is delicious. Adding more chicken to your farm might be win win. Here’s a tool to figure out if that’s a good choice for you.

Here’s what the Arbuckles found out when they compared how different supplemental feeds affected the cost and nutrient density of their free range eggs.

Tom and Ruth Neuberger run a free-range poultry operation on their farm in Canistota, South Dakota.  In search of additional income from their operation, they began looking at other value added products to serve their customers. What they learned through their SARE funded Farmer Rancher grant was that they could double the value of a whole bird […]

You can breed however you’d like. To be truly successful, breed for fertility, and breed for your farm. Morgan delves deeper into how.

A couple months ago I wrote an article for On Pasture called Breeding Matters. I briefly alluded to Line Breeding as a method of getting greater consistency and uniformity of type in one’s herd or flock. Many graziers I talk to essentially say, “So why should I care how my cattle are bred, or my […]

Changing the time when you feed your birds can increase their foraging, potentially increase weight gain, and reduce labor costs.

Like many of us in the business of grass-farming for livestock production, I have been preoccupied by a persistent question; Nature vs. Nurture, Breeding vs. Management, Genetics vs. Environment, all takes on the same dichotomy. Of course the answer is unequivocally, “YES.” The functionality of an animal for our particular purposes is absolutely the sum […]

Lots of producers use chicken tractors.  The concept was popularized by Joel Salatin and the structure size and shape has been modified by many people.  I used my own version when raising meat chickens in my backyard.  It’s basically an open-floored enclosure that is moved once or twice a day around a pasture. Birds live […]

It’s quick and easy and protects your poultry from predators. Here’s how to put up an electric fence for poultry, and how to test to make sure it’s working. The same technique works for goat/sheep netting, so check it out even if you don’t want to fence in chickens.

It’s all about the birds and the bees.

Last week Kathy shared the budget for a backyard broiler operation. Now, here’s a budgeting tool for doing it on a larger scale to tell you what kind of profit you might expect from your own operation. Does it pay to do this? Tell us!

It seems so easy: 1) buy chicks, 2) feed chicks, 3) harvest and package, 4) EAT. So backyard farmers decide they can do it too, and avoid the high price of Farmers Markets or Whole Foods. They could spend their spare time becoming “self-sufficient!” But here’s how much that can cost, when done by a couple of home producers. Share this with folks who think you charge too much!

Josh shares the facts and figures of raising pasture-raised, free-range, organic-fed hen eggs. It’s math that can really help you understand your inputs and what you should be charging for that dozen of eggs you collect from your chickens.

Have you ever noticed how chickens and some other birds can hold their heads in one position while their bodies move up and down and side to side?  This ability has inspired engineers at Mercedes Benz to create what they call “Magic Body Control.”  And they’re telling people about it in their ads, not with […]