A POULTRY MINI-MANUAL

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by ROBERTA HAMMER

The three main reasons for starting poultry on a homestead, in case you haven't given it much thought, are: (1) Fresh, fertile, organic eggs, (2) Fresh, fertile, organic chicken manure and (3) Fresh, organic chicken meat (unless, of course, you're vegetarian—in which case the first two points are reason enough . . . and if you're a super strict vegetarian, No. 2 alone will still justify the project.)

You might have thought that eggs—any eggs—are organic. No, they aren't. Most supermarket eggs come from egg factories (see HEALTH IS FOR THE BIRDS, in this issue) where chickens are confined to small wire cages stacked in endless rows. The layers are never allowed to set their chicken feet on the ground . . . or even stretch their wings, I guess.

Needless to say, such living conditions, even for birds, are BAD. Disease would run rampant were it not for antibiotics that are automatically fed as a preventative. The average life span of one of these chickens is 18 months and the eggs laid in an egg factory are—to say the least—tasteless. Their nutritional value is questionable and their possible antibiotic content is deplorable. So, since one of the reasons for moving back to the land was wholesome, natural food for our family . . . chickens!

The little grocery-feed store in our area offered some special chick bargains last spring. One was 100 heavy-breed cockerels free with the purchase of 250 lbs. of chick starter. The store also offered other chicks at wholesale prices.

We decided on a heavy breed of chicken because we like big, brown eggs; we think the larger birds offer the tastiest meat; we wanted to look at chickens that were some color other than white; and we didn't care for the nervous little Leghorns, bred to be egg-producing machines.

We ordered straight-run chicks. This means that, at the hatchery, the baby chickens were boxed without being sexed. There's no guarantee on how many of either sex will be in any order of straight-runs but it usually averages about 50-50 and straight-run chicks cost several cents less each than sexed chicks. If you'll be eating some (or all) of your chickens anyway, straight-runs are the best buy.

Straight-run chicks are a double good buy if you want some roosters in your flock . . . and we wanted roosters: (1) To insure the production of fertile eggs (thought to be more nutritious), (2) To allow us to try raising our own chickens from the eggs up and (3) For wake-up crowing in the morning.