What produce/ingredients did you buy or obtain today (2025)?

Barriehie said:
I don't get it and I'm done looking at it. I'll need to see how many chickens lay how many eggs how fast to figure how many I need and how much they eat. I do know that fresh eggs are WAY better than processed ones. Plus, it gives me something to do when the garden isn't growing...
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They are a bit of work though Bazza.
And they don’t lay forever so you have to consider keeping them purely as pets or.. dispatching them 😬
I have a large chicken pen. When the last chicken shuffled off the mortal coil I confess I was relieved. I’ll likely get some more when I stop travelling but until then I don’t want the responsibility.
 
Barriehie said:
I don't get it and I'm done looking at it. I'll need to see how many chickens lay how many eggs how fast to figure how many I need and how much they eat. I do know that fresh eggs are WAY better than processed ones. Plus, it gives me something to do when the garden isn't growing...
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Depends on the breed of chicken as to how many eggs they will lay each week/ year.

Only commercial breeds that have a very short 1-2 years (brutal) life lay year round. Most heritage breeds will lay 4 eggs or so a week.

You'll want a minimum of 3 chooks, in case you lose one, so the other has a friend. They're flock animals so the more the better.

If you do get heritage breeds bare in mind that they can live for over a decade. I've only just lost my 11 year old chicken. I've got one now that is 8 years old and she has only just stopped laying eggs. The others are between 4-5 years old and still laying. They typically don't lay in winter unless you have new chicks who mature just before the start of winter.

Typically it takes 25hrs for an egg to form and be laid.
 
badjak said:
I'm considering having chicken as well, although that has nothing to do with the price of eggs.
Just a bit scared of what my Jack Russel will do (the Jacky cross will be OK, he's not a killer, but the other one is) and then snakes....
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One of my chooks fought off and badly injured a very poisonous snake that was threatening her chicks. She was a big girl and took it on without hesitation.

As for the rest of the flock when they come across one, the line up will away from it and escort it off their territory. When it has passed the last one, it peels off the line and races to the front and watched and they all do this... they also do it with the echidna *utterly harmless, the various dragons and lizard and so on. It's quite amusing to watch.
 
Barriehie said:
I'll get the ones that live a long time and enough so they're a comfortable "flock"? I know they don't lay in winter and that's okay. They can do what they do and I'll keep the predators out. 👍
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I use a dedicate poultry electric fence which keeps foxes out. They hate it because it isn't rigid and they hate flexible fences. Also it zaps their underparts... and it's got a very big kick to it. I have seen the chooks on one side of it and the fox walking down other side of the fence pony meters away from them and not even looking at them. It knew they were out of reach.

We also have several automatic doors on timer or daylight sensors. So they're let out into the electric fence area at dawn, but they don't get to free range until much later in the day when the fox risk is much less. At night it locks up at a set time, so occasionally we get a lock out, but the rest of the flock is safe until we are around to lock up and bring home the stragglers. It works really well and it's been a good number of years since we lost a chook to a fox thankfully.
 
My chickens did lay through the winter, no idea why 🤷‍♀️
This is my pen which was very quickly given a top once the rescue baby bunnies arrived due to large birds of prey hovering!
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Surprisingly the chicken and the rabbits got on very well.
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
My chickens did lay through the winter, no idea why 🤷‍♀️
This is my pen which was very quickly given a top once the rescue baby bunnies arrived due to large birds of prey hovering!View attachment 124745
Surprisingly the chicken and the rabbits got on very well.
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They can do if the conditions are correct. Mine did for 6 years and stopped last year for the first time but they are all getting in in age, never the 8 chicks this spring. I think I have 6 pullets possibly 7 out of 8 which I'm thrilled about. Usually it is the other way around.

One of my husband's colleagues has asked for one of the chicks to be named after her... it's the chick that manages to get lost standing still (no joke)... apparently the college also has that skill.

A surprising number of our chooks have been named after his work colleagues....
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
My chickens did lay through the winter, no idea why 🤷‍♀️
This is my pen which was very quickly given a top once the rescue baby bunnies arrived due to large birds of prey hovering!View attachment 124745
Surprisingly the chicken and the rabbits got on very well.
Click to expand...
glad it got a top very quickly because a fox would have no problems climbing that sadly. I have witnessed it personally.

We had a wedge-tailed eagle come over our property yesterday morning (just to add to the storm issues and everything else. the local birds were mobbing it and the chooks ran for cover very quickly. We have plenty of suitable cover for them to hide under. It is one of the issues we accept allowing them to free range.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
glad it got a top very quickly because a fox would have no problems climbing that sadly. I have witnessed it personally.

We had a wedge-tailed eagle come over our property yesterday morning (just to add to the storm issues and everything else. the local birds were mobbing it and the chooks ran for cover very quickly. We have plenty of suitable cover for them to hide under. It is one of the issues we accept allowing them to free range.
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I think they’re lazy n well fed round here because the chooks lived in there for 7 years before the rabbits arrived and the lid went on and we never had a problem even with our large fox population.

Although a starved fox can scramble 6 foot if it’s difficult to jump and they can see the chicken they’ll try and dig under or chew through.
That was certainly true of the fox population round here cos you could see the scrape marks on the slabs.
They were too daft to realise they needed to start digging further back and the extra layer of chainlink fencing around the bottom proved too much for them to chew through. Tops tips from an ethical chicken farmer.

Almost felt sorry for the foxes in the winter, cold and hungry with a lovely chicken dinner insight and out of reach 😂
 
I suppose this can go here - like I said elsewhere, MrsT had a vendor/supplier event at Maggiano’s (sort of upscale Italian chain), and 2/3rds of the people who registered didn’t show, so…

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Those are all packed full - food for a week!
 
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