Answers to the Top 10 Chicken Questions

Here they are!

1. Do I need a rooster for my hens to lay eggs? The answer is no. But if you want to produce baby chicks, you do need a rooster.

2. How long do chickens live? The answer is from 8 to 15 years.

3. What do I need when my chicks arrive? The answer is a container (at least 18 inches high) to hold the chicks that gives them ample room, pine shavings for the floor, food and water containers, and most importantly 250 watt red glass infared heat lamps to maintain the temperature at 95 degrees for the chicks (that temprature will decrease as they age).

4. At what age do hens start laying and how many eggs will they lay? The answer is that they will start to lay around 5 to 6 months old and will lay approximately 200-300 eggs per year, depending on the breed. Peak production occurs at 2 years old and diminishes there after.

5. How much feed do chickens eat? The anser is a typical laying hen will eat 4 to 6 ounces of feed each day. This increases in cold weather and decreases during warm weather. If you free range your chickens you can expect that amount to decrease significantly.

6. How big does my chicken coop need to be? The answer is 2-3 square feet per chicken. You also need space for the chickens to roost at night and for nesting boxes. Think of the coop like your bedroom, you spend most of your day outside of that room.

7. How many nest boxes will I need for my hens? The answer is one nest box for every 5 to 6 hens.

8. What is the best way to deal with internal and external parasites? The answer is you want to use natural products assuming you eat the hen's eggs. Food grade diatomaceous earth can control both. You can dust the chickens or put it in their food. There are also natural products on the market that will take care of parasites.

9. What is the best way to protect my chickens from predators? The answer is a well built chicken coop. You need to prevent predators from crawling in small spaces and digging under the coop.

10. How do I get my chickens to go into the coop at nights? The answer is that chickens instictively go into the coop at night. You may need to help in a few stragglers and most importantly, you need to remember to shut the door for them at night.

I hope you enjoyed this Q&A from Backyard Poultry magazine. I encourage anyone interested in raising chickens to pick up an issue. It has been extremely helpful and informative for me.

New Location to Sell Happy Chick Farm Eggs!

Many of you may know that on Saturdays every week, the Gonzales Market operates in Orland on the corner of South Street and Highway 99. It is a very popular market and attracts a lot of folks. Vendors there offer everything from produce to home made foods, retail items, etc. Like a fun swap meet. Well by chance, I happened to meet Mr. Gonzales this week and he asked me to come and sell my eggs at his market! So depending on the weather, I may be selling my eggs there as soon as this Saturday, April 2. The market begins early (7 or 8 a.m.) and lasts until late in the afternoon. Sounds like a wonderful new opportunity to sell eggs until the farmers market season arrives.

Oh and by the way, yes, I will be posting the answers to the 10 most asked questions about chickens soon. That is as soon as I have time to type it all up!

I want to thank all of my wonderful customers again for making my egg business a sucess. I am truly in this business to make you happy and ensure that you are able to enjoy locally raised food that you know the source of. What a wonderful thing!

Free Ranging/Fresh Easter Eggs

I am pleased to announce that our chickens are now not just free roaming, but free range! Since I have retired I now have the time to let the girls out, keep an eye on them and make sure they return to their coop at night. This will only enhance the flavor and beauty of our eggs.

Come and visit our self serve fridge or call us for your fresh Easter Eggs!!

Top 10 Chicken Questions for Spring!

Backyard Poultry Magazine (a great magazine for all poutry lovers, I recommend it highly!) recently published an article about the top 10 chicken questions asked by folks purchasing their first chickens, with the help of the Randall Burkey Company who sell poultry equipment and live chicks. Here they are:

1. Do I need a rooster for my chickens to lay eggs?

2. How long do chickens live?

3. What do I need to do when my chicks arrive?

4. At what age do hens start laying and how many eggs will they lay?

5. How much do chickens eat?

6. How big does my chicken coop need to be?

7. How many nest boxes will I need for my hens?

8. What is the best way to deal with internal and external parasites?

9. What is the best way to protect my chickens from predators?

10. How do I get my chickens into the coop at night?

The answers will appear in my next blog entry. Stay tuned!

Glenn County Farmers Market Update

The farmers market in Glenn will begin in June and end in September. The market will rotate between locations in Orland and Willows each month, beginning in Orland in June. The market will be open every Saturday from 8:00 a.m and 1:00 p.m. The proposed site for Orland is Library Park and Memorial Park in Willows. As I have mentioned before on the site, I plan to sell my eggs at the market. Depending on demand/sales, I also am planning on selling at the Gridley farmers market in Butte County this year as well. When I know the starting month, time and place of that market, I will post that information as well. I hope to see you there!

Things Are Cooking!

Hey, welcome back to the blog. If you have been reading my blog you know that my husband and I retired recently. So of course we had to take a vacation so we drove cross country to Florida where we went on a Caribean cruise for a week and then after that, we drove to Tennessee to see my sister. We had a great visit, then back home.

Well, the girls are laying tons of eggs! So if you want wonderful farm fresh eggs give us a call, an email or stop on by.

By the way I am hooking up with my friend from Windmill Farms who is starting a CSA this spring. You know, where you purchase a "share" of the harvest, and each week you get wonderful fruits, herbs, and vegetables...whatever is in season? I will provide the CSA members with farm fresh eggs. A CSA is a great way to support your local growers and know where your produce is coming from. All at a reasonable price. Windmill Farms link is on this blog, so please take a moment to check out their blog to learn more about this CSA. I personally cannot wait to particpate in this CSA as I have not yet had time to get together a real garden and Windmill Farms produce is wonderful. It is fabulous to know that I am feeding my family awesome food from a known source. Check it out.

Iam really looking forward to participating in farmers markets come spring in Glenn and Butte counties. And I look forward to seeing YOU there! Thanks again for supporting your local producers like myself. With your help, we can keep the local food movement alive and well here in Glenn County and beyond.

Happy New Year!

Well, here we are in 2010.

The good news is that our Jersey Giants are really starting to lay like crazy! We are getting at least 3 dozen eggs a day and they are getting larger every week. Most are now the size of a large egg. It won't be too long before they are jumbo sized and the chickens will be laying up to 8 dozen a day. For now the eggs are still priced at $3.00 a dozen but when they are a true jumbo size, I will most likely price them at $4.00 a dozen. And they will be worth it!!! So come on by our self serve or call/email us to place your order for farm fresh eggs.

I'm pretty excited that this year, there will be a farmers market here in Glenn County for the first time in many years. It will start sometime in the spring and look for my eggs for sale at that market...come on by and say "hi"! The location is yet unknown but as soon as I know more, I will post that information on this site. Happy New Year to all of you and I hope you come by soon and try our farm fresh eggs!