----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Meissner" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, September 04, 2004 5:52 AM Subject: Re: CS>just us chickens...
> Dear Nenah: > > Thank you for your chicken facts. > > I am a beginner just starting out and following Joel Salatin's "Egg mobile" > and "Feather net" system. This involves a portable chicken house with egg > nests on skids that gets moved every day or so. This is surrounded by an > electrified poultry fence to keep the predators out. This is a sort of free > range model in that the chickens can forage for bugs and greens. The > chicken poop also fertilizes the grass. > > Joel Salatin collects about 100 dozen eggs per day with his "free range" > system involving about 1400 birds. I am planning for about 100 birds to > start with. > > According to the book I am reading a chicken is born with over 4000 eggs and > normally will lay only 10% of that number. The average is 250 for the first > year and decreases thereafter. A healthy chicken will lay for 10-12 years. > The rule of thumb is that after 2 years it costs more to feed them than you > will get back in egg sales. > > Any helpful comments are appreciated. > > Jim Meissner www.MeissnerResearch.com Hi Jim. I'm familiar with Joel's eggmobile and it's nice to know that this technique is catching on. I haven't heard the last fact about chicken cost effectiveness. However, if the chickens scratch -- AND if you feed them stuff that would be headed for the compost pile -- that would cut down on your feed costs. I knew some farmers who dumped all the food waste into a huge pile near the chicken coop, and the chickens gobbled it down. These were the best chickens I ever ate. Acres USA would have good information about that. -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver List archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html Address Off-Topic messages to: [email protected] OT Archive: http://escribe.com/health/silverofftopiclist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
