023. Growing Meat In Your Backyard 2: Raising Chickens For Meat--How

On today's espidode we'll talk about how you can raise chickens for meat, even in the city.

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Transcript

(Teaser)
Welcome to The Two Acre Homestead Podcast. I'm your host Lisa. And on today's episode, we are talking about an animal that most of us are familiar with. Certainly if you are interested in homesteading, I'm sure you have and are currently considering this animal. And that is the standard backyard chicken.

(Season 2 Intro)
Welcome toThe Two Acre Homestead. Come along with us on our journey from a small Suburban Homestead lifestyle, to our new lifestyle, homesteading rural countryside of southern Arizona. We'll share with you our tips, tricks, successes and failures from both our past suburban lifestyle to our new rural lifestyle all on The Two Acre Homestead.

(Season 2 Episode 5)
Okay, so this particular episode is part two of a three part series that we are doing on raising your own meat on property. And we're really, I'm really wanting to direct this for those of you who live in the city or in the suburbs. Those of us that live out in the country, we likely have been raising chickens for some time and likely, hopefully are raising me although I have to say I know people who live in the country who have no clue as to how to do this. But that's a subject for a different day. Anyway, let's power through this.

So the first thing that you want to think about, especially if you're new to owning chickens, there are several things that you need to know. And first of all, you need to educate yourself. Get some books, there are a ton of books out there on raising backyard chickens, on how to care for your chickens. I simply do a Google search. Most books, most YouTube videos, they're pretty. It's all pretty standard. Many people will say, Well, how many chickens do I need? You know, I always say three. Three for any animal is always optimal. It doesn't matter the breed of animal that you're looking at three is always good. So three chickens is always good because that chicken needs to have a buddy. We have a neighbor that right now. It's really sad. They only have one chicken. And it's really, really sad because we can tell by the chickens behavior. That chicken wants to be a part of a flock. It's just, it's pathetically sad and they let the chicken you know roam around. And in our part of the woods, our neck of the woods. That's really a dangerous proposition to let your chickens run around. Just because, you know, we have a lot of predators out here where we live here in southern Arizona. I mean sky's the limit we have oh, we have have a Llinas which won't eat a chicken but yeah, they're not good. We have tons of hawks. We have mountain lions, we have coyotes. We have raccoons. Yeah, it's it's not good. So. But every time that chicken gets a chance that chicken is always trying to figure out how to get over our fence so that she can join our flock of 20 chickens for our backyard home chickens. So try to get more than one chicken, if possible.

Um, but really it becomes a question of why chickens. And for many people, they consider chickens, the gateway animal to homesteading. And I know even for us personally, that was the first animal that we chose to have on our homestead. And the reasoning goes a lot like this because chickens serve dual maybe even triple purposes. First of all, they provide you with eggs. If it's a hen they provide Do with eggs daily. And then the second reason is they they can also be used for meat purposes you can call them and, and and eat the meat. And the third reason is their poop. Their poop can be composted down and used as fertilizer in your gardens. So kind of like a triple reason why most people love having backyard chickens. And truth be told, chickens are great. They're not the quietest of animals on a homestead. Yeah, they are not the quietest of animals on a homestead. And if you've ever heard a chicken after she has laid an egg, she announces to the entire world that she has laid an egg.

And sometimes her friends will join in on that particular call that cackle. And so if you're looking for an animal that's completely quiet, an animal that, you know, your neighbors would never know you had it, chicken may not be the best one, you're probably looking at something like a rabbit or quail. But that being said, chickens are fantastic. They are an easy, easy backyard animal. They require less maintenance, then other animals that are on our on our list here. So what you want to think about when you're considering getting a chicken, again, three chickens minimum, you want to think about your breeds.

Now, when it gets into chicken breeds, I mean sky is the limit. There are so many breeds of chicken, it's, it can just really blow your mind away. But I'm gonna go through a couple of breeds with you guys and a couple of reasons why we're want to talk about these different breeds. And why these particular breeds might be of interest to you on your homesteading journey. So the first thing that you want to think about anytime that you're dealing with animals, you always have to think about climate. Because they are outside. They're going to be outside 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So and you have to look at your climate through their eyes. Chickens have feathers, feathers can stay warm. Especially if you've got something like down feathers think about that, that will keep you warm. Some chickens have a lot of feathers, some chickens don't. So you really want to think about and be aware of the climate that you live in. So because I live in southern Arizona, even though I'm in a cooler part of Southern Arizona, I often think of the heat more than I do the cold even though it gets really cold here. But I'm always going to think about the heat. So that's what we're going to discuss right now is the heat. So the type of breeds that do well in hot weather and when I say hot weather, I'm talking Arizona hot. Okay, I'm talking like 115 degrees Fahrenheit. I don't know what that is Celsius. I'm so sorry. For those of you who are listening, that are in other parts of the country, or other parts of the world. I don't know what the Celsius says. But I'm talking like 115 120 because I'm thinking about people who live in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Yeah, they get really hot. That's hot. And they those people who live in Phoenix, not only that, but they not only that the heat, but they also sometimes deal with humidity and heat. So you really want to because that's such an extreme climate. That's what we're going to look at.

So the first one we have owned this type of this type of chicken and they are man there. There is a good chicken and that is a Rhode Island Red. If you want a bird that can handle the heat, and that can produce eggs. You want to Rhode Island Red, a lot of people will just abbreviate it and say Are our Rhode Island Reds are if you see it in writing and you see somebody say chicken are are that's what they mean. Your your Rhode Island Reds are just they're fantastic in the heat another one that does really good and is actually kind of on the quiet side for a chicken is the well summer we had a well summer we wound up getting rid of her. She had problems with our flock there was some flock dynamics that she just didn't blend in. But she handled the heat like a champ she was a really good really really good bird. Any of your Moran's usually will do pretty good. Your and Kona chicken, that one does superb as well. But the one that I would say tops them all.

And I do mean tops them all is the the Leghorn. The Leghorn especially those of you who live in extreme heat, check out the Leghorns, the the California White Leghorn or just a White Leghorn. Those birds I know their eggs are very uninteresting as far as color is concerned, because just they lay white eggs. But remember, we're growing things for meat and for food production. So the color doesn't really matter, right. But the Leghorns are by far the best in the heat. I have never. We have lived in the Phoenix metropolitan area for many, many, many years. And we've moved around in southern Arizona subsequently. And we've always had a light horn. And never once have we had a Leghorn die because of extreme heat. Even in 120 degree weather are like horns, were they hot? Yes. But they survived and they thrived. So they are skinny little birds. But they are good egg producers, and they can thrive in extreme heat. Now conversely, funny.

We still have two Leghorns left over from our previous flock. When we were in the city and those like horns, they struggle in the wintertime here. They they really struggle because we get so cold. So I would say the California Leghorn, the White Leghorn, not good in the cold. But they do get in the heat. And with that in mind what chicken breeds do well in cold climates. And when I say cold I mean I'm talking climates where it snows and it's cold for like five months out of the year, if not more. So really cold climate. So the Plymouth Barred Rock the Plymouth Barred Rock is a really good animal. I know people who live up in Boston and in New Hampshire who have Plymouth Barred Rocks and they won't choose another breed. They absolutely love their their chickens because they take the cold like a champ the Orpington the Austrolorps and the Delawares they all do really well in the cold. So hopefully that kind of gives you some ideas on some things, some some animals that you can some chicken breeds that you can have in your backyard. Some of the other ones that I did not list. 

For example we have on our homestead we have Speckled Sussex, those do really well. In both heat and cold. They can tolerate either or. And there's a lot of there's a lot of chickens that can do either or the heat is a little bit harder for them because again, they've got those feathers, but in the heat you really want to work on trying to keep them as cold as you possibly can. I've heard of people having misters. When they're in the heat, they have misters for the chicken coop, I highly I don't do that just just don't, because what winds up happening is it just gets a little bit too moldy. And you're running the risk of disease. Especially when you're in a hot climate like, like here in Arizona, it's not as humid. Even though we do experience humidity during our monsoon season, but it's not as humid as other parts of the country and other parts of the world. So by adding more humidity, you're really running the risk of more disease.

The other thing that we do to keep our hens cool is, or what we used to do is we would take bottles of water, just you know, like the plastic bottles, freeze them overnight and put them in the chicken yard. And believe you me, the chickens will figure out that those things are cold, and they will lay by them if not on them. Another trick that we like to do is we'll take we'll take fruit like any kind of fruit for that fact, but specifically fruit that has rained, so like watermelon, cantaloupe, anything like that. And we'll leave a little bit of the, the flesh on there, just a little bit, and we freeze it. And then during the heat of the day, you take that out to the chickens, and that cools them down. chickens do not sweat, they expel their heat through their comb.

So here's a pro tip, the shorter the comb of a tip of a chicken. And that's the the red part on the top of the head. The shorter the comb, the more adept adept that chicken is that they do better in the cold than they do the heat. The longer the comb, the better the chicken does in the heat. So short, short comb, cold, long home heat. And that hopefully will kind of give you an idea of what you're what you're looking for.

When you're trying to, you know pick what breed you want to go with. Sometimes some people I know when we were first brand new chicken owners, we did not care about the breed as much. We were after the colors of eggs. And that can get old really quick. I am going to say to you try not to fall into that trap. I know we did. We had Easter Eggers and all of Aigars and, and we had our leg horns, and then we had our Rhode Island reds. And I mean we had all kinds of colors coming out of our chicken coop. But after a while, what we started figuring out is we were interested in production, and survivability more than anything else. So if you can avoid the temptation, of trying to get all of the pretty colors, if you can avoid it. I know it's hard. I know it's really, really hard. But if you can avoid it, try to stay focused on your animals. Focus on your goal. If your goal is meat production, which I'm assuming it is if you're listening to this, then focus on the meat production focus on egg production. Now let's talk about egg production for just a second. Because that's usually why most people have chickens is because they backyard chickens I should say is because they're after the egg production. Okay, so, again, do your research. Go to I know one website that really helps is Marie McMurray hatchery. And they a lot of times these hatcheries they'll tell you what type of hen how much how many eggs they produce a year how many eggs you can expect. Now interesting thing about chickens I will say this is that chickens when it when it gets into the winter months, fallen into the winter months.

Their egg production kind of slows down because their egg production is based on sunlight hours. So that's why a lot of times you will have what's called the spring rush. Because all of a sudden, in the spring, the chickens are producing all of these eggs because the days are getting longer. And the sun is brighter. And, and because of that their internal clocks are saying, Hey, we got to produce eggs. And so their little bodies are starting to produce eggs on the daily. But in the winter months, they're a production slows down considerably. That being said, I know there's a lot of controversy as far as some people say they put lights on to keep the egg production up. Some people choose to let you know the hens not produce eggs. Again, that's something that I encourage you as a listener to do your own research. I know I certainly have my own opinion. And I will throw it in because this is my podcast. And I will say it's my personal opinion. And it is our practice here on our homestead. We do not use any artificial lights, we let the hens we let their bodies do what they naturally are designed by our Heavenly Father to do. So if they start shutting down production, they shut down production because of the sunlight. And that is something that you just have to live with. For us, what that means is is during the spring rush, we are preserving our eggs.

So I've already gone through that now. I have what the way I preserve my eggs and I know there's a lot of people that are water glassing eggs now and you know, basically saving eggs in lime water. And it's a special type of lime, it's a builder's lime. It's not you know, you can't, we're not talking about the fruit, lime or anything like that. But I tell you what, do your research, Google it. And you can learn a little bit more about that. But I still prefer the old standard, you know, I put them in a muffin 10 and freeze them each individual egg and that way in the winter months, we still have eggs available to us. And I already have a couple of freezer bags full of individual eggs to get us through the winter months. And right now for my family because we tend to eat on eat seasonally, we're actually not eating as many eggs. And so it's perfect time as well, for me to start using or rather, start preserving again, a few more eggs to get us through the winter months.

So hopefully that little pro tip there helps you guys in your consideration of having backyard chickens. Now let's talk about something else here because we are talking about raising our own meat. And eggs do provide protein but they are not meat. So when you're looking at chickens, there is a type of chicken that is called a dual purpose dual two purpose chicken. And basically those chickens are chickens that you can raise that are for meat and egg production. Now typically your dual purpose breeds, breed it that particular breed of chicken is going to have a heavier body. Again, I'm going to use the leg horn as a good contrast. Because I see this daily Leghorns, the California Leghorn the California White Leghorn, typically is very skinny and scrawny. They're not very big.

We processed one of our Leghorns this past two months ago, I think now as of the recording of this when we call her chickens and that chicken hanging weight meaning after we had processed her she was I think pound 1.1 point something pounds. Yeah, that was it. She was nothing. Um you know, considering that the meat chickens that we had harvested were like six and seven pounds but she was only one pound. It was absolutely insane how small she was so but contrast that with a With a dual purpose bird, a bird that you can have in your backyard that is for me. And for egg production, those birds usually will get anywhere between five and six pounds, hanging weight or post processing weighed. So that's a considerable difference in weight. So you really want to look at having your dual purpose a strongly encourage you to have dual purpose chickens. So what what breed of chickens could you use that are dual purpose chicken, the first one that comes to mind is a jersey giants. That is a very large bird. Um, if you've ever seen them in, in, in real life, they are huge. I don't know the weight of them post processing or, or hanging weight. I don't know how much they weigh. After that, I'm going to guess that they probably are somewheres around the six or seven pound mark. They don't do very well in the heat at all. So if you're in a hot climate, don't get a Jersey Giant, they just don't handle the heat very well.

Um, another dual purpose bird that we are interested in. We have not grown them. And that is the American Bresse chicken. So the the French Bresse chicken is a chicken that is all white. Its legs are blue. And its comb is red. So those are the colors. Those are also the American colors, American flag colors, but they're also the French colors as well. And they grow. They were not grow. But they were bred in France. And they are noted to be they're noted to be the best tasting chicken worldwide. And their dual purpose bird. Like I said, I cannot speak to personal experience. I've never even seen them in real life. So I can't really say anything to you guys about that. Other than it seems like that's an interesting bird. But we chose to go a different route. We chose to go another with another route with it to two different types of boy, I'm sorry, you guys, I can't get my word straight. We chose we looked at the American Bresse. We looked at that bird we considered it carefully. But for us in our homestead we chose to go with the Barred Rock and the Speckled Sussex for our dual purpose birds. And the reason why is because we have had those type of chickens before and we know that breed of chicken very well. And like for example with the Speckled Sussex we know that they generally speaking make good mothers. They're they're really good hens. But we also know they're not good on egg production. But we know the barred rocks are those those part rocks are like they're they're just like the Leghorns. They are producers of eggs, but the speckled Sussex has really good meat. So that's why we chose to have those two separate flocks. One because we knew you know if anything ever happened, we knew you know, we could always call the boat, the Barred Rock. Last we would do the speckled Sussex first and then the hardrock last.

But basically our plan has always been with our with our birds, because we have a homestead that allow we live in we homestead in an area that allows us to have a rooster. So we know that we can reproduce generationally. II chickens. So let's talk about that for just a second. I want to take a deep dive into the subject, and that is breeding your chickens, generationally, something that's not talked about a whole lot. I don't know why maybe I'm missing the discussion. Please let me know if I am. But I noticed that a lot of people rely on the hatcheries for their checks. And we have done that as well. As a matter of fact, this past year we had ordered from Marie McMurray hatchery, we ordered our chickens, the Cornish Cross. And just like we normally do, and I'm thankful to say that this year, this past year was the last time that we were ever going that we're ever going to raise the Cornish Cross, we have decided we've made a firm decision that we're never going to raise that bird again. And we decided that we were we decided to raise our chickens generationally back when we were in the city. 

So let's go backwards in time. Hopefully our story will help give you some tips and tricks. So before we moved on this two acre homestead that we're on right now, we had a or whatever, speckled Sussex she went broody. And we decided to take advantage of that broodiness now broody means she wanted to sit all day on eggs to hatch them out. Well, we didn't have a rooster. The city ordinance where we lived prohibited anybody from having a rooster. So what we did is we got in contact with somebody that we knew on Facebook and we went ahead and made arrangements to buy fertilized eggs, meaning she had a rooster to fertilize eggs. So we did we bought the eggs, we stuffed the eggs up under that particular chicken we named her Eloise boy stuffed the fertilized eggs under Eloise and Eloise hatched two of the what was it two of the four eggs that we had purchased. And we did that actually by by design and intentional because we knew we were going to be moving out of the city. We knew it was soon that we were going to be doing that and that we were going to be moving, you know, onto a homestead where we could have a rooster. And the reason why I point that out is I don't think a lot of people understand and or realize this one fact, when you make a purchase when you buy chicks, either from a hatchery, or you buy them at your local local big box store and you see the cute little chicks and they're running around, and blah, blah, blah, and you get them and you bring them home. Those chicks have not been raised by a hen. The mother hen will teach the chicks the things that they need to know about being chickens. And there's I don't know how to explain it other than to say that the hen imparts or gives the chicks, their mother Linus. And so when those hens the chicks grow up to be hens if they've been raised by a hen, and now they've grown up, and they decide to hatch out their own eggs, they know how to be good moms. But when you buy a chick that's at, you know, a local big box store or from an online hatchery, they typically they tend not to be good moms, because that wasn't given to them by their mother hen. So they're missing something.

And so that's why going back to our story when we were in the city, that's why we made the conscientious choice to buy fertilized eggs and have this broody hen hatch those eggs out and she did. And out of the four eggs to survived it was a boy and a girl. So a rooster and hen and they grew up and matured. And the the hen just as a of a month ago. She I think it was a month ago, she went broody herself. Now that hen Her name is Rochelle. She went broody. And because we already have a rooster on our property, we just let her hatch out whatever she could. And she did. She hatched out two eggs. She hatched not two eggs yet she hatched out two hens. And she is proving herself to be a really good mom. Now, we already have 20 chickens on our property. So you might be scratching your head saying, Why did you let her go broody and hatch out two more? Well, that's because our Leghorns that we have, we're going we have two Leghorns. And it just so happens that those two Leghorns eventually need to be called pretty soon because they've reached the end of their, their productiveness. On the homestead those particular hens are about almost five years old now. So they're not really they're not theirs. They're still producing eggs, but not really. And you can tell they're, they're getting older. And you know, it's time. So we will be calling those particular hens, those two hens. But now, hopefully, the chicks that Rochelle is raising our hands. Now, here's another side note. Just know, when you let your hands hatch out, chicks. It's called a what that's called as a straight run. Meaning you don't know the sex of those chicks. I don't know the sex of the chicks that she's that she's hatched out. And I can't even get anywhere close to those checks right now. She won't let me and that's fine. She that means she's a good mom. And she is. So they could be both boys. It could be boys, it could be girls. That's what a straight run means. So what happens if she hatches the if the eggs that she's hatched out are boys because typically with birds, they hatch out more males than they do females. So what happens then you kind of have to let them grow up just a little bit. I always say let them grow up to be teenagers. And you'll know they're teenagers. They're teenage boys, because when they try to crow, it sounds like there's some sort of like they've got a sore throat. Just like a teenage boy. You know, their voice cracks and everything like that when, when the rooster is a teenager, and he tries to crow, it sounds like it's dying. It's hysterically funny and sad old same time. But when they get to that point, that's when you want to start thinking about calling them and therefore you are producing meat on your homestead. Then you want to think to when you're talking about raising your hands, your chicken flock generationally, not just calling the unwanted roosters. But you also want to start thinking about the age of your hens. Like I said, we've got Leghorns, I think they are five years old. I think time has slipped by really fast. But I know they're older than my oldest son.

So I'm gonna go with five. But when they start getting past three years, that's usually when you'll start to see their egg production go down, down and way down. And the older they get, the worse it is. And like for example, with our Leghorns, I mean, it's a hit and miss. Even in the spring rush, it's a hit and miss. They're not very consistent. And that's because of their age. So it's time we need some fresh new blood on the homestead and so it's time to move along. And that's really the thing that you want to think about when you're talking about growing your own meat in in your backyard and that is you are making culinary decisions. Everything you do on a homestead is a culinary decision. If you boil it all down, it's all About kala narrowly what you want to do on your homestead. So, you know if you're going to be like us and let let a couple of chickens last for you know way past their prime, then we've made this culinary decision that we're going to have some chicken meat that is tough because the older the hen, the tougher the meat. And you know usually when a hen is about a year, maybe even two years old. That is that meat when you go to process it and then you go to cook at Collin airily speaking that is, that's what, that's the kind of meat you want to roast. You want to put that in a slow cooker, whether it's your Insta pot, on the stove, but you want to slow cook that meat because it's going to be really tough. Now, in the case of our other hand, these hens that we have, that we're going to be replacing, you can also use that type of meat. Um, if it's too tough, too tough for too tough for human consumption. You can also use that for dog food. I know that sounds really cruel.

But it's a fact. The dogs need to eat to they serve a role and a purpose on a homestead, especially if you have acreage, especially if you have acreage, because your dogs are protecting your property. And so they need to eat and they need to eat good food too. So their bodies can handle that tougher meat, their mouths can handle it, their teeth are designed for it. So sometimes you have to make that culinary decision as well. So what you what I really highly recommend is when you have a dual purpose flock like that, if you choose to have a flock that, let's say for the sake of example, it's all one type of birds. So let's say just for the sake of example, it's all going to be Barred Rock. Well, the Plymouth Barred Rock, they all look alike. I mean, I don't know, I have 10 of them, and I can't other than the rooster. I can't tell the difference between the hens. I just can't they all look alike. So what you want to do, in a case like that is keep good records, either the written record of you know, like, Hey, I got this, you know, got all of these chickens at one time, or you know, this hen is this age. But how do you differentiate between the hens? Well, something that I know some people do, and I know our rooster, the roosters we do this to is we banned them. So basically it's like, let's an animal banding that you can put around their foot. And that way you can kind of tag them and different ones. Some people follow a system of different ones have different colors.

So like let's say for example, for the sake of example, you have 10 hens, two of them are older. You know, four of them are, I don't know, middle aged, in the end, the rest are brand new. So, you know, the two maybe have the red, the two older ones have the red band, the four...excuse me, the six, you know, maybe they have, I don't know blue band because they're middle age and the other two have green, you know, something, something along that line. That way you can differentiate who's who. And then by keeping good records, you know, hey, you know, we had we have these red banded chickens, and we've had them for several years now. Okay, it's, you know, this is year three, their egg production is going down. It's time now to call them and then you can go ahead with the dispatching process of those particular hens. Now if you also what you can do is you can again, grow out your have them have your broody hens hatch out new hens or new chickens. And then you can take those ones let them banned those ones and let them grow. And then you know, you know by week 12, which is generally speaking a Good time period to start dispatching your dual purpose birds, by the way, about 12 weeks, that's when you want to start the dispatching or the calling process. Then you go ahead, and you can, you know, call the newer chickens if you're looking for the softer meat.

But again, this is a culinary decision that you are making. So you have to decide what is important to you. What does your family need? Are you looking for the meat to be tough, if you don't care about the meat being tough, then it's not a problem. But if you're looking for softer meat, then you may want to call them when they're younger. But you know, the decision making is up to you. And the purpose of this podcast is just to get you to think, to look at things from a different perspective. And to give it a try. Like I said, this can be done in the city. We did this in the city, we had an ordinance where we were not allowed to have a rooster, but we what we did is we hatched it out by getting a fertilized egg. Here's another thing that you can think about if you are in the suburbs, and in a city where it is prohibited for you to have a rooster. But you really want you really want your broody hen to to hatch out eggs. And that is some people have have said this, I don't personally endorse this. Because if it breaks a law, I am not endorsing that at all. But I know some people have air quote, let the watched how they say it, they are babysitting a rooster for a couple of days.

Now, if it's breaking a city ordinance, or law or an HOA, don't do it, just don't do it. But I know some people have done that before. But I think personally, you really run the risk of getting yourself in trouble. If you do something like that. What I would recommend for you to do is to see if you can make a connection with somebody in real life, not online in real life. Meaning if you saw that person in the grocery store, you would know who they are and you would be able to say hi so and so how are you today? Oh, I'm doing pretty good. Okay, that type of a connection with somebody make a connection with somebody who has a rooster. See if your chickens can visit with said rooster when the chickens come back after several days of visiting with you know, the boyfriend rooster then what they can, what you can do is the eggs that they for the next two days, I believe the eggs that they lay are fertilized and guess what? If you have access to an incubator, if you go out and you by yourself, I recommend the mana incubator. Get yourself that incubator or any good incubator and hatch out the eggs that way if your hands aren't broody.

Now there is a trick to getting your hands broody and it's all about timing. And it's all about the eggs. If you want your hands to go broody, meaning you want your hens to get to a point where they want to actually sit and lay on eggs. Here's a little trick. This is a tip for you. It usually happens somewhere in the spring, going into summer. This has been my personal experience. And during that time period, we always will leave an egg or two in the nesting box. And I promise you, somebody is going to want to sit on those eggs. Just leave them don't collect them, leave them and somebody's going to want to go broody specially in that spring, late spring going into the summer months is something hormonally with them around that time period that they they just want to sit on that egg and they will hatch it out. And yeah, and there you go. So those are Few of my tips and tricks as far as backyard flocks, trying to grow them generationally, some of the breeds that you maybe you want to look at, and really trying to make sure that you and your family have access to good meat that you have raised. Now, on this particular episode, we did not talk about what to feed your chickens, I do recognize that. 

And again, you know, do your research, do your homework, look around, there are some things that you can do. There are stores, sometimes that will get rid of their produce. See if you can get some of that produce, and bring that back to your chickens. Freeze, freeze some of that produce, save it so that your chickens have access to it. That can cut down on the feed cost by the way. So I hope that this episode inspires you gives you some idea gives you some solid information that you can go. You can go off of and go and make your own decisions. Do your research. Like I said, do your own homework and experiment. Because what works for you may not work for me and what works for me and what has worked for me. It may not work for you or it may work for you. I'm not sure but go try try to do something. Okay, well that's it for me and my family here. So from all of us, to all of you listeners out there, especially those of you in other countries, Denmark, you know who you are, wink wink.

From all of us to all of you. I hope that this episode finds you and your family safe. And until next time, happy homesteading and stay safe out there.