Chicken Farmers

I call our farm a ranch, HA! After reading Kathy McCloy's blog and seeing her amazing pictures (she is the best) of her husband's "homestead" ranch, I have now decided that we are only chicken farmers, not ranchers. But very productive one's at that, almost 2 dozen today. My mom and dad have had chickens over the past few years. They even "dress" them (I don't participate!!) Anyway... we decided to try our luck with poultry. Last year we bought an old building from a neighbor and created a chicken/dog house. Most people would not put dogs and chickens together, but we are NOT most people! We needed something for the hunting dogs and I wanted some chickens to lay eggs, so Blake engineered a combo chicken/dog house. The chicken have half and the dogs have 3 kennels, it works great!!! Nothing trys to get the chickens because the hunting dogs are right there beside them. The dogs don't eat the chickens because there is a plywood wall between them. I thought the chickens would be a great responsibility for the girls. We are still working on that. My neighbors and family love the farm fresh eggs. The profits are going toward the B&B's education. (I'm glad they are young, we might be able to buy a book someday) We have learned that chicken will eat almost anything (like slopping hogs, we give any scraps to the chickens) and they don't lay many eggs when it is below 0. We love breakfast, noodles, and Easter... WE LOVE EGGS!