G'day Everyone, I deliberately didn't address the "cost" of hens and equipment because it's like adding the cost of your fridge or oven onto the food bill - it's a silly technical argument - plus keeping chickens has more benefits than just $$. Thanks for your continued support! Cheers :)
Daisy Creek Farms just did a video this past week breaking down the cost…. His and your video are well-informed… I think it may well be the way to go! Thank you so much for all of your videos…❤
Love my chickens! We had an old girl, who was about 10 years old before she died. After she stopped laying, she helped care for the young pullets, As she aged, we noticed those young hens returning the favor, by taking care of her! They are amazing animals!
@@theurbanthirdhomesteadchickens really are amazing in their natural social abilities, & not as dumb compared to other semi-flightless birds like grouse & turkey
They're not experts. All of those sh*t* journalist are just a bunch of social justice warrior that push their vegan agenda because they have overflow sympathy toward chicken. They don't have any biology knowledge because they don't even understand predation is the part of life.
That's because the politicians in the experts are behind the egg shortage. Remember, they don't like your carbon footprint, even though every living plant on this earth needs carbon in order to produce oxygen for us.
If I'm having a stressful day you will see me heading out to the chicken yard with a 5 gallon bucket. I go inside, turn it upsidedown, throw out a handful of scratch, then begin to tell them my troubles They gather round and absolutely hang on every word. I feel so much better when I head back to the house...
For some reason the mainstream corporate media (world wide) is on a mission to throw serious shade on home gardening , chickens and other self sufficient activities. Loved your video, greta info and delivery.
I noticed that. I didn't even watch the video; the title alone told me that I need to look into these options while I still legally can. I don't know animal husbandry or gardening, but I think I'm a relatively intelligent person and capable of learning new skills even at 52. I'm certainly willing to learn.
Cause they don't have enough money on hand to handle more than a quarter of people becoming self sufficient. If enough people started growing and sharing some of these companies could lose hundreds of millions of dollars.
Don't listen to govt now~or do the opposite! They are trying to put us in cooped up cities to control us better. BUY LAND and be self sufficient and happy!
I was raised on a chicken farm. We had 10,000 chickens. My father sold eggs door to door like the milkman while my mom & my siblings & I gathered, cleaned , graded and packaged the eggs on the farm. You would think that I’d be sick of chickens but you’d be wrong. To this day I love the soothing sound of their clucking and even the smell brings back fond childhood memories.
My grandmother grew up on a potato/livestock farm in northern Maine (on the border of Canada) she is completley indifferent to all animals except cats…. Like won’t even bar an eye at a rearing horse or charging pig or whatever, but after one time playing in the hay and getting scratched up by a barn cat she’s deathly afraid/hateful of cats lol!!! Even when they are super nice and calm around her she freaks out with cats. She is a HARD COLD woman. Scarier than the scariest and coldest man lol… and cats break her.
I used to like them, until I got 5 of my own. They are so dumb and filthy. The walk wherever they want, like over their food and water, and they crap wherever they want even where they sleep.
I bought my hens 3 years ago exclusively for eggs but it turns out, they bring me so much joy that I literally don’t care what they do or don’t do. The eggs are just a bonus now. They are my flock of precious kittens. ❤
I agree H Grimes! I too didn't know how much enjoyment I could get from my hens when I obtained my first flock over a decade ago. I have had my little peckers continuously since. They are highly entertaining, some are sweet, some silly, and I have even had a few psychotic ones (usually leghorns - but dang, can they crank out eggs!). The pet that even makes breakfast - what's not to like?
My mate has a flock in their garden and I was so surprised by just how social they are, they were hopping up on my knees and proper talking (clucking) to me and so on, absolutely wonderful animals
Older hens still deserve love (to add onto your list of reasons for their greatness). They've fed you for years; don't they deserve your care in their autumn years? I had a neighbor growing up who would just toss the hens out of the yard once they were 'too old.'. 9/10 times they'd get hit by cars. My grandpa started paying our neighbor a couple bucks for these girls, and we'd let them live out in our yard. They were the sweetest girls, I swear. Every time I'd come home from school I'd rush off the back porch calling, "Giiiiirrrrls," and the whole flock would come running.
that makes no sense! if you don't want it anymore what in the world happened to a nice chicken BBQ or a chicken soup? but to let them get hit by cars... whaaat?!?!?!
We have 3 hens in our urban backyard, 2 silkies and a australorp, I was hesitant at first and now I can't image not having chickens. They are endlessly entertaining, provide delicious eggs, and are great little companions.
When I was a child I helped raise chickens, mostly Leghorns. At one point 64 hens and 2 roosters. As a 7-12 yr old caring for them, and collecting eggs was my job. Fantastic life for a kid! Had a small brood of Bantam. 4 hens and a rooster. They followed me wherever they could, and when I sat, I would have a hen on each shoulder, and one on each knee. The rooster would fly up to my head. They were my best friends! Loved my birds!!
I did the same but it was funny because my neighbour wanted to get rid of some of his so at about 6 or 7 I just arrived home with a sack full of random chickens and set out to build them a house at the bottom of our large garden 😂 Had them for years and loved getting the eggs and feeding them every day
Raising backyard chickens has been one of the most fulfilling and satisfying things I've ever done! We started with 8 hens. After one year we had the original 8 hens, plus over 60 quail, and 8 muscovy ducks (which then turned into 19 ducks after a very productive spring!). We maxed out every square inch of our property with animals and vegetable gardens in our little urban area. We loved it so much that we ended up selling our home and moving to the other end of the country to buy a farm property so we could do even more! We now feel like we are finally living the life we are supposed to be living!
@hermitcard4494 I'll have to report back on that! We are still growing out our meat birds, but I had a friend share some chicken with us that she raised herself and it was WAY tastier than anything I have ever bought from a grocery store!
adding my two cents here: I have 6 chickens that are about 8-10 months old (two batches of birds), which I feed mostly compost in my back yard, with a small coop that they also lay their eggs in. I have spent somewhere in the range of 40 dollars, total, for all of purchasing, feeding, and caring for these chickens, and I have recently been averaging between 2 and 4 eggs a day from them. There have been many noteworthy discoveries about them I've had, but my favorite chicken tip I can share is that if you pile dry leaves up, the chickens almost like scratching through them more than they like the food under, and I have used this to my benefit by piling fresh leaves on my compost and winter garden beds regularly for the chickens to scratch into better composted soil for me.
We let our chickens pick through the duck pens well as all the horse manure and they LOVE IT! Bugs galore and the eggs we get from ours are 10X better than the SHIT you get from the stores. We do 3 to 5 year cycles on our layers. Added ducks and looking at adding quail also.
My mother uses her older girls for being foster mommies to new chicks or egg hatching when they get broody. Even if they can no longer lay an egg they're still useful for caring for babies that younger chickens have no interest in. :)
I had a hen that stopped laying after a while and she became the sweetest pet I've ever had. She'd even let me pick her up. The little mad lass even liked being tossed, and would come running back to me for me to do it again. I cried like a toddler when she died.
I have two chooks that are ancient. Pixie, who is more grey than black now is 20 years old and Doris is 19. They both still lay every few days and they still set together and raise their chickens together.
@@justingage5524 well said! If you have heritage breed chickens you will find that they do naturally go clucky as they get older, more and more and that's a great time to let them hatch you more 😁
I have had chickens for now +20y I'm just discovering how what you say is obvious to me but new to others. Thanks for making this, you're doing god's work.
I have a 10yr old chicken and she still lays the occasional egg. My parents had one that was 8yrs old and laid 5 eggs in the last week of her life. Plus they're not just egg machines. They have personalities and can be great pets and companions.
Peep is 5 yrs old. She hasn't laid a egg during her moulting. She is sweet and visits with me. She is small, does eat bugs, fertilizer machine. Her buddy died, Cutie was a true friend. I give her a bath in kitchen sink.
I've kept a small flock of chickens for well over 20 years. I never knew how dangerous this was until you saw all these articles coming out. I'm not sure how I've survived 😂
I suppose the gatekeepers for factory farming are the ones most against raising chicken$. The deliberate cruelty is very profitable. You do good by pushing back. You have my support!
Also, they feed a high histamine diet, which affects our fertility. Women's bodies attack their own fetuses as allergens when histamine levels are too high.
That doubt could be counted as some silver lining ;) Cuz remember most global media outlets are owned by a handful of corporations, with a few run by governments. We should all remember that for those of us who value restorative culture, the media is no friend. Science is invaluable but the media cannot be trusted to accurately report. Stay vigilant fam.
The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 legalized propaganda use against Americans. Media, social media, officials face no consequence for lying to Americans and knowingly disseminating propaganda. Media organizations are often paid to put out scripted propaganda for the government. Research it, it was buried in a NDAA bill. It is why they lie big and often and everyone is so upside down and backwards. This influences our lives on a daily basis. “The SMMA promotes unholy alliances between the U.S. State Department and America's corporate media that unbinds reporters and news departments from the solemn responsibility to verify information. Traditional “news,” based on reliable, verifiable fact-based evidence is slowly giving way to “newz” - an ersatz form of information dissemination via broadcasting and/or publishing that enjoys specialized immunity for libel, misinformation, false or fraudulent information, misrepresentation, and anything else previously prohibited by the SMA. If serving a national security purpose(s), the media cartel has a government-sanctioned license to lie.”
We have a little old hen named Meg. She is 8 years old. And she may not lay eggs but she is the best mother hen! She sits fertile eggs anytime she can and hatches them. She is a great mother to them! They may not be hers biologically , but she has raised so many babies and they have all turned out to be very sweet. I’ll be so sad when she passes. She is by far our favorite hen even though she doesn’t lay
I had one of those years ago! I reckon mine plotted the whole deal among themselves so that she could be seen to be earning her keep. Not silly at all!
We have one that is over 10 years old and similar to yours she is the best mom ever. She hatches all fertile eggs and takes care of them sometimes until they are full grown 😅 ❤ love my chickens 🐓
Growing up my family had chickens, around 15-20 usually, and this was the case with ours too. When they get old they may not lay eggs but they still bring value to the flock. Also if you have the space you can just overproduce slightly on eggs and then it's not a problem if a few stops laying as many eggs.
Belgium here. The free chicken for waste management indeed was a trial run from the waste management company, and it was/is very succesfull. I've got 7; and my oldest hen is 8, and she still lays an egg once a week. It's downright amazing how much table scraps they eat. Fun fact; there was a (short) time a 12-pack of large eggs in the supermarket was more expensive then a fresh hen of 20 weeks old.
When we lived in a town with a 5 hen limit, our neighbor had 20-some hens all the same color. They rotated who was outside throughout the day so only 5 were out at a time. I traded excess garden produce for eggs.
My city has banned owning chickens. They deemed them a public nuisance. There is an underground community that still owns them. There are blogs dedicated to how to camouflage the coops. I'm moving to the country bc I don't want to hide nor deal with bureaucracy. Moving back to the country. Thnx for the video!
Things my old city has banned along with "farm" animals: Backyard fireplaces, indoor fireplaces, indoor gas heating, solar panels, collecting rain or any natural water, fences, gas generators, the sale of non electric cars, non lethal self defense items (open carry still cool).... long list of "you will be dependant"
Growing up on a working ranch gives you a different perspective. I think I was 7 or 8 years old when I discovered that eggs and milk were sold in grocery stores, or from dedicated dairies. We sold our milk from our cows to a dairy. We drank milk from the cows after skimming off the cream for butter and such. We worked our vegetable garden and canned every fall. It was a huge family thing. We would help neighbors and make the rounds of farms in our family from Montana to Oregon to help with harvest and bringing in cattle from summer grazing areas. In the Spring it was all round up, branding and separating the bulls and the ones who would become steers. I never had the "luxury" of not knowing where my Sunday chicken dinner came from. I don't romanticize farming or ranching. I lived it. It's very hard work with no room for sentimentality. But it's soooo worth it at the end of the day.
Just listening to this video was an eye opener for this lifetime city girl. A farmer's take on the true value of an old hen. Made me wonder what in society would be better if we had more farmers making the important decisions. I'm now absolutely dying for him to do a video on the value of a rooster. Could be that I might learn a few things from nature that my society hasn't known or taught since my own childhood. It's definitely got me thinking in a way that is new for this city raised but nature loving lady. Not trying to romanticize the realities of nature but also just wondering about the wisdom of straying too far away from the lessons taught by nature. Maybe I'm just a clucking old hen. And if so, maybe that's OK. Lol
@S Smith To be clear, I've never had roosters, just hens. I did study about chickens quite a bit before I started raising them. My take on Roosters is that They help the Hens in many ways. They will help them find food, They are essential for reproduction, They keep on a lookout for danger, and they will lay down their lives to protect their hens. There may be more reasons, but I don't know them at this time.
@@ssmith5127 I'm not even close to an expert on chickens, but on another channel I subscribe to (Fy Nyth), I learned the purpose of roosters is to fertilize eggs. There are times when chicken go what's called 'broody'. At that point, a hen will attempt to hatch a bunch of eggs. Once they hatch, she will 'mother' them until they reach a certain age. With a rooster, you don't have to buy new hens. That's the extent of my knowledge on chickens. 😀
I didn't know it was possible to so effortlessly insert that many chicken and egg puns into an 11 minute video without sounding corny even once. Very impressive. I don't have chickens but I'm definitely smarter now than I was when I woke up this morning.
waste disposal, composting, eating, cleanliness. The fact that you covered all the inaccuracies that I found in my initial research makes me feel better.
Why wait months and months for your compost to break down when you just throw your scraps into a bin and let the chickens go to town, they'll give ya compost in weeks if not days!
Update on my chickens. I sold 3 roosters & one hen back in March & now have 4 hens & 2 roosters. They laid all the way till Christmas (northern hemisphere). One time this summer, went the heat finally dropped below 100F, my 4 hens gave me a dozen eggs in 2 days!
I am in Indianapolis, IN, USA ... Had a hen wander into my back yard about a year back & she has been a Godsend----is just a sweetheart, has more personality than many people in my own family! Took a bit of doing to get up to speed with the care and feeding, but it has been worth every minute of effort! TYVM for telling the TRUTH ... 🐔🐔🐔 All good things to all of you and all of yours :)
@@Spartan265 It was ironic to say the least, as I had been toying with the idea of getting some chickens for some time, so I think it a was a cosmic hint, lol ... She really has been a blessing as I haven't had to purchase eggs since she has been here, she's spoiled rotten ... She knows if I grab the shovel we're gonna dig worms, loves being talked to ... trying to find a few more hens to keep her company now. Spring is nigh ;-]
My wife was so unhappy when I surprised her with 5 chicks. Eight years later we moved to a smaller home and she is so unhappy without "Her" chickens. For years we had a problem with grasshoppers. After the chicken were full grown we never saw a single grass hopper. When we cleaned out the pen we put the "stuff" in the garden. Our garden was wonderfully productive. My wife keeps suggesting that we get them again but our yard is too small. If you are thinking about getting chicks I would say GO FOR IT! Yes, the start up and up keep is an expense. So is caring for a dog. Watching the antics they do and their curiosity is very relaxing. It was interesting when we started eating the fresh eggs. They looked like you cracked open an orange sun. The color was beautiful and food cooked with the eggs had a better color. The eggs tasted better than those in the store. When I came home from the office I would go outside and hand feed them. They would climb all over me and quietly talk me into a restful mind set. Some breeds will literally follow you everywhere and beg for your attention. Loved that. Miss them!
@Jesus protects Probably a lack of a rooster if I had to guess. A lot of places don’t like you keeping chickens, much less roosters because of their noises
They are really beneficial to have for pests, only thing that gets annoying is when they jump on my motorbike and scratching the soil over the paths/driveway so I gotta clean it everyday, other than that
@@JesusProtects need a rooster as they say below- so perhaps find someone who has a rooster and set up a date for the chickens 😉. go home and have a few new chickens ready to take over the circle..
I am exactly one minute in. I don't even care how the rest of this goes, you've earned my like sheerly through puns alone. Eggcellent work on your hilarious dad yolks!
My husband talked me into getting hens about 6 years ago. They really are not hard to take care of. They love table scraps. And at this moment we are GLAD we have more eggs than we can consume. So are a few or our friends because they get free eggs from us.
We've had chickens for years because they are awesome. I didn't even realise there was an egg crisis until friends were saying they couldn't get eggs. It felt really good to be able to give people I care about healthy delicious eggs. The people who fund and write those articles are simply the enemies of decent people. Also, Mark you are also awesome, love the puns!
Yeah, I magically had people asking me for eggs that I had not heard from or dropping hints like "Did you know when I went to Costco last week they didn't have any eggs?". . . . .ummm, okay, what does that have to do with me? Just say you want eggs if you want eggs.
Thanks Russell! And, I love the point about giving eggs away - it's nice to be able to gift eggs not just because they often taste richer than commercial eggs, but now due to cost and scarcity, it's even more valuable! Cheers :)
@@IamsTokiWartooth In MN, USA they are frequently. I have heard of other states also not having eggs in the stores. When some places do get them in stock they put limits on the amount you can buy such as two dozen per person. It has been like this in my area for approx 8 weeks or more at this point in time. I have my own chickens so I am feeling pretty good however.
@@blackdandelion5549 I'd charge those people for eggs. Especially if they're going about the impolite way of trying to get eggs off of you, without providing something in return. (even just offering to feed the chickens a few times or weeding the garden for you!)
The dad jokes, the practical information, the calling out of main stream media as a form of control by those power: you have 100% earned yourself a subscriber. Can’t wait to binge your content!
Agree, but don’t think other forms of media are any different. Hate all the sudden anger towards “mainstream media” as if “non-mainstream media” are any different. And then you’ve got stuff like Fox news claiming that they aren’t mainstream media, when they very much are. Just use your heads don’t listen to celebrity crap and it’ll be fine. I heard about something called GroundNews that maps out the media landscape and tells you about blindspots and imbalanced coverage. Sounds interesting if you’re fed up of partisanship but I’ve never tried it.
@ShadowThenBoom-VerySimple pretty sure it's media in general because no one goes by facts. It's all biased, all based on feelings, and all opinionated. You can shift to Fox all you please, but even that is a form of media that can be biased. If any source of media like that is telling you not to do something, you do the opposite because it's nothing but a false narrative. Just like bread lines being a "good thing". We know it's all media and we hate it. You may not like it, but it doesn't affect you personally because people refuse to listen to an overpaid writer telling me why my life needs to change to appease a social group. They are the new church that holds everyone back from progressing because someone else refuses to progress and follow their empty buzzwords. It's not a sudden hatred either. This has been going on since the 70s.
Thank you for this video! I absolutely LOVE my chickens, and share your views 100%. We live in an age of profusely gross propaganda with the purpose of manipulating the masses. People are taught not to think for themselves and reason on what is spread. Chicken keeping has been practiced for ages and just NOW!! it's a problem, unhealthy, ect. You just shit down two decades of lies. Bravo!! From North Carolina!
My daughter got 3 fertilised eggs from the preschool and we brought them home . 2 died the first night but Richard lived to 7 years old. Lucky for Richard she turned out to be a chook and besides many eggs she gave us (and the cat) great enjoyment. Cheers from the Northern Rivers.
@@Selfsufficientme There is a spammer using your logo "Telegram for Dave". Just above your comment. I'll report it but a PSA announcement and encouragement from you for us all to block these accounts and report them would be fantastic
@@lizzy9975 unfortunately they are bot accounts. you can block them but they make new accounts just as fast so it doesn't solve anything. many youtubers are dealing with bots at the moment, we really have to wait for UA-cam to do something about it for a permanent fix.
We had a chicken that continued to lay through her older years but less than she did in her prime. She was laying once or twice a week and every egg was a double yolk😊 that was how we knew it was her. ❤
I don't want to 'ruffle your feathers' but regarding keeping roosters I don't know which side of the road to cross. Wife says get rid of them, I said "flock you!" I hate being so 'hen pecked'.
My grandma used to have 3 chickens, one of them was a bit more clingy and used to come to our front door and lay her egg on the cushion we left for her. (instead of doing that in their nest) She was our cute egg delivery birb.
Love this. I live in the U.S. in an urban area and we can keep 6 chickens. I've been keeping them for 13 years and it's ludicrously rewarding. I still have one girl from the original group and she's still laying at 13 years old. There's something fun and special about keeping dinosaurs in your yard that give you eggs.
I've had similar chickens live and give eggs for a comparable time. We even have chickens now that are the descendents from the first chickens we got from my older brother and he had them for almost 5 years before they lived with us for another five. We lost the last one this last summer after she'd lived a good 14 years and still gave us eggs several times a week (she might have laid more, but last summer our dogs found half the eggs before we did...)
@Michelle Peltzer They were free ranged on our acre and a half here, but didn't have nearly that amount of area at our last house. We have a lot of grasshoppers and box elder bugs, though. If we don't let them loose during the day for spring, summer, and at least half of fall, we don't have any plants survive. Our lawn is a mix rather than just one kind of grass. There are areas where they've dug little dust bathes for themselves, but those are in specific areas with less plant growth and lots of sun. They clean themselves and then sunbathe.
The Zen Hens ("Hens me out") was the best pun XD Thanks for the video. I got two Australorps a few months ago and it's been so great to have these little friends in our yard!
Thank you Mark, I had an Australorp who laid for 10 years a couple of times per week. She wasn't adverse to sitting on the back verandah and eating pizza with my son. Losing her was a death in the family, we all missed her.
Here in Canada we keep 4 hens for eggs. We had a hen named Edna that lived over nine years. She was our Kelpie Oby's right hand hen. They loved each other and sat together watching their flock. We too were very sad when she passed. Hens are very sweet and friendly we love ours.
Awww, there's always a chicken that touches your heart. My family had a Jersey Giant hen named Ethel, but she was so tiny that she got bullied and her feathers plucked in her tail. So my family paid special attention to her and gave her the VIP treatment to give her alternatives away from the bullies. She was so sweet, she would even follow us around and "talk" to us while we went around the garden. We were so sad when she passed, it really was like a death in the family. My mom made a commemorative clay sculpture of Ethel in her pottery class that we keep to this day :)
“…old hens are useful, just think of Grandma.” Thanks for emphasizing this very true point. I always keep my elderly hens, and I like how you said they “hen/zen you out when watching them in the backyard. So true and one of the reasons I always want chickens. My chickens get full retirement benefits. Karma.
Thank you, Mark for this video!! My parents kept chickens when I was a little girl and I hope there comes a day when I can keep chickens too! I had a pet hen whose name was "Witch Hazel" because she had a growth that looked like a wart on the top of her beak! She was an older, no longer laying hen and the sweetest pet! I watched this video because I'm watching a lot of "chickenkeeping for beginners" videos. My chickenkeeping days might be in the near future! WOO-HOO!!
Backyard chicken farmer here. Agree 100%! Thank you! Loved all the plays on words! I have done my flock same as you. They're definitely like pets. They greet me every bit as enthusiastically as my dogs! Neighbors and friends love all the free eggs. I don't even try to make money on them. It's good for making friends and neighborhood cohesiveness.
Chickens AND hens make great pets! They are extra sweet, soft and loving. They know their owner and family and they will always be willing to share life with you and be next to you. Literally. Those babies are great and deserve to be loved for ever! ❤
Thank you so much for sticking up for our hens! We love them. There have been times when we were short of funds and all we had was eggs. Our goal is to always have a coop full of these sweet birds.
When I first moved in with my boyfriend he had about 10 chickens and I was thoroughly impressed 😂 Omelets became our signature breakfast for years! One time we moved the chicken coop to a different part of the yard and where the chickens HAD been a garden of heirloom and cherry tomatoes started sprouting up! Those were literally some of the best tomatoes I’ve ever had 🤩 And then when we added those tomatoes to our omelets?? Omg. Chef’s kiss 🤌
I moved my pen this year too, we grow tomatoes and gave them some scraps, well just like in your case a ton of tommato's grew there without me spending any effort on it.
The best thing about chickens is watching them roam. They’re basically little velociraptors, each with their own personality. My mate eats his chickens as soon as they stop laying but I see the old chickens as wise hens which impart knowledge onto the younger hens.
I watched a mouse try and do the food barrel run , about 2 meters from the fence to the feed barrel . Sadly as the mouse thought he was home and hosed halfway across the yard the ten chickens noticed him and the rest is history, as there was nothing left apart from a small patch of blood on one of the chickens beak.
We used to have turkeys too when i was a kid beside chickena and ducks and lemme tell you they were awesome we had a dozen and damn i loved them so much idk why but they never did any aggresive thing to me or my sister we could stay with them all day and they did not care but damn they hated my father like the plauge and i should not be even saying turkeys GROW BIG, so it goes without saying if they dont like you they will make you know it. Those were the only kind of house animals i hated when we had to cut down they were really lovely.
Too right. Those wise old hens teach the chicks what weeds are good to eat. That's how you maintain a free-range flock safely. They tell the other little ladiez when to hide from raptors and are the first to lead the flock to roost. For this reason, we just eat the cockerels and let the grand ladies live in peace.
@@asharak68kbelgarion46 Seriously?! We had a rattler next to the coop and i just killed him and we ate him, but i didn't even know they could take down a rattler!
I kept 3 chickens for 5 years. Once they were 6 months old, they each gave us an egg a day. Even with a family of 4 we had to give eggs away to our neighbors so we had room in our fridge! Three eggs a day is a lot to keep up with! Great video, mate!
I started with three chickens. Now I have 15. And I have more compost than I could ever use so my friends are benefiting from the extra compost in the extra eggs. I love hearing about that experiment where they gave every household three chickens. If every household had three chickens, it would be absolutely amazing the benefits. I'm glad the chickens are becoming more and more popular in backyards.
Take a look at Bokashi composting. I realize it’s said it’s for kitchen waste but I use it out door in my compost pile. I don’t build the pile to heat up. I sprinkle the Bokashi in between layers an keep adding layer on layer. If u already have a Bokashi pile u can dig some of it out an put between layers of ur new pile. That way u don’t have to keep buying the Bokashi starter as those microbes just keep multiplying. The microbes r great for ur soil. They won’t freeze they just slow down. But you can however kill them with heat. That’s why I don’t build my piles to heat up. If u do a pail or so of food scraps with Bokashi, take the liquid from the bottom bucket an use 1 Tbs to 1 gal of water. Fabulous fertilizer that u can spray on the foliage or pour on the plants. Enjoy Warning. The chlorine most water companies put in the water to kill any thing will actually kill ur microbes. Use water that doesn’t have chlorine in it.
Sir, thank you so much for making this video. I learned so much from you. And I like how you blend in a little humor with your work 😊. I’m 66 years young and still have plans on buying some land, having chickens, goats, nice big garden, etc. Three of my sons started raising chickens in the past couple years here in NC. And two of my brothers have been raising chickens for decades in my home state of OR. I’m gonna share this video with my boys. Thanks for what you do, educating so many people with the truth! God bless you. 😊
I grew up on a farm raising chickens as well as cattle and his advise is solid. Only thing I would add is keep in mind when you are building their pen is just about everything is out to hunt your chicken's so build a good pen from top to bottom. Hawks can be an issue for them. They love fresh lawn clippings and scraps from the garden and table but also have a good mixed feed for them with some crushed oyster shells for your birds to eat. Oyster shells aid in keeping the hens egg shell walls from thinning and breaking easy. Clean water is also key, and to cut down on algae growing in your watering trough fix a piece of copper (that they can't eat) in their water. It will stymie algae growth. In the winter you can help production by using a heat lamp in their hen house if you live in a cold part of the world. We had a screened window on the hen house for them for ventilation that we could close when it got too cold. Hope that helps. :) and salute from an old Cherokee Tribal Member.
I grew up on a farm as well, and we used to feed the cracked egg shells back to the chickens to help strengthen their shells. Nobody ate oysters anyway.
Im only on my third year of having chixkens and I cant believe Ive gone my entire life without them! I love them so much. They are ten times smarter than I ever knew. They get along great with my cats and dogs and they are awesome. Animal husbandry is making a comeback and its a good thing. 👍🏻
@person1894Y49 they’re not being forced to lay eggs like in a factory, and eggs aren’t babies They’re like a period, they won’t hatch unless they’re fertilized
Spot on! My grandparents and the neighbors did exactly the same. They kept chickens and ducks! People are about to find out the government can't save you, isn't responsible for you, and you are responsible for yourself!
We always had chickens on our farm. One year we got a brood fo small bantam chickens. They got out of the coop and lived for years in the bushes around the house and barn, sleeping in the trees at night and coming down to the coop in the day to eat.
"They don't live long and stop laying in two years" is nearly the single most bs thing I've ever heard about chickens. My oldest hen is turning 18 this year and I got chicks out of her last year! Sure she doesn't lay every single day, maybe once a week, but she's still going so strong! Thank you so much for making this video!
This is sadly common among many pets, goldfish for example "only live for 3-5 years" and "don't get so big" according to many pet shops but a goldfish can become 20 years old and grow to about 30cm long if cared for properly. Chickens are amazing, I sadly live in an apartment so I can't get a flock of hens but if I had the proper space to keep them I'd make sure they'd live as long as possible, old age is how I like my pets to go, regardless if they're commonly edible or not. Gotta love the adorable walking composters and their curiosity for even the tiniest grain on the ground ❤❤
@@SteezNutz8 composters as they eat leftover foods. English is not my first language so I dunno if it's different word in english but like, a compost is the word we use for the paper bag we throw away food into. And since you can give some food scraps to chickens (not all but a lot of them) they're basically a compost bag with legs. Cute ones at that.
I’ve had my chickens for almost a year. Never raised them before but I have enjoyed them wholeheartedly. Despite losing two of my ten to disease and predators, I highly recommend to people to raise their own. It’s been very rewarding. Plus I got to hear my parents tell me I wasn’t as crazy as they thought raising chickens when all the egg prices skyrocketed.
Welcome a few chickens every year. We have a large farm and let our chickens run during the day. Sometimes predators get them, very very occasionally a car gets them (we have a road in front of our house but it's not busy), and diseases gets them. Each spring, we do a head count and raise some more to get our numbers back where we want them.
All those chicken puns had me quacking up. Thanks for making me smile today :) (Also I'm glad you talked about the usefulness and value of old birds, eggspecially for those of us who'd rather not eat our chickens!)
Nice job. We had a rooster and hen when I was 8 years old, 52 years ago. They were part of the family. They were fun and very protective, like guard dogs toward an intruding mean neighbor.Nice job. We had a rooster and hen when I was 8 years old, 52 years ago. They were part of the family. They were fun and very protective, like guard dogs toward an intruding mean neighbor.
I built my mother a beautiful chicken coop for Mother's Day a couple years back. She has 20 chickens 12 are egg layers and she gets 10-12 eggs per day and sells her extra eggs to neighbours for $5 which basically covers the feed and the neighbours also bring their vegetable scraps often for a treat!
Got myself four hens because of you. Then I got ten fertilized eggs from a neighbour. Now I have seven hens and one rooster. Getting 3-6 eggs daily in the winter. I´m in Estonia, so it´s pretty cold.
Gotta say if u take the time to bond with your backyard chickens they can be some of the best pets!! They lay eggs, eat ur food and kitchen scraps, can help compost, provide free fertilizer. A lot of our chickens let u hold them and pet them
I know you are talking about chickens but do you know if you can get fertilizer from rabbits as well? I own a rabbit and it would be nice to circulate some of his waste in that way.
@@DH-gq7bm rabbit droppings are the best,... for roses, shrubs, lettuces no amendments needed. The pee needs to be diluted, at least in ratio of 1 to 4 water
I love my chickens. I've had chickens for eight years and they are the easiest animals to manage. It's winter here in the USA and I'm getting 15 eggs a day from the new chickens I raised last spring. I've never been more grateful for them.
I really appreciate how you describe your chickens in a way that is collaborative rather than consumptive and how you give your elderly hens a good life whenever possible. I learned so much from watching this.
It's only right imo. They do so much for you over that amount of time that, unless it's impacting your own ability to survive, they really deserve a decent seeing off in their twilight years. Except in cases where their survival depends on it, I don't care for the people that go to slaughter the moment they stop laying frequently enough for their tastes.
@@Drakence We don't keep things around our homes that serve no purpose, so those are pretty mutually exclusive concepts. Even strictly companion animals serve a purpose.
Thanks so much for addressing this. I'm in NZ and really had to smack my head when the NZ media were discouraging people from owning chickens. I've owned my own for several years, the average age of my current flock is 5 years old and I am getting eggs every day. Even my two ex-battery hens (who are about 3 years old) are frequently laying still.
Mate, the devil society is pushing for bugs, insects, crickets to be recognised as a superf food . They are changing the nature. Buy more chickens and grow your own food. Be self sufficient. This is only way to tackle these 👿 👿
G'day Rebekah, it's so interesting that your ex-battery hens are still laying eggs! You've given them a good home and improved their lives - I bet they feel like they won the hen lotto! All the best :)
#6: _"Chickens are too noisy"_ -- I actually LIKE the sounds of chickens. I had a neighbor a couple of houses ago that had chickens and I used to go out into my backyard just to listen to them. To me, that's part of the calming effect of them.
It used to be very common for most homes to have a couple of chickens and grow some vegetables in their yard. Self sufficiency is important, saves money, and is better for the environment. Check your local codes, find a vet, build tour set up, and enjoy!
Well, it also has a lot to do with living standards nowadays. You're talking about yards, when the majority of the population don't have yards nowadays, especially outside of the US. While even many of the homes that do are rentals and don't own their living space fully... Very different generations now. It's harder and harder for people to be self-sufficient, unless they want to go full-on and buy a cheap patch of land in nowhere, which I reckon most wouldn't want to abandon their jobs and the city life for. Things used to be so simple, now everything is a complex mess.
@@Osama-KIN_TMZ01 100%. The people with the least purchasing power, as well as power to change their circumstances, are the ones with no land to do whatever they want on it.
Yeah, it was completely normal just 2-3 generations ago in most countries. If your grandparents can do it without any internet knowledge and stuff, everyone can do it.
A friend had backyard chickens. It was a lot of work. When he was out of town, he'd need a babysitter to check in on them. Kitchen scraps were not enough. He had to buy feed. The eggs were not free. I learned (from him) about "pecking order". Yes, he had bully chickens and had to keep them separate. The upside is that fresh eggs taste great.
Funny thing, the other day here in the US, I read an article with the same scam: having your own eggs is BAD for you. The title of the article was about the current egg crisis and having your own chickens. But the entire article was about how bad it is. Big business scared of their possible profit loss. Thank you.
Good point. The powers that be want to control everything. The obsess over this control, and will spin lies without hesitation in an attempt to manipulate the masses
I live in inner London and currently have a flock of 6 hens in the backyard. I fully endorse your message. They're the most wonderful animal to keep. They largely take care of themselves and there's definitely something calming about just sitting in garden and watching them go about their business. Planning on adding a few more hens this summer as a couple of mine are getting on a bit.
For those looking to buy chickens for eggs, I also want you to know that if you get baby chicks, it takes about 20-22 weeks before they start producing eggs. That's why he talks about the pullets, not chicks. (I prefer the chicks because they grow up together and actually get to feel like family that way. ) He's right about the pet part. I fully enjoy watching my chickens in the yard. It's very calming.
I got 5 Plymouth Barred Rock hens last April at 5 days old. Started laying August 25th. Averaging 4 eggs a day. I have over 300 eggs to date. Love my girls!🐓🐓🐓🐓🐓
I got my 6 Easter Egger chicks last June. Started laying in late October and have been laying during the winter despite not having extra lighting set up (southern state I'm sure helps with that). Meanwhile I adopted a 6mo Polish that started laying at 8mo (late starting breed) and she stopped laying about a month later for the winter. She started again end of January. Definitely prefer getting the chicks together. Integrating my adoptee has been a bit awkward because she's alone (and a bantam and a crested so she's at a huge disadvantage) but it's okay because they're all pets so she just gets special treatment now. They kicked her out of the coop when she stopped laying so she gets to be inside with me or go out foraging with them during the day. Now that she's laying, they let her back in. Such snots, hahaha. I love them all. Peaceful to watch, fun to feed treats, and they come to their names. ♥
We’ve had chickens who’ve lived well over 10, one to 15.. you’re right Mark you love them, love watching them, observing their personalities, long after they stop providing you with eggs.. keeping chickens has been so rewarding! Great video Mark 👍
I never gave much thought to keeping chickens until recently, when a feral rooster adopted my daughter’s family. He just walked into the house and hopped up on grandpa’s lap. He’s a “house chicken” and puts up with my granddaughter covering him up and pushing him around in a baby carriage, among other games. He’s amazingly personable and docile, and keeps everyone entertained. Since then I’ve been paying attention to all the chicken info on the internet.
I sometimes adopt one of my birds to be an indoor pet, usually after they survived a predator attack. I bought chicken diapers, and they would get washed with cat shampoo which was safe for birds when they were up for it. I don't have any indoor anymore but I upgraded to geese keeping and geese help keep predators away.
The puns are off the charts in this video! I’m not sure you could have squeezed anymore in. Thanks for laying those on us. And thanks for a great video. Me and my 5 hen flock here in the States really appreciate it.
One of my best hens got attacked by one of my dogs a few yrs back; i nursed her back, it took a year almost where she didnt lay; i gave her so much special goods, high in nutrition; she has a lame leg forever now. But she is going on nine years old, and she is STILL my best layer!! This girl is 😍 amazing. Never misses a day.
The way you describe hens as being good friends speaks volumes to my soul. My birds can turn any bad day into a better one just by watching them or holding one. This is my favorite video on chickens to ever exist from your facts to your hard-core puns; I'll be thinking of them for days! Thank you so much 🐔
My daughter's two friends are sisters and they and their other siblings own a flock of about 100 hens. Their parents are farmers. The kids are responsible for raising and caring for the chickens and running a small business of selling the eggs. They routinely sell them to the students at school and we have bought some. What a great life lesson their parents are teaching them!
You might want to check your local laws regarding this. In the States, it's even illegal to sell lemonade on the side of the road without requisite permits.
@@beatrootable In our region, farmers are allowed small flocks of 100 or less without being licenced. Even still, these farmers are subject to inspection. 😄
You are awesome! Loved your whole vibe. I was gifted chickens from a friend who was moving and now I'm all in on this chicken thing. I can't think of a pun like you did but I found a passion I didn't know I had.
👍 Spot-on explanation of chickens, Sir. My late wife had a bench in the chicken pen so she could sit with them. Some ended up in the oven, some in the compost, and a few I had to bury in the pet cemetery because they were favorites. Your pun-craft is eggcellent!
Thank you Mark for finally cracking open all these chicken myths! I have recently gotten into chicken keeping and it has been a blast raising and caring for my flock. For any newbies looking to start I highly recommend starting off with 3 or 4 then progressing as you see fit. Thank you again Mark for all of your educational videos.👍
I want to get six as that is what the town allows. I hadn't thought about body heat but it is a good point. Our temps are below freezing a good portion of the winter. I have been looking at different ways to keep the coop warm without using a heater.
I looked after many chickens years back when I was a kid in rural China. I remember I name each of them before I learned how to count. One time two of them went missing and my grandma didn’t notice, I insisted and find them later on. Good times, miss that time with my grandma
Thanks for sharing than very nice story about your childhood in China! We used raise chickens when I was a kid on the family farm back in Ireland, "now I'm in Spain, fuk that rain!!"😆 ... My wife and her family are from China. China rising! GO CHINA!!🇨🇳✌️😎
The govt hates self reliance. There's factual science and then there's political science. I've seen far too much of the latter in the world lately. Love the channel and good vibes my friend, cheers from Canada.
The last thing they want is for you to not need them. Corporations too. Start being self reliant and suddenly your money, and your blind obedience, stops being theirs to monopolize.
nothing to do with science or politics. it is simple economics and capitalism. they need you to spend every dollar you make. not live on the land and hoard your money. imagine if all Americans would wise up and stop eating fast food. millions of people would be out of work.
G'day Everyone, I deliberately didn't address the "cost" of hens and equipment because it's like adding the cost of your fridge or oven onto the food bill - it's a silly technical argument - plus keeping chickens has more benefits than just $$. Thanks for your continued support! Cheers :)
Your best punny video ever!
Daisy Creek Farms just did a video this past week breaking down the cost…. His and your video are well-informed… I think it may well be the way to go!
Thank you so much for all of your videos…❤
Hey I add rice bran to corn in the winter and the birds lay like crazy even in the middle of winter
How many chicken references are you capable of?!
I'm so glad you are for real🤗 Take care 🙂
Love my chickens! We had an old girl, who was about 10 years old before she died. After she stopped laying, she helped care for the young pullets, As she aged, we noticed those young hens returning the favor, by taking care of her! They are amazing animals!
They are so sweet and sensitive!
@@theurbanthirdhomesteadchickens really are amazing in their natural social abilities, & not as dumb compared to other semi-flightless birds like grouse & turkey
Knew of a turkey that drowned cause it decided to watch where the rain was coming from
Yeah and then they eat each other when lacking the nutrients for laying eggs
@@Clorofilliade nature is metal indeed
Some guy in Australia just did more with one video to help the egg shortage than all the politicians and experts put together.
"Experts"
They're not experts. All of those sh*t* journalist are just a bunch of social justice warrior that push their vegan agenda because they have overflow sympathy toward chicken. They don't have any biology knowledge because they don't even understand predation is the part of life.
I didn't realise that I was entering Punland when I clicked on this video. Talk about eggstreme. Now I just gotta turn it into an egg stream.
Eggsperts.
That's because the politicians in the experts are behind the egg shortage. Remember, they don't like your carbon footprint, even though every living plant on this earth needs carbon in order to produce oxygen for us.
If I'm having a stressful day you will see me heading out to the chicken yard with a 5 gallon bucket. I go inside, turn it upsidedown, throw out a handful of scratch, then begin to tell them my troubles
They gather round and absolutely hang on every word. I feel so much better when I head back to the house...
NIce... :)
one of my hens actually stay and wait for me to pat her...theyre adorable creatures...
Exactly!!!
Eggsactly? Lol
I look at mine as therapy. They make such good listeners. Offen it turns into group therapy when they also start sharing.
Noice! And...the Dad jokes just keep on coming! Love this video, eggceptional! 😁💞
For some reason the mainstream corporate media (world wide) is on a mission to throw serious shade on home gardening , chickens and other self sufficient activities. Loved your video, greta info and delivery.
I noticed that. I didn't even watch the video; the title alone told me that I need to look into these options while I still legally can. I don't know animal husbandry or gardening, but I think I'm a relatively intelligent person and capable of learning new skills even at 52. I'm certainly willing to learn.
Cause they don't have enough money on hand to handle more than a quarter of people becoming self sufficient. If enough people started growing and sharing some of these companies could lose hundreds of millions of dollars.
Don't listen to govt now~or do the opposite! They are trying to put us in cooped up cities to control us better. BUY LAND and be self sufficient and happy!
I love your garden beds. It makes so much sense! I can't wait to get back to gardening. 🥕
I wonder if it's related to all the "mysterious" fires at food storage and distribution facilities and ammo warehouses in the states 😏
I was raised on a chicken farm. We had 10,000 chickens. My father sold eggs door to door like the milkman while my mom & my siblings & I gathered, cleaned , graded and packaged the eggs on the farm. You would think that I’d be sick of chickens but you’d be wrong. To this day I love the soothing sound of their clucking and even the smell brings back fond childhood memories.
My grandmother grew up on a potato/livestock farm in northern Maine (on the border of Canada) she is completley indifferent to all animals except cats…. Like won’t even bar an eye at a rearing horse or charging pig or whatever, but after one time playing in the hay and getting scratched up by a barn cat she’s deathly afraid/hateful of cats lol!!! Even when they are super nice and calm around her she freaks out with cats. She is a HARD COLD woman. Scarier than the scariest and coldest man lol… and cats break her.
I do have a lot of chickens but Thats a shitton
Thank GOD for chickens. I love them
I used to like them, until I got 5 of my own. They are so dumb and filthy. The walk wherever they want, like over their food and water, and they crap wherever they want even where they sleep.
6-7 eggs a week from my golden laced wyandottes
I'm impressed by the amount of chicken puns he came up with. He's a dad for sure.
He kept rambling aimlessly about chickens like a chicken without a head!
Eggxactly!
I bought my hens 3 years ago exclusively for eggs but it turns out, they bring me so much joy that I literally don’t care what they do or don’t do. The eggs are just a bonus now. They are my flock of precious kittens. ❤
I agree H Grimes! I too didn't know how much enjoyment I could get from my hens when I obtained my first flock over a decade ago. I have had my little peckers continuously since. They are highly entertaining, some are sweet, some silly, and I have even had a few psychotic ones (usually leghorns - but dang, can they crank out eggs!). The pet that even makes breakfast - what's not to like?
Our 5 hens are more pets than egg layers, Our 2 dogs produce nothing but we keep them and the hens are much more fun.
Agreed
My mate has a flock in their garden and I was so surprised by just how social they are, they were hopping up on my knees and proper talking (clucking) to me and so on, absolutely wonderful animals
same
2,23 mill subscribers. That gives me hope for the world. There's still wise people out there.
Older hens still deserve love (to add onto your list of reasons for their greatness). They've fed you for years; don't they deserve your care in their autumn years? I had a neighbor growing up who would just toss the hens out of the yard once they were 'too old.'. 9/10 times they'd get hit by cars. My grandpa started paying our neighbor a couple bucks for these girls, and we'd let them live out in our yard. They were the sweetest girls, I swear. Every time I'd come home from school I'd rush off the back porch calling, "Giiiiirrrrls," and the whole flock would come running.
Well, that’s sweet!
They're smart birbs. Would love to get them.
your grandpa is awesome
that makes no sense! if you don't want it anymore what in the world happened to a nice chicken BBQ or a chicken soup? but to let them get hit by cars... whaaat?!?!?!
Always call mine like that as well, then they come running and clucking. They LOVE the kitchen scraps
Your puns are on a superhuman level. We have 6 chickens and I laugh every time I see an article on why owning chickens are bad.
For real , they are amazing
The downside is the effort into keeping them, Its also like having a fish tank it makes it kind of hard to go on vacations.
We all see what they’re doing there..😵💫
(the gov)..
@@takearight. pls tell me which government website says chickens are a bad idea
Give this man an award for being an absolute beast in gardening, animal careing & jokes jokes jokes.
So good
We have 3 hens in our urban backyard, 2 silkies and a australorp, I was hesitant at first and now I can't image not having chickens. They are endlessly entertaining, provide delicious eggs, and are great little companions.
When I was a child I helped raise chickens, mostly Leghorns. At one point 64 hens and 2 roosters. As a 7-12 yr old caring for them, and collecting eggs was my job. Fantastic life for a kid! Had a small brood of Bantam. 4 hens and a rooster. They followed me wherever they could, and when I sat, I would have a hen on each shoulder, and one on each knee. The rooster would fly up to my head. They were my best friends! Loved my birds!!
I did the same but it was funny because my neighbour wanted to get rid of some of his so at about 6 or 7 I just arrived home with a sack full of random chickens and set out to build them a house at the bottom of our large garden 😂 Had them for years and loved getting the eggs and feeding them every day
Hahaha yeah they are amazing. I loved having them as a kid. I miss them.
what happens to the other 62 roosters 😢
Raising backyard chickens has been one of the most fulfilling and satisfying things I've ever done! We started with 8 hens. After one year we had the original 8 hens, plus over 60 quail, and 8 muscovy ducks (which then turned into 19 ducks after a very productive spring!). We maxed out every square inch of our property with animals and vegetable gardens in our little urban area. We loved it so much that we ended up selling our home and moving to the other end of the country to buy a farm property so we could do even more! We now feel like we are finally living the life we are supposed to be living!
What a lovely story Misha! All the best :)
It is said that chickens are the gateway into homesteading.🐓 🐔
Eating the raised chickens must be fulfilling too xD
@hermitcard4494 I'll have to report back on that! We are still growing out our meat birds, but I had a friend share some chicken with us that she raised herself and it was WAY tastier than anything I have ever bought from a grocery store!
thank you for sharing apricated!
Your dad level of humor is beyond that of a mere mortal. Eggcellent work
Beat me to it!
He really cracks me up
You all are fowl.
@@corporaljay6165 Hahaha
Absolute pun boss.
adding my two cents here: I have 6 chickens that are about 8-10 months old (two batches of birds), which I feed mostly compost in my back yard, with a small coop that they also lay their eggs in. I have spent somewhere in the range of 40 dollars, total, for all of purchasing, feeding, and caring for these chickens, and I have recently been averaging between 2 and 4 eggs a day from them. There have been many noteworthy discoveries about them I've had, but my favorite chicken tip I can share is that if you pile dry leaves up, the chickens almost like scratching through them more than they like the food under, and I have used this to my benefit by piling fresh leaves on my compost and winter garden beds regularly for the chickens to scratch into better composted soil for me.
Brilliant!!
I let my chickens into the vegetable garden after harvesting is finished. They work hard in there and fertilize as they go. 😊
We let our chickens pick through the duck pens well as all the horse manure and they LOVE IT! Bugs galore and the eggs we get from ours are 10X better than the SHIT you get from the stores. We do 3 to 5 year cycles on our layers. Added ducks and looking at adding quail also.
"Old hens make good friends"
Man, I really like your perspective on rearing chickens.
My mother uses her older girls for being foster mommies to new chicks or egg hatching when they get broody. Even if they can no longer lay an egg they're still useful for caring for babies that younger chickens have no interest in. :)
- it is also applicable to Mothers in some instances.
I had a hen that stopped laying after a while and she became the sweetest pet I've ever had. She'd even let me pick her up. The little mad lass even liked being tossed, and would come running back to me for me to do it again. I cried like a toddler when she died.
ua-cam.com/video/WQkbmjt1Qmk/v-deo.html
Some chickens are more pet like and have more personality than others..we have a flock and they are funny little beasts.
I have two chooks that are ancient. Pixie, who is more grey than black now is 20 years old and Doris is 19. They both still lay every few days and they still set together and raise their chickens together.
Wow that is a good innings, I didn't realise they can live so long
That's amazing. And it's a good point that Mark didn't really address. When they slow down on production they can rare their own replacements for you.
Wow 👌 that's awsome
@@justingage5524 well said! If you have heritage breed chickens you will find that they do naturally go clucky as they get older, more and more and that's a great time to let them hatch you more 😁
I have two 9 year old Grannies that don't lay anymore. What are you feeding them?
The constant stream of dad jokes. The shorts. The overall attitude. This is a wonderful channel!
Stop degrading dads. I know it's seen as humor but it's a deeper problem of disrespecting good men in our culture.
you should live in Australia
@@videosofinterest9227 do you wear the foil or just smoke out of it?
@@chrisreynolds6143 neither. Try saying some mom jokes and see how that goes for you.
@@videosofinterest9227 ok. Yo mama so fat she walked in front of the TV and you missed three episodes
I have had chickens for now +20y I'm just discovering how what you say is obvious to me but new to others. Thanks for making this, you're doing god's work.
I have a 10yr old chicken and she still lays the occasional egg. My parents had one that was 8yrs old and laid 5 eggs in the last week of her life. Plus they're not just egg machines. They have personalities and can be great pets and companions.
my chicken is 50 years old and she still lays
Peep is 5 yrs old. She hasn't laid a egg during her moulting. She is sweet and visits with me. She is small, does eat bugs, fertilizer machine. Her buddy died, Cutie was a true friend. I give her a bath in kitchen sink.
I have three buff rocks that are 10, I know one of them lays occasionally, one has just hatched three chicks, not her eggs, but she’s a good mum
And a nice chicken dinner.
@@samoak123 chicken lifespan is 5-10 years
I've kept a small flock of chickens for well over 20 years. I never knew how dangerous this was until you saw all these articles coming out. I'm not sure how I've survived 😂
You're lucky to be alive...
Yep, chickens are the real horror show They do damage almost like a private jets! I really don't know what's next!?
Propaganda....gotta educate ourselves. Jeeez
If you're a baby squirrel they're very dangerous. What I've seen my hens do to one will NOT make a UA-cam approved video.
Aww man 😂 god forbid you get more 🤷🏽♀️
I suppose the gatekeepers for factory farming are the ones most against raising chicken$. The deliberate cruelty is very profitable. You do good by pushing back. You have my support!
Also, they feed a high histamine diet, which affects our fertility. Women's bodies attack their own fetuses as allergens when histamine levels are too high.
Ticks. Chickens eat ticks. In the UK, especially in Scotland with all our sheep and deer, that's a big thing.
They could be useful in eating lime disease insects in lab trodden US...
Yup, guineas eat ticks too
So you let your chickens roam the mountains eating ticks in Scotland
@@sarahann530 it's a thing for the gardens of sheep farms which would otherwise be hoaching with them. A few cluckers sort that out.
@@clairefarnell9489 you mean the rodent or Italians?
Thanks for raising awareness for this topic. I seriously start doubting the credibility of those media outlets bringing out such ridiculous articles.
You should doubt media outlets on just about everything.
Did I say, "just about... ?" 🧐
Here in the states, all the mainstream sources are propaganda.
Most stuff posted is clickbait and forget about MSM, it's dying a slow painful death.
That doubt could be counted as some silver lining ;)
Cuz remember most global media outlets are owned by a handful of corporations, with a few run by governments.
We should all remember that for those of us who value restorative culture, the media is no friend. Science is invaluable but the media cannot be trusted to accurately report.
Stay vigilant fam.
The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 legalized propaganda use against Americans. Media, social media, officials face no consequence for lying to Americans and knowingly disseminating propaganda. Media organizations are often paid to put out scripted propaganda for the government. Research it, it was buried in a NDAA bill. It is why they lie big and often and everyone is so upside down and backwards. This influences our lives on a daily basis.
“The SMMA promotes unholy alliances between the U.S. State Department and America's corporate media that unbinds reporters and news departments from the solemn responsibility to verify information.
Traditional “news,” based on reliable, verifiable fact-based evidence is slowly giving way to “newz” - an ersatz form of information dissemination via broadcasting and/or publishing that enjoys specialized immunity for libel, misinformation, false or fraudulent information, misrepresentation, and anything else previously prohibited by the SMA. If serving a national security purpose(s), the media cartel has a government-sanctioned license to lie.”
Good to see Russel Crowe is so down to earth, rearing his own chickens and farming.
I thought he was alex jones doing an accent
@@ScreamingManiacnever insult this man like that again
Hahaha! I knew his face looked familiar
@@yorgivon-schmourgeussborgiExcuse you! Brother Alexius is among the finest of the Astartes in his chapter.
😂
We have a little old hen named Meg. She is 8 years old. And she may not lay eggs but she is the best mother hen! She sits fertile eggs anytime she can and hatches them. She is a great mother to them! They may not be hers biologically , but she has raised so many babies and they have all turned out to be very sweet. I’ll be so sad when she passes. She is by far our favorite hen even though she doesn’t lay
I had one of those years ago! I reckon mine plotted the whole deal among themselves so that she could be seen to be earning her keep. Not silly at all!
Shut up Meg!
We have one that is over 10 years old and similar to yours she is the best mom ever. She hatches all fertile eggs and takes care of them sometimes until they are full grown 😅 ❤ love my chickens 🐓
Can I take that hen off your back make a good stew
Growing up my family had chickens, around 15-20 usually, and this was the case with ours too. When they get old they may not lay eggs but they still bring value to the flock. Also if you have the space you can just overproduce slightly on eggs and then it's not a problem if a few stops laying as many eggs.
Far out, i thought the puns would stop after the intro but you kept em coming through the whole clip. Absolutely top shelf. Amazing work.
Belgium here. The free chicken for waste management indeed was a trial run from the waste management company, and it was/is very succesfull. I've got 7; and my oldest hen is 8, and she still lays an egg once a week. It's downright amazing how much table scraps they eat. Fun fact; there was a (short) time a 12-pack of large eggs in the supermarket was more expensive then a fresh hen of 20 weeks old.
They’re about half a dollar US each egg , average right now
When we lived in a town with a 5 hen limit, our neighbor had 20-some hens all the same color. They rotated who was outside throughout the day so only 5 were out at a time. I traded excess garden produce for eggs.
Neighbor is a genius.
@@curlzpalz but god damn what did the inside of that house possibly look like 😂
I’m in the city and have permit with city… npip it’s just better to be legit then to keep them poor birds on a lottery spin
@@Steve.._. I think they would keep them in the coop, not the house lmao
That is soo cool ❤
My city has banned owning chickens. They deemed them a public nuisance. There is an underground community that still owns them. There are blogs dedicated to how to camouflage the coops. I'm moving to the country bc I don't want to hide nor deal with bureaucracy. Moving back to the country. Thnx for the video!
It's all cap they just don't want people to be self sufficient.
@@scottholbrey5984 Agreed!
@Diann No, but I have to research that. Thank you for the suggestion ☺️
Things my old city has banned along with "farm" animals: Backyard fireplaces, indoor fireplaces, indoor gas heating, solar panels, collecting rain or any natural water, fences, gas generators, the sale of non electric cars, non lethal self defense items (open carry still cool).... long list of "you will be dependant"
@@ZebraLuv curious: what city is that?!
my city limit is 4 and i've been debating for awhile getting chickens and honestly this is one of the best informational videos i've seen. thank you
Growing up on a working ranch gives you a different perspective. I think I was 7 or 8 years old when I discovered that eggs and milk were sold in grocery stores, or from dedicated dairies. We sold our milk from our cows to a dairy. We drank milk from the cows after skimming off the cream for butter and such. We worked our vegetable garden and canned every fall. It was a huge family thing. We would help neighbors and make the rounds of farms in our family from Montana to Oregon to help with harvest and bringing in cattle from summer grazing areas. In the Spring it was all round up, branding and separating the bulls and the ones who would become steers. I never had the "luxury" of not knowing where my Sunday chicken dinner came from. I don't romanticize farming or ranching. I lived it. It's very hard work with no room for sentimentality. But it's soooo worth it at the end of the day.
Marvelous! You have a sense of ‘dedicated community’ that we lack in current society. 👍🏻
Just listening to this video was an eye opener for this lifetime city girl. A farmer's take on the true value of an old hen. Made me wonder what in society would be better if we had more farmers making the important decisions. I'm now absolutely dying for him to do a video on the value of a rooster. Could be that I might learn a few things from nature that my society hasn't known or taught since my own childhood. It's definitely got me thinking in a way that is new for this city raised but nature loving lady. Not trying to romanticize the realities of nature but also just wondering about the wisdom of straying too far away from the lessons taught by nature. Maybe I'm just a clucking old hen. And if so, maybe that's OK. Lol
Well Said!
@S Smith To be clear, I've never had roosters, just hens.
I did study about chickens quite a bit before I started raising them.
My take on Roosters is that They help the Hens in many ways. They will help them find food, They are essential for reproduction, They keep on a lookout for danger, and they will lay down their lives to protect their hens. There may be more reasons, but I don't know them at this time.
@@ssmith5127 I'm not even close to an expert on chickens, but on another channel I subscribe to (Fy Nyth), I learned the purpose of roosters is to fertilize eggs. There are times when chicken go what's called 'broody'. At that point, a hen will attempt to hatch a bunch of eggs. Once they hatch, she will 'mother' them until they reach a certain age. With a rooster, you don't have to buy new hens. That's the extent of my knowledge on chickens. 😀
I didn't know it was possible to so effortlessly insert that many chicken and egg puns into an 11 minute video without sounding corny even once. Very impressive. I don't have chickens but I'm definitely smarter now than I was when I woke up this morning.
He is just laughing at the idiocy of anti chicken rhetoric. Actually, I didn't even know that stupid crap existed.
It was rough.
I know right ? Its a fantastic eggxample of using animal puns.
@@donaldkasper8346 Neither did I lol I guess Big Egg just can't stand the thought of losing another customer. So sad.
waste disposal, composting, eating, cleanliness. The fact that you covered all the inaccuracies that I found in my initial research makes me feel better.
Why wait months and months for your compost to break down when you just throw your scraps into a bin and let the chickens go to town, they'll give ya compost in weeks if not days!
Update on my chickens. I sold 3 roosters & one hen back in March & now have 4 hens & 2 roosters. They laid all the way till Christmas (northern hemisphere). One time this summer, went the heat finally dropped below 100F, my 4 hens gave me a dozen eggs in 2 days!
You definitely deserve a "pullets-er prize" for your journalism and media 👏
LOL... 👍
@@Selfsufficientme ...lots of lollies?
I am in Indianapolis, IN, USA ... Had a hen wander into my back yard about a year back & she has been a Godsend----is just a sweetheart, has more personality than many people in my own family! Took a bit of doing to get up to speed with the care and feeding, but it has been worth every minute of effort! TYVM for telling the TRUTH ... 🐔🐔🐔
All good things to all of you and all of yours :)
Dang that's pretty lucky that she just randomly came into your yard haha. Seems like it's worked out for both of you though. Super cool!
@@Spartan265 It was ironic to say the least, as I had been toying with the idea of getting some chickens for some time, so I think it a was a cosmic hint, lol ...
She really has been a blessing as I haven't had to purchase eggs since she has been here, she's spoiled rotten ... She knows if I grab the shovel we're gonna dig worms, loves being talked to ... trying to find a few more hens to keep her company now. Spring is nigh ;-]
My wife was so unhappy when I surprised her with 5 chicks. Eight years later we moved to a smaller home and she is so unhappy without "Her" chickens. For years we had a problem with grasshoppers. After the chicken were full grown we never saw a single grass hopper. When we cleaned out the pen we put the "stuff" in the garden. Our garden was wonderfully productive. My wife keeps suggesting that we get them again but our yard is too small. If you are thinking about getting chicks I would say GO FOR IT! Yes, the start up and up keep is an expense. So is caring for a dog. Watching the antics they do and their curiosity is very relaxing. It was interesting when we started eating the fresh eggs. They looked like you cracked open an orange sun. The color was beautiful and food cooked with the eggs had a better color. The eggs tasted better than those in the store. When I came home from the office I would go outside and hand feed them. They would climb all over me and quietly talk me into a restful mind set. Some breeds will literally follow you everywhere and beg for your attention. Loved that. Miss them!
Why not letting hatching some of those eggs and continue the circle?
@Jesus protects Probably a lack of a rooster if I had to guess. A lot of places don’t like you keeping chickens, much less roosters because of their noises
They are really beneficial to have for pests, only thing that gets annoying is when they jump on my motorbike and scratching the soil over the paths/driveway so I gotta clean it everyday, other than that
Brought a tear to my eye thinking about the chickens we had when I grew up. They were such smart and kind girls.
@@JesusProtects need a rooster as they say below- so perhaps find someone who has a rooster and set up a date for the chickens 😉. go home and have a few new chickens ready to take over the circle..
I am exactly one minute in. I don't even care how the rest of this goes, you've earned my like sheerly through puns alone. Eggcellent work on your hilarious dad yolks!
My husband talked me into getting hens about 6 years ago. They really are not hard to take care of. They love table scraps. And at this moment we are GLAD we have more eggs than we can consume. So are a few or our friends because they get free eggs from us.
The beauty of freedom
Chickens eat whatever you throw at them. I used to spit my mucus to them and they would fight to eat it
@@santiagoferrari1973 o.o
Same here!! I have to give a whole bag of eggs away because I could never eat them all. I still have 3 bags in my fridge right now.
@@Not_Always You can dry or freeze eggs if you need to save then for an emergency situation.
We've had chickens for years because they are awesome. I didn't even realise there was an egg crisis until friends were saying they couldn't get eggs. It felt really good to be able to give people I care about healthy delicious eggs. The people who fund and write those articles are simply the enemies of decent people. Also, Mark you are also awesome, love the puns!
Yeah, I magically had people asking me for eggs that I had not heard from or dropping hints like "Did you know when I went to Costco last week they didn't have any eggs?". . . . .ummm, okay, what does that have to do with me? Just say you want eggs if you want eggs.
@@blackdandelion5549 I have never seen costco or sams out of eggs
Thanks Russell! And, I love the point about giving eggs away - it's nice to be able to gift eggs not just because they often taste richer than commercial eggs, but now due to cost and scarcity, it's even more valuable! Cheers :)
@@IamsTokiWartooth In MN, USA they are frequently. I have heard of other states also not having eggs in the stores. When some places do get them in stock they put limits on the amount you can buy such as two dozen per person. It has been like this in my area for approx 8 weeks or more at this point in time. I have my own chickens so I am feeling pretty good however.
@@blackdandelion5549 I'd charge those people for eggs. Especially if they're going about the impolite way of trying to get eggs off of you, without providing something in return. (even just offering to feed the chickens a few times or weeding the garden for you!)
The dad jokes, the practical information, the calling out of main stream media as a form of control by those power: you have 100% earned yourself a subscriber. Can’t wait to binge your content!
Can you see the symbol of his loyalty it's on his shirt
Those puns made me want to throw myself out a window.
Agree, but don’t think other forms of media are any different. Hate all the sudden anger towards “mainstream media” as if “non-mainstream media” are any different. And then you’ve got stuff like Fox news claiming that they aren’t mainstream media, when they very much are. Just use your heads don’t listen to celebrity crap and it’ll be fine. I heard about something called GroundNews that maps out the media landscape and tells you about blindspots and imbalanced coverage. Sounds interesting if you’re fed up of partisanship but I’ve never tried it.
@ShadowThenBoom-VerySimple pretty sure it's media in general because no one goes by facts. It's all biased, all based on feelings, and all opinionated. You can shift to Fox all you please, but even that is a form of media that can be biased. If any source of media like that is telling you not to do something, you do the opposite because it's nothing but a false narrative. Just like bread lines being a "good thing". We know it's all media and we hate it. You may not like it, but it doesn't affect you personally because people refuse to listen to an overpaid writer telling me why my life needs to change to appease a social group. They are the new church that holds everyone back from progressing because someone else refuses to progress and follow their empty buzzwords. It's not a sudden hatred either. This has been going on since the 70s.
Me too lol
Thank you for this video! I absolutely LOVE my chickens, and share your views 100%. We live in an age of profusely gross propaganda with the purpose of manipulating the masses. People are taught not to think for themselves and reason on what is spread. Chicken keeping has been practiced for ages and just NOW!! it's a problem, unhealthy, ect. You just shit down two decades of lies. Bravo!! From North Carolina!
My daughter got 3 fertilised eggs from the preschool and we brought them home . 2 died the first night but Richard lived to 7 years old. Lucky for Richard she turned out to be a chook and besides many eggs she gave us (and the cat) great enjoyment. Cheers from the Northern Rivers.
LOL... Richard... Cool name for a chicken! Cheers :)
@@Selfsufficientme There is a spammer using your logo "Telegram for Dave". Just above your comment. I'll report it but a PSA announcement and encouragement from you for us all to block these accounts and report them would be fantastic
@@lizzy9975 unfortunately they are bot accounts. you can block them but they make new accounts just as fast so it doesn't solve anything. many youtubers are dealing with bots at the moment, we really have to wait for UA-cam to do something about it for a permanent fix.
From eggsistential crises to stepping on eggshells, you covered all of the relevant eggsigencies.
We had a chicken that continued to lay through her older years but less than she did in her prime. She was laying once or twice a week and every egg was a double yolk😊 that was how we knew it was her. ❤
Became more efficient you might say. Smarter, not harder.
I love double yolks, it's like a prize everytime you crack one.
@srhfitzpatrick nice pfp
AAAAAAAAWWWWWWWW!!!!!! Very cool!
And then you ate her?
I don't want to 'ruffle your feathers' but regarding keeping roosters I don't know which side of the road to cross. Wife says get rid of them, I said "flock you!" I hate being so 'hen pecked'.
I'm with the wife, they abuse the hens.
My grandma used to have 3 chickens, one of them was a bit more clingy and used to come to our front door and lay her egg on the cushion we left for her. (instead of doing that in their nest) She was our cute egg delivery birb.
Oh my god, this is too cute!
Love this. I live in the U.S. in an urban area and we can keep 6 chickens. I've been keeping them for 13 years and it's ludicrously rewarding. I still have one girl from the original group and she's still laying at 13 years old. There's something fun and special about keeping dinosaurs in your yard that give you eggs.
I've had similar chickens live and give eggs for a comparable time. We even have chickens now that are the descendents from the first chickens we got from my older brother and he had them for almost 5 years before they lived with us for another five. We lost the last one this last summer after she'd lived a good 14 years and still gave us eggs several times a week (she might have laid more, but last summer our dogs found half the eggs before we did...)
How much space did they have? Did they ruin the lawn?
@Michelle Peltzer They were free ranged on our acre and a half here, but didn't have nearly that amount of area at our last house. We have a lot of grasshoppers and box elder bugs, though. If we don't let them loose during the day for spring, summer, and at least half of fall, we don't have any plants survive. Our lawn is a mix rather than just one kind of grass. There are areas where they've dug little dust bathes for themselves, but those are in specific areas with less plant growth and lots of sun. They clean themselves and then sunbathe.
Definitely would hatch a few of her eggs sounds like good genes you would want to keep around
@@get6149 One of her chicks from a few years ago hatched me new chicks this last month.
The Zen Hens ("Hens me out") was the best pun XD Thanks for the video. I got two Australorps a few months ago and it's been so great to have these little friends in our yard!
Thank you Mark, I had an Australorp who laid for 10 years a couple of times per week. She wasn't adverse to sitting on the back verandah and eating pizza with my son. Losing her was a death in the family, we all missed her.
This is so sweet and sad - my favorite hen is an Australorp and I hope she is around many more years (I got her in 2020 so she's still young).
Shared stories, and views, like these make a heart warmer.
Here in Canada we keep 4 hens for eggs. We had a hen named Edna that lived over nine years. She was our Kelpie Oby's right hand hen. They loved each other and sat together watching their flock. We too were very sad when she passed. Hens are very sweet and friendly we love ours.
Awww, there's always a chicken that touches your heart. My family had a Jersey Giant hen named Ethel, but she was so tiny that she got bullied and her feathers plucked in her tail. So my family paid special attention to her and gave her the VIP treatment to give her alternatives away from the bullies. She was so sweet, she would even follow us around and "talk" to us while we went around the garden. We were so sad when she passed, it really was like a death in the family. My mom made a commemorative clay sculpture of Ethel in her pottery class that we keep to this day :)
What a sweet bird she must have been.
“…old hens are useful, just think of Grandma.” Thanks for emphasizing this very true point. I always keep my elderly hens, and I like how you said they “hen/zen you out when watching them in the backyard. So true and one of the reasons I always want chickens. My chickens get full retirement benefits. Karma.
We've always raised chickens here in Texas. Thank you for making this video, and pushing back against the negative propaganda surrounding owning them.
Thank you, Mark for this video!! My parents kept chickens when I was a little girl and I hope there comes a day when I can keep chickens too! I had a pet hen whose name was "Witch Hazel" because she had a growth that looked like a wart on the top of her beak! She was an older, no longer laying hen and the sweetest pet! I watched this video because I'm watching a lot of "chickenkeeping for beginners" videos. My chickenkeeping days might be in the near future! WOO-HOO!!
Backyard chicken farmer here. Agree 100%! Thank you! Loved all the plays on words! I have done my flock same as you. They're definitely like pets. They greet me every bit as enthusiastically as my dogs! Neighbors and friends love all the free eggs. I don't even try to make money on them. It's good for making friends and neighborhood cohesiveness.
👍💯
Chickens AND hens make great pets! They are extra sweet, soft and loving. They know their owner and family and they will always be willing to share life with you and be next to you. Literally. Those babies are great and deserve to be loved for ever! ❤
Thank you so much for sticking up for our hens! We love them. There have been times when we were short of funds and all we had was eggs. Our goal is to always have a coop full of these sweet birds.
@rkhenley thank you and you as well.
When I first moved in with my boyfriend he had about 10 chickens and I was thoroughly impressed 😂 Omelets became our signature breakfast for years! One time we moved the chicken coop to a different part of the yard and where the chickens HAD been a garden of heirloom and cherry tomatoes started sprouting up! Those were literally some of the best tomatoes I’ve ever had 🤩 And then when we added those tomatoes to our omelets?? Omg. Chef’s kiss 🤌
That's a good planning.👍
Are you still together?
I moved my pen this year too, we grow tomatoes and gave them some scraps, well just like in your case a ton of tommato's grew there without me spending any effort on it.
Tomatoes + omelette seems a pretty bad idea
I had a HUGE cherry tomato plant grow up in my manure pile this last year. I've never seen a tomato plant so massive. It was almost a tree!
I did not try to count your puns, but I honestly appreciated them. Your puns remind me of my father at the supper table 60 years ago.
The best thing about chickens is watching them roam. They’re basically little velociraptors, each with their own personality. My mate eats his chickens as soon as they stop laying but I see the old chickens as wise hens which impart knowledge onto the younger hens.
I watched a mouse try and do the food barrel run , about 2 meters from the fence to the feed barrel . Sadly as the mouse thought he was home and hosed halfway across the yard the ten chickens noticed him and the rest is history, as there was nothing left apart from a small patch of blood on one of the chickens beak.
Yup, seen my hens eat mice, frogs, and snakes. Saw them surround a rattler and kill it. Definitely, reminds me of Jurassic Park.
We used to have turkeys too when i was a kid beside chickena and ducks and lemme tell you they were awesome we had a dozen and damn i loved them so much idk why but they never did any aggresive thing to me or my sister we could stay with them all day and they did not care but damn they hated my father like the plauge and i should not be even saying turkeys GROW BIG, so it goes without saying if they dont like you they will make you know it.
Those were the only kind of house animals i hated when we had to cut down they were really lovely.
Too right. Those wise old hens teach the chicks what weeds are good to eat. That's how you maintain a free-range flock safely. They tell the other little ladiez when to hide from raptors and are the first to lead the flock to roost. For this reason, we just eat the cockerels and let the grand ladies live in peace.
@@asharak68kbelgarion46 Seriously?! We had a rattler next to the coop and i just killed him and we ate him, but i didn't even know they could take down a rattler!
I kept 3 chickens for 5 years. Once they were 6 months old, they each gave us an egg a day. Even with a family of 4 we had to give eggs away to our neighbors so we had room in our fridge! Three eggs a day is a lot to keep up with! Great video, mate!
I have 3 button quail in my apartment and 2 hens produced a lot of tiny eggs
My sister's coworker has 5 chickens. She has so many eggs that now my sister has to many eggs and now I have free eggs lol
Farm eggs taste better than Walmart eggs for sure.
we do the same just give em away to neighbors and mail person
Only 3 eggs a day is hard for a family of 4 to handle??? That would be 1 serving per person, unless there are egg allergies in your family!
I started with three chickens. Now I have 15. And I have more compost than I could ever use so my friends are benefiting from the extra compost in the extra eggs. I love hearing about that experiment where they gave every household three chickens. If every household had three chickens, it would be absolutely amazing the benefits. I'm glad the chickens are becoming more and more popular in backyards.
Eggstray eggs and compost! Oh my 😊
Take a look at Bokashi composting. I realize it’s said it’s for kitchen waste but I use it out door in my compost pile. I don’t build the pile to heat up. I sprinkle the Bokashi in between layers an keep adding layer on layer. If u already have a Bokashi pile u can dig some of it out an put between layers of ur new pile. That way u don’t have to keep buying the Bokashi starter as those microbes just keep multiplying.
The microbes r great for ur soil. They won’t freeze they just slow down. But you can however kill them with heat. That’s why I don’t build my piles to heat up. If u do a pail or so of food scraps with Bokashi, take the liquid from the bottom bucket an use 1 Tbs to 1 gal of water. Fabulous fertilizer that u can spray on the foliage or pour on the plants. Enjoy
Warning. The chlorine most water companies put in the water to kill any thing will actually kill ur microbes. Use water that doesn’t have chlorine in it.
Sir, thank you so much for making this video. I learned so much from you. And I like how you blend in a little humor with your work 😊.
I’m 66 years young and still have plans on buying some land, having chickens, goats, nice big garden, etc. Three of my sons started raising chickens in the past couple years here in NC. And two of my brothers have been raising chickens for decades in my home state of OR. I’m gonna share this video with my boys. Thanks for what you do, educating so many people with the truth! God bless you. 😊
I grew up on a farm raising chickens as well as cattle and his advise is solid. Only thing I would add is keep in mind when you are building their pen is just about everything is out to hunt your chicken's so build a good pen from top to bottom. Hawks can be an issue for them. They love fresh lawn clippings and scraps from the garden and table but also have a good mixed feed for them with some crushed oyster shells for your birds to eat. Oyster shells aid in keeping the hens egg shell walls from thinning and breaking easy. Clean water is also key, and to cut down on algae growing in your watering trough fix a piece of copper (that they can't eat) in their water. It will stymie algae growth. In the winter you can help production by using a heat lamp in their hen house if you live in a cold part of the world. We had a screened window on the hen house for them for ventilation that we could close when it got too cold. Hope that helps. :) and salute from an old Cherokee Tribal Member.
good advice, thank you.
I love your advice! Thankyou for reminding people to give them FRESH water!!
I grew up on a farm as well, and we used to feed the cracked egg shells back to the chickens to help strengthen their shells. Nobody ate oysters anyway.
Thanks for the pointers.
@@beayn this. The calcium can be recycled multiple times
Im only on my third year of having chixkens and I cant believe Ive gone my entire life without them! I love them so much. They are ten times smarter than I ever knew. They get along great with my cats and dogs and they are awesome. Animal husbandry is making a comeback and its a good thing. 👍🏻
Do you live in ALABAMA? 👍
My chickens followed me around better than the dog! They were great.
Where should I start? Are they good with children? How much maintenance are they and how do I care for them in the winter?
I love my chickens ❣️
@person1894Y49 they’re not being forced to lay eggs like in a factory, and eggs aren’t babies
They’re like a period, they won’t hatch unless they’re fertilized
Keeping chickens was normal in my mother's home town when she was growing up. Our incompetent leaders are driving us into a collapse.
Nothing to do with incompetents, these scum bags wants us dependant on them or dead.
Self reliancy was was more important. And it is coming back again
Incompetent, or malicious?
When you have incompetent voters electing garbage every year....
This is what happens....Who knew?
Spot on! My grandparents and the neighbors did exactly the same. They kept chickens and ducks!
People are about to find out the government can't save you, isn't responsible for you, and you are responsible for yourself!
We always had chickens on our farm. One year we got a brood fo small bantam chickens. They got out of the coop and lived for years in the bushes around the house and barn, sleeping in the trees at night and coming down to the coop in the day to eat.
"They don't live long and stop laying in two years" is nearly the single most bs thing I've ever heard about chickens. My oldest hen is turning 18 this year and I got chicks out of her last year! Sure she doesn't lay every single day, maybe once a week, but she's still going so strong!
Thank you so much for making this video!
This is sadly common among many pets, goldfish for example "only live for 3-5 years" and "don't get so big" according to many pet shops but a goldfish can become 20 years old and grow to about 30cm long if cared for properly.
Chickens are amazing, I sadly live in an apartment so I can't get a flock of hens but if I had the proper space to keep them I'd make sure they'd live as long as possible, old age is how I like my pets to go, regardless if they're commonly edible or not. Gotta love the adorable walking composters and their curiosity for even the tiniest grain on the ground ❤❤
@@Shespio I believe you mean walking composure... Maybe I'm mistaken but wft is a composter my boy? 🤔🤣
@@SteezNutz8 composters as they eat leftover foods. English is not my first language so I dunno if it's different word in english but like, a compost is the word we use for the paper bag we throw away food into. And since you can give some food scraps to chickens (not all but a lot of them) they're basically a compost bag with legs. Cute ones at that.
@@Shespio nah you right he wrong don’t even worry about it
I think you need to submit her to the Guinness book of world records! The oldest living hen was 16 years old!
I’ve had my chickens for almost a year. Never raised them before but I have enjoyed them wholeheartedly. Despite losing two of my ten to disease and predators, I highly recommend to people to raise their own. It’s been very rewarding. Plus I got to hear my parents tell me I wasn’t as crazy as they thought raising chickens when all the egg prices skyrocketed.
Welcome a few chickens every year. We have a large farm and let our chickens run during the day. Sometimes predators get them, very very occasionally a car gets them (we have a road in front of our house but it's not busy), and diseases gets them. Each spring, we do a head count and raise some more to get our numbers back where we want them.
All those chicken puns had me quacking up. Thanks for making me smile today :)
(Also I'm glad you talked about the usefulness and value of old birds, eggspecially for those of us who'd rather not eat our chickens!)
LOL... You've thrown in the first "duck pun" I've seen in the comments section Jess! Nice... Cheers :)
I wanted to like the video many times for the puns!
Nice job. We had a rooster and hen when I was 8 years old, 52 years ago. They were part of the family. They were fun and very protective, like guard dogs toward an intruding mean neighbor.Nice job. We had a rooster and hen when I was 8 years old, 52 years ago. They were part of the family. They were fun and very protective, like guard dogs toward an intruding mean neighbor.
@@Selfsufficientme Do Experiment or Challenge: Grow Peanuts without a Soil.
I don't find anyone in UA-cam trying to grow peanuts without soil.
I built my mother a beautiful chicken coop for Mother's Day a couple years back. She has 20 chickens 12 are egg layers and she gets 10-12 eggs per day and sells her extra eggs to neighbours for $5 which basically covers the feed and the neighbours also bring their vegetable scraps often for a treat!
There might be a shortage of eggs, but never a shortage of dad jokes! Well done Mark! It's what I came for and it's what I got. Eggcellant 😁
I was thinking the same!😂
He just used every chicken pun available
Some of those puns were truly fowl.
Mark is a plucky fella! I love all those cheep puns.
@@LazyIRanch Clucking awesome!
Got myself four hens because of you. Then I got ten fertilized eggs from a neighbour. Now I have seven hens and one rooster. Getting 3-6 eggs daily in the winter. I´m in Estonia, so it´s pretty cold.
Gotta say if u take the time to bond with your backyard chickens they can be some of the best pets!! They lay eggs, eat ur food and kitchen scraps, can help compost, provide free fertilizer. A lot of our chickens let u hold them and pet them
I know you are talking about chickens but do you know if you can get fertilizer from rabbits as well? I own a rabbit and it would be nice to circulate some of his waste in that way.
@@DH-gq7bm yes, I would mix the rabbit droppings in with leaves, old veg scraps,etc and make compost.
Imo, Chickens have the best personalities if you really watch them. They aren't as dumb as people think.
@@DH-gq7bm rabbit droppings are the best,... for roses, shrubs, lettuces no amendments needed. The pee needs to be diluted, at least in ratio of 1 to 4 water
I name my yard pimps depending on what meal they’ll make later , rice , dumplings, fettuccine, soup , etc 🙂
You are a super darling for your love of chickens! I love them too and I enjoy my old age because of my chickens!
Thank you and God bless!!❤
I love my chickens. I've had chickens for eight years and they are the easiest animals to manage. It's winter here in the USA and I'm getting 15 eggs a day from the new chickens I raised last spring. I've never been more grateful for them.
How many do you have in your flock?
@@betsybattles2696 I'd usually recommend one chicken per family member that eats eggs.
@@LeoTheYuty Thanks!
We have 3 snd I’m now getting one egg per day, which is fine because we are not big eaters.
I really appreciate how you describe your chickens in a way that is collaborative rather than consumptive and how you give your elderly hens a good life whenever possible. I learned so much from watching this.
It's only right imo. They do so much for you over that amount of time that, unless it's impacting your own ability to survive, they really deserve a decent seeing off in their twilight years.
Except in cases where their survival depends on it, I don't care for the people that go to slaughter the moment they stop laying frequently enough for their tastes.
@@ledumpsterfire6474 the kindness you show something should not stem from it's usefulness
@@Drakence We don't keep things around our homes that serve no purpose, so those are pretty mutually exclusive concepts. Even strictly companion animals serve a purpose.
You like the fact that although he’s keeping them for consumption he’s not describing it in a consumptive manner. SEMANTICS
@@Timeculture mindset
Thanks so much for addressing this. I'm in NZ and really had to smack my head when the NZ media were discouraging people from owning chickens. I've owned my own for several years, the average age of my current flock is 5 years old and I am getting eggs every day. Even my two ex-battery hens (who are about 3 years old) are frequently laying still.
Mate, the devil society is pushing for bugs, insects, crickets to be recognised as a superf food . They are changing the nature. Buy more chickens and grow your own food. Be self sufficient. This is only way to tackle these 👿 👿
G'day Rebekah, it's so interesting that your ex-battery hens are still laying eggs! You've given them a good home and improved their lives - I bet they feel like they won the hen lotto! All the best :)
Jacinta's gone you might have a chance now
As a middle school teacher - I thoroughly enjoy your puns lol! They lift my heart up!~ New subscriber! Keep up the good work!
#6: _"Chickens are too noisy"_ -- I actually LIKE the sounds of chickens. I had a neighbor a couple of houses ago that had chickens and I used to go out into my backyard just to listen to them. To me, that's part of the calming effect of them.
That is so true!
Put a Velcro strap that has been doubled over around the throat of the male to its tight but not strangulating
Makes them much quieter
@@Ktmfan450 might as Well just have hens only if your worried about the sound
@@Ktmfan450 go and try that on yourself and consider whether its ok to have a rooster live its life like that
A couple of my hens "purr". It's the most adorable thing, and a very calming sound.
It used to be very common for most homes to have a couple of chickens and grow some vegetables in their yard. Self sufficiency is important, saves money, and is better for the environment.
Check your local codes, find a vet, build tour set up, and enjoy!
Well, it also has a lot to do with living standards nowadays. You're talking about yards, when the majority of the population don't have yards nowadays, especially outside of the US. While even many of the homes that do are rentals and don't own their living space fully... Very different generations now. It's harder and harder for people to be self-sufficient, unless they want to go full-on and buy a cheap patch of land in nowhere, which I reckon most wouldn't want to abandon their jobs and the city life for.
Things used to be so simple, now everything is a complex mess.
No thx.
You don’t really need a vet for chickens if 1 gets sick you separate them from the rest before they infect the others
@@Osama-KIN_TMZ01 100%. The people with the least purchasing power, as well as power to change their circumstances, are the ones with no land to do whatever they want on it.
Yeah, it was completely normal just 2-3 generations ago in most countries. If your grandparents can do it without any internet knowledge and stuff, everyone can do it.
A friend had backyard chickens. It was a lot of work. When he was out of town, he'd need a babysitter to check in on them. Kitchen scraps were not enough. He had to buy feed. The eggs were not free. I learned (from him) about "pecking order". Yes, he had bully chickens and had to keep them separate. The upside is that fresh eggs taste great.
Funny thing, the other day here in the US, I read an article with the same scam: having your own eggs is BAD for you. The title of the article was about the current egg crisis and having your own chickens. But the entire article was about how bad it is. Big business scared of their possible profit loss. Thank you.
They generally discourage anything good for you or your family.
@@basedboomer5912
Industrial society and its consequences...
Good point. The powers that be want to control everything. The obsess over this control, and will spin lies without hesitation in an attempt to manipulate the masses
Their little scam is also evil. Look how they treat those chickens.
It's not big business that's a side effect
It's the globalists. They want you dépendant .
I live in inner London and currently have a flock of 6 hens in the backyard. I fully endorse your message. They're the most wonderful animal to keep. They largely take care of themselves and there's definitely something calming about just sitting in garden and watching them go about their business. Planning on adding a few more hens this summer as a couple of mine are getting on a bit.
You get one of the most nutritious food aka eggs, you get a variety of meat, manure for the garden, pest control.
Hens are awesome
For those looking to buy chickens for eggs, I also want you to know that if you get baby chicks, it takes about 20-22 weeks before they start producing eggs. That's why he talks about the pullets, not chicks. (I prefer the chicks because they grow up together and actually get to feel like family that way. ) He's right about the pet part. I fully enjoy watching my chickens in the yard. It's very calming.
I got 5 Plymouth Barred Rock hens last April at 5 days old. Started laying August 25th. Averaging 4 eggs a day. I have over 300 eggs to date. Love my girls!🐓🐓🐓🐓🐓
@@donbeam5426 I’m getting 4 barred rocks tomorrow! They will bring our mixed flock up to 10 😎
I got my 6 Easter Egger chicks last June. Started laying in late October and have been laying during the winter despite not having extra lighting set up (southern state I'm sure helps with that). Meanwhile I adopted a 6mo Polish that started laying at 8mo (late starting breed) and she stopped laying about a month later for the winter. She started again end of January. Definitely prefer getting the chicks together. Integrating my adoptee has been a bit awkward because she's alone (and a bantam and a crested so she's at a huge disadvantage) but it's okay because they're all pets so she just gets special treatment now. They kicked her out of the coop when she stopped laying so she gets to be inside with me or go out foraging with them during the day. Now that she's laying, they let her back in. Such snots, hahaha. I love them all. Peaceful to watch, fun to feed treats, and they come to their names. ♥
@@Flawestruck That’s so funny and endearing..I just love chickens!
Thank you for not chickening out. Your information and opinions offer much to cluck about. 😆
We’ve had chickens who’ve lived well over 10, one to 15.. you’re right Mark you love them, love watching them, observing their personalities, long after they stop providing you with eggs.. keeping chickens has been so rewarding! Great video Mark 👍
Good on you Kazzie! Thank you :)
I never gave much thought to keeping chickens until recently, when a feral rooster adopted my daughter’s family. He just walked into the house and hopped up on grandpa’s lap. He’s a “house chicken” and puts up with my granddaughter covering him up and pushing him around in a baby carriage, among other games. He’s amazingly personable and docile, and keeps everyone entertained. Since then I’ve been paying attention to all the chicken info on the internet.
A rooster that has a good personality is such a pleasure
Got three roosters 2 are really nice and one is a douche that attacks me. That one rooster became dinner
That's a wholesome story thank you
I sometimes adopt one of my birds to be an indoor pet, usually after they survived a predator attack. I bought chicken diapers, and they would get washed with cat shampoo which was safe for birds when they were up for it. I don't have any indoor anymore but I upgraded to geese keeping and geese help keep predators away.
@@Skitdora2010 are geese as loud as roosters?
The puns are off the charts in this video! I’m not sure you could have squeezed anymore in. Thanks for laying those on us. And thanks for a great video. Me and my 5 hen flock here in the States really appreciate it.
One of my best hens got attacked by one of my dogs a few yrs back; i nursed her back, it took a year almost where she didnt lay; i gave her so much special goods, high in nutrition; she has a lame leg forever now. But she is going on nine years old, and she is STILL my best layer!! This girl is 😍 amazing. Never misses a day.
The way you describe hens as being good friends speaks volumes to my soul. My birds can turn any bad day into a better one just by watching them or holding one. This is my favorite video on chickens to ever exist from your facts to your hard-core puns; I'll be thinking of them for days! Thank you so much 🐔
I personally prefer the ducks because of the lack of pecking order shenanigans.... but I really love them all.
My daughter's two friends are sisters and they and their other siblings own a flock of about 100 hens. Their parents are farmers. The kids are responsible for raising and caring for the chickens and running a small business of selling the eggs. They routinely sell them to the students at school and we have bought some. What a great life lesson their parents are teaching them!
Now that’s how you raise kiddos!
You might want to check your local laws regarding this. In the States, it's even illegal to sell lemonade on the side of the road without requisite permits.
There was a time we called that tyranny
@@beatrootable In our region, farmers are allowed small flocks of 100 or less without being licenced. Even still, these farmers are subject to inspection. 😄
You win the prize for most chicken puns in a single video, and none were a stretch to include. Loved it!
He just get plucking them out, one after the other.
You are awesome! Loved your whole vibe. I was gifted chickens from a friend who was moving and now I'm all in on this chicken thing. I can't think of a pun like you did but I found a passion I didn't know I had.
👍 Spot-on explanation of chickens, Sir. My late wife had a bench in the chicken pen so she could sit with them. Some ended up in the oven, some in the compost, and a few I had to bury in the pet cemetery because they were favorites.
Your pun-craft is eggcellent!
I can imagine the least favorite ended up in the oven haha. Must be better than supermarket Chicken anyway
Thank you Mark for finally cracking open all these chicken myths! I have recently gotten into chicken keeping and it has been a blast raising and caring for my flock. For any newbies looking to start I highly recommend starting off with 3 or 4 then progressing as you see fit. Thank you again Mark for all of your educational videos.👍
Id have to recommend up to 6 if you live in an area where the temperature can drop below 32° F. They help keep eachother warm at night in the coop :)
I want to get six as that is what the town allows. I hadn't thought about body heat but it is a good point. Our temps are below freezing a good portion of the winter. I have been looking at different ways to keep the coop warm without using a heater.
@@colliecoform4854 having a deep enough layer of clean bedding helps too❤
I looked after many chickens years back when I was a kid in rural China. I remember I name each of them before I learned how to count. One time two of them went missing and my grandma didn’t notice, I insisted and find them later on. Good times, miss that time with my grandma
Bing chilling
the dream!!
Yes and the good chicken soup she used to make… wait did you ever find those missing chickens and what did you eat that week??
Thanks for sharing than very nice story about your childhood in China! We used raise chickens when I was a kid on the family farm back in Ireland, "now I'm in Spain, fuk that rain!!"😆 ... My wife and her family are from China. China rising! GO CHINA!!🇨🇳✌️😎
Zai jian how jen ghuo, BING CHILLING!
Super info. Eggcellent perspective on the Usefullness of the older hens! 🐔🐣🐤🐥
The govt hates self reliance. There's factual science and then there's political science. I've seen far too much of the latter in the world lately. Love the channel and good vibes my friend, cheers from Canada.
The last thing they want is for you to not need them. Corporations too. Start being self reliant and suddenly your money, and your blind obedience, stops being theirs to monopolize.
God are you dumb?
You must be because of the way you used political science
nothing to do with science or politics. it is simple economics and capitalism. they need you to spend every dollar you make. not live on the land and hoard your money. imagine if all Americans would wise up and stop eating fast food. millions of people would be out of work.