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Bug out bag

When I was a kid we bought chicken feed for winters but summer we let the chickens out for the day.They eat grass,bugs,grasshoppers and most anything on the ground.They also roamed in the garden where we had a horrible grasshopper problem.After the chickens learned to eat the extra large grasshoppers we had very little problems with them.The chickens saw to that.
 
When I was a kid we bought chicken feed for winters but summer we let the chickens out for the day.They eat grass,bugs,grasshoppers and most anything on the ground.They also roamed in the garden where we had a horrible grasshopper problem.After the chickens learned to eat the extra large grasshoppers we had very little problems with them.The chickens saw to that.
They love collard leaves and corn cobs too.
 
They love collard leaves and corn cobs too.
They eat anything. :)

I the past I made the mistake of keeping just one rooster. I realized I had made a serious mistake when it vanished one day never to be seen again. I now keep several, they add some color to the yard, I have four, and 18 chickens. This year I will be storing eggs in lime water, that said they are laying even at this time of the year. I cooked eight just this morning. The yellowest eggs you have ever seen.



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They love collard leaves and corn cobs too.
We found out that the hard way!After losing all our young greens in a single day we put chicken wire around the veggies they liked.Corn too!
That was rural Mississippi and we had a horrible 3 year problem with extra large grasshoppers.They say they come in cycles.
4th year just problems with heat.
 
They eat anything. :)

I the past I made the mistake of keeping just one rooster. I realized I had made a serious mistake when it vanished one day never to be seen again. I now keep several, they add some color to the yard, I have four, and 18 chickens. This year I will be storing eggs in lime water, that said they are laying even at this time of the year. I cooked eight just this morning. The yellowest eggs you have ever seen.



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And way better for you than store bought eggs
 
the chickens have to eat too.

But, they're self sufficient.

We haven't completed our fencing and coop yet, so haven't got our birds. I did some research and picked our breed for, it's cold capabilities (zero and below), egg production, meat production, foraging capabilities, and a natural brooder. While they may not be #1 in any one category……they check the boxes in all!

I put an 8' chain link fence around the perimeter, with about 1 foot buried in the ground. This should help stop predators from going under…..a solar powered electric fence will be around the top.

Eagles, hawks, ect. will be our only real problem. After the SHTF…..hawks/eagles will be turned into gumbo! 😉

We will let ours free-range whenever possible….will be housed at night! memtb
 
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But, they're self sufficient.

We haven't completed our fencing and coop yet, so haven't got our birds. I did some research and picked our breed for, it's cold capabilities (zero and below), egg production, meat production, foraging capabilities, and a natural brooder. While they may not be #1 in any one category……they check the boxes in all!

We will let ours free-range whenever possible….will be housed at night! memtb
They are to an extent.
 
But, they're self sufficient.

We haven't completed our fencing and coop yet, so haven't got our birds. I did some research and picked our breed for, it's cold capabilities (zero and below), egg production, meat production, foraging capabilities, and a natural brooder. While they may not be #1 in any one category……they check the boxes in all!

I put an 8' chain link fence around the perimeter, with about 1 foot buried in the ground. This should help stop predators from going under…..a solar powered electric fence will be around the top.

Eagles, hawks, ect. will be our only real problem. After the SHTF…..hawks/eagles will be turned into gumbo! 😉

We will let ours free-range whenever possible….will be housed at night! memtb
When we used to raise them for meat birds, we just kept the light hours extended in the winter to keep the layers laying and supplemented feed to reach target weight faster. In the summer they scavenged well, poultry are dirty animals when you think about it.
 
But, they're self sufficient.

We haven't completed our fencing and coop yet, so haven't got our birds. I did some research and picked our breed for, it's cold capabilities (zero and below), egg production, meat production, foraging capabilities, and a natural brooder. While they may not be #1 in any one category……they check the boxes in all!

We will let ours free-range whenever possible….will be housed at night! memtb
I have found Miniature Old English Game bantams to be the most useful. They are tiny, but they do everything, incubators and electricity are not needed. You need to keep more of them because of their small size.
Whatever breed you decide on be very careful where you get them. Get chickens that have hatched out under chickens rather than an incubator if at all possible.
Chickens that have been continually bred from incubator hatched chickens most often lose their ability to hatch and rear their own youngsters.
 
We live in a subdivision now so we can't raise chickens but when young we always had at least a dozen layers and a couple of roosters,at least 2 pigs we bought as a shoult and raised all year until fall where we sold one hog and buchard the other.
We did not make soap as a family down the road did and we shared.They killed 2 hogs at a time and we gave them some lard.
Home made soap can be harsh so our friend put things in the soap to make it less harsh,herbs and some things I can't remember,but it was great soap.
If SHTF today I would be less prepared than as a kid.
 
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