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How Much and When to Feed Chickens

Feeding backyard chickens is an imprecise science. It’s difficult to tell someone how much to feed their chickens, or even when to feed them. So many variables are involved: the type of chickens, whether they’re growing or laying, how active they are, how neat you are, the type of feeders you have, the number of free-loading pests you support, and the weather.

Use these guidelines for feeding your chickens, but alter them for your own flock.

Our modern, high-production egg breeds convert feed to eggs very efficiently, especially if they’re fed a ration formulated for laying hens. After they’re laying well, it takes about 4 pounds of a quality feed of 16 to 18 percent protein to produce a dozen eggs. The breeds kept for dual purposes (eggs and meat) generally have heavier body masses to support and need more feed to produce a dozen eggs than a lighter production breed.

It takes about 2 pounds of feed to produce 1 pound of body weight on a growing meat-type bird. So if a broiler weighs about 6 pounds at 10 weeks, it will have eaten about 12 pounds of feed. Remember that it ate less when it was small, and the amount of feed consumed increased each week. A medium-weight laying hen will eat about 1/4 pound of feed per day when she begins producing. These are rough estimates, but they give you some idea of what to expect.

Chickens eat more in cold weather and less in hot weather.

If you are unsure how much to feed your chickens (and don’t want to accidentally deprive them), fill the chickens’ feed dishes so food is available much of the day, or use feeders that hold several day’s worth of feed. You can use this feeding method for all types of chickens. It’s the way chickens would eat in nature; they eat small amounts frequently.

You can continue that method if you like, or you can feed your chickens at certain times of the day. (Most people who use this method choose morning and evening.) This allows you to control the amount of feed that may attract pests. And if the chickens are too heavy, it restricts the amount they can eat. With free-range birds, it encourages them to lay and to sleep in the coop. Usually, however, it’s just a matter of preference; some people like to observe and tend to their chickens more often than others. This method works well for all but meat birds.

Because of their heavy rate of growth, the meat-type broiler chickens need to have food available to them at all times, day and night. Remember, chickens don’t eat in the dark, so the lights must be on for these birds all night. For the Rock-Cornish crosses, the lights should be on 24 hours a day, and feed should be in the feed pans at least 23 of those hours. Some people recommend an hour of no feed, but most home chicken-keepers find that difficult to regulate. Just make sure they always have feed. Laying hens, pets, and show birds are fine with restricted times of feeding and don’t need feed at night.

Be very careful not to feed moldy food, which can kill or harm your chickens, and make sure food is stored so it won’t attract rats, coons, and other pests. If you’re using a lot more feed than you think you should, pests like rats may be eating it at night. You may want to empty feeders at night or put them inside a pest-proof container for all birds other than the broiler-type meat birds.

If you need to add grit to your chickens’ diet, you can supply it in a small dish from about the fifth day of life. Chicks should be eating their regular feed well before you add grit, or they may fill up on it. Make sure the dish is covered or narrow so the birds don’t dust-bathe in it. Discard it and add clean grit if it becomes contaminated with chicken droppings.

How to Store Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes can last for several months when stored properly, but you need to follow proper storage procedures carefully in order to prevent them from bruising or spoiling. Here's what you need to know about storing sweet potatoes at both room temperature and freezing temperatures.

1. Use fresh, fat sweet potatoes. Newly harvested sweet potatoes with the roots still attached are the best option to use.
Plump sweet potatoes store just as well as skinny ones, and they have more usable "meat" to consume.
If harvesting the sweet potatoes yourself, use a spade fork to dig 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) beneath the soil in order to get all the roots up. Handle them carefully since sweet potatoes tend to bruise easily, and shake off excess dirt but do not wash the roots.

2. Cure the sweet potatoes for 1 to 2 weeks. Keep the roots in a room or other location that reaches between 75 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit (24 and 27 degrees Celsius) with relative humidity of 90 to 95 percent.
The sweet potatoes need to cure for at least 7 days, but they can be kept there for as many as 14 days.
The curing process creates a second skin that forms over scratches and bruises, allowing the sweet potatoes to last longer in storage.
Use a small electric fan in the area to keep the air circulating. This helps to prevent rotting and molding.
Monitor the temperature and humidity regularly to make sure that the sweet potatoes are sitting in the conditions needed for proper curing.
For best results, keep the sweet potatoes from touching each other as they cure.

3. Discard bruised sweet potatoes. After the sweet potatoes have finished curing, throw away any that appear bruised, rotting, or moldy.
Bruised sweet potatoes have not cured correctly, so they will not last as long as the other sweet potatoes and may even cause the other sweet potatoes to spoil faster.

4. Wrap each one in newspaper. Individually wrap the sweet potatoes in sheets of newsprint or in brown paper bags.
Newspaper and brown paper bags are both fairly breathable, providing just enough air circulation to prevent the sweet potatoes from rotting too quickly.

5. Pack the sweet potatoes in a box or basket. Store the individually-wrapped sweet potatoes in a cardboard box, wooden box, or wooden basket.
Do not use an airtight storage container.
Place an apple in the box.The apple will help prevent the sweet potatoes from budding.

6. Store in a cool, dark location. Keep the sweet potatoes in an area that is consistently between 55 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit (13 and 16 degrees Celsius).
For best results, store the sweet potatoes in a basement or root cellar. If neither option is available to you, store them in a dark, cool, and well-ventilated cupboard or pantry away from strong heat sources.
Do not use a refrigerator.
Monitor the temperature frequently to make sure that it does not fall below or rise above this range.
Stored in this manner, the sweet potatoes can last up to 6 months. Remove them from storage gently to prevent bruising.

Top 10 apples to grow in your garden

1. 'Chivers Delight'

This is a late flowerer and cropper referred to in the trade as a 'Cox Plus'. It has as much flavour (if not more) than 'Cox's Orange Pippin' and better acidity, which it keeps in storage. Cox famously go woolly quickly in storage, whereas the flesh of 'Chivers Delight' remains firm and nutty. This fell out of commercial favour because of its colour irregularity. If the sun is on it, the fruit goes red, but it will not colour up on the shady side. This does not affect the flavour but makes them difficult to sell.

2. 'Spartan'

Nothing has the same richness of colour as 'Spartan', a lovely deep plum red, with almost bright white, contrasting flesh. It's a beautiful apple, which stays late on the tree and makes a fabulous eater with very juicy fruit. It's the one I use at Perch Hill for Christmas wreaths and, being a good storer, is widely available late in the year.

3. 'Blenheim Orange'

A fabulously aromatic, peppery, almost spicy apple with a softer nuttiness than you get with the similar-flavoured 'Egremont Russet'. This variety is a bit prone to scab, so is best grown on its own and certainly away from very scab-prone varieties such as 'Crispin'.

4. 'Egremont Russet'

A famous apple with a wonderful nutty, woody texture and a very characteristic taste, floral and heady, so you can almost smell the blossom. It stores well, with the flavour deepening to honey.

5. 'Pitmaston Pine Apple'

This is a very unusual apple, difficult to find but, in Henry's view, worth the effort. It eats like a 'Greensleeves' early on, but you can store it until April when the flavour morphs into pineapple.

6. 'Greensleeves'

A light, crispy, full-of-flavour apple, lovely and crunchy straight off the tree. This is the one 'Golden Delicious' aspires to be, with excellent flavour in a beautiful pale yellow fruit.

7. 'Discovery'

This is one of the first to harvest (in August), so Henry loves it for reminding us what we've been missing all summer. If we get a sunny July and August, the redness leaches from the skin into the flesh. Then if you press it, you'll have a beautiful pale pink juice.

8. 'Worcester Pearmain'

A rich, creamy apple with a really strong flavour, one of the original varieties brought over by the Normans. It's just about surviving in the UK, but you don't see it often, apart from in the Wye Valley where it's usually pressed into juice.

9. 'Howgate Wonder'

A great all-rounder apple – a good cooker early on, it also presses well and mellows the later you leave it, with the acidity dropping away, so it can be eaten as a dessert apple from the store or tree. It's one of the few varieties where you can leave the fruit on the tree, start harvesting in August and carry on until the end of October at least. It performs well whatever the weather and is often a challenger for the largest fruit.

10. 'Médaille d'Or'

How to Microchip Your Goat for Easy Identification

If you live in a state that doesn't require identification, you don't have to permanently identify unregistered goats. If you get a registered goat, it should already have a microchip or tattoo, and if you want to register a goat that is eligible for one of the registries, you will be required to permanently identify it to prove that the goat is who you say it is. You also may want to permanently identify your goats even if you aren't required to. You never know when you might have to prove that they're yours — if they get lost or stolen, for example.

Microchips come in sterile, individual injectors that look like a large syringe and needle. Each is sealed, has a unique number, and includes several stick-on labels imprinted with the number. The microchips can be read only with a special microchip reader.

The best place to insert the microchip is in the tail web (the loose, hairless area under the tail on either side of the anus). Always use the left side to make finding the microchip easier.

You need a cotton ball, some rubbing alcohol, a microchip in its injector, a microchip reader, and registration papers and/or another form to record the number. (A reader is not required for microchipping, but by having one, you avoid the small chance of error in recording the number.)

Here are the steps you take to microchip your goat:

Get your supplies together.

Remove the microchip injector from its container, being careful to keep the needle up so the chip doesn't fall out, and scan it. Confirm that the number scanned is identical to the number on the stick-on labels.

Secure the goat on a milk stand or have a helper hold the goat on her lap.

If you're using a helper, have her hold the goat with the head to one side, the legs secured between her legs, and her arm wrapped around the goat's side holding the tail up. She can hold the legs with the other hand for more stability.

Clean the insertion area with alcohol.

If you have a goat that may have been microchipped previously, scan the area several times to verify that no chip is implanted.

Insert the needle just under the loose skin for several inches, pressing upward at a nearly parallel angle.

Press the plunger until it stops.

Remove the needle and apply pressure for a few minutes at the injection site to prevent the microchip from coming out and to stop any bleeding.

Scan to locate the implanted microchip.

Verify the number against the stick-on labels. Place a label on your form and registration papers, if applicable, and record the animal's name.

The Benefits of Raising Goats

You get a lot from keeping goats. Raising goats can help you achieve a sustainable lifestyle. You can milk them or eat their meat, use their fiber and their skin for making clothing, and even use their dung for fuel (if you are so inclined).

You may want to raise goats for a variety of reasons:

Becoming more self-sufficient: Goats can give you milk to drink and food to eat, and even help you carry your belongings when backpacking.

Cutting your dairy bill: If you raise dairy goats, you might not have to buy cheese or milk ever again. Your goats need to have kids to give you milk, and then you can milk them throughout the year for up to three years without re-breeding.

Raising your own meat: Goat meat has always been popular in the developing world because goats are much more affordable and use fewer resources than animals such as cows. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the demand for goat meat is expected to continue growing.

Growing your own fiber: Some of the finest fiber comes from goats: Angora and Pygora goats produce mohair, cashmere goats produce cashmere, and crosses between the two breeds produce a fiber called cashgora.

If you raise fiber goats, you can spin your own yarn and make hats, blankets, sweaters or other products. You can also sell the fiber to spinners or to companies that make these products.

Harnessing goats' power as living weed whackers: Goats are well-known for their ability to wipe out weeds. In fact, some people have made businesses out of renting out their goat herds to cities and other municipalities to clean up areas that are overgrown with weeds or blackberry bushes. These leased goats decrease the need to use herbicides, improve the soil's fertility, decrease the risk of fire, increase the diversity of plants in the area, and control weeds in hard-to-reach areas, such as steep hills.

Breeding and selling: Unless your goats are just pets or brush eaters, you probably want to breed them. If you have dairy goats, you need to breed them to keep a good supply of milk flowing. And you need to replace any goats you sell or slaughter.

Keeping goats as pets: You can leash train goats and take them on walks throughout the neighborhood or around your property, which provides exercise for all of you.

Using your goat for packing: Goats are social animals and, after you establish a relationship with them, they love to spend time with you. They enjoy going for hikes and can carry your belongings; they find plenty to eat right there in the wilderness.

Raising goats as a 4-H project: Getting children involved in raising goats is a good way to teach responsibility. Keeping goats requires twice-a-day chores. Children quickly learn that the goats depend on them. They also find out about the cycle of birth and death and get outdoors to get regular exercise.