One would think that chickens were first domesticated for their egg and meat production, but in fact they were initially kept for cock fighting in Asia. These days chickens lay eggs on a daily (or nearly-daily) basis for human consumption, before we get to all the nitty gritty about nesting let me first start off… Continue reading The C Files: How to raise chickens – Layers & Nest Business
Category: Chickens
The C Files: How to raise chickens – Egg production
Chickens are a popular source of protein, due to their low-cost of raising and dual use as meat and eggs for protein production. South Africans are especially fond of chicken and it represents the most consumed protein in SA. Seeing that eggs are an easy, accessible and economic way to produce home-grown protein it is… Continue reading The C Files: How to raise chickens – Egg production
The C Files: How to raise chickens – Housing and Coops
Confined Chicken Coop Whether you provide a coop built from reclaimed materials or purchase a high-end fancy-schmancy chicken manor, all coops must fulfil a specific set of chicken requirements. Here I provide information on all requirements for any chicken housing, some additional optional(s) and provide basic designs to get you started. Know what you… Continue reading The C Files: How to raise chickens – Housing and Coops
The C Files: How to raise chickens – Feed & Water
The C files are an article series I started on how-to-keep chickens. This will be another regular feature about backyard chickens that I will rotate with the existing how-to-grow series. Here I will cover chicken feed and water provisions. Feed rations: Biology – Chickens are a prey species and have evolved a digestive system that… Continue reading The C Files: How to raise chickens – Feed & Water
SISTAS IN DA COOP! Native South African Chicken Breeds
We have been keeping chickens since 2012. So during my quest to source chickens, many local sites suggested that if you’d like to keep chickens, try and do so with indigenous ones. I did not even knew that you get chickens indigenous to Southern Africa when I started! It is hard to find information on… Continue reading SISTAS IN DA COOP! Native South African Chicken Breeds
Green Manures: Cover Crops & Green Forage
I was actually researching green forages as alternative feed for chickens when I noticed there is a large overlap between green forages and green manures. Seeing that nothing is happening in the garden for most of winter I decided to look into green manures a little bit more in detail to grow during the winter… Continue reading Green Manures: Cover Crops & Green Forage
The C Files: Reasons for keeping chickens
Before we get to the reasons for keeping chickens lets first summarise the different chicken keeping methods and their terminologies: There are two categories of chicken keeping; Battery cage and cage free. Battery-cage: These are industrial units for poultry farming on a large scale (also known as factory farming). Mostly the cages are small… Continue reading The C Files: Reasons for keeping chickens
Whisker Flowers 