Oh Chicken Poo!

Did you know that the average chicken poops 30 lbs per year?  Why are you asking is this something you need to know? You don't! But I was wondering as Tim and I cleaned out the chicken house this weekend. We got to talking and couldn't remember when the last time we cleaned it out. That is bad! I am sure it was sometime this past summer we just couldn't remember when. We have 40 chickens that is 1200 lbs of poo! I swear it was all in the chicken house and why? These birds get to go outside whenever they want why not do their duty outside?

So I got online to find out that chickens poo before they fly and when they get scared. They do not poo when they are sleeping. SO, they can not fly in the chicken house (there is nests and roosts) so they must be getting scared! I have noticed a lot of feathers lately thought maybe they just drop them because of the weather change, but I haven't found any dead chickens.

We leave the dogs out in the summer so they can chase away critters. We hear them bark during the night but I never see anything. We once set up a live trap after losing 26 guineas and caught a rim horn owl. He was a pretty owl but he wasn't a nice owl. I got to look at him all day as we tried to decide what to do with him. (It is against the law to shoot them) We called the DNR and they said we should release him at least 15 miles away.

So getting back to poo. I found out that breeder hen litter goes for $19.67 per ton. We would only be about 800 lbs shy of making $20. (Tim is laughing right now because I am always trying to find ways to make money on the farm from the most random things). Next problem who would buy it? I can not see charging for poo!

Did you also know that one chicken lays 260 eggs a year. Forty chickens minus 5 roosters and we SHOULD have about 9100 eggs a year, that is 758 dozen eggs to sell. Notice the should! We seem to be a "do not get rid of" farm. We have some old chickens.  Chickens only lay eggs for about two years and their meat is only good for three years. We have some chickens that bless their little hearts have stayed around for about six years now. What are we suppose to do with them? Tim has had to shoot roosters (we have had a few that would try to fight us) but I do not think my hunter can shoot a hen especially when they come wobbling toward us at feeding time and can not wait for the bread crumbs or the sweet corn we are giving as treats.

I remember when I was a kid my family and my Grandma would dress about 100 chickens. That would mean that Grandma would pull their necks (us kids would love to watch them flapping around, it was our job to get them from under the vehicles). They would then put them in hot water and pull off the feathers. My Grandma would then chop off their heads and feet. We would clean some more then my dad would cut into pieces and we would put into freezer bags. Easy! (of course we kids didn't do any of the work).

Now it is our turn and I do not think I have the stomach for it. There are no lockers around that do this anymore (I have checked!) So what do we do? If anyone has any ideas or would like to help and do not mind doing most of the work if my stomach gets to me, let us know? We need to do something soon. We have more egg customers than eggs right now and I can not get more chickens until we do something with the old.

 And I thought this farming stuff would be easy!

Aren't they cute!

 That was our Owl friend. We moved him to 

Webster City.