Ok I have a question. Has anyone here ever raised chickens for eggs? Do you need the male rooster or just the hen?

No, you don't need a rooster for the hens to lay eggs.

I'd make sure you have all pertinent permits and such if needed to do this in your area...You don't want anyone getting a coniption fit if there's a law that says you need a four-foot high fence around them when yours is only 3 1/2 feet...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

This ia a BUMP more than it is information....

I was raised in the city, but I'm hoping that this post will encourage more input. I'm going back to visiting relatives (MANY years ago)....

Someone needs to provide current info!!!!

All of my southern relatives had hens and a rooster. An egg harvested the same day it was laid shows little difference.

If you leave it a day or two, the hold the egg up to the candle/flashlight to see if there is growth.

My southern relatives insisted that a rooster encouraged egg laying. I don't know if this is true or now.

I am not sure if I told y'all but we are going to be moving and we will have about 3 1/2 acres and if we product and sell at least $500.00 worth of some sorta farm product we get a great tax break. So hence the question.

I think a great idea would be to start a webpage to sell them with a Politcal Wrinkles banner...

Just sayin'...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

Bahahahahaha. Ok well once I figure out what the heck I am doing so that I don't kill them, I'll take ya up on that.

Then you probably don't want to go with chickens. It takes a lot of them to produce enough eggs to even make it worth it. One per chicken per day. Unless you are feeding enough chickens to make a decent breakpoint on the feed itself, they really aren't a big enough money maker to off-set the feed cost.

Fresh eggs sure are great, though.

Honestly, a vegetable garden of about 1 acre would give you enough vegetables for home and if you sold at a farmer's market, you would easily make your 500.00 over the course of two growing seasons. You could grow tomatoes, corn, and okra over the spring-summer and then replant for gourds and melons, pumpkins, and gourds summer-fall.

Hmmmmm the only problem is that I am not so good with gardens. I think I really just try to hard with them instead of just letting them do their thing. The tomatoes no problem since I am in Jersey and everyone knows we have the best matters. , I don't know much about pumpkins, they grow on a vine right, they need lots of space? Hmmmm this is difficult since I am not a farm girl at all.

I grew up on a farm and was partial to the crops over the animals, so I might be a bit biased. I think chickens are the worst of all...nasty creatures with very little yield for time and money spent caring for them.

And yes, other than weeding ocassionally and watering during a drought, vegetable gardens pretty much just need to be left alone.. Stake up your weak stalked plants like tomatoes and just let the corn do its own thing once it gets about knee-high. As for the pumpkins, plant 'em about 24 inches apart and keep the vines up off the aisles between the rows. Make sure you pull 'em off before the first frost.

If you are doing this just for the tax break and don't want a lot of extra work out of it, stay away from beans and berries. They require much more work and are a bitch to harvest. You just want some self sufficient, hearty plants in the ground by the end of March, if you can. You wanna shoot for your summer harvest to happen by end of July so you can till under and get your fall harvest vegetables in to be collected by the end of october. With gardens, its all about timing and not much else.