"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority ... the Constitution was made to guard against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters." - Noah Webster


"There is no worse tyranny than forcing a man to pay for what he does not want just because you think it would be good for him."
-- Robert A. Heinlein

Friday, August 6, 2010

Incredible Edible Eggs

We raise chickens. This is the first of two "arks" that I built so that our chickens could be as close to "free" range as possible.

You see, there are lots of predators here in the mountains. We have coyotes, bears, owls, snakes, mountains lions, bobcats, hawks, etc. I haven't met anyone who has chickens in this area who has not also lost some chickens to predators. So I built these movable cages. I have six hens in one and 5 hens and a rooster in the other. If I get enough comments or requests, I'll post more pictures with details about how they work.

The chickens can go up the ramp at night and roost up there, and that's where they lay their eggs. As of this writing, we are averaging 8 eggs a day. There is no comparison between these eggs and what you buy in a regular grocery store. These chickens get to eat cracked corn, a special laying pellet formula, plus insects and grub worms and lots of green vegetation. The yolks of the eggs are a deep orange and have a "heartier" flavor as best as I can describe it. Some of the chickens consistently lay double yoke eggs.

We discovered that of the vegetation available, chickens love two things most of all. Dandelions and radish tops. Chickens love grubs and caterpillars, but don't care at all for earthworms, (which I think is very cool, and not at all a coincidence).

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