Raising poultry

I have my meat rabbits moving along now and have started on birds. I have about 20 mixed hens and a rooster — getting a consistent dozen eggs + per day. I just bought 4 Pekin ducklings, 10 cornish X, and 4 turkeys. I plan on the birds being a mainstay of my prepping for both meat and eggs. I live in a warm climate in SE Ga. My questions are:
 
1. Our turkeys so far have been broad breasted but I want to get turkeys that will reproduce on their own. I am thinking midget whites. Any thoughts or suggestions here?
 
2. I plan to buy an incubator. Any suggestions? Or is letting the birds do their thing naturally the right approach?
 
3. I am planning to build a small brooder building for the small birds until I can let them out etc. Is this overkill? Any ideas to offer when planning this building?
 
4. Any suggestions on geese or game birds?
 
5. I tried guinea hens which were fun but almost immediately took off never to be seen again when I finally let them out. Any tricks to train them to hang around?
 
6. Does it make sense to separate my chickens with a group of hens and no rooster just for eggs and separate section with rooster and hens to have meat chickens? If I have separate meat chicken area and want them to hatch and raise their chicks naturally is there anything I need to consider when setting it up?
 
I am fencing about 3/4 acre area for the birds to roam and put them in at night. Having some predator problems. I think I should break fenced area into sections so I can rotate them around so there can be new growth for them to eat etc.? When I get this project done some fellow prepper friends will be giving me goats to get started with next.

Kevin Sakuta

Broad-breasted turkeys very seldom can reproduce without artificial insemination due to their great size. So if you are going to raise turkeys for preparedness or self-reliance, I’d suggest any of the heritage breeds which can do their breeding by themselves. Midget Whites are great. We also like Bourbon Reds and Narragansetts. It’s pretty much a personal preference although the Midgets will eat less feed.

We have a small rigid foam incubator with an egg turner. The combination costs less than $100 and we’ve had about a 75% hatch. With the incubator you’ll hatch more birds per year but it will require both power to run (we run it off our battery bank in the basement; it doesn’t draw too much juice) and some sort of fuel to incubate the babies. We used propane but that does get expensive; it’s cheaper if you have electricity available. Of course in a survival situation, you’ll have neither so you’ll have to let nature take its course. Even this way, you can increase your hatch by buying a few good setting hens. Banties, full-sized Cochins, and Orpingtons are all good setters. And you can often set eggs under a broody hen that has few or no eggs under her, increasing your yearly hatch. No, I don’t think a small brooding shed is a bad idea at all. I would make absolutely sure your shed has a floor and is built very tight so predators such as weasels and snakes cannot get in or they’ll put you out of business pretty quickly! Include good ventilation via screened upper windows with a fan to use if it gets too hot.

To get guineas to stay home, it’s best to raise them with your chicks. By sort of bonding with them, they’ll have less inclination to fly away. With older birds, usually if you pen them up for a few weeks, going inside to feed and water them, they’ll soon feel more at home and get into the habit of being fed at certain times.

We don’t do geese because they are extremely messy birds and we don’t have facilities on our homestead for them. If you let them free range, they’ll be on your doorstep and deck, complete with lots of poop. Game birds are great if you have facilities to raise them. Back in the seventies, I raised several bunches of wild turkeys and turned them loose. So did several of our neighbors. Now, in that area there are large flocks and everyone is happy. We didn’t have many turks back then and didn’t know if they’d survive. Happily, they did. I like the idea of establishing a wild population so they can pretty much forage for themselves (you don’t have to buy feed!). Then, in season, you can hunt and harvest your meat.

We don’t separate our chickens except to separate growing chicks we’ve hatched in the house. Hens will lay just fine with the rooster around. Don’t plan on keeping Cornish Rock crosses to breed for future meat. We’ve tried several times and they’ve just died. Instead use a good old all-arounder like White Rocks for meat. They don’t make as much meat, as fast, but they will breed, lay lots of eggs, set and hatch them, AND they’ll live!

What has worked well for us is to use chicken tractors (small coops with mobile runs) for our breeding chickens, usually a couple of hens and a rooster. Have a nest for each hen and after she is setting on eggs, screen off the opening so the other hen can not lay eggs in that nest. When her nest is full of eggs and she is setting, remove the rooster. If you use 1-inch chicken wire for the run, when the chicks hatch, the hens can run with them and teach them the ropes. (If you have weasels or snakes around, use 1/4-inch hardware cloth instead!) We have our poultry fenced into our acre orchard with no divisions. They have so much feed that they never run it down. I have to mow it every so often to keep it under control! I think your birds will do fine without the division. But if they seem to keep it pecked down, go ahead and install one — good thinking!

When you are getting your goats, get your fences in good shape first; goats are very hard to successfully fence in. We use welded wire cattle panels for smaller pens and woven wire stock fencing with two stand-off electric wires inside the pasture to keep them off of the fence. Fences last much longer if you pick out goats without horns. Not only are the horns kind of dangerous to the goats themselves and you but they’re awfully bad about shoving their head through the fence and not being able to get out. And if you pick goats that have good milking backgrounds you’ll be able to not only drink plenty of tasty milk but also make cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and other foods right at home. Good luck with your homestead! — Jackie

When to harvest horseradish

Thank you for the horseradish recipe. My mom always made it and simply put vinegar to cover and stored it in the refrigerator. I remember wearing a swim mask and snorkel once to process it. Definitely an outdoor job. When is a good time to harvest horseradish? We made some last year in the middle of summer and I think that was the wrong time of year as it pretty much just tasted like vinegar.

Becky McKim
Ankeny, Iowa

We harvest our horseradish roots in the late fall, before the ground freezes. I think it tastes best after a hard freeze or two. Yeah, horseradish is pretty potent. I have an old blender that I use just for that and hot peppers as I’ve never been able to get the taste out of it! I’ve soaked it in baking soda water, boiled it, and set it in the sun for days. Now it’s a designated blender. — Jackie

Recanning sliced olives

I read where you re-canned sliced olives, and want to do the same. Clarification: The University of California web site seems to discourage canning sliced olives, but I am pretty sure they are talking about curing and canning fresh olives. Bottom line question: Is it safe to re-can “sliced” black olives?

Phil Jones
Middleton, Idaho

I’ve done the re-canning of #10 cans of sliced black olives for years. Be sure to process them for the recommended time, 60 minutes for pints or half-pints (I use half-pints for convenience.) at 10 pounds pressure (weighted gauge) or 11 pounds (dial gauge). Be sure to consult your canning book for directions on increasing your pressure if you live at an altitude over 1,000 feet. — Jackie