Moving off the grid
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I've been taking steps for a few years to move off the grid more and more, and to lead more of a sustainable lifestyle. I still have a ways to go, but my chickens are a big part of it. I give them table scraps, they give me eggs - a good trade-off.
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I've been taking steps to get a new nuclear power plant to be built nearby my place, in case my off-grid plans fall short. I'm training my chickens to warn us if anything uncanny happens: if they grow two heads, time to move on.
I've trained my chickens to mine for rare earth metals and to dig for oil. I want to be off the grid, but I still want to get obscenely rich by destroying the environment - I'm not stupid.
> mine for rare earth metals and to dig for oil
No wonder they break their beak. You worker abuser.
> "don't worry, it will grow back quickly and she'll be fine"
Sure. Note that regrowth will be much faster if radiation levels are above normal. In fact, they will probably grow multiple beaks, improving yield by the same factor.
I've wanted to do the same (I imagine an outsized portion of GNU freaks do, being about being in control of things you own and whatnot).
Have any advice on your adventure so far? I've wanted chickens, what sort of things go into it?
I could write a book on all the things I didn't know about chickens until I got them. I'd say just try it - 3 or 4 chicks is the perfect number to start with. Once they started laying eggs, they laid more eggs than I knew what to do with. I had to start giving them away to friends and family and start eating a LOT more eggs. I wasn't a big "3 egg breakfast" kind of guy, so we've been finding a lot of egg recipes for dinners.
One bit of good advice I got early on was to pick them up when they are chicks and play with them in your hands and carry them around as often as possible - they get used to it and will not run away from you as much when you need to round them up. Now that they are older, I cradle them like carrying a small cat or puppy and walk around the yard and talk to them. Also you can see from my picture that I lay in the grass a lot and let them walk on my legs and peck at my clothes. The more that you can get them comfortable with you, the less wild they will be and the more they will act like little pets.
As far as real advice, there's a bunch of "backyard chicken" websites that I go to every time I have a question. For instance, one day I found that one of my chickens broke the end of her beak off. I was a bit freaked out, but the backyard chicken websites said, "don't worry, it will grow back quickly and she'll be fine", and it did. They are good for every kind of advice that you'll need.
It's been somewhat colder recently in our remote place, so we have decided to enhance our chickens feather growth rate.
Wow what beautiful birdies. They put my chicks to shame.
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