# Game hens?



## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

Anyone kept game hens? My neighbor says they will practically fed themselves if free range and are small so not much feed to buy. 

We gave away 13 B Rocks last year to let ground rest for awhile although they had an acrea area plus pens to lock in at night they still after 19 years did a number on the area.


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## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

A friend had some. They layed lots of small eggs and are scrawny birds. There's no meat on them. To bake with the eggs she had to weigh them to make sure they equaled what a large egg weighed. To many predators here to free range.


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

terri9630 said:


> A friend had some. They layed lots of small eggs and are scrawny birds. There's no meat on them. To bake with the eggs she had to weigh them to make sure they equaled what a large egg weighed. To many predators here to free range.


 Terri it took us 7 years to finally cover the pens and once the cedar trees grew up for them to hide in we never lost one hen. A little here and a little there.
Lots of hawks, fox, ***** here. Plus some panthers that are becoming extinct. We laid down welded wire on the ground then put fence on top so is critter tried to dig they always met wire so did hens if they tried to dig out and some did.

Mostly we see baby opossums hiding in nest with eggs. And lots of SNAKES! We have plenty of snakes here of all kinds. But they never touched a hen only eggs.


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## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

Meerkat said:


> Terri it took us 7 years to finally cover the pens and once the cedar trees grew up for them to hide in we never lost one hen. A little here and a little there.
> Lots of hawks, fox, ***** here. Plus some panthers that are becoming extinct. We laid down welded wire on the ground then put fence on top so is critter tried to dig they always met wire so did hens if they tried to dig out and some did.
> 
> Mostly we see baby opossums hiding in nest with eggs. And lots of SNAKES! We have plenty of snakes here of all kinds. But they never touched a hen only eggs.


It's to dry here for trees unless you water them every few days. The "wild" mesquite only gets about 3feet tall. They don't give protection from anything but hawks.


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

terri9630 said:


> It's to dry here for trees unless you water them every few days. The "wild" mesquite only gets about 3feet tall. They don't give protection from anything but hawks.


 I didn't consider the area, guess it is hard to shade there.


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## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

Meerkat said:


> I didn't consider the area, guess it is hard to shade there.


My husband and his brother went out "jeepin" and sent a pretty good picture of the landscape.


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## Pessimistic2 (Jan 26, 2017)

terri9630 said:


> My husband and his brother went out "jeepin" and sent a pretty good picture of the landscape.


Jeeez, that looks like my YARD, and I'M in Alabama!


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## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

Pessimistic2 said:


> Jeeez, that looks like my YARD, and I'M in Alabama!


We've had quite a bit of rain so far this year so it's pretty green. Of course "quite a bit" for us, 2inches, is extreme drought for most.


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