If
our forest
pasture experiment works out well this year, we may try to
convert our egg-laying flock to a more sustainable breed next
year. I’m very much in the research stages at the moment, and
would love your feedback. I’m looking for a variety that breeds
true (so Golden Comets are out), forages well, and
lays plenty of eggs
(although I don’t require the massive number that we get from our
Golden
Comets.)
Since foraging is at the
top of my list, I wandered around the internet
to see which breeds were popular during the
Great Depression. Dominiques seemed to roll off everyone’s
tongues,
along with Rhode Island Reds. Other interesting egg-layers
include Hamburgs, Egyptian Fayounis, and Buckeyes. Have you
raised chickens that you think would fit the bill? Please leave a
comment and let me know! Meanwhile, check out our automatic chicken waterers, perfect in all types of
coops and tractors.
Good egg-layers
About The Author
Anna & Mark
Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton are a pair of back-to-the-landers who have been homesteading for over a decade.
I am very pleased with my Road Island Reds. My girls range around the house and pasture. The Road Island Reds seem to be very busy little pickers just like my Golden Comets. But as these birds all grew up together I have to wonder if that may be a habit they picked up from the Comets? They lay a little less often but not to much. But none of my girls seem to get broody at all. May just be my girls but had to incubate this winter to try and get chicks because my girls aren’t interested.
My father told me the same thing about his Rhode Island Reds being good foragers. They might just fit the bill! Not brooding is probably okay — we might eventually just find a really good brood hen and let her do the work. Or try again with our incubator.
I’m wondering whether I can’t teach my birds to be good foragers — maybe give our chicks worms and things even as youngsters so that they learn to hunt moving things in the litter. How much is nature and how much is nurture?
We have found our Rhode Island Reds to be excellent layers and foragers. To encourage foraging, we fed them less in the summer allowing the feed to run out each day. Some mornings, we didn’t even fill the feeder. We just put out a bit of scratch for them to get started and the girls just took off looking for bugs. Since it was summer and bugs were plentiful, they were successful. In the winter we make sure they have access to plenty of feed but they seem to prefer foraging. Now that they have the foraging habit, we just fill the feeder every few days and they forage and feed at will. We have 6 girls, and we usually get 5-6 per day in warm weather, 4 per day in the winter months.
Kim — this is exactly the kind of system I’m looking for! If you check back, I’ve got some questions for you. How much land (acres?) do they have to forage in? What kind of landscape is it (wooded, grassy, both?) I guess you can be sure they’re getting enough to eat because they aren’t going for the feed — that’s actually what I’d been most concerned about because I certainly don’t want to starve my birds.
Also — do you know how long it takes you to go through a 50 pound bag of feed? I’d like to be able to estimate what percentage of their food they’re getting from foraging.