Chicken pasture contest

May 5, 2010 Posts No Comments

Dark Cornish cockerelWe’re
running a chicken
pasture contest over
on our homestead blog.  When will the first forest pasture be
completely denuded of vegetation and ready to plant in buckwheat and
clover?  Leave a comment over there with your guess and you may
win two of our favorite perennials — bee balm and Egyptian onions.



To read the details,
click the link at the top of the page.  I hope you’ll all enter!


If you haven’t already, be
sure to experiment with our homemade chicken
waterer, proven to
keep water POOP-free.

Feeding whole corn to chickens

May 3, 2010 Chicken feed, Pasturing chickens 2 Comments

Feeding whole kernels of corn to chickensAs you know, I’m on a quest to find out cheaper ways to keep our chickens
fed.  Robert Plamondon provides unlimited access to whole corn kernels, and finds that the cheap corn cuts down on chicken feed costs.  While corn isn’t a well-rounded diet for chickens, feeding corn can definitely cut costs if your chickens have access to plenty of range.  They should get enough protein in their diets by catching bugs and scratching up worms, with the corn acting as a carbohydrate boost.

Plamondon notes:

As usual with feeding trials, the results [of a comparison between chickens provided with unlimited pellets verus those provided with unlimited corn] are inconclusive, with the hens eating only the balanced ration sometimes being more profitable than the ones with free-choice grain, and sometimes not. But that’s only if the grain costs the same whether you feed it separately or use it in the layer ration. If you have a source of cheap whole corn that costs a lot less than your layer ration, feeding separate corn is a hands-down win.


Sounds like I should plant a bit of field corn along with buckwheat in the grain portion of our forest pasture.

Do chickens get enough to drink with a nipple waterer

May 1, 2010 Posts No Comments
Obviously
this method of water is working well for you and for many others, but
still it seems like the chickens would have a hard time quenching their
thirst if they just get one drop of water with every peck.  Or can
they get a constant stream if they keep their beak pushing against the
nipple – and if so, do they do that?
— Shirley



Homemade chicken watererYou’re
completely right that it takes chickens much longer to drink out of an Avian Aqua Miser than a traditional waterer,
but I consider that a plus.  Unless your chickens are ranging over
a large pasture, chances are they’re bored
and don’t have much to do with their time.  Studies have shown
that chickens
are hard-wired to peck all day long — in the wild, it would
take them that long to fill their bellies.  When given easy to
grab food, they usually eat it up within an hour and spend the rest of
the day with nothing to peck at…except each other.  That’s where
a lot of the feather
pecking problems
begin.



The Avian Aqua Miser
gives chickens something to do with their pecking instinct — they can
peck all day at the nipple rather than their neighbors.  The
result is healthy, happy chickens with beautiful
plumage.