Our laying flock is back
on pasture!  Sometimes I wonder if they’d be even happier if I just
let them roam in the woods full-time, but then I remember that every
pasture needs a rest.  I don’t think our surrounding woodland would
be such optimal winter pasture if I didn’t fence the chickens into rotational, grassy paddocks during the growing season.



Of course, when let into a new paddock, the flock goes directly for the mulch boxes,
not for the grass.  I suspect the optimal chicken pasture would be
two-thirds mulched ground and one-third tender clover morsels, but we
never have enough mulch to go around.  So grass it is.



In order to keep the
ground covered with growing things instead of scratched bare, it’s
essential to rotate the flock at least once a week.  To learn more,
check out my 99 cent ebook Permaculture Chicken: Pasture Basics.

Can you train a cat to not
try to eat cute young chicks?


Training dogs to leave chickens alone is easy because dogs want to
please their human pack leader, but most cats only seem interested in
pleasing themselves.



Our two cats are full grown
and have access to the area where we let chicks run free. We’ve had
several years of peaceful coexistence between the two, but we keep the
cats well fed and I suspect that might change if they had a few days of
being hungry.