Author: Anna & Mark

Letting chickens graze in the woods

October 24, 2011 Posts 2 Comments
Chicks in the garden

Our adult chickens told
me that they were sick
of their over-grazed pastures and jealous of the Light
Sussex who have been happily foraging throughout our garden and orchard
for weeks.  “But you’ll scratch up the mulch!” I complained. 
“Those Sussex are too little to do much damage yet, but I’ve seen how
destructive a full-grown hen can be.”



Chickens in the woodsYou may remember that I let
our first batch of Australorps run in the woods as youngsters, which
worked fine for a while.  However, when the flock neared three
months old, the Golden
Comet hybrid cockerel led them around the barn and up into our garden, where they quickly got into
trouble.



“But you ate him,
remember?” the remaining Australorps coaxed.  “Come on.  Give
us one chance.”



The truth is that Mark
and I had started to doubt the foraging abilities of our current flock
due to their tendency to laze around the pasture.  So I decided a
test was in order — I opened the gate and let them free.  Seven
hens and a cockerel spread out through the young woods, scratching
industriously and filling their crops until they nearly burst with good
food.  The storebought pellets I’d scattered for their breakfast
were ignored until after lunch, and without a friendly
breed to tempt them
near humans, our hens have so far stayed away from our cultivated
plants.


Chickens in autumn weeds

I’m working on a new
hypothesis about pasture quality — if your chickens are lounging
around for more than about two hours per day, you’re either
overfeeding, or the pasture is subpar.  Perhaps chicken activity
level is the best way to gauge when a pasture needs to be rested?


Our chicken waterer provides clean water for the
active bird.

How to get free range chickens to forage

October 24, 2011 Posts No Comments

Day range chickensIn a previous post, I
hypothesized that you can tell the quality of the forage by how much
time a chicken spends lounging around vs. actively foraging.  It turns out that
scientists have spent considerable time collecting data on the
activities of chickens in commercial day
range settings, and have discovered that broilers often prefer to
sit around inside.  Even at peak foraging times and temperatures,
only 13% to 25% of broilers will set foot outside the door.  (I
guess I need to give our ladies a break — even when they’re not
actively working, they do tend to hang around outside.)



Here are some highlights
of the studies:

  • Chickens forage time of dayMorning
    and/or evening seemed to be peak foraging times    .  Students
    at Truman State University     found that the most chickens were
    actively foraging from 7 am to 10:59 am while this
    UK study     (the data of which is shown here) found the most chickens
    outside right after the popholes opened in the morning and right before
    they closed at night.
  • Chickens will range further from
    their house if trees are present    .  Marian
    Dawkin     planted young trees in bare chicken pastures and studied the
    flocks’ behavior for the next three years.  In year one, there was
    no difference between the pastures with and without trees (presumably
    because the trees were so small), but two years later, more chickens
    were found in the tree-filled pastures than in those that had been left
    bare.



The take-home message is
— make sure your chickens have access to pasture early in the morning
and late in the evening and plant some trees!


Putting a chicken waterer at the far end of the
pasture is another useful way to get your chickens outside.

Supplemental light in the chicken coop

October 19, 2011 Posts 8 Comments

Supplemental coop lightWe put a light in our chicken
coop for the first time this year.  You’re probably aware that you
can boost egg production in the winter by keeping “day length” 14 hours
or longer.  The flip side of that coin is that your flock has to
deal with laying extra eggs during what would naturally be more of a
rest period, so your hens may get sick and/or wear out sooner.



In the past, I’ve
decided the extra eggs weren’t worth the wear and tear on our flock
(and increased electric bill), but shortening days arrived this year
before our spring pullets started to lay.  A young hen (pullet)
can start to lay eggs after she’s five to seven months old, but she
might put laying off until the next spring if she doesn’t get started
by early fall.  Our oldest pullets hatched on April 20, so they’re
due to start laying anytime, but I think the shortening days put their
biological clocks to sleep.  Anticipating a winter nearly without
eggs was enough to make me lower my standards and hook up a light.



Supplemental light
doesn’t have to be fancy, but it should be consistent.  You’ll
need a timer to turn the light on and off — 14 hours of daylight is
the goal, which currently means turning on the bulb for three hours in
the evening.  Many folks recommend adding your extra lighting in
the morning so that the chickens don’t get caught on the ground when
the light flicks off, but if you keep your light relatively dim, your
chickens will spend most of that additional daylight on the perch
anyway.

The type of bulb doesn’t seem to be all that important either — we
used a fluorescent for the lower electric bill, but some people suggest
even LED Christmas lights or nightlights might work.  The rule of
thumb is that good egg-laying breeds will respond to 5 lux, which is a
light intensity at which the average person can just barely read a
newspaper.  Heavier breeds need 50 lux to keep production up —
equivalent to the lighting in an average family living room. 
(This is still considerably less light than a very dark, overcast day
or office lighting.)



I have high hopes that
the extra light will have our Black Australorps laying shortly. 
I’m ready to stop rationing eggs!


Our chicken waterer keeps the flock
well-hydrated with POOP-free water.