Author: Anna & Mark

Is a rooster a freeloader

November 1, 2010 Posts 2 Comments

RoosterIn the past, I’ve considered roosters to be a
drain on a flock of laying hens.  Partly, the issue lay in keeping
a rooster with just a few hens in a chicken tractor, but I also saw
no point in feeding an animal that wasn’t pulling his weight.

Since we want to become a bit more self-sufficient by raising our own
chicks, we let our hybrid rooster survive the chopping block this
year.  And, surprisingly, I’m starting to feel like he’s worth the
extra feed.  His mitigating influence was a great help when I merged three
different sets of hens together into the chicken pasture — his
presence alone seems to keep the peace.  He also gives tidbits of
food to his ladies, making me wonder if the flock doesn’t forage better
with him present.

It’s tricky to find a rooster with just the right levels of
testosterone, one who will fertilize your eggs and keep your flock
together but won’t overmate the hens and attack passersby.  We
seem to have gotten lucky by finding one who fits the bill.

Our rooster
enjoys our homemade
chicken waterer just as much as his harem does.

Thank you for this great invention

October 29, 2010 Posts No Comments
Chicken and catI recently ordered your fabulous
product!  I got the 5-pack
DIY
with drill bit.  The kit arrived quickly.  I am pretty
handy, I turned
the old shed into a coop all by myself (this was sort of shocking to
me!), so I was pretty sure I could handle this.  I did make two
pitcher
style waterers so far, and next I will make one with a 5-gallon bucket
for when the chickens are outdoors in the good weather.
Thank
you for this great invention.  I will be working on the freezing
issue
as well and let you know the results of whatever I try out!
Sincerely
Elaine
Raesly

Flock of chickens

Thanks for your kind
words, Elaine!

I’ve included some photos Robbin
Scott sent me of her extremely photogenic flock enjoying their busy
life.



Check out all of our homemade chicken
waterer options in
our store.


Red Jungle Fowl facing off a dog

Grains in the forest pasture

October 27, 2010 Posts No Comments

Rooster eating beansWe
went out of town for four days a couple of weeks ago, and without their
daily dose of garden scraps, our flock got interested in the buckwheat
and beans.  In
addition to eating up their usual storebought feed, the chickens
consumed every single bean and buckwheat kernel in the pasture, even
scratching the vines up well enough that I could easily rake
winter wheat into the soil for a spring grain crop.



Although the grain
paddock certainly didn’t cost me much work, I can’t help wondering
whether a system of perennials wouldn’t be a better use of the
space.  The paddock only fed six chickens for four days, so I’d
need a huge patch if my goal had been to feed the flock grain all
winter.

Chickens working around a mulch pile

On the other hand, our
pastured hens are finding lots of invertebrates to munch on (especially
as I wheelbarrow
mulch and compost out of their pasture.)  They look healthier
already, and are laying an average of 3 eggs per day among 5 hens at
the moment even though I have them on 2/3 rations.  For the sake
of comparison, at this time last year, we were getting the exact same
number of eggs per day from our current flock, were feeding them half
again as much, and the birds were all a year younger.  Clearly,
cutting back on laying pellets doesn’t harm egg production when the
pasture is so bountiful.


Our flock stayed well
hydrated while we were gone using our homemade chicken
waterer.