I plan to sprout grains for my flock when the dry season hits here, I will start about November and keep it going till maybe the end of May (our dry season can be very dry). The grass here when it is dry turns brown so this will give them some greens along with the FF. I will be using a little system similar to this system a fellow BYC member has set up, https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ry-sink-fodder-growing-setup/90#post_11606320. No idea yet how much or how often but as others are doing it will be a great thing for the chocks to forage in when the grass has turned brown. Here just finding the grains at a somewhat reasonable price is the big thing. As far as it being comparable to FF I don't know I just like the idea of being able to give them greens when greens are needed.
That sounds like a pretty incredible place. I told my wife recenlty that I wanted to switch from silver as our retirement/investing, to land with a natural spring with no declining water table. And NO MORE OILFIELD.We have only two and a half acres of land. 1/2 acre (roughly) is out front of our house by the road, and is (sadly) mainly unused except for flower beds and our raspberry patch on the side. Behind the house, we have 1 acre completely fenced in with chain-link fence (a huge blessing - it was here when we moved in! ) Within this acre on the west side we have a 30ft x 150ft garden, which is fenced off from the chickens, then on the east side there is the main coop (a 10x12ft shed) with an attached fenced in 22x150?ft run that we seeded for clover and forage greens and there are a few natural shrubs and other things. Beside the main coop is a 20x 25ft fenced yard with a 6x8 coop inside (our pullet grow out pen). It was also seeded for forage this spring before the pullets were out of the brooder. It also now has our four meat rabbit breeder cages in a covered section beside the coop. Behind that coop is our strawberry patch - about 20x100?ft which is also fenced off from the chickens. The rest of the acre yard is open for the chickens during free range time - it includes a Large (highbush cranberry?) bush that they love to hide under, several pine trees, a curly willow, a Large (and I mean LARGE) wooden playset with sand box, a HUGE deck to hide under, a compost pile to scratch through, and much more.
Our second acre is behind the fenced acre. It is not fenced in and includes a natural stream/wetland/runoff from all the neighboring farms. We dug a nice pond in the middle of that area, and my sister keeps her ducks there. There is a section this side of the stream that includes a coop and large pen where we keep the extra cockerels for growing out to edible size. Behind the stream is a meadow, where my brother runs his hoop houses when he raises a batch of Cornish broilers.
Basically our schedule is as follows. The Bantam flock gets free range of the yard during the morning. At noon, I put the Bantams back in their 4x8 tractor coop/pen and let out the main laying flock to free range until sundown. The pullets and cockerels stay in their yards all day, except for the young ones that are still being raised by a broody from the main flock. They get to free range with their mama.
So there you go! More than you probably wanted to know about our land and system.Sorry, I tend to get detailed when I write.
LMAO...sorry I'm just picturing the 4-wheeler scenario because that's something I'd do. Then again I'm almost always "prepared" so maybe not.
That's about how old my Great Aunt is, they also were/are Catholic and their parents were Polish immigrants. So, living where they did, they weren't as excepted as they would have been if they had been a little bit further South. Literally 20 miles South of the farm there is a much larger Catholic and Polish population. Anyway, on top of being poor like everyone else in the area, they were "socially" poor as well. Makes for some "interesting" stories, that's for sure lol. Not to mention learning about the alternate uses for some stuff, or home remedies and it's great just how many work!.
