Today I began an experiment with a few of my chickens that I'm hoping will go well. I have 17 in total that are about 3 months old at this point. All of them have been housed in a 10x12 coop with a 35 foot run on the back and an auto pop door that shuts tight at night.
I knew that I would selling/re-homing some of them as soon as I discovered which were roosters. Now that I've clearly i.d.'ed the cocks (there are three of them), I've decided on a different tactic and thusly begins the experiment.
I have a pasture at the back of my property that is a bit over half an acre. It is fully fenced in with a five foot tall no-climb horse field fence and there is a 16x16 barn there (always open at the front) as well that houses my two Nigerian Dwarf goats. In the next few months, we will also have a horse join them. There is a gorgeous pasture of grass here that is green all year round thanks to our mild winters here in NC. There are a few tall trees that offer shade on certain parts of the pasture as well (but they are way too tall for them to roost in however).
I decided that instead of re-homing one of the roosters and two of the hens (I selected the largest Sussex rooster, 1 sussex hen and 1 australorp hen), that I would take them down to the pasture instead to see what would happen with them. This would mean that they would have the barn to sleep in with the goats, they would be on the pasture all day, BUT they would not have a locked coop to sleep in at night. So, they are technically open to whatever predators we have locally. In our case, we have hawks, owls and a few neighborhood cats that could pose a threat. I have a buff orpington that I was going to take down to the pasture as well, but I figured with her color she would be quite the target. She was one of the birds I was planning on re-homing, so I'm still undecided on putting her on the pasture.
Do any of you have your chickens 100% pastured the way I describe? I'd love to hear about your success rate (or not) of having any chickens succumb to predators. They will still have their chick starter available, though I would suspect they'd be eating a lot less of it since they will be on the pasture and able to eat the variety of grasses, flowers, seeds, bugs they will have access to.
Here is a photo of the barn where they will live. It's been slightly modified since this photo in that it now has windows on each side, but this will give you the general picture:
I knew that I would selling/re-homing some of them as soon as I discovered which were roosters. Now that I've clearly i.d.'ed the cocks (there are three of them), I've decided on a different tactic and thusly begins the experiment.
I have a pasture at the back of my property that is a bit over half an acre. It is fully fenced in with a five foot tall no-climb horse field fence and there is a 16x16 barn there (always open at the front) as well that houses my two Nigerian Dwarf goats. In the next few months, we will also have a horse join them. There is a gorgeous pasture of grass here that is green all year round thanks to our mild winters here in NC. There are a few tall trees that offer shade on certain parts of the pasture as well (but they are way too tall for them to roost in however).
I decided that instead of re-homing one of the roosters and two of the hens (I selected the largest Sussex rooster, 1 sussex hen and 1 australorp hen), that I would take them down to the pasture instead to see what would happen with them. This would mean that they would have the barn to sleep in with the goats, they would be on the pasture all day, BUT they would not have a locked coop to sleep in at night. So, they are technically open to whatever predators we have locally. In our case, we have hawks, owls and a few neighborhood cats that could pose a threat. I have a buff orpington that I was going to take down to the pasture as well, but I figured with her color she would be quite the target. She was one of the birds I was planning on re-homing, so I'm still undecided on putting her on the pasture.
Do any of you have your chickens 100% pastured the way I describe? I'd love to hear about your success rate (or not) of having any chickens succumb to predators. They will still have their chick starter available, though I would suspect they'd be eating a lot less of it since they will be on the pasture and able to eat the variety of grasses, flowers, seeds, bugs they will have access to.
Here is a photo of the barn where they will live. It's been slightly modified since this photo in that it now has windows on each side, but this will give you the general picture:
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