1/2 acre wooded lot

[ravenvalor]

Hi,

Is it better to raise chickens (RIRs) in a grassy pasture or in a wooded lot?
I have a wooded 1/2 acre lot that has alot of trees that are going to wreck havoc on my chicken wire fence when I put it up. But if it means the chickens will be healthier I will keep the trees.

Thank you for the help.
Jim

 

[kipoley]

Where are you? They may need the shade. What kind of trees?
~K

 

[ravenvalor]

Quote:
Hi K,

I am in central North Carolina, near Burlington.
The lot has oak trees, pine, maple, gum trees, and others.

Thank you,
Jim

 

[CoyoteMagic]

If you have a way to put a fence around the trees to keep critters out and plan on locking the chickens up at night, I say leave them. Mine wander the woods behind my house all the time when I let them out. My 20 x30 run is in a bare spot in the woods but I didn't have to take down the trees. Mine love the woods, and yes, I know that something out there could eat them, and I still let them go. Their chickens not my kin.

 

[foxinachickenhouse]

How about a bit of both? They'll scratch up a ton of bugs in the woods and get greens from the pasture/meadow.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Quote:
Hi K,

I am in central North Carolina, near Burlington.
The lot has oak trees, pine, maple, gum trees, and others.

Thank you,
Jim

Those gums are a bear to dig up. Oaks are even worse. I have come to believe that every foot of oak tree you see above ground, there is just that much root underground. Sycamores are even worse. I worked in AZ for a National Monument that was built by ancient Indians. Some of those dwellings still had the sycamore beams, exposed for generations, that were not showing any kind of rot.

 

[PriceFamilyFarms]

Hi Jim - I'm in Henderson, just up the 85 from you...my birds free range and enjoy both pasture and the woods and have no problems. They go back to their coop in the evening and I head out and close the door just in case of nightime predators.

This evening I was a little slack on getting out there to close them up and found a cat (not mine) hanging out near the coop...but my girls had their personal bodyguard, my barn cat, sitting at the coop door making sure the visitor did not come close.

 

[PriceFamilyFarms]

Jim- another thing I wanted to mention FYI...My extension agent informed me the other day that the blacksnakes we all have around here have interbred with the copperheads and from what I've heard should now be considered venomous. Just letting you know if you're going to be out in the woods!

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Quote:
Oh lovely

 

[PriceFamilyFarms]

that's what I said coyote!! Blacksnakes have gotten me in the past and it hurt like H E double hockey sticks and now I really have to watch out!