Chicken pastures complete. Pics on #19

[patandchickens]

Quote:
It sounds fine to me. Heavy clay loam is actually GOOD in many respects, it holds water well (= drought protection) and is generally pretty good on nutrients, moreso than if it didn't have so much clay anyhow. And evidently the existing turf is doing well, so clearly it's basically good growing conditions.

So no, I wouldn't rototill. IME white and yellow clover do pretty well just overseeding into healthy lawn turf; I do not know what else you were wanting to grow but as I say if you are concerned about their ability to establish you could create smaller tilled patches to seed them into, or just partially-tilled (i.e. mow the grass as low as possible, leaving the clippings in place, and then run your rototiller over the patch lightly to open some rips into the grass roots without actually doing TOO much to the grass or soil, then seed into that and cover with a thin layer of compost or whatever to help encourage germination)

JMHO,

Pat

 

[patman75]

I was thinking of using a clover/alfalfa mix from the local grain elevator or ording some of this http://www.groworganic.com/omega-3-chicken-forage-blend-irrigated.html

 

[Jules0988]

I am so new to this , but have a question. If you use a chicken tractor for your chickens how often should you move it for your lawn to stay nice and green and lush? Also, do you also need a separate coop for them or do they "live in the chicken tractor"? We are purchasing a new home sitting on a 1/2 acre of land. Reasonably , how many chickens should I have for this amount of space? In other words , how many would be too many to still have a nice lawn and yet allowing them to free range part of the time? I hope this makes sense. Thank you for your patience with me. Jules

 

[patman75]

Quote:
I use a tractor for my young chickens before they get big enought to go into the big girl coop. I have seen pictures of 4X8 tractors that 3 chickens scratched and ate everything to the the ground in a day. I have chicken wire on the bottom of my 4X8 tractor so the chickens can only eat the grass and not destroy it while still fertilizing the ground and it keep them safe from digging predators.

I do not use the tractor in the winter due to snow and freezing conditions.

 

[Jules0988]

Patman-thanks for the quick response. Duh- that does make sense now that you point out the snow and ice would make it difficult to move the tractor around. Like I said , I am SO new to this. I am thinking I should wait at least a year to be knowledgeable enough to handle this. I have waited years to have a place where I can have some , so , another year won't kill me. Can you get peeps any time of year or only in the Spring? I don't want to have to keep them in the house too much due to what I have read about them being smelly. Thank you so much-Jules

 

[patman75]

Quote:
Local feedstores and TSC have chicks in the spring. People sell chickens on craigslist and on the Buy-sell- auction BYC forum. If you or someone you know has an incubator you can do that. You can also place mail orders with hatcheries and get chicks almost any time of the year.

 

[Arielle]

Jules0988

My 25 chicks are still in the house and all feathered out. THe New England weather provide far more snow than usual so DH didn't get the coop made. They don't stink, not like a cat litter pan, it's rather a strange bird odor; most times I don't notice it! I do clean there pen out regularly though removing droppings 2x a week. Not ideal . . . but we're managing.

Hey, I didn't know much about chickens either. I spent a zillion hours reading the basics here on BYC and some other sites, like the chick care info on the hatchery sites. Seems like the vareity of birds available in the highest in the spring and tapers off VERY slowly into the late fall. Just my observation of the big hatcheries.

Hope this helps! You know about chicken math? Its true!!!!!

 

[Jules0988]

Thanks for responding to my inquiries.
I have 3 cats so I know how horrific the litter box can be- I have to clean that everyday- sometimes twice a day. If the chicks are not worse than that I can deal with it.
I can't even think about hatching eggs- I am nervous about caring for the babies , let alone think about hatching them. I will just see what happens. We have to get moved and settled into our new pad. We have some painting and things to do and have to get the coop built and then I will decide when I am ready to order or try to find somewhere to buy my chicks. I am terrified of accidentally getting a rooster because we will have neighbors fairly close. I should really just calm down about all of this and deal with what is instead of what could be. Thanks again for your insight. Jules

 

[patman75]

Thanks for everyone help on this. This weekend I put up all the fencing, increased the garden size, made a new chicken run door, made 2 chickens pastures so I can rotate them from one to the other. Each pasture is about 1300-1500 sq feet. Here is the final results

Here is the new run gate. I can move the fencing from one side of the gate to the other depending if I want the chickens in pasture 1 or 2. I also added 2 yards of sand to the run. The chickens seem to like it.

Here is pasture 1. The garden is on the right. The chickens will have access to the garden in the fall & winter. Pasture 2 is along side the garage, the propane pig is in the middle of it.

Here is pasture 2 looking back at the garden.

 

[Weiden Farm]

lots of room for them to enjoy
nice setup