Dominique Thread!

[buffalogal]

Quote:
At least 80% end up in the chicken house no matter where their daytime range is. That took some training on my part, going around just after dark and moving everyone to the roosts. Most "got it" after only a couple of moves, but there are a few die hard birds that still insist on sleeping in the cedars, a cockerel that prefers the garage (and his hens lay in there too, even if they don't roost there), and two micro groups that sleep in goat barns. In the evening, the young cockerels with other territory (that is, not immediately surrounding the chicken house) are the last ones allowed in, though their hens go right to bed. They work it out among themselves, and if they don't, well, there's always the man cave...

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[centrarchid]

buffalogal,

How many acres do you have available for your free ranging birds? How far from roosts do they range?

 

[buffalogal]

They've easily got 7 acres that are within sight of the house, but hang out on less than 1/4 that much. I'm guessing the average "territory"is about the size of a normalyard,but as you mentioned, they overlap around food and water. An occasional young cockerel will boldly go where he thinks no bird has gone before, at the edge of the woods on the hill, or back around the pond, but they can't seem to convince any hens to join them long term, so they come back. If I go on a walkabout out back, my entourage includes several dogs running wide circles, about 15 goats that eagerly rush from shrub to shrub sampling the flora and usually four or five insatiably curious chickens (mostly cockerels) that simply must know where everyone is going and trot along behind.

 

[centrarchid]

I did not intend for this to be so long when started. Actuall follow up question in bold.

Reason I ask is because I have a comparable area of pasture. Efforting to get more usage by birds. Did a little study a couple months ago and found they llike grass to be < 4" tall. They also like it to be near taller grass or shrubs. Seems they do most of their foraging at edges between tall and short grass patches. They spend a 3/4 of their day just loafing and they always do it under some sort of cover. I get a good amount of control over ranging through placement of feeding stations but suspect promoting further dispersal will require dispersal of roosts. I have a roost design that provides good protection against oppossums, racoons and owls. Dog, soon to be dogs, provides protection against foxes, bobcats and coyotes. What I am trying is estimate accurately how many birds my pasture can support during summer production season. It is taking two years to setup; dog had to be grown into job and incubator and brooder system had to be figured out so I could keep track of pedigrees. That has been pretty fun. Now that I have technique worked out, carrying capacity of landscape needs to be worked out. Most of my birds will be free ranged as juveniles. I will be using a cocker formulation, based mostly on whole grains (except for cracked corn), to control feed cost. Birds will be transitioned over to cocker feed starting at 6 weeks. Prior to that a starter ration will be used. I have been using a restricted ration to ensure pasture providing a good percentage of nutrition (at least 1/3). I have found bird ranges expand and contract as a function of forage quality and feed volume. Are you doing anything to manipulate relative amounts and mixture of tall and short grasses? I am thinking seriously about using either goats or sheep to rotationally graze the pasture to give be the patches of short versus long grass patches. Hopefully dom juveniles will be able to follow grazers to take advantage of new growth in patches (paddocks) from which grazers had just been removed. I want to push the free range capacity of the doms during the meat production phase and again for the egg production phase for hens.

 

[buffalogal]

Quote:
Funny you should ask; we have over 50 goats, 1 Shetland pony and two small horses. In addition, since March, we've only have had 2 and 1/4 inches of rain so ALL the grass is short this year.

If you're wanting something to eat the grass, get sheep. If you need grass and some brushy stuff trimmed up, go with goats. If you have alot of grass and need it kept down, get a small horse.

 

[centrarchid]

I am figuring about a dozen sheep and a third as many goats. Adults of both. Hope is to avoid use of much hay during winter. I have another 4 acres that can serve as winter pasture. Dog(s) will have to be broke as adults to leave ruminants alone. That will be loads of fun.

I lack acreage for even a small horse unless hay / grain used to supplement. Goats and sheep very much being looked into. Want to run rotational / intensive grazing through paddocks centered around where dom roosts located. Weather variation also an issue here. Droughts are freqquent with year and last being exceptionally wet. All sorts of disease issues when wet. Some soil related, others mosquito.

As pasture managed with livestock, it may be possible to establish warm season forages. All experience / observations I have of doms on free range have involves cool season forages which crash about now. The plant component of warm season will be very different from cool season. I wonder how digestible warm season plants will be? My birds eat a lot of greens.

 

[RedDrgn]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/reddrgn/5935591536/in/set-72157627142653724

One of these three black chicks is a dominique, but we have no idea which one! XD The other two are a BA and a BR; I'm pretty sure the BA is the one of the left, but between the BR and the dom, we don't know yet. What are some things to look for to tell the two breeds apart as they grow (they're currently only 10 days old)?

 

[buffalogal]

If the place you're going to be using either sheep or goats on is wet, you'll want to become very good friends with the local Vet because internal parasites will be your (and their) worst enemy. Whatever species you decide on, when you first get them, confine them in a shed or on a small dry lot and have a fecal run. Treat for whatever parasites they are carrying, wait ten days, treat again, wait another ten and have another fecal done. *Then* turn them out on the pasture. Waiting and worming at the start will greatly reduce the future parasite buildup on the ground, and done in conjunction with rotational grazing will put you years ahead of the game in keeping them healthy. If you have a microscope, it's easy to learn how to run fecals yourself. Whatever species you get, make sure your fences are in good shape.

One definite benefit I've noticed running multiple species together is that the chickens will forage out farther if the large animals are nearby. Not that the horses or goats would bother to protect the chickens, but I think the birds are using the larger animals as a "cover" against hawks and possibly other small predators. Throughout the day, goats will go out as a herd, browse a few hours and then come back to the house to cud and ruminate on the meaning of life. The chickens will follow them back to the house, hang around eating June bugs or grasshoppers, and when the herd moves again, they'll work their way back out into the fields. It works like a domesticated version of the Serengeti, without the Hyenas and Lions.

 

[buffalogal]

Quote:
The Dominique will have the rose comb, the comb on the BR is a single comb and at that age will look like a teeny, tiny pink picket fence. Easy peasy.

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
The Dominique will have the rose comb, the comb on the BR is a single comb and at that age will look like a teeny, tiny pink picket fence. Easy peasy.

Something that works for me during first few days is size of egg chicked hatched from. Some of my dom strains lay larger eggs than others and that is a very accurate predictor of relative chick for a short period (days following hatching). If memory serves BR have much larger eggs than doms. You can then distinguish if you have both types together.

Next time be smarter than me. Put cover over pedigree basket.