Following a Free-range Chicken from Roost in Morning to Roost at Night

[Don 27]

These represent something extremely interesting. Appear to be larvae of two kinds of Diptera (flies). What made me aware of them was behavior of juvenile games foraging in grass that periodically engage in bouts of "twitter-bitting" where everyone involved would feed in a very small area for just a few seconds before mowing on to repeat sequence at most a few feet away. The intensity of feeding activity is not something I would consider typical for feeding on vegetable matter.

Getting curious I got down on hands an knees to push the juveniles out of the way. They pushed hard to get back into position and eat what they were after. A negative of having such extremely tame chickens. I followed the birds between bouts and kept catching glimpses of something white they pecked at fast. Resolved to get a look as what was being targetted, I crawled along with the birds to see them start again and then pounced to cover entire area with hands. It took a few seconds before birds moved on to find another batch. Then I looked to see what was present. Several larvae in tops of grass and also down in detritus on ground. Appears to be two kinds with multiples of each. After further observations, at least during interval I was watching, it appears than the chickens were getting most of their cropfill by eating the larvae and doing so rather quickly. The larvae appear to be eating the detritus.

View attachment 1926891
They are not associated with maggot experiment as the concentrations of larvae occur even across road and do not appear to be a function of distance from carcasses.

Looks a lot like fruit fly lava I have a ton of them around here . I don't know what they're living off of.
One thing I have found out with my game fowl,They have learned to vibrate they're beaks along the grass seed as to remove the seed with out the shell or stem. They do it for hours I believe they are absorbing water from the grass as well. similar to a grass hopper. I hardly see them visit the water reservoir any more.

 

[centrarchid]

ahhh those pictures remind me of farming a open field with a woods in the background for optimal expansion. It gives me a good feeling to see a field that's being maintained for preservation. The original owner of our house did nothing with the field and it began to transform back into a woods. lots of work involved to restore it. I just got a ton of roots left I don't know what to do with them now.

How did you convince your kids to be interested in this?. I can't get mine to show interests in my gamefowl.

The daughter is not showing interest in gamefowl per se, rather into whatever I am into. At six years of age, she is likely to phase in and out of such interest. She, and her seven-year old brother both spend a lot of time outside with me after school each day before we go in to do homework. Sometimes we round birds up from roosting in exposed locations to protect them from owl. There is some excitement with that when they can hear or even see the owl. The kids also like to help with feeding and watering the penned birds kept in cockyard and barn. Area depicted in thread distinct from the cockyard and barn.

We make it fun. The kids also pursue their own interest in same areas birds are kept.

College students sometimes have interest in the birds. Most are paid in some manner, although student collecting data in this thread is developing genuine interest in the chickens, not so much as gamefowl, but rather as models for organisms that balance nutrition and risks. What she sees here lines up very well with what she is learning in her more intensive biology and physiology courses.

 

[Don 27]

Wow vary interesting I don't think I could make it fun but I agree . Eventually it may be fun but for now it's just a chore . My kids don't want to got to school so we home school them. I don't feel comfortable with them being away.

 

[centrarchid]

I know several families that home school kids and chickens make an ideal part of the curriculum. Mine not home schooled because my wife and I both work. She in particular travels a lot so kids have a lot more contact with me through the week.

This year I hope to get son to do a poultry project for 4H. Hope is he will sell some meat birds and fill chest freezer.

 

[Don 27]

I know several families that home school kids and chickens make an ideal part of the curriculum. Mine not home schooled because my wife and I both work. She in particular travels a lot so kids have a lot more contact with me through the week.

This year I hope to get son to do a poultry project for 4H. Hope is he will sell some meat birds and fill chest freezer.

waite selling meat birds will fill the chest freezer. I thought it would fill the wallet?
I taught the kids how to slaughter and clean meat birds

 

[centrarchid]

Selling a quartet of show birds following 4H show can bring youth anywhere from a couple to a few hundred dollars, far above market value. Birds not selected to be part of quartet will be processed and largely retained for our consumption.

 

[Don 27]

I was at a play with my kids... really cool I have family members 40 miles away and they all live within walking distance of each other. I call it the farming community. Because it started out as one guy farming and he had kids and they had kids and it's a cool place. The farmer just sells some of his land off to his kids. He's a crop farmer so he has lots of land. All the kids are home schooled and meet up in one of the farmers barns every day. He's an uncle to some of the kids but a grandpa to others. The lest time I heard he has 1,000 acres of land. And a bunch of historic barns for hay and stuff. Some of the older kids have jobs and bought a bunch of neat stuff for the play. It was held in one of the historic barns. It was all lit up some of the kids took me back stage and showed me how it all worked. I have been taking my kids there for practice for a couple of weeks. and The whole community showed up for the play.it's all recorded one of the kids had a camera .

I know several families that home school kids and chickens make an ideal part of the curriculum. Mine not home schooled because my wife and I both work. She in particular travels a lot so kids have a lot more contact with me through the week.

This year I hope to get son to do a poultry project for 4H. Hope is he will sell some meat birds and fill chest freezer.

we know a group of farm kids that are related to us. They get together every couple months or so.

 

[centrarchid]

got some surveying in with a drone. Chickens watched. Computer working overnight to stitch almost 300 images into one that gives 3D effect.

 

[Perris]

is that the top left section indicated in post 49?

 

[aart]

got some surveying in with a drone. Chickens watched. Computer working overnight to stitch almost 300 images into one that gives 3D effect.

That is VERY cool!