FREE-RANGE KEEPING OF AMERICAN DOMINIQUES

[centrarchid]

LL DOMS IN PENS FOR SLOW WINTER MARCH


All dominiques have been placed into pens for winter season. Pens are interspersed among similar pens holding games so that a nearly three-hundred feet line of pens is formed. Every few days pens are moved together in the same direction so they look like ships of the line crossing the pasture. Several exist for this system. They get benefits of fresh greens that are depleted by consumption, scratching and trampling. Ground is made ready for tiller. Feed and watering requires less mental and physical effort at 0430 when I can barely see. Another major benefit that is no longer as important since having dogs is predators now have a much more difficult time getting at birds. With dogs on those rare occurrences somebody like Mr..Fox makes a move the Fox has a lot fewer escape options so dogs might catch him. Down side is labor especially with more than one row but good for your health. Final good side is it helps with parasite management.

 

[centrarchid]

FREEZING RAIN ALL DAY CAUSING BIRDS TO TEAR UP UNDERGROWTH


Only two birds are free-ranging now and the weather has kept them much tighter in the cover than usual. I suspect keeping warm in freezing rain is more difficult than it is even under much colder but drier conditions. The two birds really worked up the ground getting at something in the fallen leaves. Whatever they consumed was abundant but also soft once in the crop. Both birds went to roost very wet.

 

[centrarchid]

FREEZING RAIN IN PLACE, NOT FUN FOR BIRDS

Below are images following about 24 hours of freezing rain. The two birds still out in it look crappie owing to all the ice in their feathers. It is a cold version of hell.








The thatch areas below the denser clumps of ice covered plants are likely the only places easy for birds to scratch up their grub. Despite this the free-ranging hen is still in lay.

Ice-covered buckberries difficult to eat.

 

[centrarchid]

BIRDS NOT EATING MUCH TODAY

Now that freezing rain has stopped, temperature is dropping into the unpleasant zone and will approach zero F by dawn. We are also getting a dusting of snow and there is a light breeze. When I went out to feed most birds were already on roost and would not come down even hough we have another good hour of light. I felt a couple up and crops were empty but everybody is in good weight. They are going through another of one of those acclimation phases where they do not eat and egg production takes a dip. They do this every year and I do not have a firm understanding why they do it. In a day or so feed intake will resume and be sustained at higher levels so long as temperatures remain low. Hens will then lay until temperatures get down around -10 F which I think is break point where they do not have enough surplus intake to support both egg-laying and staying warm in my setup. At the lower extreme it is all about maintenance.

 

[Mrs. K]

I am glad you mentioned that about the feed intake. Mine went a very definite period of quite a bit less feed when the cold snap first hit. We have been routinely below 30 degrees as a daytime high, lows in the teens, and are now starting our second dip, as we were below 0 degrees Fahrenheit last night, all through today and it is falling tonight. This might be a rather long winter for us.

They are active, but I remodeled the coup, not a real big one, but took out a wooden built in feed bin, that I had never used, which opened up a little more floor space, maybe 2 x 5 feet. However, this winter, they are definitely spending more time in the coup, even though before they spent a great deal of the day outside in the sun porch. I would not think that little bit of room would make that much difference.

I am feeding more scratch, they want more scratch, and while I know it is not protien, they are not laying, so I think it is more about energy with this weather. My Delaware pullets did not mature enough to lay before the days got short, and my older birds have also shut down. I do not really expect any eggs until the end of January.

Mrs K

 

[Happy Chooks]

Closed per OP request.