Hello all...
I'm located in Thailand and have added chickens to our orchard - my retirement project (tried to imagine something that would be as far removed from telecomm as possible)
Anyway, long story short... We have a 5 acre plot with asst Asian fruit trees, vegetables, a water buffalo and now about 24 Rhode Island Reds (derivatives?) for eggs.
I'll be blunt: I don't have a clue what I'm doing but so far, so good...my 'herd' is about 4.5 months old (all hens) and some have actually started laying...we're getting about 7 eggs a day.
I have all the usual questions about space and technique: at this point, my roost is just 50 sqft with roosting pipes so everyone can find a place in the air but it connects to an open geodesic dome that is about 250sqft. The chickens have full run until dusk when they head back to the roost. It's a safety thing. We have all the usual for this area...neighboring dogs, cobras, pythons, large lizards...the list goes on.
We use hay for ground cover everywhere and take it out about every 10 days and use it in the orchard as mulch for the mango trees.
Again, so far, so good but I'm looking forward to reading about other experiences (and advice).
I'm really excited that I found you guys
Mike
I'm located in Thailand and have added chickens to our orchard - my retirement project (tried to imagine something that would be as far removed from telecomm as possible)
Anyway, long story short... We have a 5 acre plot with asst Asian fruit trees, vegetables, a water buffalo and now about 24 Rhode Island Reds (derivatives?) for eggs.
I'll be blunt: I don't have a clue what I'm doing but so far, so good...my 'herd' is about 4.5 months old (all hens) and some have actually started laying...we're getting about 7 eggs a day.
I have all the usual questions about space and technique: at this point, my roost is just 50 sqft with roosting pipes so everyone can find a place in the air but it connects to an open geodesic dome that is about 250sqft. The chickens have full run until dusk when they head back to the roost. It's a safety thing. We have all the usual for this area...neighboring dogs, cobras, pythons, large lizards...the list goes on.
We use hay for ground cover everywhere and take it out about every 10 days and use it in the orchard as mulch for the mango trees.
Again, so far, so good but I'm looking forward to reading about other experiences (and advice).
I'm really excited that I found you guys
Mike
of information, loads of fun, enjoy yourself 
