Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[finnfur]

It would be an interesting study to find out how chickens can recognize "home" when it's moved around in a completely free range situation. I wonder how far you could move it without them getting lost, or if they focus entirely on the coop, and not the geography?

I have net around mine so can't answer for completely free range . However this year we had a area set up divided by net so I could segregate the breeders. Small select group of breeders were in with #2 Cock in the smaller trailer. At fall I decided to cull # 2 and combine the flock. I pulled the dividing net about 50 feet back to leave opening for the flocks to co-mingle. The only one that co-mingled was the #1 cock. He visited both sides but the six breeding hens stayed in the little trailer and same range area. I never saw them cross the imaginary line where the Efence was. One night I moved the six off the roost in the small trailer and put them on roost in large trailer. Closed small trailer coop door and there after they were one big flock again even though they maintained small groups ranging.
Chickens are amusingly funny to watch. They never cease to amaze me.

 

[Wisher1000]

I have no experience in this, but I would think that if you moved the gypsy wagon while the flock was in and at roost, they would know where the coop was in relation to where they got out in the morning. I know this is not what most chickens usually do, but wouldn't they get accustomed to that arrangement if it was the norm for them? Just thinking out loud.

 

[hellbender]

I have no experience in this, but I would think that if you moved the gypsy wagon while the flock was in and at roost, they would know where the coop was in relation to where they got out in the morning. I know this is not what most chickens usually do, but wouldn't they get accustomed to that arrangement if it was the norm for them? Just thinking out loud.

The chickens would figure it out.

 

[Wisher1000]

Indeed

 

[finnfur]

I have no experience in this, but I would think that if you moved the gypsy wagon while the flock was in and at roost, they would know where the coop was in relation to where they got out in the morning. I know this is not what most chickens usually do, but wouldn't they get accustomed to that arrangement if it was the norm for them? Just thinking out loud.

Yes - when I move the coop I lock them in the night before [ we don't lock coop doors at night normally ] - next morning move the coop and reset the Enet.
They have no trouble finding it the next night - its home base where ever it is..

 

[JanetMarie]

Ok this is really neat. Supposed to be available to the public by 2017.
http://www.arbiternews.com/2015/04/04/breakthrough-could-make-your-eggs-a-little-less-cruel/
Best,
Karen

This would progress faster if people would refuse to support hatcheries.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

This would progress faster if people would refuse to support hatcheries.

I think the backyard hatchery business is just a tiny drop in the bucket, compared to the factory farm production commercial chicken business. This seems to be driven by the Germans and other Europeans, finding a way to make the industry more humane. They have bred a dual purpose brown egg layer called the Lohmann, where the males are used for meat. But, there are issues, they don't lay as well, and the roosters don't have the breast meat that the cornish cross do, so farmer/ consumer acceptance hasn't been great. No matter what, if people eat chickens and eggs, there will always be the problem of what to do with the "spent" hens, and unwanted males. Ultimately though It's not so much a question of if they will die but when.
Detection of sex in the egg would probably be an ideal system, from both a humane and economic aspect.

 

[finnfur]

I think the backyard hatchery business is just a tiny drop in the bucket, compared to the factory farm production commercial chicken business. This seems to be driven by the Germans and other Europeans, finding a way to make the industry more humane. They have bred a dual purpose brown egg layer called the Lohmann, where the males are used for meat. But, there are issues, they don't lay as well, and the roosters don't have the breast meat that the cornish cross do, so farmer/ consumer acceptance hasn't been great. No matter what, if people eat chickens and eggs, there will always be the problem of what to do with the "spent" hens, and unwanted males. Ultimately though It's not so much a question of if they will die but when.
Detection of sex in the egg would probably be an ideal system, from both a humane and economic aspect.

Well Said

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

For sure one of the reasons I wanted to work with a Dual Purpose breed was I'm not personally prepared to kill chicks. Still ... like @CanadianBuckeye wrote above, it isn't a question of "if" they'll die, but when. It's the tradeoff for me, the industrial specialty birds are more efficient, but a dual purpose breed offers other advantages.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Sadly it seems that a lot of dual purpose birds are in fact no purpose birds, neither decent egg layers or good meat producers. It's great that there are some who are breeding with production in mind, and those strains are invaluable, worth their weight in gold IMO.