Keeping Chickens Free Range

[hennible]

Semi safe garden... Lol... My veggies are a good acre away from the birds they still wander that far though... Two acres 18 birds they stick to under an acre in their roaming no issues other than they love to dig in the flower bed and as I said wander to the veggie garden but it's rare ( mine never go in the big greenhouse thankfully) ... My flock has grown this winter though, I will have to see how far the bigger flock wanders once the snow melts.

 

[duluthralphie]

Semi safe garden... Lol... My veggies are a good acre away from the birds they still wander that far though... Two acres 18 birds they stick to under an acre in their roaming no issues other than they love to dig in the flower bed and as I said wander to the veggie garden but it's rare ( mine never go in the big greenhouse thankfully) ... My flock has grown this winter though, I will have to see how far the bigger flock wanders once the snow melts.

I am actually planning on building fences/covered runs in and around the field to try and get them to spread out. I doubt it will work.

I moved my chickens to a new coop for winter, keeping my guinea hens and turkeys in the old coop. The turkeys moved right next to the chickens, but cannot get in the coop so they stay outside on the fence every night.

The guinea fowl simply moved into the coop with the chickens and now run it like a gang runs a cell block...

Hopefully I can make enough small flocks to spread them out over more acreage this summer. Unless the ticks and bugs get bad then I will move them next to the house again. They are the best pesticide I have ever had!

 

[chicksurreal]

For all of you people that free range your birds:
How many do you keep per acre? I have been looking around for answers to this question. They are extremely varied, and often unrealistic. I do not mean to get all of their food from free ranging, but to have a sustainable number for the plants to not suffer from nitrogen build-up and to have a semi-safe garden.

We're probably not the typical as we have 5 acres of our own, but surrounded by homesteaded land in the hundreds of acres and that surrounded by National forest land, so we basically have unlimited area for our chickens, but they stay on our land for the most part. Sometimes they can be found outside the boundaries of our fences, but there is usually enough to keep them busy close by. We have 9 that free range right now, but we have 28 more that will soon be added to that, when they get a little bit older. It's so fun to watch them explore!

 

[chicksurreal]

I have to add that my birds have traversed every inch of the 5 acres we have, save the garden, which is fenced off. They can be very destructive to tender plants and landscaping. Lol!

 

[Free Feather]

This year, we had about 40 birds on a little over an acre. They seriously did not bother the garden other than fallen tomatoes and kicking the mulch around. I am just worried about water pollution and nitrogen buildup. We have a creek that winds through the property. There is a lot of fish and stuff in there. Now I have 35, 12 ducks and 23 chickens. Soon we will have 17 chickens after the ones I am babysitting leave, but I have a broody pullet, with 15 eggs. We have 4 pigs, too. How many birds could I have without pollution and damaging the ground? I also worry about the Game Commission...

 

[Mrs. K]

Free feather - are you getting a great deal of run off after rain? Are the edges of the crick denuded of vegetation? If not, then the water pollution should not be a problem.

As for the nitrogen build up, compost old bedding and incorporate it into your garden. When you say they did not really bother the garden, how old were they? One year I brooded chicks in my garden, they had a grand time, sleeping under the beans and eating grasshoppers, but once they got big, mine will dig a garden up in less time that a rototiller.

Mrs K

 

[lazy gardener]

This year, we had about 40 birds on a little over an acre. They seriously did not bother the garden other than fallen tomatoes and kicking the mulch around. I am just worried about water pollution and nitrogen buildup. We have a creek that winds through the property. There is a lot of fish and stuff in there. Now I have 35, 12 ducks and 23 chickens. Soon we will have 17 chickens after the ones I am babysitting leave, but I have a broody pullet, with 15 eggs. We have 4 pigs, too. How many birds could I have without pollution and damaging the ground? I also worry about the Game Commission...

Read: The Small Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery. He does an excellent job dealing with this subject. He recommends occasional soil testing to find out if you are overloading your soil. One of the greatest things a small scale poultry keeper can do to ensure the health of their flock, soil, and ground water is to not have bare ground. If the flock strips the run of vegetation, do a deep litter in the run, as well as your usual coop maintenance. Bare soil can very easily become unhealthy soil, especially if over exposed to excess nitrogen build up. One would think that extra nitrogen would be healthy for plant growth. Not so. It can poison the soil so that plants have a difficult time re-establishing. Keep that soil covered, and it's full of healthy organisms that digest the nitrogen, and keep a healthy soil balance, as well as feeding the chickens.

 

[duluthralphie]

This year, we had about 40 birds on a little over an acre. They seriously did not bother the garden other than fallen tomatoes and kicking the mulch around. I am just worried about water pollution and nitrogen buildup. We have a creek that winds through the property. There is a lot of fish and stuff in there. Now I have 35, 12 ducks and 23 chickens. Soon we will have 17 chickens after the ones I am babysitting leave, but I have a broody pullet, with 15 eggs. We have 4 pigs, too. How many birds could I have without pollution and damaging the ground? I also worry about the Game Commission...

I have a few questions?

If you had 40 chickens last summer on your land and are going to have 17 this year, what is the worry? Where is the problem? Even if the pullet hatches all 15 eggs you will have less this year?

Do you eat any of the chickens? That will lower the actual number.

Do the fish poop in the creek?

How close is the creek to the chickens? Distance matters.

Is there a boggy or swampy area before the runoff gets to the creek? Bogs and swamp will utilize a lot of extra nitrogen.

Personally I would worry more about phosphates than nitrogen.

What type of soil do you have? Sand, loam, clay etc.

What is the topography, rolling flat, slight slope, etc.

If you have plants growing on the land especially grasses they will use up the nitrogen almost as fast as it breaks down in the poop. Grass grows better with manure, most plants do.

Why are you worried about the game commission? Are the birds invading government land?

The chickens will scratch the ground, eating bugs, and depositing manure/fertilizer, the bugs will eat the nutrients, the grass will absorb it, making a cycle of life.

If the land becomes denuded, and the scratching causes washouts or if the topsoil all washes away you have too many.


How much of the time are the birds in a pen or the coop? That is poop that you collect and compost.

I dump my chicken manure on my rhubarb, and let it compost right there. It makes great rhubarb. Once I have enough there I pile it on the edge of my field and haul it back to my garden to be worked into the soil. I wish I had more manure to work into a bigger area, so my soil was more productive.


Without us knowing all those variables, there is no way we can answer your questions. We each have to come from our own frame of reference, and they are not the same as yours. Without trying to cause an argument, your view point on "man made global warming" will effect your choices.

More nitrogen helping greens grow faster using and locking up more CO2, or more plants dying releasing more CO2.

Driving your car to town may cause more damage than your chickens do. Emissions from your home heating plant are most likely more dangerous than 40 chickens. Even your own biological waste, is more hazardous in my opinion.


Sorry to throw water on your question, but it seemed you wanted us to answer in a certain way, agreeing with you or confirming your beliefs, which we really cannot do without all the information, and I am sure I missed some of the things we need to know.

So in conclusion, using my point of reference, 40 chickens will cause no or minimal damage, so get another 100, chicken math at work!

 

[vpatt]

Ralphie, I am laughing about the fish pooping in the water.....I picture little potties along the creek banks .....little fish comfort stations.. But really I am laughing because of all those hiking books I used to read. They always recommended that you NEVER drink creek water because animals POOP in it. Animals have always pooped in the water or it would have washed into the water at some point. I never understood why that would be an issue. I mean I'm not wanting to drink poopy water. But there must be a way that the water is naturally filtered isn't there? I have never read about the pioneers filtering water....just that they were happy to find it. Now it may be possible there is more of that stuff in the water now than there once was....maybe. well sorry I didn't mean to get so carried away with fertilizer but I have wondered about that. As a kid I used to drink creek water a lot. I never got sick from it but it may explain a few things.

 

[duluthralphie]

Ralphie, I am laughing about the fish pooping in the water.....I picture little potties along the creek banks .....little fish comfort stations.. But really I am laughing because of all those hiking books I used to read. They always recommended that you NEVER drink creek water because animals POOP in it. Animals have always pooped in the water or it would have washed into the water at some point. I never understood why that would be an issue. I mean I'm not wanting to drink poopy water. But there must be a way that the water is naturally filtered isn't there? I have never read about the pioneers filtering water....just that they were happy to find it. Now it may be possible there is more of that stuff in the water now than there once was....maybe. well sorry I didn't mean to get so carried away with fertilizer but I have wondered about that. As a kid I used to drink creek water a lot. I never got sick from it but it may explain a few things.

Here is a link regarding Giardia, beaver fever. I am not going to comment on the validity of the article but it is interesting. I really do not know.


http://archive.tamaracksong.org/view.html?page=Beaver Fever - The Truth about Giardia.htm&

I know as kids we drank the river water. We had a small river through our farm, the source of the river was about 40 miles north of here. The river ran through farm land with people farming right up to the edge of the bank. Cattle roamed the river further north. We never gave it a second thought back then. Grandpa used to tell us as long as the water was flowing fast it was safe.

Of course, we did all kinds of things now considered wrong. We had less allergies, less sickness and seemed healthier. v I think our food supply is "TOO" sterile now days. Maybe it was an illusion, who knows.

I kind of live by the axiom. "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger".



BTW I build fish out houses every 200 yards along the river bank now!~