Landrace/adaptive breeding discussion

[Backroadlogic]

I started with 3 hens and a rooster 5 years ago. Added a few more hens and then they gave me chick's getting me to around 20. I butchered several roosters and lost 5 or 6 hens that year. Maintained about the same until this last spring when I lost all but 2 roosters and 4 hens to me neighbors dogs. I'm back up to 13 hens and 6 roosters that I've been slowly culling. Trying to get down to 3 roosters free range and my old guy that hangs with the goats. My old guy just caught the interest of my best momma hen and her 4 pullet daughters so he's back in action after a year of banishment from the flock

 

[Appalachickens]

I’ve finally finished my forest chicken shelter by building a stand and attaching the nesting box my son made for me. I added a perch they can fly up to to them step inside and also put a stump nearby. Later I’ll build some simpler boxes to attach to trees nearby. I covered the HC apron with mulch and leaves and puta couple of bags of leaves inside to decompose over the winter. I am looking forward to getting started buying some gamefowl in a few months.

 

[Perris]

I think I've cracked the self-sustaining flock problem, at least in so far as I've satisfied my goals (which includes providing some food daily and safe roosting and nest space for those who want to use it).

Review of 2025 reveals I spent 407.78 and earned 570.25 (and that despite having 4 broodies off laying for months each, and almost as many males to feed as females). So for 3 years now I've not only covered my costs, but have been recouping some of the capital outlay that I spent when I started.

The flock size hovers around the high 20s, as I let broodies raise small clutches and I give away some birds. Home bred birds have excellent hatch and survival rates; bought in hatching eggs not so, but new genetics are, I think, essential to keeping the flock strong and healthy.

I see new behaviours every year as the flock composition changes; I think it is getting closer to a natural state each year. Allowing them to choose their own mates, and not culling oldies or 'excess' males, both play significant roles in the change I think. Almost all traditional wisdom on poultry is based on observing the behaviour of birds born and raised in highly artificial, manufactured conditions, not least living in a flock full of youngsters with a very peculiar sex ratio (a phenomenon exacerbated by the closer to the present one looks). Isn't that more or less guaranteed to produce abnormal results?

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I think I've cracked the self-sustaining flock problem, at least in so far as I've satisfied my goals (which includes providing some food daily and safe roosting and nest space for those who want to use it).

Review of 2025 reveals I spent 407.78 and earned 570.25 (and that despite having 4 broodies off laying for months each, and almost as many males to feed as females). So for 3 years now I've not only covered my costs, but have been recouping some of the capital outlay that I spent when I started.

The flock size hovers around the high 20s, as I let broodies raise small clutches and I give away some birds. Home bred birds have excellent hatch and survival rates; bought in hatching eggs not so, but new genetics are, I think, essential to keeping the flock strong and healthy.

I see new behaviours every year as the flock composition changes; I think it is getting closer to a natural state each year. Allowing them to choose their own mates, and not culling oldies or 'excess' males, both play significant roles in the change I think. Almost all traditional wisdom on poultry is based on observing the behaviour of birds born and raised in highly artificial, manufactured conditions, not least living in a flock full of youngsters with a very peculiar sex ratio (a phenomenon exacerbated by the closer to the present one looks). Isn't that more or less guaranteed to produce abnormal results?

Very good summary of where you are with your flock!

A somewhat related question: how common is it in the UK (and Ireland) to have the small pre-fab molded plastic coops like Nesteras just sitting out on open land; no enclosed run?

The Nestera ads always show this sort of setup, which seems so incredibly risky to those of us with numerous predators and on small urban lots with lots of vehicle traffic. I wondered if is was just idealized marketing imagery or close to the real thing.

 

[Perris]

how common is it in the UK (and Ireland) to have the small pre-fab molded plastic coops like Nesteras just sitting out on open land; no enclosed run?

I have no idea. But there may be a proxy stat: I'm not sure anyone else among the small sample of Nestera/ Nestera-type owners on BYC that I know moves them, though that is how they are intended to be used, and thus prevent the build up of diseases where chickens live and, especially, poop. However, if they're enclosed in some kind of run, moving them is pointless, as there is no fresh ground in there to move them to.

 

[kattabelly]

I have no idea. But there may be a proxy stat: I'm not sure anyone else among the small sample of Nestera/ Nestera-type owners on BYC that I know moves them, though that is how they are intended to be used, and thus prevent the build up of diseases where chickens live and, especially, poop. However, if they're enclosed in some kind of run, moving them is pointless, as there is no fresh ground in there to move them to.

We moved the big Solway (iirc) ark on the farm, but not very often because it was a pig of a job.

With even fewer predators here than mainland UK/Ireland, I get the impression that most people who do have runs only do so because they either have neighbours close by who don't appreciate chicken visitors or they want to pen breeding groups separately. There are a few spots you'll often see chickens grazing even right along the main road between the biggest towns.

 

[Appalachickens]

I think I've cracked the self-sustaining flock problem, at least in so far as I've satisfied my goals (which includes providing some food daily and safe roosting and nest space for those who want to use it).

Review of 2025 reveals I spent 407.78 and earned 570.25 (and that despite having 4 broodies off laying for months each, and almost as many males to feed as females). So for 3 years now I've not only covered my costs, but have been recouping some of the capital outlay that I spent when I started.

The flock size hovers around the high 20s, as I let broodies raise small clutches and I give away some birds. Home bred birds have excellent hatch and survival rates; bought in hatching eggs not so, but new genetics are, I think, essential to keeping the flock strong and healthy.

I see new behaviours every year as the flock composition changes; I think it is getting closer to a natural state each year. Allowing them to choose their own mates, and not culling oldies or 'excess' males, both play significant roles in the change I think. Almost all traditional wisdom on poultry is based on observing the behaviour of birds born and raised in highly artificial, manufactured conditions, not least living in a flock full of youngsters with a very peculiar sex ratio (a phenomenon exacerbated by the closer to the present one looks). Isn't that more or less guaranteed to produce abnormal results?

I’m really glad to hear this because I want to take as hands-off approach as possible. I don’t have the time or energy to be carefully monitoring their breeding.

 

[Wild Iris]

Review of 2025 reveals I spent 407.78 and earned 570.25 (and that despite having 4 broodies off laying for months each, and almost as many males to feed as females). So for 3 years now I've not only covered my costs, but have been recouping some of the capital outlay that I spent when I started.

How do you earn money with your flock?

 

[Perris]

How do you earn money with your flock?

I sell surplus eggs to a small number of regular customers.

 

[Perris]

We moved the big Solway (iirc) ark on the farm, but not very often because it was a pig of a job.

The larger they are, the harder they are to move per se, and to manoeuvre around the garden to new spaces. Moving a medium or large Nestera is necessarily a 2-person job, unless disassembled (which is another feature of Nesteras that is not much commented on but very important from the health and hygiene perspective; most people here seem to be obsessed with space, footage per bird, at the expense of other equally or more important criteria, perhaps because disassembly and mobility are not even options with a fixed coop).