Peeps feasting on bugs ok?

[Elke Beck]

I agree with Wildflower_VA, the closer to the way mother hens raise their chicks, the better. My 4 chicks have been going out in the yard since they were one week old. I started putting them a the puppy exercise pen in the yard for about 30 minutes twice a day, and now at 4 weeks old they stay out all day, and I put them in the brooder at night. They have been picking up grit from my soil and eating everything slow moving, low flying or curious. They love the seed stalks from the sorrel plants, aphid infested chard leaves, over-sized cucumbers and squash (no matter how I check, I always miss one until it becomes Moby Cuke or Squashzilla!) that I split for them, watermelon seeds and rinds, corn cobs and lots of other leftovers and garden waste. They are happy, healthy chicks who have not had any health problems. When they are allowed to range early they seem to develop good instincts for what they can eat and what to leave alone.

The down side of putting them out in the yard is that I have to keep the markers and poster board locked up because when I put them in the brooder during the day (like when the gardener comes), they stage a protest. Fortunately, they have not figured out how to use the phone, so they can't call the media or Chick Protective Services on me.

 

[Wildflower_VA]

Quote:
I thought the same thing, but my big girls free-range in my garden all the time and have never bothered the veggies. I was worried about it at first, but when supervising at the beginning, they stayed between the rows and just ate bugs. They never even scratched up the dirt like I was afraid they would.

We didn't get rain for close to two months, so when I recently tilled up a big section to plant fall garden, the soil was very dry and fluffy. They did spend about an hour having a communal dust bath, but it rained that night and packed the soil back down and they haven't gone near it again.

They love all veggies, especially tomatoes, but they wait until I pick them a bunch and throw them in the yard, then they go crazy over them. They know where the tomatoes are, so when they see me picking tomatoes, they come stand close by waiting to get their share. I consider myself very lucky that the only veggie they ever destroyed was the snow peas that were growing up their run fence when they were babies. They could get their little heads out the 2 x 4 wire and eat the tender pea vines down to the ground.