Raising chickens off the ground:

O(akly270

In the Brooder
9 Years
Mar 1, 2010
28
0
22
Bagley
I am thinking of pairing a couple of Barred Rocks and keeping them off the ground. I have a friend that does that with some of his paired poultry. Is there any good benefits to it or is it bad? I would think that chickens living off the ground would have to have more attention, but that's not a problem for me.
 
I like raising mine on the ground, even the day old I keep in a seperate room put pine shavings down. They do get to the dirt in about a week. Chickens love to scratch and peck at anything on the ground. You can raise them off the ground but you are right it's a little more work to keep things clean and watered
 
Watch their toe nails, without the ability to scratch they will grow and if the coop has a wire botton the long and curly toe nails can get caught in the wire.
I would raise trios in rabbit hutches converted to coops. I would let one trio out at a time in the evening about an hour from dusk to do a little scratching, dust bathing and leg and wing stretching.
 
Yeah most defiantly. Our back yard is not fenced in so I have to worry about neighborhood problem dogs. When I'm at home and outside doing yard work I generally let my chickens out of their yard. And when I cut grass they have a big feast on black crickets. Some of the chickens have caught on to grass cutting so well that they follow the lawn mower and watch for the crickets to run!
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Mine know the lawn mower is a producer of bugs as well. The problem I have is some of them have not figured out which end to follow. Some like to get in front of it.
 
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Yeah that was a problem until we got our new lawn mower. The old riding mower had brake problems, so you had to be very careful when the chickens got close, because some of them would run right out in front to snatch a cricket and I would have to mash the clutch in to disengage the drive!
 
Well I think I've changed my mind about raising the pair of Barred Rocks off the ground. I think I'm going to go with a chicken tractor. I got my new Barred Rock Rooster today and put him with the hen. I named them Bob & Betty Barred Rock!

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