The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[CuzChickens]

How many birds are you feeding?

35, though I'm fixing to sell five.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

35, though I'm fixing to sell five.

Thank you. Initially it seemed like a lot of feed, but than I started thinking about how much I buy than suddenly it didn't seem as much as I go through about that in a month feeding 83 chickens, 7 ducks, and 14 turkeys.

 

[CuzChickens]

Thank you. Initially it seemed like a lot of feed, but than I started thinking about how much I buy than suddenly it didn't seem as much as I go through about that in a month feeding 83 chickens, 7 ducks, and 14 turkeys.

Haha, I tell people considering getting into chickens not to get sucked into the ''oh, chickens are so cheap to raise'' hole because it is not entirely true. Lol. I have 23 chicks and they are already eating a pound a day. I don't know where they put it.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Haha, I tell people considering getting into chickens not to get sucked into the ''oh, chickens are so cheap to raise'' hole because it is not entirely true. Lol. I have 23 chicks and they are already eating a pound a day. I don't know where they put it.

They are little piggies. Thankfully my feed bill is cut in half during summer with them free ranging all day. We have very few bugs around here.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@oldhenlikesdogs

I remember seeing the photos of your barnyard area and it seemed like it was very open with few low bushes, etc. And I also remember that there are a few items here and there that could make good hawk hides.

But...
Could you comment again on your free-ranging and overhead predators?

I have just "cleared" some wooded area - about 1/2 acre - behind the area that my birds usually run in. It still had many tall trees, but the undergrowth has been totally eliminated. We'll be planting mixed grasses, including forage type grasses on the ground. Then likely adding a couple of peach trees, perhaps an apple and pear, etc.

I just realized that we eliminated EVERY HAWK HIDE by taking out all the brush. :| I "could" put in a few blueberries or low-growing hazelnuts here and there in that area. The original plan was to do some "permaculture guilds" in the area but that will take some time to provide cover.


Anyhow, I have already had a hawk hit by allowing them to run in that area so I need some good ideas for hawk cover in the interim.

It may be that your goats and...do you have dogs?... may be taking care of that issue for you.



Since I sold the goat boys, I've put the shelters out in various places (the little metal half-circle shelters) with some netting half way down the openings so the birds can get in but hawk would hit the netting if it tried to follow. I'm not sure the chickens get the point of that yet but hope they will soon.

Anyhow, any ideas for that area would be appreciated from EVERYONE.

In case I didn't explain well on the shelters, here's a photo of one of them. It doesn't show the plastic netting I put in but you can imagine that it blocks about 2/3 of the way down on the open ends so they can run under it into the shelter.

 

[Leahs Mom]

See out behind this photo? That's what that area looks like now.










Their normal area is a nice little forest covered area that is great. The little "chicken forest" is only about 1/4 acre I think...just guessing, may be a little more. You can kind-of see what that looks like in these photos below. Lots of nice brush and shade around the edges with good places to hunker down.

Wooded area to right:

Inside the little wooded area:


ETA - When I clean out the litter from the barn, it often goes to the forest floor in there which is what you see them digging through in this photo. Some goes in here and some in the garden/compost depending on the time of year.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

My situation is a blessed one I think. My chickens range in both the goat pasture and the donkey pasture, as well as my lawn. My lawn has lots of cover and i watch them follow the tree line and they dart from cover to no cover. There's always a few roosters keeping watch. In the donkey pasture there are two old trucks that the chickens use as a hang out. I have to fight with my husband yearly because he wants to remove them.

My goat pasture has the gost playground, as well as feeders and a barn wall to hug.

I have never lost a single chicken to a hawk even though i see them all the time. One year a hawk attempted to take a muscovy duck hen. I found the hawk sitting on her carcass underneath one of the trucks where she must have crawled to. The hawk couldn't get it's dinner.

We also have a large open doorway in the summer. Im always afraid the owls will swoop in and pluck chickens off the fence where they roost on but so far nothing.

I will post photos in a few posts as sometimes i get kicked off after too many photos, here's the field and truck. My husband cuts the field down a few fimes of year which helps to keep coyote at bay.

 

[eharbaugh]

Our LGD has been the saving grace of our chickens. He watches carefully for hawks, etc, as well as any other predator. I never expected he would watch from predatory birds, but he does. He ran off once and was gone for about 4 days before we found him. Two days after he left, we lost a chicken to a hawk. Never lost one before he left, and have never lost one since he came back.

 

[Leahs Mom]

So all that open space between your buildings and the trucks...and no hawk hits when they are going from place to place....

I keep imagining that they'll be between places and too far away to get to cover quickly.

I also have a rubbermade dog house that my husband saw on the side of the road for $5. I put that out and several small plastic "foot stools" or benches (you can see them in one of the prior photos I posted) that they can conceivably hide under.

Just doesn't seem like enough with the open spaces.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Our LGD has been the saving grace of our chickens. He watches carefully for hawks, etc, as well as any other predator. I never expected he would watch from predatory birds, but he does. He ran off once and was gone for about 4 days before we found him. Two days after he left, we lost a chicken to a hawk. Never lost one before he left, and have never lost one since he came back.

Good dog!