Not to step on the toes of chipmunk lovers, but I recently saw an animal show on television that claimed a chipmunk has a memory of about three days. Chipmunks spend much of their workday finding and hiding food. However, after three days, it seems, little Alvin forgets where he stashed the groceries.
That got me to thinking about the relative intelligence of animals. Not instinctive behavior, like geese flying south for the winter or bears preparing their den for winter hibernation, but rather an animal’s ability to acquire knowledge – and put that knowledge to use.
The animal kingdom is filled with overachievers like elephants, dolphins and chimps. Elephants are legendary for recognizing humans and other elephants they haven’t seen for years, and for remembering migratory routes and water holes hundreds of miles away, as well as for using tools like logs to neutralize electric fences. Chimps can be taught sign language, and some dolphins can master far more tasks than the average dog.
Farm animal intelligence
Pig intelligence: Some folks claim pigs are among the smartest of all farm animals. Barnyard pigs can figure out how to open gates, and have been taught to identify and retrieve specific objects. A researcher at Penn State University trained pigs to use a joystick to play video games and move the cursor on a video monitor. Pigs in France have been trained to sniff out truffles, and owners of potbellied pigs say their pets can be housebroken. And don’t confuse a pig’s love of wallowing in mud with stupidity. Pigs are susceptible to sunburn, and they instinctively know that mud makes a great sunblock.
Smart horses: Horse lovers will tell you that horses are the smartest animals in the corral, capable of loyalty, emotion and the ability to make decisions. If you’ve ever watched a roping, bulldogging or cutting horse competition, you’ve seen horses make a decision in a split second. Horses can remember and understand any number of spoken or tactile commands, and can recognize horse and human friends after years of separation. Horses also can be trained to master an impressive repertoire of tricks. In the early 1900s, a horse named Beautiful Jim Key was even taught how to spell out words. Horses also have a sense of humor, and have been known to play tricks on their human friends.
Social cows: While I admire cows, I’ll admit they’re not the brightest bulbs in the ceiling. However, in their defense, cows interact with one another in socially complex ways. They develop friendships, form social hierarchies, and can hold grudges against other cows. A dairy cow in a herd of a hundred knows exactly where her place is in line at the milking parlor, and range cattle never forget where the best grazing can be found. And if feeding time is 5 p.m., a herd of bawling cows will let you know if you’re even a few minutes late with their supper.
Sheep and goat intelligence: In addition to being barnyard acrobats, goats seem to have some understanding of geometry. Give a goat a doghouse and a 6-foot-high fence, and you can watch it calculate the angles and trajectories necessary to attain freedom. Any critter with four hooves that can climb trees has my respect.
If someone says you’re as smart as a sheep, you probably shouldn’t take it as a compliment. I have spent some time around sheep, and I can’t say I’ve ever seen one demonstrate much intelligence. Sheep will blindly stampede with the rest of the flock at the slightest provocation ... say, for instance, when a leaf blows across the pen. Exactly how much of this is attributable to their strong flocking instinct and a reluctance to act independently is debatable, but the darned things can take off for no apparent reason. Trust me.
How smart are birds?
We’ve all heard of parrots that were taught to understand and use dozens of human words, and crows that use twigs to fish tasty insects out of holes. But when it comes to domestic fowl, the term birdbrained comes to mind. There is, however, an exception to every rule, and that exception was a chicken named Ginger.
Actually, there was a whole flock of chickens named Ginger, trained to play tic-tac-toe by an Arkansas animal trainer named Bunky Boger. A few years ago, when casino folks in Atlantic City and Las Vegas caught wind of the avian wonders, they created “The Chicken Challenge – Play Tic-Tac-Toe With a Live Chicken.” Beat the chicken, and you could win $10,000.
Every day, hundreds of people would line up to match wits with Ginger. And most of the time, the chicken either won or battled its human opponent to a draw.
And that leaves me wondering just who should be calling whom birdbrained?
Jerry Schleicher lives in Parkville, Missouri, and just so happens to know a thing or two about birds and barnyard animals.
Read more: http://www.grit.com/animals/farm-animal-intelligence.aspx#ixzz2lhRQDT00
Once an essential part of any diversified farm, pigs have played an important role in agriculture – providing meat, fat, leather, bristles and more – for millennia. Some experts say pigs were domesticated as early as 11,000 B.C., and you’d be better off asking the question of where domestication didn’t occur than asking where it did. On the farm, pigs were often extensively managed and expected to forage for acorns, glean fields after harvest, consume dairy and brewery waste, and eat windfall fruit from orchards.
Not so long ago, hundreds of pig breeds were kept busy in backyards and on homesteads across the country. However, as the pork industry moved toward ever leaner and longer carcasses, increased production efficiencies, and confinement operations, many historic breeds fell out of favor. Today, fewer pig breeds remain, and many are dwindling in number. However, plenty of these pig breeds are perfectly suited to the small holding or homestead.
In the spirit of summertime barbecues, or “pig-pickin’s” as they’re called in the South, let’s explore some historic hog breeds and the unique histories, flavors and personalities that are influencing the rebirth of the sustainable agriculture movement.
Gloucestershire Old Spot
Status: Critical
Noted for its distinctive white coat with black spots, the Gloucestershire Old Spot (GOS) pig looks like the Dalmatian of pig breeds. The breed (pronounced Glos-ter-sheer) originated in Gloucestershire, England, in the 1800s. They often were found on small farms where they were the “pig of all trades” used for cleaning excess whey from cheese making, harvesting windfall apples from the orchards, and gleaning the residue from the cider press. The breed’s reputation as an excellent grazer and forager earned it nicknames like “Cottage Pig” and “Orchard Pig.”
Known for its meat with a flavor to savor, the pig became wildly popular in Great Britain during the first half of the 20th century. Gloucestershire Old Spots were imported into the United States, but their popularity never reached a level as high as the United Kingdom. After World War II and the shift to industrial food production, the breed lost popularity in both Britain and the United States.
Today, thanks to their great maternal skills, friendly dispositions and self-sufficiency, the Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs are making a comeback. Though boars reach mature weights of more than 600 pounds and sows average about 500 pounds, they are good-natured and relatively easy to handle. The breed is an ideal option for the farmer or homesteader looking for delectable meats from pasture-raised pigs.
Tamworth
Status: Threatened
For the hobby farmer considering raising pigs, Tamworths offer an ideal blend of hardiness, good temperament and great taste.
Historically, Tamworths lived a rugged, thrifty life of foraging for grubs, roots and berries. Years of selection for this outdoor lifestyle have led to a long, lean, athletic hog with strong legs and sound feet.
Today, Tamworths are once again finding their niche. Their amicable personalities are hard to beat, and sows make prolific, terrific mothers. The long, chiseled snout of the Tamworth makes it a four-legged rototiller, perfect for turning the soil and preparing the ground. Despite their large size of 500 to 600 pounds, Tamworths are very active, so be sure you have the proper enclosures to keep them from roaming too far around the farm.
Large Black
Status: Critical
The Large Black pig is just what its name suggests; a large-framed hog with a solid black coat. The Large Black gained “superstardom” in England during the late 1800s, and by 1900, it was the most numerous of the English pig breeds. The breed was valued by small-scale producers for the succulent pork and bacon it produced on little more than pasture and forage.
The breed was imported to countries around the world, but as with most heritage pork breeds, it fell out of favor in the 1960s as the pork industry shifted to more confinement and industrial operations.
Mature Large Black boars weigh 700 to 800 pounds, and sows reach 600 to 700 pounds. When working in the fields, foraging and rooting, these pigs wear their version of safety glasses. The animals have lop ears that fall forward over their faces, protecting the eyes but sometimes causing sight impediments.
Because of the increased interest in pasture-raised pork, Large Black hogs are beginning to be recognized as a great choice in pastured management systems.
Hereford
Status: Watch
An American original, the Hereford is a medium-size hog breed that is unique to the United States. The breed was developed in Iowa and Nebraska during the 1920s from Duroc, Chester White and Poland China stock. By 1934, 100 animals were identified as the foundation stock for the breed, and the National Hereford Hog Record was formed to promote the new hog breed.
As its name suggests, the Hereford hog has a color pattern of vibrant red and white, similar to that of
Hereford cattle.
Hereford cattle.
These pigs are versatile and adaptable. They can tolerate a wide variety of climates, and are often commended by owners for their docile personalities. Because of their gentle nature, Herefords make an excellent choice for 4-H projects. Mature Hereford boars weigh about 800 pounds, and sows reach about 600 pounds. Today, the breeding population of Hereford hogs is increasing, with the breed being most popular in the Midwest and Plains states.
Red Wattle
Status: Critical
Large yet mild-mannered, the Red Wattle hog is a breed that small-scale producers and homesteaders should consider. The exact origin of the breed is not certain, but the name that graces the pages of history is that of H.C. Wengler. In 1965, Wengler set out to find the red, wattled hogs he remembered from his youth. The pigs were thought to be extinct. Wengler searched high and low, and in the early 1970s, he found some wattled hogs in a wooded area of eastern Texas. After several generations of selective breeding, the “new” Wengler Red Wattle hog was born.
In the early 1980s, Robert Prentice located another line of red, wattled hog that he developed into the Endow Farm Wattle Hogs.
Today, the Red Wattle is waddling back into the limelight. The culinary world’s recent love affair with the juicy, well-marbled, lean meat the breed produces has led to a growing interest in the breed. As the name implies, the Red Wattle is a red hog with a fleshy wattle attached to each side of the neck. The wattle serves no real function. The breed’s color ranges from shades of red, to some with black specks or patches, to some animals that appear nearly black. Sows make excellent mothers, farrowing litters of 10 to 15 piglets. Red Wattles typically weigh 600 to 800 pounds, but may grow as large as 1,200 pounds depending on the line.
Carolina born and raised, Jennifer Kendall resides in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband, Bassett Hound and Orange Tabby, and dreams of one day owning some of these heritage breeds.
Read more: http://www.grit.com/animals/heritage-hog-breeds.aspx#ixzz2lhRwAhOR
Back in the day, fowl fanciers and farmstead owners all over the country kept chickens because they were beautiful, particularly suited to a specific region’s environment, and for the services they could offer and/or products they could supply.
Did you know that some fancy fowl were kept to supply the fashion and fishing-fly-tying industries with incredibly beautiful feathers, which were often harvested without ending the bird’s life? Others were kept for the eggs or meat they could provide. And all the while, the birds kept their premises free of all manner of pests, including flies, ticks, grubs, caterpillars, and even mice and snakes in some instances. Plus, chickens are an end-of-the-day entertainment that rivals the best Broadway show or blockbuster movie. You’ve heard the expression “sit and watch the chickens peck.” For the homesteader, there may be nothing quite so soothing at the end of a fulfilling day of work than to sit, cool beverage in hand, and watch the chickens just do what chickens do.
So, what is it that they do? Well, if the chickens in question happen to be one of the small handful of over-bred industrial breeds, those poor animals will have few social skills and may grow so fast and so out of proportion that they break bones or die of heart attacks just eight weeks after hatching. Watching these chickens do their thing may be more depressing than relaxing or uplifting — especially if they’re in a horrific factory-production setting — but that’s not their fault. It’s the fault of animal science’s morally questionable conclusion that animals such as chickens are nothing more than cogs in a moneymaking machine. As such, laying hens may legally be crowded into small cages where they cannot scratch, cannot interact socially with one another, and cannot lay eggs in the privacy of a nest box or other “secret” place. On top of all of that, most of the top halves of their beaks have been cut off to keep the overcrowded animals from pecking one another.
Thankfully, a sufficient number of folks interested in animal husbandry eschewed the entire industrial poultry production model and have maintained many of the old chicken breeds and lines. Thus it is that some of those sturdy, older breeds are available today. Birds like the Jersey Giant will net you some eggs and grow to sufficient size to produce a fine table fowl. But more importantly, old breeds like the Jersey Giant thrive out-of-doors, and they will entertain you beautifully while performing tasks you’d rather not do and doing the work of agricultural poisons and synthetic chemicals you’d rather not use.
Feeding chickens in the yard
Whether you live in town or out in the country, keeping a small flock of chickens in the backyard is not only fun, it’s also rewarding in a number of ways. As omnivores, chickens will gleefully seek out and devour all manner of insect, bug, grub, larva, worm, mouse, etc. They also will mow your lawn — to an extent, anyway. Chickens relish fresh greens, including grasses and forbs. When they are confined in relatively small areas, they can keep the lawn trimmed (though, when left to their own devices, they have a tendency to overgraze their favorite things, like clover and dandelions, and spend less time on the Kentucky bluegrass). If you enclose your birds in a portable pen, you can move it around the yard in a rotation, and your chickens will do a much more uniform mowing job than when they are completely free ranging. So, moving them around in a pen can either keep the birds from overgrazing their favorite vegetation or it can encourage them to do just that — to help you prepare a new garden patch. As the chickens graze, they’ll fertilize the lawn with some of the finest organic material out there, but they’ll do oh-so-much more.
If you are a lawn purist, you might dethatch your yard every spring. This arduous task involves hard soil-scratching raking that pulls up the thatch of dead grass that collects just above the soil surface each year. Alternatively, you might rent an expensive gas-guzzling power dethatcher that will scratch the soil, while bringing all that dead grass to the surface for easier collection with a leaf rake or power vacuum of some kind. In either case, you are expending all kinds of calories to undo something that mowing does every year. Plus, dethatching can make some turf grass crowns more susceptible to various pests. Here’s where the chickens come in.
When left to their own devices, hens will scratch the ground looking for worms, grubs, and other likely food sources. When given plenty of space, or moved around in portable (and bottomless) pens, this scratching will dethatch and aerate the lawn while breaking the thatch into smaller, more easily decomposed pieces. The end result is that the chicken dethatchers will render the thatch gone and promote its decomposition in place. You don’t have to collect the debris and send it to the landfill or put it in your compost bin. Plus, you can employ chickens year-round to keep the thatch under control. At the same time, they’ll keep the lawn fertilized and help control grubs, bugs and ticks. Chickens do all this and more for the price of a little bit of feed.
Even if you keep sufficient chickens to handle most of the mowing, you might still choose to mow the front yard more formally. Many people who mow with machines collect their grass clippings in black plastic trash bags, which are then dutifully sent to the landfill every week throughout the summer. It’s true that some folks add the clippings onto their compost pile, but those piles often turn into stinking anaerobic messes because clippings have a relatively high protein content. But there is a completely different way to dispose of the clippings. You can take advantage of the fact that chickens like their greens and simply feed the chickens the clippings. (You’ll only want to use chickens to mow if you refrain from applying synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides to your lawn. Although some folks say that there’s no harm in feeding greens fertilized with synthetic fertilizer, we say, don’t do it.)
Feeding grass clippings works best with chickens that can be confined — even temporarily — to a spacious pen that has one side or corner devoted to the compost pile. (If you live in town where you aren’t allowed to have a compost pile, call it a “chicken feed pile.”) As you collect your grass clippings, simply dump them into the pen. You can alternate dumping sites if the chickens aren’t eating, scratching up, and aiding decomposition of the clippings quickly enough. Spread them out more thinly if there’s even a hint of anaerobic stink going on deeper in the pile.
Read more: http://www.grit.com/animals/feeding-chickens-zm0z13mazgou.aspx#ixzz2lhSlX0sm
The Benefits of Raising Free-Range Chickens
To free range or not to free range – for folks with a flock, that is the question. Five years of experience raising free-range chickens on my organic farm, Mama Tierra, in Bowdoin, Maine, has led to some useful, albeit hard-won, insights. I did some homework and spoke to other flock owners before undertaking this adventure, but mostly I followed the “Just Lay It” approach and learned by doing. It’s a tried-and-true New Englander strategy that, for better and sometimes worse, can have a long, mild – yet consistent – learning curve.
Before deciding to liberate your fowl to freely follow their bliss, here are a few things to consider for a successful free-range endeavor. First, let’s be clear about what constitutes “free-range.” It is a fallacy to qualify free-range eggs as those produced by hens raised outdoors or that have daily access to the outdoors. This definition is so vague that it can include hens that might only access the same “outdoor” yard day in and day out. Without specifying the size of the space, this may also mean that, within a matter of weeks, the hens are ranging only in grazed-down dirt and their own waste.
The real definition of free-range means allowing the chickens to be truly free to wander where their little hen hearts desire. Let the hens go, and watch where they head. With eyes on greener pastures, my hen friends would come hopping out the door and head far afield for green grasses and into woodlands to follow their instincts to scratch and forage. However, the first stop was undoubtedly the compost pile to check out what kind of chicken dumpster-diving feast might be theirs for the taking.
First step
One of the first considerations for raising free-range chickens is allowing access to tender green pasture for all birds older than 3 or 4 weeks. They need to be contained and protected at this stage, but putting birds on pasture as chicks lowers the cost of their raising by reducing the amount of store-bought feed consumed. It also encourages the birds’ natural tendency to begin to graze. By eating insects and scratching and pecking in the soil, chickens access protein and many necessary minerals. Time spent on the pasture as pullets yields hardy hens that produce high-quality eggs consistently the following winter when they begin to lay.
At this early stage of the chick’s life, it is important to provide adequate shelter, fencing and protection from both predators and the elements. Consider sowing rye in autumn or a thick early spring seeding of oats to have a well-established and supportive pasture ready for chicks hatched in the spring. Move the poultry shelter often to give the flock clean ground and fresh greens. It is surprising how even a small flock of fledglings can quickly consume every tasty morsel they can get their beaks on.To give an idea, an acre is an adequate supply of pasture for 200 adult birds or 300 chicks. Scale downwards according to the size of your smaller flock.
Another benefit of contained ranging is that it is a great way to acclimate the birds to their roosting territory. If possible, build the fenced-in pasture in a manner that allows access to the coop and roosts. This way the birds learn at a young age how to recognize their home base, while you save the time and money necessary to create a separate dwelling. I even built the chicks a small version of roosts and put it out in the range yard for them to begin to practice their perch. They took to it right away and gradually began to experiment with the higher roosts in the coop on their own. A fresh supply of water is crucial, and unless your land has a natural source for clean, moving water, this will be on your checklist to maintain flock health.
The food your birds consume is directly responsible for the quality of their eggs or meat; it is, therefore, crucial to start them off right on a true free-range chicken’s natural diet. A variety of greens, plants, worms and insects is enhanced by direct exposure to the sun, dirt and fresh air. These are the secret ingredients in the delicious eggs laid by hens lucky enough to range. After they’ve had their fill, they’ll scope out an inviting sunny patch of dry dirt and take a bath to keep their feathers healthy and clean.
Possible complications
Now, let’s turn to a few of the more complicated aspects of letting the flock out to begin to roam on their own. In my experience, even though my 13 acres in rural mid-coast Maine abuts about 2,000 acres of conservation land, the No. 1 predator I had to be aware of was a Labrador Retriever. In five years, I lost only one bird and had two others come under attack. The culprit in each instance: my neighbor’s dog.
Despite leash laws at both the state and town level, the off-leash dog not under the owner’s vocal command came into my yard and got the birds. This is an important potential predator to put into your mix when considering your flock’s safety. How many dogs live nearby and have access to your land? Can you speak to your neighbors and ask for cooperation? You may want to erect a fence if there is a potential dog menace.
Other threats might come from above, so be watchful for passing raptors and wide-open spaces that could allow them to swoop in for take-out chicken. Once the flock matures, they seem able to sense when to take shelter if a predator is circling.
Because the girls love to bathe daily, your flower and vegetable gardens may become tantalizing venues for their dirt lounge. This can prove to be a major problem both for health risks as well as aesthetic disruptions. When an ideal dirt locale is identified by one hen, the others will follow, which can lead to having to fence in the flowers. If you have several beds like we do, this can get a bit pricey.Fortunately, hens are creatures of the edge, meaning they also love woodlands and easily relocate themselves under evergreens where the dirt tends to be dry and yielding. My flock has a favorite location they visit for their daily dust bath before basking in the sun.
For me, there was never a question about my hens finding a home on the range. I knew they’d lead a happier, healthier life when given the choice to follow their own nature. It only follows that this lifestyle leads to delicious, nutritious “eggs-cellent” eggs.
Lisa V. Blake cofounded Mama Tierra Farm in Bowdoin, Maine, which is dedicated to biodynamic, organic living in harmony with all of nature, friend and fowl alike.
Brothers Raise Free Range Eggs on Large Scale
For the past couple years, I’ve made a point of buying a dozen or so eggs from two young farmers who are regulars at the Columbia, Missouri, Farmers’ Market. They look so much alike that I figured they must be brothers, and I used to think they might even be high schoolers, earning a little extra money on their parents’ farm. I was right about their ages — one of them is still in high school. But I was completely wrong about the “little extra money” idea.
It turns out that the young farmers are the owners of Stanton Brothers Eggs, which according to the USDA, makes them one of the largest independent free-range egg producers in the United States. This year, the brothers raised 12,000 chickens that laid upward of 1 million eggs. On good days, the Stantons’ mother, Judy, delivers 600-dozen eggs to local grocery stores, college dining halls and restaurants.
The family farm near Centralia, Missouri, is where their story takes place.
Meet the family
The two brothers — Austin, age 17, and Dustin, age 21 — have accomplished more than most people twice, or even three times, their age. They’ve built a home business by doing what they enjoy, with integrity.
Their business model is based on a sincere concern for the animals under their care and the thousands of people who eat their eggs. It’s also based on sound economic principles.
“We don’t create a supply (of eggs) and then try to find a demand,” Dustin says. “We find the demand and then build the supply. It all depends on who needs eggs and the client’s size.”
Raising 12,000 free-range chickens would be more than a full-time activity for even the most seasoned farmer, but the brothers juggle their work responsibilities with a full schedule of classes and school activities. Dustin is studying agriculture economics at nearby University of Missouri-Columbia, and Austin is in his junior year at Centralia High School. Both are active in local FFA chapters.
Dustin and Austin are quick to point out that their parents, Andrew and Judy, deserve credit for their success. The chickens are sheltered in barns originally used for their family’s cattle. The sons swap their labor in the field for the milo and other grains used in their feed. And the entire family helps with egg gathering, washing and packaging.
“We are the definition of a family farm,” Dustin says.
Andrew Stanton, age 50, was born and raised on a farm. He figured out early on how to combine his responsibilities as a father with farm work. While Judy recovered in the hospital after giving birth to Dustin, Andrew found himself with farm chores to do and a newborn son who needed his constant attention. He did what only a farmer would do: He put Dustin in an infant car seat and tied the seat onto his tractor so he could grind feed and babysit at the same time. Years later, his sons still carry their weight around the farm.“When they started out, my kids would help me farm my 1,200 acres,” Andrew says. “Now it’s the other way around — more and more of my time is spent helping them keep up with the eggs.”
Dustin and Austin share the same build — tall and thin, straight-backed and broad shouldered. They take their business seriously, but aren’t single-minded. Scott Stone, a teacher at Centralia High School and FFA advisor, has known the Stanton brothers for more than a decade.
“They are both very determined. They’re extremely nice guys, down to earth and honest. It’s nothing for those boys to stay up ‘til 1 o’clock in the morning, gathering and cleaning eggs, then get up at 6 a.m. to do it again before getting ready for school,” Stone says.
Their personalities complement their working arrangement. “We get along and like working together,” Austin says. He doesn’t mind the hard, physical work of gathering eggs for hours at a time, and after he graduates high school, he might go to a technical school where he can learn to repair all the technology on which their business depends — everything from tractors to walk-in refrigerators and their refrigerated delivery truck. Dustin tends toward the business end of things, enjoying selling and meeting new customers. He prides himself in being able to calculate feed rations, adjusting the protein ratio to the weather conditions.
Truly free-range chickens
Stanton raised his sons to be independent, and in turn, the brothers allow their chickens a good measure ofindependence and freedom. A hen can fare no better in this life than to end up laying eggs on the Stanton Brothers’ farm. One day last spring, I visited the farm to watch the family in action and see how the brothers translated the term “free-range” into daily operation.
“We are 100 percent free range,” Austin says. “A lot of free-range farmers have a chicken yard. We don’t. The chickens go anywhere they want on the farm, the whole place.”
Stanton Brothers Eggs has little in common with the modern industrial egg operations that account for 98 percent of the nation’s egg supply. Their niche — local and free-range eggs – gives them a competitive advantage over the mega-egg operations in their mid-Missouri market. Although the nation’s egg giants, companies with more than 1 million hens laying for them, tower over the Stantons, the brothers don’t mind. Their niche is as satisfying for them as it is for their chickens.
Stanton Brothers chickens are members of a community of happy, healthy hens — mostly Tetra Tints, Hy-Line Browns, Bovans and Rhode Island Reds. They roam wherever they want, whenever they want, doing whatever comes naturally into their chicken minds. They may plop themselves into any of the farm’s four barns, finding a nesting box to get comfortable in. They may congregate near a grain bin, enjoying the weather. Or they may mosey over to a pasture or one of the fields of milo or beans. Some even venture off the farm and onto the gravel road, where not a few have met their end, paying the ultimate price for their freedom.Walking among 12,000 free-range chickens was an experience worth the trip to the Stanton Brothers’ farm. Curious chickens clustered around me, pecking harmlessly at boot level.
Stepping through the chickens was like wading through a knee-deep stream. Except instead of the peaceful sound of swirling water, I was greeted by a high-decibel chorus of clicking, clucking, clacking birds. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a happier (or louder) sound coming from animals.
And why shouldn’t the chickens be happy? The Stantons let the chickens enjoy a life well beyond their prime egg-laying days. Some of the chickens are 9 years old.
“My kids keep the chickens until they die,” says Stanton. “We’ve had several chickens in the nest laying an egg, and they’ve had heart attacks.”
That’s not to say profits aren’t important. They are, but the Stantons don’t place profits above the well-being of their birds and the quality of their eggs. Dustin’s business plans have earned him one of the FFA’s 10 National Agri-Entrepreneurship Awards, the 2011 National FFA
Proficiency winner in Agricultural Sales, and an assortment of other honors. As they’ve matured, Dustin and Austin have grown their business at a rate they can manage, learning skills and knowledge as the need arises.
Early beginnings
Stanton Brothers Eggs may be the only company started before its owners had mastered their multiplication tables or graduated elementary school. Dustin started with 12 chicks while in the first grade.
“I told him, ‘if you want allowance, you’ll have to earn it,’” says Stanton. Dustin, and eventually Austin after he could tie his own shoes, started selling eggs to neighbors and at church. By the time Dustin joined FFA in 2007, their flock had grown to 250 birds. When they had too many eggs to sell off the farm, they started selling eggs at the Columbia Farmers’ Market. When they were approached by local stores that wanted their eggs, they grew their flock and started deliveries. By 2010, they were caring for 7,000 layers. Next year, the brothers will have completed construction on a new 8,000-square-foot temperature-controlled barn. They’ll be able to shelter 5,000 chickens in the space, and move from hand-gathering eggs to a conveyer belt system that will make life easier for all of them.
No easy task
Although Dustin and Austin make it sound like getting into the egg business is as easy as child’s play, it isn’t. Ron Plain, an ag economist with the University of Missouri Extension Service, says there’s a lot to consider before buying your first chick.
“The key thing to keep in mind isn’t so much the challenge of having the birds and producing the eggs, but of marketing the eggs,” Plain says. “If you keep the birds healthy and well-fed, you should get close to an egg per bird per day. Ideally you need a marketing program and a set of very consistent customers who would take them off your hands.”Another thing would-be egg farmers need to think and learn about is compliance to state and federal laws. Each state has its own licensing requirements for selling eggs. Although all egg producers should know how to keep their chickens healthy and eggs sanitary, some states don’t require licenses for small farmers who sell off the farm. As youngsters selling to neighbors, the Stanton brothers didn’t need a license, but when they began selling at the Columbia Farmers’ Market, they got their first license, along with inspections from the Missouri Department of Agriculture. When they passed the threshold of 3,000 chickens, federal regulations clicked in with on-site inspections by the USDA and FDA.
What’s the future of Stanton Brothers Eggs? Dustin and Austin are both hooked on the independence that comes from owning their own business. They see a future full of chickens and eggs, plus the possibility of marketing homemade chicken soup. The more important question is one they can’t answer: What impact will these two hardworking, young men have on the future of free-range egg production?
Jack Wax lives in Columbia, Missouri, where he cares for a flock of 23 chickens that roams freely on the 10 acres surrounding his home.
Cold weather means a shortage of weeds and bugs for your chickens to scratch for. Bored chickens can be prone to pecking and bullying each other. This easy to make Seed Treat Block will keep your chickens happy and busy, as well as provide them with some warming grains and other ingredients to help them through the cold weather.
Here's what you need:
2 cups scratch grains (a mix of cracked corn, oats, barley & other mixed grains)
1 cup layer feed
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 eggs
1/2 cup Blackstrap molasses
1/2 cup coconut oil, liquified
2 cups scratch grains (a mix of cracked corn, oats, barley & other mixed grains)
1 cup layer feed
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 eggs
1/2 cup Blackstrap molasses
1/2 cup coconut oil, liquified
Preheat oven to 325 F. In large mixing bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and mix well. Pat into several small baking dishes or casseroles, so your blocks are approximately 2 inches thick. Three 6-inch round cake pans work perfectly. (Optional, use a chopstick to make a hole in each block so you can hang them in the run.)
Bake for 30 minutes, then cool completely. Run a knife around the inside rim of each pan and invert to remove the block. Serve to a flock of very happy girls. Leftovers can be refrigerated or frozen and then defrosted as needed. Serve in limited amounts as a treat.
If you enjoyed this recipe, you might also be interested in making your chickens Homemade Suet Blocks, a Scratch Treat Wreath or Edible Garlands to help them through the cold weather.
Chicken Coop 101
3/31/2011 5:22:00 PM
You can make a chicken coop from just about anything. I've seen rabbit hutches, tool sheds, and portions of barns converted into chicken coops. If you're lucky enough to start from scratch, or your able to remodel an existing structure, there's a few things we've learned you might want to take into consideration.
The photo above of the little red shed was the existing chicken coop and tiny outdoor run when we purchased our farm house. We knew we wanted to build a new, larger coop and run, and had hoped to do so prior to bringing chickens home. It didn't happen as planned and I am now very thankful. We learned a lot while using this small coop that wouldn't have have crossed our minds if we hadn't. The girls and handsome Mr. Clyde lived there for about 3 months before the new coop was built.
As a start, regarding the size of your coop, the general number seems to be 3 feet to every chicken. (Our coop is 8 foot by 10 foot and around 8 foot tall.) Remember to also keep in mind you want a roost area, feeding area and egg laying area. Think through the feeding area, because if it's too close to the roost area you'll end up with feeders full of manure.
You also want to make sure the coop is safe from predators. Even if your chickens free-range during the day, they need a safe haven to sleep in. Make sure nothing can get underneath the coop or through the door or windows. We use two types of locks on all our doors (hoping if they can get one open they can't get the other) and every window has a barrel-lock on the inside. We also added a tough wire to all the windows so they can remain open during the hot summer.
Here's a few more things we've learned.
Lesson One: You want to make sure you can get in the coop to clean it. Whether you want a portable house or a large coop as we have, make sure there is access to the indoor and outdoor areas. You can see from the photo above we chose a shed-style coop that my husband designed and built. We had to build an outdoor run because of loose dogs in the neighborhood. We started with a small solar panel for a light, but ended up running electricity to it as well (see lesson 10).
The photo above shows the outdoor run. It features a "people" door as well as a chicken tractor door. The idea of the smaller door is you can pull the chicken tractor up to it and load them in. What I would change about this are 2 things: The people door isn't quite tall enough, so you have to duck (after hitting your head once you remember to do so), and the chicken tractor door opens out not in.
We built sloped roofs for the snow we get in the Northeast. We also chose metal roofing to go with the rest of the outbuildings on the property.
Lesson Two: If you have an outdoor run, you want the chickens door to open out from the run. In the first coop, we had to wade through the mob of chickens, all yelling to be let out, to open the door because it opened in. I love this. We put a latch on the door in addition to a clip to keep smart racoons and other critters out at night.
Lesson Three: If you have an outdoor run offer lots of roosting space. They absolutely love it.
Jay made the handy little ramp, including the wood strips so they could get traction on their way down.
All chickens love a spot to dust bath and a large litter pan filled with play sand and some wood ash is like a day at the spa!
Let's go inside.
You can see in the photo above, the small solar light. Jay designed and built the nesting boxes with a small perch in the front. (those are golf balls inside, it really does encourage the egg laying in the box!)
Lesson Four: You should have one nesting box for every four to five chickens. Also, the nesting boxes don't have to be large, although Jay wanted the girls to have plenty of room so he built ours a little bigger than necessary. Generally, 12x12x12 is plenty of space. We put straw in ours and the girls enjoy rearranging it while waiting to lay their egg.
Our nesting boxes are purposely positioned below the window, because you want a dark, quiet area for them. We also added a slant roof to the top hoping to deter the girls from roosting on it. Although it hasn't stopped them completely it does make it more difficult.
You can also see, in the photos above and below, we used all available space. We put the nesting boxes up high enough to have storage space underneath for small cans of their feed. Also, the door to the outdoor run is tucked underneath.
We use the deep litter method, however, I still rake the manure in the mornings after a night's roost. I purchased the rake from our local hardware store and had Jay put 2 nails in the wall to hold it. It works perfectly for letting the litter fall thru but holds the manure to throw in the compost bin.
We built lots of roosting space as well as 2 roosting shelves. We found from the first coop the girls love the shelves and fight over them every night. Jay wanted them to be happy, so he put 2 in the new coop. Make sure you use something such as a 2x4 for the roost so they are comfortable wrapping their feet around it.
Lesson Five: We put four windows in our coop for plenty of ventilation. We have 2 small windows on the North and South sides of the coop that are up high enough it won't be breezy on them as they roost. One is kept open all the time for constant ventilation to prevent the ammonia build-up. We open both when we want a breeze or cross ventilation. All the windows were found windows that Jay made work. He attached hinges to them so they could open/close, and he put cleats by each and a string on each so we can open them as little or as much as we want to. The photos below show this in more detail.
Also to note, if you're going to have windows open you probably want to put wire on them to keep other birds and critters out. We used a pretty rugged square wire on ours. We also used barrel-locks on all the windows so they can close tight in the winter.
Lesson Six: If you live in an area with freezing temp.'s through a good portion of the winter, you may want to look into purchasing a heater for the water (in the photo above to the left). After a few mornings of trying to get the water unthawed you'll be thankful.
Lesson Seven: Chickens are messy and they love to scratch. Because of this, if you don't want their feed all over the place put their feeders up. Jay built wooden platforms for them, but we've also used strings attached to the ceiling as in the photo above. Just make sure it's easy to remove for filling and cleaning. Also, try to have more than one feeder. The girls tend to gang up on one or two chickens and prevent them from feeding. With an additional feeder, everyone can eat.
Many people have asked me about the cold temp.'s in our area and how to keep the coop warm. The simple truth is, if you have a small coop and enough chickens to fill it, their body heat alone will keep them warm. They deal with the cold better than the heat.
Our coop is large and tall for the amount of birds we have, so although it stays warmer inside than outside, it still seems chilly. We did 2 things: we insulated the coop (walls, ceiling, door and floor) and we purchased 2 flat panel heaters and a thermostatic outlet. (The insulation helps in the summer as well so the coop can stay a little cooler, especially with the box fans going.)
The heaters we've been happy with were purchased from Melanie at ShopTheCoop.com (we purchased our original heaters from a different online heater company and they were awful). She also sells the thermostatic outlet, which allows the heaters to be turned on all the time, but only actually come on when the temperature drops below a certain degree and turns off again once it reaches the higher temperature it's set to. Yes, it definitely raises our electric bill, but we only turn them on during the coldest parts of the winter.
If you're going to use heaters, flat panel is the way to go because they're safe and fairly cool to the touch. With the amount of dust found in the coop you want to make sure a heater won't get clogged up with it.
Lesson Eight: Do you have an area to keep chickens who need to be separated from the rest? We realized we didn't want sick chickens in the same coop, and haven't yet built a small hutch-style coop for that purpose. That's to come. Currently, they get quarrantined in the craft room in a dog crate.
We did realize, when Mama Claire hatched 2 eggs and again when we adopted the new chicks, we needed an area for chicks where the big girls couldn't pick at them until they could defend themselves. Enter my handyman again to construct a temporary coop within the coop.
The photo above to the left is the box method we started with. With five chicks, they outgrew it quickly. We wanted to keep them with the other chickens so there would be no need for introductions later when they were released to the rest of the coop. So my very handy husband constructed a removable coop within the coop. He boxed in one corner of the coop and made the walls portable so we can take them down and put them up when needed. Brilliant!! It has worked out great.
Lesson Nine: You can also see from the photos above, we started out with a shelving area in part of the coop to keep litter, straw and extra feed. We realized how bad an idea this was when we had a mite infestation this past summer and had to toss it all out. I would suggest only storing tightly sealed items (such as the small trash cans of food) just in case of a lice, mite, or any other infestation.
Lesson Ten: Electricity, to us, has been one of the most important things. We didn't really think much about it initially, and I'm sure Jay was wishing the decision was to not power it, but in the end we are both so thankful we did. He had to dig a trench and run the wire (he is trained to do this - hire an electrician if you are not), while the girls and Clyde supervised, but it has allowed us to run the electric heater for the water, the flat panel heaters, and a box fan (we put in the windows) in the summer. The girls get up on the roosts, spread out their wings, and take in that wonderful breeze. Their happiness is thanks enough.
Lesson Eleven: Where there are chickens there will be a lot of dust. This is inevitable. I've seen wonderful coop designs with chandeliers, curtains, painted walls, etc. Remember, chickens poop where they want and create dust constantly.
Lesson Twelve: If there is a 1 1/2" or larger ledge, a chicken will find it and roost on it. When you build your coop look around and think about this. We have a small windowsill all the way up at the top of the coop where our ventilation window is. They found it and there was no keeping them off of it. We are unable to get up there to clean off the manure, so we had to create obstacles to keep them off.
Lesson Thirteen: If there's a wire or something sticking out, a chicken will get hurt on it. Also, if there's something to peck at (exposed insulation, etc), they will. Again, take a look around your coop and think of it from a chicken's perspective.
Additional information is with regard to the flooring of the coop, which really depends on your preference. Our first little coop had a dirt floor. My concern was that something would be able to dig underneath the coop and get at them. We now have a wood insulated floor. Cement is a good choice as well.
My hope is that you come away with an idea or two, or perhaps you can share an idea with us. If so, please leave a comment, we'd love to hear from you.
Directory of Hatcheries and Poultry Breeders
Chickens and other poultry are great additions to a homestead or a backyard. This online directory will help you search for the hatcheries nearest you with the breeds you want. To learn more about poultry, visit the Chicken and Egg Page.
This directory is made available in conjunction with our sister publication, GRIT.
[Note to hatcheries and poultry breeders: If you or your company sells chicks or hatching eggs, please register below and click submit. You will receive an e-mail asking you to confirm your address. Once you verify your e-mail address, you will be able to log in. (If you are already registered and would like to update your information, please click the same link below.)]
Click on the image below to see a map of the registered hatcheries and poultry breeders:
This is a cool video about raising chickens. Any doubts that chickens worth the hassle? Watch this video! This Video is from Grit.
Also a very interesing video!
Free range chicken eggs are a lot better!
Raising Broiler Chickens!
Raising broiler chickens can put meat on your table quicker and with less effort than raising any other livestock. In just a handful of weeks, your chicks will reach target weight and your larder can be stocked with meat that's tastier and better for you than anything you could buy at the grocery store. Plus, raising meat chickens lets you opt out of the profoundly inhumane industrial food-production system. The choice between hybrid or heritage breeds, confinement or free range, and conventional or organic feed are entirely up to you.
Best Broiler Breeds
Growing broilers — young chickens with pliable skin and tender meat — involves making several choices. Your first decision is whether to raise hybrid or heritage poultry breeds. The fundamental differences are the amount of time they need to grow and the flavor of the meat. The quicker your birds reach the target weight of about 6 pounds, the cheaper they are to raise overall and the more delicate the meat. The longer they take, the more they'll cost you (as is the case with heritage breeds), but the meat will be healthier and more flavorful.White hybrids. The most efficient hybrid broiler chickens are an industrial creation developed by combining White Cornish and White Plymouth Rock genetics. The resulting hybrids — the type most commonly sold at the supermarket — grow and feather rapidly. Chicks of the same age and sex grow at the same rate and efficiently convert feed into meat, reaching target weight in just six to seven weeks. Their edible portion (excluding excess fat, intestines, feathers, heads, feet and blood) is approximately 75 percent of live weight.
Under careful management these broad-breasted hybrid broiler chickens will consume approximately 2 pounds of feed for every pound of weight gained. Unless they're raised on range, hybrid chickens must be butchered as soon as they reach target weight, or they will develop bone ailments or die of heart failure as a result of their excessively rapid growth.
White Cornish hybrids have fewer feathers to pluck and no underlying hair-like feather to singe off, making them easier and faster to clean than other broiler chickens. I like roasting them with the skin intact. When I raise other broiler breeds, I skin them because it's faster than plucking the feathers off. However, you can choose to pluck your birds regardless of breed.
Colored hybrids. These broilers were developed for France’s famous Label Rouge organic free-range chickens and adopted by some producers in the United States. Trade names include Black Broiler, Color Yield, Colored Range, Freedom Ranger, Kosher King, Redbro, Red Broiler, Red Meat Maker, Rosambro and Silver Cross. Most strains have red plumage, but they also come in black, gray or barred — anything but white. Their colored feathers make them less visible to predators, especially hawks, but difficult to pluck cleanly so that the bare skin appears neat. (See Wrong About Freedom Rangers to learn more about colored hybrids.)Colored hybrid broiler chickens are usually raised on pasture and grow more slowly than white hybrids — they take at least 11 weeks to reach target weight, and the chicks don’t necessarily grow at a uniform rate. They eat about 3 pounds of feed per pound of weight gained because of their longer growth period and the calories they burn while foraging. Some people find the meat of colored hybrids to be more flavorful than that of faster-growing white hybrids. The edible meat is approximately 70 percent of live weight.
Heritage poultry breeds. If you keep heritage chickens for eggs, you have the option of hatching eggs from your own flock, keeping the pullets as future layers and raising the surplus cockerels for meat. Delaware, New Hampshire, Plymouth Rock and Wyandotte are heritage poultry breeds with great potential as dual-purpose egg and meat chickens.
All of these breeds are good foragers and have a moderate to slow growth rate, reaching target weight in about 16 weeks. Compared with Cornish hybrids, they have thinner breasts and more dark meat. The higher foraging activity of heritage chickens results in meat that's lower in fat and firmer in texture. The meat has a richer chicken flavor because the birds are older when slaughtered.
Non-hybrids do not grow at a uniform rate and are not as efficient as hybrid chickens at converting feed to meat. Heritage chickens consume at least 4 pounds of ration per pound of weight gained, and the edible portion is only about 65 percent of live weight. See the Comparing Broiler Chickens chart for a summary of the pros and cons of raising hybrid or heritage poultry breeds for meat.
In the Brooder House
You'll need to take into account hybrids' size and rate of growth when brooding chicks. The birds eat almost constantly, rarely moving far from the feeder. They also drink a lot of water to wash down all that feed, The brooder house needs plenty of room to accommodate their body mass, as well as sufficient feeders and waterers.The sheer size of hybrid chickens keeps them warmer than other broilers of the same age. My white hybrids are only 2 weeks old when they start panting, so I move them out of the heated brooder house into a more open area of the barn. White hybrids tend to suffer more in hot weather than most other broiler chickens. In a warm climate, they’re better off raised during the cooler days of spring or fall, regardless of whether they’re kept in confinement or on pasture. Colored hybrids and heritage chickens are better, but none of the breeds listed previously could be classified as highly heat-tolerant.
Confinement Pros and Cons
Another important decision you'll make when raising chickens for meat is how you'll confine the birds — inside a building or within a pasture shelter — or whether you'll allow them to roam freely. Each technique requires attention to ensure the birds' health and safety.Indoor confinement involves housing chickens indoors on bedding and bringing them everything they eat until they are ready to harvest. This technique requires less land than pasturing because it only necessitates a sound shelter.Broiler chickens are less likely to fall victim to predators when they're housed inside a secure building. Managing them also requires less time — after the facility is set up, you need only a few minutes each day to feed, water and check the chicks. This method is most suited to white hybrids because they don’t move around much.
The shelter could be the same structure in which the chicks are brooded, if you start with a limited area and expand the available space as they grow. Each bird needs about a half-square-foot up to the age of 2 weeks, and 2 to 3 square feet by the time they reach harvest weight. Accordingly, an 8-by-8-foot shed would accommodate about 25 broilers.
Roosts aren't necessary. Leg injuries can occur when heavy hybrid birds jump down, and perching can also cause breast blisters and crooked breastbones. Avoid these problems by providing confined broiler chickens with deep, soft, dry bedding instead of roosts.
Pasture confinement also involves raising broiler chickens inside a shelter with a feeder and waterer — but this shelter is portable, has no floor and is moved daily to provide the chickens with fresh forage. Giving birds access to grass results in meat that contains less fat and more omega-3s and other nutrients. One study has shown that pastured-poultry meat contains 50 percent more vitamin A, 30 percent less saturated fat and 28 percent fewer calories than meat from commercially-raised birds.
The upside of pasture confinement is a slight reduction in feed costs, especially if you move the shelter first thing each day to encourage hungry birds to forage before they receive their morning ration. One challenge presented by this confinement technique, however, is that you need enough good pasture to move the shelter to new ground daily, and you must do it each day. As they reach harvest size, broiler chickens graze plants faster and deposit a greater concentration of droppings, so they must be moved more often — sometimes at least twice a day — to maintain the health of the birds and to avoid burning the pasture with nitrogen-rich manure.
Weather permitting, hybrids may be moved outdoors when they're as young as 2 weeks old. They tend to become pen potatoes unless they're started on forage by 3 weeks of age. White hybrids don’t do well on pasture if the weather is much cooler than 65 degrees Fahrenheit or much warmer than 85 degrees, while other broiler chickens have a wider range of temperature tolerance.
Pasture shelters are usually made of welded wire or hardware cloth stapled to a wooden frame and roofed with a tarp or corrugated aluminum. Using the typical proportion of 1.2 square feet of pen space per bird (less room than is recommended for broiler chickens confined indoors), a 4-by-8-foot camper shell will handily pasture-confine about 25 broilers. The shelter may be designed to be moved by one person using a dolly, or by two or more people grabbing strategically placed handles.If the land is uneven, dips along a shelter’s sides can invite predators in or allow birds to slip out. In rainy weather, puddles may accumulate inside the shelter. In all cases, the broilers spend the night sleeping in their manure. For these reasons, I prefer free ranging my pastured chickens.
Free Range
In this context, "free range" means raising meat chickens in a portable shelter that offers daytime access to the outdoors — a system sometimes called "day ranging." The extra activity creates firm and flavorful meat, but also causes birds to eat more total ration because they take longer to reach target weight.Free-ranging involves less labor than pasture confinement because you don’t have to move the shelter daily, but more labor than indoor confinement because you do have to move it occasionally. Unless you fit the shelter with an automatic door as protection against nighttime predators, you'll also have to shut in the chickens every night and let them out again in the morning.
A free-range shelter is generally a bit larger than pasture-confinements, may or may not have a floor, and is bedded with deep litter. It may be a tarp-covered portable hoop house, or a structure built on skids so it can be relocated periodically by a vehicle or draft animal.
A portable electric fence — usually plastic netting energized by a battery or solar controller — protects free-range poultry from ground predators and confines their foraging to one area of pasture outside the shelter. The fence is moved periodically to a fresh patch until the whole area surrounding the shelter has been grazed. Depending on the size of your pasture and the number of birds, you may need to move both the shelter and the fence to a fresh section of pasture after your chickens have grazed down the original spot.
Heritage poultry breeds retain some of the foraging instincts of their ancestors, so they take to grazing quite readily. Hybrid chickens don’t think highly of getting out and about unless introduced to pasture early, but they do roam more than in confinement, and the increased energy use slows their growth and makes them less susceptible to leg problems. The end result is a trade-off between faster growth and better bird health, more humane treatment and more flavorful meat.
Chicken Feed
Aside from maintaining clean bedding or providing fresh ground to forage, your main activity when raising broiler chickens will be furnishing feed and water. The birds need fresh, clean water at all times to aid digestion and help prevent disease.Many different rations are available with varying percentages of protein or energy. More protein increases growth rate, while more energy slows the growth rate and increases fat, thereby adding flavor. People who regularly raise meat chickens balance broiler ration with scratch grain or oats until they're satisfied with the end result. (Scratch is a grain mixture that provides energy in the form of carbohydrates but has a lower protein level than most grower rations.)But the choices don’t end there. Some folks want only certified organic, GMO-free rations. Others are happy using less expensive, run-of-the-mill farm-store feed. Most feed stores carry one all-purpose starter/grower ration which may be used from start to finish when raising broiler chickens. Some sources offer a full line of starter, grower and finisher rations targeted to specific stages of growth. If you choose the latter, follow directions on the label regarding when to switch from one ration to another. Each manufacturer’s recommended schedule is based on the formulations of its particular rations — and probably assumes you're raising hybrid birds. For more about different chicken feed types, and to find map showing organic poultry feed suppliers, see Organic Poultry Feed Suppliers Directory.
Medicated rations contain a chemical called amprolium to prevent coccidiosis, an intestinal disease that interferes with nutrient absorption and reduces growth rate. An alternative to using a medicated ration is to have the chicks vaccinated. A vaccine stimulates the animal's natural immune system and may be used for organic or naturally raised meat chickens. Some poultry-feed brands include a probiotic formula designed to stimulate the immune system and fend off disease. If the feed you use does not include probiotics, you can purchase these as a separate supplement from most poultry suppliers.
Return on Investment
After your facility is established, your main expenses will be labor (your time), the cost of acquiring chicks and the price of feed. Calculating your return on investment is a good idea when raising chickens for meat, so let’s crunch some numbers. These figures are for colored hybrids only; you'll have to make adjustments for white hybrids or heritage poultry breeds.A quick survey of hatcheries reveals an average price of $60 for 25 straight-run (unsexed) colored hybrid broilers. Add $25 for overnight shipping, and the cost of 25 chicks will be about $85. (If you raise a heritage breed, you can save money by hatching your own chicks with broody hens. Learn how in Raise Your Best Flock Using Broody Hens.)
If you raise your birds to 6 pounds live weight — adding 10 percent for spillage and other waste — you can expect to use about 500 pounds of feed. The cost of feed can run anywhere from about 35 cents per pound at the farm store to 75 cents for organic brands (plus shipping, if you order online), so your feed cost can range from about $175 to $375 or more.
If you free range your colored hybrids, you’ll need at least six bales of shavings for bedding in their shelter. At about $5 per bale, that comes to $30.
Figuring an average edible portion of 70 percent of live weight, and deducting 5 percent for typical loss due to predators, accidents and so forth (expect to lose about five broilers for every 100 you raise), you should end up with about 100 pounds of chicken meat.Assuming you do your own butchering rather than pay a custom slaughterhouse (how-to videos on butchering poultry are listed under "Resources"), raising colored hybrid broilers on common feed-store feed will cost you approximately $3 per pound, while raising the same birds on organic poultry feed might run you $5 or more per pound. Homegrown chicken meat usually costs more than the cheap, industrial chicken sold in supermarkets. The extra cost means you can feed your family more nutritious, delicious and humanely-raised meat.
Read more: For help with choosing which breed is right for you check out Comparing Broiler Chickens, and see how raising your own meat is beneficial to your health in Organic Chicken Could Save Your Life.
Resources
WATCH VIDEO TUTORIALSHow to Butcher a Chicken by Harvey Ussery
Joel Salatin and David Schafer Process Chickens
FIND SUPPLIES
Directory of Organic Poultry Feed Suppliers
Directory of Hatcheries and Poultry Breeders
GET ADVICE
American Pastured Poultry Producers Association
Growing Small Farms
Gail Damerow fills her freezer with homegrown broilers on her family farm in Tennessee. Her books include The Chicken Encyclopedia and Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens.
For fun, profit, principle or superior nutrition, raising layer hens is a rewarding experience. Keeping a few of the chickens described in this article will provide hours of pleasure, a valuable education for the entire family, a renewed connection with your food and some of the animals who provide it, and a sense of satisfaction that you are participating in the important work of saving these interesting and valuable breeds for future generations. Many of these breeds need quality stewards to ensure their survival. If one of these breeds doesn’t strike your fancy, check out Heritage Chickens to learn about many other endangered chicken breeds that might fit the needs of your farm or homestead.
Australorp
Status: RecoveringYou might think Australia’s claim to fame is the kangaroo, but in the land Down Under, Australorps reign supreme. In fact, the breed is recognized as the unofficial breed of Australia, its country of origin.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black Orpingtons were imported from England to Australia. The Australians valued the Black Orpington for its egg-production traits and began selecting and outcrossing to improve laying abilities. Meanwhile, the English continued selecting their Black Orpingtons for meat qualities. By the 1920s, the “Australian Laying Orpington” was divergent enough to be labeled as its own breed, the Australorp. The breed then was imported to England and the United States. In 1929, Australorps were officially recognized by the American Poultry Association as a standard breed.
Today, Australorps are still known for their great egg-laying abilities, often laying more than 200 eggs a year. The Australorp’s eggs are tinted tan, and average 26 to 27 ounces per dozen. Although the breed is reputed for its laying abilities, the birds have relatively meaty carcasses that can serve the needs of the small farm or homestead. The Australorp is a black chicken with a moderately large single comb. Females average 6 1/2 pounds and males average 8 1/2 pounds. The Australorp is gaining popularity among poultry fanciers.
Campine
Status: CriticalThe Campine is an attractive chicken often raised for ornamental purposes, but don’t let this Belgian beauty fool you. Underneath all those feathers is a productive layer that makes a great addition to the backyard flock.
The Campine is thought to be a cousin to the Braekel breed, first documented in Belgium in 1416. The Braekel is native to the rich clay soil of the Flanders district, whereas the Campine survived in the less fertile Kempen region — hence the Campine name. In 1893, this historic breed was first imported to the United States, but its popularity never grew. Poultrymen tried importing the breed again in 1907, this time from English stock, but many farmers felt the birds weren’t rugged enough for their needs. Eventually The Homestead Campine Farm began selecting for hardiness, but other breeds had already won the hearts of America’s homesteaders. The Campine was officially recognized by the American Poultry Association in 1914. Today, this bird combines beauty and productivity to meet the needs of small farm or urban flock owners. Laying more than 150 medium-sized, white eggs per year, these hens won’t disappoint. The breed is known as a great forager and is active, alert and intelligent. Birds average from 4 to 6 pounds, depending on the sex. Campines come in two color varieties: silver and golden. They are said to have friendly, chatty dispositions, but they don’t always do well in confinement. Campines are critically endangered, with fewer than 500 breeding birds in the United States.
Leghorn — Non-industrial
Status: RecoveringThe hen-some Leghorn breed is a prolific layer that originates from the landrace Livornese fowls of Northern Italy. This landrace, found near the port of Leghorn, was reputed for its small size and ability to lay a large number of eggs.
In 1852, an American ship guide by the name of Captain Gates returned from Italy to the United States with cargo in tow — including Livornese, or what is known in English as the Leghorn breed. In 1853, additional stock was brought over from Italy. Interestingly, in the 1870s, the English imported Leghorn stock from the United States.
The English began selecting for larger size, and, in the early 1900s, these larger, dual-purpose birds made their way back to the United States. About this time, poultrymen began selecting for different qualities in their Leghorns. Some felt form and function were important and kept selecting for traditional traits, while other breeders felt production qualities were superior and began selecting for higher-production rates. Selecting for production led to the evolution of the modern-day industrial Leghorn, which is widely used in the poultry industry. Those who kept selecting for traditional traits helped to conserve the form and function of the traditional, non-industrial Leghorn.
Today, the non-industrial Leghorn is still found on farms, in shows and on homesteads across the country. The breed is reputed for its exceptional ability to lay 250 to 300 medium-to-large-sized, white eggs per year. The breed is a great forager and is very active, hunting and scratching to find food. Leghorns also are noted for their hardiness and vigor. Males weigh an average 6 pounds, and females average 4 1/2 pounds. Leghorns come in many different subvarieties with varying colors and either rose or single combs. Non-industrial Leghorns are growing in popularity as small-scale farmers are rediscovering these prolific and attractive layers.
Langshan
Status: ThreatenedChina is home to one of the great wonders of the world, but many people don’t know it’s also the homeland of one of the great chicken breeds of the world. The Langshan, a graceful and stately breed, was bred for centuries in the Yangtze Kiang River region of China about 100 miles from Shanghai. In 1872, Maj. A.C. Croad brought the breed to England. Interestingly, because the breed was imported from Shanghai, some people thought the breed was a Cochin and began selecting for four distinct types. Luckily, some breeders recognized the uniqueness of the breed and selected for the original type known for its long legs, deep body and full breast. The breed was first accepted into the American Poultry Association (APA) standard in 1883. The Langshan is historically a good layer and can lay up to 200 large, dark brown eggs per year. In addition to eggs, Langshans provide plenty of meat for the family because of their large size. Langshan females average 7 1/2 pounds, and males average 9 1/2 pounds. The breed is noted for its abundance of rich meat that is particularly white. It has a reputation as being fast-growing, hardy, easily reared on well-drained soils, and active. Black, blue and white Langshans are recognized by the APA. There are currently fewer than 1,000 breeding Langshans in the United States, making them a necessary conservation priority.
Ancona
Status: WatchThe Ancona chicken, like the Leghorn, is an Italian chicken breed known for its prolific laying abilities. The Ancona takes its name from (surprise) Ancona, the port city in Italy where it originated. In the mid-1800s, Ancona chickens were imported to England. Again in the 1880s, additional stock was imported to England, and the breed suddenly grew in popularity. The breed was first recognized by the American Poultry Association as a standard breed in 1898 in the single-comb variety and in 1914 in the rose comb variety.
Anconas are once again gaining popularity as poultrymen reacquaint themselves with the many valuable characteristics of the breed. Anconas lay 120 to 180 large, white eggs per year. They are similar in size to the Leghorn, with males weighing 6 pounds and females averaging 4 1/2 pounds. The breed is a great forager and very active. Some suggest that these birds are ideal in areas where birds of prey are a serious predation problem because they are alert and active, and their dark color makes them less easy to spot. Anconas are known to be fairly cold-hardy, and they often lay longer into the winter than other breeds without the need for supplemental light. If you are looking for a good layer that’s also quite an attractive show bird, look no further than the Ancona.
Rhode Island White
Status: WatchMany people have heard of the Rhode Island Red chicken, but not many have heard of the other famous chicken breed from Rhode Island: the Rhode Island White. While the Rhode Island White was never as famous as the Rhode Island Red, it is reputed as an excellent egg layer for the backyard flock and a true American original. The Rhode Island White was created in 1888 when J. Alonzo Jocoy developed the breed by crossing White Wyandottes, Partridge Cochins and Rose Comb White Leghorns. Breeders continued to perfect the breed with the goal of achieving a bricklike body shape similar to the Rhode Island Red. In 1922, the breed was admitted to the American Poultry Association’s Standard of Perfection. The breed had a robust following during its heyday, but by the 1960s it was losing the popularity contest to more industrial-adept breeds that could produce more eggs. Today, the Rhode Island White is trying to regain its popularity and position itself in the backyard chicken movement. The breed is known to lay more than 240 large to extra-large, brown eggs per year. The Rhode Island White also has a reputation as a dual-purpose breed, making it a great option for a meat bird as well. Males average 8 1/2 pounds and females average 6 1/2 pounds. Rhode Island Whites are said to have a mellow disposition, and they don’t tend to go broody. They are a hardy, productive breed that also is an excellent layer of winter eggs. The Rhode Island White is making its comeback, but it needs quality stewards to ensure its future in agriculture.
Carolina born and raised, Jennifer Kendall resides in Raleigh, North Carolina, and dreams of one day owning some of these heritage breeds.
About ALBC
The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy is a nonprofit membership organization working to protect more than 180 breeds of livestock and poultry from extinction. Founded in 1977, ALBC is the pioneer organization in the United States working to conserve historic breeds and genetic diversity in livestock. ALBC’s mission is to ensure the future of agriculture through genetic conservation and the promotion of endangered breeds of livestock and poultry.Membership in the organization is $35 per year. For more information or to join, call 919-542-5704 or visitThe American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.
SALEM, OREGON – The urban chicken movement reflects a growing uneasiness among city dwellers who have come to rely, perhaps too heavily, on outside resources. As we become increasingly troubled by the economy, the environment, food safety, animal welfare and emergency preparedness, many of us strive to become more self-reliant. Now learning what our grandparents understood, we are gardening, canning food and raising chickens for eggs – activities that provide a sense of security and relaxation in an urban setting. There can be obstacles to living a more sustainable life, however.
SIDEBAR:
Changing the Chicken Laws in the City
My husband and I spent three years turning our backyard into a permaculture system where everything works in harmony and little is wasted. It began with a vegetable garden. Soon, we were digging up lawn to make room for a second garden, then some fruit trees and berry bushes. Next, we installed a small greenhouse and a composter. Things were coming together, but there was one thing missing – chickens.
When we looked into the legality of keeping chickens, we discovered they are not specifically mentioned in the city code. Instead, there’s a list of “approved land uses,” which include raising a 100-pound potbelly pig. A different section of the code prohibits “livestock” in the city. Later, we discovered the city’s definition of livestock includes poultry, but we weren’t worried because it also includes “all species of swine,” yet pigs are permitted. We reasoned that if you can have a pig, then certainly it would be OK to have a few harmless little hens. Because Salem’s ordinance was vague, confusing and contradictory, we gave ourselves permission to build the chicken coop.
Soon, half the yard remained traditional lawn and flower beds, and the rest had been converted into a productive ecosystem that would sustain us, while saving money and resources. My girls had just begun to lay beautiful eggs when the unthinkable happened.
Illegal?
In August 2008, I was shocked to discover a code compliance officer at my door. A neighbor had seen my chickens while working on his roof. It wasn’t about noise or smell. He just saw them. I refused to give up my pets without a fight.Surely, I could reason with the people who make the rules. After all, the government should work for the people, and we were in line with what the city was promoting – community gardens, sustainability, recycling and natural pest control.
With my four hens in foster care, I devoted the next six months to researching the subject of urban chicken keeping and formed a group called Chickens In The Yard (C.I.T.Y.). We discovered cities like Portland, Seattle, Denver and New York already allow a limited number of egg-laying hens, and many more were joining the urban chicken movement weekly. We prepared a 60-page informational packet for our city council that addressed every possible concern and included written testimony from officials in chicken-friendly cities describing how hens have benefited their communities.
The nine months of grueling deliberations that followed were unexpected. Others must have been surprised, too, because the Salem chicken issue landed on the cover of The Wall Street Journal. Despite the national spotlight, a positive recommendation by city staff, overwhelming community support, and the endorsement of 12 of Salem’s 19 neighborhood associations, the majority of our elected officials voted against the proposed ordinance in October 2009.
In the national spotlight
As word of our plight spread, more people began to contact us for advice, largely due to the media attention we received and the thorough research packet for which we have become known. With so many inquiries, we produced a documentary about our struggle to join the urban chicken movement so that others can learn from our experiences. The film’s primary purpose is to educate, raise awareness and dispel some of the chicken-keeping myths. We also created a website, Chicken Revolution (www.Chicken-Revolution.com), dedicated to helping people who want to change their city ordinances.We may have lost the battle here in Salem, but we are winning the war nationwide by helping others convince their public officials to do what we have not (yet) accomplished. While awaiting the results of this year’s election, and hoping for more pro-chicken council members, we have turned our attention elsewhere. Most recently, two other Oregon cities, Forest Grove and Gresham, passed chicken ordinances using our research. It’s a good feeling to know we’ve helped families in Oregon, North Carolina, New Jersey, Minnesota and Kansas enjoy chickens in their yards.
Today, there is a thriving community of what we call the chicken underground. These otherwise law-abiding citizens keep hens because they believe the benefits of fresh, homegrown eggs outweigh the risks. Chickens are delightful pets with hilarious antics and personalities that many people enjoy. They will continue to raise urban hens illegally and look forward to the day they are no longer considered outlaws.
What began as a humble attempt to regain custody of my pet hens grew into something I never could have imagined. In the beginning, I was known as “the Chicken Lady,” but after months of struggling for the right to raise backyard chickens and with no end in sight, my husband began to call me “the Che Guevara of the Chicken Liberation Front.” Eventually, friend and fellow C.I.T.Y. member Nannette Duryea Martin brought that image to life by creating our new logo, “Che Chicken,” and the Chicken Revolution was hatched. Living a more sustainable life shouldn’t require a revolution, but in cities where elected representatives are more reluctant, that’s what happens. I never dreamed when I picked up my baby peeps at the feed store that it would lead me to become a political activist, public speaker and, now, a documentary filmmaker. In spite of the difficulty of having to temporarily give up my own chickens, I find solace in knowing I have made a difference in other communities around our nation. Along the way I’ve made a lot of good friends and discovered that “chicken people” are some of the most down-to-earth, genuine people I’ve ever met. I’m honored to be among them.
Our lives aren’t the same anymore; not since we started raising backyard chickens. And I’m happy to report that our chicken adventures were inspired by and began right in the pages of this very magazine. In the January/February 2011 issue of GRIT, I was so inspired by the articles on chickens, I convinced my wife, Elaine, that we should make our initial foray into raising backyard birds on our 38-acre rural parcel in Botetourt County, Virginia. One of the reasons for wanting to do so is because Elaine is a recent breast cancer survivor, and she hired a nutritionist to help her discover a better diet so the odds would lessen that cancer would return.
One of the foods that the nutritionist told her to avoid was meat from animals that had been factory farmed. Besides encouraging Elaine to buy free-range or organic chickens for their meat (which we have been doing), the nutritionist also told us that those same chickens produce eggs high in Omega-3 fatty acids, which offer health benefits for cancer survivors as well as, obviously, the general public. Thus we took the plunge to begin our chicken-raising careers.
Getting started
Like any new venture involving animals, much preparation had to occur before our 2-day-old chicks were to arrive.Our first step was to visit the local Southern States Cooperative where we met the resident poultry expert, Lynn Sowers. She showed us copies of Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens, by Gail Damerow, and Chicken Coops, by Judy Pangman. These books greatly broadened our knowledge of chickens and gave us ideas on how to design a coop that would be just right for our backyard.
Next, it was time to start the run. I am an avid hunter and frequently pursue deer, turkeys, squirrels and other game behind our house. I have observed 13 different predators there, ranging from raptors (hawks and owls) to omnivores (raccoons, opossums, skunks, coyotes, foxes, bears and bobcats) to the creature I feared the most in terms of attacking our chickens: minks.
Every step of the way, my foremost thought was how would those 13 predators try to access our run, and what could I do to prevent them? At least I knew how to sink posts, which is the first thing Elaine and I did, followed by stapling 1-inch hexagonal chicken wire – to hopefully exclude a mink – to each post, leaving only a space for a door.
Opossums, skunks and coyotes would try to tunnel under the fence, so we attached several feet of chicken wire extending horizontally from the bottom of the fence and used 2-by-4s to anchor that wire. Elaine drilled holes in the 2-by-4s, which I then pounded rebar through to further make it difficult for a predator to tunnel. Then we placed cinder blocks every two feet or so on top of the horizontal wire. Our next step was to run two electric wires, powered by a solar battery, around the entire perimeter. As our final act of security, we positioned netting across the entire top of the chicken run.
Raising backyard chickens: Building a chicken coop
Elaine and our friend Ken studied plans from Chicken Coops, and together they came up with a concept that looks something like a doghouse. The front of the coop features a door that can swing down for a gang plank, and the back has a window for aeration that can be opened to access the three nesting boxes. Running from side to side within the house are two wooden roosting rods.Selecting meat chicken breeds
I grow heritage apple trees and understand the importance of keeping alive older varieties. So it was only natural that I would want to rear heritage chickens as well. Recalling that my Grandmother Maude reared Rhode Island Reds, that was what we selected.The Rhode Island Red originated in Rhode Island (imagine that) and Massachusetts in the 1880s and 1890s, and has long been known for its hardiness and its ability to be a dual purpose bird (great at producing eggs and meat). Jennifer Kendall of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC), which works to conserve rare breeds and genetic diversity in livestock, says that first-time chicken raisers might want to consider such heritage breeds as Buckeyes, Dominiques, New Hampshires, Javas and Delawares. Kendall suggests comparing different chicken breeds before buying.
“Heritage or traditional chicken breeds often retain essential attributes for survival and self-sufficiency such as fertility, foraging ability, longevity, maternal instincts, ability to mate naturally, and resistance to disease and parasites,” Kendall says. “These were the chickens raised by our grandparents and their grandparents on small farms throughout the country.”
It was only after I had communicated with Kendall that I realized that we had not ordered heritage Rhode Island Reds.
“Typically, people end up with the production Reds,” Kendall says. “It’s getting harder and harder to find the old-type Rhode Island Reds, and they are typically obtained through breeders. For GRIT readers wanting to buy heritage chickens, we suggest that they do their homework.”
The ALBC’s website features a breed directory into which you plug certain preferences, your location, and run a search for members of the ALBC in your area who raise any breeds you might be after.
May 4 – The chicks arrive
“We’ve got chicken nuggets,” beamed Elaine as she lofted a cardboard box (that looked like a Happy Meal container) through the car window. I was working on lesson plans during my planning period at the school where I teach when the office called and said my wife wanted me to meet her in the parking lot.“I’ve got to hurry home and put the chicks in their new home,” she announced, and with that drove off down the highway. A few hours later, I joined Elaine to observe 10 2-day-old chicks inside a Rubbermaid container, a heat lamp affixed to the side, pine shavings on the bottom, and a chick feeder and waterer within. Lynn Sowers had told us if we wanted gentle future hens and roosters that it’s important to handle the chicks often, but also to make sure that we always wash our hands in hot, soapy water before and after to prevent transmitting or receiving germs. So after scrubbing, we did as Lynn had instructed, which the chicks did not seem to mind. Indeed, even now, we try to touch every chicken every day, which is one reason we think the birds are so calm and friendly.
Everything went well for the first few days as the chicks ate and slept a great deal. We even checked them during the night and became used to seeing them active at all hours. But on the morning of May 9, one chick seemed sluggish and died later that day.
The next day, another chick acted lethargically, so Elaine called Sowers, who told us that the chicks might be suffering from coccidiosis (an intestinal disease that chicks often contract). She gave us some medicine to put in the waterer and also to give to the sick chick through a medicine dropper. I awoke at 2 a.m. to give the chick some more medicine only to find it dead. What had we done wrong?
“Nothing at all,” consoled Sowers. “It’s normal to lose two or three out of every 10 chicks. Sometimes the cause is coccidiosis, sometimes something else, sometimes they were just the runts of the litter.”
Reassured, we continued to talk to and touch the chicks often, and we marked each week of their lives with pictures.
When they were 3 weeks old, I began feeding them stinkbugs that I caught outdoors, and we were constantly entertained by how excited they were to catch and then try to eat a stinkbug – which was quite a mouthful – before another chick stole it.
It was about this time that we identified our first rooster, Little Jerry, who received his name from the luckless cock in a Seinfeld episode.
June 15 – Moving to the chicken coop
Sowers also told us the chicks would have developed enough feathers to live outside when they were 5 to 6 weeks old. So when our young charges, which we now called “teenage chicks,” were 5 weeks old, we began taking them to the run for a few hours at a time. On their initial visit, they were terrified of their new surroundings and spent much of the time sitting on Elaine’s lap. Only Little Jerry would venture away from her – and then only a few feet.But by June 15, the six-week marker had arrived, and we placed our no-longer chicks in their new home. The entire first day went smoothly, but when night came, none of our young chickens knew what to do in terms of entering their coop.
As darkness descended, Elaine and I decided to pick each one up and place them inside the coop. After that night, the process leading to roost time was predictable.
Raising backyard chickens: Successes and failures
It’s time to share our successes and failures from our first experience with chickens.
Success: Attending a workshop for novice chicken raisers. We learned a great deal about chick and chicken care and what materials we would need.
Failure: Buying straight-run chicks. Even though we could have purchased 10 hen chicks, we wanted the experience of raising hens and roosters, and also of having a rooster in the barnyard to protect the hens. However, we ended up with six roosters and two hens. The next time we buy chicks, we will purchase five hens and five straight-run ones.
Success: Electric fencing is great. Three times during the night, I have heard a wild animal squall in the vicinity of the chicken run, most likely from the electric wires.
Failure: We are not happy with the strength of chicken wire in terms of thwarting a determined predator. Every other wire we looked at features openings that a mink or opossum could slip through. Any advice from GRIT readers?
By the time this article appears, our hens will have been producing eggs for several months. In any event, you can count on us ordering more Rhode Island Red chicks come May.
Bruce and Elaine Ingram write a weekly blog called Bruce Ingram Outdoors on raising backyard chickens and the outdoors.
Construct a DIY chick brooder out of cardboard boxes.
Success: Attending a workshop for novice chicken raisers. We learned a great deal about chick and chicken care and what materials we would need.
Failure: Buying straight-run chicks. Even though we could have purchased 10 hen chicks, we wanted the experience of raising hens and roosters, and also of having a rooster in the barnyard to protect the hens. However, we ended up with six roosters and two hens. The next time we buy chicks, we will purchase five hens and five straight-run ones.
Success: Electric fencing is great. Three times during the night, I have heard a wild animal squall in the vicinity of the chicken run, most likely from the electric wires.
Failure: We are not happy with the strength of chicken wire in terms of thwarting a determined predator. Every other wire we looked at features openings that a mink or opossum could slip through. Any advice from GRIT readers?
By the time this article appears, our hens will have been producing eggs for several months. In any event, you can count on us ordering more Rhode Island Red chicks come May.
Bruce and Elaine Ingram write a weekly blog called Bruce Ingram Outdoors on raising backyard chickens and the outdoors.
Construct a DIY chick brooder out of cardboard boxes.
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