Chicks experience rapid growth between weeks 6 and 8. Read these tips from Team Purina on how to ease the transition from the brooder to the chicken coop.
Should I free-range my chickens? Learn the pros & cons of a free-range flock on the homestead so you can decide what's best for your flock!
There is the challenge of visiting the local grocers and trying to make sense of all the different labels. How do you know what cage-free means? What type of chicken is best for your family? What about organic vs. pasture-raised chicken? Let’s go over a few details and help you uncover what type of
Main takeaways: Only you can decide if your chicks should free range I don’t recommend it because they’re little, and are more likely to get eaten I don’t recommend letting them free range for their entire diet. If you do want them to go outside, it’s best if they’re at least partially feathered (summer) or...
If you have ever considered the difference between fresh eggs vs store bought, what free range means and the nutritional differences, read about it here.
So, free-range vs cooped chickens, which one will you prefer? By now you must be aware that they are two major options which are free-range and caged or cooped.
Last weekend, we put the chicks outside, in the hen house. Thank goodness! Chicks are cute and not much trouble when they are little fluff balls; but as they start growing feathers, if they stay inside in the brooder, they become noisy and very, very smelly. We've thought a lot about how best to keep our new hens. We have land now; should we let them free range?* Or should we keep them in a run, as we did with our chickens in the suburbs? To be honest, it wasn't much of a debate. There's no way we're free ranging our chickens. First, Why Would You Want to Free Range Chickens? There are three main reasons to free range hens: 1) It can save money (because the hens don't need as much commercial chicken feed). 2) It cuts back on bugs you may not want in your yard (in addition to some you may find desirable). 3) And their eggs taste better and are healthier for you to eat. In fact, eggs from free range hens have: 2/3 more vitamin A 1/3 less cholesterol 1/4 less saturated fat Two times more omega-3 fatty acids Three times more vitamin E Seven times more beta carotene 4 to 6 times as much vitamin D Courtesy of Svklimkin and Wikimedia Commons. Why We Don't Free Range Our Hens Let me count the reasons... * Free range chickens get into and destroy everything! That includes the vegetable garden, the flower garden, the trees (chickens scratch at their base, which could kill trees, especially young ones), etc. They also scratch up the grass and can turn it to dust. * Free ranging chickens are much more vulnerable to predators, particularly hawks and other predatory birds. * Free range hens may not lay eggs where you can find them. Instead of using the nesting boxes in the hen house, they tend to lay their eggs in bushes where they will end up either rotting or being eaten by other animals. * Free range hens are difficult to control. They may not come home to the hen house at the end of the day. Instead, they might roost in trees, making them vulnerable to predators. And you can't control where they scratch around, either. * Did I mention that free range chickens destroy everything??? Solutions to the Free Ranging Dilemma If you don't want your hens tearing everything up, eating your garden-fresh food, and turning the lawn to desert, all is not lost. There are several ways to get the benefits of free ranging without letting your chickens totally take over your yard. Simple chicken tractor. (Courtesy of wisemandarine and Wikimedia Commons.) 1. Use a chicken tractor - basically a small, moveable chicken run. The idea is to move the tractor every day or so; the hens benefit from scratching around in that confined area, but they aren't in one location long enough to do permanent damage. In fact, hens in this setting can help you, by eating bugs, mowing the grass, and leaving behind a little bit of fertilizer. Using a tractor, you can even release them into your vegetable garden and have them till the land a bit, remove undesirable bugs and plant debris, and fertilize a little. The downside to this arrangement is that tractors really only work on flat, level ground. Plus, they can be difficult to move unless they are quite small. In addition, it can be tough to get hens in and out of the tractor. Also, hens in a tractor are more available to predators who dig than they would be in a well built, permanent run. (Though this is less of a problem in the suburbs than in a rural location). 2. Supervised free ranging. We did this for years when we lived in the suburbs. Basically, I'd let the hens out of their run when I was in the backyard doing other things. This way, I could keep them out of the garden and in our yard (not the neighbors'). Read here about how we controlled and trained the hens using sprays of water and a toy garden hoe. The downside here is that you have to pay attention to the hens, and it may take time to get them used to being herded back into their run or hen house. 3. Make the run huge. This is how we're handling our current flock, and it works best if you have a little land (although I've seen it plenty of times in the suburbs). You simply make the chicken run quite large for the number of birds you have. Better yet, you design things so you can change the location of the run; for example, in the spring, the run might be in front of the hen house, but in the summer, you move it to the back of the hen house; in the fall, it's on the right hand side of the hen house; and in the winter, it's on the left hand side. This keeps the hens from turning their run into nothing but dirt, and makes it possible to keep the chickens in fresh forage. The downside is that it takes some skill to build such a run and hen house, and it requires more space, too. If none of these things work for you, you can still improve your hens eggs! The trick is to provide them with plenty of forage. You can do this by giving them yard clippings such as grass, the weeds you pull from the garden, less than ideal veggies from your garden, and table scraps (meat and vegetables...and yes, cooked eggs, too). You might even try wetting a small area of your yard and covering it with cardboard for a time; worms and other bugs will flock to the area - and once you remove the cardboard, you can let your hens have at them! * Never imagine that "free range" eggs you buy at the store come from hens who have a large yard to scratch in. In fact, they have extremely limited access - perhaps one small door to get outside, among a flock of hundreds - to a tiny (often hen sized) plot of dirt. ** Title image courtesy of sasastro.
Natural Chicken Care and Chicken Keeping, Care for chickens in a natural, organic and holistic way. Methods based on chicken behavior and biology.
Before you let your chickens free range, it is a good idea to have a strategy to get them back into their pen. Teach your chickens to come when called.
Today we are talking about how to protect your free range ducks from predators. Make it stress free for both you and them!
Main takeaways: Only you can decide if your chicks should free range I don’t recommend it because they’re little, and are more likely to get eaten I don’t recommend letting them free range for their entire diet. If you do want them to go outside, it’s best if they’re at least partially feathered (summer) or...
A graphic guide to the various factors in determining how many chickens per coop. All our recommendations are for the health and well-being of your flock
Sprouting Grains for Chickens: Fodder for Thought
Baseball in Cuba v v Bixby Bridge, Big Sur, California v v Booth Island, Antarctica v v Café in Paris v v Chicken farm in Pennsylvania v Fishing in Indonesia v v Beach in New Jersey v Shelf cloud i…
This post is all about how to protect chickens from hawks. Safeguarding Your Feathered Friends: How to Protect Chickens from […]
When raising chickens, you may want to free range chickens. But often times it isn’t the safest option to keep the flock safe. Here are many pros & cons.
What Are the Health Benefits of Free-Range Hens' Eggs? The old adage "you are what you eat" certainly holds true… by chelseajo
We all know the benefits of free ranging chickens- higher egg nutrition, better chicken health, and lower feed costs just to name a few...
A lot of people love the idea of free-ranging their chickens. Like with anything else, there are some pros and cons to free-ranging chickens.
Hard cooked, fresh eggs are harder to peel than old eggs, which can be frustrating if you don't know the secret to peeling them easily. And here's a hint: there are no additives required!
Allowing your chickens to graze on fresh grass is a good thing — not just for them, but for you as well. The nutrients in green vegetation enhances the quality of their eggs and meat. And since fresh greens can make up about 20-30% of a chicken’s diet, providing them for your chickens can save you ... Read more
Tips for safely free ranging chickens in your backyard. You can free-range chickens in your garden, but be mindful of plants and time of the year
If you have decided to raise your own chickens, have you considered a heritage breed? Heritage breed chickens are more than just nostalgia!
When raising chickens, you may want to free range chickens. But often times it isn’t the safest option to keep the flock safe. Here are many pros & cons.
Worried that you're not a good chicken mama if you don't free range your chickens? Pshaw. Here's why you need to stop listening to that advice.
Whether or not to use food grade diatomaceous earth (DE) in one's flock is a decision each chicken-keeper must make for themselves. As a new chicken-keeper, I read quite a lot about DE before purchasing a ten pound bag, thinking that the claimed benefits sounded tremendous, but I wondered whether it was possible for a product that claimed
Try a variety of cross-curricular teaching and activity ideas based on this wonderful picture book by Rachel Bright!
Tips on how to free range chickens next to your garden with success. Not only is it easy but can benefit you as well!
Have you let your ducks roam free? Free Range Ducks are great at foraging. but if you are worried about predators you might want to try this approach.
Feeding chickens raises more questions than any other aspect of homesteading. Our guide dives into everything you need to know for happy, healthy flocks. Get ready to enrich your poultry-keeping knowledge with our complete guide to feeding chickens.
Want to raise chickens? Here are some chicken questions and answers. How to get them back to the chicken coop? How to catch a chicken?
