Helpful Chickens

While we raise layers for their eggs (and the delicious stewing hens we get when laying days are over), the natural life of a chicken serves many purposes on the farm.

Chickens love to scratch in the dirt and eat the bugs stirred up by their activity. We moved the New Hampshire Reds onto our future berry patch and while they are doing what comes naturally they are also fertilizing the soil and spreading the leaf mulch and old straw piles for us. Every critter on the farm is skilled with multi-tasking.  For chickens, having access to piles of mulch and straw, is similar to being at an amusement park with free food!

Domestic chickens are descended from jungle fowl so their natural diet is insects, plants, small rodents, lizards and seeds. A "vegetarian" diet is actually not a complete and healthy diet for a chicken. We are grateful for the labor-saving joy these chickens are experiencing. They'll be happy when we share the extra berries with them next year too!

The patch of soil the chickens are rehabilitating is on an area that is part of what was the most worn out of our pastures when we bought the farm 4 years ago. For 4 years we have bush-hogged whatever grew and allowed the plant life to lie on the soil to decompose. For 3 years chickens have been moved across the pasture from one spot to another and we can see the benefit of our efforts. No pesticides, insecticides or herbicides have been used on any part of the farm and the land is healing. As the land heals the plant life changes from weeds to grasses, eroded places vanish as the increasing organic matter in the land enables the soil to absorb the water.

New Babies!

Some of our White Plymouth Rock pullets went broody so we set eggs under two of them.  Almost all of them hatched!

Can you see 3 little yellow fuzz balls peeking out from under this mama?

Day 2 and they are out of the nest and wandering about.  Mama is clucking at the chicks and puffing up to make herself look formidable in case we get any ideas about bothering the babies.  At night we put them in a large tote with a weighted screen top to protect them from black snakes.  Snakes really like to eat baby chicks and we really like to prevent them from doing so.  There are 13 babies in all.

Moving the Hen-a-bago II

Hen-a-bago II attached to the tractor

You might have read about our newest Hen-a-bago II being built and then moved out to pasture. We relocate  Hen-a-bago II once or twice per week to a new section of pasture.  Changing pastures often improves the health of our chickens by giving them new grasses in which to forage for insects as well as "salad" greens.  Rotation also is a form of parasite control as it disrupts the life cycle of many naturally occurring yet undesirable organisms seeking to find a host site in the guts of our chickens.

Chickens riding in Hen-a-bago II

Gathering Eggs

Our larger chickens on pasture began laying eggs over the last few weeks! We go out at least three times a day to check the nesting boxes and gather eggs.  Because these hens are new at laying eggs, some of the shells are thin and they can break when lots of eggs are in one nest, especially when one more hen decides to sit on them and add to the collection.  Then the nest boxes and the eggs get really messy!  For some reason chickens prefer to enter a nest box that already has eggs in it.  Checking the boxes frequently and collecting any eggs assures cleaner eggs and nest boxes.  The nesting boxes are accessible from the outside by lifting the roof.

Jan checking the nesting boxes

A curious chicken checking out the view from the open nest box.

A hen, possibly sitting on eggs

They are also accessible from the inside where the chickens are able to access the boxes. The hens seem to have a few favorite laying boxes.

There are nesting boxes on either side of the Hen-a-Bago

The chickens seem to be eager layers.  We are now gathering over three dozen eggs each day!