Chicken Update from Stone Hill Farm

Just a little show-off of my chickens and plans for starting a poultry operation on the farm.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• raising
• chickens
• chicks
• organic
• free
• range
• farm
• coop
• tractor

[hurchel]

Your chickens should not have to walk or eat in their own litter. Don't forget to vaccinate them for newcastle, put it in their water. The girls need privacy for their egg laying, each bird needs a minimum of three feet of personal space,

you can force animals to live anyway you want, but they deserve a better quality of life, remember newcastle in CA? thousands of chickens were killed, the feds were here 3 times, all mine lived because I had been vacinnating since 95

with respect..

[banjodan99]

By "litter" I don't mean manure, its a huge ammount of chopped corn plants. I'll move the coop or take out the compost when it begins to have too much manure in it. In the meantime, it is very clean with no odor, and the chickens are eating bugs and the remaining corn in it. My chicken tractor is 24 square feet, which is 8 feet per chicken. If you could see my farm in person, you wouldn't be worried about the quality of life of my animals.

[hurchel]

I love chickens, I rescue chickens but each chicken needs a quarter acre to grow, see your little brown hen, my walks into the house jumps on a chair and I ask her if she wants to make eggy. She answers and jumps in a box and makes eggy. Each chicken needs a quarter lb of food everyday, the girls need mash for their bones

[banjodan99]

You can raise chickens on a whole lot less than 1/4 acre per bird, you can have a dozen hens on that much space. I use about 1/4 pound of feed per day for all three chickens in the chicken tractor, plus I let them have as much laying mash as they want, which is about 1/8 of a pound for all three. That comes to 1/8 of a pound of food for each chicken per day. They also get bugs and goodies out of the litter in the tractor. They seem happy and healthy, and the hens lay better than average.

[hurchel]

Well banjodan, I have 28 roosters they have their own 3 by 3 ft condos, and a acre and a half of grass, the girls are loose, but the acreage is fenced, most good livestock books will tell you a minimum of 1/4 lb of food per chicken is what they need. I am surrounded by spanish people who starve their chickens

you will find that you will need a separate

pen for each rooster. You need to worm them dust them and use sulmet on occasion. If you feed less than a 1/4 lb a day you are starving them

[banjodan99]

I don't ration out the feed, I feed my chickens free-choice (i.e. have food available to them at all times), but with a diet rich in bugs and corn foraged from the silage, they only eat about 1/8 of a pound of store-bought feed each. If I weighed everything that they ate it would probably be more than 1/4-pound, but even in their little 4-by-6 tractor, they are able to forage a lot of food. They are quite content, in good condition, and lay well.

[knappydanny]

That looks like a good setup.

[HLCpromow]

I eat chickens ( not mine) lol I eat eggs too again ( not mine )lol I enjoy watching them run free. So I let them. I'm fixing to catch them again Just to treat and vac...

[hurchel]

Good for you banjodan..

[hurchel]

Nooo..I have 20 hens too, a turkey, two muscovy ducks, 7 dogs, 12 cats, 500 wild pigeons, and a pet possum..I don't eat chicken..just love them..

I live in a city that was agricultural, and over the last twenty years especially the last 5 years of rabid chinese development , and I cannot tell you how many times and ways the city has changed its codes and restrictions but in order to make sure I could protect them I studied everything...laws and medical, the feds told me my farmette was beaut

[HLCpromow]

28 roosters mmmmmm not fighting the cocks are we??