Recent content by AccidentalFarm

YIKES! That's a lotta snow!!!

I am very interested in tree kale and tree collards. I'd love to hear how it goes with those.

For now it seems the hens are content to return to 4 areas to lay, one of which being their coop and the other 3 on the front and side deck of my house. They are not abandoning these nest sights even when I take all of the eggs (as they do with the nests in the woods). I'm going to set up 4...

So, It's been crazy busy around here for the last week or so. We got about 3 inches of snow, which is really rare here, and it stayed on the ground for a couple of days. The chickens did not go out foraging in it. I had to supplement feed until the snow started melting. Egg production is still...

Yes, I think that would be the correct time to expect them to try hatching chicks in my area.

Technically yes, it's been long enough for them to have hatched chicks, but none of them have been inclined to do so yet. They've been out there for something like 5 months now.

I haven't given egg harvest much thought, but you've got me thinking more about it now. I have 25 hens in the forage flock, all of which are from breeds known to lay 150-250 eggs/year. If we split the difference of that range and go with an expected 200 eggs per year, that's 4 eggs per week...

All good questions and things to ponder. It is interesting to watch both flocks and try to understand why they do the things they do. No, I don't provide food in terms of filling feeders or scattering feed by hand at a certain time and place every day. They get eggshells after breakfast and...

That's about the same that I do for my barn flock. Their ration works out to slightly more at .077lbs per bird. They get a 16% layer pellet scattered in the run towards dark to bring them all in for the night. They don't get any feed other than that. Is the sweet feed an all-stock type or is it...

I don't expect anyone to conclude anything in particular about my observations. My opinions of those observations are based on my goals. Your goals might be something else entirely, but there are many possible and equally desirable outcomes depending on what one values. I am also not...

I don't know much about how light affects birds. I've never added light intentionally, but I know a lot of people do. I've always assumed that it's about the waking/sleeping hours ratio rather than a particular type or intensity of light. If that is true, then I'm sure the street light did...

Wow. Very cool pictures. It would be interesting to compare general behaviors between the ones with and without shine to see if there is any correlation.

I have 9 roosters. They stay out foraging all day, but return to their brooder house, or the general area each evening. Attempting an exact head count every night would be an exercise in futility, but I do watch for obvious missing birds. As a matter of fact, I found a decent amount of cuckoo...

Well, to be fair, I haven't risked ALL my birds. LOL I still have my older 'barn flock' that free ranges all day, but returns to the barn every night, which I close up. :D

You know, I've never given this much thought, but it makes sense that they have at least some degree of night vision. I've seen them scatter in the darkness and end up back on the roost before daylight.