Landrace/adaptive breeding discussion

[LaurenRitz]

I do not medicate. I do not use chemicals in the garden. I do sow or plant plants shown to work therapeutically for various endo- and ecto-parasites, for the chickens to consume as and when they choose.

What did you plant for them? I'm just in the first stages of building their food forest.

 

[LaurenRitz]

My flock has grown to nearly 30 members at its maximum. It has not divided into subgroups despite there being multiple roos. It may divide into foraging parties of half a dozen or so, but parties are flexible and all come together for breakfast, tea, and to roost. The coops are moved regularly but always placed near one another. View attachment 3835257

I wonder why some split into tribes and some don't? Food availability? Property type? Management styles? You handle your birds very differently than some others on the thread, so maybe that applies?

 

[fluffycrow]

Very interesting read. Will be following

 

[U_Stormcrow]

How do you handle the free ranging thing with broodies and chicks? I leave out commercial food for the broodies and their babies, but the other birds eat it, which rather negates the point of free range.

I give the adults a grain-based feed in the afternoon, but the hatchlings need something smaller, don't they? And food available all day?

I can keep my hatchlings separate from my adolescents from the main flock, so I feed a commercial mix as their sole ration until I integrate them into the main flock. The main flock also get s a commercial mix and free ranges many acres - I adjust how much I feed based on their daily consumption. When the pasture is producing well, they eat less. When its not...

My bigger problem is keeping the ducks out of the goat feed, and the goats out of the chicken feed (which they prefer to their pellets)

and my flock does come back together for free food and to roost (mostly, I have two differing roosting groups, sometimes three) - but when they range, they definitely break into small cliques around (usually individual) males.

 

[Shadrach]

Rhode Island Reds do not go broody, which seems like something you would want.

You might want to look into Icelandic chickens.

The need to go broody point often gets overlooked.

 

[Shadrach]

That's a lot of space. How many birds, do you think?

It sounds a lot but one is looking at an acre per tribe even if you supply additional feed.

 

[LaurenRitz]

It sounds a lot but one is looking at an acre per tribe even if you supply additional feed.

I only have 3 acres, so I'll need to do some thinking on this.

 

[Perris]

What did you plant for them? I'm just in the first stages of building their food forest.

mostly herbs, local wild flowering plants, and other things that attract insects into the garden.

There's a good recent review of therapeutic plants here
Alternatives to antibiotics for organic poultry production: types, modes of action and impacts on bird’s health and production
Poultry Science 2022 (open access)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2022.101696

 

[Perris]

I wonder why some split into tribes and some don't? Food availability? Property type? Management styles? You handle your birds very differently than some others on the thread, so maybe that applies?

In my reading - can't remember where now I'm afraid - it was said the natural maximum flock size was about 30, and they'll subdivide above that, and it may just be coincidence that the carrying capacity of my land is about 30.

It is also surely an important factor that all my males have been raised in the flock and think they're related (even if some sometimes have in fact been new blood, brought in via hatching eggs).

 

[Perris]

Right now I'm culling or rehoming any chicken that shows early susceptibility to disease.

This is the traditional advice, but I don't do it. Sometimes a bird that's been sick and recovers lays fewer eggs, but my goal is not to maximise production, it is to maximise flock robustness and resilience. A bird that has recovered from something has antibodies, and they may be passed on in her eggs. The mother of all my Swedish Flowers laid mostly soft-shelled eggs in her first year and I very nearly culled her. She is 7 now and still laying, about one egg a week these days. None of her recent offspring have had health issues.

My Welsumer, now 6, was allowed to brood when she was not laying well. My thinking at the time was, since she's not laying much and has gone broody, I might as well let her raise a clutch. I should instead have followed through to ask, could whatever was preventing her laying well be passed on to any chicks she would keep very close to her for months? She incubated a fabulous clutch of 9. The first died within a fortnight, and they were all dead before 2 years old. Lesson learned on that one: don't let sick hens brood. She has since got over whatever it was, and brooded successfully last year (photo of her and 3 chicks in one of my earlier posts in this thread); the youngsters appear sturdy, and one of the pullets has recently gone broody.