Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[ChaosMom]

We have started “yard ranging.”

Referring to Shadrach’s post above, find the chickens:

(Poor Buffy really can’t hide anywhere, other than maybe in a banana pudding):

 

[Shadrach]

Three hours today. A dry afternoon after a rainy start to the day. It got a bit chilly at 7C at dusk.
Measuring a planning time today. Some things that looked all right in my mind are not doable at the moment and other things just don't fir I found out when I got the measuring tape out.
Two hours in the extended run while I planned and cleared more rubbish and did a bit on my plot which I am going to have to use some of this year for the three hundred onions I've got to plant, not to mention the spinach, courgete and a few beetroot.
One hour on the field when I could be out there with them.

Sylph jumped up after treat time and settled down on my shoulder for a while. Not sure why the image is on its side.

Out on the field.

The main cover spot on the field.

 

[townchicks]

I would love to let my girls have the whole yard, but my dog loves to chase them. , hence to fence.

 

[Perris]

In the simplest terms, if a group of chickens strip a garden then they don't have enough room, or enough plant diverstiy.

Exactly. That's it in a nutshell.

It can be done with less than an acre but it requires a lot of thought

Yes, a lot of thought. But it does not require a lot of maintenance; in fact, the opposite. I do far less now than I did when I had a 'normal' garden without chickens wandering about in it.

The diversity and quantity of forage increases when people STOP interfering in what happens all by itself out there. Chickens are looking for fauna to eat, far more than flora or funga. The sort of fauna they're after like *undisturbed* ground, *rotting* plant material (leaves, twigs, branches, logs, roots), other minifauna to parasitize and eat.

What I had to learn to do was to let go. Stop tidying up. Stop cutting off (and disposing of elsewhere) dead bits etc. So now I only do that where it shows, and everywhere else is essentially let go, to 'rewild' all on its own, and I intervene only when necessary to limit the thugs like bracken and brambles, and as required to keep access open for me. I have a bonfire only when the pile of stuff that has to be burnt takes up too much space on the drive; until then, it is a popular foraging spot because of all the minibugs that love dead plant material. It's untidy, but so is nature.

A well planned shrub border, that you like to look at year round, and that provides cover for the chickens, and attracts pollinators (so, generally, something with scent, because wind-pollinated plants don't need to bother to attract insects) does a lot for everyone with very little ongoing maintenance. There is a multiplier effect. Like with the scent - a win-win for the gardener and chickens - a low maintenance border means undisturbed soil, lots of detritus (because fallen flowers, leaves and twigs are just left where they fall, mostly out of sight under the shrubs) and lots of quality forage for chickens. By me doing essentially nothing once it's planned and grown. It's the same as big and untidy hedges supporting far more birds than neat homogenous hedges.

And the more fauna, flora and funga that lives in any square metre, the less square metres are needed to sustain a chicken. I have about 30 birds in a little over an acre. Of course they do wander up the lane and occasionally into neighbours' gardens, so all measures need to be considered 'rough and ready'

A group of dawn to dusk free ranging chickens, or true free rangers will set their own boundries.

It is influenced by how much, and how much they like, what they are offered to eat by the keeper. Mine went into neighbours' gardens more often before I got the fermented feed mix properly suited to their needs, and when I offered them less food at breakfast.

diversity

This is key. And the best way to increase this is to let the stuff that just appears in the garden stay. What we call weeds are the plants that are local and thrive in that location. And because they are that, they will each support an array of local minibugs and funga, which in turn will support other fauna, funga and flora. Webs of life and all that. Leave the weeds where you can (though controlling the thugs) and lots of other life will just appear, as if by magic, in your garden. A few untouched quiet corners will continually reseed the rest of it, so you don't have to have wild and untidy on show everywhere.

 

[fuzzi]

Discourse, like this current discussion, is one of the reasons I frequent this thread.

Do continue...

 

[Perris]

Poor Buffy really can’t hide anywhere, other than maybe in a banana pudding

Don't worry; I've got a few that colour and they manage fine. Here's one such hen with one of her hatch-mates, having a private bath away from the rest yesterday; they'll be 3 in July.

They are less well camouflaged than a partridge plumage bird, or a mottled or barred bird, but they can still be difficult to spot in the undergrowth (unlike on fresh spring grass!); of course then they make terrible photos!

 

[MrsNorthie]

What we call weeds are the plants that are local and thrive in that location. And because they are that, they will each support an array of local minibugs and funga, which in turn will support other fauna, funga and flora. Webs of life and all that.

We have an of area were it is nearly impossible to mow, steep hill and a culvert to divert water to the pond. The Egg Thief fought for a while, but I convinced him to just leave it, Mow around the edges to keep a path way and let nature do it's thing. It is now full of shade trees, blackberry bushes, bunnies, bugs and wild birds.

It worked out so well that we let a couple of other areas have at it..I think we have a couple of invasive species, like the dreaded bradford pear, that we need to confirm and mark for destruction. The trees grow faster than the ones we planted.

When we plant my vision of a food forrest, I am leaving the wild bits as they are. (minus the bradford pear. lol)

 

[RoyalChick]

We have an of area were it is nearly impossible to mow, steep hill and a culvert to divert water to the pond. The Egg Thief fought for a while, but I convinced him to just leave it, Mow around the edges to keep a path way and let nature do it's thing. It is now full of shade trees, blackberry bushes, bunnies, bugs and wild birds.

It worked out so well that we let a couple of other areas have at it..I think we have a couple of invasive species, like the dreaded bradford pear, that we need to confirm and mark for destruction. The trees grow faster than the ones we planted. View attachment 4104404View attachment 4104420

When we plant my vision of a food forrest, I am leaving the wild bits as they are. (minus the bradford pear. lol)

I have done exactly that in a couple of areas. I too have to go and deal with the Bradford pears. Every couple of years, before everything grows very tall and gets full of ticks I chop them off at ground level. I cannot dig them up as they seem very well anchored and I have been reluctant to use herbicide. A tree guy I know told me that by doing that I will eventually weaken them enough to kill them - but so far it feels like they are winning!

 

[ChaosMom]

I have done exactly that in a couple of areas. I too have to go and deal with the Bradford pears. Every couple of years, before everything grows very tall and gets full of ticks I chop them off at ground level. I cannot dig them up as they seem very well anchored and I have been reluctant to use herbicide. A tree guy I know told me that by doing that I will eventually weaken them enough to kill them - but so far it feels like they are winning!

Your tree guy is right, but yes, it seems to take forever.

As long as they can’t grow leaves, they can’t photosynthesize, so they can’t create the sugars needed for growth. Eventually they’ll use up whatever’s stored in their roots. But boy, it’s a test of patience.

 

[fluffycrow]

Tax: The two unnamed boys doing the best they can .

Very promising behaviour from both of them. Still not sure who the leader is, it’s possible that they have kept their juvenile rankings. They much prefer working as a team, which comes with certain disadvantages, especially when they’re both sat right outside the coop, waiting for some of the girls to lay, while the rest are left unattended out on the property