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Three hours today. It stayed dry at a temperature of around 13C.
The chickens spent one and ahalf hours in the extended run so I could get some work done without their assistance (digging was involved) and the next one and a half hours out on the field with me closely supervising. We did okay, Only Tull made a dash to the growing plot area of the field. Fret, Mow and Sylph visited the compost bins (I had done some digging there) and on my plot or round the back of the chicken run. I plan to make round the back of the chicken run an area I can have a mobile fence at each end to discourage the chickens from straying. When I'm there I can just pull the fence across the ground and they'll have more of the short fine grass they favour and shelter from an Bramly appled tree at one end. This area just doesn't get used.
Just let out.
That's calcium carbonate, shell and grit in the white pile next to the food tray.
On to the compost bins.
Now that Spring is here the unkempt plot already provides some cover and apparently there are newly arrived/hatched edibles in there. A week ago the chickens weren't spending any time foraging in the area above the herb patch.
Picking up the remains of the cooked brown rice I gave them earlier before heading for the feed trays and water, and then on to roost.
They seem okay overall. Sylph is still dodging the pecks from the others if she shows too much interest in what they find.
The SLM is much improved. I need to do one more iodine & vasaline treatment on Mow and Tull.
The next three pictures were taken with my phone which is what I had on me.
Sylph on my lap again.
As I came by to check on them while they were in the extended run.
They found the remains of one of the small weed compsot heaps I leave around the extended run. When spring arrives these small heaps produce lots of little grubs and stuff.
One begins to understand better the varied seasonal forage the chickens find on the field watching the field chicken. Because of the size of the place in Catalonia it was almost impossible to watch.
A point of interest for those who keep an eye on feed costs; when the chickens had a week confined to the extended run I was feeding an extra couple of hundred grams of feed each day, despite the seemly lush vegitation one can see in the pictures above. While it's true it took them a few days to seriously look for forage in this area (spoilt by having the entire field over winter) they are now finding forage but they're having to work a bit harder.
So, even just an hour to an hour and a half on the field does seem to make a measurable difference to the amount of made feed they eat. I'm a bit surprised such a short period of time makes that much difference.
The chickens spent one and ahalf hours in the extended run so I could get some work done without their assistance (digging was involved) and the next one and a half hours out on the field with me closely supervising. We did okay, Only Tull made a dash to the growing plot area of the field. Fret, Mow and Sylph visited the compost bins (I had done some digging there) and on my plot or round the back of the chicken run. I plan to make round the back of the chicken run an area I can have a mobile fence at each end to discourage the chickens from straying. When I'm there I can just pull the fence across the ground and they'll have more of the short fine grass they favour and shelter from an Bramly appled tree at one end. This area just doesn't get used.
Just let out.
That's calcium carbonate, shell and grit in the white pile next to the food tray.
On to the compost bins.
Now that Spring is here the unkempt plot already provides some cover and apparently there are newly arrived/hatched edibles in there. A week ago the chickens weren't spending any time foraging in the area above the herb patch.
Picking up the remains of the cooked brown rice I gave them earlier before heading for the feed trays and water, and then on to roost.
They seem okay overall. Sylph is still dodging the pecks from the others if she shows too much interest in what they find.
The SLM is much improved. I need to do one more iodine & vasaline treatment on Mow and Tull.
The next three pictures were taken with my phone which is what I had on me.
Sylph on my lap again.
As I came by to check on them while they were in the extended run.
They found the remains of one of the small weed compsot heaps I leave around the extended run. When spring arrives these small heaps produce lots of little grubs and stuff.
One begins to understand better the varied seasonal forage the chickens find on the field watching the field chicken. Because of the size of the place in Catalonia it was almost impossible to watch.
A point of interest for those who keep an eye on feed costs; when the chickens had a week confined to the extended run I was feeding an extra couple of hundred grams of feed each day, despite the seemly lush vegitation one can see in the pictures above. While it's true it took them a few days to seriously look for forage in this area (spoilt by having the entire field over winter) they are now finding forage but they're having to work a bit harder.
So, even just an hour to an hour and a half on the field does seem to make a measurable difference to the amount of made feed they eat. I'm a bit surprised such a short period of time makes that much difference.
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