New Life On A Homestead » Chickens

Washed Out Chicken Run

Kendra at New Life On A Homestead — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:25:21 +0000

It has been suggested that the best place to put a chicken run is on a slight slope so that the rainwater runs out and doesn’t just puddle on the ground.

But it has been my experience that it is NOT the best idea to put your chicken run toward the bottom of a slope. (Although, I’m sure it seemed like the right idea at the time.)

And since the chickens completely obliterated any sign of plant growth within their run, they now have the joy of strutting through red mud after a good shower. Of course, we do free range them for the most part, but until we open their run mid-morning, they are stuck in the muck.

I’ve tried to put bedding down for them to walk on in there, but the rain just washes it into a corner.

See? It’s awful. Nothing but mud.

I’ve been working on a remedy over the past two days, which I hope will solve the washed out run dilemma. I dug a ditch along the upper fence-line, and filled it with rocks I hunted around our property. The idea is that this run-off ditch will catch the water and absorb it before it sweeps into the chickens’ area.

Working on finding more rocks to fill her up. Let’s hope it works. I spread a whole bale of hay in there this afternoon. The girls were glad to have dry ground again!

When Spring comes I’ll put the covered raised beds back in their enclosure, and grow more grass or something for them to peck at as it grows through the wire on the beds.

Have you had any trouble with your animal lots getting muddy? How do you keep your feathered (or furry) friends on dry ground?

A Chicken Moat

Kendra at New Life On A Homestead — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:55:33 +0000

I just came across the most brilliant idea ever.

A chicken moat.

Have you guys heard of this, yet?

Basically, it’s a tunnel of wire for your chickens to roam in, which runs around the perimeter of your garden. It’s like a chicken run that borders your entire garden area. The idea is that the chickens in the moat will catch many of the grasshoppers and other bugs that are making their way into your garden, before they get to your plants.

Is that genius, or what?!

Here’s an example of one I found on Back Yard Chickens. Although it’s very nice, to me it looks very labor intensive and expensive. What I have in mind is taking some sturdy wire fencing, bending it into an arch, and attaching it in tunnel form from the existing garden fence to the ground with yard staples. It sounds good in my head, anyways.

Another thing I love about this idea is that one of the problems I have in our garden is not being able to till right up against the fence… which means weeds take over like crazy all around the sidelines of my garden. If I have a run there, the chickens will make quick work of scratching up these encroaching weeds, and I won’t have to waste any time pulling them out!

Mother Earth News has an article on how to build a chicken moat, you might wanna check out for some ideas. Their plans are more of an open run than the enclosed tunnel that I envision for our moat, but you can kinda get the gist of it.

I’m thinking it would be awesome to have the moat connect to a small run, which leads back into the coop. In the mornings we could let the chickens out straight into the run, they could wander throughout the moat at their will, and go back into the coop to roost for the night. That would be ideal.

Ooooh, I can’t wait to get one of these installed around our garden!!

What do you think? Have you ever seen a chicken moat, or do you have one yourself?

Lower Maintenance Chickens

Kendra at New Life On A Homestead — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:57:43 +0000

Here’s the problem I’ve been trying to figure out…

I want to free range my hens, because they can find all the organic food they need and it’ll save us a lot of money. Plus, they are pretty much maintenance free when all you have to do is let them out in the morning, and put them up in the evening.

But when they are loose, either the hawks or foxes pick them off, one at a time, like a lunch buffet. And, when the hens lay, it’s often off in the woods somewhere where we’ll never find the eggs.

Since we’ve lost so many hens to predators, we decided to put them in a large, caged run. But having them enclosed makes for a lot of work! You gotta keep bedding down in the run, ’cause they’ll dig up all the grass in a heartbeat. And you have to keep fresh water and food in supply, which costs time and money.

I’ve been pondering a way of making a self-watering system for the chicken run. I’d love to figure out a way of putting a gutter on the chicken coop, which brings water into a rain barrel of sorts, which then self waters a container in the run. Wouldn’t that be awesome? I have to make that one of my goals this year. I’d have to figure out a way of keeping it clean, though; off the ground a little, where they can’t walk all in it.

I’ve also been wanting to study up on how to create an environment for grub worms or maggots to hatch. If I can make a “maggot farm”, somehow attracting flies to hatch eggs on rotting materials within a controlled area, I’d have a way of supplying my chickens with lots of organic protein for free.

I know some people who put a light low to the floor in the chicken coop, with the purpose of attracting moths and such for the chickens to eat. But I’ve heard of too many coops catching on fire from lights like that, so I don’t think I’ll try it myself.

Last year, we put raised beds in the chicken run, to supplement their foraging. We covered the boxes with a chicken wire lid, and allowed grass to grow up in the boxes and through the wire tops. The chickens were able to peck the grass, without digging it all up. This ended up working out really well.

Anyways, just thought I’d share some of my ideas with you. One of these days I’m gonna perfect the art of owning chickens!

Do you have a creative way of caring for your caged hens?

Free Chickens… With A Catch

Kendra at New Life On A Homestead — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:18:06 +0000

The other day I came across a Craigslist ad…

“Free chickens. You catch!”

Free chickens? Heck yeah! I’ll work for food! So I called the lady right away and got directions.

She lived on a farm, and was due to have knee surgery in about a week. She was tired of the chickens getting under her feet when she fed her horses, and just wanted them gone.

The problem? They were everywhere! Her free range hens had quickly multiplied, and were roosting in the woods, in the barn, and anywhere else they found a place to park for the night.

Armed with a huge fishing net and several boxes to hold our captives, we pulled our van up to the barn gate and surveyed the battlefield. There in front of us was a huge pasture with horses and donkeys… and pecking chickens everywhere. On the left and right were trees, and old sheds full of barn stuff.

Couldn’t be too hard, right?

We hopped out of the van, and were immediately confronted by these guys…

They were HUGE! And beautiful. And an absolute crack up!

Though they were harmless, the kids were pretty scared by them and were hesitant to get too close. I don’t blame them, they were practically eye-to-eye with the creatures!

If you’ve never been in the presence of a humongous turkey when it sticks its neck out and lets out a loud and garbled GOBBLE!, then you have got to find a farm sometime this year, for the sheer purpose of experiencing a live turkey. They circled us, gobbling, and we all died laughing.

Their names were Bush and Cheney. (Mrs. Farm Lady was a staunch Democrat.)

Man, I’d love to have a turkey like that, purely for kicks!

Okay, but back to the chickens…

At first, we tried to sneak up on a few hens and ensnare them with the net. No dice. They were very quick, and were NOT having it. The lady offered me a long, metal pole that was hooked on the end to grab the chickens by the leg. With my new chicken-catching-tool in hand, I decided to climb to the top of her barn hoping to snag a hen that had flown up there.

By this time another car of people had come to catch chickens, too. Great, I thought. Competition. And they were loud, obnoxious people. Double fun.

As I finished my steady climb up the rickety homemade ladder, I heard the newcomer lady down below me shout for the world to hear, “Look at ‘er, she’s gonna fawl!”

Geez, thanks lady.

I was relieved to get a fairly good footing once up top. The hen I was chasing flew and landed on top of a florescent light fixture hanging from the barn ceiling. I reached from my loft with the stick and tried to shoo her off the light; she was just out of grabbing distance. But then I spotted another hen up there with her. I leaned out and poked it, hoping it too would fly into reach, but it didn’t move. I poked it again.

Yep. Dead as a doornail.

I called to the farmer lady below, “Uh, there’s a dead chicken up here on top of your light.” You know, just in case she started to smell something… as if she’d be able to smell a dead chicken among the horse manure.

“Oh,” she called back up, “it might-a touched an exposed wire.”

Here I am touching it with a metal stick. Lovely.

I climbed back down to see where my husband and kids had gone off to. It was beginning to get dark, but I was able make out Jerry’s figure in the distance of the pasture. He was running full speed after a little hen, with net raised in hand as if it were a spear, which he suddenly lunged through the air in an attempt to perfectly land it over the fleeing hen.

Why did I not bring my video camera?!

The kids were busy trying to catch hens themselves, or shooing them from their hiding places. And the other people were easily catching all of the hens they were sending out. That’s great, people, thanks.

I stood back and watched for a minute, and realized that a bunch of hens were jumping up into one really tall pine tree to roost for the night.

I handed my leg snatcher stick to Jada, grabbed a low hanging tree branch, and proceeded to make my way up the tree, being careful not to put my hand in one of the massive piles of poo that had accumulated on the surrounded branches. By the looks of it, this was the place to roost.

Jada raised my stick back up to me. But every time I tried to grab a hen with it, they would only fly to a higher branch. I climbed, and climbed (and was grateful I wore pants for this little escapade). But once we got close to the top, the hens just flew down and ran off to find another roosting place.

Well, at least they were out of the tree.

But then the older boy that came with the other couple grabbed one of the hens I’d just chased down; the huge, black hen I’d had my eye on from the get-go! It was really on, then. War, people! I needed some chickens!

A minute later, I mercilessly flung myself at a big, white hen that was desperately trying to find a hiding place in all the chaos. And I caught her!! I held her tight as I made my way back to the van to find a box to put her in. The other lady saw the hen I’d just captured and came close enough to deafen me as she shouted to her husband, “Hey honey! She caught that white hen you was wantin’!” Obviously, she was letting me know that that was her hen. I tried to conceal my smug pride.

Me, Jerry, and the kids ran around for a good 2 1/2 hours before we finally rounded up 7 hens and a gorgeous rooster. Jerry even caught a hen with his spear-like lunging net maneuver. Which made him king of the hunt.

But by then it was pitch black, freezing cold, and we were all hungry. Time to head home. I thanked the woman graciously for allowing us to have the chickens for free. Our competition was packing up as well.

And then I remembered something. As I sat in the van and nursed my hungry baby, Jerry went over to the other couple and offered a trade: that black hen I was after, for the white one they had wanted.

It was a deal. And I got my big, beautiful black hen after all.

So, after all that trouble, here are the new chickens…

All the black ones are the newbies. I apologize, none of them wanted to look up for the camera. I’m thinking they’ll do much better free ranging here than my white ones; the hawks shouldn’t pick ‘em out as fast.

And here’s our new man. Not that we needed another rooster. But he was just so pretty!! I have no idea what kind he is.

The things we do around here!! But hey… they were FREE!!!

Let ‘Em Loose

Kendra at New Life On A Homestead — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 00:59:36 +0000

I decided to let the guineas out today. They’re still relatively small, but I just couldn’t stand it any longer. I wanted to see them free, happy and pecking at the grass!!

When I first opened the door they weren’t sure what to do. It took them like five minutes to hop down to the ground, one by one, and begin exploring the world around them. But once they were out they were happy as can be! There’s a certain joy in watching animals being freed from their captivation, to enjoy the fresh air and dirt beneath their feet!

I still can’t tell which might be males and which might be females. They all look identical. They were so funny to watch though. They all stayed huddled tightly together, and moved as a group around the yard, never straying more than a couple of inches from each other. The chickens weren’t sure what to think about them, and would occasionally peck the poor little guys.

Big bullies.

They were surprisingly easy to catch! Even Xia was able to scoop them up a few times, which absolutely delighted her.

I wasn’t sure if they’d go back into their coop at sundown like the chickens do, or if they’d roost in the trees. When nightfall came, Jerry went to check on them and found all six guineas huddled together between a garden box and the fence. I gently returned them to their coop, and locked them up for safe keeping until morning.

I already love having guinea hens. If nothing else, they’re a crack up to watch!

Hen Hatching Chicks Naturally

Kendra at New Life On A Homestead — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 02:47:20 +0000

It’s happening! The chicks are hatching!! Sunday night we went out to check on everybody one last time, and Jerry heard the sound of a chick peeping coming from under mama hen. The next morning we went out to see, and sure enough a fuzzy, yellow little chick peaked out from under the hen’s wing.

I was worried that they were still in the chicken coop with all the other chickens. We really should have moved her and the nest before they started hatching. A broody hen needs to be separated from the rest of the flock so that she can have her own food and water supply, and to protect her new chicks from becoming victims of deadly bullying from the other hens.

I’d waited too long to move her, afraid that she might refuse to finish the job once in an unfamiliar place. But now that they were hatching, I was really afraid to move her. I didn’t want to hurt the baby chick, I definitely didn’t want to crack an egg, but I most certainly didn’t want to cause her to stop sitting! Oh, what to do!

We decided to clean out our largest rabbit cage, make a nesting box in there for her with fresh grass clippings, and move her and the nest to the safer brooder. Carefully, we got everything situated. And thankfully, although annoyed, she fluffed herself up and went right back to sitting on the clutch of warm eggs. The little chick buried itself once more into her warmth.

I really, really wanted to let her free range with the chicks, so that she could teach them to scratch and find food. But I just couldn’t find a way to do this safely. We don’t have the materials to make a chicken tractor (a moveable coop), which would have been the perfect solution.

I’ve been doing some reading on what to expect now.

The hen will keep the chicks warm, so no need for a heat lamp. The chicks will be nourished for three days by the yolk sack they’d absorbed, and then they will need food. I’ll have to buy a bag of chick starter feed. I plan on getting the unmedicated kind, and letting the mama hen eat that as well since it’d be hard to have them eat different things separately.

I think after three days the hen will leave the nest and take the hatched chicks to look for food. She’ll cluck to show them where it is, and teach them how to peck and drink.

Since the other hens were laying in the same nest with the broody hen for several days, there are sure to be eggs still waiting to hatch when this hen leaves the nest. If they don’t get continuous warmth, they’ll die. Fortunately, two more of our hens have gone broody! (I’ve been stealing their eggs though, so they aren’t sitting on any.) I expect to have to put another broody hen on the abandoned nest to finish hatching. *Hopefully* this will work. It’s the plan, anyways.

From what I understand, the hen will teach and care for her chicks for six weeks, and then she’ll be ready to return to the flock. The chicks, however, will need to stay separated until they are almost full grown. Otherwise, the older hens will peck them and might even kill them.

If you remember, she was sitting on 17 eggs. I shouldn’t have let her accumulate that many. A dozen probably would have been a much better number. We’ll see though. I’m crossing my fingers that she has a good hatch rate. Only one has hatched since Sunday evening (two days) though… I’m really hoping the others start hatching soon. Like as in tomorrow!!

The kids and I have enjoyed watching the little chick exploring its new world. The poor mama hen probably didn’t find it as humorous as we did when the chick kept pecking her in the eye though. Ouch!

It’ll be fun watching nature take its course. This is definitely much easier than incubating them ourselves!

Any advice or suggestions for me? I’d love to know what your experience has been hatching naturally!

New Life On A Homestead » Chickens

Washed Out Chicken Run

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