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HELP – I think I spoiled my chickens!!!!

Hahaha – I conclude after this afternoon’s little experiment: They seem to consider me a treat and food dispenser – much easier than to forage. Did I spoil them for good? Will they ever work by “working the soil”? They SEEMED to forage …..

Hey, I’m ready for the treats ….

My goal is:

  • Happy healthy free range and predator safe chickens who work for a living by composting, fertilizing and tilling.
  • Chickens providing eggs for the family and some friends
  • A beautiful bountiful all organic and no till (no commercial till that is) garden, both flower and food, with areas where chickens can meet humans 🙂 with it being a positive experience for both.

I am working on solving this: how to get them to be well fed AND work the ground, eliminating the need to weed and buy fertilizer come planting season next year – without having a chicken tractor or raised beds available?

Ok, these are my first ever chickens, a straight run of 26 light assorted chicks, now almost 4 months old. Since yesterday, the chicken coop is separated into 2 pens with a separate exit/entrance for the rooster group, which stays in the orchard area. That leaves the 9 hens (or pullets at this age) and 7 other cockerels in the compost run and garden field. That garden field yielded very little produce this year — I used no fertilizer at all and barely weeded. So I found out: this does NOT work AT ALL to get any vegetables worth mentioning, thought the beans did ok. But then, I kinda suspected it. Looking at the overgrown garden I wonder HOW ON EARTH is that gonna get chicken-tilled? Sure, the chicks pretty much got rid of all the compost run vegetation, but giving them access to the garden field has barely lefty a mark so far.

Ok, it really has been TOO HOT so far to do much foraging out there, and it is also much more open, and they definitely prefer protected areas.

The little experiment:

Today, at 4 pm, I went out there to check on them:

They came running, their crops were empty and they wanted food. Since after some consideration I know that there will neither be time nor resources for a proper chicken tractor this year, I did an experiment: I took  a couple of hand-fulls of my night-time feed mix and threw it onto an area of about 1 square yard, right next to their current feeding area, where they get the kitchen scraps. They all eagerly went for it ….so I sat down in their old feed area, compost run 1, which I cleaned out yesterday. Wouldn’t you know it: they soon come over to where I was sitting and then – started gently pecking me – peck peck peck – the kind of peck that they know usually miraculously produces a delicious treat – only this time I didn’t have anything.

I went back to where I had thrown the grain/crumble mix and checked, just in case they had eaten it all – but NO — just a little “scratching with my fingers revealed PLENTY of grains still on the ground.

Did I spoil them for good?

That is expensive grain – not really an option chickies!!! I played mother chick (something I maybe should have done better and earlier ?) and showed them a couple of times that “scratching” does reveal food on the ground – BELOW the grasses – and some sure got it and were busy for a bit – there’s hope! Maybe????

Considering the garden weeding needs,  an absence of a chicken tractor, I am now thinking to “till” without a chicken tractor by doing this:

just giving them their food in a new area each week – progressing at about a 1 x 4 foot area every couple of days, at least until the rain starts, after which they will do their compost work in a covered heavily mulched area.

I’ll let you know how it goes with the tilling by moving the feed area.

Here is the current chicken feeding schedule;

Chickens will get fed kitchen scraps in the morning after having been left out. The feeding will be in a designated square footage. This would be easier if one had raised beds, but as it is, we’ll do the best we can.

Chickens can free range forage ALL day, weather permitting.

They will get kitchen scraps (provided by the householders of this property) again in the late afternoon  plus commercial soy free organic feed.

The feed is also available at night in the coop, just so they have something to do in the morning while they wait to be let out.

The goals again:

  • Happy healthy free range and predator safe chickens who work for a living by composting, fertilizing and tilling.
  • Chickens providing eggs for the family and some friends.
  • A beautiful bountiful all organic and no till (no commercial till that is) garden, both flower and food, with areas where chickens can meet humans 🙂 and it being a good experience for all.

I am working on solving this: how to get them to be well fed AND work the ground, eliminating the need to weed and buy fertilizer come planting season next year – without having a chicken tractor or raised beds.

Will keep you posted.

 

…oh – 4 months – I better get some kind of a nest box soon …..

garden

Adding heat tolerant survival plants – or weeds next year

In addition to sun flowers, clover, a small patch of winter squash, container/raised bed tomatoes, pole beans, greens, I am looking at planting/seeding out these heat tolerant plants next year, which just happen to also be edible. ( – some considered weeds – or survival food plants – depending who you ask):

lambs quarters,
canna lily,
nut sedge,
sweet potatoes,
ocra,
black eyed peas.
I think I will have my hands full adding just these.

For soil development and/or as cover crop: amaranth and rye as well as more clover.
keep encouraging the dandelions.

I already have strawberries, though they need water, a couple of comfrey plants and a few other grasses and bushes, mullein and an apple orchard, and walnut trees, which also need water. I am nurturing a few baby trees – a walnut, a couple of oaks, and Japanese maples, as well as some poplars, which are trying to form a grove and then there are 3 baby olive trees.
I am gonna give pumpkins a better shot next year …and maybe, in some strategic spots, cucumbers and watermelons.

general chicken management

Chickens – origin, habitat, needs

Chickens – where did they come from and how did and do the males of “chicken-like” species live in the “wild”?

My 14 week old Buttercups don’t seem so diffeenet from the “Jungle Fowl”

My straight run has almost 70% roosters, and, not wanting to kill them right off the bat, I am wondering: how did the chicken’s ancestors deal with all the roosters ….. ? …and so the searching is leading to chickens around the world – it’ll be interesting. But where is this notion that there have to be 5-12 hens for every rooster coming from? Is it a function of space? Overbreeding to relentlessly mate? Overbreeding for aggression for fighting? So I am investigating …. and copied/pasted some info from the www , giving credit where available.

What I want to know, other than having to feed the roosters too, without them giving any eggs, is there really a need to kill them (name it as you wish, but there just will not be enough “good homes” for all those brothers of all the egg laying hens everywhere. However, for those vegetarians living in the country, is there really no way to coexist? What happens to the Wild roosters? Here are a few articles that shed a little bit of light onto the subject.

The Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus) is a tropical member of the Pheasant family. It is thought to be ancestral to the domestic chicken, with some hybridisation with the Grey Junglefowl. The Red Junglefowl was first domesticated at least five thousand years ago in Asia, then taken around the world, and the domestic form is kept globally as a very productive food source of both meat and eggs.
photo from wikipedia

The associations between individuals in a free-living population of red junglefowl are visualised in a cluster analysis. The flock structure is shown for the population when females are with and without chicks, and the differences described. Various kinds of groupings are present, from solitary individuals to mixed-sex flocks. The strongest associations maintaining flock cohesion are shown to be female-female pairings and it is these which break down when the females produce their chicks. *Department of Wildlife Sciences, Centre of Wildlife & Ornithology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202 002, India, **Bombay Natural History Society, S.B. Singh Road, Mumbai 400 023, India

Abstract: The habitat use and flock composition of the Red Junglefowl Gallus gallus in Dudwa National Park, India was studied between 1991 and 1994. Six habitats were monitored during winter and summer throughout the study period. Data on habitat use, flock size and flock composition were collected from monitoring of six line transects and regular sightings along the road. Bonferroni simultaneous confidence interval was constructed to determine ha-bitat use by Red Junglefowl. It showed preference for mixed forest and showed avoidance for teak forest. A total of 1174 individuals were seen more in summer, especially females. Maxi-mum flock size was observed in sal forest in winter 1992. More than 80% (n=465) of the total observations were of single bird. The Red Junglefowl though not threatened and a species of less concern, needs continuous monitoring and proper management inputs so that it does not follow the fate of some other pheasant species. one of the available studies of these ancesters of chickens: http://www.tropecol.com/pdf/open/PDF_41_1/kp41102.pdf
Reminds me so much of my buttercup hens: Ceylon Junglefowl (Gallus lafayetii) female, Sinharaja Forest, Sri Lanka – 2009

Whilst the domestic chicken was previously believed to be a descendant of the Red Junglefowl, recent research done by Eriksson et al. suggests possible hybridisation with the Grey Junglefowl. It was first raised in captivity at least several thousand years ago in the Indian subcontinent, and the domesticated form has been used all around the world as a very productive food source for both meat and eggs. Some breeds have been specifically developed to produce these.

interesting blog on the chicken origin subject
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/02/29/the-origin-of-the-chicken/© Girish Ketkar
Location : Tadoba, Chandrapur, Maharashtra, India
Date : 25 February 2012
delightful article worth your time: http://www.discoverwildlife.com/animals/jungle-fowl-remarkable-bird – image – a few of my chicks in the “field”

BUTTERCUP fowls originated in Sicily. The breed name refers to the peculiar form of duplex comb. Experiments with birds of similar comb morphology, imported from Egypt (Bateson and Punnett, 1905), suggest that Sicilian Buttercups may have derived from Nile valley ancestors (Punnett, 1923, p. 94). Since indigenous fowls of the East commonly carry wild type plumage pattern, it may be ventured that a

Sicilian breeder crossed duplex-combed Egyptian birds with a Campine or Braekel strain, and after a backcross to the Egyptian, obtained segregants from which buttercup plumage was developed. Experimental evidence submitted below makes the preceding highly probable, and it would be interesting to know if confirmatory Italian records exist.Buttercups display sexually dimorphic and dichromatic plumage pattern. With folded wings, the male is a black-tailed russet fowl; ground color in the female is lighter, varying in different strains from golden-buff to orange, and a unique form of black . . .Received December 15, 1952.

Poultry Science Association Inc.
http://ps.fass.org/content/32/4/683.abstract

general chicken management

Testosterone Roosters and what to do if you have too many roosters

Big Black – roo at 12 weeks – he is a Blue Andalusian

My straight run (more on straight  vs sexed run chicks later), 3 month old chicken flock is now, and has been for about 1 week, split into 2 flocks: 11 roosters, separated from the 9 hens, and there are 5 or 6 more roosters with but 4 of those are golden polish, and they seem to be low on the pecking order and so far have not chased/terrorized any of the hens. I still cannot tell for sure if all the golden polish are roosters. The 2 flocks are going into the coop at separate times into separate areas. I am making a much smaller coop for the roosters, which will stay in the orchard, their daytime hangout place. Hopefully this will simplfy the morning and evening chores. When the big black “blue andalusian” roo gets to the buttercup hens ….they they run away almost terrorized, and I won’t tolerate that. I am thinking that if he is still with us in the spring, I might get some female chicks from the local store which will grow into very big chickens – and they can be his flock …..

Rooster tips (chicken tips) from experience so far:

– do not try to chase chickens – you loose trust and they don’t forget.

– get them to take treats from your hand, things they really want. It will go a very long way for an amicable relationship.

– spend as much time with them as you can and handle them gently. With 26 chickens, I did not do enough of that, but they all will take treats from my hand. However, only a few will let me pick them up without fuss.

– be patient if you want them to go somewhere – they will not let you herd them, trust me. ..but they will go through open gates and follow the treats they see thrown.

– you MUST have space and hiding places if you have more than 1 rooster, or 2 or 3 who might not get along. Sometimes it is so clear and accepted who is boss, they might be ok with more than 1. This is a MUST, the space thing. I had to let them out and free range in the garden, which they needed, even though they don’t actually go all that far. Depending on your set up and preferences, it will be better to fence in the actual vegetable garden part and let them be everywhere else than fence them into too small a space.

Ideally, they would all have their 5-8 hens and space enough to be. But how to get that many hens unless you get a sexed run? Without predators ….there’s simply TOO many of them roosters ….

I love them – they are all beautiful and have their own beingness and character. And they are creatures of habit and instinct – and testosterone. They remind me very much of humans – no offense, but it is true.

So one of those roosters, the largest, is starting to try to shove me off when I come into the garden area where they hang out, only I always have little treats – and he wants those too. I am not exactly looking forward to the actual breeding season. That is the Blue Andalusian, the one that ran around like a headless chicken for 3 days a couple of weeks ago and I handfed him on the roost inside the chicken house the 3 days he was unable to normally walk.

I am convinced at this point, after observing the various roosters, that when they get testosterone surges, or reach certain developmental levels, they act out for a day or 2 ….show off, want to be bossy, crow more and actually seem to loose weight..

…and I feel bad for the roosters on the low end of the pecking order. They don’t ever seem to feel quite safe ….and really, you MUST have a large enough area where they can all be and forage – otherwise death might be the kinder option.

Some of them seem smarter than others 🙂

You can see him in the center – having manage to get with the hen flock

There is the Egyptian Fayoumi, the chick that was the first to crow. He is taken with this one buttercup hen, who wants none of it and runs screaming. At first he would manage to get through the barriers of the 2 areas I keep the 2 flocks, but now I added a 6 foot reed fence and he does no longer take that route. Yet, he did manage to get to the hen side of the garden twice now…and I saw today how: he walks all the way around the greenhouses and gets to the other side of the division that way. Well, smart Alec. I would not mind it if he wasn’t chasing the hen. Little bugger. The big black boss roo does not like him, and he’d be much happier with the other flock. He also knows that I will interrupt his chase, and generally does not bother the hen when I am around doing work in the garden. But once out of sight – I hear the kafaffel  – and sure enough, he is chasing her. The buttercup rooster who stays with the hen flock is sooooo laid back. Even though he was the first to establish himself as the top rooster and is the one to come sit on me still, he seems to not have a very high testosterone level, at least he is not acting like it.

When/if I get the Buff Catalana chicks, I will hopefully be able to tell the males from the females at about 4-6 weeks and they will go to a friend’s at that time, except for 2 of them. But these guys here, who were supposed to go there also, I might be stuck with  them for the moment.

The flock(s) inside the coop – 3 months

What I do know is that multiple rooster management adds a whole lot of work and time into the chicken keeping adventure. From this vantage point,  having just hens and maybe 1 rooster, seems like a breeze. It sure is a learning experience – and they are only 3 months old 🙂

Why I have that many roosters: because where I get my chickens from, they only do straight runs – and if you know what happens to the males when you order only hens – ….

No matter what happens – these guys had a life on earth that was more that just getting chopped up as baby chicks.