Management practices to improve livestock food production~meat, eggs, milk, etc.

[Beekissed]

Egg shape for gender selection protocol - what shape are you looking for to have more pullets? I agree about free ranging being beneficial but I think it’s often a matter of time until there’s a mass casualties incident or hens are swiped one by one, unfortunately. Mine get leftovers - sometimes from work, produce store, or cooking for homeless (too ripe donations and stale bread). They also forage in pasture, garden, and huge run. But that’s not “free range” as people without chickens have let me know

Depends on how you are doing it. I've been free ranging for over 40 yrs now and grand total of birds taken by preds are around 10-12. And we are surrounded by thousands of acres of woodland, with all the usual suspects present and accounted for.

 

[Beekissed]

But I am tired of all these know more than me, but no practical experience idiots; that have all the answers and think that it is all a utopia state in the real world of nature.

I free range and have done so for 40 + years with huge success and with and without dogs guarding the flocks. Very few losses over the years at all, even with bald eagles landing in the fields next to mine to feast on carrion, hawks galore, osprey and great horned owls. The usual 4 legged preds abound here and have in most places I've lived and had flocks.

Last I checked I'm still living on this plane of being in the actual real world.

It CAN be done and done safely without putting birds in constant and present danger.

In operations where you can let them free range, and have a guardian dog of some sort....then you mostly always have that dog in a fence, so they are not TECHNICALLY free range.

The dogs are in a half acre wireless fence and the chickens free range over 3+acres around that half acre. No actual fencing around that range area except the invisible one holding in the dogs. Maybe a commercial operation isn't actually free ranging birds, but homesteaders can and do technically free range.

If you utilize a "chicken tractor " of some sort, they get the benefits of pasture raised with protection from most all predators. And moving it regularly keeps the ground "clean" and they get the best of alot of things. Yes, some predators can dig under but moving the "tractor" daily does alot to discourage many from getting comfortable and then trying to find a way in underneath.

Sorry...I've seen the chicken tractors, particular the meat bird setups, and there is no benefit to being on pasture at all except getting to move off the poopy ground now and again. The minute that tractor moves, the ground is being fouled by feces from many birds on a small space and few bugs will stick around under that many trampling feet. And, inside the tractor is free choice feed...no bird is going to forage if the feed is right there to be had. They don't get the best of anything in that situation...they are being baked under a tin roof in the summer, overcrowded and unable to exercise freely past the 10x10 ft space, and are merely eating commercial feeds. NO benefit at all except maybe semi fresh air and grass underfoot instead of a broiler house ventilation and litter.

They didn't travel more than several hundred feet from the trailer coops that they went into at night.

Why would they when free choice food is available right at the trailer? Chickens are opportunistic feeders and the easiest opportunity is at the trailer. Birds that don't get free choice feed all day range WAY far from the coop to hunt...even CX broilers.

The same flock later....and I didn't lose a single bird of those 54 that year as they free ranged far out of the range of the coop and the dog's protection.

So the next time someone starts in on the "free range" thing, explain that you will not subject your chickens to that form of lack of care and concern for their well being.

Again.... Anyone who loses 122 birds in one season truly cannot ever accuse anyone else of having a lack of care or concern for their chickens. Ever.

In 40+ years of free ranging flocks of 30-50+ birds I've lost around 10-12 total to predators. And, yes, we have all the same predators everyone else has and more than most. Got to have the right system, the right flock, the right dogs and the right attitude to get it right.

Usually I don't even respond to such a post as this but there is so much blatant untruth and bitter bile in it that I felt compelled to. Just because it can't be done by you doesn't mean it can't be done at all and it has been done by many quite successfully.

 

[Beekissed]

Okay, so what are you doing different to not lose birds?????

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/bees-key-points-to-successful-and-safe-free-ranging.65895/

 

[Beekissed]

I'll be trying to implement some of Judy's methods to improve pasture here, by using the sheep and strip grazing what area I have and also gathering all the round bales for free or cheap that I can get to roll out on the land here.

I've already rolled out 14.5 bales that I got for free on the land this summer.

This should improve pasture for the chickens as well, so it will benefit both species of livestock. It will also allow me to stock a little heavier than I had initially envisioned once I can get a good layer of carbon and growth going in the paddock areas and then expand the paddock areas to make them larger.

 

[Beekissed]

I agree! After watching his vids I can see a good path ahead where I can feed the sheep while developing better grasses for them and for the chickens, so all animals benefit while I spend less money to feed them all. This could be the turning point of the whole place and the culmination of all I've been trying to do here and in other places I've lived.

Getting Eli on board by showing him the game plot quality pasture Mr. Judy is getting from grazing his herds like this and spreading hay on the ground all winter for them to eat and trample.

Now, the hay I have spread is not edible for the sheep, but as soon as I get a paddock up and functioning, I'll move them through on top of all that hay just like it was their winter penning, moving a portable feeder/waterer and mineral dispenser along with each move and keeping them on each place long enough to get plenty of manure, pee and wasted hay on the land and all the while I'll be training them to moving with this single strand polywire so that, by spring, they should be familiar with moving each day or so and will be easy to move.

I'd like to get at least one paddock up and running by the end of Nov/beginning of Dec.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

The winter rye/red clover that I sowed on the cement hard sheet compost area has sprouted. (unfortunately, a friend scalped the layer of sheet compost off with his Kubota, b/c he was "doing a favor" by moving all the rocks out of that area!) The rye is coming up spotty, but the red clover is putting on a strong show. I should be able to continually work that area to provide good eats for the flock, as well as high quality hay/mulch for garden, coop, and run. It's only about 30' x 30'. But, hey... that's ok. Using that area in that way will keep it from being invaded with poison ivy, and other noxious perennial weeds. Next spring, I'll sow some BOSS, and ?field or dent corn, maybe even some milo and millet, there.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

You've got beautiful birds! Are you canning your birds bone-in or boneless?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That makes sense. I've canned chicken/veggie soup, but never chicken by itself. Thanks for the info!

 

[tortoise]

I'm very interested in this topic, following, don't have much to offer yet.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Same here... Your roo is gorgeous! I'll be watching this thread!