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

[Lazy Gardener]

This man has a lot of good stuff. And, even if one does not have any herd animals, there is A LOT to be learned from him regarding land management.

 

[farmerjan]

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.

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

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Hi @farmerjan - Welcome to SS. I promise there are some nice folks around here! I enjoy seeing different outlooks and hearing different experiences. I hope you'll stick around and share your wisdom.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I agree with @Mini Horses - an open pasture vs. a wooded area will make aerial predation much more prevalent. It doesn't really have anything to do with someone saying "my birds don't get eaten and you're a bad person because yours do."

Having a place to hide vs. having to run for your life makes a big difference. My birds are cage and coop free. But, I have perimeter fences and smaller fenced areas also. Some stay in the front barnyard, some are in pastures with the goats/pigs/horses and dogs. None of them are behind closed doors at night. Most do choose to go under a roof at night and they have several open shelters to choose from. But, I do have a few that choose to roost on a fence post - totally in the open. They are still there in the morning.

Basically, the chickens can go where they want - including outside the perimeter occasionally. I rarely lose one, but it has happened. I've seen one eagle here in my entire life so that's not a big problem. We have bobcats that won't test the dogs nor will coyotes. But, dogs prefer to stay with the goats so sometimes the chickens are on their own. I have, on two occasions, found a chicken body with no head. No marks on the rest of the body. Owl maybe? Coon? I don't know but that's only happened twice in probably ten years. My own dog is the worst predator I have. Not the LGD's but the varmint dog. She can't stand something small that runs fast - so she gets 'em. Sometimes what she gets are small young birds. Happens when they come into "her" yard. She doesn't share her space!

I have used chicken tractors successfully when raising young ones. I don't over crowd them and I do move them frequently. They do well under those circumstances. I have seen many insects that are attracted to poo - not ones that run from it. Birds eat those insects along with the taller grasses in the tractor area. Move them, rinse, repeat. Works for me.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Egg shape for gender selection protocol - what shape are you looking for to have more pullets?

Here's a previous post about the topic, with a link to my thread on BYC:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/nutrition-and-gender-and-inducing-broodiness.958517/

In a nut shell, I've had fairly consistent results with this method: My pullet ratio with random egg selection has consistently been about 40%. By doing egg shaped selection, my pullet ratio has consistently improved to 60%. Does this always work? Are there other factors involved? Who knows? But, I will say that it cost nothing to experiment along these lines. Based on 4 years of experimentation, my results have been consistent except for one hatch in which I had an overall poor hatch.

I gather about a week's worth of eggs. If I have a hen who lays a distinctive egg, so I can pick her eggs out from the rest, that works to an advantage. In that case, I line her eggs up, and choose the eggs which have the closest length to diameter ratio. In other words, those eggs are more round, not as oblong. My flock is large enough that there are very few hens whose eggs I can identify. In that case, I lay the eggs out on the table, and choose the roundest eggs, eliminating about 2/3 of them from the "to be hatched" pile. If I have eggs which MAY belong to a particular hen, I line those up for comparison, and choose from those. Studies have also shown that larger eggs tend to produce cockerels. In my experience, I've found that large eggs have a poorer hatch rate anyways. So, I eliminate those.

I also put my flock on increased protein and multi vits several weeks before I intend to collect hatching eggs.

 

[PatriciaPNW]

Free bales? Should I be looking on CL or elsewhere? I do get close-to-free but really rough wood chips (a lot of branches etc) from the ChipDrop website. $40 goes half to the commercial arborists or landscapers that bring it after tree work, half to website.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I've had my name on chip drop for several years now, offering to pay, have not yet had a call. Used to be able to stand on the mountain of chips at the town recycle/compost area and fill my truck. Now, I'm lucky to see a single pile that is maybe 3' tall. Have called local arborists, offering to pay. No such luck here. Hay, even old moldy hay with rotten strings is still $3/bale.

 

[Beekissed]

Free bales? Should I be looking on CL or elsewhere? I do get close-to-free but really rough wood chips (a lot of branches etc) from the ChipDrop website. $40 goes half to the commercial arborists or landscapers that bring it after tree work, half to website.

We have a publication locally where you can advertise things for free and that's where I find most of my free stuff, along with Facebook Marketplace.

Mostly, though, I find that when God wants me to have something, He sees that I get it, so I often come into free things in a roundabout and mysterious way.

We call our chickens yard hussies ain't that right bee?

Exactly right! You've got a whole yard full of 'em, CC!

 

[Beekissed]

Implying that I did not care about the birds was really uncalled for.

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.

I do believe that was you, wasn't it? I agree....it's totally uncalled for. I apologize for the implication as I know it doesn't feel good to have someone accuse a complete stranger of not caring for their animals simply because they choose to free range.

So I am glad that your birds are in an environment that they are safe from most all predators.

Sorry, but my birds aren't in an environment where they are safe from most of all predators. We have black bear foraging not a hundred yards from the coop, coyote that regularly troop right through the front yard and sing all around us each night, a hawk just buzzed the meadow yesterday...as they do most days, bobcat, foxes, stray dogs, feral cats and black snakes. We have the only chickens for a mile or more and we are smack dab in the middle of wildlife central. My flock isn't safe from all predators no more than yours are....but our system works to insure safety from them most of the time.

I've heard that from a lot of people when they hear someone free ranges with few losses, they automatically assume that we don't get the predator pressure that they do. That couldn't be further from the truth and without the dogs I wouldn't keep~no, couldn't keep~chickens here, even inside of a coop and run.

The trick to free ranging is to have your own fanged predators and they need to be the kind that will pursue aerial preds as well as the four footed. I've had dogs that didn't care about aerial onslaughts and I paid money for a dog that does. I've also had free dogs that were death on raptors. It's all about the right dogs and the right setup to get the right results.

Right now I have a dog that's great on larger predators and aerial preds, but really worthless on smaller predators like possum. So, I had to try to get another dog to work with him...if this new one doesn't turn out to be a small critter gitter, he doesn't get to stay.

Blessedly, I've not had to deal with neighbors like yours...or any neighbors at all, as we all live a good distance from one another and leave each other alone.

 

[Beekissed]

Here's a really good one! Love his last statement...been saying the same thing for some years now.