New, Easy Way to Raise Tender Chicken

(Page 4 of 4)

March/April 1970
By the Mother Earth News editors 
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Summer Range Shelter Get your day-old chicks, either from feed dealer or by mail late in March or April. When six or seven weeks old, along in May (neck and head should be well feathered), birds can be transferred to summer range shelter unless house where started is designed for and has outside yards suitable for their growth to maturity. Cockerels and pullets should be separated at about 8 to 10 weeks of age, depending on the breed-in some breeds they are easier to tell apart than in others.

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Putting pullets "on range" at 6 to 8 weeks old, with simple, shelter-type housing, as illustrated, is probably the best way to get healthy, sturdy birds. You can also raise broilers, fryers and roasters this way, but we think the battery-confinement method described and illustrated elsewhere on these two pages is preferable. You get better eat ing chicken in shorter time that way.

The shelters can be used in the North from May through October. Allowing the correct amount of floor space per bird - one square foot or more - a shelter 6 feet square would be large enough for 20 to 25 birds. (One of the most important things to remember about keeping any kind of livestock is never overcrowd).

Shelter design can be varied, but is based on these elements: a weather-tight roof; a wire mesh floor eight or more inches off the ground; roosts above this (one-by-two strips nailed flat on top of wire are suitable - allow 10" of roost space per bird); boards or wire all around bottom to keep birds from droppings under floor; wire around sides from floor to roof to allow good ventilation; a door to shut chickens in at night and to keep rodents out.

Range can be any grassy piece of land, clover being particularly good. Allow 100 square feet per bird-the more. range and the better the grass, the less boughten feed the birds will need, and the healthier they will be. Fence in to keep chickens away from garden and to keep dogs out. Covered feed trough and water fountain are placed near shelter and should be moved every week or so to assure clean footing for the birds.

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Comments

  • teresa 9/11/2009 7:52:20 AM

    I will not view Mother Earth News again. I am shocked that you allowed such a hostile contraption to be advertised here. This is supposed to be an alternative resource which informs people of ways to embrace nature. This way of raising chickens is rediculous. I just hope that others will see the insanity here.

  • Heidi Hunt 1/4/2008 8:15:05 AM

    If you will go to the top of the page a put free range, pastured
    poultry or pastured beef in the search box, you will find that we
    have done at least a dozen articles on those topics in the last six
    years. The article above was published in 1970.

  • lily 1/3/2008 10:31:43 PM

    I think you should be promoting free range and cage free methods
    The most common reason people suscribe to Mother Earth News is to
    learn of other ways of farming to retain from purchasing factory
    farmed, battery cage meats. I am not subscribing to Mother Earth
    News anymore- nor will I reccomend it to ANYONE!!!!

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