FREE-RANGE CHICKENS
(Page 4 of 9)
July/August 1984
By the Mother Earth News editors
Feed the chicks commercial chick starter (finely ground, gently medicated grain that will prevent chickhood diseases and which you can get in 50- or 100-pound sacks or by the pound at any feed store) for at least the first month. Then, as they grow up, train them to go to field in the day and come home at night. You'll need a coop that provides each bird with a square foot of elevated roosting space and at least an equal amount of floor space, with a loose, absorbent litter covering, protection from varmints, and good ventilation and freedom from drafts ... plus feed, water, and perhaps a mineral supplement in proper varmint and freeze proof containers. Again, see the books.
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Next to a sound roof, your most important coop furnishing is the nest box. Make a nest that's dark as possible and that's protected top, bottom, and on all sides but has a clear escape route. Place it a couple of feet above the floor (so the hen can scratch around underneath) but with a rough-plank ramp from floor to door for easy access. I find that a single large box about four feet long, two feet deep and high, with a single hen-sized opening in front, works best. Up to four hens will share it at the same time, and competing for time on the nest seems to add incentive. Sometimes they'll line up on the ramp, cackling nastily at one another. But don't scrimp on nest boxes. Without sufficient nesting space, the hens will lay randomly in the fields. In no time the unattended eggs will attract raccoons, skunks, and other nocturnal egg and chicken-loving predators. (If you ever suspect that eggs are being laid afield, simply shut the flock up for a week, begin releasing them for short intervals in the late afternoon, and slowly expand field time into the earlier part of the day.)
Always keep a new flock cooped for a few days until they are settled in and know where home is. Then open an easily closed and secured chicken-sized door facing out on the field you want them to range into. Young birds will be shy as they try out freedom for the first time. Live bugs will cause mass hysteria, and the first time another bird flies over, casting a hawk like shadow, an ancient instinct will send the chicks scattering in a panic.
Around this time, begin dividing your property into chicken and no-chicken zones. Droppings of adult birds come in huge, gelatinous blobs that glue to your shoes till they reach a house's rugs or a truck's accelerator pedal. So start early: Put up fencing, train your dogs, and manage the flock to contain the birds with minimum hassle. Don't leave anything edible at pecking level around the house or anywhere else you don't want to invite patrolling chickens, pets' food bowls included. Most important, train the flock to a daily routine so they leave the coop at dawn to go directly into the fields and stay there eating for free till dusk. I found that siccin' my dog on them at daybreak for a week of mornings each spring is effective in getting the flock afield, at the cost of only a few tail feathers. The birds erupt in a great fuss each time, and Dog Harley loves it. Of course, having been raised around mother hens who put up with no puppy nonsense a-tall, ol' dumb Harley doesn't realize that the birds are edible. No guarantee that a smarter dog won't lunch off the entire flock, however. [EDITOR'S NOTE: When we pointed out to John that "free range" neighboring dogs may also create problems, he replied, "Pick your own remedy. I use a 10-gauge loaded with rock salt. "]
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