tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64072050351940200452024-02-19T15:41:23.633+10:00Backyard chickens and chicken tractorsEverything a beginner needs to know about backyard chickens and chicken tractors ~ ebook and blog ~Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407205035194020045.post-25805800649667404992016-08-17T07:00:00.000+10:002016-08-17T07:00:27.873+10:00How to choose a roosterThis might sound weird, but we let our hens chose their rooster. I better start at the beginning (although its hard to tell where that is, chicken and egg and all that). Here's a summary of how we hatch and dispatch our roosters, and let the hens chose a few to keep.<br />
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<a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/why-do-we-have-so-many-chickens.html" target="_blank">As I wrote back here, we keep lots of hens</a> because we like to have eggs through winter (<a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/why-do-chickens-stop-laying-eggs-in.html" target="_blank">hens tend to stop laying as many eggs in winter</a>, but if you have enough new layers, you will still get a few eggs each day). The cheapest way to have lots of hens is to <a href="http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/incubating-chicken-eggs-and-brooding.html" target="_blank">hatch your own chicks</a>. We have a 48 egg incubator, and we usually hatch around 30 chicks from a full incubator. Of those 30, half or so will be hens and the rest roosters.</div>
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We keep one rooster for every 8-10 hens, depending on whether these roosters get on or not, <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/keeping-multiple-roosters.html" target="_blank">sometimes its possible to have two in the same yard</a>. We currently have three rooster, two from this year's hatch and one from last year. Of the two from this year's hatch, one we chose because he's a big Rhode Island Red rooster, and the other one just moved in with a chicken tractor of hens, so he gets to stay too. Usually only one rooster will move in with a group of hens who have no rooster. If the hens accept him, then he can stay with them. </div>
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One of the biggest factors in egg hatching rate is the rooster. Not just his fertility, but whether the hens like him. <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/the-best-chicken-book-ive-ever-read.html" target="_blank">As Harvey Ussery wrote in the best chicken book I've ever read</a>, the rooster needs to woo his hens, by calling them over for choice bits of food and doing a little rooster dance before he mates with them. If the hens don't like a rooster they will just run away from him, and you won't get many fertile eggs. </div>
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So.... if we let the hens choose their rooster, we get more fertile eggs, and then we get more roosters for them to chose from. </div>
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We keep each rooster for 2-3 years. We find that the older roosters get challenged by the younger ones and eventually we have to remove them (sorry readers, they don't go to rooster retirement homes, we cull them when we do the old hens). Unfortunately old roosters, no matter how long you cook them, do not get more tender (believe me, I've stewed one for 24 hours). They are best as dog food or buried deep in the compost.</div>
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And what happens to the other 10-12 roosters that don't get selected by hens (or by us) to stay? The young ones are very tasty. <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/raising-chickens-for-meat.html" target="_blank">We raise them to be meat chickens</a>, and <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/cooking-chooks.html" target="_blank">you can roast them </a>(don't forget to make stock from the carcass). For the older hens <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/cooking-old-chooks.html" target="_blank">we prefer to mince them</a>.</div>
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<i>How do you choose a rooster? Do you hatch your own? And what do you do with the extras?</i></div>
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<b>Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook <a href="http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/p/buy-chicken-tractor-ebook.html" target="_blank">Design and Use a Chicken Tractor</a></b></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook "Design and Use a Chicken Tractor" - see more on my blog http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407205035194020045.post-71111912293342465222016-07-18T07:00:00.000+10:002016-07-18T07:00:12.133+10:00What breed of chicken should I get?When we first got chickens we thought pure-bred chickens were the best option. We soon found out that they don't lay as many eggs as they used to (thanks to being bred for looks rather than egg-laying abilities) and so we got some hybrid hens. The hybrids lay well, too well, and are not great for eating as they don't get very big. Now we have a bit of a mixture of Rhode Island Reds, White Leghorns and commercial laying hens, which we cross-breed to create our own breed of dual purpose (laying and table birds) for eggs and eating. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We breed crazy chickens that like to roost on their tractor</td></tr>
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If you're wondering what breed of chickens you should get, I've developed a fun flow chart to help you decide.<br />
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Of course there is more to the equation than just eggs/meat or both. Some chickens are better suited to different climates or to being kept in smaller cages versus foraging. Y<a href="http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/pickin-the-right-frickin-chicken-guide-to-picking-backyard-chicken-breeds" target="_blank">ou can find a more comprehensive list of all the breeds here</a>. I see on some sites that sussex are listed as laying hens. I am surprised by this (and maybe the breed is different in other countries). Generally you can tell by the shape of the bird. The good layers are small and skinny hens, they put their energy into egg laying. The bigger, plumper birds don't lay so many eggs, but put more energy into their bodies, so they are better table or meat birds. The dual purpose birds are in between. All the sussex hens I've ever seen were little fatties and not great layers.<br />
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<a href="http://gullygrove.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/about-livestock.html" target="_blank">Chris from Gully Grove recently wrote an excellent post about keeping heritage breeds</a> and getting distracted from the work of self-sufficiency by the attraction of keeping lots of different chickens. It happens to lots of us at first and is definitely a time trap to avoid if you can chose the right chickens from the start.<br />
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<i>What type of chickens to do you keep and why?</i><br />
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<b>Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook <a href="http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/p/buy-chicken-tractor-ebook.html" target="_blank">Design and Use a Chicken Tractor</a></b><div class="blogger-post-footer">Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook "Design and Use a Chicken Tractor" - see more on my blog http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407205035194020045.post-37618889131033660082016-06-27T07:00:00.000+10:002016-06-27T07:00:13.364+10:00Eggs Aside - Five more reasons to keep chickens<i>Today I have a guest post from a new blog-friend, Sarah from <a href="http://www.saylittlehen.com/" target="_blank">Say! Little Hen</a>. Sarah is based in QLD and keeps chickens, grows a garden, knits wonderful creations and shares her baking recipes. I was delighted to find out about Sarah's blog when she emailed me to offer a guest post, so you should pop over and see her blog to find out more, when you finish reading this post about reasons to keep chickens - aside from eggs of course!</i><br />
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We all know that chickens lay eggs, and this is of course the main reason people keep them. I never enjoyed eating eggs until we had our own fresh, home-grown ones. The difference is incredible, and having some chooks to tend is really a joyful experience.<br />
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There are, however, many reasons to keep chickens - egg laying aside. Today I'd like to share my top five reasons to keep chickens. I hope one (or all!) of these inspire you to start your own flock.<br />
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<b>1. Chickens provide a relaxing form of entertainment</b><br />
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There's really nothing more peaceful than letting the chickens out for a wander around the yard of an afternoon. You can potter around the yard yourself, or just immerse yourself into watching them go about their business. With their complex social structure, they really are interesting little animals to observe.</div>
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<b>2. Chickens provide a reliable source of manure</b><br />
If you're interested in keeping chickens, I'm just going to assume that you've also got a small interest in gardening. Even if it's just a few perennial shrubs or trees in your yard, your chickens will provide you with a reliable supply of fertiliser. Put hay down under their night perch, as this makes it easy to collect the manure. Your plants will be mulched and fertilised all at once!</div>
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<b>3. The third reason for keeping chickens also has to do with gardening - chickens are wonderful at it</b><br />
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There's a reason you don't want them breaking into your veggie patch - chickens are expert excavators, and unlike us, they dig over the soil in the most beneficial way, and without grumbling about it. When a patch is finished and ready to be sown-over, letting your chickens in for a week or two (depending on the size of the area) is a really good thing to do. They'll gobble up the remaining plants, and any bugs that are on them too; they'll turn over the soil, aerating it and helping mulch and plant matter break down more quickly, and they'll fertilise as they go. The chickens will also enjoy good heath from this improved diet.<br />
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<b>4. Chickens reduce household waste</b><br />
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I remember the thrill of getting out a container and putting our vegetable scraps into it the night before we picked up our first trio of layers. It was really exciting!<br />
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Now keeping a scrap bucket on the bench has become part of the norm. Every vegetable and fruit scrap goes into it, from the potato and carrot peelings to the wrinkled forgotten apple at the bottom of the fruit bowl. The chickens also gladly consume unwanted leftovers from the fridge (I always seem to have more left over rice than I need), mixed up into a bubble-and-squeak type of mash for breakfast. They enjoy leftover stew, curry, rice, potato, pasta, gravy - you name and they'll eat it. When I make vegetable stock, I strain it through a sieve and the cooked down veggies go straight into the scrap bucket. The chickens go a little crazy for soft cooked vegetables!<br />
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<b>5. Chickens make wonderful pets</b><br />
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They really do. If you have a child that is an animal lover, chickens are one of the easiest care and most budget-friendly pets you can buy. They are not fragile like guinea pigs or budgies, and unlike rabbits it's legal to keep chickens anywhere in Australia. They are easy to care for, needing only clean water and proper feeding.<br />
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Although chickens don't have to be allowed to free range, they'll certainly appreciate it and it's an easy task for your child to let them out to forage after school.<br />
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They don't need walking or vet checkups like dogs, and aren't going to harass the local wildlife like a cat. If you buy the right breed, they'll be just a cuddly as a dog and certainly very interactive. I've known pet chickens that have been patient enough to endure their nails being painted.</div>
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<b><i>Further Reading from Say Little Hen:</i></b><br />
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<a href="http://www.saylittlehen.com/2015/12/chicken-breeds-suitable-for-suburbia.html">Chicken Breeds Suitable for Suburbia | A Buyer's Guide</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.saylittlehen.com/2015/11/the-benefits-of-gardening-with-chickens.html">The Benefits of Gardening with Chickens</a><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook "Design and Use a Chicken Tractor" - see more on my blog http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407205035194020045.post-47867864675567773632016-05-30T07:00:00.000+10:002016-05-30T07:00:11.861+10:00Why do chickens stop laying eggs in winter?Chickens naturally stop laying eggs in winter. Actually when you think about it, the fact that they lay an egg a day for so much of the year is completely unnatural. Birds in the wild will only lay a few eggs until they have a clutch to hatch, but we have bred chickens to just keep laying every day, no wonder they need a break! <br />
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Part of the reason we keep so many chickens (usually around twenty hens), <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/why-do-we-have-so-many-chickens.html" target="_blank">as I wrote about back here</a>, is that we get just enough eggs through winter to have one or two each a day. In spring we will get up to twenty eggs a day and in winter it will be two or three eggs (so we have to eat some bacon with breakfast!). You can use some tricks to encourage chickens to lay through winter, however we prefer to give the hens a break. <br />
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There are a few reasons for the decrease in egg production. For the most part it is triggered by the day length, apparently when day length is less than 14 hours egg production will decrease. <a href="https://www.hort.purdue.edu/tristate_organic/poultry_2007/Light%20Management.pdf" target="_blank">See this article for more details</a>. For this reason, lights in the hen house can be used to simulate longer days. We are near the equator, so our day length only varies from 10 and a bit hours at winter solstice to just under 14 hours at summer solstice (its a wonder our hens lay at all!), so we don't experience the complete lack of eggs that may occur with very short days further from the equator. <a href="http://northcountryfarmer.com/?p=1362" target="_blank">Here's some more information from another blogger who uses lights</a>.<br />
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We also try to keep young hens in our flock by <a href="http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/incubating-chicken-eggs-and-brooding.html" target="_blank">hatching more chicks</a> each year and culling older hens. We find that pullets who just started to lay in spring will lay better through the subsequent winter compared to older birds. Its a good idea to have a rotation plan before you get chickens.<br />
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In autumn chickens go through a moult where they lose all their feathers. They typically don't lay during this period as their body is regenerating and growing new feathers. Each individual chicken will moult at different times with different severity, so we usually get a few eggs during this time as each hen takes a break. <br />
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Its important to feed chickens plenty of high energy feed during the colder months, from when they are moulting until spring, as they will be using lots of energy to regrow feathers and to keep warm in the cooler months. If I was more organised I would make sure they had lots of meal worms.<br />
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If its not winter, and your hens are not laying, it could be due to a few other issues, <a href="http://104homestead.com/laying-hens-stopped-laying/" target="_blank">see this post for more information</a>.<br />
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<i>Are you hens laying at the moment? Do you use any strategies to have eggs in winter?</i><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook "Design and Use a Chicken Tractor" - see more on my blog http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407205035194020045.post-84470176692098630712016-03-14T07:00:00.000+10:002016-03-14T07:00:00.339+10:00Raising baby chicks<i>This is an article of mine that was published in Grass Roots magazine this time last year. I got too busy to sent articles for a while, but I just started again, so look out for my contributions!</i><br />
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Over spring and summer we incubate chicken eggs and raise chicks. We fatten the roosters to eat and keep the hens to replace our older layers. Raising chicks is great fun, a lot of hard work, but worth the effort if you want a sustainable flock. Whether you incubate eggs or buy baby chicks, all chicks need is three things: a safe, warm place to live; water and food.<br />
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<b>The brooder box</b><br />
When chicks first hatch, they don’t have any proper feathers (just fine fluff), so they need to be kept warm, around the same temperature as the incubator (38degC) at first and then gradually cooling as they get bigger. We keep our chicks in a large wooden box. You don’t have to use a wooden box, any kind of strong, draught-proof box will do. I have seen plastic, cardboard and metal boxes used as well. <br />
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We heat the box using a heat lamp and thermostat designed for reptiles. We have both a 60 W and a 25 W ceramic bulb, which we vary depending on the outside temperature (sometimes the larger bulb is too hot, or the smaller bulb not hot enough). The top of the box has a metal mesh frame, to stop the chicks flying out and to stop the dogs helping themselves. You can also use incandescent lightbulbs (if you still have any!) and a thermometer to monitor the temperature in the box. The chicks will tell you if they are too cold, they all huddle under the lamp, and if they are too hot they will be in the opposite corner of the box panting.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">our brooder box</td></tr>
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We also cover the box with blankets at night to keep out draughts. The box usually starts inside the house, because the temperature is more stable, and we move it outside as the chicks start to smell and make too much noise. After they are a week old or so, they are much stronger and able to handle slight temperature fluctuations. <br />
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We line the bottom of the box with newspaper and then a layer of wood shavings. This is supposed to be easier on their little feet. We had a batch of chickens with crooked feet early on and I think it was from only having newspaper on the floor of their box. They do tend to eat some wood shavings at first, but it must not matter, as long as they find their chick food as well.<br />
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<b>Water</b><br />
Inside the box we provide the chicks with a small “waterer”, which you can buy from a produce/stock feed store. This is better than a dish of water because the chicks can’t fall in and get wet (and cold) or drown. They seem to find the water by instinct and there’s no need to add anything to the water, although I've read that people add apple cider vinegar or honey to give the chicks an energy boost, especially if they've arrived via post. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">chicks eating hardboiled eggs</td></tr>
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<b>Feeding chicks</b><br />
There are a few options for feeding the chicks. You can just buy a commercial chick starter crumble, which is formulated for chicks, and usually contains a coccidiostat (an antibiotic to prevent the chicks getting sick from coccidiosis). This is more relevant for large-scale production of chicks and probably unnecessary if you’re only raising a few chicks. A good alternative, if you can find it, is an organic chick crumble which contains all the same protein and minerals as the commercial crumble, without the medication. <br />
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Now you may want to take things even further and make the chick feed yourself. We have experimented with a few options and found that we can use hammer-milled grain (that we also feed to our adult chickens) supplemented with extra protein and minerals. The extra protein can be in the form of meal worms, compost worms, meat meal mix (available from our local produce store) and hardboiled eggs. It sounds weird to feed eggs to chickens, but the egg was the chick’s first food as it developed, and as long as its crushed they won’t associate a raw egg with food in the future. This is the easiest and cheapest supplement if you already have some laying hens. For the minerals we buy a commercial organic mineral mix and a seaweed meal.<br />
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You can also start feeding the chicks leafy greens and grass, they might not eat much at first, but it gives them something different to peck at in their box. When the chicks are a few weeks old, we also start putting them outside in a small birdcage for a few hours to that they can experience being on the grass, then its not such a shock for them when they move into a chicken tractor.<br />
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I’m not sure if this really necessary, but we usually “teach” the chicks to eat their food by tapping a finger in the food dish. This results in lots of chicks running over to your hand to see what you’re doing and a few will then try eating the food. After that, they are usually pretty quick to work out where the food is.<br />
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<b>Moving chicks into a chicken tractor</b><br />
The transition from the chicks living in the brooder box to moving into chicken tractors can be difficult to time, as it depends on your outside overnight temperatures. Ideally we hatch the chicks in spring or summer, so that they can move out after only 6 weeks, before they have all their feathers, because it is usually plenty warm enough by then. Otherwise they have to stay in their brooder box longer and once they reach that noisy messy stage I can't wait for them to move out!<br />
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Even though it is warm enough, we find that when we put chicks out in the tractor for the first few nights they need to 'tucked in' at dusk because they are so used to living in a box and not having open sides, its quite scary for them. This means draping tarps, old sheets, towels and blankets over the tractor so that they feel like they're still in a solid box. Otherwise they spend the night trying to stick their little heads out of the mesh and sometimes they manage to squeeze out. We only have to do this for about a week until they get used to it. This also helps to keep the dew off their grass and keep out any draughts, while they acclimatise to not having the heat lamp above them at night.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">chicks in a chicken tractor</td></tr>
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After the chicks move out of the brooder and into a chicken tractor they eat grass, grow the rest of their feathers and very quickly get bigger and bossier. Its hard to remember that they were once tiny fluff-balls, and all the hard work pays off when you count up how many new layers you will have next spring (and how many roast roosters you will have in the freezer in a few months).</div>
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<i>What do you think? Any tips for raising chicks?</i></div>
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<b>Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook <a href="http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/p/buy-chicken-tractor-ebook.html" target="_blank">Design and Use a Chicken Tractor</a></b></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook "Design and Use a Chicken Tractor" - see more on my blog http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407205035194020045.post-42294046151436686262016-02-17T07:00:00.000+10:002016-02-17T07:00:10.964+10:00Outfoxing the foxLately we've had a fox hanging around. I'm sure we never had a problem with foxes before we got the guinea fowl. We used to forget to close the chicken tractors sometimes, and the worst that would happen was being woken at dawn by a large rooster crowing outside our bedroom window. The thing with chickens is that they go into their tractor and sleep there whether you close the door or not, which does not attract foxy attention if you're lucky. <br />
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The guinea fowl would refuse to go in and opt to sleep in the grass instead, and the fox caught on to the easy meal. <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/guinea-fowl-realities.html" target="_blank">I think we lost about six guineas in total over several nights</a> and the fox obviously added our place to its nightly rounds. We had a few accidents where chicken tractors were left open overnight. We also saw the fox in the day as well, in the early winter morning (I assume there is only one regular fox, but there could be several).<br />
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Anyway, we knew the fox was around and had thought that the chickens were safe in their chicken tractors, as we had become very disciplined about remembering to shut them at night, until one night Taz got Pete up and he found that a fox had actually dug under the chicken tractor. It had taken one chicken and killed another. If Taz hadn't alerted Pete we would probably have lost the whole lot of them. The fox had dug a hole about 10cm deep, it would have struggled to get the fat old hen out of the hole. We were really shocked because this tractor was INSIDE our dog fenced house yard. It keeps Taz IN but clearly does not keep foxes out.<br />
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The next night Pete put planks of wood around the tractors to prevent more digging and everything was fine until a few days later when we moved the chicken tractors and didn't move the planks. What do they say about complacency? We lost another two chickens. So after that we were on a mission to outfox the fox.<br />
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We had two options: 1) kill the fox 2) stop the fox taking chickens.<br />
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<b>Kill the fox?</b><br />
Option 1 is more difficult than it sounds.... and not because the fox was cute. Let's get the cute fox image out of the way now. Here's a cute fox video. Everyone say oooooh, and then remember that this cute clever agile little animal will KILL ALL YOUR CHICKENS. It will jump and dig and squeeze into small spaces and it will KILL ALL YOUR CHICKENS.<br />
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Foxes are not native to Australia, they are a pest and a problem for our self-sufficient lifestyle, so I would have been very happy to kill our fox if I had the opportunity. However, I could not figure out how I would get a chance to shoot it, other than stay up all night and wait. I did try putting "Country Fried Chicken" in our animal trap, as per the video below, which seemed very encouraging, but all we caught (and released) was an angry goana :( so we were stuck with option 2 - deter the fox.<br />
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<b>Foxlights</b><br />
We took three approaches to deterring the fox, and so far the combination is working. First we got foxlights on the recommendation of a friend who swears by them for protecting his sheep. This is a battery operated LED light that flashes white and blue at random. We got two of them. They are well-constructed, water-proof, robust and seem to confuse the fox as long as we move them around. Pete made a stand from a piece of C-Section and a cut-off star picket. I made a video of our place at night so you can see the random flashing. They have a light sensor and come on automatically as soon as its dark enough. Its taken a while to get used to the random flashing outside!<br />
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We have had one fox attack about six weeks after we got the foxlights, but we hadn't been moving them. Now we move them a few metres every night. The foxlights are around $90 each, which is not cheap, but neither is replacing chickens, so far I think they have been worth the investment (although I can't be sure as we changed a couple of other things after that attack).<br />
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<b>Chicken Tractor Modifications</b></div>
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When we had the fox attack after we got the foxlights, we decided to also modify the chicken tractors a little to make digging under more difficult. We (Pete) welded a frame and more mesh onto the floor of the tractors. We previously had an open floor, and I wanted to keep as much open as possible so that the chickens can scratch, so we just added mesh around the back where the tractors sit higher off the ground due to the wheels. With 500mm of extra mesh around the base it would be a bigger task to dig under in one night, so we just have to check for digging each day. </div>
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I actually forgot to take a photo of the finished work, just the chickens inspecting their tractor turned on its side! Just imagine extra mesh welded around the inside edge at the back and sides. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/EightAcresTheBlog/photos/pb.261857330588169.-2207520000.1455619348./907041632736399/?type=3&theater" target="_blank">A few people commented on this photo on facebook</a> that they put mesh on the outside around the bottom to stop digging, that would work too, but it would have made our tractors too wide and impractical. Something else to consider when designing a chicken tractor!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCF3ZMRnHDzWMdX-aBq2pg_aIGCvfXBu3XwsSmXzXiht485EAAkQ5rYCJX_LMjyybebxfwjZJR3sRNjha3WpXWBXsJfAHKeB6Dg-FMlJNiGnIZlAEpCIMZwIGgnhynyGAaF20U79BIxEEP/s1600/chicken+tractor+mod.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="eight acres: outfoxing the fox that has been attacking our chickens" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCF3ZMRnHDzWMdX-aBq2pg_aIGCvfXBu3XwsSmXzXiht485EAAkQ5rYCJX_LMjyybebxfwjZJR3sRNjha3WpXWBXsJfAHKeB6Dg-FMlJNiGnIZlAEpCIMZwIGgnhynyGAaF20U79BIxEEP/s400/chicken+tractor+mod.jpg" title="eight acres: outfoxing the fox that has been attacking our chickens" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>Guard Dog on Duty</b></div>
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Poor Taz thinks of herself as a lap dog these days and had started sleeping curled up at the end of our bed (now that is cute). So it was a bit of a shock to her when we decided she would have to sleep outside on the veranda. She does get Pete up every time she hears a chicken get attacked, but that is one chicken too late, we need her to notice the fox in our yard. I have read that dogs just get used to foxes, but I don't know about Taz, she gets pretty mad if she sees the fox in daylight and she's very protective of the chickens. I told her she's doing a very important job and she can have lots of eggs for breakfast.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh546n5X44jFI2ynINgApQz9gfC1jbpDf5HyAJvF6i2p6j37MFmHPqFhW2QlVsyDXGUIQ8Nnfwq1JX1IkAQvHx7C-JkEW74froSxf0JtZ5Lw8AmGkrqXhJkFPjGPRRc5JNq91WAIWJUT0L2/s1600/P2148745.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img alt="eight acres: outfoxing the fox that has been attacking our chickens" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh546n5X44jFI2ynINgApQz9gfC1jbpDf5HyAJvF6i2p6j37MFmHPqFhW2QlVsyDXGUIQ8Nnfwq1JX1IkAQvHx7C-JkEW74froSxf0JtZ5Lw8AmGkrqXhJkFPjGPRRc5JNq91WAIWJUT0L2/s400/P2148745.JPG" title="eight acres: outfoxing the fox that has been attacking our chickens" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poor Taz thinks she belongs inside at night</td></tr>
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<i>Do you have a fox problem? What have you done about it?</i></div>
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<b>Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook <a href="http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/p/buy-chicken-tractor-ebook.html" target="_blank">Design and Use a Chicken Tractor</a></b></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook "Design and Use a Chicken Tractor" - see more on my blog http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407205035194020045.post-81349510637799707822016-01-11T07:00:00.000+10:002016-01-13T07:47:37.562+10:00Why you should consider using chicken tractorsIf you haven't seen it already, I've written an article for FarmStyle with six reasons why you should consider chicken tractors. This includes:<br />
<ul>
<li>No more cleaning coops</li>
<li>Better eggs</li>
<li>Protection from predators</li>
<li>Less likely to attract rodents (and snakes!)</li>
<li>Simpler and cheaper to build</li>
<li>Take it with you when you move</li>
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<a href="http://farmstyle.com.au/news/why-you-should-consider-chicken-tractors" target="_blank">Find out more on this link</a>. FarmStyle has a range of useful farm articles and a forum for small farm discussions.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj52rjIiameIY2L9CE8fOn0yXXndbVbRsHvlrAeUlgym04C2xPgdoy0xh_0bGcbI8Ne6CX5f-iWCC42HuEunsp4RG6HNFXfDXBzkSRbcuyWUQiVeFpUiGuziljtbtkUF2tgDONcQLKcr5p1/s1600/PC238466.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="eight acres: six reasons to consider using chicken tractors" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj52rjIiameIY2L9CE8fOn0yXXndbVbRsHvlrAeUlgym04C2xPgdoy0xh_0bGcbI8Ne6CX5f-iWCC42HuEunsp4RG6HNFXfDXBzkSRbcuyWUQiVeFpUiGuziljtbtkUF2tgDONcQLKcr5p1/s400/PC238466.JPG" title="eight acres: six reasons to consider using chicken tractors" width="400" /></a></div>
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By the way, my chicken tractor ebook is now available if you want to know more about designing and using chicken tractors. More information over at the <a href="http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/p/buy-chicken-tractor-ebook.html" target="_blank">chicken tractor blog</a>. Or you can get it directly from my shop on <a href="https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/248954023/design-and-use-a-chicken-tractor?ref=shop_home_active_1" target="_blank">Etsy</a> (.pdf format), or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016IPPASW/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B016IPPASW&linkCode=as2&tag=eigacr-20&linkId=TAGK7PDRZBYAQGAH" target="_blank">Amazon Kindle</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=eigacr-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B016IPPASW" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> or just send me an email eight.acres.liz {at} gmail.com.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEJEMrUIpZBd78wxcWPCzLzoRW_p7P3Fh93NIMZZz02y4StPhoGBmDEnyrRkRM68mYJpS6gWn_JXJNXJ779AJMgh_LZ2075-GUlCMMa_bv349KVTVaLyu9FcqQ6SSPbvHyrKl2OdVzskrW/s1600/Design+and+Use+a+Chicken+Tractor+-+cover+page.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEJEMrUIpZBd78wxcWPCzLzoRW_p7P3Fh93NIMZZz02y4StPhoGBmDEnyrRkRM68mYJpS6gWn_JXJNXJ779AJMgh_LZ2075-GUlCMMa_bv349KVTVaLyu9FcqQ6SSPbvHyrKl2OdVzskrW/s400/Design+and+Use+a+Chicken+Tractor+-+cover+page.jpg" width="276" /></a></div>
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<b>What's the eBook about?</b><br />
Chickens in a confined coop can end up living in an unpleasant dust-bowl, but allowing chickens to free-range can result in chickens getting into gardens and expose them to predators.<br />
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A movable cage or “chicken tractor” is the best of both options – the chickens are safe, have access to clean grass, fresh air and bugs. Feed costs are reduced, chickens are happier, and egg production increases. </div>
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But how do you build a chicken tractor? What aspects should be considered in designing and using a chicken tractor effectively? In this eBook I aim to explain how to make a chicken tractor work for you in your environment to meet your goals for keeping chickens. </div>
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I also list what I have learnt over 10 years of keeping chickens in tractors of various designs and sizes, from hatching chicks, through to butchering roosters.</div>
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<b>Reviews of the Design and Use a Chicken Tractor</b><br />
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<a href="http://gullygrove.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/chicken-tractors.html" target="_blank">Chris from Gully Grove</a><br />
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<a href="http://goinggreyandslightlygreen.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/would-you-like-to-learn-more-about.html" target="_blank">Going Grey and Slightly Green</a><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook "Design and Use a Chicken Tractor" - see more on my blog http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407205035194020045.post-58559080198781846662015-12-07T07:00:00.000+10:002015-12-08T07:33:45.942+10:00Chicken posts in 2015Every year I like to do a round up of all the posts I've done of various topics, so that everyone can catch up on what they've missed. Here's all my chicken posts.... and a couple of memes I've whipped up to help advertise my chicken tractor ebook. <br />
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Please ask all your chicken tractor questions here.... And tell your chicken tractor success stories too!<br />
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<a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2015/11/keeping-bantam-chickens.html">Keeping bantam chickens</a><br />
<a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/trimming-chicken-wing-feathers.html">Trimming chicken wing feathers</a><br />
<a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/feeding-chickens.html">Feeding chickens</a><br />
<a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/popular-chicken-posts-on-eight-acres.html">Popular chicken posts on Eight Acres</a><br />
<a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/treating-chicken-mites-and-lice.html">Treating chicken mites and lice</a><br />
<a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/hatching-chicks.html">Hatching chicks!</a><br />
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You can <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/search/label/chickens" target="_blank">find earlier chicken posts here</a>. And of course a tidied up and revised version of everything <a href="http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/p/buy-chicken-tractor-ebook.html" target="_blank">in my chicken tractor ebook</a>.<br />
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Thanks for following my blog. I love to read your comments and share and fun and challenges of chickens (and everything else on the farm). See you next year!<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook "Design and Use a Chicken Tractor" - see more on my blog http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407205035194020045.post-83490638356428540102015-11-11T07:00:00.000+10:002015-11-11T07:00:02.272+10:00Keeping bantam chickensI recently came into the possession of some bantams and they are ridiculously cute. They also have a job to do.... I'm hoping they will hatch some eggs. I thought I better find out a bit more about them first though! Here's what I've learnt about bantams....<br />
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Bantams are chickens that are bred to be smaller than full sized chickens ("large fowl"). There are different breeds of bantams, some are just small versions of the big chickens (like Plymouth Rock, which is both a large and bantam breed) or "true bantams" which do not have an equivalent large breed, such as the pekin. The different breeds are different sizes, but all are small (<a href="http://www.coopsandcages.com.au/blog/ultimate-list-chicken-breeds/" target="_blank">see here for more information on bantam breeds</a>). The bantams that we have acquired are unknown breeds, one (B1) looks like a pekin to me, and the other (Bubble) seems to be a pekin crossed with a silkie (apparently there used to be a B2 and a Squeak as well). They are both tiny, about the size of a guinea pig, maybe about 500g each.<br />
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<b>Things I like about bantams</b><br />
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<ul>
<li>Bantams have a reputation for brooding, hatching and raising chicks, although they can only fit a few eggs under them at a time! I would like to try this instead of using the incubator, as this would allow the chicks to be raised by the bantams and I wouldn't have to look after them!</li>
<li>Bantams are tiny, do not eat much and do not dig massive holes in the lawn (unlike the big chickens where are currently working on turning our yard into a moonscape)</li>
<li>Bantams are relatively friendly, I'm not sure if they<i> like</i> being picked up, but they don't struggle as much as a big chicken and I don't end up with scratches all down my arms. I think they would be a good pet for children as they are a bit more cuddly and the right size for small hands.</li>
<li>Bantams are CUTE! All chickens are fun to watch, but there's something about mini-chickens that is really fascinating. </li>
<li>Bantams are very well suited to chicken tractors - the chicken tractor keeps them safe from predators, and being small, they don't need much area or height, they seem very happy in their small chicken tractor. I haven't let them out to free-range as I don't want the large chickens to pick on them, but they have plenty of grass in their chicken tractor. If you have big chickens and want to keep a few bantams, a chicken tractor is a good option for keeping them separate.</li>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI4P4WyYWax2zwy55xSXvIYaq8m-a7aWloT3GTBcaMDqJGYO_VQyQ3ZMu3dv3z-FBZiTZRaOjv6j92uSNS8D3a1Br9qrOAn3iGS65TMP6q5pEd4-rkJTs_GvrrgxrjJtrAw-V3tn0UJnVz/s1600/PA318201.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="eight acres: all about bantam chickens" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI4P4WyYWax2zwy55xSXvIYaq8m-a7aWloT3GTBcaMDqJGYO_VQyQ3ZMu3dv3z-FBZiTZRaOjv6j92uSNS8D3a1Br9qrOAn3iGS65TMP6q5pEd4-rkJTs_GvrrgxrjJtrAw-V3tn0UJnVz/s400/PA318201.JPG" title="eight acres: all about bantam chickens" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">B1 the pekin</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSFPwI6FqrMtvtqglfZQmYsFACRG6e2_VFvTK7ayA6Z3q4FyBBR9iNO0cl8UHHglGMcPpoOHctr3DQ2KqhQIzXYGweunZcq48InIxoHdOQaOQthZzbX_Vh2yj7bCEoknz3GtvlMJJMJxgE/s1600/PA318202.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="eight acres: all about bantam chickens" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSFPwI6FqrMtvtqglfZQmYsFACRG6e2_VFvTK7ayA6Z3q4FyBBR9iNO0cl8UHHglGMcPpoOHctr3DQ2KqhQIzXYGweunZcq48InIxoHdOQaOQthZzbX_Vh2yj7bCEoknz3GtvlMJJMJxgE/s400/PA318202.JPG" title="eight acres: all about bantam chickens" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">B1 with an egg carton for scale</td></tr>
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<b>Why I still need some big chickens</b><br />
If I only had a small yard, I think bantams would be a really good idea, but while we have the space, I still prefer to keep a few (only 20!) big chickens for these reasons:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Bantam eggs are small and infrequent - the eggs about half the size of a big chicken (actually surprisingly big considered the size of the birds!) and they don't lay every day, I need some big chickens to lay enough eggs for us to eat. If you had a family of four you could probably keep six-eight bantams for a (small) egg each per day.</li>
<li>There's not much meat on a bantam - I don't think it would even be worth the effort of butchering a bantam, they are just too small, I'd rather raise large chickens for meat.</li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgan-afe2ngSPNmx-qnMMym4A0xEYsb-PkfUMpZFwN7liK_cf6m4VTu5Zo0uCbUqIgLnEBJP0YgrPPECDSsaMFPnugf3UeJ8DNUC72f3AKH-dW43A4RURT708KrkQE78V4AyNSx9Zd0vLg/s1600/PA178153.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="eight acres: all about bantam chickens" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgan-afe2ngSPNmx-qnMMym4A0xEYsb-PkfUMpZFwN7liK_cf6m4VTu5Zo0uCbUqIgLnEBJP0YgrPPECDSsaMFPnugf3UeJ8DNUC72f3AKH-dW43A4RURT708KrkQE78V4AyNSx9Zd0vLg/s400/PA178153.JPG" title="eight acres: all about bantam chickens" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">B1 and Bubble in their small chicken tractor</td></tr>
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<i>Have you kept bantams? What do you think of them? </i></div>
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<b>If you want to know more about chicken tractors, <a href="http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/p/buy-chicken-tractor-ebook.html" target="_blank">check out my book here</a>.</b></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook "Design and Use a Chicken Tractor" - see more on my blog http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407205035194020045.post-66317215570704771342015-10-14T07:00:00.000+10:002015-10-14T07:00:01.987+10:00Trimming wing feathersUh-oh someone keeps flying into my vege garden and scuffing up all the mulch..... Doesn't she look innocent! I caught her twice, so it was time to trim her wing feathers to stop her flying over the fence.<br />
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Step 1: chase the chicken around the garden until you finally catch her<br />
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Step 2: go into the house and find your best sharp sewing scissors. Do not put the chicken down, otherwise you have to do step 1 again. If necessary take the chicken into the house with you.<br />
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Step 3: extend one wing and trim all the longer feathers. I usually just trim one wing, that makes the chicken unstable. If you trim both wings, sometimes they can still fly high enough to get into mischief.<br />
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Step 4: release the chicken and hope you don't find her in the garden again....<br />
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<i>Do you trim chicken wing feathers? Any tips?</i></div>
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook "Design and Use a Chicken Tractor" - see more on my blog http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407205035194020045.post-25105849896401033062015-09-23T07:00:00.000+10:002015-09-23T07:00:00.640+10:00Design and Use a Chicken Tractor - Published at last!After months and months of procrastination, I have finally published "Design and Use a Chicken Tractor"! It is <a href="https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/248954023/design-and-use-a-chicken-tractor?ref=shop_home_active_1" target="_blank">available on Etsy</a> and I will add it to other platforms soon (ran out of internet!).<br />
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<b>What's the eBook about?</b><br />
Chickens in a confined coop can end up living in an unpleasant dust-bowl, but allowing chickens to free-range can result in chickens getting into gardens and expose them to predators.<br />
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A movable cage or “chicken tractor” is the best of both options – the chickens are safe, have access to clean grass, fresh air and bugs. Feed costs are reduced, chickens are happier, and egg production increases. </div>
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But how do you build a chicken tractor? What aspects should be considered in designing and using a chicken tractor effectively? In this eBook I aim to explain how to make a chicken tractor work for you in your environment to meet your goals for keeping chickens. </div>
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I also list what I have learnt over 10 years of keeping chickens in tractors of various designs and sizes, from hatching chicks, through to butchering roosters.</div>
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<b>Contents</b></div>
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1. Introduction<o:p></o:p></div>
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1.1. About us<o:p></o:p></div>
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1.2. About this
book<o:p></o:p></div>
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1.3. Conversion
of units<o:p></o:p></div>
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1.4. Chicken
tractor terminology<o:p></o:p></div>
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2. Chicken
tractor basics<o:p></o:p></div>
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2.1. What is a
chicken tractor?<o:p></o:p></div>
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2.2. Advantages<o:p></o:p></div>
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2.3. Disadvantages<o:p></o:p></div>
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3. Examples
of chicken tractors<o:p></o:p></div>
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3.1. How we use
chicken tractors at Eight Acres<o:p></o:p></div>
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3.2. Joel Salatin
– Pastured Poultry Profits<o:p></o:p></div>
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3.3. Linda
Woodrow – Permaculture Home Garden<o:p></o:p></div>
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3.4. Chicken
Tractor - The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil<o:p></o:p></div>
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3.5. Toby
Hemenway - Gaia’s Garden<o:p></o:p></div>
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4. Design and
construction considerations<o:p></o:p></div>
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4.1. Construction
materials<o:p></o:p></div>
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4.2. Mobility
and weight<o:p></o:p></div>
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4.3. Climate<o:p></o:p></div>
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4.4. Size<o:p></o:p></div>
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4.5. Nesting
boxes for laying hens<o:p></o:p></div>
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4.6. Predators
and pests<o:p></o:p></div>
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4.7. Mesh size<o:p></o:p></div>
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4.8. Provision
of food and water in the tractor<o:p></o:p></div>
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4.9. Putting it
all together<o:p></o:p></div>
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5. How to
use a chicken tractor<o:p></o:p></div>
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5.1. How to
accustom chickens to a chicken tractor<o:p></o:p></div>
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5.2. When and
how to move the tractor<o:p></o:p></div>
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5.3. Chicken
tractors and gardens<o:p></o:p></div>
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5.4. Chicken
tractors and cattle<o:p></o:p></div>
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5.5. Chicken
tractors and the family dog<o:p></o:p></div>
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6. Our
Experience with Chickens<o:p></o:p></div>
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6.1. Using an
incubator<o:p></o:p></div>
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6.2. Caring for
chicks<o:p></o:p></div>
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6.3. Planning
your flock<o:p></o:p></div>
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6.4. Ideas for
feeding chickens<o:p></o:p></div>
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6.5. Living
with roosters<o:p></o:p></div>
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6.6. Butchering
and cooking your chickens<o:p></o:p></div>
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7. Some
final thoughts on chicken tractors<o:p></o:p></div>
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8. References<o:p></o:p></div>
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Appendix A: Photos
of our chicken tractors<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook "Design and Use a Chicken Tractor" - see more on my blog http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407205035194020045.post-89676564182917436262015-08-17T07:00:00.000+10:002015-08-17T07:00:01.600+10:00Feeding chickens<div>
There are many options for feeding your chickens. For a while we thought the solution was chicken layer pellets, they are uniform, so the chickens don't pick through them, but you never really know what's in them, and they are usually a relatively expensive option.</div>
<br />We then started buying a nice mixed grain produced by our local stock feed store. Unfortunately our chickens are very picky, they don't seem to like wheat or sorghum, so these seeds were picked out while they ate the corn and the sunflowers. Seems like a waste when half the feed ends up on the ground, and just attracts mice. The chickens also tend to leave the fines in the bottom of the feeder, creating even more waste.<div>
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<br /><br />Then we decided that if they like corn and sunflowers so much, we should just feed them cracked corn and sunflower seeds. The guy at the stock feed store was worried that this would not be a complete food, however with the chickens free ranging, they should be picking up a lot of what they need out in the paddock, ideally we should only be supplementing the feed that they can find for themselves.<br /><br />Its quite difficult to find information on chicken feed that's not targeted to industrial producers, or just too vague to make any decisions (like "use a layer mash"). Most industrial advice is about what you can get away with, the main strategy for increasing protein content (and pump out maximum eggs) is to add either animal products or soy. I have also seen a domestic chicken pellet with "yolk pigmenter" included, this is just a food colouring to make the yolks darker - a chicken with a healthy diet should lay eggs with naturally dark yellow yolks.<br /><br />Cracked corn has a protein content of 6%, and typically an energy content of 13900 kJ/kg. Sunflower seeds can have protein up to 24%, with energy content of 23850 kJ/kg. Sunflower seeds are more expensive that cracked corn, and are deficient in the amino acid lysine, so its good to feed some cracked corn to ensure a balance of amino acids and to reduce feed costs, even though sunflower seeds are the higher energy and protein feed.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_781614212"></span>From one source<span id="goog_781614213"></span></a> I found out that a hen needs about 700 kJ of energy per day to produce eggs and to free-range, and about 18 g/day of protein. A hen can achieve most of her energy and protein needs just from eating cracked corn (about 300g per hen per day), but by adding sunflowers to the diet, the total feed requirement reduces. For example feeding 50/50 cracked corn and sunflowers reduces the feed requirements to about 120g per hen per day. The ideal ratio depends on the price of sunflower seeds relative to cracked corn. The more sunflower seeds consumed, the less overall feed and overall energy needs to be consumed to achieve enough protein, so I think we should feed as much sunflower seeds as we can afford. This system resulted in much less food wasted, so even though buying cracked corn is more expensive than mixed grain, it worked out cheaper as we don't have to use as many bags per week.<br /><br />Lately we have come to an even simpler system in which we feed the chickens the same milled grain as the cattle. That way we only have to keep one type of feed in storage and its suitable for all the animals. The grain is milled to a size where the chickens can’t really pick through and chose their favourite grains. Also any food spilt is safe for the cattle to eat when the chicken tractor is moved over. We still feed sunflower seeds as a treat in the afternoon, I don’t think we could stop even if we wanted to, as you just about can’t walk to the feed bins without being mobbed by a gang of chickens waiting for their afternoon treats. We store the milled grain in 200 L metal drums, with a layer of diatomaceous earth to keep the insects out. This is also safe for the animals to eat.<br /><br />Ideally, the grain should just be a supplement to all the food that the chickens can find while free-ranging. They eat grass, weeds and any bugs that they find. We also grow a few bugs for treats and to feed to baby chicks. Eventually I would like to grow all the chicken feed and not have to buy grain at all. <br /><br />Chickens need to eat some form of living protein because they need the amino acid methionine, which is not found in significant proportions in grains or legumes. The theory is that chickens are descended from naturally free-ranging jungle-dwelling birds (gallus gallus), which tend to get their protein from bugs. It is argued that a chicken free-ranging on pasture does not pick up as many bugs as a bird living in the jungle might, and therefore does not get enough protein from bugs, and so needs to be fed a "complete ration" containing either meat meal or a synthetic form of methionine. In addition, while gallus gallus lays only a few eggs per year, our modern hens lay close to one per day and have higher protein requirements.<br /><br /><a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/meal-worms-for-chickens.html" target="_blank">Mealworms are one source of protein that you can grow for your chickens</a>. Mealworms live in grain (which doesn’t quite help us to avoid grain, but they don’t need much). Mealworms convert that grain to higher protein feed just by feeding and growing, so its a way to increase the nutritional value of the grain. They also need the occasional carrot or apple to provide moisture, just replace it when its all eaten or gone mouldy. Compost worms are another option, especially if you are <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/search/label/worm%20farm" target="_blank">keeping a worm farm anyway</a>, its very easy to dig around in the worm farm and grab a few worms for the chickens. Black Soldier Fly larvae are another option that can be set up around the chicken tractors as self-serve protein systems. I can’t get into the detail here, but there is plenty of information on the net about all of these options. <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/the-best-chicken-book-ive-ever-read.html" target="_blank">Harvey Ussery also suggests in his book</a> that you could hang a bucket of roadkill meat in the chicken coop and let the maggots fall out to feed the chickens! He calls it free-food from thin-air. There are certainly some clever ideas out there and we do not need to be constrained to buying expensive bags of feed from the produce store.</div>
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<i>What do you feed your chickens? Any clever ideas for free chicken food?</i></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook "Design and Use a Chicken Tractor" - see more on my blog http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407205035194020045.post-63971109992921327332015-06-29T07:00:00.000+10:002015-06-29T07:00:04.977+10:00Popular posts about chickensOver the years I've been writing <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank">Eight Acres - the blog</a>, chickens have been a regular topic and there are a few themes that have been particularly popular. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHC8MdLDijg_WZG9Wk8iI31ZQJVgKpAjuVRj7GiGXvmZjeieFHuPZWsTku3D338AHWPu8w92S-PFkci34t_CqWwXZEVQwtZm4J4yFQpv5JCAfp9-vyycnZMtwfkkIdTLri0NuOcARFToaA/s1600/P9195268.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img alt="chicken tractor ebook: popular chicken posts on eight acres" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHC8MdLDijg_WZG9Wk8iI31ZQJVgKpAjuVRj7GiGXvmZjeieFHuPZWsTku3D338AHWPu8w92S-PFkci34t_CqWwXZEVQwtZm4J4yFQpv5JCAfp9-vyycnZMtwfkkIdTLri0NuOcARFToaA/s400/P9195268.JPG" title="chicken tractor ebook: popular chicken posts on eight acres" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>Chicken tractors</b><br />
Of course the inspiration for my <a href="http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank">Chicken Tractor eBook</a> was the popularity of my posts about chicken tractors. People are obviously very interested in building and using chicken tractors with chickens and other poultry. Here's those posts again in case you missed them:<br />
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If you want to know about the pros and cons of using a chicken tractor vs a fixed chicken coop, try <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com/2011/03/mobile-chickens-vs-fixed-pen.html">Mobile chicken tractors vs fixed pen</a>. Now that you're convinced that you need a chicken tractor, here's some thoughts on <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-to-build-chicken-tractor.html">How to build a chicken tractor</a> (with more photos in <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/another-chicken-tractor.html">Another chicken tractor</a>), and a couple of posts about <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-to-use-chicken-tractor.html">How to use a chicken tractor</a> (more in <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com/2013/05/chicken-tractor-guest-post.html">Chicken tractor guest post</a>). <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqPggl-1T22lgyHlzEINMvc_IxNQAeH33jyHGNZQEj980jgGSeockDmGKzDPMETIDFmcajbNBvdlfp4fwbdzKqnCYxu0E3lSIlGodxcQAtv3k3nWyM8FgOURROZU13Z12ZGuUp1cBkihgl/s1600/Design+and+Use+a+Chicken+Tractor+-+cover+page+-+coming+soon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqPggl-1T22lgyHlzEINMvc_IxNQAeH33jyHGNZQEj980jgGSeockDmGKzDPMETIDFmcajbNBvdlfp4fwbdzKqnCYxu0E3lSIlGodxcQAtv3k3nWyM8FgOURROZU13Z12ZGuUp1cBkihgl/s400/Design+and+Use+a+Chicken+Tractor+-+cover+page+-+coming+soon.jpg" width="276" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'm still working on the eBook, nearly ready!</td></tr>
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<b>Gender of chicks</b><br />
This question pops up all the time (and I had to word this carefully so I didn't get blocked by spam filters!), it seems like everyone who buys or hatches chicks eventually needs to know whether they got the hens they ordered, or a few roosters that might need to find another home. After nearly 10 years of hatching chicks, we are getting pretty good at picking the gender at around 6 weeks old. I put some photos in this post to help: <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com/2012/06/determining-gender-of-young-chickens.html">Determining the gender of young chickens</a> <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8nQucGNNIFaZ7wyvoftMFpGLC0fxXNtKNzRPKqcY0esxdgInQwslaMVY26nL75N-QmBa6_cHFT34f1B85iYWbaSy-CgShR3BAALNNtB5LmtfYrsNlWsR87b-ncgInq2h_tBp-q7eJKFSN/s1600/P6210131.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="chicken tractor ebook: popular chicken posts on eight acres" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8nQucGNNIFaZ7wyvoftMFpGLC0fxXNtKNzRPKqcY0esxdgInQwslaMVY26nL75N-QmBa6_cHFT34f1B85iYWbaSy-CgShR3BAALNNtB5LmtfYrsNlWsR87b-ncgInq2h_tBp-q7eJKFSN/s400/P6210131.JPG" title="chicken tractor ebook: popular chicken posts on eight acres" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pullets that we hatched</td></tr>
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<b>Guinea fowl</b><br />
The guinea fowl were a brief experiment (we had them for about a year). We bought 10 keets and raised them. They lived in a chicken tractor, but never really fitted in to our farm. We hatched more keets and then sold the lot of them for more than the original keets cost me, so I guess at least I made a profit!<br />
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Here's the keets (they are SO cute) <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/guinea-fowl-keets.html" target="_blank">Guinea fowl keets</a>, and this is when we first tried them free-ranging <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/free-range-guinea-fowl.html" target="_blank">Free range guinea fowl!</a>. And then the final decision to sell them <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/guinea-fowl-realities.html" target="_blank">Guinea Fowl Realities</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnU6AByjB1mzb5DKF5hqwDLwgRh2_9lLTvz8TIuYfOqmchHU881JyAUENh9ovd4hHk0ju1t9zsZZasbQa38S221bpNDLZgvUz-q4BY1gIQTV7GfNXBV1xsKEv841VS92EyPvhWR6zquWYu/s1600/P6291789-001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="chicken tractor ebook: popular chicken posts on eight acres" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnU6AByjB1mzb5DKF5hqwDLwgRh2_9lLTvz8TIuYfOqmchHU881JyAUENh9ovd4hHk0ju1t9zsZZasbQa38S221bpNDLZgvUz-q4BY1gIQTV7GfNXBV1xsKEv841VS92EyPvhWR6zquWYu/s400/P6291789-001.JPG" title="chicken tractor ebook: popular chicken posts on eight acres" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">crazy guinea fowl!</td></tr>
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<b>Feeding chickens</b><br />
We have been through many iterations with feeding the chickens. At first we thought a <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/feeding-time-whats-in-that-bucket.html" target="_blank">cheap laying pellet</a> was the best option, then we were worried about animal byproducts, so we bought a mixed grain ration. That got expensive, so we tried just feeding corn and sunflower seeds (<a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/chicken-feed.html">Chicken feed</a>). And now we just give the chickens the same milled grain that we buy for the cattle. And I started raising <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/meal-worms-for-chickens.html">Meal worms for the chickens</a>. Ultimately I'd like to grow enough in our (planned) <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/perennial-plants-and-tress-food-forest.html" target="_blank">food forest</a> to let the chickens eat mainly greens and insects, with minimal grain, but that is a LONG term plan!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCy8Rry9_9LkNzYcDcS52E4K_eCpxNbco4KsPei3YI-_HOavDxPnqQjsz3Z7uN2c24uOtMOZfukToYGY0l4AcPa51AJUs16sN9TVy98WLHdsD2Cx8ToyCYy6suCOdKbLYVdYrgzpeAqrhW/s1600/P7141973.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img alt="chicken tractor ebook: popular chicken posts on eight acres" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCy8Rry9_9LkNzYcDcS52E4K_eCpxNbco4KsPei3YI-_HOavDxPnqQjsz3Z7uN2c24uOtMOZfukToYGY0l4AcPa51AJUs16sN9TVy98WLHdsD2Cx8ToyCYy6suCOdKbLYVdYrgzpeAqrhW/s400/P7141973.JPG" title="chicken tractor ebook: popular chicken posts on eight acres" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">hens enjoying meal worms</td></tr>
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<b>Butchering and cooking chickens</b><br />
If you do end up with unwanted roosters, or you really want to become self-sufficient, butchering chickens is easier that might think and a great option for people living on small properties to grow their own meat.<br />
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I've written about <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/raising-chickens-for-meat.html">Raising chickens for meat</a> and <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/butchering-homegrown-chickens.html">Butchering Homegrown Chickens</a>, more importantly is <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/cooking-old-chooks.html">how to cook old chooks</a> and <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/cooking-chooks.html">roasting young roosters</a>, because butchering is the easy part, and you won't enjoy the process if you don't know what to do with the chicken meat when you're finished!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqdV8fGf7gsY9uOBPj54kiKMdnWm2qYOEaMg0qM9P_8O6Ra4FWgCttlsGvRGQMmPmQTBwQmt9rltXTLMhSP84d9W3x9DkxJYrf-bXHEn1pyNRtW7bONPeUGkRVH_fuogqv_9SVXwRZ_82g/s1600/P1266383.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img alt="chicken tractor ebook: popular chicken posts on eight acres" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqdV8fGf7gsY9uOBPj54kiKMdnWm2qYOEaMg0qM9P_8O6Ra4FWgCttlsGvRGQMmPmQTBwQmt9rltXTLMhSP84d9W3x9DkxJYrf-bXHEn1pyNRtW7bONPeUGkRVH_fuogqv_9SVXwRZ_82g/s400/P1266383.JPG" title="chicken tractor ebook: popular chicken posts on eight acres" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">chicken stock in the slow cooker</td></tr>
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<i>I hope you find this summary useful for address common chicken questions. What else do you need to know about chickens? What have I missed?</i><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook "Design and Use a Chicken Tractor" - see more on my blog http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407205035194020045.post-66276380616933874912015-04-27T07:00:00.000+10:002015-04-27T10:16:30.006+10:00Treating mites and lice on chickensRecently I picked up one of our hens to check her for external parasites and found her to be crawling with them. So many that when I put her down, they were crawling on me too! In the past we have treated our chickens with Maldison when we found the chickens to have external parasites. We only found out that the chickens had parasites that time because a couple of them dropped dead. Since then, we check the chickens more regularly, any time I can catch a hen I will check her for parasites. Usually they are fine, we haven't had any issues for about two years, but now the bugs are back.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz745nNGf5HTVq3EHyyhHeVA7GPuIRkRwQVwecACYySmZHK7lxozJ1W2-2XhD5a76GLpMMIy9m-dwes03EjvePZAyn3Vh3ksSzV8zU6c46CJTXLLW8ykY8-7M4mzyfUPePuZx8AubSwMkJ/s1600/P3297002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="eight acres: treating mites and lice on chickens" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz745nNGf5HTVq3EHyyhHeVA7GPuIRkRwQVwecACYySmZHK7lxozJ1W2-2XhD5a76GLpMMIy9m-dwes03EjvePZAyn3Vh3ksSzV8zU6c46CJTXLLW8ykY8-7M4mzyfUPePuZx8AubSwMkJ/s1600/P3297002.JPG" height="400" title="eight acres: treating mites and lice on chickens" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">poor rooster, all the hens took off into the bushes and left him, <br />
they really don't like being wet</td></tr>
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As our chickens free-range most days, they have plenty of opportunity to have contact with wild birds and the parasites that they carry. They also have opportunity to dust bathe, which helps them to stay bug-free. I think moving the tractors regularly helps too. My theory is that we just got a big slack about cleaning out the nesting boxes and the bugs have managed to get established. This is a good reminder that is important to keep everything clean.<br />
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I didn't want to use Maldison to treat the parasites this time because its one of the chemicals that the <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045%2815%2970134-8/abstract" target="_blank">WHO recently rated as "probably causing cancer"</a> (<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/malathion-probably-carcinogenic-to-humans-who-agency-concludes-1.3004084" target="_blank">also reported here</a>). We have also used Pestene, but the active ingredient rotonone, while technically natural and allowed in organic farming, has <a href="http://www.pan-uk.org/pestnews/Actives/rotenone.htm" target="_blank">also been linked to health problems</a>. Other sites suggest dog or cat flea treatments, I don't even use them on the dogs, so I don't want them on the chickens either (<i>we do use tick collar because we live in a paralysis tick area</i>).<br />
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I wanted to try neem oil because I've found it so effective against other insects lately (more to come about neem oil in future posts, but check out <a href="http://blogspot/" target="_blank">what I wrote about neem oil back here</a>). We made up a 5% solution of neem oil in water with a little detergent, in a large bucket, caught each chicken and dunked them in the liquid. We also cleaned out the nesting boxes and refreshed them with diatomaceous earth and wood shavings (diatomaceous earth is another excellent insect killer, <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/diatomaceous-earth-for-internal-and.html" target="_blank">see more details here</a>).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCAPVG47JDY56l7LxIKj_4WabSAx5aQdzt1dFb76o7fMLim6wauRA92wjqjFAq3tCwJqH12u1OjzJsIvyAu1BCYHVNZBWFwYNhJKsH-U1N9rsA8hnNvAp44sI_16lR_B8rXvUMay3C3Iql/s1600/P3296998.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img alt="eight acres: treating mites and lice on chickens" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCAPVG47JDY56l7LxIKj_4WabSAx5aQdzt1dFb76o7fMLim6wauRA92wjqjFAq3tCwJqH12u1OjzJsIvyAu1BCYHVNZBWFwYNhJKsH-U1N9rsA8hnNvAp44sI_16lR_B8rXvUMay3C3Iql/s1600/P3296998.JPG" height="400" title="eight acres: treating mites and lice on chickens" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">bucket of neem solution for dunking infested chickens</td></tr>
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We checked each chicken before we dunked it in the neem oil solution, just to get an idea of how many were infested, and we did notice that there were two types of bugs. I didn't find out until later that the chickens had <a href="http://www.uq.edu.au/vetschool/external-parasites" target="_blank">both lice and mites</a>. It turns out that this is an important detail. The lice just camp out on the chickens skin and feed on the feather follicles, they lay eggs in the feathers and you will see big balls of eggs around the feathers near the chicken's vent if it has a bad infestation. <br />
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While lice will just irritate the chickens and make them uncomfortable, mites actually suck the chicken's blood and can cause serious problems, even death. I suspect that's what we had the first time when the chickens died, although we only saw lice at the time (I remember those huge balls of eggs!). There are also <a href="http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/mites-chicken-pests-how-to-protect-your-chickens-from-mites" target="_blank">several types of mites</a>, some live on the chickens all the time and some live in the pen and jump on the chickens at night. <br />
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When I checked the chickens again a few days later, I didn't find any lice, so I can report that neem oil definitely works on lice. I did see mites though, but I am hoping that the diatomeceous earth and the longer term effects of the neem oil are going to take care of these mites (you went back and read my <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/neem-oil-for-insect-control-giveaway.html" target="_blank">neem oil post</a> where I explain all that, right?). In the meantime, we are regularly cleaning out the nesting boxes and not giving those mites anywhere to hide. A couple of weeks later, a spot check of the rooster just after dark revealed no mites, so this approach appears to have worked.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZWsHAVN0xpuhvP3s2CeOvlwzUhmzTEodd9NS46Qg8vi-gOXxolPnZKHQa12Bq6yOYGQcMXAxqoCudJ5nMV-xsRBQHTnZzCimwAWixL4_RSMjWy6293TgCN9B9L0dsASdLkO_h8LbVB-y7/s1600/P3297001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img alt="eight acres: treating mites and lice on chickens" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZWsHAVN0xpuhvP3s2CeOvlwzUhmzTEodd9NS46Qg8vi-gOXxolPnZKHQa12Bq6yOYGQcMXAxqoCudJ5nMV-xsRBQHTnZzCimwAWixL4_RSMjWy6293TgCN9B9L0dsASdLkO_h8LbVB-y7/s1600/P3297001.JPG" height="400" title="eight acres: treating mites and lice on chickens" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">cleaning nesting boxes with diatomeceous earth and wood shavings</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<b>Tips for recognising and treating mites and lice in chickens:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Check your chickens regularly (pick them up at random when you can, turn them upside down (gently!) and inspect around their vents for insects)</li>
<li>Keep nest boxes and coops as clean as possible</li>
<li>Provide dust baths for the chickens (that's our whole property in a drought!)</li>
<li>If you find insects, plan to spray individual chickens, or dunk them if you have several to treat, with a solution of 5% neem oil in water</li>
<li>Do it early morning when you know its not going to be too cold or windy, so they have time to dry off before night</li>
<li>Catch each chicken, check it for mites and lice around the vent, then dunk or spray the chicken and try to cover as much skin as possible with the solution</li>
<li>Keep checking them and repeat if necessary</li>
</ul>
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<i>Have you found mites or lice on your chickens? What do you do about it?</i><div class="blogger-post-footer">Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook "Design and Use a Chicken Tractor" - see more on my blog http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407205035194020045.post-80953327141489680462015-03-27T07:00:00.000+10:002015-03-27T07:00:04.425+10:00Raising chicks in a chicken tractorThe chicks have grown enough to move out into a chicken tractor. Here's some thoughts from the books about feeding the chicks and their first few nights in the chicken tractor:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYQos1mL2-mWiR6PsWcPUY4JRMrYCeK-jXqhKSAAq6VSjIRb7tUH-yqywAiMHjopc7XePEM_3IYZK4PGoNx3ofkViAWtOmY_D3gscQnfX8cLgRqroIgI9pxe5GO-Xd1cGpl6HvdlOBXUG6/s1600/P1266379.JPG"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYQos1mL2-mWiR6PsWcPUY4JRMrYCeK-jXqhKSAAq6VSjIRb7tUH-yqywAiMHjopc7XePEM_3IYZK4PGoNx3ofkViAWtOmY_D3gscQnfX8cLgRqroIgI9pxe5GO-Xd1cGpl6HvdlOBXUG6/s1600/P1266379.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /><b>Feeding chicks</b><br /><div>
There are a few options for feeding the chicks. You can just buy a commercial chick starter crumble, which is formulated for chicks, and usually contains a coccidiostat (an antibiotic to prevent the chicks getting sick from coccidiosis). This is more relevant for large-scale production of chicks and probably unnecessary if you’re only raising a few chicks. A good alternative, if you can find it, is an organic chick crumble which contains all the same protein and minerals as the commercial crumble, without the medication. <br /><br />Now you may want to take things even further and make the chick feed yourself. We have experimented with a few options and found that we can use hammer-milled grain (that we also feed to our adult chickens) supplemented with extra protein and minerals. The extra protein can be in the form of meal worms, compost worms, meat meal mix (available from our local produce store) and hardboiled eggs. It sounds weird to feed eggs to chickens, but the egg was the chick’s first food as it developed, and as long as its crushed they won’t associate a raw egg with food in the future. This is the easiest and cheapest supplement if you already have some laying hens. For the minerals we buy a commercial organic mineral mix and a seaweed meal.<br /><br />You can also start feeding the chicks leafy greens and grass, they might not eat much at first, but it gives them something different to peck at in their box. When the chicks are a few weeks old, we also start putting them outside in a small birdcage for a few hours to that they can experience being on the grass, then its not such a shock for them when they move into a chicken tractor.<br /><br />I’m not sure if this really necessary, but we usually “teach” the chicks to eat their food by tapping a finger in the food dish. This results in lots of chicks running over to your hand to see what you’re doing and a few will then try eating the food. After that, they are usually pretty quick to work out where the food is.</div>
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<br /><br /><b>Moving chicks into a chicken tractor</b><br />The transition from the chicks<a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/caring-for-young-chicks-update.html" target="_blank"> living in the brooder box</a> to moving into chicken tractors can be difficult to time, as it depends on your outside overnight temperatures. Ideally we hatch the chicks in spring or summer, so that they can move out after only 6 weeks, before they have all their feathers, because it is usually plenty warm enough by then. Otherwise they have to stay in their brooder box longer and once they reach that noisy messy stage I can't wait for them to move out!<br /><br />Even though it is warm enough, we find that when we put chicks out in the tractor for the first few nights they need to 'tucked in' at dusk because they are so used to living in a box and not having open sides, its quite scary for them. This means draping tarps, old sheets, towels and blankets over the tractor so that they feel like they're still in a solid box. Otherwise they spend the night trying to stick their little heads out of the mesh and sometimes they manage to squeeze out. We only have to do this for about a week until they get used to it. This also helps to keep the dew off their grass and keep out any draughts, while they acclimatise to not having the heat lamp above them at night.<br /><br /></div>
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Ever wondered about keeping your chickens in a chicken tractor? That’s just a fancy name for a chicken pen on wheels. Your chickens get access to fresh grass and bugs, and you get peace of mind that they are safe from predators and you never have to clean out a chicken run again! With a bit of thought, you can design a chicken tractor to work in nearly any situation. This ebook explains how chicken tractors are used by the author, and others, and then lists all the design considerations so that you can build one yourself to suit your climate, terrain and personal chicken keeping goals. As a bonus, the final section of the ebook contains firsthand experience with a number of chicken keeping challenges, from egg-eating hens to trimming a rooster’s spurs, and finally how to butcher a chicken. If you’ve thought about using a chicken tractor, but didn’t know where to start, this ebook will give you enough information to<br />understand how to design and use a chicken tractor yourself.<br /><br /><br /><b>1. Introduction</b><br />1.1. About us <br />1.2. About this book <br />1.3. Conversion of units <br />1.4. Chicken tractor terminology <br /><br /><b>2. Chicken tractor basics </b><br />2.1. What is a chicken tractor? <br />2.2. Advantages<br />2.3. Disadvantages<br /><br /><b>3. Examples of chicken tractors</b><br />3.1. How do we use chicken tractors<br />3.2. Joel Salatin – Pastured Poultry Profits<br />3.3. Linda Woodrow – Permaculture Home Garden<br />3.4. Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil<br />3.5. Toby Hemenway. - Gaia’s Garden<br /><br /><b>4. Design and construction considerations</b><br />4.1. Construction materials<br />4.2. Mobility and weight<br />4.3. Climate<br />4.4. Size<br />4.5. Layers or meat chickens<br />4.6. Predators and pests<br />4.1. Mesh size<br />4.2. Provision of food and water in the tractor<br />4.1. Putting it all together<br /><br /><b>5. How to use a chicken tractor</b><br />5.1. How to accustom chickens to a chicken tractor<br />5.2. When and how to move the tractor<br />5.3. How to combine chickens and gardens<br /><br /><b>6. General Chicken Tips</b><br />6.1. Using an incubator<br />6.2. Using (and making) a broody box<br />6.3. Ideas for feeding chickens<br />6.4. Egg eating hens<br />6.5. Dealing with clucky hens<br />6.6. How to catch a rooster<br />6.7. Trimming a rooster’s spurs<br />6.8. Keeping multiple roosters (peacefully)<br />6.9. Butchering chickens<br /><br /><b>7. References</b><br /><br />Appendix A: Photos of our chicken tractors</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Appendix B: Useful chicken tractor websites</blockquote>
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<i>What do you think? Did I miss anything? What else do you want to know about chicken tractors?</i><div class="blogger-post-footer">Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook "Design and Use a Chicken Tractor" - see more on my blog http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407205035194020045.post-49773914943785455682015-01-23T07:00:00.000+10:002015-01-23T07:00:02.558+10:00Incubating chicken eggs and brooding chicksWe just hatched 24 chicks in our incubator! They are so cute when they first hatch. <br />
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Here's some photos of our latest hatch and a few posts explaining how and why we hatch chicks:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/incubating-chicken-eggs.html" target="_blank">Incubating chicken eggs</a> - there are lots of factors that affect hatch rate, here's how to get the best results from your incubator</li>
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/caring-for-young-chicks-update.html" target="_blank">Caring for baby chicks</a> - how to set up a brooder box, feed and water for your chicks</li>
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<li><a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/raising-chickens-for-meat.html" target="_blank">Raising chickens for meat and eggs</a> - which breeds we use and why</li>
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<li><a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/why-do-we-have-so-many-chickens.html" target="_blank">Why do we have so many chickens?</a> - explaining how we pay for our chicken habit by selling eggs</li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taz demonstrates the dog-proof brooder box</td></tr>
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<i>Have you hatched or raised chicks? Any tips to share?</i><br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook "Design and Use a Chicken Tractor" - see more on my blog http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407205035194020045.post-63098462335505349102015-01-14T20:56:00.000+10:002015-01-14T20:56:07.909+10:00Chicken tractor ebook - coming soonWe have been keeping chickens in homemade chicken tractors for nearly ten years. I have written a few blog posts about chicken tractors, and they are some of my most popular blog posts, so it is clearly a topic that many people want to know more about. I am currently writing an eBook to explain more about how you can design, construct and use a chicken tractor to suit your needs. <div>
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I haven't included any particular designs because I don’t believe that there is a one-size-fits-all solution. The best chicken tractor for your needs is going to depend on your property, your climate and the type and number of chickens that you want to keep. I hope that I will cover most of the aspects that you need to consider so that you can design, construct and use a chicken tractor that is most suited to your individual requirements.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGo32_ngzHkN0CqBvyCqx1G8rFeJl2ych949n_wXugnreFnOf9x3hLCgieQttaNlyPLcWLfFcqeZpm5XUwTCGfKK4Wd-Zr798aNzyUfDLDYvJgKaWhgXLwamhIAYrdY-J3nD9NMzREYwNe/s1600/Design+and+Use+a+Chicken+Tractor+-+cover+page+-+coming+soon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGo32_ngzHkN0CqBvyCqx1G8rFeJl2ych949n_wXugnreFnOf9x3hLCgieQttaNlyPLcWLfFcqeZpm5XUwTCGfKK4Wd-Zr798aNzyUfDLDYvJgKaWhgXLwamhIAYrdY-J3nD9NMzREYwNe/s1600/Design+and+Use+a+Chicken+Tractor+-+cover+page+-+coming+soon.jpg" height="640" width="441" /></a></div>
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<br /><br />I don't know why my chicken tractor posts have been so popular! I'm sure plenty of others have written about them too. When I realised that the first post had a lot of page views, I wrote some more posts to explain the concept in more detail, I was also asked to do a guest post on chicken tractors, which helped me to answer even more questions about chicken tractors. And one more post with <a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/another-chicken-tractor.html">step by step instructions</a> showing how we build a chicken tractor. We are really happy with the chicken tractors we made, we now have four big ones and two small ones. The best part is that we never have to clean out a chicken pen, we just move the tractor to fresh ground and we have seen a huge improvement in the pasture that the tractors have moved over. We let the chickens free-range from the tractors, but if we need to keep them locked up for some reason, we can just move them more frequently. The tractors are predator proof, and if we notice any evidence of digging around them, we just move them over (we don't have anything that can dig under in a night).</div>
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<b>Catch up on my chicken tractor posts here:</b><br /><br /><a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com/2011/03/mobile-chickens-vs-fixed-pen.html">Mobile chicken tractors vs fixed pen</a> Mar 14, 2011<br /><br /><a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-to-build-chicken-tractor.html">How to build a chicken tractor</a> May 14, 2012<br /><br /><a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-to-use-chicken-tractor.html">How to use a chicken tractor</a> May 7, 2012<br /><br /><a href="http://eight-acres.blogspot.com/2013/05/chicken-tractor-guest-post.html">Chicken tractor guest post</a> May 29, 2013<div>
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And check back soon to buy your copy of the full ebook!</div>
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<i>Tell me, do you use chicken tractors too? What do you want to know about them?</i></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Find out more about chicken tractors in my eBook "Design and Use a Chicken Tractor" - see more on my blog http://chickentractorebook.blogspot.com.au/</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0