Free Range or Prairie or Coop Raised Poultry

When doing some research I stumbled across an article on Mother Earth News that reminded me I should probably do an introductory post about how you decide to raise your chickens. There is much discussion about raising chickens in a coop or letting them graze on your property (a.k.a. free range or prairie grazing).

From what I've been able to gather some people feel that having them in the coop with some supplemental time in a chicken tractor is comparable to free ranging. Personally that wasn't our approach and we don't live in an area where we've had a problem with unrestrained dogs or predators so I can't speak too much to it however the longer we have chickens the more I realize I wouldn't just keep them in a coop alone. At minimum we would add some time in a chicken tractor with the remainder of their time in the coop. One of the positives I see with this approach is it would force the chickens to eat what is in front of them as opposed to wandering around and picking off their favorites eats.

We decided however that we would allow our chickens to wander around our property with a few restrictions and forage for themselves. The never seem to wander too far from the coop (less than 100 feet) and the amount of feed they eat is significantly less then when we had them in the coop during their first couple of weeks with us (remember that the first batch we bought when they were ~4 months old). Aside from the cost benefit I believe the chickens will find the food that offsets whatever deficiencies they have in their diet. Although we're using a higher quality feed now than the stuff from the feed store I believe that poultry has been fending for itself for thousands of years successfully so it seemed counterproductive to restrict them requiring more money to be spent in the restricted process.

Before providing a few links related to free ranging and pasture poultry be sure to take a few minutes and read the article (linked above) titled Free Range Chickens from Mother Earth News.
The American Pastured Poultry Producers Association
Free-Range Chickens on my Small Farm
The Free-Range System in a Nutshell

One last note, if you are going to raise chickens for profit make sure you find a niche and service it well...don't attempt to compete with the grocery stores and just market your chickens as chickens and/or eggs as eggs. Focus on antibiotic free, organic, etc. but make sure you understand what those terms mean and the legal ramifications of selling the birds.

Rural Farm Land For Sale - The Twilight Zone

As we continue our search for land we've come across a few truths related to advertisements for rural property, so when you see the following: Rural Property For Sale, Land For Sale, Land For Sale By Owner, Farm Land, Raw Land, etc. keep in mind you might be stepping into.....The Twilight Zone.

There seems to be a general impression that if you don't disclose certain things in the MLS listing that once people get to the property they'll fall in love. Here is just a sampling of the pain we've experienced so far.

AD:
17 Acres
Heavy Woods
Great Location, blah, blah
REAL DEAL:
It is within a quarter of a mile of an oil processing plant and you spend 20 minute gagging through oil smell which dissipates right before you get to the property as well as the HUGE power lines running right through the middle of the property, seemed cheap until we saw it, then it seemed overpriced.

AD:
10 Acres
Heavy Woods
Realtor Note: Huge oak and elm trees on 10 acre tract.Very secluded,small spring fed creek through property.
REAL DEAL:
The reason it is secluded is because it is in the middle of people who don't have a cleaning bone in their body, 57 broken down cars, piles of trash (literally household garbage), etc. The creek that runs through it is probably someone's ruptured septic ;)

I could go on and on but these are just a few randomly picked tidbits for your reading pleasure. Originally I was going to call this Rural Farm Land For Sale - The Big Lie but I decided to make it a little more interesting. We all know that agents embellish sometimes but some of these properties are not even close to how they're described.

Free Range (a.k.a. Pasture Raised) Eggs vs Store Bought

To do a brain dump of everything we've been learning about raising our own animals and the health benefits of the food that we generate would fill the disk on this server. Here is just another example of the information that we're coming across that supports our decision to raise our own animals. We got our first batch of chickens and should start getting eggs in the next few months...we can't wait. We're opening up the coop during the day now and they're starting to get used to coming out, eating and scratching and returning to the coop.

Eggs from free-range hens contain up to 30 percent more vitamin E, 50 percent more folic acid and 30 percent more vitamin B-12 than factory eggs. And the bright orange color of the yolk shows higher levels of antioxidant carotenes. (Many factory-farm eggs are so pale that producers feed the hens expensive marigold flowers to make the yolks brighter in color.)
Source: Agribusiness and the Decline of Nutritious Food

If the nutritional differences aren't enough to sway you then go ahead and look at the picture of an 'egg farm' above and see how much that stirs your appetite.

Chicken Feed

When we first bought our chickens we were told the previous owner had been raising them on crumbles. We didn't go too much into details so I'm not sure which brand they used but we ended up stopping by the local feed store and picking up Purina Mills® Flock Raiser® which seemed to work fine. We know our long term goal was to have most of their feed provided by nature so it was just a matter of time before they were let out during the day and in the coop at night to protect them from area predators.

As discussed before we were taking some our chickens to a processor in our area. After a quick visit with the owner of the ranch we found out they have all of their feed custom manufactured for them based on a mix designed by a poultry nutritionist. It had some of the things we had researched that were good for them (oyster shells, kelp, etc.) as well as being extremely fresh. They use so much feed per month (they have quite a few chickens and processing for others was just a thing they fell into) that there stuff is never stale. The 3 bags of stuff we bought were less than two weeks from the place that manufactures their feed and you could tell a difference. The baby pullets and older chickens ate the stuff like it was chicken candy. They have a mix for chickens that are laying which we'll probably need to upgrade to in the next month or so however now that our older chickens are pasture grazing they aren't eating too much feed anyhow.

If you're looking at raising chickens for profit I can't provide any expertise as we're doing it primarily for ourselves however the reading I've done the cost of feed is a huge issue with making a profit. Click on over to the Homesteading Today Forum and look at the Poultry subforum, there are some sharp people there who have a good grasp on what to do to keep costs down and birds healthy. A few of the people I've talked to track their costs pretty closely so you can get an idea of the costs and profits involved in raising your own flock.

Where There Is No Doctor

One of the things to keep in mind in a rural setting and personally I don't think is anything to be in fear of is access to health care. Our family has been re-evaluating health care and our health/wellness approach in general but I thought I'd offer up a great book called Where There Is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook.

The book discussed previously will lay out some of the general thinking related to health care around a property however this book discusses application. We've only needed to use the book a couple of times so far for a few non-critical needs but the information in the book is concise and something you will refer back to again and again for issues related to your health and wellness

Chapters:
Chapter 1 - Home Cures and Popular Beliefs
Chapter 2 - Sicknesses That Are Often Confused
Chapter 3 - How To Examine A Sick Person
Chapter 4 - How To Take Care Of A Sick Person
Chapter 5 - Healing Without Medicines
Chapter 6 - Right And Wrong Use Of Modern Medicines
Chapter 7 - Antibiotics: What They Are And How To Use Them
Chapter 8 - How To Measure And Give Medicine
Chapter 9 - Instructions And Precautions For Injections
Chapter 10 - First Aid
Chapter 11 - Nutrition: What To Eat To Be Healthy
Chapter 12 - Prevention: How To Avoid Many Sicknesses
Chapter 13 - Some Very Common Sicknesses
Chapter 14 - Serious Illnesses That Need Special Medical Attention
Chapter 15 - Skin Problems
Chapter 16 - The Eyes
Chapter 17 - The Teeth, Gums, And Mouth
Chapter 18 - The Urinary System And The Genitals
Chapter 19 - Information For Mothers And Midwives
Chapter 20 - Family Planning - Having The Number Of Children You Want
Chapter 21 - Health And Sickness Of Children
Chapter 22 - Health And Sickness Of Older People
Chapter 23 - The Medicine Kit