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.
If you're wondering what breed of chickens you should get, I've developed a fun flow chart to help you decide. Pop over to my chicken tractor ebook blog to take a look. What type of chickens do you keep?
If you're wondering what breed of chickens you should get, I've developed a fun flow chart to help you decide. Pop over to my chicken tractor ebook blog to take a look. What type of chickens do you keep?
By the way, my chicken eBook is now available if you want to know more about backyard chickens and using chicken tractors. More information over at the chicken tractor ebook blog. Or you can get it directly from my shop on Etsy (.pdf format), or Amazon Kindle
or just send me an email eight.acres.liz {at} gmail.com.
or just send me an email eight.acres.liz {at} gmail.com.
What's the eBook about?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Reviews of the Design and Use a Chicken Tractor
A handsome rooster you have there. He looks similar to ours, which is an ISA Brown, crossed with a Leghorn. Though ours is still young at just under 20 weeks of age, so hasn't filled out properly.
ReplyDeleteI agree about Heritage breeds being bred for the showroom, instead of the reality of a poultry life. Thankfully, the majority of breeders I came in contact with, had good breeding lines. They were genuinely interested in the breed, and wanted to see them continued. I came across one breeder however, whose interest, was exclusively in winning shows. Or at least that seemed to be the reason they relied completely on Artificial Insemination, and locking their show stock up in small cages, for life - in case they may injure themselves.
The other breeders I mentioned earlier however, used a chicken tractor system. That's how they could legitimise the paternity, and still allow their chickens to function like chickens. Their stock was supremely better, probably because the chickens were also being fed a lot of greens daily, by having the tractors moved around.
For lay people, with limited time and financial resources, however, breeding a bitza mix, keeps the interests of chicken's overall health, as priority. That's how everyone in my mother's and grandmother's generation did it. Before shops and factory farming, they had to do almost everything for themselves. Fussing over which rooster could have it's way with the hens, simply didn't enter the equation. ;)
We have Isa browns but this lot are so much more flighty than the Isa's I have had in the past....weird. Previous Isa brown's we have had were very curious and pretty calm.....but this lot run and flap around like mad things.
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