So, these dudes & gals are part of a big plan. If you just wandering into this space these chicks are Jersey Giants. Yes, I called them chicks because they are only 13 and 14 weeks old. What we have are pullets and cockerels. Four cockerels to be exact - we are observing the boys in the the group and making mental notes for now. Once they are old enough, and filled out enough more, 3 of the cockerels are going to be "processed." There is no good reason to have more than one rooster. If there is I probably will still keep the "best" one. Besides I only thought of one rooster name - Thor. One of these dudes may be Thor, it's hard to tell at this point.
Anyway, back to the original thought...
Chickens can have more than one purpose with the most obvious purpose being egg layers. However, who knew that chickens could be for different purposes? I certainly didn't...chickens can be:
- egg layers
- grown for meat
- good at being broody
- ornamental (?)
- for show (?)
Our little ladies and little roos are first going to be egg producers. Well, not the cockerels and especially the 3 that are destined for the freezer. And there is the second purpose...when the ladies are no longer laying as often we'll have to rotate a new bunch of layers to replace the ones that will turn into stewing chickens. So yeah...FOOD.
While those are the two main reasons why we have chickens there is another reason to add to the list of things that they can do - prepare a garden!
Oh yeah baby! Living rototillers!! If you have ever seen Justin Rhodes - Abundant Permaculture. He is the "Apron Wearing Permaculture Chicken Ninja Master" and swears by having the chickens do the work. We are just now starting to let the chickens into the areas that we mean to use for growing veggies. They have been happily scratching up a storm in the area that they are now occupying. The weeds have been picked at and they are kicking around all sorts of stuff! Just this past Sunday the little ladies and the dudes figured out that the garden box filled with old clover from last fall is a fun spot to root around. We'll keep them in here for a time, let them do the initial clean up and then we'll get the bed ready for the fall garden. I know that the ground will still be hard, but with all the poo that they are leaving behind the prospect of the soil being more fertile is what I'm looking for.
OH, one more to add to the list - garbage disposal. Until the chickies arrived we used to dump all of the kitchen scraps into the compost bin. However, when the chickies started staying outside full time I started to dump buckets of compost from the pile into their paddock to get them used to what to expect. So why not feed most of the kitchen scraps (including meat scraps) to the chickens? They eat most things and the things they don't like will continue to be scratched while they are out foraging which help the composting speed along. We have been able to give the chickens more of the old veggies (i.e. forgotten items). Which will help cut down on the amount of
The chickens are more than food providers (eggs & meat)...I never knew how valuable they really are! Here's to many more years of chickens on our farmstead!
While those are the two main reasons why we have chickens there is another reason to add to the list of things that they can do - prepare a garden!
Oh yeah baby! Living rototillers!! If you have ever seen Justin Rhodes - Abundant Permaculture. He is the "Apron Wearing Permaculture Chicken Ninja Master" and swears by having the chickens do the work. We are just now starting to let the chickens into the areas that we mean to use for growing veggies. They have been happily scratching up a storm in the area that they are now occupying. The weeds have been picked at and they are kicking around all sorts of stuff! Just this past Sunday the little ladies and the dudes figured out that the garden box filled with old clover from last fall is a fun spot to root around. We'll keep them in here for a time, let them do the initial clean up and then we'll get the bed ready for the fall garden. I know that the ground will still be hard, but with all the poo that they are leaving behind the prospect of the soil being more fertile is what I'm looking for.
OH, one more to add to the list - garbage disposal. Until the chickies arrived we used to dump all of the kitchen scraps into the compost bin. However, when the chickies started staying outside full time I started to dump buckets of compost from the pile into their paddock to get them used to what to expect. So why not feed most of the kitchen scraps (including meat scraps) to the chickens? They eat most things and the things they don't like will continue to be scratched while they are out foraging which help the composting speed along. We have been able to give the chickens more of the old veggies (i.e. forgotten items). Which will help cut down on the amount of
The chickens are more than food providers (eggs & meat)...I never knew how valuable they really are! Here's to many more years of chickens on our farmstead!
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