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  • From: fargir@aol.com
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Questions about poultry housing
  • Date: Wed, 26 May 2010 18:35:16 -0400


*Has anyone tried omitting housing entirely, allowing the flock to roost 



in trees?



    My brother  did.  Worked fairly well as a KISS application to chicken raising. My brother, he was around 35 , unmarried and helping out on the family  farm.  He ordered a  about 50 mixed  run, exotic chicks .  Raised them in a old chicken house and let them out to free range on the farmstead, when old enough.  This did not work well for egg production as no one wanted to hunt down the eggs.although enough hens decided that the nesting boxes were the best place to lay that the family got enough eggs to eat.   The flock mainly provided an occasional chicken dinner, when Mom felt ambitious and would ask John  to shoot one..
     Because of being exotic, most of the flock could fly at lest 10-20 ft up into the evergreens in the windbreak to sleep. These were mainly the extra roosters, that had been driven out of the flock area.  They did very well that spring and early summer.  However my brother started getting home around 4am from town, after the crops and so forth were all put in and the field work was done for about a month or two.  No problem, except, that the roosters started to crow about 4:30AM, just enough time for John to drop into bed and just start dropping into a deep sleep.  Did I mention, that the windbreak was just outside his window? 
    Mom told me later, that being a light sleeper  (nurse, 5 kids, night shift husband and farm livestock encouraged that behavior  a lot!) , she woke up when he drove up past my parent's window.  Next thing she heard was him getting up and going out the kitchen door. Then a shot from a .22.  The kitchen door opening and closing .  Mom asked," John, what going on?"  He said "just shot a rooster" and when to bed.    She  went out the door and got the rooster , bleed it out, 
put it in the frig, and went back to bed. The roosters were NOT crowing.  After a few nights of this, she stopped   getting up and just waited till after breakfast to get the rooster.  After a week or two or three , of this, there was no more roosters crowing at 4:30 am. There were roosters left, just none that crowed then. By the way, Mom said they were all head shots.
   Everything was fine until the Iowa winter came.  The ones that roosted in the coop did fine.  The tree sleepers were found dead. ether frozen to the tree or laying stiff on the ground.  They were too wild, to catch and bring in.  Remember., I said that Mom told John, to go SHOT a chicken for dinner.
    Having no  housing, work out for my brother, very little work and feed, got him eggs and a occasional chicken dinner.  Plus , what he really wanted all along. Watching all the different types and colors of the exotic chickens, running around all summer.  Not a money maker, but he was happy with a no  housing chicken raising plan.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         



-----Original Message-----
From: Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us>
To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Mon, May 24, 2010 2:28 pm
Subject: [Livingontheland] Questions about poultry housing

Hi All,







I am working on the chapter on poultry housing for my book. If you would



care to share information on the following topics, I'd be much obliged.



If not, sorry for the interruption.







*Has anyone tried omitting housing entirely, allowing the flock to roost



in trees?







*Any unusual or especially creative housing designs/materials to share?



-Has anyone used the "double decker" approach, with the roosting



quarters upstairs over a wire run at ground level?



-Does anyone use mobile shelters for the flock year round?







*Approaches you've tried for really cheap housing, whether based on



recycle (junked RV's converted to housing) or native materials (adobe,



cordwood, wattle and daub, straw bales).







*Is anyone using fully open-front housing of the sort recommended in the



book Robert Plamondon's Norton Creek Press reprinted (FRESH-AIR POULTRY



HOUSES)?



http://www.nortoncreekpress.com/fresh_air_poultry_houses.html



Especially those in really cold areas: Have you found that the birds do



even better in an open-front house--more healthy and productive in



winter? no frostbitten combs and wattles?







If you have pictures to share, that would be great. You can reply



privately to me at



harvey@themodernhomestead.us



or to the list if you think others would benefit from your ideas.







Many thanks.







~Harvey







--



Harvey in northern Va



www.themodernhomestead.us







My book, THE MODERN HOMESTEAD POULTRY FLOCK, will be published next year by



Chelsea Green Publishing.











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