permaculture

[<permed@nor.com.au>]

 7/8/20 6:23 AM    Marsha Hanzi, hanzibra@svn.com.br   wrote:
>
>  I have observed, however, that in many of the existing systems I have 
>seen, the chickens tend  to hang around the hen house, digging holes in 
>the soil, than to use the whole area.  I remember that my free-ranging 
>chickens had a definite territory, and wonder if this is the case.

Not only chickens but you'll find a similar pattern with most animals - 
in one respect its
just the principal of zonation at work: proximity invites good management 
and the further you get away from the service node (house/shelter, water 
etc) the less attended it becomes. You can encourage animals into areas 
by placing water and food there.

  The 
>other possibility  is that in the existing systems,  low grass has been 
>planted, and the chickens seem loath to venture into it ( as it is higher 
>than they are), preferring to eat it away at the edges. Fear of predators 
>hidden in the grass? 

Mmmmm... edge effect... and it's not easy being a chicken trying to eat 
tall grasses - try cutting/mowing a few pathways through - I think you'll 
find they love the fresh leaf shoots after mowing and it'll give them 
'more edge' to chip away at. Also chickens are very afraid of flying 
predators (hawks, eagles, falcons) and like some canopy to hide under - 
they are forest foragers after all. My chooks prefer to hang out in their 
forage forest area where they can get away from each other when the 
pecking order's too much and I think they just feel very safe and 'at 
home' in that environment - they use the full area and I encourage that 
by throwing in weeds to different areas.

Robyn