A bird's eye view

We have a number of chickens that roam free on our pasture, scratching around for bugs, worms, seeds, or other snacks that they might find to eat.  They have about 3 acres to forage on and in the process they fertilize the pasture with chicken litter, ensuring the growth of green grass this Spring.  I have nesting boxes in the chicken tractor that is out on the pasture as well as in the barn and the hens provide us fresh eggs all year long. 



Part of our flock

We started keeping detail records of egg production this past December just so we could keep tabs on how many eggs the hens were giving us.  Here is the accounting of egg production:

• December 2012: 346 or 28.83 dozen
• January 2013:     394 or 32.83 dozen
• February 2013:   407 or 33.92 dozen

Looking for something to eat

We've seen several things over the years of keeping chickens.  First, their egg production varies with the seasons, meaning they produce more in the Spring and Summer and less in the Fall and Winter.  This is due to a couple factors - light and quality of food.  Shorter days (less daylight) means fewer eggs.  We don't feed them laying pellets and only give them rice to supplement the forage that they can find on the pasture.  As a result, during Fall and Winter, when quality food on the pasture is not as readily available, they're going to give us fewer eggs.  We've also noticed that chickens are a nervous bunch.  Events like dogs in the pasture, hawks or owls swooping down, or neighbor kids chasing the birds, or other stress-inducing incidents, will result in fewer eggs produced the following day. 



Chickens and Maggie keeping a watchful eye in the background

We have mostly Barred Rock chickens, followed by Aracaunas, followed by Rhode Island Reds.  They provide us with brown, green and blue eggs.  We have an adequate number of roosters to ensure that the eggs are all fertilized.  We'll likely incubate some to replenish the flock this Spring in our little incubator.



Big Red - the cock of the walk

And speaking of roosters, here is the Barred Rock rooster that oversees his flock in the barn.



The boss of the barn

Tricia always says that anyone with low self esteem should get some chickens.  Chickens will follow you anywhere and make you feel important!