I have placed all of my flowers and plants into the warmth and safety of the greenhouse.
The flower beds and gardens have all died down and gone to sleep for the season.
Now is the time that all of the chickens can be let out to roam the grounds freely during the day.
They can go as far as they like to explore and scratch.
I just love to see chickens roaming the grounds!
Yet they seem to stay close to the back yard and the chicken yard ,and always back into the roost by sundown.
I think they are very happy chickens............egg production is back up again.
For those of you who raise chickens.............
do you let them out to roam the grounds during the day?
or do you find them very destructive..........as they can be..........
and let them stay penned?
I would love to hear!
14 comments:
I'm slightly pea-green with envy over your abundance of fresh eggs. (just kidding) Ours just stopped laying a few weeks ago so they won't start again until the end of January or first part of February. Our girls are in a large lot when we are growing tomatoes, but for now and until we set out our vegetable garden in early May they are roaming free in the garden area. They sometimes poke around my flowers and scratch most of the weeds out. Very handy! I have learned to fence off areas where I start new flower beds though. Their scratching is too rough on young plants and also ground covers. Ask me how I know!
Lovely photos ! When I was a kid on our hobby farm we let our chickens roam and they knew when it was time to go to bed in the coop they always went just after sundown ! I remember collecting the eggs with my mum oh those were the days ! Have a good day !
My answer will be stupid I guess. We have around 66,000, two-week old chickens so of course they're inside. I would love to have some hens roaming the hillside but we aren't allowed to have other poultry on our farm because of disease concerns.
I do remember chickens in the yard when I was a little girl; Mama couldn't have flowers because of them.
I guess I should explain to your readers that we are contract poultry growers for Tyson, Inc.
We let them out, but in a covered pen. It gave them enough room to keep them amused, and out of the garden. I saw how much they liked fresh lettuce etc.
I love this background too. You have been busy. The chickens look so darling in the sunshine roaming about.
Now that the cold spell has hit, my flowers are trying to sleep too.
Have a great weekend and stay warm.
Hugs, Celestina Marie
I do try to keep ours in a lot, Kathleen, because you are right - they are very destructive! But I usually give in and let them out anyway. Hence the reason we have no grass in our back yard. LOL
Love the pics of your chickens.I have a huge lot for my bantams and call ducks,sometimes we will let them out but usually they stay up.In the warm weather I will cut grass for them.My standard chickens did have the run of the place but became quite destructive with their scratching so they now have a home at the barn,hoping to have their lot fenced by Spring.It also became dangerous to leave them loose because of hawks and a fox.I lost several of my favorite hens to a fox.Hugs,Jen
Hi Kathleen - love your post on chickens (I'm still excited about having chickens...) When I'm home, my hens are out roaming. All but two were the same age, so they started molting about 6 weeks ago. A couple of them didn't do too bad and are starting to lay a little bit. Two were younger so they still look good and fluffy. I'm only getting 2-3 eggs a day right now. I expect they'll continue to slack off with the coming winter.
As for my yard,,,,, yes, they are tearing up everything. I'm thinking of fencing off part of our land up close to the house next spring so I can have my flowers again. My husband is fussing about poop on the front porch. Me, too!
Have a great weekend!
It's funny you mentioned this, Kathleen... I've been letting my girls out more during the day to get as much sunshine as they can and their egg production has picked back up.
And I call my Rhode Island Red girls the "Four Hens of the Apocalypse" because I never know what they will destroy next! *haha*
yep....I let mine roam the yard and since we don't have the rooster anymore, they stick pretty close to the run and hen house or under the bushes and deck for right now and they have started laying again. A hawk went after them not too long ago close to dusk. Two of them made it back into the run but the other was hiding behind an old wooden coop I have up next to the run. That ol' hawk couldn't get to her but feathers were flying everywhere. Luckily my husband went out at about that time to close up the henhouse for the night and chased the hawk away. I didn't let them out for a week and everyday they paced and paced the run, wanting out to roam. For three years we never had a problem with predators and now it's happened twice in a couple of months. I just love my girls!
yep....I let mine roam the yard and since we don't have the rooster anymore, they stick pretty close to the run and hen house or under the bushes and deck for right now and they have started laying again. A hawk went after them not too long ago close to dusk. Two of them made it back into the run but the other was hiding behind an old wooden coop I have up next to the run. That ol' hawk couldn't get to her but feathers were flying everywhere. Luckily my husband went out at about that time to close up the henhouse for the night and chased the hawk away. I didn't let them out for a week and everyday they paced and paced the run, wanting out to roam. For three years we never had a problem with predators and now it's happened twice in a couple of months. I just love my girls!
Oh I would so love to have fresh eggs! I would say let them wander in the day if you can easily get them back to roost at dusk.
No chickens here, Kathleen, and while we don't plan to raise any those fresh eggs are hard to beat. We used to buy them from a friend when we lived in NJ...sure miss that.
I've never raised chickens, but I'm grateful for those who do because I like eggs. Nice photos, Kathleen! :-)
Post a Comment