Let me be honest and say that this experiment, thus far, has been far from simple, cheap, or successful. We have had failures left and right. We've lost several birds, including half of our meat flock, to predators. While they were still brooding at a friend's house, a cat broke in to the coop and killed several chicks. After they'd feathered out and we were able to take them home, some other predator, most likely a raccoon, ripped the fence apart and carried away at least 20 birds into the hills. Most of them, we have never found. Several died the next day. A few needed help to die.
That was not a good day. I thought I would be able to keep it together -- after all, these are prey animals and we are literally surrounded on all sides, including the sky and under the earth, by predators -- but then I saw one poor mangled bird whose organs had herniated out of his chest wall, and I lost it. I told Jeremy that I never wanted to do this again, I just want to eat these birds or give them away and then focus on our layers, this is too much, I hate it!
After the shock wore off, I expected to feel differently... but I don't.
This whole project has been more complicated, and more expensive, than I expected. After the initial investment of the birds, we racked up a bunch of costs in building supplies for the tractors themselves. The electrified fence was especially costly, but essential -- not only because of predators such as coyotes, raccoons, bobcats, mountain lions, skunks, owls, hawks, foxes, and our own beloved Tuna, but because the cattle who share the land here are incredibly destructive and would smash the tractors and plow the garden without losing a step.
We're investing in this project entirely with our own funds, without any grants or loans. The money I'm making is mostly devoted to this project. That's a lot of expectation, a lot of idealism. And so far I'm not too excited about the results. Jeremy seems to feel relieved, like the worst of it is behind us: the electric fence is built (and extended around the coop, so hopefully raccoons won't be a problem again), the remaining birds are healthy and happy, and the tractor process seems to be working. He jokes that we should do 200 birds next time. But I'm not happy about some aspects of this project.
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| Right before the flock was divided in half. |
The first is the issue of feed. Right now our birds are blowing through 50 pounds of grain every five days. I'm not sure how to get around this. Chickens are omnivores; they cannot survive on grass alone, nor would they be happy with the meager insect population. Feed seems essential. This means monocropped grain and soy trucked in from the Midwest. We hoped to choose organic feed to mitigate at least some of the environmental impact, but we didn't anticipate how much the birds would be eating. Organic feed is twice as expensive and we just can't afford it.
If we're entirely dependent on an outside input, especially one that is unsustainable, that means our operation is also unsustainable. Period.
Another issue is the stress associated with raising chicks. Because we don't have electricity at home, we can't run a brooder, so they were living at a friend's house until they feathered out. This means that we had to go by her house twice a day to feed and water the chicks and keep the pens clean. That was a lot of pressure on top of working all day and getting home after dark each evening, and we'll be doing it every time we get another batch of meat birds.
And our birds came from a hatchery. We were lucky to have such healthy birds that we lost only two to unknown causes; much bigger losses are typical. Hatcheries are an adjunct to the CAFO system, not something I want to support, and they were shipped from several states away.
I love chickens, and the flipside to all this stress and waste and unsustainability is the building of the soil as we prepare for a garden, and having a healthy source of protein from animals we've raised ourselves. These are good things. But this situation is clearly not ideal.
I do believe we'll continue to raise layers here, and with a smaller group of birds we could afford organic feed. Broody girls could provide us with new layers each year as well as roosters for fresh eating. This seems a healthier approach to raising chickens without so many inputs. There's even a local grain project here that may be able to supply us with feed in the future.
But I can't imagine raising so many birds specifically for meat again.
8 comments:
I really, really value your posts. Your writing is so evocative of everything that is going on in your life right now. I thank you for the glimpse into your world. I'm wishing you and your family well.
I'm not sure whether we'll repeat our meat bird experiment either. I really like chicken, and right now, my options are to buy it at the grocery store (which, around here, means factory raised chickens), buy it from a sort of local farm at $16/bird, or raise our own.
I'm trying to like pork more, since we bought a whole pig from a "happy" farm again this year, but I really miss the frozen chicken breasts from costco. :(
We're able to buy organic feed because we only have four layers but I am very interested in buying bulk grains and mixing my own feed. Would that be an option for you? I've yet to look into it so have no idea of the cost and hassle factor.
I live in town so I don't have predator problems, though the chickens are behind electric fence because I also have sheep and turkeys. We expect to move to our country place possibly next year (in part so that we can grow another grass animal, beef) and are doing the fencing now. I expect BIG problems with predators and it sort of scares me.
I get a rooster or two each year for a month or so only (trying to be kindly to the neighbors). I try to choose something big and meaty but with an eye to the egg laying (ie, dual purpose). I eat the resulting roosters about the time they start crowing. That's how I get around the hatchery thing, both the cost and the ethics. What I need to encourage now are more broody biddies, to get around the incubators. I've had broodies before, they just don't line up with the time the rooster is here. Boo.
I am looking into freedom rangers some this winter but I kind of doubt I'll go that way.
And feed? The prices are killing me. I don't use organic, though my guys spend a lot of time free. I have pumpkins for their winter pleasure, and a few other goodies.
I feel your pain. Hope the chickens you harvest are really tasty.
Agree with what Califia's Lap said. I always appreciate your thoughts and insights as you go through life. It is a struggle for me to sit with my feelings, thoughts, and experiences. Reading your words helps!
I feel for you, you have a lot of predators to contend with. I kept chickens for a long while, we converted a little old barn into a coop, they hated it and preferred to roost high up in an oak tree, they were not penned and thus roamed our land freely. The hens laid eggs in the coop, and if they were sitting out to hatch the eggs we locked them in there at night. This all worked wonderfully, but we had no predators to contend with, aside from the very occasional fox, who for all the want in the world could not climb 20ft up an oak tree!
Might you consider building your chickens a very tall and narrow coop with their roosting space across the highest point, as high as possible? You would then only need to provide skinny dowling poles for them to use to climb and these can be very well spaced as chickens can jump pretty far (the predators cannot!). At least if any predators were to enter, they would not be able to climb up and get the chickens? I am not sure how practical this is, being as you have spent so much money.
Regards the food, that is an awful lot you are using. Even so, chickens eat ANYTHING, any household scraps and left over dinners, they don't need a lot of grain, there are foods you can grow for them to eat or prepare from your other livestock. We fed our chickens a small handful of grain each twice a day, the rest of their diet was made up of leftovers from our meals and rabbits which our neighbour farmer caught, which weboiled and mashed, gross I know, but excellent protein rich food for the chucks, and because they were free to roam they ate lots of grubs and insects too - can your chickens roam safely during the day? You need to train your dog to guard them and not eat them - this is possible, though there will be some casualties whilst the dog learns (ours DID learn). They love leafy greens (spinach was always a hit) which are very cheap to grow also.
I hope you persevere, once you have nailed the safety element, I have no doubt you will find ever more inventive ways of feeding them well in a more green and budget friendly way.
hey, I'm glad you opened up comments again as I've been lurking here for a while and have considered emailing you a few times to let you know I'm here - cause, frankly, i would want to know who's reading what i write, so i figured i would step forward and introduce myself here. aaaannnd to say that that i love your blog. you are an inspirational, down-to-earth 'cut the bullshit' voice. a dose of sanity. thanks for this blog, it makes me think new things.
Our chickens free range and in tractors but we do lock them up each night to protect them from predators. Yet we still sometime loose a few. We do not raise meat birds, we raise layers who we rotate out every 2 years and process into chicken apple sausage (delicious). We feed the chickens all of our household scraps, fence them into the garden or orchard as pest problems present themselves (they love japanese beetles particularly) and allow them to "clean out" the goat houses each day - this has kept our herd amazingly worm free as well as significantly cut down on grain rations. 24 birds = approx 24 eggs a day @$4-5 a dozen - pays not only for the chicken feed - but most of our goat needs each year as well as providing our family of 5 with all the eggs we could possibly need. In winter we provide light 24 hours a day via a small solar panel on the chicken house which keeps them laying.
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