We produce quality beef, pork, and chicken, and sell directly from our farm to customers in Ottawa-Gatineau. The center, or ‘hub,’ is where the coop sits, remaining stationary. A single, standard net from Kencove or Premier is typically 165 feet, so this basically provides them an 80 foot run. Another plus is that some plants toxic to cattle can be safely eaten by other grazing species. View all articles by Forrest Pritchard ». During the poultry year, our chickens might graze a particular swath of field 10 times (with 35 day rests in between). Like anything else in the sustainable agriculture movement, it’s simply a part of the solution, another puzzle piece in the carbon/nutrient cycle. So, without further ado, here’s a step-by-by step primer on how to get maximum return from grazing chickens, while simultaneously healing your soil and generating a profit for your bottom line. Because foxes, coyotes and neighbor’s dogs LOVE to eat chickens. We produce quality beef, pork, and chicken, and sell directly from our farm to customers in Ottawa-Gatineau. The first couple of evenings I have to shoo them in till they get the idea. Okay, which? The classic, Joel Salatin example consists of grazing cows and chickens in a multi-species rotation. A fresh single-day's grazing slice* in a winter pasture rotation (above), and with an overlay of the grazing plan (below). Here’s how. From the stationary coop, there are access doors cut all the way around, so the nets can operate like ‘spokes’ on the wagon wheel. Thank them for supporting On Pasture by liking their facebook page. (See earlier diagrams for reference). Poultry is perfectly suited for smaller acreages, and major impacts on soil fertility can be accomplished with a well-managed flock of 200 birds. More sheep parasites will either die waiting for their preferred hosts to return, or get hoovered up by grazing cattle, and die in the inhospitable environment of the bovine gut. 200 Cornish Cross chickens at week 7. Or… can they? If these birds look motivated now, just imagine how they’ll react when they see spring pasture! At week five, the trampling really starts. An average chicken is only three or four pounds, as opposed to a fifteen-hundred pound cow. Thanks to the National Grazing Lands Coalition for making this article possible. It’s easy to imagine with cows, and sheep, and maybe even goats? In chronological order, here’s a slew of insider tips to get your flock of chickens mob grazing every bit as well as a herd of cattle. Benefits of grazing Cost The biggest cost in most, if not all, cattle production systems is feed. On our farm, it all starts with the Hub System. Here’s a little tip sheet you can print out for reference. People tell me that Cornish Cross chickens are lazy or disposed to sitting all day long. It all starts with electrified poultry netting. By putting a ‘hot’ current on the net, not only do we keep our chickens from being slaughtered by predators, but we can effectively control where our birds graze… and how many of them are grazing in the same location. But keep out of their way, or they might knock you over as they trample the grass. This is an idea I modified many years ago from Timothy Shell, and it works fabulously for chickens (and pigs, too). When night falls the birds return to the hutch, and I close the door (although never with the layers, so as not to interrupt their natural biorhythms). A side-by-side view of a ‘littered’ run and a ‘fresh’ run. Click on over to see the great work they do for all of us. At this time, we keep the chicken netting very wide, at least a fifteen foot width. (200 birds, incidentally, is the minimum economy of scale I would recommend to those hoping to financially break-even on raising chickens. First things first. (I’ve written a comprehensive blog about how all this works, along with accompanying videos.) 400 is a better number yet, and gets you headed towards making an actual profit). He now has 20 acres of his grandfather’s original farm with a sugar bush and cabin. Okay, which? To illustrate exactly what I mean, I’ve included these diagrams to the right. After the cattle graze in the first paddock, the farmer moves his animals to the second one and so on. Many of our crop and pasture lands have been depleted of soil nutrients, due to continuous cropping or grazing without adding organic matter back into the soil. The hens rotate 72 hours behind the cattle herd to provide insect control, and the bus provides easy mobility from paddock to paddock. During the first week of grazing chickens we don’t rotate the net, because the birds are so small they don’t trample much pasture. With regards to goats and cattle, goats are foragers/browsers while cattle are grazers. This is genuinely hard work, with a long-term payoff. From week six through week nine (when the birds are butchered), the nets are moved each and every morning. The chickens will have three mobile "coops" per grazing strip, for a total of 18 "coops" in the whole system (at maximum capacity). In my opinion, the answer is a resounding ‘yes’. Thinking of New Year’s Resolutions? If properly managed, could chickens graze as well as a mob of cattle? When bison roamed the Great Plains, prairie chickens and other fowl played an important role as the clean-up crew. They run the birds 3 days behind the cattle. But how do we get them to trample and mob graze? Needless to say, a little chicken can’t trample grass as well as a full grown steer! First, let’s define mob grazing. Add legumes or rotational cattle grazing to revitalize land. Many years ago, the livestock on our farm consisted of a handful of cows and a couple dozen chickens. They have acombined total population of approximately 6.08 million, including approximately757 900 rural households. Cattle with prairie-chickens, or "chickens" with cattle? Jessica is participating in Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship, a federally registered apprenticeship that PASA administers in Pennsylvania and nearby areas. Deep bedded, at turns cozy and cool… and built like a Chicken Fort Knox. This allows rain, insects and microbes to break down the manure into fertilizer, and also speeds pasture recovery to greatly reduce nutrient run-off. Each day during week five, we keep moving the feed troughs further down the run, until by the end of the week it’s all the way at the end. But I’m here to tell you:  this can be done and done profitably. 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