Chickens for bug control and food recycling.

[Smart Red]

A good roo is a must for free ranging flocks. I have had roos that were mean to the hens (dinner) and mean to the grandchildren (dinner). Roosters that treat their girls like gentlemen, watch over them, protect them, get along with the other animals, and get along with their human family are invaluable.

Yours looks like a fine youngster. Good luck with your breeding plans.

 

[Beekissed]

Tomorrow starts the fall butchering of the extra cockerels and of the old rooster. Some of these cockerels are just really pretty birds, so it's always hard to dirty those pretty feathers with blood.

They will be canned for using in recipes later...usually soup. We find it to be one of our favorite winter staples here and having the precooked chicken makes it a snap to whip up a pot of soup in a jiffy.

When the fall cull is over I should have 12 females and one young male to take into the winter. Four will be older hens, eight are new pullets that should provide eggs for the winter months. And that is the ideal working type flock, producing eggs, meat and replacement layers/breeder males each year. It even produces bones and offal for the dogs to eat.

And, of course, the other byproducts of a working flock...composted manure and bug and pest control on the homestead. Right now the weeds and grasses pulled out of the garden, along with dead veggie vines/plants, are composting underneath the roosts in the coop. By spring they will have turned into some very rich compost that can be added right to the garden.

It's a wonderful wheel of productivity that produces healthy, clean foods for all concerned, while also living a life of freedom out in the sun, on fresh soils and grass. A life lived~from hatch to death~in peace and goodness, a natural life for all. I thank God for it every day.

 

[Nyboy]

Chicken bones are safe for dogs as long as not cooked. After being cooked they can splinter when chewed.

 

[Beekissed]

Chicken bones are safe for dogs as long as not cooked. After being cooked they can splinter when chewed.

That's what they say. My dogs get them both ways and always have, with no problems.

 

[baymule]

Our dogs eat cooked chicken bones too.

 

[Beekissed]

Each day I'm more and more impressed with this new pup's willingness to learn and perform what he's learned...he's one of those intuitive dogs that can anticipate what you want, which I love! It's nice to not even have to wait on a dog to go into position as he's already there.

This morning I was in a hurry when I fed, so just scooped, turned and gave Jake his food, turned back to scoop some for Ben...and turned around to find him already lying down as I've been teaching him to do, waiting calmly. I just about burst buttons from pride of him and gave him much lovin' for going that next step...Jake hasn't even figured that one out yet! He still has to be told or waited upon to get into a calm position...but then, Jake is a different temperament than Ben, with all that Border Collie side showing jittery energy pulsing through his body. Ben is much more laid back and able to hold a calm demeanor.

He's also pooping where he's supposed to poop after I finally learned to give him positive reinforcement when I dumped his scooped up loads there...only had to do that twice and he got it. Hasn't pooped in the yard since. Wish I learned as quickly as he does! Would have saved me the daily scooping of the poop and the grumbling while doing so.

The other night some people beat on our door around midnight, wanting to use the phone. Jake didn't bark once, which was odd until I realized he has slipped into sidekick mode with this pup, like he always did with Lucy, my GP mix. The pup barked a couple of times, so Jake didn't need to.

Love that about Jake...he's a very quiet dog and only barks when necessary. When Lucy was alive, I rarely ever heard Jake's voice and only when we had a bear or coyote pack visit the land or strange man walking by the house. I'm hoping Ben will follow suit and bark only when he perceives a threat~strangers on the land or strange vehicle arriving, predators in the area, hawk overhead and flying too low.

Ben's collar is showing a great fit now and he no longer even attempts to challenge the boundary. He has stopped putting his paw up on any of us entirely, even when excited, but approaches with tail wagging and nose outstretched for our greeting which is more desired. He only needed a couple of corrections for that, so I'm duly impressed.

Overall I'm impressed with what this pup has learned in only one month: He's learned the electric fence boundary, to come each time he's called, to lie down and wait calmly for food, appropriate greeting(no paws), no jumping up, to walk on a leash on either side, sit, stay(still working on that one but he's got the concept now), lie down(all these basic commands he also knows the hand signal for), no chasing chickens(VERY important and among one of the first things taught and learned), where to poop and not poop, how to stay out of the way when we are walking past, and to stand or sit calmly while I take off and put on his collar/leash/harness, where to sleep, how to act when humans are touching or around his food while he's eating and, last but certainly not the least in importance~who buys the food around here.

What he hasn't learned just yet and I've not had time to do training on is raiding the coop for chicken feed and eggs. Usually that gets taken care of in time due to continued body growth but I'll take some time to work on it also.

Might load me up a few eggs with some super hot sauce I have and see if that won't discourage his egg suckin' activities...never tried that before but it might just work. Might also lace up the chicken feed with some really hot peppers I have canned up...the chickens won't care and it may even improve laying, but he's bound to have a hot mouth if he should take a taste. It just might work.

Things I want to teach yet: Loading up and unloading from the truck or car, stay out of the coop, and keep back from Aliza's face when he greets her...go in low and slow and let her reach out first.

All training of everything he's learned and will yet learn will be ongoing for the entirety of our lives together, with every day showing opportunities for him to grow in skills and understanding of our lives here together. I'd venture to say this dog will be so versatile and intuitive in his capabilities that we'll never stop learning from one another and our partnership will be incredible.

He's learned so many important things from Jake that I could never teach him~what animal poses a threat and is worthy of barking, how long to bark for strangers(just a couple notes to get attention in the house or much more if we are not home), when to pay attention to the chickens and when to ignore them.

I thank God for sending him our way...God always knows what we need and when we need it and this pup was a direct answer to prayer.

Tomorrow will be his first time left alone on the homestead while we travel for two days. Well, he's not alone but first time totally without human supervision. I feel he knows and heeds the fence boundary enough that he won't be wandering off~ only to be shot by the neighbors. He also is trustworthy around the chickens enough to be left alone with them. I'll entrust him to God's hands while we are gone, like I do with the rest of the animals and property, and will not worry one bit while I'm away.

Ben has now been here a month and is only 3.5 mo. old, so he's moving right along in his education, top of the class.

 

[thistlebloom]

Ben sounds like a great work partner and companion. It's so enjoyable to watch them pass those learning milestones, he's going to be such a gem.

 

[Smart Red]

Most people have dogs for pets and, therefore, let many mannerly facets go, but a good working farm dog is beyond priceless. You are one lucky cookie, bee.

 

[Beekissed]

I am blessed indeed! God has sent me a small number of really incredible dogs,each with individual personality and traits that helped us in our lives and gave us years of pleasurable companionship and partnership in work. Each dog was suited to a certain time in our lives and this one is no different....he's the right dog at the right time for the right job.

He didn't eat my eggs today, but did catch him slipping into the coop after feeding time to lick my feed trough. That's going to be one healthy pup...that fermented feed is filled with pre and probiotics.

The chickens were out in this deluge all day, foraging like mad in all the fallen leaves and making the best of this mild, rainy weather. They are laying in a store of good fat that will see them through the winter months.

Next week after the leaves dry out from all this rain I'll be gathering in large amounts to store for winter bedding and also to place on the garden. This rain let me know the areas in the coop that need more protection from the rain and what areas are just fine. I leave areas that are intentionally leaky in the part of the coop that has the roosts(not right where the roosts are, but to the side) so that the DL there will have plenty of moisture for composting this winter. That's where most of the manure is deposited, so I make sure that is also the place that gets the most bedding and added moisture.

The chickens do the rest by constantly digging in those areas in the winter along the sides, moving wet bedding to the dry areas and I do my part by moving the dry bedding from the front of the coop to the back of the coop now and again to provide more dry bedding there. This cycle makes for a light, fluffy and dry upper layer of bedding, with a more moist and compact layer under the the fluff at the back of the coop and a dusty, silty layer under the bedding at the front of the coop.

This gives them an area at the back in which to find insects during the winter and a place up front in which to dust, when confined by the deep snows, with good exchange of composted material into both areas by spring~some moist and some dry and silty and I can choose either for my needs in the seedling trays or for side dressing.

It's an amazing system that I wish I had known about and developed many, many years ago. This hoop coop is perfect for this kind of composting/recycling/utility, especially since building in the ends, adding another hoop for more space and providing more ventilation for winter months. Just those tweaks, adding a clear tarp and a change in DL materials turned it from a cold, damp feeling coop in the winter months into a bright, warm and airy coop instead.

 

[Beekissed]

Well....returned home to everything as it should be, praise to the Lord! The pup's first time without supervision went well, though he did steal all my eggs and licked the chicken's feed trough clean. Will be placing a harness on him this week with a coop blocker accessory so that he can no longer enter the coop until he gets big enough to be too big to enter the chicken door...but first I'm going to have the fun of baiting an egg and the chicken feed to give him a little, nasty surprise.....

Silly pup.

Will be raking huge amounts of leaves into the coop this week until it can't take anymore, then will be storing more leaves in bags for later. Can't ever have too many leaves on hand for coop bedding.