[BCFSN] free ranging chickens like their space

[Jan Steinman]

My knee-jerk response is, “it depends.”

I read the blog, but not the paper. The blog made no mention of varying “free range" conditions. I am dubious about any formula that does not consider the time of year and the state of forage.

During the spring, with lush grass and lot of bugs, we can’t get the chickens to walk 50 metres down the length of the greenhouse, even while luring them with table scraps at the other end!

Recently, with the ground frozen, they’ve broken through their fence and are ranging on over an acre for a few dozen birds.

This is one of the reasons we resist organic certification, because a “one number fits all conditions” stocking level makes no sense. In certain conditions, we greatly exceed the per-hen area required by organic standards; in other conditions, we don’t come close.

I’m about to move them into the greenhouse, where the stocking level will exceed that permitted for organic certification, but where they’ve got work to do: a cover crop to mow down, bugs to eat, and fertilizer to lay down. Then, when we’re ready to plant in there, they’ll go out onto pasture — at an overly-generous stocking level, according to organic standards. And we’ll have bug-free, fertilized beds for our plants.

:::: Jan Steinman, EcoReality Co-op ::::

> On 2017-01-06, at 09:00, food-request at bcfsn.org wrote:
> 
> free ranging chickens like their space