Free Range Paradise

It's been too long again.  I have gotten behind on my posts.  It has been a very busy holiday season around here.  All is well, just crazy busy schedules.  One of the many projects hubby and son and have completed lately included removing leaves for a dear friend from church.  I asked them to please save and bag the leaves so we could empty them into the chicken yards.  I was so excited when they came home with a LOT of bags!

The chickens are in heaven enjoying scratching and pecking through the piles of leaves.  I still have more to put into the 3 run areas I have, but they have a lot in there already and they are loving it!  I can't free range them due to the population of neighborhood dogs that frequent our property.  It was like bringing the forest to them.  It is almost as good as them getting to free range for right now.  It is helping to keep them occupied and from getting bored and picking on one another.  It's also a wonderful substrate that will compost well in the run areas.  I have 7 juvenile roosters growing up and the barnyard has been in quite a tiff lately.  We will hopefully cull a few roosters this weekend and I hope to get 6 or more pullets rehomed (plus one rooster) very soon!

We are up to 57 chickens right now and that is just a few too many.  We had 3 separate hatches this past year that added 13 new chickens to the flock but 7 of them were roosters!  There is more peace when there are not so many.  Two of my three run areas have a good amount of chickens but my main run area has 41 and that is just a few too many.  Rehoming the 7 and culling a few will help a lot to restore some peace.

I need to get back to a regular schedule again and I still hope to have more informative and specific posts.  I will begin my regular homeschool curriculum reviews again soon.  I believe my first one is due in the first week of January.  Blessings to you as we prepare to begin a new year.