Monday, May 18, 2015

Day Range Pastured Poultry - An Alternative to Chicken Tractors

Great article on options for raising pastured poultry in the great outdoors!



Day Range Pastured Poultry - An Alternative to Chicken Tractors





Here is an excerpt from the article by an author and publication  I am very fond of:


Day Range Pastured Poultry – An Alternative to Chicken Tractors

By Kathy Voth / July 7, 2014 / Comments Off on Day Range Pastured Poultry – An Alternative to Chicken Tractors

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Lots of producers use chicken tractors. The concept was popularized by Joel Salatin and the structure size and shape has been modified by many people. I used my own version when raising meat chickens in my backyard. It’s basically an open-floored enclosure that is moved once or twice a day around a pasture. Birds live in the enclosure all the time, and get fresh pasture when the pen is moved.


From “Perfecting the Day-Range Poultry System” bib Jason Fischbach, UW-Extension Agent

But that’s not exactly “free-range” poultry. If you’re looking for more “ranging”, you might consider the Day-Ranged pasture poultry system. This is the system used by Pasture Perfect Poultry, a partnership of four farms near Ashland, Wisconsin that has been producing and selling free-range chickens and turkeys together since 2008. For a Day Range system, you’ll need a mobile pen, and an electric fenced area. Birds are free to roam all day long inside the fenced area (thus the name “Day-Range”) and at night they are put into the mobile pen if predators are a problem. The mobile pen is moved daily to spread manure more evenly, and the fence is moved as necessary to add fresh past

- See more at: http://onpasture.com/2014/07/07/day-range-pastured-poultry-an-alternative-to-chicken-tractors/#sthash.0IDph3Lw.dpuf

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