Chickens

On our homestead we have a mixture of Barred Rock and Rhode Island Reds.  There are 4 roosters and 28 hens.  Our chickens are completely free range, by free range I mean, no coop only nesting boxes up in the area were they get fed.  At night they sleep under the camper with our 4 dogs for protection.  When we moved here we started with 39 chickens, we now have 32 chickens.  We lost all the chickens before Christmas. 

When the chickens started laying we were happy, finally some return for our investment.  The only problem, finding all the eggs everyday is a treasure hunt.  Our chickens lay eggs in the nesting boxes, under our two decks, in the woods, in the brush, under IBC's, in the cars, under the hood of the car, in the wheel wells, and just about anywhere else they see fit.  I am quite sure that we aren't getting all the eggs, but we are still getting a good amount of eggs per day. 

Chicken inside the truck.  Gotta make sure that the windows are rolled up!

Another problem that we are having is that two of our dogs are eating the eggs.  So we have to figure out what to do, pen the dogs up until late afternoon or pen the chickens up.

The two egg eating dogs.

All in all, DH and I are still split on having the chickens free range or putting them in a pen and letting them out for some of the day.  Many pros and cons to both ways.  This debate will continue for a while I think.