# Pasturing Chickens in Hay fields



## Armyman2007

Just curious if any of you have pastured chickens (in tractors) in your hay fields before. I am looking at renting about 5 acres this year and trying it out. How long (tall) is the alfalfa when you normally do your first cutting? Thanks for any info you guys can provide.


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## swmnhay

Armyman2007 said:


> Just curious if any of you have pastured chickens (in tractors) in your hay fields before. I am looking at renting about 5 acres this year and trying it out. How long (tall) is the alfalfa when you normally do your first cutting? Thanks for any info you guys can provide.


So do the chickens drive the tractors?Or just use them for coups.


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## Toyes Hill Angus

if you can get them to drive for you are they better at it than the young lad from up the road, cause he breaks stuff all of the time. lol


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## Dolphin

ROFL smartasses

Chickens are good, but you have to move them often. It's not really worth it to me. It's only worth it on a really small scale, like a family flock of 25-30 birds working your vegetable garden for you.

That's my current opinion, subject to change by further replies from either the peanut gallery or the knowledgable folks here.


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## Hayguy

I saw a neat demonstration of this at a field day a couple years ago. These guys were raising 5000 chickens in about 10 coops which they moved daily. The day before we saw it , it had rained and they were unable to move the chickens to fresh ground. It turned into a muddy mess real fast. Don't know if the hay stand survived or they had to rotate it to corn following. Maybe that's the way the system is supposed to work.


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## Armyman2007

LOL at all the tractor comments. Let me put it a different way - mobile coops. The coops get moved at least once or twice a day. The birds put a lof of nitrogen into the ground. I was planning on raising the Cornish X's. Only 8 weeks till full maturity. I am trying to figure out a schedule to maximize forage for birds and still harvest alfalfa. I would want to keep the field in alfalfa for a few years. hmmm


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## Cozyacres

Armyman2007 said:


> LOL at all the tractor comments. Let me put it a different way - mobile coops. The coops get moved at least once or twice a day. The birds put a lof of nitrogen into the ground. I was planning on raising the Cornish X's. Only 8 weeks till full maturity. I am trying to figure out a schedule to maximize forage for birds and still harvest alfalfa. I would want to keep the field in alfalfa for a few years. hmmm


We raise about 200 Cornish cross chickens on pasture, in movable pens, but we use grassy fields with little or no legumes. The alfalfa doesn't need that much nitrogen, but it helps the grass allot. If we don't move them twice a day it becomes a mess. but the grass will recover fine.


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## swmnhay

I'm lost on this one.LOL:confused:

Wouldn't the chickens eat the leaves off and leave the stems?I never thought a chicken would eat much forage.I can see them eating bugs out of crops,gardens.

Or are you just moving the coups to spread the manure?

As far as cutting schedule.Some cut every 28 days for dairy hay.About 2' tall.
Some cut at 5-6 weeks if wanting more tons for Cows,feedlots,hfrs,etc.2.5-3' tall.

From the peanut gallery.HeeeHeeee


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## mulberrygrovefamilyfarm

We do both pasture raised eggs and meat birds. We've been asked to do talks for different groups in our community about our pastured operation so we did a couple of videos that we use to help explain during our talks, which we posted online.


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## mlappin

So mulberrygrovefamilyfarm do the chickens act like peafowl when in the alfalfa and eat nothing but bugs? How yah get em back in the coups when time to move em? My grandfather would spin in his grave if I was out driving thru standing alfalfa like that.


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## Dolphin

I could see that mobile coop working for me here, moving it around in and between some pastures we have fenced with 2X4 mesh to keep the wolves and coyotes out. The running gear would provide needed shelter from the predators from above that are abundant here. Hawks, eagles, owls, etc. I've been thinking of how to expand our coop space, thank you for posting that!

The chickens do a pretty good job of shallow cultivating. It's fun to watch them catch bugs too. They munch on the grass and seeds, but that means you're buying less mash at the feed store and the chickens are happier. I swear it helps produce a better tasting egg which brings more customers back and new customer referrals. The biggest benefit is direct placement of chicken poop onto the pasture soil with no middle man, ie us.

Our chickens have a huge pasture right off their coop, and we are sold out on eggs more than half the time.


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## swmnhay

So is that how they get green Easter eggs?


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## mlappin

swmnhay said:


> So is that how they get green Easter eggs?


Nah, those are the ones that don't get collected for a few weeks.


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## Dolphin

Or from Araucana birds. They lay a blue/green egg, tastes the same. Makes for an interesting looking dozen.


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## Armyman2007

MulberryGroveFamilyFarm thanks for the video. I was planning on building tractors like the picture here. I am just worried the tractors would mash the alfalfa down too much. How bad would that hurt the alfalfa crop?
View attachment 1208


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## Dolphin

You may want to consider the crop used by the chickens, and the soil better prepared for the next crop after they are done with it. The tractors in the photos would only hold a few fully grown chickens.

I have a friend who raises Cornish Cross and Leghorn meat birds. He built several tractors with netting and PVC pipe. He sealed all the pipe and has fill and drain valves built in so he can fill it with water for added weight, and drain it for winter when it's not in use.


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## mlappin

You'll be able to see the tracks from driving on it until you cut. In the long run probably won't hurt the crop too much as long as you don't keep driving in the same tracks. Use something like a 4wd Mule or other utility vehicle to move em to cut down on weight.

Edit: LOL, sorry, I keep reading tractors and thinking of well a tractor.


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## swmnhay

mlappin said:


> LOL, sorry, I keep reading tractors and thinking of well a tractor.


Yea me too.Why the heck they call them tractors.Looks like a cage or a coup to me.


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## Armyman2007

Dolphin-

PVC sounds like a pretty good idea. I like the A frame design, but would make mine much bigger say 6' X 10' or even 10' X 10'.


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## Dolphin

I know, when I started researching this a few years ago and saw "chicken tractors" it's like "whaa?"

Here's one I made to try it out. I placed it between rows in the garden with a few young birds, water and a piece of plywood leaning against one end. I had to move it at LEAST twice a day.


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## Dolphin

Yes his were big, with short vertical "walls" holding up like a 4/12 "roof".


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## NDVA HAYMAN

You guys crack me up! Cy, you goin in the chicken business? LOL . First thing you have to learn is what a tractor is.


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## Toyes Hill Angus

nothin but a bunch of wiseasses... too funny. If only the citidiots (city-idiots) could read this, would they be lost or what. LOL


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## Dolphin

I see local farmers on craigslist all the time selling 2 year old "laying hens" for 5 bucks LOL


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## mulberrygrovefamilyfarm

mlappin said:


> So mulberrygrovefamilyfarm do the chickens act like peafowl when in the alfalfa and eat nothing but bugs? How yah get em back in the coups when time to move em? My grandfather would spin in his grave if I was out driving thru standing alfalfa like that.


The chickens eat both the bugs and the alfalfa leaves so they do knock the alfalfa back. Most of the time the chickens are following the rotated cattle, but they also get out to the edges of the alfalfa fields at certain times of the year. 200 chickens will knock a very small patch in the alfalfa back to stems. Pasturing chickens takes advantage of the chickens instincts/wants. One instinct built into chickens is that they want to be inside and on their perches when it starts to get dark so they head inside to the safety of their coop on wheels as soon as the sun starts to set. They also want to lay eggs the same way. Once "trained" to their mobile coop they see that as their safe area. If they see a hawk they dash for the coop etc. Your grandfather would also roll over in his grave if he saw how much more chickens on a pasture can make vs how little it sets the hay back;>


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## swmnhay

NDVA HAYMAN said:


> You guys crack me up! Cy, you goin in the chicken business? LOL . First thing you have to learn is what a tractor is.


Nope.Karens grandson has a few chickens and we get brown eggs from him.I'll have to tell him of the blue/green ones.Pretty cool seeing a nonfarm kid interested in livestock.He wants a couple calves this spring.I suppose I get to supply the hay.

So do you feed them any grain with this system?Or just alfalfa and bugs?


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## NDVA HAYMAN

I bet you end up buying or donating the calves, feeding, and most labor. BUT, it is an education for them! If my 3 boys would ever get married and give me some grand kids, I would give them a whole herd if they wanted.


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## Toyes Hill Angus

absolutely


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## mlappin

mulberrygrovefamilyfarm said:


> Your grandfather would also roll over in his grave if he saw how much more chickens on a pasture can make vs how little it sets the hay back;>


I can guarantee he wouldn't. Didn't matter if chicken manure was worth it's weight in gold, he hated chickens and would rarely eat eggs.

Grandfather was orphaned at a young age and worked at several different turkey farms growing up and then worked at one of the areas largest chicken farms back in the day trying to save enough money to marry Grandma. After getting married Grandma had her egg route to help make ends meet and it was Grandfather's law that those are _your_ chickens and I ain't having nothing to do with em.


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## Armyman2007

swmnhay yes you still have a grain based feed available to them 12 hours a day. Of course the more bugs and alfalfa they eat the cheaper the input costs.


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## hayray

I visited a guy this summer who was producing both pastured layers and broilers. The way he did this was that he had the birds follow the grazing of his feeders and ewes on a pasture, not on a hay field. I think the idea was that the birds would help distribute the manure from his high density grazing he was doing. The neat thing was that he was doing the high density grazing on a really small scale, something like 6 feeder cattle and a dozen sheep. He had covers over the broiler coops but the layers were kept in by electro mesh and he was loosing a hell of a lot of them to Red-Tails, saw a few hit while I was there.


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## Dolphin

They are great at spreading manure. Plus the eat the young flies as they hatch. We put them in the horse pasture and they go right to work on the piles.


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## rockinh5

So how big a mobile coop would I need to do this with about 20 birds? Can I get by with moving them only once a day? I've got two coastal paddocks that could use some nitrogen. Buying commerical fertilizer is way to expensive right now.


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## Nitram

I love this idea! could use a dog pen/run with a built in coupe. size could be an issue but if you move it daily or so... I'm thinking i read some where around 2square feet per... i'll try to find that paper unless someone else post it first


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## Hokelund Farm

I've done broilers in mobile cages (no, I don't use the word tractor), and in step in poultry fence. My layers are in an 8x10 shed on running gear at night, and during the day they are completely on their own to run the farm.

Never had them out in an alfalfa field, but my place is surrounded by corn/beans.

I let the layers out in the morning, and just before the sun goes down they are all back in the shed and I just shut the door to keep other animals out. This works REALLY well. I was skeptical, but keeping laying hens is super easy. They stay within a few hundred feet of their mobile coop. Just have to keep it far enough away that they don't eat the flowers/veggies up by the house.

For the most part the system is set up to have the chickens (layers or broilers) follow behind livestock scratching through the manure eating fly larvae to help decompose and fertilize, and then drop their own fertilizer as well.

After a week or so you can see where the mobile cages have been from how green the grass is compared to surrounding areas.

I'd highly suggest trying a small flock. Very low cost and fun experiment.


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## endrow

Hokelund Farm said:


> I've done broilers in mobile cages (no, I don't use the word tractor), and in step in poultry fence. My layers are in an 8x10 shed on running gear at night, and during the day they are completely on their own to run the farm.
> Never had them out in an alfalfa field, but my place is surrounded by corn/beans.
> I let the layers out in the morning, and just before the sun goes down they are all back in the shed and I just shut the door to keep other animals out. This works REALLY well. I was skeptical, but keeping laying hens is super easy. They stay within a few hundred feet of their mobile coop. Just have to keep it far enough away that they don't eat the flowers/veggies up by the house.
> For the most part the system is set up to have the chickens (layers or broilers) follow behind livestock scratching through the manure eating fly larvae to help decompose and fertilize, and then drop their own fertilizer as well.
> 
> After a week or so you can see where the mobile cages have been from how green the grass is compared to surrounding areas.
> 
> I'd highly suggest trying a small flock. Very low cost and fun experiment.


Where do they get the water to drink


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## Hokelund Farm

endrow said:


> Where do they get the water to drink


There are endless setups for water, but I keep it simple with a poultry waterer and a 5 gallon bucket! Last summer I think I had 100 broilers split into 2 groups. Between 3-5 gallons kept 50 broilers happy for a day depending on how hot it was. They drink and eat a lot more than the layers though.

I can go days without having to fill up the layers water. In the winter I use a heated poultry base, as long as its out of the wind, and I don't fill it up to high, it stayed liquid even this winter when it was -20. I park the mobile coop under a lean-to and they run around in there for the winter. They WILL NOT venture into the snow. The trick is getting to the eggs before they freeze!!!!


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## endrow

Hokelund Farm said:


> I've done broilers in mobile cages (no, I don't use the word tractor), and in step in poultry fence. My layers are in an 8x10 shed on running gear at night, and during the day they are completely on their own to run the farm.
> Never had them out in an alfalfa field, but my place is surrounded by corn/beans.
> I let the layers out in the morning, and just before the sun goes down they are all back in the shed and I just shut the door to keep other animals out. This works REALLY well. I was skeptical, but keeping laying hens is super easy. They stay within a few hundred feet of their mobile coop. Just have to keep it far enough away that they don't eat the flowers/veggies up by the house.
> For the most part the system is set up to have the chickens (layers or broilers) follow behind livestock scratching through the manure eating fly larvae to help decompose and fertilize, and then drop their own fertilizer as well.
> 
> After a week or so you can see where the mobile cages have been from how green the grass is compared to surrounding areas.
> 
> I'd highly suggest trying a small flock. Very low cost and fun experiment.


We run 20 red layers in section of the old hog pen they can go out side but they just stand beside the shed grass is to far . We want to do what you do get them in grass What is your shed like on running gear and do they lay all eggs in there. Do you know where I can find pix of mobile units


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## Hokelund Farm

endrow said:


> We run 20 red layers in section of the old hog pen they can go out side but they just stand beside the shed grass is to far . We want to do what you do get them in grass What is your shed like on running gear and do they lay all eggs in there. Do you know where I can find pix of mobile units


Most of my inspiration comes from Joel Salatin. I am constantly reading about his methods of farming. Otherwise Google Images, Pinterest (yes pinterest).

Here is my set up for the layers. It's a pretty basic storage shed (8x10) on running gear. If I was to do it again I'd make it shorter. No need to be that tall for chickens





  








Hen House 1




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Hokelund Farm


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Hen House 2




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Hokelund Farm


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Hen House 3




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Hokelund Farm


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Hen House 4




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Hokelund Farm


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Feb 20, 2014


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