• Home
  • Overview
    • The Integrated Homestead
    • Life on the Homestead
  • Grow It!
    • Composting
    • Garden and Orchard
    • Greenhouse
    • Homestead Tools
    • Soil Care
  • Poultry
    • Poultry Overview
    • Feeding The Flock
    • Housing the Flock
    • Dealing With Predators
    • Breeding Our Own Stock
    • Producing for Small Markets
    • Butchering Poultry
    • Poultry Miscellaneous
    • Livestock
  • Resources
    • Downloads
    • Harvey’s Book
    • The Homesteader’s Resources
    • In The Kitchen
  • Back Porch
  • Contact Us
The Modern HomesteadThe Modern Homestead
  • Home
  • Overview
    • The Integrated Homestead
    • Life on the Homestead
  • Grow It!
    • Composting
    • Garden and Orchard
    • Greenhouse
    • Homestead Tools
    • Soil Care
  • Poultry
    • Poultry Overview
    • Feeding The Flock
    • Housing the Flock
    • Dealing With Predators
    • Breeding Our Own Stock
    • Producing for Small Markets
    • Butchering Poultry
    • Poultry Miscellaneous
    • Livestock
  • Resources
    • Downloads
    • Harvey’s Book
    • The Homesteader’s Resources
    • In The Kitchen
  • Back Porch
  • Contact Us

Ranging the Flock

The best thing we can do for our poulry flocks is: Put them on pasture! Wild relatives of our domesticated fowl roam freely in the outdoors, enjoying freedom of movement, sunshine, and opportunity to forage natural foods. They are not tightly confined to a crowded, artificial environment, dependent exclusively on artificial foods from our hands.

Even if you don’t have pasture to offer your birds, you may well be able to rotate them over your lawns. They will be grateful, and will do much better than if confined to a static, denuded chicken run accumulating an ever-greater load of poultry droppings.

Not everyone who pastures his birds uses electronet, but for me, it is an essential management tool. If you do pasture your birds in electroneted pasture areas, you will need pasture shelters. There is lots of information on both subjects in this section.

Table of Contents for Pasturing the Flock Section

    • Managing Poultry on Pasture with Electronet
    • Designing a Pasture Shelter
    • Building a Pasture Shelter
    • Going Mobile at the Small End of the Scale
    • Mobile Shelter: The Classic Polyface Model
    • Chicken Tractor: A Tribute to Andy Lee
    • Pasture Shelters for Market Layer Flocks
    • A Drown-Proof Waterer

 

Top of Page

©Unless otherwise noted, all material on this site, both text and photos, is copyright by Harvey and Ellen Ussery, 2005 to the present. Individuals may copy and circulate it freely under the following conditions: This site www.TheModernHomestead.US must be attributed as the source; any material copied must include this copyright notice; and no charge may be made if you pass copies on to others, other than the actual costs of copying, if any. No material on this site may be published in any print or electronic media, whether or not for profit, without written permission of Harvey or Ellen Ussery.

DISCLAIMER: Information offered on this website is based on decades of research and practical experience. However, we are not trained professionals in any health, environmental, or other field. We therefore do not offer the contents of this website as advice or recommendation for any specific practice; nor will we be responsible for the consequences of the application of any information or ideas presented on this site. ~Harvey and Ellen Ussery

© 2022 · The Modern Homestead