Orchard and hens - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Sunday 25 September, 2011

by Rosemary at 3:19pm in Poultry 2 comments Comments closed

I read somewhere in a breed description of the Black Rock hen that she's "a great forager". If that means it's hard to keep her behind a fence, then it's very true. Our's are all over the place - a nice couple on bikes came in today to tell me one was over the other side of the road - actually, that was either Ada or Olive, one of the White Leghorns, but there was  Black Rock walking along the pavement as well. Worse still, they are laying all over the place.

So, they are about to have their gas put on a peep. The new fencing for the orchard, and hence the hens, has been delivered. Because of the trees, it's deer netting so six foot high. Dan and John are hoping to get on with it at the end of the week and next weekend.

Each hen house - we currently have two - accommodates up to 40 birds. There will be a pen for each house extending to about 1200 square metres, so 30 square metres per bird. Each pen will be divided into three equal areas and the hens will be rotated round them on a twenty week cycle, so each area will be rested for 40 weeks before the hens go back on.

During the first twenty weeks of resting, it will be limed and reseeded; the second twenty weeks, we'll stick a couple of sheep on (our tup and wether most likely) to take the grass short prior to the hens going back on.

One house has three pop holes and the other has two, but will have another added, so each pen will be accessible without moving the house - we'll just use a different pop hole. Locating and orienting the houses within each big pen will be fun.

Once this is done, we'll be able to start thinking about planting the apple trees. But Dan has promised to explain all about that