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Taste…Island Pace
Chickens
are smarter than you think
Over time, chickens have developed a
reputation of being quite stupid. Not on the level of domestic turkeys who seem
to have, a suicidal bent especially when they are young, but still daft.
We were watching a hen with her nine
chicks this morning. We have a mix of heritage dual-purpose chickens on our
farm. Dual purpose means that they aren’t specifically for meat or for egg
laying but are good for both uses. We like heritage chickens as they are
generally healthier and retain more natural characteristics than the more
modern breeds of birds.
Most farms that keep birds for egg
laying purchase a specific breed of chicken, such as Leghorns or ISA Browns.
They buy them as chicks, the hens start laying when they are about 6 months
old. During the first year, a hen can lay almost one egg a day. Farmers have
lights on in the chicken’s coops to keep the hen laying for one-year straight,
and then they sell them for slaughter. By this time the hens are pretty burnt
out, it is a lot of work for a hen to lay everyday for a year – it takes a
heavy toll on their bodies so they are thin and very scruffy at the end of 18
months of age.
On our farm, a hen’s life is quite
different. Most of our hens are born on our farm. They are raised by their
mother’s and learn how to be chickens. Even if we buy baby chicks, we place
them under a brooding hen and let her raise the babies. Our chickens have a
coop and are locked up at night but during the day, they are active over most
of our property. Truly free range. They hop fences and scratch around in the
goat pens, the gardens, and the orchard. We supplement their diet with chicken
lay pellets but they don’t eat much of it – they get most of their food
themselves.
A hen born on the farm will live out
her natural life on the farm. Heritage breeds don’t lay as many eggs but will
lay quite regularly thru the winter without having extra lighting to force them
to lay eggs. A hen lays an egg every other day or so until she is about 4 years
old then slows down to every 3rd or 4th day. When they
are foraging for most of their own food, it’s not costing us much to take care
of them.
The older hens make the best mothers.
The hen we were watching this morning is about 3 years old. She was teaching
her chicks to forage. In the front garden, we have purple sprouting broccoli
plants that have gone to seed (to self-seed for the spring). The hen was
jumping up and pulling down the long stalks of seeds, shaking the seeds out
of the pods onto the ground for her chicks. It’s not something a “stupid” bird does.
Part of the domestic chickens
reputation is based on observation of chickens that are all 18 months or
younger. I think we shouldn’t judge chickens based on what they have learned as
a baby chicken. Our birds, in a rich environment, learn quickly and continue to
learn as they get older. We have had hens live to 10 years old and become wise
old hens that teach the younger birds how to survive and thrive.
Every animal on our farm has a good
quality of life. Even if their life is going to be short, they are due an
interesting, enriched, and stress-free existence.
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