Our “Yard Birds” are chickens and Guenea fowl. The laying hens are Buff Orpington and Buff Ameraucana and Silver Ameraucan cross. Both breeds are good egg producers. The Buff Orpington lays a light brown, while the Ameraucan’s lay green or blue green egg.
We provided a safe, comfortable, and humane environment far exceeding that of the "United Egg Producers Certified" animal welfare program. We feel it’s shameful to have animals and not provide reasonable comfort and care for them. We never debeak our chicks or buy from hatcheries that do. I’ll not go into the economics of High Production Agriculture. Simply, we believe that “battery caged” hens for egg production is cruel.
The Animal Welfare Institute, a non-profit charitable organization founded to reduce the pain and fear inflicted on animals by humans, did a good study on “Comfortable Quarters for Chickens in Research Institutions”. The study is applicable to a large degree even on the small family farm. It provides insight into what makes chickens comfortable and happy.
Under certain circumstances we do provide restricted movement for our birds. There is the brooder for hens with chicks or ones that may need quarantining for medical reasons. If the weather is real cold I close up the coop to keep the heat in. I lock the coop up tight each night to keep predators from them. That’s it. Otherwise they range around our farm doing what chickens like to do. If they don’t wish to go foraging or inside, they can enjoy the sun, shade, keep out of the rain, or take a dust bath in Diatomaceous Earth (natureal pest control) in the fenced and covered Run.
Domesticated fowl need to scratch and forage. Shortly after sunrise, weather permitting, I open the doors to their coop allowing them to free range our acreage. They roam out in the fields gleaning wild seeds and bugs. They return to the coop for laying in the nest boxes, and each evening to roost in comfort and safety from predators. When they are inside, during bad weather, there is enough space not to feel crowded. This eliminates nervous pecking.
Although they are allowed free range they have constant access to high protein laying ration, and are given cracked corn as a daily treat, We’ve enough roosters to insure the flock is balanced.
This environment and feeding program produces healthy birds that produce our superior eggs.