Poultry at Roost

Poultry at roost for the night.

When twilight approaches, the chickens promptly settle in to roost. One small flock settles in the home pasture near where the goats and alpacas share a hay rack. Since a tree came down in a storm some months ago, they have--thankfully--left off roosting in the hay rack, and now settle onto the branches crowding around it. Another flock settles along the edges of shipping crates turned to planting beds. The two groups of caged poultry settle across the perches provided for them. The birds are all so pretty,I cannot help but to admire them when we cross paths.

The Dominickers at roost in their chicken tractor.

The little Dominicker flock--I'm not even sure it qualifies as a "flock" with just two hens and their rooster--seems content in their little chicken tractor. Each time I move the contraption, I admire how the birds more right along with it, eagerly rushing forward to their new patch of ground if they are awake, or riding their roosting rail unperturbed in the evening. Better design ideas come to mind when we encounter a snag, usually a corner gets hung up on a rock and the end fasteners give way or simply threaten to do so.

I did shop for pre-fab chicken tractors, but found that all the good ones are priced fairly, and the cheap ones appear to be made of cedar--which is toxic to poultry, I understand. (Say what, that's a cedar branch upon which the Dominickers are clustered? That's true, but only because cedar abounds in these parts and the hens choose to roost in live cedar trees from time to time anyway. Most of the time they spend scratching about on the ground anyway.) Until I get busy creating another, most of our hens will continue to free-range unencumbered by "protective" fencing.