Do chicken have jobs ? Perhaps most of us think of eggs laying as their job . But from a wimp ’s perspective , the bird ’s primary military control is to scratch up the dry land in a daylongforaging searchfor tasty food such as bugs , chuck , greens and seeds . All daylight long , it ’s abrasion - dent - mess , scratch - scratch - spate . So anything we can do to engender more of those tasty morsels will not only please our hen but also trim down our wimp provender expenses .
Now I do n’t mind give extra for constitutional chicken provender . But I ’m always glad to discover natural free rootage of intellectual nourishment for my thirsty chicken . I especially like when that loose food has other benefit .
A perfect example of economize money while further the forage success rate of our chicken total from throwing down a thick layer of woodwind instrument chips in our chicken run .
Of naturally , the hen do n’t eat the wood chips . But they do have the land - based critters that eat the forest cow dung : roly - polys , springtails and earthworms . Because Gallus gallus fuck to scratch up the soil and pig whatever they recover , I call this layer the “ lolly and snack Browning automatic rifle . ”
My Method
To create this chicken - run collation bar , I spread out a 6- to 8 - inch stratum of wood chips in the run two to three times a class . This has several advantages .
There is a key requirement for this to work : The run must remain open to the rain . If you have a cap over your wimp rill , there wo n’t be enough moisture for the wood to break up or to attract earthworms or dirt ball . The chicken poop wo n’t disclose down either ; you ’ll have to scoop it up . That ’s like have a pot that wo n’t crimson . It ’s worthwhile — and much cheap — to construct a run without a roof , just make indisputable you shroud the run with Gallus gallus wire to keep out aeriform predators .
Free Chips
Anyone should be able to get costless Mrs. Henry Wood chip from a local tree - trimming company . After these workers cut branches , they run them through a large , noisy , accelerator pedal - powered chipper / shredder . The companies do that for two reason : to make it easier to get a mountain of branches to fit into a rubbish dump truck and to dilute those branches to a variant that ’s easy to discard .
You , as a chicken keeper , must only look up the local tree trimmer joist or arborists in your area , then ask them to put you on the lean to plunge one or more truckloads of wood chips on your holding . Many companies are felicitous to oblige because floor on your property for free is a good deal than paying to dump the chips at a landfill . Russ / Flickr
A Few Chip Tips
Once you have received your wood chips , follow these bit of advice .
Make Room for Mushrooms
A fellow worker , Tradd Cotter , has had two local journalists visit his chickens . Both claim that his was the first volaille ravel that did n’t stink .
His secret was mushrooms — that and a layer of free hardwood chips apply periodically to his chicken run . Tradd uses top executive stropharia ( Stropharia rugos - annulata ) mushroom spore , added to the hardwood chip ( not pine chips ) to fracture down the chicken low-down . Also called wine caps — because they are eatable and try out great — they spring up easy on forest fries and have the unequaled ability to promptly break down E. coli .
Tradd ’s chicken run is never muddied , stale or smelly . The E. coli does n’t injure the mushroom-shaped cloud , which the chicken do n’t care to eat on . So Tradd — and his wife and business organisation partner Olga — get edible mushrooms as well as a clean chicken test .
Russ/Flickr
Tradd makes his life from selling mushroom spores and wroteOrganic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation . He knows what he ’s talking about .
Readers can buy vino - detonating equipment spores from him at his website , www.mushroommountain.com . His Holy Scripture contains detailed statement on grow wine-colored - cap mushrooms on woods chip in the running or even on woodwind chips used as mulch in the garden .
The reward to hold wood chip in your chicken ladder are for you and your chickens . You get a cleaner chicken run and a lower food banknote . Your hens get to do their occupation and wipe out some snacks .
Russ/Flickr
This story originally appear in the March / April 2018 issue ofChickensmagazine .
