We’re based on 40 acres, and one option we were looking at is free-range chickens. I’m interested in using guardian dogs (like maremmas), but I’m wondering if anyone has had experience with them as I’ve heard they can be pretty barky, which I know would have our neighbours complaining! Just wondering if anyone has any experience with this - @jbmcleay I saw your intro post about organic chicken farming and wondered if you have any advice on this? Also interested in your feed - where are you sourcing from? And you said you were pretty new to the enterprise - any big lessons/hot tips you’d pass on? And (sorry - lots of questions!) what kind of set-up are you using? e.g. moveable chicken tractors, etc.?
Hi Jen,
yes we have a Maremma called Max , who we love very much. He has a beautiful temperament and I don’t find he barks very much at all. Not at all for the first 6 months and just occasionally now he is 14 months. We find that when he does bark we should pay attention as there is something that has caught his attention. Like when we move he cattle he will bark when sees them in an unfamiliar place but when we reassure him he is alright. Mostly he barks at what (we think) he thinks we ought to know and not random things.
As far as feed is concerned we get a bulk delivery from an organic grain farmer in Victoria. We are very new and almost every week we are introduced to a new lesson we have to learn: about pricing your product, turnover of chickens to smooth out peaks and troughs, council regs about silos (It is not a building according to the building code but could be subject to planning regs etc). We are using moveable chicken caravans and we bless having a tractor to move them. We got a Paton feeder which holds a tonne of feed as well and wish we had got one with wheels. Feel free to email me direct for more chats on jbmcleay At gmail DOT com
cheers,
Jo