Six Roosters out In Winter and Pig Pen Preliminaries

The snow finally started to melt off a bit today up on the mountain. It was pretty sloppy outside so we didn't want to let the egg layers out. They get their feet muddy and we have to clean out the nesting boxes so the eggs don't get dirty. So we let the six roosters out instead. They roam around and eat some grass or some feed that the cows have spilled or whatever else they can find.

We don't let them out if the hens are out, because they just chase and bother the hens all day long. When the weather gets a bit nicer they will get out in a small movable pen that is open to the ground beneath it with chicken wire on the sides and a roof. This way they can be outside when the hens are out without all of the commotion.

The pen just gets moved around the fields/yards and the roosters "free range" inside it. This way they get outside, get some sun, bugs, and grass, but don't run around too much and get tough. They have water and some grain in with the in the pen too.

We keep these young roosters in their own pen away from the laying hens and also away from the immature hens. They don't fight each other as much that way, and they also don't bother the hens and pick fights with our rooster Pab, the grand old man of the hen house. We feed them grow ration and scratch grain in the pen, but the key to flavor is for them to get outside. The more these roosters get outside the more they taste like game birds. Their meat gets darker and more flavorful.

If you just let them run wild with the flocks their meat gets even darker and a bit tough, but they are still better than meat from the grocery store. It almost tastes like another species of bird, and though it can get tough from them running around it still is good. Keeping them in the mobile pen gives you the best of both worlds, tender and flavorful.

Here's a little video of these guys when they were out today. They were mostly standing around so I just put the camera down by them and started walking/herding them around the yard.

My son Michael has been preparing some beams, his hand hewn ones again, and he had them all laid out in the barn today. I asked him what he was planning on making with them, and he told me a pig house/pen. He told me that it needs to be eight foot by sixteen foot for the two pigs he wants to get soon. It will be sided on three sides and open toward the south. It will have a shed style roof. This is what he has told me. It will be a lot of work, is what I have told me. He is my chief outdoor/farm helper but this entails a reciprocity agreement on my part.

He wants it in a dry place with some shade and some acorns. We walked around the place this afternoon and located a logical spot for it. So I guess we are getting some pigs soon. This should provide me with some interesting blog material in the future.