The Need For Shelter

I have been asked quite a few times about the necessity of shelters when raising Pasture Raised Chickens. It is not the intention of this article to debate Free Range and what some commercial operations do in regards to producing broilers with this label; I will only say that our chickens truly live outdoors.  At around 2 1/2 weeks they leave the brooder and live the rest of their lives outside.

Living outside means you are also exposed to the elements and this week has been tough with the hot weather.  As part of the cooling strategy, we lift the backs of the shelter up with blocks of wood to increase the airflow - this is absolutely necessary.  Some chickens step out, walk around the shelters and duck back in.  This is their natural behaviour and they feel safe under shelter and surrounded by greater numbers.

The very next morning I discovered this a few meters away.

In a big way we were lucky.  As a kid, my experiences with foxes meant the loss of an entire flock.  The foxes would then return each night to take more away back to their den until the food source was spent.

Later in the day I was able to capture another threat that we face.

You may need to squint, although those black dots in the sky are Wedge Tail Eagles.  These beautiful birds are inventors of the take away meal!  With a wingspan over two meters, these birds will cary off our chickens with ease.

So, if they are not being hit on the ground by foxes or wild/feral animals, it's from the air by eagles, or even Cockatoos when they are very little.

These are some of the key reasons why we raise our Pasture Raised Chickens in shelters.  They breath clean air, eat bugs, scratch in the dirt, eat fresh grass everyday and truly live outside with the protection they deserve.