every day is a good day
The nice thing about chickens is that they like to come home in the evening. Your or old, as the sun starts to set, they all make their way back into the chicken yard and the coop. In the winter months, they are in by 4 o’clock. In midsummer it can be 9 o’clock or later. They don’t want to be left outside in the dark.
So just how far do chickens travel in a day? Much further than most people realize. In just three hours, the mother hen has taken her chicks over 600 feet through woods, pasture, and gardens. Over the course of a day she will take them from half a mile to a mile. This would be the equivalent of a person walking three to six miles.
I wonder what the psychological effects are on chickens which have very little room to move. I look at chickens being raised in 10 by 12 foot chicken tractors and can’t help but imagine they must be going mad. I’ve yet to see any of my chickens limit their daily movements to such a small space. Some of them travel so far I’m surprised they don’t get lost.
What I’ve observed with my chickens is that they don’t like to stay in one place very long. Even when they are in the midst of plenty to eat, they won’t stay more than five or ten minutes eating before moving on. It may an instinctual behavior to keep from being found by prey. Wild chickens which stay in one place too long may have a greater chance of being eaten than those which keep on the move. And if chickens have this instinctual need to keep moving, what happens to their psyche when they can’t?
Each time I go outside, chickens come running to see what’s up. And in the upper right, you see a three and a half month old chick with its mother. The chick was a single chick, and though most chicks are on their own by the time they are three months old, single chicks bond closely with their mothers and stay with them for much longer.
Collecting eggs every few hours is always a pleasure. Some hens are consistent and lay their eggs in the same nest. Others move from nest to nest. And then there are Lucky and Peach. Lucky lays her eggs in one of the doghouses early in the morning. It’s a race as to whether the dogs or us humans get her egg. She does cackle a lot after she lays her egg. If we hear her, we can usually get to her egg first.
Peach is another matter. A very determined Buff Orpington, if one of the dogs is in the doghouse she likes to use, she will shoo the dog out of the doghouse so she can lay her egg.
One thing I don’t understand is why there are so few varieties of eggs in stores. Open a carton of eggs in the store and it is so boring. Most people have no idea eggs come in so many colors, shapes and sizes.
The lack of varieties of chickens sold in supermarkets in the US is rather surprising. Some stores make distinctions between organic versus conventional, pastured versus broiler chickens, but rarely do you see a selection of a variety of chicken breeds on sale. The main distinction which is mostly emphasized is which chicken is the cheapest.
But, take a look at the way chicken is marketed and sold in Japan, and there is an astonishing variety of chicken breeds for sale. Here are just ten of these varieties.
Banshu Hyakunichi Tori is a pasture raised variety of White Cornish from Hyogo Prefecture.
Bungo Akadori is a Red Cornish and Rhode Island Red cross from Oita Prefecture in southern Japan.
Fumoto Dori is a red chicken from Saga Pefecture in southern Japan.
Hogo Aji Dori, which translates to Flavorful Chicken from Hyogo, is a cross between Satsuma and Nagoya varieties of chickens.
Mikawa Akadori is a cross between a Heavy Rhode Island and Rhode Island Red chicken from Aichi Prefecture in central Japan. It is a pastured chicken.
Minami Shinshu Jidori is a pastured chicken from Nagano Prefecture in central Japan. It is known for its firm, tasty, juicy meat. Only a hundred of these chickens are produced a month.
Mitsuse Tori is a variety of chicken based on French breeds. It is raised in Saga Prefecture in southern Japan.
Miyazaki Jidokko is a chicken from Miyazki Prefecture in southern Japan. It is noted for not having the smell chicken meat has, having good texture and being very tasty.
Yamato Niku Dori is a pastured chicken from Nara Prefecture. It is known for keeping its shape even when stewed for a long time, and for its rich, sweet juices. Some 8,000 of them are produced each month.
Yasato Honaji Dori is from Ibaraki Prefecture in northern Japan. It is a pastured chicken, fed non-GMO feed, never given antibiotics or medications, and is fed the bacterial culture used to create a type of fermented bean. Supposedly this culture controls salmonella and e. coli 0-157.
These are just a few of the many varieties of chickens raised in Japan. Even though pages on this link are all in Japanese, Guide to Japanese Chickens, browsing through them you can get an idea of the great variety of chickens raised in Japan for the market.