Chickens and Alpacas

In 2008, we brought a flock of chickens to our alpaca operation, and we're delighted with the results. We have a flock of the heritage breed called the Buff Orpington, 21 hens and one very happy rooster.  The Buff Orpington is a heavily feathered breed, and "dual-purpose" meaning they're grown for both eggs and meat.  They're hardy, smarter than the average chicken and they lay eggs ALL winter long.  The eggs are large, brown and very tasty!

Our chickens live in a house on wheels called a "Chicken Tractor".  We can move it from one pasture to another, following the alpacas in their grazing rotation. The chickens come out each day, run around outdoors and then they choose to go inside each evening at dusk.

Alpacas use a communal poop pile, and the grass around it grows very green indeed.  But the 'pacas won't eat this luscious grass, probably because it's too rich in nitrogen. This dark green grass is the chickens' favorite green food.  In addition to eating grass that the pacas won't touch, the chickens also eat the bugs that parasitize the alpacas.  By bringing chickens into our alpaca pastures, we've reduced by a LOT the parasites available to bother our alpacas.  So now we can use even less of the standard deworming drugs.

While chickens eat the unpalatable grass and eat the "bad" bugs, they produce a daily crop of eggs.  So they've already increased our farm cash flow.  Not only that, but these egges provide a reliable source of fresh, nourishing protein. We have a waiting list for our eggs already in year one.  We're now selling them at $5/dozen.  Ours are the freshest, most orange-yolked eggs we've ever seen and tasted.

We recommend to any alpaca owner to add chickens to your alpaca operation.  If we had known how much fun chickens would be, we would have done this years ago!!

We know other alpaca farmers who have added a turkey flock to their alpaca operation.  This has the advantage of harvesting the flock all at once, the week before Thanksgiving.  Then the farmer wouldn't have to worry about feeding them over the winter.  So many options toward a sustainable farm practice!