Teretta Owen

I had a mamma hen hatch out 5 chicks. One was lost to a water bowl which left 4 chicks. I've been dealing with a hungry hawk and after he got 4 of my hens he got the mamma to these 4 chicks. I found her dead body and 4 peeping chicks so I caught them and brought them into a temporary brooder. I have another hen brooding and  when I went to check to see about putting these chicks under her I found her chicks were hatching and she already had 2. My question is do you think if I put the 2 week old chicks under her at dark she will take them?

part of the reason I'm sure is there are no trees in the field. I am wanting to put some out there, but that is an issue and I have seen a hawk flying over the field. I am also missing a couple guineas and I found the wings of a smaller chicken in the yard.

My chickens have an acre field to forage but they stay in the chicken yard which is all dirt. I'm planning to put a bunch of hay on the ground in there.

I am interested in learning more about how to feed my chickens in a SHTF scenario. How can I feed my chickens if I can't go to the feed store and buy feed?
Does anyone have any ideas for me. I am wanting to have a lot of mulch dropped in my field that they free range in.
Do you think it would be beneficial to put a lot of hay on the ground in the chicken yard? Right now it is dirt and I wonder if I put hay down it will bring bugs and
such that they can dig through and eat.
Thanks for any advice.
Teretta

I don't understand how to put in terraces, or swales if the ground is level. How far down are you talking about digging? We actually have access to a tractor my dad is letting us borrow to move some mulch that we got from a tree cutting company and are putting it down like Paul says in his You Tube video about Back to Eden Gardening. Thanks for any info. In your book I only read about good bugs and bad bugs, deer, squirrels, rabbits, but nothing about moles, voles, or gophers. I'll have to look again. I didn't see that the book said anything about removing grass either, but instead a clean slate. I'm just a goober I guess, but I do want to do this and do it right.

Do I have to remove grassy top from soil to start a food forest?
How do I keep gophers from food forest? I think it is the million dollar question. I think we may need to get a rodenator. We saw one on YouTube.

I got the book today " Secret Garden of Survival". I love all the info in it but need more info that wasn't included. We live in Oklahoma and have LOTS!!! of gophers and moles that are devastating our lawn and previous garden. We pulled everything up that was in the previous garden such as asparagus and strawberries, and put landscaping wire under it and replanted, but I want to plant a food forest. I am afraid the gophers and moles will devastate it like they did my last garden in pulling plants under the ground and eating them and destroying the rest. Is there any way to run them off naturally? I have put out traps and shot some but haven't made a dent on their activity and destruction. If I put the effort into moving trees and grapes to the new location I would be heart broke and very irritated if it happened again. I also want to know if starting from a clean slate means removing the grass from the top of the soil. We don't have a tree forest to remove but instead have a level lawn to turn into a food forest.
Thanks for the dream of a food forest cause I know we are gonna need it

Chris can you give more info on your post? I would love to see some photos of this idea. In the post you said " I would make an inner dividing wall that stayed stationary while the rest of the structure moved around it, allowing you to move the chickens to the new half first, and then slide the outer paddock over them, enlarging the area they would have just entered. So when it was time to move, you could just drop the divider down the centre of the paddock, gather the chooks in the half on the same side as you're moving, move the outer paddock"