Chickens in Permaculture

[shortgrass]

American Games and crosses involving them blow the doors off other all other breeds I am familiar with. Others may have historical reputation for free-range productivity but most are many generations from actual performance on such. Most have been maintained on the standard hatchery model.

Stunning! I see a breeding project in the future; I doubt i can get DH to fork over the price of a cow for a chicken lol...those are some very pricey stock! Are they bred from Old English? Wondering if I can save a buck and breed from those? But my, that has my head spinning around breeding Americans... If I were in it for the money lol... These would just ne going out to pasture, literally lol...hate to fork over that much for what is essentially really smart coyote bait

 

[shortgrass]

Think about banking / stockpiling invertebrate prey during the winter months. A large amount persists frozen but hard for birds to get at when ground frozen. Deposits of organic materials like leaves can be setup to provide accessible forages during colder periods. They need to be spread out but not so as to get birds exposed to predators.

Aha! I vermicompost! Redworms would be diggable... I don't think i could ever get enough for 100 chooks without having to go into major worm breeding too though... Hmmm more research needed here...

 

[centrarchid]

One hundred chickens / chooks in my opinion will require nearly 20 acres to potentially get away from need of imported feeds / feedstuffs. Then you would only be able to maintain that number for less than 1/2 of the year (production season). Going through winter with too many birds will not only deplete forages, it will prevent forage regrowth the following spring. Look into taking advantage of drift.

 

[shortgrass]

Drift...as in snow drifts?

I've got this....

No idea how much is thete lol....a years' worth of sheep poo... I suppose 50 tons? Lol its 3 rows 100' long, 8' wide, 5' high....hoping IT can sustain some grubby/ redworm/ weed sprouts through winter...its in an old alfalfa corner of a half a circle of wheat... Thinking piles plus hay pkus wheat grain left on ground should be good? I guess it's worth a shot

I have a lot of work to do lol

 

[shortgrass]

Sorry double post ;P

 

[Lacy Blues]

That's a lot of poo!

 

[centrarchid]

Drift...as in snow drifts?

I've got this....

No idea how much is thete lol....a years' worth of sheep poo... I suppose 50 tons? Lol its 3 rows 100' long, 8' wide, 5' high....hoping IT can sustain some grubby/ redworm/ weed sprouts through winter...its in an old alfalfa corner of a half a circle of wheat... Thinking piles plus hay pkus wheat grain left on ground should be good? I guess it's worth a shot

I have a lot of work to do lol

That amount of feces I do not associate with permaculture: too much. May also prove too 'hot' nutritionally for some worms.


Drift I mean involves arthropods (insects mostly) that move about landscape and can concentrate in areas. When chickens deplete an area drift can replenish it. This only works when insects are mobile and can be directional as impacted by wind and surroundings. If lands near by do not support abundant insect assemblages drift does not work well. You can enhance by attracting nigh flying insects. Some insects better than others plus you have a seasonal component.

 

[shortgrass]

Ahhh ok gotcha..like June bugs in June grasshoppers in July... Ok i will see whst king of grubby protien i can find to attract around here when it's cold...the worms were the only thing i could think of that might be able to use this pile...which IS probably more like 50% poo and 50% straw and hay...it came from cleaning out lambing barns si its not 100% poo, but that IS why its sitting there composting...some of it will go on the cornfield in spring

Lol Lacy Blues, it IS a lot of poop, ...imagine it all started under my kitchen sink with a box of worms and a dream hahaha ... Seriously though, it takes a lot of hay to make this much poop so it most definitely gets used. I've got a stack of old tree stumps just itching to be covered in it

 

[shortgrass]

That amount of feces I do not associate with permaculture: too much. May also prove too 'hot' nutritionally for some worms.

So technically speaking, to be consideref "permaculture", I would be best to leave it in the corral? Or maybe scattered more? I understand that it's because it's considered " fertilizer"?... I don't have anything else to do with it haha

 

[aart]

Quote: 'Permaculture' is not a finite thing, it's many different techniques. It's such a buzzword, SMH, and misused like most other buzzwords

But putting a big pile of poop from the barn on the ground of the same land fits with the idea of improving the land with things produced on the same land.
Piling and spreading will provide different benefits...but both fit under the umbrella of permaculture IMO.