Pastoral Poultry, Traditional Farming For A Modern Era

[bayocum]

Myrth,
That makes a lot more sense. A hazelnut has a pretty solid shell, but it sounds like the varietal you are describing has been propagated to have "friendlier" qualities for consumption. It will be interesting to see how your experience goes. Do the shrubs have any special requirements outside of soil PH?

 

[Myrth]

It will likely be several years before I can report back about their utility for my purposes. The hazels are grown in Minnesota and Illinois and are adapted to Midwestern soils and climate, so I think they are a good bet for me. I am going for diversity of plant species so in case another disease or serious pest comes along I won't lose everything I plant.

 

[bayocum]

Wow, long time no post

. A friend was extolling the value of this thread recently, so I thought it would be worth trying to revive. Here at Sunbird Farms, if anything, we have begun to focus even more on Pastoral Poultry, and working with my brother (CCLefty) at Valley Fog Farms to try and develop some top-quality lines of dual-purpose poultry that are regionally-suited to our climate. We've started with a list of "requirements" that will help determine those breeds of poultry (and varieties of produce) that will earn our approval, similar to an AOC in wine. Sure it seems a little nerdy, but let's face it, if you're reading this post, you've probably gotten carried away with the details once or twice in your life. So to kick things off, here's a recent post on our blog about the breeds we're exploring, and if anyone is interested, I'll gladly share our "qualifications list" for the fledgling "Central California Sustainability Project" of "Preservation Project," we're not totally settled on the name

.
Best,
Brice @ SF

 

[wsmith]

Hey Brice!

I should start collecting for your egg shipment early next week sometime......

 

[bayocum]

Thanks Wendell, really looking forward to that! Thanks for checking back here too!

 

[JDXX]

Hello everyone,
We are trying to set up our "farm" on our one acre. We would like to be as self sustaining as possible. Right now we have 14 chickens and a whole lot of chicks. We also have fruit trees,blueberry, current and strawberry gardens.Plus with all the vegetable gardens we are on our way. The real killer right now is the cost of feed for the chickens.
So I am trying to figure out what are the best things we can grow on our small farm to help offset the feed cost. We do not have large pastures to plant, mostly all the in between spaces and around the fruit trees and such. I know there are plenty more people out there like us, with small plots of land and wanting to be more self sufficient.
I know when my grandmother was growing up they had chickens on their farm and never really fed them at all, but also used them mostly for eggs. So that is traditional farming for me, letting them forage for their food. Now can we find ways to reach a happy medium and still raise healthy layers and decent table birds without so much commercial feed in their diets?

 

[SJ]

A long time is right. For a time i wasn't sure I would ever get back to this thread or this even this forum. Almost lost the farm this past fall...but I'm back on the interwebs and hope you all are doing well.

This spring I will continue with "My Breed" aspect of pasturing chickens as well some further venturing into pasture plantings methods and seeding mixures.

I'm very excited to see the performance the sweet pod pea with a rye for a nurse (a strain bred more for platable stalks and leaves than the grain) test plots. I'll be watching this mix for several things.

1. Cover
2. Management Intensity. (The less the better)
3. Products(Forage/Grazing, Bedding Straw, Grain, )
4. Utilization by Chickens(If one's stock won't range on one's pasture, one should change pasture.)

Also my sunflower and/or corn (probably some of both) with pole beans and squash mixture has me excited to see my fall crops.

I plan to plant alternating strips of these two pasture types that will run east to west. I feel the sunflowers and corn should provide a shade from the summer heat and sun as well as a source of supplemental feed over winter.

I've been trying to figure out how to work beets into my pasture as they are a favored green by all my birds. Does anyone have beet pasturing plans or ideas?

 

[Clsikes]

Following

 

[SJ]

To Myrth's interest in hazelnuts. The wild "Beaked Hazel" we have growing in the fence lines around Wisconsin produces a fine fall forafe. And if grown in stands a year around cover. Protection from wind is an often overlooked consideration when but winter wind protection is key to getting good nut yeilds. Getting a good catkin bloom also can provide extra forage as the pollen is high in protein. Busting bunnies, grouse, squirrles, and pheasants out of a hazel thicket as well as collecting hazelnuts are fond fall memories.

A good hazel thicket has thousands of suckering shrubby canes and only a few what would be called small trees. Often you find Hazel with a fruit like raspberry or cherry growing in amoungst it.
I wanted to try beaked hazel here as a pasture "shelter belt" so far poor luck as the drought of '12 killed what sprouted.

 

[centrarchid]

I am using patches of brambles (black and raspberry), wild native roses, sumac and gooseberry as cover. All provide excellent cover during production season although management optimal for use as cover makes the brambles less than optimal for harvesting fruit. Patches I like are heavier than would be used for fruit production only. We have a native bamboo but my soil conditions do not seem conducive for its establishment; even exotic bamboos are having a hard time. Autumn and Russian olive bushes also have potential but they either go invasive or do not take around here.