How to become self-sufficient (kinda) with chickens.

[The Zoo]

If a BIG earthquake hit the creek might disappear. I know that fundmental changes can happen to a landscape when a quake hits. We have an earthquake kit with gallons of water (bought at the grocery store when they go on sale), food, clothing, pet food, dishes, cups, soap, shampoo, first aid kit, etc. Basically anything we think we'd need for at least a week of surviving. Have our tent in there too I believe. The dehydrated food packets from REI are awesome because they last a long time and don't take up room. I clean it out and check expiration dates once a year.
With the garden and the hens (eggs) we'd be able to do ok I think. I would miss my warm showers but at least we'd be able to feed ourselves and the animals!

I'm getting more and more convinced to buy the Encyclopedia!

As for root cellaring - I don't have a *real* cellar just a crawl space under our house but it keeps an ambient temp and is a good place to store potatoes and winter squash. I use wooden wine boxes for that. I also keep our wine down there

I know that a root cellar needs to stay pretty cool about 45 degrees.

 

[CheerfulHeart2]

I think you can make a "root cellar" by burying (sp?) a 50 gallon garbage can in the yard. I have seen something like this in a book, but it has been years....

 

[OrpingtonManor]

Quote:
I'm definitely not planning to rely on the stream. It's just that if something happened today, without a better plan, I would take a bucket to the stream and bring it home for filtering. The filter removes all that pollution, but it can't do it for long. That's why it's a temporary solution. I plan to create a rain barrel collection system. Still not a perfect solution. Anything I try to create on a suburban lot will have its flaws in a catastrophic event. But, in the meantime, it will relieve a lot of the strain on my current system, using it to irrigate plants and chickens.

There are some BYCers who are much more knowledgable about feeding chickens than I am. Maybe it's time to pull some of them into this discussion; to see what they know about feeding chickens something besides commercial feed. Hmmm....

 

[OrpingtonManor]

Quote:
I have the cold, underground area already. It's the actual care and rotation of the veggies so they last through the winter, as well as expanding the range of what I store that I need to learn about. That book said there were over 20 veggies suitable for winter storage. Wow! You mean I don't have to eat cabbage, potatoes and squash every winter night? Kidding, sort of!

 

[OrpingtonManor]

Quote:
I know you can't come to the Chickenstock, but for future thought, that is one of the things we could do at them -- bring our books to give others an idea of what is out there.

 

[The Zoo]

keep some iodine tablets around too - that will hopefully kill anything in the water the filter misses - you can get those at REI too.

I wish I could go to the Chickenstock! We have a wedding in MT - I'm not sure she'd appreciate me not showing up because I have a chicken party to go to...heehee.

You can cellar onions, peppers, garlic, apples, potatoes, winter squash, beans (salted), parsnips, carrots, rutabagas and I'm not sure what else.

 

[WeedEater]

I have to react to the "if we all don't make it together" comment.

WE WON'T. It won't be fair and it will likely be very, very ugly. However, this should not deter those who are prudent. Flock security is another issue entirely, beyond the backyard fox or weasel, we will eventually have human thieves to worry about as well.

This issue of this thread is to maintain a sustainable system, which needs the interplay of soil, water, feed, and genes( if we completely ignore disease and other predators).

Writers like Scott Nearing, Gene Logsdon, and Elliot Coleman provide a good framework on a manageable scale described as "cottage farming". Getting into proper crop rotation (regardless of scale), the use of animal manures, rock powders, and undersowing, as well as using your chickens as part of the cycle of land management are addressed by these authors.

No matter what the scale is of your farm or lot, the overall objective will be to continually increase soil fertility, and therefore crop fertility, and therefore animal virility (as in overall health), with a minimum import of resources from beyond your plot. Are we going to be able to feed our hens oyster shells when gas goes up to $20 a gallon? I highly doubt it!
However, we may need to expend some energy on transforming the used chicken egg shells so they don't get into any canniballistic habits.

When we grow something from the land, such as corn, we are transforming soil into those plants. Humans are going to use only a small portion of that plant. If we let animals graze the rest, or till the rest back in, we are saving the majority of our soil resource, all the while increasing its fertility by creating humus. The flesh and eggs of our chickens come about the same way, transforming grass, bugs, and grains into their own bodies and offspring. We need to be constantly feeding any "waste" back into the system, while occasionally importing outside resources to maximize soil fertility.

Rainbarrels are an excellent source of water, and can still be bought cheaply off of craigslist. You will be blown away with how much water you can store with even intermittant rain.

Your community is going to be incredibly important in a survival scenario. No person is an island unto themselves. Even if you have the perfect set up and all your own resources, there is nothing that is going to prevent loss from time to time through means beyond your control. Thieves, earthquakes, disease...who the heck knows? It was stated earlier that you will at least need to trade roosters from time to time. It would be good to have solid relationships with your neighbors that are mutually beneficial for resources and security.

Anyone who has stories to tell from parents or grandparents would definitely be a welcome addition to this thread....tales of survival from war, poverty, pioneering, or the Great Depression would be relevant, I think.

Anyhow....

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Quote:
One of my favorite passages from "Little House in the Big Woods" was where Laura described their winter storage and playing among all those veggies and barrels of food they had stored up.

When I was a kid I could just imagine the whole thing... and imagine myself there

meri

 

[wildorchid053]

we kept our babies in the basement till they were 12 weeks old and the coop/run was done.. i don't see why you can't keep them in there for protection if needed and raise them indoors lol.. i was talking to a contractor who was helping build our house and he had some severe winter problems and had to keep his baby calf in the cellar till it passed .. ewwwww they pee big time .. but i guess you do what you have too lol

 

[The Zoo]

Mojo - me too!!!
I LOVED those books. Absolutely loved them. I wonder if that's where my desire to be self sufficient started...I still remember the passage about a Christmas gift that someone gave her mom and it was an orange studded with cloves. How exotic that must have been back then! And a hand sewn doll was the best present she could get and a bit of store bought candy. Maybe I need to read those books again as an adult

Weed Eater - I couldn't agree more.