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

[Beekissed]

I think winter wheat is an annual, so I'm not sure it would return each year like a perennial grass.

 

[angelib1]

I grow swiss chard and broccoli all winter, the broccoli stops doing much when it gets really cold but it starts growing again really early spring. I just snip off leaves to feed the chickens.

 

[OrpingtonManor]

I have so many deer that even the perennials have to be replaced every year. Deer in the winter are not nearly the problem of summer, when they have their fawns and are lactating.

Here, we grow our broccoli and the like in the winter because the summers are just too hot. I was thinking of lettuce and chard for the winter. The cole crops would probably not need the cold frame here, except to protect them from the marauding herds of deer.

ETA - Broccoli leaves would be another fine source of calcium for the chooks.

 

[angelib1]

I plant in beds so I just make hoops of pvc and cover with bird netting to keep out deer and cats and dogs and..... When it gets cold I just swich over to plasic sheeting and row covers.

 

[Ladyhawke1]

You know I have been spot reading this thread and I am really amazed at some of the comments. Are we all really feeling that helpless? Do we all really think we have no power in this country?

Are some of us that dumb on some of the subject matter?

Now I am waiting for the moderators to cut me off….that too is called censorship and yes, we are afraid of that also.

Ahhh! Too much information makes people dangerous. So our populations are dumbed down….it is safer that way……make no waves….shhhh. Guess what, it is working and it shows.




http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0731-23.htm

 

[angelib1]

I don't know about other but the more I do for my self the more power I have over my own life. Is that what you meant?

 

[OrpingtonManor]

I know what you're saying about some of the posts. I was getting frustrated with the focus on the doomsday scenario, as if being self-sufficient and sustainable wasn't a goal for today. While I want to be aware of what the government is up to, I don't want to let it get into my psyche so much that it paralyzes me. There are so many good things we can and should be doing.

PVC frames - yes. I will have to make some rectangular shapes with corners. I love bending PVC into hoops, but my space is too small to handle that. I really am on a small suburban lot. I plan to make cold frames with some old windows I have angled to catch the winter sun. Then, remove them in summer and add the PVC frames and netting to keep the deer (and chickens) out.

 

[Ladyhawke1]

Quote:
“No man is an island.” What happens to one will eventually show up on our doorsteps. This country is too interdependent.

I think it is great that we become self-sufficient. However, to cut ourselves off from the rest of humanity in times of woe will weakens us all. If we are all to survive, our differences have to be minimized or we are all lost.

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Quote:
“No man is an island.” What happens to one will eventually show up on our doorsteps. This country is too interdependent.

I think it is great that we become self-sufficient. However, to cut ourselves off from the rest of humanity in times of woe will weakens us all. If we are all to survive, our differences have to be minimized or we are all lost.

I don't recall anyone suggesting that we cut ourselves off.

Could you please site the post number so I can go back and read it?

meri

 

[OrpingtonManor]

Quote:
“No man is an island.” What happens to one will eventually show up on our doorsteps. This country is too interdependent.

I think it is great that we become self-sufficient. However, to cut ourselves off from the rest of humanity in times of woe will weakens us all. If we are all to survive, our differences have to be minimized or we are all lost.

John Donne -- I've been referring to that passage in some capacity since my teens. It's truth really struck me, and has stuck with me.

I'm in complete agreement with you.