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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Pasture Restoration for Heirloom Poultry
  • Date: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:08:15 -0700


Pasture Restoration for Heirloom Poultry
http://www.permaculture.org/nm/index.php/site/Heirloom-Poultry-Pasture/

What now is a diverse chicken pasture was an old monoculture grass field.
Focus was placed on introducing perennial woody plantings, poultry forage
and groundcovers. We experimented with chicory, various brassicas
(radishes, mustards), comfrey, alfalfa, vetches and clovers. After few
years of tweaking, we now have a fenced irrigated rotational pasture with
four grazing areas.

Every other year we raise 25-35 chicks for meat. We harvest our chicken
ourselves, following a ritual of thanking them for the gift of good food.
Some of our friends or students join us to help and to learn what it means
to harvest your own meat. To raise chicks, we have been using chicken
tractor system: a large light weight cage that we move across the chicken
pasture for controlled grazing. We cannot leave our chicks in the tractor
overnight: too many predators in our area, but we train them to go to the
chicken house and back to the tractor, just by simply following us. The
training takes 3-4 days and a lot of running around and cursing. But the
chicks eventually figure out to follow us; straight into the tractor!

Favorite Chicken Breeds:

* Araukana (lays green eggs, very alert to predation)
* Dominique (good layer, tasty meat)
* Cornish Rock (best mama of all breeds! Gets broody and brings up
wonderful chicks)
* Australop (good layer and tasty)



Favorite Turkey Breeds:

* Bourbon Red
* Royal Palm
* Rio Grande Wild


Bourbon Red (pictured on photos in the left bar) is an elegant and
beautiful breed. They are good breeders and never fail to procreate, and
the females are excellent mothers. All our males have good predisposition
and don’t get aggressive as turkey males tend to do (except with the male
we have this year… his name is Stalin).
Royal Palm turkeys are beautiful and gentle. They don’t grow as large as
any other breed, in fact they are the smallest turkey of all. They are also
devoted moms and fend for themselves very well.
Wild Rio Grande breed is spectacular and very self-sufficient. However, we
did not have much lack with keeping them - they tend to wander off.

Commercial Breeds
We once made the mistake of purchasing a commercial breed of chickens.
These grew at an astounding rate, resulting in crippled birds, which were
so unhealthy as not to be able to walk, pooping under themselves…
We found the idea of eating their meat very unappealing, yet this is the
breed commonly found on the shelves of food stores. This experience led us
to looking into heritage breeds to find healthier, happier poultry that fit
into our philosophy of animal husbandry. Since receiving our first heritage
birds we have learned that they are better moms (commercial breeds don’t
maintain broodiness), are a lot more alert to predators, are healthy, live
longer, and produce significantly more delicious meat and eggs.

Flock Composition
Presently our flock consists of chickens, ten or more guinea fowl and
turkeys. Guinea fowl are an excellent watch bird, making a loud ruckus when
anything unusual takes place. They prefer protein to vegetative diet, i.e.
really enjoy catching grasshoppers and caterpillars. The turkeys also
patrol the land as a grasshopper control squadron, which, also, seems to be
their preferred food. Chickens are more interested in scratching the soil
surface, looking for seeds. In combination, the medley serves functions of
pest control, land security, fertilization of soil, mild weed control and
production of meat and eggs.

Partial Chicken pasture plant list:

* Nanking cherry
* Sand Cherry
* Siberian Pea Shrub
* Day Lily
* Apple
* Plum
* Raspberry
* Mulberry
* Black Locust
* Sea Buckthorn
* Pasture Grass
* Alfalfa
* Apricot
* Strawberry clover
* Brassicas
* Hairy Vetch
* Comfrey





  • [Livingontheland] Pasture Restoration for Heirloom Poultry, Tradingpost, 03/09/2009

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