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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Guinea fowl in the Garden?
  • Date: Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:25:25 -0500


On Jan 13, 2010, at 12:56 PM, Marlin Burkholder wrote:

<x-tad-bigger> It has worked OK for me to run chickens over garden areas during the winter to clean up debris and some pests.  During the summer the chickens are kept within bounds of electronet fencing but it is not hard to set up the chicken pen adjacent to garden strips and to extend the pen over garden plots for a week or two once a crop such as corn or beans is finished.  This accomplishes two things—finishes gleaning off the unmarketable portion of the harvest and likely gets rid of some more of the residing pests.  Before the next crop is planted the ground will be worked up and any manure deposition will be well incorporated into the soil and and broken down by normal biological processes long before the next crop is harvested.  This might not be technically proper according to some organic and (or) food safety regulations but to me it makes the most sense and it is practical.  
</x-tad-bigger>

If I understand correctly what you're doing, it probably does meet current organic standards. From the USDA regulations:

"Raw animal manure . . . must be . . . incorporated into the soil not less than 120 days prior to the harvest of a crop whose edible portion has direct contact with the soil surface or soil particles; or incorporated into the soil not less than 90 days prior to the harvest of a crop whose edible portion does not have direct contact with the soil surface or soil particles"

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale



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