permaculture

[Ute Bohnsack <sustag@eircom.net>]

Thank you, Larry, for your comments.
Of course I do have the chickens health in mind as well. They shall get
everything they need. I have a source of organic feed grain, which I get
for my goats, plus lots of whey for about 7-8 months a year from making
goats cheese. Grit and lime would also be provided, and food scraps etc.
Bran, mash etc. all is available. I'm not planning on feeding the birds
on that little bit of ground alone. 
I'm also in the process of building a small mobile run, our last one
wasn't sturdy enough. However, in order to achieve sufficient control of
bugs/slugs I need a bigger set up than I can move on my own, especially
since I've been having a bad back since sweet 17. The small mobile run
will be a supplement for e.g. the soft-fruit garden. Such
'mini-tractors' are handy but I like giving the birds their 10m2 each
which is difficult with a mobile set-up.
I've toyed with the parallel bed kind of idea but the need for a
permanently grazed perimeter made me move towards the concentric idea.
Do you keep poultry yourself?

So long,
Ute
in the sodden place (quite literally, but not as bad as Central and
Eastern Europe, God bless them)

lfl@intrex.net wrote:
> 
> Ute Bohnsack wrote:
> > Since some folks asked for a graphic depiction of the idea (credit for
> > the idea goes to Doug Norval) I've put the whole thing, including your
> > comments on-line at
> > http://www.ibiblio.org/permaculture-online/ideas1.html
> 
> Beautiful job you did with that page!
> 
> > Any further ideas and comments are most welcome.
> 
> I do have a few alternative ideas for you.
> 1) The most important consideration should be quality nutrition for your
> chickens, and of course, their overall health. Their habitat should be
> designed and implemented with that in mind, primarily. Stacking
> functions to incorporate your vegetable garden would imho be a secondary
> consideration. Keep in mind that eggs laid by chickens fed fresh plant
> material, insects, kelp, probiotic and naturally grown grain will
> contain adequate omega-3 fatty acids in enough quantity to conteract
> the omega-5 (or is it 6?) fatty acids responsible for the problems
> associated with cholesterol from eggs.
> 2) With 1) in mind, I would build a moveable pen that could aligh with
> a group of parallel "runs" (fenced in) that would be cycled through use
> as forage areas or garden areas.
> 
> > Don't just *stare* at that screen - Drop us a line and tell us something
> > we should know.
> 
> More later.
> 
> LL
>