permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

Paul Cereghino wrote:

> I have started authoring a functional design analysis of chickens, coops 
> and will soon start yards on the WIKI. It is useful to me as I have been 
> researching these things as I am in the process of designing and 
> installing my own -- the weakness being that I am fairly chicken 
> ignorant and so am primarily book-learned -- the strength being that I 
> am fairly chicken ignorant and so don't make any assumptions. I would be 
> greatful for any co-authorship or favorite resources (directly plugged 
> into the wiki would be ideal.) book reviews related to chickens, chicken 
> related PDFs (hey Jedd what do you think about PDF?), chicken liberation 
> strategies...
>
> Paul Cereghino
>
> http://www.permaculture.info/index.php/Chicken_coops
> http://www.permaculture.info/index.php/Chickens
>
> ELEMENT - ANIMAL - CHICKEN
> BUILT ENVIRONMENT - CHICKEN COOP
>
> My evolving design can be viewed at:
> http://www.permaculture.info/index.php/Foxhall_garden:mobile_chicken_armada
> with pictures coming soon.

I have a collection of out of print and recently published books on poultry 
raising
for profit, for food and for farm biodiversity (some are old Orange Judd 
rural series).
I'll look throught these and see what I can glean.

For starters:
[A}
you can feed pulets and grown chickens whole unground grains of all sorts, 
rye, oats, wheat, corn
make sure they have plenty of grit to use to pulverize it - rock quarry 
screenings (not fines),
grainte grit, oyster shell or sea shell
[B}
they can and will eat all sorts of foods and can use certain herbs as well
see Elizabeth Levy's books on herbs for livestock
[C]
forage crops for them include: greens of all sorts, lambs quarters, amaranth, 
comfrey
grasses, shoots of grain crops, sprouts
[D]
they will need considerable green forage area to feed from therefore you need 
rotational grazing
section off your chicken yard with three components, 1) permanent pasture 2) 
transient forage crops
3) an area with some shade from bushes and trees and piles of hay they can 
nest in or on
[E]
housing can consist of a predator-proof building attached to a predator-proof fenced open area with some overhead 
shelter and some uncovered; all this is attached to grazing and foraging areas, [D], either fenced or unfenced


--
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
Venaura Farm
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://market-farming.com/venaurafarm
http://venaurafarm.blogspot.com/
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech