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  • From: George Anna Clark <esac@laneta.apc.org>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] new article: concerns about the way most people raise chickens
  • Date: Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:07:41 -0500

Hi Paul,

loved your article, appreciate laughing while being informed. I keep wanting my chicken tractor to work but have also given up; thank you for nixing designs that haven't occurred to me yet.

The chickens are free pasturing and driving me crazy, but still not the priority on the farm. Under these conditions I often put chicks and their mom in the tractor for the first week (moving it daily) for more protection and better food supply.

I've decided on a pastured paddock system but with one chicken coop for sleeping and laying for better predator protection (snakes are a bigger problem than ferrets) and more convenient egg collection. Notice that you don't comment on this option. It requires a run to communicate between the pastures and the coop (or placing the coop in the middle of the paddocks, but that wouldn't work for my layout), and I could also connect the coop to the sheep/pig sheds, so they can spend a few hours controlling maggots- this has worked well with the sheep.. The sheep and pigs are on a rotating pasture system, but I have to enclose the sheep at night, otherwise they're prone to jump the portable electric fence. The pigs I can generally keep on pasture 24/7, but when they get in heat some will jump (literally, or go under it) the fence and an unfenced pig is a disaster--- lots of work and vegetation ruined in a very, very short time.

Regarding breeds, I like the naked neck chicken which looks ugly as sin but is regarded as a good dual purpose chicken, are good mothers and taste great. I'm glad I got over the ugliness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_Neck or google for more information. Mine lay white rather than brown eggs...

George Anna

paul wheaton wrote:
For years I've tried to tell people about stuff that I think is a bit
of a better way to raise chickens. But it all comes out sounding like
crazy talk. So for the last few weeks I've been trying to write it as
one gob that gets the point across. I think this now gets the point
across!

http://www.richsoil.com/chickens.jsp

Please tell me what you think!
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