Post by VegHead on Jan 10, 2015 8:48:40 GMT 10
Good morning all. Thought I'd post up a little ditty about using chickens to one's advantage, and not just for egg production.
Our chooks are mostly free-ranged, but let me explain that term in how we 'employ' our birds. The main pen houses the birds after dark, which is in a large run surrounded by chicken wire and electric deterrents around the perimeter. They are not locked in at night though and we have never had a hit from a fox (I'm generally out most nights hitting back at them though!!). We have a small access hatch in the fencing that opens to allow the birds to egress onto pasture during the day. They come back into the main house to lay. These birds are rotated also into their other 'employment' as necessary. We have another chicken run that has an offshoot into a small 3m x 3m fully enclosed 'run', however I do things a bit differently and throw all my compostables into this area and let the chooks do all the turning and hard work of the composting process for me.) After about 12 months I guess there are a few tonnes of golden compost in there ready for the garden beds. At the moment this area is housing the new batch of Light Sussex chicks and their attendant bantam mums; they are almost ready to meet the real world. The other entry/exit point leads into our sheep corral (fully fenced also to house poultry) and this is used to get them familiar with the wide open world they'll soon be exploring. Currently the corral is home to our Indian Runner ducklings who are also almost ready for bigger outings. Out with the ducks, in with the Light Sussex to the corral and the compost area is rested to break any pathogen cycles before another lot of lucky hens are brought onto the pile.
Another employment for the little cherubs is the garden cruiser. This is a low lying, fully contained mini chicken tractor that fits over and the same width as my garden beds. They clean up and 'roto-til' the beds after I've harvested my veg. Man, they clean up everything as well as pooping like there's no tomorrow. In this way we now have two-legged, insecticiders, grubiciders, fertilisers and general all-round cleaner-upperer crews and all for nix.
Finally, we run several large purpose-built chicken tractors (for layers, not broilers as we use dual-purpose breeds) that are run on pasture. As we 'farm' on such a small plot we must maintain maximum fertility at all times to enable us mere peasants to put food in the table for ourselves every day. So, here's a little ditty to explain a simple rotation we run here on the farm. I'll explain by describing just one single plot over a period of months so you get a rough idea. Firstly a plot of ground will be rotary-hoed (3PL on a tractor) roughly to form a clod ground, not a smooth seed bed like most would do). Plant a legume crop (I use a green manure mix) and hoe in or mow at 50% flower (a few months later). Put the chicken tractors over it moving them twice daily. This drops a lot of poop on the ground and adds high amounts of fertilisation. Move the chickens off when they have done their deeds and rest the ground to enable the potency of their manure to dissipate. Hoe the lot in again and irrigate heavily. Sow corn or maize (I like to put sorghum in there as well). Harvest the corn ears and leave the stalks standing. The sorghum heads are used as chicken feed. Place a pig house on the plot and place portable sheep yarding around the plot. Buy two or more piglets and let them loose! They'll smash everything down, eat the stalks, root up the ground and in general do all your plowing and fertilising for, again, for nix. After they are taken into the shed and turned into various Porky Delights we put the chickens back onto the same ground that the pigs have recently vacated and start the cycle all over again but moving to the next plot in the rotation to do the same. This BTW is a neat way to grow super veg crops.
I understand that this post is long winded and not for everyone but it should give you an idea of just how useful the humble chook can be.
Dual purpose breeds for meat and eggs are really an economical way to go for those who can stomach the processing (excuse the pun) such as ourselves (we never buy meat).
Well I think that's well and truly enough from me.
Veg.
Our chooks are mostly free-ranged, but let me explain that term in how we 'employ' our birds. The main pen houses the birds after dark, which is in a large run surrounded by chicken wire and electric deterrents around the perimeter. They are not locked in at night though and we have never had a hit from a fox (I'm generally out most nights hitting back at them though!!). We have a small access hatch in the fencing that opens to allow the birds to egress onto pasture during the day. They come back into the main house to lay. These birds are rotated also into their other 'employment' as necessary. We have another chicken run that has an offshoot into a small 3m x 3m fully enclosed 'run', however I do things a bit differently and throw all my compostables into this area and let the chooks do all the turning and hard work of the composting process for me.) After about 12 months I guess there are a few tonnes of golden compost in there ready for the garden beds. At the moment this area is housing the new batch of Light Sussex chicks and their attendant bantam mums; they are almost ready to meet the real world. The other entry/exit point leads into our sheep corral (fully fenced also to house poultry) and this is used to get them familiar with the wide open world they'll soon be exploring. Currently the corral is home to our Indian Runner ducklings who are also almost ready for bigger outings. Out with the ducks, in with the Light Sussex to the corral and the compost area is rested to break any pathogen cycles before another lot of lucky hens are brought onto the pile.
Another employment for the little cherubs is the garden cruiser. This is a low lying, fully contained mini chicken tractor that fits over and the same width as my garden beds. They clean up and 'roto-til' the beds after I've harvested my veg. Man, they clean up everything as well as pooping like there's no tomorrow. In this way we now have two-legged, insecticiders, grubiciders, fertilisers and general all-round cleaner-upperer crews and all for nix.
Finally, we run several large purpose-built chicken tractors (for layers, not broilers as we use dual-purpose breeds) that are run on pasture. As we 'farm' on such a small plot we must maintain maximum fertility at all times to enable us mere peasants to put food in the table for ourselves every day. So, here's a little ditty to explain a simple rotation we run here on the farm. I'll explain by describing just one single plot over a period of months so you get a rough idea. Firstly a plot of ground will be rotary-hoed (3PL on a tractor) roughly to form a clod ground, not a smooth seed bed like most would do). Plant a legume crop (I use a green manure mix) and hoe in or mow at 50% flower (a few months later). Put the chicken tractors over it moving them twice daily. This drops a lot of poop on the ground and adds high amounts of fertilisation. Move the chickens off when they have done their deeds and rest the ground to enable the potency of their manure to dissipate. Hoe the lot in again and irrigate heavily. Sow corn or maize (I like to put sorghum in there as well). Harvest the corn ears and leave the stalks standing. The sorghum heads are used as chicken feed. Place a pig house on the plot and place portable sheep yarding around the plot. Buy two or more piglets and let them loose! They'll smash everything down, eat the stalks, root up the ground and in general do all your plowing and fertilising for, again, for nix. After they are taken into the shed and turned into various Porky Delights we put the chickens back onto the same ground that the pigs have recently vacated and start the cycle all over again but moving to the next plot in the rotation to do the same. This BTW is a neat way to grow super veg crops.
I understand that this post is long winded and not for everyone but it should give you an idea of just how useful the humble chook can be.
Dual purpose breeds for meat and eggs are really an economical way to go for those who can stomach the processing (excuse the pun) such as ourselves (we never buy meat).
Well I think that's well and truly enough from me.
Veg.
