4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Angels4]

Permaculture Facts about Chickens

 

 

In the tough times we are undoubtedly entering, the humble chicken will be an invaluable element to have in any system geared to supporting family health and survival.

 

They’re very useful critters and can do a lot of work for you if your system is designed right – i.e. using Permaculture principles. This gives families who raise chickens a distinct sustainability advantage.

 

In Permaculture we raise chickens most productively after first analyzing its inputs (needs) and outputs (products).

 

Like any element we’re considering adding to our farming system, this will help us to understand its relationships to other parts of the system, and site it where and how it can capitalize most on these. Such an approach maximizes yield and minimizes work.

 

Outputs of the Chicken

 

The yields (outputs) of the chicken, including its products and behaviors, make it indispensable to sustainable living.

 

Products:

 

• Eggs and… More Chickens!

 

 

 

Eggs and meat are the products of chickens that most people can easily name.

 

However, a Permaculture view of chickens takes account of many others:

 

• Manure

 

Chicken manure is a great source of nitrogen, a nutrient required in large amounts by growing pastures and crops.

 

 

• Methane

 

Chicken manure can be used as a fuel for methane digesters, thus generating natural gas for cooking and other uses.

 

• CO2

 

Like all animals, chickens breathe in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide (along with body heat) can be harnessed using clever Permaculture design of chicken houses to boost the growth of greenhouse plants.

 

• Feathers

 

 

 

Aside from their potential use to stuff pillows and the like, feathers are valuable food for earthworms and compost.

 

Behaviors:

 

• Scratching

 

To raise chickens ethically they must have something to scratch in, and mulch is their favorite! This scratching can be harnessed to weed and till the soil, while simultaneously fertilizing it.

 

Here’s one system that makes it easy to make good use of all the work that the chicken can do for you in the garden.

 

• Foraging

 

Chickens are omnivores. They thrive on weeds, rotten fruit, and insect pests, effectively replacing the need for herbicides and pesticides, as well as much of the work of collecting and destroying fallen fruit in your orchard.

 

Harnessing all these needs, behaviors and "outputs" of chickens to your advantage is how to raise chickens for maximum welfare and yield.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Just as we thought . Chickens are brilliant .

 

That WAS interesting . Thanks, Mark .

[Angels4]

Just confirmed what I've always thought Vicki.

[Valkyrie]

- Well I have been trying to adopt some of those points (without realising the benefits!). They were whingeing to shelter in the greehouse because I hadn't opened the door and it was raining heavily. But when I did they sulked off. I hope my plants didn't suffer for lack of CO2! Perhaps I should run in there and have a quick whinge myself to make up for the girls lack of participation!

Their weeding ability is rubbish - but they seem to have weeded out all the good plants that I want to keep. Do they eat dandelions, nope. Do they eat bittercress, nope. Do they eat geraniums and hostas, yep - and whatever is left is scratched to oblivion!

But manure - Ohhhhhh Yesssss!