The EssentiaList

by Catherine Haug

I don’t know about you, but chicken is just about my favorite meat (after lutefisk). And of course one cannot do without eggs for breakfast or for baking. And what about eggnog at Holiday time? Especially when times get tough and we must depend on our own (or the community’s) resources for our survival.

ESP is planning a panel discussion on raising chickens (and other poultry) for our February gathering. To get you started, check out this article from:

• National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service: Alternative Poultry Production Systems and Outdoor Access.

And lest you think chickens just won’t work in your suburban residence, check out:

• Photo collection of Urban Chickens from good.is, by Todd Parsons: Picture Show: Urban Chickens

Did you know that chickens offer many other benefits for us humans, besides eggs and meat?

Chickens as Pets

What can be more entertaining than watching chickens scratch the ground and run around the yard, getting into everything? And they like being held and petted, too. Your dog will love his new playmates.

And, heck, they pay for themselves by providing eggs daily, and meat when it’s time to say goodbye.

For more, see:

• Bird Hobbyist: Chickens as Pets, by Kathy Bernhardt
• Small Farm Permaculture & Sustainable Living: Chickens as Pets
• My Pet Chicken.com

Gardening with Chickens: the Chicken Tractor

What task do chickens do the best?  Digging! Give them a patch of ground and they’ll have it tilled and fertilized in no time at all. Of course, this ability can be both a boon and a curse, depending on where you allow them to roam and dig.

So, why not plan ahead, and let your chickens do your  tilling for you, or manage your compost. Build a moveable cage and run, fitted to the top of your raised beds (or compost pile). Set it atop a bed you want tilled and let the chickens do their thing. They will excavate, add new excrement, and eat weed seeds and insects.

This is permaculture, at its best!

For more, see:

• Permaculture Institute
• Alternative Poultry Production Systems and Outdoor Access by Anne Fanatico
• The Walden Effect: Chicken Tractor Permaculture
• The City Chicken: Photo gallery of chicken tractors
• Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil, by Andy Lee and pat Foreman (see Amazon.com for a sneak peak)
• Backyard Poultry Magazine, June/July 2009: Permaculture – Gardening with Chickens

Chickens for Insect & Weed Control

Chickens are natural omnivores: they need both plant and animal foods in their diet to be healthy and produce those wonderful dark yellow-orange yolks. Well, of course they don’t eat the meat of large animals, but they love insects and maggots. In fact, one of the reasons they dig, is in search of maggots in the soil.

And they also eat seeds. So you don’t want to turn them loose in a newly seeded garden. But for ridding a lawn of weed seeds naturally, they can’t be beat. Or turn them loose on your compost, to find the seeds your composting process did not kill.

For more, see:

• Mother Earth News: Poultry Pest Patrol
• Alternative Poultry Production Systems and Outdoor Access by Anne Fanatico
• Birds for Natural Insect Control
• Purdue Extension: How Beneficial are Birds in Battles with Bugs? by Tom Turpin

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 5th, 2009 at 12:31 pm and is filed under Gardening, Home & Ranch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.