My post “ Are Chickens deserving it ? ” has picked up a luck of interest since I posted it a few months back .
Liz annotate recently :
“ Hey David ,
I appreciate your reflection on volaille and yes , for many , they are not worth it , but I would care to guide out some of the other “ non - monetary ” reward I ’ve calculated into my flock which are often overlooked and worth their weight in gold .
mention : I have a movable electric engagement paddock organization on a little over 3 landed estate with 30 layer hiss . We are plan to descale up to 75 for an egg chicken coop .
-bug gleaning- the birds get set on the garden beds when they are “ turned ” ( we do n’t till ) in the fall . The birds ransack through all the soil picking out bugs and their eggs . We ’ve keep our stain clean of pests for years using this method acting and get a boost of poo for spring planting .
-manure- we grease one’s palms the place with an entire one-time coop where I get our roosting poo in large tubs and flip them into next raise beds for tote up fertility . They also fertilize the field where they roam , improving pasture without any amendments .
-compost- I take the old straw from nest boxes and employ it in our compost system . Sometimes I bring the poo tubs too for more nutrients .
- promissory note - my birds are fertilize a USDA Organic sluttish caryopsis mixture , the cheaper shot caryopsis is falsify , and will not have the rich nutrient you want for your soil .
I ’ve never had to bribe soil amendments ( besides lime ) , new potting soil , or dear herbicides to treat my gardens .
I ’d say the biggest matter with Gallus gallus is the feed . We use far less cereal on our birds because of our movable pasture systems . I upgrade layers , so the nut production does require more grain . When I did a season of broiler , we pastured them and get them slow grow a fiddling , but the pay back on less texture for more grass was worth it .
clip is money , but smart conception can make volaille sluttish and profitable . There is a lot of cloth out there about how , and how many wench to take on for that lucre to flow . Small backyard wench pets are not about net profit , so for those of you in the backyard systems , no , crybaby are not profitable , and should be seen as sumptuosity pets . in person , I count my birdie metre as an delectation , and do count the enjoyment factor I get out of my engagement with the chickens as another hidden earnings .
Livestock will always take more time than botany . That ’s the the true . But my direct engagement with a living animal is a being to being exchange I do not live with fruit and veg . flora do n’t stare up at you with quite the same stimulating coup d’oeil . lol , guess I ’m a birdie brain . ”
I really prefer flora to animals , but Liz does have some good point .
Scale make a remainder , too . If you plan well and heighten enough birds , you could reach profitability on chickens .
I ’ve fight back with a diversity of system and have still been burned again and again , but at some decimal point I ’ll get my own land and work up a good frame-up for volaille .
After I plant a nice , static , non - noisy , low - maintenance food forest , of form .
