Mr. Snowie and his ladies at CHOE
Sustainability, raising chickens, using herbs for healthier chickens, gardening, green house, and living off the grid is fast becoming a way of life for many folks rather than a passing trend. Some folks do it for the pure enjoyment, others do it to provide food for their families, some do it for commercial reasons, and some do it for survival reasons to prepare for the possibility of food shortages in the future. There are many ways to live a more sustainable lifestyle in which gardening, recycling, composting, planting plants and trees for your planting zone, raising bee's, pollinators, cattle, sheep etc. and my favorite, of course, raising chickens which has become an important part of this great path to a healthier way of living. When raising chickens off grid predator protection is extremely important. As tempting as it is to just let your chickens free range out there the facts show that your chickens can quickly fall victim to many kinds of disease, viruses, and deadly predators, as I have discovered on my little chicken farm. I have always free ranged my birds on two acres and kept them in coops and a large trailer house at night for protection. The only way I have been able to keep predators like hawks, foxes, and others away from them during the day is to use Bird X , electric fences, barbed wire, guardian animals such as cats, dogs, and a donkey and enclosed large enriched runs for smaller breeds like Bantams and Silkies. I also learned not to let the chickens out of the chicken house until after egg laying times because they tend to find other places to lay their eggs besides the nest boxes. Another risk of free ranging chickens is the fact that wild birds who carry diseases may access the chickens, food and water and the chickens can get sick if they are exposed to infected wild bird feces. Chickens need a large area to roam freely but they also need protection. Chickens represent a sustainable way of living if you raise them correctly. It is best to raise your birds without damage your local ecosystem and with the least amount of chemicals and pesticides as possible. Vaccinating your birds and keeping them in protected areas will keep your birds healthier. Chickens are very sustainable because you can grow your own feed, they are excellent at insect control, their feces can be composted into garden fertilizer and even sold for extra money to cover your feed bill, they will happily eat your table scraps from fresh fruit and vegetable preparation (fence that garden in because most standard size breed chickens will eat that too after they get all the bugs) but the best part is your hen will lay an egg almost every day. Dual purpose breeds can be used for eggs and meat for those people who eat their chickens, though I myself have never been able to kill any of the chickens in my care and would never think of eating them as I consider each of them as my little children I am responsible to take care of, but that's just me and I digress. Below you will find links to my recent articles on chickens and sustainability.
More About Sustainability & Chickens |
