As we continue to develop a sustainable lifestyle out in the woods, miles from any kind of town, having some chickens around has been sounding more and more appealing. Chickens could help us with many things; eggs and meat to feed us and our dog, and to sell; feathers for tying fishing flies for sale; manure for the garden, orchard, and pasture; garden bed tilling; fly population control; and understanding of and appreciation for life. In return we can give them protection from predators (except for the humane kind); sustainable population control; well balanced, natural diet; warm, dry, draft-free, super-spacious coop; varies, interesting, fenced outdoor landscape to explore; about 3/4 of an acre of pasture to forage, with possible excursions to other parts of the land; care for illness; and lots of love.

The basic idea is to give the chickens a mobile coop which can be moved between the garden and the chicken yard, depending on the season and how worn out the ground in the yard is. The coop and the yard will be in a corner of a 3/4 acre, fenced-in pasture, eventually being protected by dogs and accompanying sheep or goats. During the daylight hours, the birds will spend most of their time in the general pasture. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, I made a worm bin and have begun to raise some worms in it. Specifically, I’m raising red wiggler worms (eisenia fetida). I’m planning on feeding the worms to the chickens (a project that will start in spring of 2010, keep an eye out for the future chicken-blog), compost our kitchen scraps (vermicomposting), fortifying our garden soil with the resulting vermicompost material (worm castings or vermicompost), selling them to the local fishers, and perhaps selling them for vermiculture and vermicomposting purposes.

I made the bin by digging a square hole in the ground, about 18 inches deep (down to the clay where the moles don’t burrow), and about four and a half feet square. The walls of the hole were then lined with plastic bread trays that used to be in a bread delivery truck. The trays were tied together with plastic zip-ties. Next, I built a wooden frame on the ground surrounding the hole, and attached a piece of plywood on top of it with a few hinges. Finally, I added some 2″x4″ framing to the top side of the plywood to support some corrugated metal roofing at a slant so that it sheds rainwater quickly. 2 1/2″ and 3″ star-drive outdoor wood screws were used to fasten everything together. The roof-door is so heavy that there will be no problem keeping out rodents looking for food scraps. I will post some pictures soon so you can see exactly what I did. Read the rest of this entry »