Chicken Tractor

We have always free-ranged our chickens in the day and then shut them up in a coop at night. But this system is no longer working for us. There were two major problems: predators and eggs.

Although the dogs do a pretty good job of keeping the coyotes away, they do allow a neighbor's dog (male) to come up here whenever he pleases. And he has a nasty little chicken-eating habit. We have lost too many chickens to this damned dog, and we had to decide whether to kill him or change our system.

It's the other problem that probably went a long way towards saving the dog's life. Free ranch chickens like to lay eggs where they please, and they are often difficult to find. Furthermore, whenever a hen decided to set on a nest outside, a predator would come up at night and grab her.

So we have now switched to a chicken tractor. We made a hen house on wheels and a pen that we can easily disassemble and move. We move the pen once a week. This way they get to graze on grass and bugs without ever overgrazing the land. So far we like it and the chickens seem very content. More photos

Where the chicken pen was is overgrazed, from having to keep them inside for too long (after each time we lost a chicken). We have made rock terraces throughout the area, to try and help limit the runoff when it rains. Once the rains start we will plant the area with some ground cover, preferably a clover or some other nitrogen fixer. Next year, we will plant trees in the terraces. For now however, it will be used as our biochar area, where we cut wood and chop the small branches for biochar material.

Odd Jobs

We've been doing lots of odd jobs around the place.

Our small worm farm has grown so much that we had to make them a new worm bin. We cleaned out the old one and split the worms between the two bins. Both of us had handfuls and handfuls of worms, like spaghetti. Now that our original two small tubs have grown so much, we will soon be setting up a proper system for them, which separates the poop (which goes on the garden) and the worms (which help compost scraps and feed the chickens).

I finished the toilet's sawdust container.

Abe planted 10 more apple trees, given free by the local council. All the ones we planted before (cherries, apricots, plum) are now leafed out and pretty. The only one that hasn't is the pecan, but it is certainly very healthy.

We're making a movable hen house and pen. We have lost too many to coyotes free-ranching them, so we are now going to do a chicken tractor system, where you just move their pen so they can continue to graze grass. The house will be on bike wheels, so we can just push it to a new location.

We're also working on the garden. We have a bunch of plants outside now, and another 132 soil blocks started inside. It is now super warm (no more socks or sweaters, windows open, etc.), and no more chance of freezes.

Another super exciting addition to the family is a beehive. Abe was asked to remove a hive from someone's house, and we got to keep the bees and honey. Stay tuned for Abe's account of that episode!