Great addition to learn how to grow flax in permaculture practices. even better. Maybe I'm in the right sight to win a book. I am a weaver and spinner, i've woven linen but not learned to spin it yet. and definitely interested in learning the whole process in permiculture terms. thank you for sharing with us. I have begun to ware linen for energy and health and it makes a difference.
Just what i wanted to learn. I spin other fibers and have woven flax. learning to grow and process flax into linen and spin it has been a goal of mine. i wanted to sign up for the free book but i can not figure out how to do it. I've had this problem before and missed out on things.
thank you for your sharing and your book. I live in high altitude New Mexico, i wonder how flax grows in dry climate?
question for Author; do you know the wild edibles in the southwest high mountain regions?
Also how do you go about learning if something is edible for food? we have a plant that grows well here in early spring that i was told was Russian alfalfa and is good for cows. would it be good for humans as well? is is high nutrient like alfalfa? Some have complained of allergies to its pollen. How would i find out about this plant. i use it for mulch. but i am wondering if it could be a food source as well.
Is there a path to go in finding out for ones self if a plant is eatable and how beneficial it is?
anna hopping
i was just trying to think of a way to create extra sleeping space by possibly suspending a bed from the ceiling and letting it down for sleeping and raising it up out of the way during the day. Any ideas how to raise and lower it?
I have heard about sprouting grains and seeds for chickens and other animals. one lady drilled holes in the bottom of a bucket and hung it on a nail. her rinsing consisted of dipping the bucket with the sprouts into a bucket of water for a few minuets and pulled it out hang it and went on to the next one. that is one way to get green in winter. or mico-greens.
what is CVC or the stuff you put in water and why? also i noticed someone said to put it into the fermenting feed. Could you explain please?
add; the brush uses no toothpaste at all. you just dab it on the surface you want to collect from and it collects stuff which you rinse off the brush and go at it again till you get all surfaces. very effective.
i use just salt water; i dip tooth brush in and brush. the stuff just comes off the very easily off ther tongue as well and i do the oil pull.
my daughter introduced me to a kind of brush that collects plac rather than brushing it off. saying regular brushing pushes the plac into the gums. the brushes work very well and it collects the plac off the roof of mouth and all surfaces. she noticed her gums become healthier before she was having trouble with her gums. I have tried it and it works well but it takes some time. It collects a lot. i will get with her to get the name and share that later.
thanks on your experience. i want a camouflage coloring because white is a target here and we have lots of hawks. White anything does not last long. I even make sure cats are of a color. i have new dogs so i do not know how well they will do with the skunks. i will check out the sight. i have been interested in the buff orffingtans but i would like a bird capable of protecting their young when foraging.
thank you for the number per rooster. i know the difficulties of not having enough hens per rooster. i had thought i would start with 5. but maybe i will need to increase that number.
i have read that ducks lay all winter. so a few could produce during the lean time.
i plan of having both chickens and ducks for different reasons. they fill different niches.
I am not so interested in a big meat bird than i am in sustainable production. if a bird type does well on foraging i can live with a smaller bird. but just being smaller dose not mean it is a good forger or thrives on forage verses grain. i read paul's write up on different chicken production methods and i want to do the paddock one. it seems more natural and in my experience we had the free range which did not negatively effect out life as he said a few stated but i also have experienced the negative effects in smaller spaces. so it was good to get a run down on what others have been doing. The write up helped me a lot.
i do not want the bread up kind that grow off quickly and i do not want to depend on buying chicks.
i am not really interested in having to have eggs all the time. i can do without eggs when they are not laying or are slow. that is natural. we eat fruit when it is ripe.
so a good forager that has not breed out its instincts to reproduce that has some kind of size. not subject to getting out is a plus and even if they will protect them self is a plus. although gentle is nice as well.
i like to watch a momma hen protect her chicks and guide them to their food.
i know bannies are great brooders and can raise sever bachus of chicks a year. but they are small. so a little larger would be nice. bannies we had as children were feral and tended their self. we of course had actions that brought food available to them. they fly out so that would create a different type need.
i do not like the bare ground pens. and i will not have land for grazing. maybe at the beginning but i have food forest planed and begun.
also the number will depend on my ability to provide forage for them. so i figure we will grow together.
so knowing a good number to have to have good genetics and ratio to roaster is important.
thank you so much for your sharing about your chicken house ideas. and the why you chose them. i will make use this info.
i plan to use ducks as well. i found they are great to seal ponds so they hold water. i had planed to house them separate but i may think that again. also the ducks are great on grasshoppers and insects. without scratching up the soil. if you are wanting to avoid that. and they do need to bathe. i keep a large water container just big enough for their bath. but when i get my pond built that will be taken care of when it is not frozen.
leanna jones wrote:hi, love the design, it's helping me clarify as i want to do something similar
i will use branches in the rafters of a lean-to cow shed, also at about 7ft height. does anyone have tips on how to incorporate hens into this cow shed? floorspace is 32x16ft. roof will slope from 13ft > 7ft. will contain 4 cows with calves at feet. i will start with 10 chickens.
the main issue is that the shed would not be predator-proof. the two predators we have are foxes and stoats. if you know about foxes and stoats please tell me if my ideas are crazy.
i am planning to let the chickens let themselves in and out as they please. i would not be clipping their wings so they can get up and away from foxes. but stoats are more of a threat, as far as i understand. stoats can climb high, and they can stretch themselves and balance well so i can imagine them being able to get up any pegs that are put in to help the chickens get up to their roost. but it must be possible to design something that chickens can jump/flap up which stoats can't? any ideas? the uprights of the shed will be wooden telegraph poles and the sides plywood sheeting (i'm not designing or building it but i get to put my chickens in it). i fear stoats might find this easy to climb. i'd like to try and somehow cover the wood with plastic sheeting or something that stoats can't get a grip on!
i would not be able to have nest boxes on the floor, was planning to have them as high as possible - how high would the chickens accept? i know they have to be lower than the roosts.
also are there any issues i should be aware of in terms of mixing cattle and chickens?
i am not sure what stoats are. but as of you question about how far chickens can fly up. without aid. if your chickens do not have their wings clipped they can fly up into a tree. i have see a hen in a tree in our yard with her wings over 2 chicks good sized. she even wing cover them when they were big. i do not know how
the chicks got up there. you could put up your roast and then if you see they are having difficulty add down ward. design as you go while observing.
we had cows and chickens. the chicken were loose and so were the cows. and they did great together. i do know you have to be careful with goats. you have to keep the chickens poo out of their feed pans or they can get some illness. but again we had both running loose and had not problem. you would not want chickens to roost and poo on the hay too much. chicken make a great behind the cows to pick up the undigested grain or spilt grain if you grain the cows. and to clean up the magits in the manure. really reduces the fly population.
one way to know which eggs are original and which ones are new is to put a pencil X on the eggs for the hen to set on. then check her nest. my grand mother kept eggs to put under broody hens to make out a full nest. the number of eggs depends on the size of hen. she kept these eggs on the counter not in the refrigerator.
some hens are triggered to set when they have a nest full.
some have put a wooden egg in the nest to keep them laying in the nest so they will not think their eggs are being stolen. i have gathered a few wooden eggs as a child till i learned to pay attention.
eggs in winter are possible if you have young pullets they will lay through the winter. they are just beginning to lay in the fall. i have a friend who keeps hers laying through the winter, with less eggs; by giving them warm water. she swears by it.
hi, i wanted to remark on the previous post.
Do not over think it. in the country on a farm they have way more predators than in the city; and chickens run free. they are intelligent. they have their own language that tells the others whether the threat is from above, on the ground or snake. I thought that was interesting. i know one person who kept extra rosters to help send off the alarm. it is important to become accepting of loss where animals are concerned. we learn that death is part of life. you could think of having a dog they keep predators at bay. but of course they have to be out at night when they are needed.
if you get your chickens used to roasting in your coop you close the door at night and open it in the morning; that protects them from predators. some times when you forget to close the door is when you lose a few. they naturally want to be high that is their predator solution. and in a tree some times they are not seen by hawks but owes see them very well. some have their entrance door high off the ground with a ramp so the door of their coop is higher to help with predators and snakes. on most farms that is the job of the dog to keep predators at bay and then the farmer gets up when they hear something and take care of the problem. but that takes learning to live in the quiet so you can hear. my ducks always slept under my bed room window. they knew where i was some how and picked a place i could hear and protect them. i had to teach my dogs to leave them alone. the dogs took care of the skunks.
chickens can be trained as well and some people have theirs trained very well. we just let ours do what they wanted and they multiplied living in the trees or where ever they thought was save. that will not work well in the city. chickens free have a chance to can get away. those in a coop can not get away. they are a sitting duck. so make sure your coop is predator tight. chickens will let you know when something is bothering them and you can go out and protect them.
keep things they can get under to protect from hawks and a basic fence defers coyotes. i just had a corner woven wire fence 2 sides the rest open on the side of the woods and that kept the coyotes away from my animals. when i moved the fence out straight they just went around it and got them. predators naturally fear Territory of a home. so all though they will come close passing through they will not come right up in the yard. of course we had a few dogs which were lose to do their job.
when you need to move them they are already in the coop. we had chickens who roasted in trees when they had a large chicken house with nest boxes. they preferred the trees. if you have a top on your moveable grazing cage they will want to roast in the coop to get high.
most of the time the problems we think of are just not there or are not so insurmountable. do not let this scare you from your dream. when you are raised on a farm you just do not take things so seriously. farming is intuitive rather than following a schedule or regiment. i do not know how to explain it but there is just a different perspective and attitude about things and it makes it so much easier. do not sweat the small stuff and it is all small stuff. nature does not follow the text book and it is very forgiving. no need to fix it if it is not broke. and because a predator got this batch does not mean they will get the others or that it is not possible to do, try again, do something different. i feel bad when i loss an animal. and sometimes i can trace it back to me. i learn and do better.
i am looking for a meat and egg breed of chickens that do well on forage and raise their own chicks. family size operation. the conditions are dry here high desert. with temps cold at night into the spring and can get -30to-35 below but normally zone 4/5. In summer temps get to 90 some, mostly cooler and if we get summer rains it cools down.
i do not have a large area for them to forge in and i will have to grow their food. 1/4 acre. i also would like some ducks under the same conditions. i know there are breeds of cattle that produce milk well on forage. i do not seem to get enough info on the chicken breed descriptions.
several years ago we were having trouble with breeds that typically were setters not setting. i became very concerned and wondered if i needed to do some cross breeding to re-establish the trait in a meat bird. Do you have info on this? it seems people just buy chicks and do not keep a flock sustainably or they incubate. i want to have hens raise the chicks each year for the family meat production.
when there is a space designated per chicken for their house is that for chickens which live in their house mostly with foraging out here in there? Can the housing be smaller if it is only used as night roosting and they go out every day?
