I really like your diary, but remember your neighbors, please.

I happen to live next door to a chicken of the male variety and there are times I wish I owned a rocket launcher so I could take him out. And when he’s crowing in the middle of the night I secretly imagine it’s because my cat is sitting right outside his cage menacing him.

Well, a lot of the places that are allowing chickens do not allow roosters. So, no untoward crowing.

Ha! I live in South Portland and know the little girl that jammed this through the city council!

The barn where I board my horse has 9 hens running around and the EGGS!!! OMG like nothing you will EVER get from any store at any price! Deep yellow orange, enormous yolks. And the flavor! If you can beg, borrow or steal eggs from real, scratching around and bug-eating chickens, jump at the chance!

I’ve got to agree with you on the quality of the eggs – they have a flavor and color that can’t be beaten. From a health standpoint, also, they have higher Omega 6 (feeding corn makes them high in Omega 3, which is not real good), esp if they are eating..well, whatever they can find. We used to feed a little mash, but recycled all the scraps, bones, etc. etc. through them. Chickens can and will eat stuff that no one else will or can eat, like rhubarb leaves. And as long as you give them a bit of shelter and get the right breed(heavy breeds like Rhode Is. Reds, Columbian Wyandottes, etc. in the north, the skinnier breeds with the big combs in the south), you can keep them through the winter as well. We always had a hoot with ours, but for people who are not ready to handle smell or mess, well, that can be an issue. One more thing: if you raise them in your backyard, you will need to compost the chicken manure for at least a year – that stuff is nuclear powered – put that fresh on a garden and you will have a moon scape in three days – that is how strong the ammonia is.

Great post, thank you.

digg

FWIW

Chicken Moat

chicken moat is not a waterway, but it does provide a protective enclosure for the garden. Weeds, insects, rabbits, ground hogs and even deer are barred from entry by the double wall of fencing and the ever-dilingent patrol flock. All in all, it’s a clever solution to the fowl raiser’s dilemma of whether to fence the birds or the garden: Fence both!…..

OT, although unproven, I think Vertical Farms are something we have to look at very hard.

Advantages of Vertical Farming

Year-round crop production; 1 indoor acre is equivalent to 4-6 outdoor acres or more, depending upon the crop (e.g., strawberries: 1 indoor acre = 30 outdoor acres)
No weather-related crop failures due to droughts, floods, pests
All VF food is grown organically: no herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers
VF virtually eliminates agricultural runoff by recycling black water
VF returns farmland to nature, restoring ecosystem functions and services
VF greatly reduces the incidence of many infectious diseases that are acquired at the agricultural interface
VF converts black and gray water into potable water by collecting the water of
evapotranspiration
VF adds energy back to the grid via methane generation from composting non-edible
parts of plants and animals
VF dramatically reduces fossil fuel use (no tractors, plows, shipping.)
VF converts abandoned urban properties into food production centers
VF creates sustainable environments for urban centers
VF creates new employment opportunities
We cannot go to the moon, Mars, or beyond without first learning to farm indoors on
earth
VF may prove to be useful for integrating into refugee camps
VF offers the promise of measurable economic improvement for tropical and subtropical
LDCs. If this should prove to be the case, then VF may be a catalyst in helping to reduce or even reverse the population growth of LDCs as they adopt urban agriculture as a strategy for sustainable food production.
VF could reduce the incidence of armed conflict over natural resources, such as water
and land for agr

iculture

If you are going to do the ‘grass raised’ thing like this(actually, for any ‘out of a chicken house’ activity, which you really want to do), you also need to make sure they are protected from above as well as without. Red Tailed Hawks are not called ‘chicken hawks’ for nuthin’. We used to have a yard fenced in for them with an entrance and a ramp – and over the top, we put chicken wire also. No problems; the girls used to run down the ramp in the morning, do their chicken-y thing all day long and when we came in their “room’ in the evening to bring them scraps and water, they’d run up the ramp and we’d shut the door. No foxes, no cats, no problems.

Boo – you REALLY like that VF thing, don’t you *g?
I’m with you though; we need to take every opportunity to grow – look at the city of Chicago – they have the largest set of green roofs in the country. I’m looking at a huge roof on my local Post Office Center right this minute and they are wasting amazing amounts of sun…and using amazing amounts of energy cooling that place in the summer. That damn thing must be the size of 6-8 footballs fields. Think of all the greens and veggies that could be grown – and the reduction in the amount of energy needed to cook – during the summer. Mind boggling.

Thanks. I’m kind of new to the whole vertical farm thing, but afaik, it’s all indoors.

We need to prototype it, is mildew an issue? Can we plant and harvest with the same efficiencies as the big agro business. Probably not, but we’re saving money on fertilizer and pesticides. As you probably know, untilled soil is a huge carbon sink. If we can get carbon offsets I think VF’s could be extremely competitive.

I’m still pushing for green roofs, personally – there is a whole lot of sun beating down on a whole lotta roofs out there that could be growing amazing amounts of food..and oh, yeah.they could be keeping the chickens up there.