The 40ish birds are working 4 compost piles every day, breaking them down and consuming as many worms and fly larvae as the can find.
Each day I spend 20 minutes rebuilding the piles and watering them with nutrient rich water from the duck bath. Then I spend 20 minutes collecting as much fresh horse manure as I can, adding it to the system. With each rebuilding of the piles, they march slowly forward from the back of the paddock to the front. By the time the pile reaches the front the compost is finished and ready for use around the homestead.
While I do some work to maintain the energy flow through the system, the chickens are doing good work on the piles, consuming horse fly larvae reducing the pest pressure on the horses, and paying me in eggs for the work. Meanwhile I'm feeding them less and less grain. We are producing yeilds beyond what we can utilize at the homestead so I've been selling the compost and eggs at Bitcoin meetups in my area. Distributing natural capital and strengthening my local Bitcoin culture and community. A great example of a permaculture system here at the homestead!
#permaculture #permies #homesteading #circulareconony #bitcoinmeetup #chicken #compost #eggs
quoting# Dialing in the chicken compost system #
nevent1q…3am5
Refining and improving the animal systems at the homestead have been on the back burner because we were focusing our attention on completing the tiny house rental and providing the best experience for our guests. Now that we have the tiny house all set, I've started working on the chicken compost system.
Right now, there is a pile of winter waste hay from our dairy sheep and some wood chips. The chickens scratch through the pile breaking it down as the gobble up all sorts of bugs and other things to eat. When I come to collect the eggs each morning, I spend 10 minutes building the pile back up. The pile is starting to go thermophilic and develop some nice heat.
Now that we have ducks in addition the guard goose, we have a couple different water troughs. The water gets pretty stinky and nasty after a few days, so I've been using a drill pump to saturate the compost pile with the nutrient rich water.
Our chickens system is inspired by Karl Hammer, Perma Pastures, and Edible Acres
Karl Hammer
https://youtu.be/IWChH9MHkHg
Perma Pastures Chicken Tractor on Steroids
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaAkONMPbRRdpu49GNp-vHfOP7qb2DNDa&
Edible Acres
https://youtu.be/RnvDLZtLOko
#permaculture #permies #homesteading #meshtadel #chicken #compost
nevent1q…twdl