Permaculture -Chickens, basics (lesson 40)

We will mix the order a bit to make those lessons even more interesting for you and instead of talking about another water-related subject, we will focus on... chickens. Yes, those animals are perfect for both: beginners and advanced permaculturists. They are easy to manage, the carbon footprint of the food produced from chicken is low and they provide us eggs, meat, and feather.

I will be writing about the chickens, ducks, gooses, and other birds for at least ten lessons, describing building coops, feeding them, reproducing, but also writing about more advanced things, like "chicken tractor". Intrigued? Great! Follow me for more details then!

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Chickens - good first step in building permacultural farm

Many permaculturists start by buying chickens. It's because the investment is relatively low and eggs can be received right away (for plants we need to wait). You don't have to have permaculture to raise some chickens though. A small garden will be enough to enjoy the taste of eggs every morning and believe me, that taste is a hundred times better than eggs you know from the supermarket.

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How many birds per family?

At first, we have to answer the basic question - how many chickens do we want to have? The correct answer will depend on many things. Do you want to be completely self-sufficient with the eggs? Are you going to make your own pasta, cakes, sauces? Do you want to kill chickens for the meat sometimes? If so, how often? Are you going to reproduce your chickens? How big is your family?

Remember that the average chicken produces 3 to 7 eggs per week (depends on the brand). Usually, chickens produced for the meat have fewer eggs, while those that are the most productive with the eggs, are not so tasty and do not contain as much meat as the others. Have in your mind that the chicken has to be at least 4 months old to produce eggs and even though they live up to 6 years, their productivity goes down with the time, drops after they reach two years, and stops in the third year. Three years old chicken won't be good for eating either. Even two years old chickens are already chewy and could be used only to the soup. You also have to take into consideration that by reproducing chickens, some eggs won't be used for consumption.

Another important question that you have to ask yourself is how much space do you have to keep your chickens? Every chicken needs 1 to 2 square meters of the garden and the chicken coop can keep a maximum of 3-4 chickens per square meter.

_{Photo - private collection}

Knowing that basics, let's try to count how many chickens does the family need

Family size	chickens	eggs weekly
1 - basic use*	2	7
1 - self sufficiency**	5 + 2 cocks	14
2 - basic use*	4	14
2 - self sufficiency**	7 + 2 cocks	21
3 - basic use*	6	21
3 - self sufficiency**	9 + 2 cocks	28
4 - basic use*	9	31
4 - self sufficiency**	12 + 2 cocks	38
5 - basic use*	11	38
5 - self sufficiency**	15 + 2 cocks	48

*enough for the breakfasts and cake sometimes
** self-sufficiency (own pasta, mayo, sauces, cakes, meat once per month, reproduction, etc)

Of course, that is the estimated amount. It can vary, depending on your personal needs. You may also consider having more chickens to sell the extra eggs.

To give you the example, my plans include having four coops with:

• 17 chickens + 2 cocks
• 5 ducks
• 2 geese
  It should be enough to reach the full self-sufficiency of my family of five adults. I assume I will have some extra eggs for the volunteers that I will be most likely hosting most times of the year.

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Advantages and disadvantages of having chicken

ADVANTAGES

• free eggs and/or meat, a quality much better than from the shop
• chicken manure as the fertilizer
• feather
• chicken helps in composting
• chickens can be used to remove weeds

DISADVANTAGES

• chickens need everyday care, forget about long trips unless you will find someone to take care of them
• some extra work is needed with the cleaning coops
• preparing the garden for the chickens may cost you more than you think
• you may be allergic to chickens

_{photo - private collection}

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TABLE OF CONTENT - ALL THE PREVIOUS LESSONS

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