Chicken Tractor : The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil ISBN: 0962464864

Contents

Acknowledgments 6 (14) Recipe for a Chicken Tractor 14 (2) Foreword 16 (2) Introduction 18 (13) What is Chicken Tractor Anyway? 31 (6) Should You Have Roosters in Suburbia? 33 (1) Ten Good Reasons to Go Mobile 34 (1) Advantages of Chicken Tractors 35 (2) Why Chicken Tractors Belong in Your Garden 37 (15) Animal Tractors in Permaculture Design 37 (2) Some Permaculture Concepts 37 (2) Functional Analysis of the Chicken 39 (9) Get Super-Fertile Soil Fast 48 (3) Earthworms as Indicators 51 (1) Chicken Tractor Systems 52 (42) Rotational Garden System 53 (1) Deep Mulch System 54 (14) Sheet Mulch System - Halfway Between Grazing and Deep Mulch 68 (7) Intensive Grazing in Paddocks 75 (8) Polyface Model - Poultry with Beef Cattle 83 (3) Hens on Wheels 86 (1) The Greenhouse System 87 (7) Straw Bale Chicken House 94 (22) Benefits of Bale Construction 95 (1) Straw vs Hay: What's the Difference? 95 (2) I'll Blow Your House Down: Common Concerns About Bale Construction 97 (2) Wet Hay or Straw Bales 99 (2) Here's How to Build a Simple Bale Henhouse 101 (5) Roof Construction 106 (4) Co-Housing: The TurGuChi Condo for Interracial and Intercultural Housing 110 (1) Hay-Bale Suburban Hobbit Model 111 (2) Bale Construction For Livestock --- Problems and How to Solve Them 113 (3) Soil Builing with Chicken Tractors 116 (28) Twice As Much Food on Half as Much Land 120 (1) How Can Chicken Tractors Help Soil Improve? 121 (2) How Does Soil Fertility Happen? 123 (1) How Much Organic Matter in the Soil? 124 (2) Use Compost to Increase Organic Matter in Soil 126 (3) Chickens Add Fertilizer and Organic Matterl 129 (2) Using Rotational Pens to Build Soil Fertility 131 (1) Why Not Rotary Till? 132 (2) Sheet Mulching to Aid Soil Fertility 134 (1) Wild and Wonderful Earthworms 135 (1) Nitrogen Needs of Various Vegetables 136 (2) Seaweed Meal and Seaweed Extract 138 (3) Permaculture Gardening 141 (3) Keeping Hens in Chicken Tractors 144 (10) Light, Egg Laying and Chicken Health 144 (1) Roosts and Perches 145 (9) Marketing 154 (23) Making an Income by Gardening with Happy Hens and Healthy Soil 154 (2) Practice Ensures Success 156 (9) Here's How to Sell Your Chickens Before They Hatch 165 (4) Buy Local Because 169 (2) Who Is Your Market? 171 (1) Sell Them Other Products, Too 171 (1) Raising Pullets for Resale 172 (1) Using Brochures to Educate Your Customers and Promote Your Products 172 (5) Here's How to Build Your Custom Chicken Tractor 177 (21) Size, Configuration, Space Per Bird 183 (1) Construction Materials 183 (12) Moving Your Chicken Tractor 195 (3) Processing Poultry 198 (23) Do-It-Yourself Poultry Processing 202 (2) Design and Build a Small-Scale Poultry Processing Facility 204 (10) Processing Equipment 214 (7) Selecting Chickens for Your Tractor 221 (9) Breeds to Choose From and Best Choices 221 (9) Give Me That Old-Time Chicken 230 (8) Presering Heirloom Poultry Breeds 233 (5) Raising Chicks From Scratch 238 (12) Where to Buy Chicks 238 (2) Roosters, Hatching Eggs and Broody Hens 240 (5) Equipment and Supplies You'll Need for Chicks 245 (5) Predators 250 (5) Rats and Mice 250 (1) Domestic Cates and Dogs 251 (1) Foxes, Coyotes, Raccoons, Weasels and Other Critters 252 (2) Predatory Birds 254 (1) Chicken Diet (Theirs, Not Ours) 255 (29) Organic Feeds 257 (4) They Will Work for Chicken Feed 261 (1) You Can Grow Your Own Organic Feed 261 (9) Comfrey 270 (6) Kelp 276 (6) Diatomaceous Earth 282 (1) Duckweed 282 (2) Diseases and Afflications 284 (5) Leg Problems and Curly Toe Paralysis 284 (1) Breast Blisters 285 (1) Antibiotics In Feeds 286 (1) Pecking an Cannibalism 286 (1) Debeaking 287 (2) Raising Poultry Humanely 289 (5) The Truth Behind ``A Hen's Life'' 290 (4) Other Animal Tractors 294 (9) Turkey Tractors 294 (4) The Gabby Guineas 298 (5) Epilogue: 303 (3) World Wide Web and Internet Resources 306 (2) Glossary (Chicken Talk) 308 (1) Chick Producers and Equipment Dealers 309 (2) Associations to Join 311 (1) Bibliography 312 (1) Index 313