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Backyard Vegetable Gardening & Livestock Raising & Sustainable Living

Recently, Pander Bear & I have gotten into the 'urban homesteading' thing, growing vegetables and herbs and such in our urban backyard, and we have recently decided to take the "next step" and get..


CHICKENS!

Specifically egg laying chickens, to cut down on our buying not so fresh questionably harvested eggs at the store. We're not really 'radical' about things (animal rights/welfare/enviornment), but it is better to buy local (for animals, the environment and us) , and it would be even better if we could just do-it-ourselves.

Does anyone else do something similar? (here's a website to look at : http://urbanhomestead.org/) Chickens, Goats, Bees, Vegetable Gardens?

I'd really like to hear anyone's experience raising chickens, as I haven't done it since I was wee and living in supremely rural areas.
 
Where's 'the A'?
Here in FL, anything I've tried just dies on me (specifically, stuff tends to just rot, the heat/humidity destroys most anything I've grown.)
Do you fertilize a lot? The growth/taste issue w/ fertilizer is something I've never been able to figure out either, I can get stuff to grow and grow big/strong, just never get anything I'd want to eat LOL
 
the A = Atlanta, Georgia.

what kind of fertilizer were you using? there is specific fertilizer for flowers/plants/ and then things you are going to eat, and then things you are going to eat that you want to be 'organic'. we use mulch that is dyed with vegetable dyes, so if it does seep, it doesn't hurt our plants. Our lettuces aren't quite up to snuff, but our herbs are doing just great and i've been using them, and in about three weeks we should have our first batch of grape & beefsteak tomatoes.

I think we've come to a tentative conclusion about the type of chicken coop we're going to build:

tga-cover.jpg


moveable, small, open enough, but safe. we plan on letting them be 'free range' and only shutting them into the coop at night to keep away from predators.
 
Don't bother spending heaps if you don't need to.
If you don't have foxes etc in your area like I do, star pickets in the ground with a chicken wire is more than ample for the enclosure itself.

Inside, the chooks will need sheleter.
Grab 4 stump posts and dig 4 holes. Might be a good idea to get pre mix quick set cement.
While keeping the post vertical and in place keep it barced and literally empty the pre mix bag into the hole and add water. Doesnt really matter, but concrete sets better on cloudy days for long term strength.
For a roof, grab a sheet of corrugated iron from the hardware or somewhere. You should be able to get scrap off cuts from a steel yard cheaply if you want.
Screw the roof to the posts.

Inside the chooks need a roost to lay the eggs, it's up to you how you do this. I used the back end of a book shelf turned upside down which gave me 4 roosting spots for the chooks to lay.

I'm lucky being on a few acres that I've got room to do as I please. Further to that, my current chook shed was originally built to house a few miniature horses so it's more than ample.

Good luck :)
 
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Oh re fertiliser etc, I've got some info at home on gardens for small blocks. Your best off building them up off the ground. I gave it a shot walling them in with railway sleepers, I'll see if I can get some pics over the weekend.
 
lNf, thanks for your post. our thing is that you live in some crazy tropical climes, we are going to have to protect the chickens from snow (we do get random snows here), but yeah, not so much foxes (as we're pretty urban). we've got the line on some supplies for free and/or cheaply. the plans for chicken coop that i posted said it cost about 200$, we're betting we could do it for 75$ :)
 
I think a pig would be great for the urban ecofriendly homesteader. Feed your waste food to the pig. Then eat the pig. Mmmmm bacon.
 
I use(d) all kinds (heavy compost ratios, sterile-ish soils w/ any and all types of various chemical additives depending what's needed). My problem is more in knowing when to stop so the produce isn't full of fertilizer (no time release nitro's would be a start, I imagine).
Started reading this after seeing this thread, good stuff for FL gardening:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vh021
 
^
the N-P-K in alphalpha meal takes a few years to break down fully, and is usually a 3-2-4, having rabbits to feed this too and using their left-overs as fertilizer is very effective as well.

stop adding any fertilizers a couple of weeks or ten days before harvest, and/or try using mostly soluble nutrients near the end.

have you checked the PPMs and PH of your rain or tap water? different water PH levels are what allow varying amounts of different nutrients and micro-elements to be utilized, this will also change the PH content and available nutrients etc in your soil(which you can test for easily).

if your soil is lacking K(flavor and aroma) GreenSand is maybe the best choice as it takes many years to peak out. it is harvested from one spot in Greece and is rare this way, many soil-mixes use it but, i dont feel exactly morally right feeding my plants with it... i would personally use this making an heirloom or permanent garden.

the N in worm-castings is unique in the way it only gives what the plant needs of all the available nitros; i believe. Nitrozyme is some good stuff.

_________________________________________
chickens -
i want chickens!
Rhode Island Red chickens to be exact - my advice for chickens and eggs, is to have 3+ chickens, and dont take all their eggs at one time, they do get up set and will become stressed - even looking for them so only take one or a few at a time from each nest, as causally as possible because they are notorious for seeing either side of many things...

they also seem very sensitive to the earths bio-rhythmic activity:
if they are noisy and clucky, this might mean to be more meditative and thoughtful about circumstances or situations present past or occurring through out the day;
if the are sluggish physically this could be a good day to be more active physically or making your presence more aware to your surroundings;
if they seem erratic and un-organized this could be a good day to pay attention to your environmental and physical needs.

maybe
 
I never use anything super-long like alfalfa, honestly the longest lasters I'd use are the coated nitro pellets and (finely ground) blood meal powder..
Thnx for the tips tho, they help a ton. The issue was really 'when do I stop hyper-ferting my plants?', so a wk-10d for the normal/short lasting ferts is what I'll be doing :) Oh and PH is good, good enough anyways(use two different probers). Once you get soil / ferts down, you can grow ridiculous stuff, but all of my stuff has been ornamental (including specimen started for produce... romaine flowers r purdy ;P )
 
make your space a place for tha chickens then...
IDK


sanger - check out CannaNutrients PK 11/13, spray down with this stuff a month before your harvest and any flowers should go wild, seriously good stuff! it will add some extra flaV and aroma, and add some intense color to a majority of the flowers -- you would probably only use less then 8 Oz's for a 100 sq. Foot garden bed...


this is seriously good nutrients, they use stuff like left over beet juice(vanessa(sp) and source this way for ingredients, and attempt mimic the microbs found on rain-forest floors as much as possible from around the world - plus ingredients in the vegetation formula to help better use up N's...

this is what is commonly used in large green house Ag grows in europe, they use more K during flowering rather the P, as we do in the states... i would start throwing Coco-Coir in there over winter, with some BatGuano to help the roots stay healthy over the winter -- doing this,, when spring comes everything will jump up proper !

crush up terracotta pots and recycle those by filling the bottom of your flower bed, vegies bed with the pot-pieces, especially in soil with more clay...
 
panic in paradise said:
make your space a place for tha chickens then...
IDK


sanger - check out CannaNutrients PK 11/13, spray down with this stuff a month before your harvest and any flowers should go wild, seriously good stuff! it will add some extra flaV and aroma, and add some intense color to a majority of the flowers -- you would probably only use less then 8 Oz's for a 100 sq. Foot garden bed...


this is seriously good nutrients, they use stuff like left over beet juice(vanessa(sp) and source this way for ingredients, and attempt mimic the microbs found on rain-forest floors as much as possible from around the world - plus ingredients in the vegetation formula to help better use up N's...

this is what is commonly used in large green house Ag grows in europe, they use more K during flowering rather the P, as we do in the states... i would start throwing Coco-Coir in there over winter, with some BatGuano to help the roots stay healthy over the winter -- doing this,, when spring comes everything will jump up proper !

crush up terracotta pots and recycle those by filling the bottom of your flower bed, vegies bed with the pot-pieces, especially in soil with more clay...
Click to expand...

Wouldn't you slice the hell outta urself if you had crushed pots in your soil?
8o
 
Crushed terracotta aerates the soil and also helps with retaining moisture. A favorite of mine has always been to get a bag of those lava rocks, crush them up some and add to what ever soil mix i would be doing. Brings good air to the roots.

I'll leave the chickens for the farmers, no thanks. I read in the newspaper not to long ago in some city up here someone wanted to put a chicken coop in there backyard and [try] to raise eggs. the city wouldn't let them, neighbors complained about squawking chickens roosters whatever.
 
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