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Kitchen gardens, from small to commercial scale, can be fertilized through chicken composting. This simple design builds fertility continuously by sourcing chickens to do the work they enjoy and do best: scratching, eating insects, and eating weed seeds. From this, we get eggs, meat, and fertility, and the plants grown using this method will produce at a high rate and provide nutrient dense fruits and vegetables.
Anyone can follow this system. Small urban versions on just 16 square meters can supply an average of one cubic meter a month, enough to fertilize 1000 square meters of garden. Larger systems, using 30 chickens, can produce a cubic meter of compost a every week, enough to keep ½ an acre rich and fertile. And, commercial systems, with 50 chickens, can account for two cubic meters of compost a week, sufficient for fertilizing a full acre of land.
The compost piles begin with bedding under the chicken roost. Every week 1/3 of a cubic meter of bedding is put under the chicken roost, where they manure it. At the end of the week, this bedding acts as the base of a compost pile. Atop it goes 1/3 of a cubic meter of large animal (cow, horse, sheep, goat, etc.) manure, and on top of that should be 1/3 of a cubic meter of food scraps and/or weeds from the garden.
In the coming week, the chickens will naturally disassemble this pile, spreading the outside as the inner core heats up. At the end of the week, the pile should be reassembled, putting the spread material at the core and the old core at the edges. A separate, new compost pile should be created with that week’s bedding. This process repeats, adding a new pile and turning the old ones, every week. After five weeks of this process, a pile is compost
For an urban “chicken tractor on steroids”, one compost pile is turned all week and another is contained in a cage. At the end of the week, the caged compost pile is set free, and the spread-out compost pile is stacked into the cage. This cycle repeats for six to eight weeks, providing two cubic meters of compost every other month for a total of 12 cubic meters of compost a year. The 16 square meters of chicken tractor can provide complete fertility for 1000 square meters (1/4 acre) of garden production, as well as provide 8-10 eggs a day.
To create these compost piles, lawn clippings and pulled weeds are added under the chicken roost for 6-8 weeks, where they are manured and begin the composting process. When ready, the bedding from beneath the roost is removed, stacked with manure and food scraps, and put through the composting cycle (one cubic meter in the cage and one being spread). The process of adding bedding beneath the roost begins again.
Within a commercial garden system, the 50-chicken tractor runs in the center of large garden beds. The beds can have polytunnels over them in cold climates, or they can have shade cloth over them in desert climates. Or, they can be covered with productive deciduous or evergreen vines on trellises. The gardens should be separated by two-meter paths, allowing for machinery, and these paths can be shaded with productive trellises, too. These systems will feed humanity, and they never lose fertility if the engine is kept running.
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About Geoff:
Geoff is a world-renowned permaculture consultant, designer, and teacher that has established demonstration sites that function as education centers in all the world's major climates. Geoff has dedicated his life to spreading permaculture design across the globe and inspiring people to take care of the earth, each other and to return the surplus.
About Permaculture:
Permaculture integrates land, resources, people, and the environment through mutually beneficial synergies - imitating the no-waste, closed-loop systems seen in diverse natural systems. Permaculture applies holistic solutions that are applicable in rural and urban contexts and at any scale. It is a multidisciplinary toolbox including agriculture, water harvesting and hydrology, energy, natural building, forestry, waste management, animal systems, aquaculture, appropriate technology, economics, and community development.
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