How to raise or eat chickens sustainably

[blogs and other links]

• biohabit.org
• karolcooks.blogspot.com
• soycow.org/meep
• cmfmarket.org
• mailing list
• urbanchickents-yahoo
• zengers coop
• east side egg coop
• permaculture guld
• portlandpermaculture.com permaculture insititue
• pistals on mississippi
• linton seed and feed
• good for hay
• livingscape
• growing gardens "tour-de-coup"
• in the summer have a coop tour

[chickens & gardening]

• feed?
• table scraps
• pellets
• grass
• bugs
• slugs are yummy to chickens
• what are the health issues?
• fleas
• mostly a nuncance
• there are pesticids
• theres a dirt treatment
• there are a bacteara for the chicks
• theres medication
• theres a crop
• it gets hard and large
• its not a tumor
• do not feed them yard clippings
• chickens get a cold
• if it's cold out it would be nice to give them a heat-lamp
• eggs?
• quantity they are tied to the sun
• so you can trick them with a lamp
• there is a peak in the summer but you can kinda level that out
• bantam
• lays less often
• there smaller
• there less hard on your garden
• they lay smaller eggs
• road island red
• lay more regularly
• rooster?
• do you really need one?
• no, they will lay like crazy anyway
• you might want to check city ordinances
• personality
• it just depends
• when do they sleep?
• any time it's dark to them really
• they can not see very well at dark
• raccoons?
• WATCH OUT, coons eat chickens
• lock up the coop at night
• basically if you can keep a 3year old out
• vets?
• there are farm vets
• though really most vets will be "it's just a chicken"
• when it's time to eat your chicken.
• first you kill them
• then you de-feather
• you can take them to a butcher
• how long to produce eggs
• ~3years
• if you really cycle things you can get 4years
• chicken tractors
• bedding
• straw

[gardening]

• links
• vegetable Gardeningwest of the cascades
• digging up your fount yard
• food not lawns
• what grows here?
• spinach
• fava
• swiss chard
• peas
• artichoke
• jerusalem
• fruit trees
• any of the berry bushes
• black/rassberries
• mint
• tomattos
• what to plant in?
• window boxes
• gutters
• hanging baskets
• great for tomattos
• there was talk of bees... yummy honey
• theres a call list for swarms, ie teleport a swarm to your place
• there are portland city rules... so check
• lazy guarding
• in the fall :
• put a layer of cardbard or something
• then compost on top of that
• it's barren by then
• worms for composting
• pistals on mississipy
• theres "the worm guy" that does home delevery
• composting
• many layers
• tis more of an art..
• get started and just play... something will happen
• get a digging fork
• it helps flip things
• watch out for rats, they see this as food
• nettles have alot of nitrogen
• how do you know composting is working
• it steams
• ~140deg
• reading
• Maritime gardening for the midwest
• check the copywriter date, get the newer one
• the schedules are two weeks off in portland (it’s written for seattle)
• the falls are two weeks longer
• the spring shows up two weeks earlyer
• toby hemenway Gaias garden

[obsessive local eating / (community supported agriculture) CSA]

• CSA
• buy a share of a farms output
• you can get meat in this way
• goats are local safe
• you might want to check the city ordinances
• farmers markets
• St John trying to be more ethnically diverse
• Lents
• ecotrust
• theres a portland directly but it’s a bit out of date
• this could become a wiki if any one wants to pitch in
• community gardens