003 – Chickens

Published 13 years ago in Permaculture , Podcasts - 7 Comments

Paul Wheaton and Jocelyn Campbell discuss Paul’s article about raising chickens in detail. In the very beginning Paul mentions his site for java programming. Paul discusses a ranking system that covers several ways he knows to raise and care for chickens.

The six ways that are discussed:
1. Factory raised
2. Coop and Run
3. Chicken Tractor
4. Joel Salatin Pen
5. Free range
6. Paddock Shift System

Paul also covers a metrics system. Each factor has a number scale. 0 represents sucky. And 10 represents awesome.
The factors are:
1. Poop factor. Actually this can be broken up into 2 factors. The amount of poop I have to deal with and the amount of poop the chickens have to deal with
2. Vegetation factor. How much fresh vegetation can the chickens browse?
3. How much feed cost is there?
4. Bug factor
5. Time factor
6. Freedom factor

Additional information regarding the chicken article can be found in the critter care forum at permies. During the podcast, they mention the tinkering forum to make requests for future podcasts.

You can discuss this podcast on this thread at Permies.

Relevant Links
Paul’s Chicken Article

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Tags: animals, chickens
  • Stefan Pernar says:

    Hi Paul,

    Big fan here – keep it going… Where can I subscribe to the RSS of the podcast so that I can download it automatically to my iTunes?

    Thanks,

    Stefan

    • permaculture says:

      Working on it. Check the tinkering forum in a couple of days.

      • Stefan Pernar says:

        This is great Paul – I listened to your TSP episodes and thought “Paul needs his own podcast” and here you go.

        Can’t see the 4th episode on iTunes yet but guess that is being worked on. Keep em coming mate! 🙂

        PS: Am spreading the news on FB and Reddit…

  • Lashell says:

    This can be a thing I must do more research into, thanks for the posting.

  • I appreciated that you took the 30 seconds to mention that factory farms do it the way they do it for a reason.

  • Nick says:

    Paul, I read every word in Raisin Chickens 2.0
    You are my new chicken guru. I use the paddock method in our smaller garden. I think of the fencing and organization more like “lego”. The entire thing is gridded out and the coop and fencing are modular so can be easily moved. the chickens are currently in the orchard, and have 4 quadrants”, more or less, where they can be. The coop is a mini-fortress and can contain them for short periods. Even mouse proof when shut down. I’ll share photos of this and the former chicken tractor (you asked for it) if you give me an email address. The garden is fenced, a dog patrols the perimeter of the garden and the property itself is fenced. The dog is like the moat around the castle! Best thing about the coyotes that are doing VERY well this year is that they reduce the raccoon population. and the only thing good about the rats is that they take out the mice. Our garden scraps feed the worm bin and that in turn is eventually available to the chickens. My chickens won’t eat “pill-bugs” (rolly-pollys) or slugs. regards, Nick

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