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Four Letters Re: The Home Chicken Flock for Self-Reliance
Hi Jim -
I am a "ten center" and read your blog every day. Just wanted to
say that I thought Keith in Minnesota's article on "Survival Chickens" was
outstanding. A really good example of maximizing what you have (and leveraging
Mother Nature) without spending huge amounts of effort or money to get a major
benefit. - John
Jim and Memsahib,
Regarding the recent blog entry "The Home Chicken Flock for Self-Reliance",
I have a few comments. I have been raising chickens since I was young and continue
to this day. Having a source of fresh eggs is great and I do agree that they
are not free. They are of a much superior quality and taste and they are right
there in your backyard. That makes them worthwhile.
I do disagree with a couple of care issues from the article. I always lock
up the birds at night. Poultry cannot see in the dark but their predators can.
Giving your birds a safe roost at night is trivial and you just need to make
closing them up at night part of your routine. If you are relying upon them
for a source of food, you can't afford to waste them by making the predators
fat. In addition, most predators will remember where they got their last meal
and will return time and time again leaving you with no survival stock.
Another item I differ from is the cleanliness. Clean water and a clean coop
is crucial for avoiding numerous illnesses. There are many methods to coop
cleaning and I lean toward the every week method. Ammonia from decomposing
manure build up can occur under damp conditions and the birds can develop serious
respiratory issues. In the cold weather, you can be a bit more relaxed with
coop cleaning if desired as the bedding usually freezes solid. Make sure the
coop is not drafty but good ventilation is a must to keep fresh air flowing
inside. As well as being beneficial to the birds it will dry up the bedding
and eliminate the ammonia smell.
Some other tips:
Many bantams chickens tend to be better foragers than standard breeds. You
also get smaller eggs but bird weight to egg ratio is pretty good (read: less
feed required per egg). Bantam roosters are much cockier than their larger
counterpart and will stand up to dogs. (But they don't always win!) Bantam
hens are great mothers who will incubate and brood any other type of poultry
you'd like to raise.
Bringing in new birds to your flock should be handled with care. I recommend
at least a two week quarantine before introduction. Chickens don't always telegraph
their illnesses and you may need to allow a disease to work through a more
advanced stage to be able to see it. Of course, the situation allows for it,
you should have some medications on hand to assist in the prevention/recovery.
Don't forget to sanitize shoes/boots and clothing after visiting another person's
coop. You can easily bring home diseases from the manure on your boots.
Chickens will eat nearly any table scraps you produce. We do not give ours
any onions (it will transfer the taste to the egg) or meat. Our birds get insects,
worms, and grubs for meat protein. These scraps will greatly reduce the amount
of feed required.- Rob
JWR,
Keep up the great work! I'm proud to be a double ten-cent subscriber and continually
amazed at the wealth of new topics that come up on your site. The recent post
on survival flocks is an excellent example of a concept I had not considered
before, but could be lifesaving.
Regarding the survival flock, did anyone else notice that the traits Kevin
in Minnesota breeds into his chickens are pretty much exactly the same traits
we work towards in ourselves and search for in group members?
1. Can you provide for you own food?
2. Do you have the ability to defend yourself from predators?
3. Are you smart enough to avoid predators in the first place?
4. Strong immune system?
5. Raise your own "chicks"?
I got a chuckle out of rereading the entire "survival flock" article
and applying everything in there to people. And for me, preparedness can be
summarized as Keith states, it's pretty easy to separate them into
two flocks, the dinner flock and the survivor flock. Which flock will you belong to when
the Schumer hits?
Speaking of Schumer, I'd like to comment on the recent Sanitation letter, and
the treatment of Schumer, the home-grown kind, not the political kind. I take
a different view on "The Humanure Handbook" than you. Yes, there
are risks in composting your own manure, but no more risk than kerosene, chainsaws,
and firearms. Each of these three items have inherent risks that are life-threatening,
but easily avoided thru training and safety precautions, just like humanure.
And fortunately, the "Humanure Handbook" is available free on-line, and it
provides all the details, and scientific studies that prove this is safe, and
how to
do it safely and easily. I will not go into the details of how, it's all there
in the book. But I will stress the advantages for people like me that plan
to build a retreat, but don't have a fortune to spend.
1. Huge Cost Savings. Not having to build a septic system will save thousands
of dollars.
2. Comfort and Convenience. No trudging outdoors thru the weather to a dark
and cold, or hot and bug infested, outhouse. And when done correctly, there
is
no smell!
3. OPSEC.
No need for everyone, several times a day, to expose themselves to prying eyes
to visit the outhouse. Have you ever seen the Academy Award-winning
movie "Unforgiven" starring Clint Eastwood? The outhouse scene amplifies
my fears. This especially applies to your observation posts if hidden. Do you
plan to drink hot liquids to stay awake during sentry duty? If so, you will
want a bucket system as described in the"Humanure Handbook" to
stay hidden.
4. Simplicity. No pipes to clog up and backup. No need to pump/store/waste
precious water on flushing. No reliance on a septic pumping company. Even in
your own outstanding book, "Patriots", the septic system became overloaded,
and had to be reserved for emergency use only. Why not skip it altogether?
5. Thrifty. Why waste perfectly good, home-grown fertilizer?
But to be fair and balanced, there are some minor drawbacks.
1. Sawdust and Hay. You need a "pickup truck" supply of sawdust per
year per family. The sawdust, or equivalent leaves/moss/hulls, is used to cover
your deposits, after each and every deposit (this is what prevents all fumes).
Fortunately, I love the smell of sawdust! But some planning/work is necessary
to ensure easy access to cover material (like sawdust). You will also need
about 8 bales of hay (or equivalent yard waste) per year per family to cover/protect/oxygenate
your compost pile.
2. Gray water System. If you have no septic system, you will need some kind
of gray water system to handle your wash water. Wash water can be from vegetables,
clothes, or your bath. Fortunately, these are easy to build, but are best thought
out in advance. Many sources of information are available on the internet.
3. Another Household Chore. Approximately weekly, someone must haul the full
buckets out to the compost pile, wash the buckets, and monitor the heat in
the compost. But this should only take 30 minutes at most. This is not labor
intensive at all.
4. Humility. You will need some humility to admit you use this system. But
this is good for you.
5. Fecophobia. Yes, there is such a word. Yes, your family/friends/neighbors
may shun you until you convince them. But this system works! How do you think
the Chinese have farmed the same land for centuries without external fertilizer
inputs? But Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV).
As a side note, the excellent book by John Seymour titled "The Self Sufficient
Life and How to Live It", describes a similar humanure system, but without
buckets. So if the only thing holding you back is the buckets, I would also
recommend John Seymour's "Loveable Loo" as an alternative. Always
learning more, - Rookie
Dear JWR and Memsahib,
I wish to offer some helpful comment regarding the article prescribing “Hardening
Chickens”. I have raised chickens and other poultry in a free range setting
for 20 plus years. My pre-retirement career was that of a health care professional.
I have also worked and volunteered in community health care projects and health
education in several third world countries. I still volunteer my services when
the need arises and I am able to respond. While I strongly agree in the practice
of free ranging chickens and all poultry for that matter, for an aid to general
hardiness and convenience of caretaking and the overall natural health benefit
of the poultry and the superb quality of their eggs. I however must also warn
us all of the severe health consequences caused out of human negligence and
lack of proactive caretaking responsibility to ourselves and our farm animals
which
are being used for human and other farm animal food cycle sources. When TEOTWAWKI occurs,
and I believe it will sooner than later, medical care and resources will become
infrequent if nil to obtain in hinterboonies regions and rural isolated
areas and very questionable at best if you are not fortunate enough to have
networked adequately beforehand for that valuable and crucial medical person
to come on
board, or at least viably reachable by travel and who is also agreeable to
being available for your survival group in a worst case scenario. My prime
concern
here is advocating a proactive responsibility in maintaining and keeping humans
and their animals healthy in as natural as possible using natures sources of
availability. The practice of poor to absent hygiene practices advocated by
the author of the article is questionable for the good health outcome of both
species.
Even in third world countries, the incorporation of holistic health practices
of a sanitary or “clean environment” for human and animal hygiene
have statistically shown vast improvements in the populations affected by those
health practices and significant reduction of diseases and mortality rates
related to them. Thus, their overall quality of life improved. Note, I am not
refuting
the issue of immunity. That is a whole other issue of whether it is acquired
or natural or artificial immunity, passive or active. Diseases caused specifically
via harmful bacteria, viruses, protozoans, fungus or the vectors like flies,
mites, mosquitoes, and fleas that carry them into contact with us or our animals, must be
discouraged. Practices to reduce those harmful populations must be performed
in earnest.
Never plan to dine on an animal that had or has questionable health
issues. Never feed their caucuses, milk, eggs, or any byproducts of questionable
health animals to your family or other animals. Do not put them into your compost
pile. Incinerate them. Here you will find just a sampling of multiple diseases
causes and effects from an unclean environment. Botulism is more common than
we hear about in unclean environments, which is potentially deadly and is transferable
to the egg. If you practice the dirty litter suggested by this author, then
you had best take heed and caution. Coccidiosis is caused by a protozoan parasite,
which are deep tissue invaders occurring in the meat of the bird and eggs laid
by it and harbored in moist, old litter. You could treat the poultry with Sulfa
based medications which is also then passed on to you in their meat and eggs.
Or, you can keep a clean hen house for proactive prevention. Erysipelas is
caused
by a soil borne gram positive bacteria which enters a break in the skin. It
is spread by poultry being bitten by biting flies which are attracted to manure.
This is also a human transmittable strain and also transmittable to stocked
fish
in ponds which are used as free range poultry water sources. It can also transmit
to your pigs, sheep, mice and your other yard poultry. Encephalitis is caused
by vectors of migrating mosquitoes and biting flies near or on open water sources.
The flies lay their eggs in the poultry manure or spilled food. The disease
list goes on. Most, if not all can be avoided by your proactive responsible
health
practices of cleanliness.
I highly recommend the World
Poultry web site for
its accuracy of abundant information; ease of reference, and on line pictures.
It would take volumes for me to describe the offenses and diseases that are
caused in poultry alone by these harmful organisms. But, I have high objection
and researched
validation to show the negative consequences to cleaning a coop of its litter
and manure only once a year. All that manure is valuable as garden composting,
only after it has cooked to a usable loam state. Never apply green manure directly
to your garden or plants. It must be allowed to compost cook to kill off harmful
organism cycles. Wear your gardening gloves to protect yourself from live harmful
organisms. Wear them over a pair of disposable gloves or rubber gloves when
applying compost to your plants or for that matter anytime you work directly
in the soil.
If you’re kneeling in the soil, wear knee protectors. The object is to
protect your intact skin. For the coop cleaning process remove all the eggs
and the poultry out and away from the coop. Wear a specifically designated
outfit
for this clean out, preferably a Tyvek type zip jumpsuit to protect your whole
body surface. These can be hosed off and reused many times as long as there
are no punctures to the fabric or stresses to the seams. Get a size that is
one size
larger than your normal size of clothes. If this is not available for you,
use a heavy denim type or high denier cloth type military jumpsuit that zips
in front.
Don latex, or nitrile gloves if you’re allergic to rubber, make sure
the gloves cover over the sleeve of the jumpsuit so you have created a skin
seal.
Last, wear a face mask that also fully protects your eyes, nose and mouth when
you clean out either your coop or the nests found randomly constructed on the
outskirts of your property. My husband makes use of his light weight welding
helmet for this purpose over a disposable nose and mouth mask. This actually
provides whole head and hair and ear protection as well. Those feathers can
go into the composter as well, unless you are sanitizing them and using them
for
some other project. Note if you are finding these frequently, your poultry
are talking to you. They’re telling you they either need fresh litter
or the hen house nest boxes are being occupied when they need to use it. This
will usually
happen most during brooding season. Listen to them and fix the problem.
Just
because you can’t see the bacteria, protozoa, fungus, mold, spores, and
the most virulent harmful organisms doesn’t mean they are not there.
They are. Most of these become airborne during the clean out process and are
unknowingly
inhaled by you and your chickens. Even if you have a great immune system response,
it does not work well for another or the very young or the elders or the already
infirmed that you will come in contact with. These organisms can be passed
on by humans performing the human or animal care. This becomes possible by
touching
contact with the harmful source, or by any natural anatomical open orifice
on your body, or unnatural open orifice of skin, like a cut, scrape or burn,
for
them to enter or be inhaled. You need on hand all these suggested items in
ample supply anyway in your survival storage for the more virulent strains
of viruses
to come.
There are nutritional issues that need to be considered in this important food
cycle as well. The poultry must receive a daily minimum requirement of good
vegetable protein, vitamins and minerals in their natural habitat if you’re going
to only free range. Just like humans. Remember, we’re going to eat their
bodies and eggs. The practice of supplements is a good one if you are living
in an area where the soil or vegetation is lacking these. Test your soil. Do
some study on safe for poultry forage consumable vegetative sources which will
provide natural vitamin and mineral supplements. The primary ones to consider
are Calcium, Phosphorus, Vitamin D3 and Folic acid. While it is a fact that chicken
feces does provide Phosphorus if consumed, eating unnaturally high colony counts
of bacteria or viruses which were allowed to incubate for months, could easily
infest and kill your entire flock inadvertently. Also, the practice of supplementing
back raw egg shells for calcium as a feed supplement should be discouraged as
it encourages egg cannibalism. A plot of Spinach plantings and castings are a
much better choice. Without adequate intake of these supplements, either natural
or store bought, the poultry will poorly develop and are subject to many other
maladies related to growth, bone development, skin, and vision. Thus are poor
consumables. Those hip fractures described in the article may be related to more
than a jump off the roost. My chickens get calcium via crushed oyster
shell and
have a perpetual spinach plot. They have jumped off the roof of their 10 foot
hen house and don’t suffer broken hips. We must always be responsible and
accountable to our animals who serve our needs so well. Unlike humans, they can’t
tell us that something is wrong. We have to conduct daily routine observation
of their behavior and bodies to detect a problem and insure a proactive and ongoing
active level of maintenance and responsibility to protect and care for our animals.
If you are not willing to make this level of commitment, perhaps it would be
better to skip the poultry for you and your family’s sake of good health.
Cleanliness is truly next to Godliness in our triage of practices on the homestead.
Once you’re finished with the cleaning process and are ready to leave the
coop, please follow these infection prevention practices in this order. Remove
the garden gloves and hang them up. Leave the rubber or disposable gloves on
until you’re totally finished cleaning your other personal articles. Remove
the face mask, and hang it up or throw it away in the trash if it is a disposable.
If you’re not using a whole face mask, then wear at least eye goggles and
the mask must completely cover your nose and mouth and be one that will protect
you from tiny viruses. Read the label. Remove that organism laden jumpsuit that’s
protecting your underwear or clothing, by peeling it off at the shoulders and
backwards away from your clean body and step out of it. Tug on the bottom exterior
of the suit to get your legs and arms out if you need to get it over your washable
boots. Avoid turning the soiled side to make contact with your clean skin. Hang
it, zip it up and Hose it down in the yard near the coop and away from your home.
Scrub your washable muck boots on a boot cleaner outdoors and hose them off and
then remove them in your mud room or garage. Keep another pair of clean shoes
or scuffs to slip on to wear inside your home. Remove the disposable gloves and
dispose them. Wash your hands well with soap and water before you reenter into
your inner home. Shower as soon as possible.
God Bless you and yours, this of course includes all your fortunate animals.
- KBF
