Urban Chicken Basics
Let's Explore.
- Why farming with chickens enriched our permaculture farm
- What chickens can provide for you & other living beings on your farm
- How chickens can connect with Permaculture Design Principles
- Explain how chickens contribute to the carbon capture cycle & soil life cycle
- How we managed & utilized fowl on our small permaculture urban farm & some unique urban issues with keeping fowl
In an urban environment, you are missing healthy soil. The soil in the cities is toxic from years of industrial runoff, heavy metals, PCB’s, dioxins, and more contaminants. The reason why we decided to look for an urban space with a small yard is because we would be able to raise a number of fowl there - but to do this safely was a layered process. We had to create soil, and heal the damaged soil below, while also creating a barrier so that we could garden in an urban environment safely. This can be done with a compost that only utilizes worms & microbial life, but when food waste is processed through the body of a chicken, things move a lot faster. This acceleration in the cycling of nutrients was what inspired us to urban farm with chickens.
Why did farming with chickens enrich our permaculture farm?
Chickens enriched our permaculture farm by closing several loops for us. They are busy sun up to sun down, and they can serve several beneficial purposes. The introduction of animals to your farm is a big commitment, and not everyone is going to be able to include them in their garden plan. However, the good thing about keeping fowl is that not everyone has to - and just a small, properly managed urban space can feed a village. There are a number of different beneficial purposes that chickens can serve which also enrich their life and happiness. This translates into better soil, more nutritious food, and more enjoyment of the garden space.
Here’s what chickens can provide for you & other living beings on your farm
There are several different ways that farming with chickens (or other kinds of fowl) can lessen your workload and provide for you more than they take up your time.
1. They process food waste for you, and faster than you ever could by hand - therefore they make it easier to compost. If I had a compost pile strictly using worms, I could still process all of my food waste. But in an urban environment where food waste often rots before it has a chance to be broken down properly, you know that leaving it in its ‘food waste’ state for too long is going to be a problem. Chickens can eat strictly from compost and the insects that are attracted to it. They allowed us to break down around 100K lbs of food waste. We sourced this from a local farm to table restaurant which was sourcing food from local farms. In just a few years this became inches of top soil through the chicken's hard work scratching, digging, and eating the food waste. All we had to do was manage it properly by adding new material like wood chips, and sift out the soil when it was ready. People assume that chickens and compost piles will attract vermin (which they undoubtedly can) but when you are properly managing the food waste the chickens should be eating up all the food you give them access to in a day. You may need to cover the food scraps with mulch or hay overnight, and the chickens will happily uncover it the next day by scratching and digging.
2. They make nitrogen rich manure, aerate and turn compost. This attracts diverse microbial life. Another side effect of eating up all the food waste is that it produces chicken manure. Manure contains nitrogen, phosphorous, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, copper, zinc, chlorine, boron, iron, and more. It can rapidly release nitrogen, about 75% becoming available to plants in the first year. Phosphorous is released more slowly, making chicken manure both a quick release & slow release fertilizer. It also contains ammonia, this is what can contribute to the smell of chicken manure. And when you smell ammonia, you know you must cover your chicken manure. This is because ammonia is a large part of how the nitrogen becomes available to plants, and so it must be worked into the soil before evaporating and losing its nitrogen potency. It also needs to be composted to reduce its original potency which can sometimes burn plants, as well as to make sure the beneficial organisms are dominating the microbial life in the soil. These microbes are the key to successfully turning chicken manure into food for your garden. The chickens scratch and turn up top soil, and introduce a multitude of different microbes.
3. They manage insects and rodents on your farm. Chickens are busy animals. They take some time to chill, but most of their life is spent searching for food or eating it. They are instinctually called to search for insects and larvae. This is where chickens can be essential to pest management, and you can set up temporary perimeters for them to graze different areas. They can eat lots of pests like aphids, beetles, slugs, and most importantly ticks. Certain types of fowl like guinea fowl can be particularly good at getting ticks, consider using them if you have a problem in your area. And amazingly, chickens are omnivorous predators who will even eat small mice and rats. I’ve seen my rooster swallow a field mouse whole, and they can be particular allies to keeping vermin out of the space.
4. They make eggs, and more chickens if you choose to breed them. All for free! We didn’t buy eggs for over 4 years with chickens, and we went 2 years without purchasing store bought chicken or bone stock. Chickens have a 21 day gestation, and can make around a dozen baby chicks in one hatch. They are vulnerable animals and this is probably why they can reproduce rather quickly. This provides deep and constant nutrition. Whether you want to use the eggs, raise birds for meat/fat/bone broth, or just want to keep breeding them, chickens can be a a stable animal food source They produce eggs, meat, fat, organs, and bones. Their bodies and bones can go right back into the garden they helped create.
5. Chickens foster community and connect with children. They're an excellent teaching tool. Plant gardens are exciting, of course, but as someone who’s raised chickens in urban environments, people love chickens! They connect us to so many cultures around the world, and they really bring a community together. They’re remarkable animals for that, and their inclusion in permaculture farms is usually strictly confined to their ecological capabilities, which are stacked, but there’s something to be said about how they can teach us and what they’ve taught me has left a lasting impact on my life. I feel like I know them, and the people I share them with get to know them too.
6. They kickstart cycles and close loops. Chickens really help ecological succession. They can bring a lot of biodiversity to the land rather quickly, especially when plants and insects are introduced. Because chickens deal with waste outputs, and make really important inputs, it seems like a no brainer to include them when they have the right amount of space and have stewards who are empowered to manage them properly. They are a responsibility to keep safe and to provide for, but their ability to kickstart cycles and close loops makes them important to the way we could reimagine most environments, but especially urban environments in the state they are in now.
How chickens can connect with the Permaculture Design Principles
Chickens connect with the permaculture design principles in several ways, as permaculture is keen to including animals & fungi in its systems
Food forests & layers of vegetation - Chickens are descended from jungle fowl & take care of the ground layer all the way up to the understory layer. For this reason they manage forests, and orchards extremely well. They also are great land grazers, but because they have aerial predators like hawks, they prefer some tree coverage, or a safe place to duck & hide. This is also important to think about when designing where your garden will go, and if the beds will have fencing, or be raised up, to prevent chicken grazing there.
Zones - Chickens usually occupy zones 1 or 2, the closest to your home center. This makes them easier to manage, and keep them safe, while you utilize them as composters or as a food source. If you keep roosters, you’ll want to keep them in zone 2 for when they start crowing, though most urban environments will have ordinances barring this. If you only plan to keep hens, they can be very close to buildings to make it easier to manage.
Chickens need fresh water all the time, so designing your water catchment systems to include the chickens needs will make your life easier. This can be done by creating a feed to the chickens watering system, and by force of gravity could keep their water fresh & flowing (which prevents freeze in winter)
Chickens can be rotational grazers. If you have a space where you can rotate and control their grazing area, this can be a really beneficial way to manage urban outdoor space and keep the vegetation at bay without using fossil fuels like a lawn mower or weed whacker. This also spreads out their manure and creates ready to plant areas where ecological repair can occur.
Chickens contribute to the proper cycling of waste in two ways.
The first is carbon capture. Chickens capture carbon because they produce manure which encourages diverse microbial life. When chicken manure is composted, these microbes eat & hold carbon in their bodies and prevent it from being released. This process is also known as carbon sink, and chickens as well as most other animals help contribute to it just by living their lives. This form of regenerative agriculture contributes to the building of soil, encouragement of biodiversity, and ecological stability.
The second way is by preventing food waste from entering the landfill in the first place. Organic waste sent to landfills decomposes and produces 18% of U.S. methane gas emissions, according to an EPA report. About one-third of the world’s food – nearly 1.3 billion tons – is lost or wasted, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. For all industrialized nations, food waste accounts for roughly $680 billion annually. This shows us that the industrial food system must be recalled, abolished, and wiser, more traditional forms of regional agriculture must be able to take their rightful place as we try desperately to reverse the already escalating effects of our reckless climate mismanagement. Because chickens prevent food waste from becoming methane, they doubly contribute to preventing greenhouse gases from escaping into the atmosphere.
This regenerative form of chicken farming differs fundamentally from industrial chicken farming which is environmentally destructive in a number of ways.
This is how we managed & utilized fowl on our small permaculture urban farm & some unique urban issues with keeping fowl.
We focused our efforts on composting with chickens:
1. Create a composting area inside the chicken run. We started our compost pile right in the center of the chicken coop run area. Every day we will feed the chickens in their run in a designated area. It was convenient for us and the chickens. Ease of access is key. You'll want a place you can easily dump your organic material.
Additionally, you'll want to ensure ease of removal. If you keep your hens in a fenced-in area, pick a spot that allows you to easily remove the organic compost when it's done. If you free-range your chickens, simply place the compost pile as close as possible to the source you'll be using it for (such as your garden).
2. Add organic material to your compost. Pay attention to your mix of organic materials. You'll want a balanced ratio of carbon and nitrogen, which requires mixing brown matter and green matter. Diversity will help develop the variety of microorganisms at work in your pile and increase your chances of achieving nutrient-rich compost.
High-carbon brown materials include, but aren't limited to, leaves, shredded newspaper, pine needles, sawdust, straw, fruit scraps, shredded twigs, branches, and corn stalks. Green materials include alfalfa, coffee grounds, garden waste, kitchen scraps, clover, grass clippings, hay, and manure.
Don’t worry about mixing the pile — your chickens will tear into it naturally and do the work for you. If anything, build piles up as enrichment for your birds to scratch them back down to flat again.
3. Predator Proof your Coop/Run & Introduce the chickens. Check the coop for any weak points, holes, or possible dig spots. A proper wooden frame is important. Bent nails work better than staples to secure chicken wire. After you obtain your base of organic materials (we brought in piles of leaves, sawdust, pine needles, and some straw), heap it into a pile and start adding your kitchen scraps. As we added to our pile daily, the chickens quite instinctively headed for the pile and began working it.
Some gardeners will cover the pile and "heat it up" before releasing the chickens to do their laborious task. You'll have to experiment in this area. For us, we had exceptional results with the hens working the pile without heating it up first.
4. Scoop the coop. When cleaning your coop, you'll no longer need to haul the droppings away. You can now just dump them into the compost pile, and the hens will assist in mixing all that wonderful, free organic fertilizer right into the pile.
Once the chickens produced soil, we had more than we needed to get to planting. As the compost aged and the beds continued to deepen, they became more & more responsive to new seeds. The idea is that the chickens do all this work for you, so that you can focus on tending to your plants & harvesting, or preserving your harvest.
Chickens are particularly vulnerable creatures, especially with raccoons and hawks around. Keeping them safe at night is the only way to ensure their safety. Prioritizing building a secure coop that is easy to clean & easy to remove eggs from is really important to enjoying the act of chicken farming. Keeping them safe includes keeping them dry. If they stay dry, the chicken's are much less likely to get sick.
You need to have access to dry material and a place to store dry material to keep the chickens dry at all times. I like collecting my neighbors leaf bags, but you’ll need to go through it for plastic or other materials. Straw bales, and other dried grasses will also work. Wood chips are the best, because they can soak in moisture really well and suppress flies. Making sure they have proper roofing is essential to making sure they don’t get sick!
Two things I always had on hand raising chickens is plain yogurt & apple cider vinegar. ACV can be added to their water regularly to ward off bacteria. Yogurt works particularly well if they show signs of lethargy or sickness (closed eyes, fallen wing) which indicate a bacterial infection. Treating them as soon as you see the signs can save their life. I would sometimes apply the yogurt to their vent hole if the infection looked serious.
Chickens get bored easily, they need time to be enriched by ranging around, or doing something for you. Building up a compost pile in your chicken run allows them to flatten it back down again by scratching all day. Your chickens will be happy and fulfilled, and thus more nutritious, when they are enriched in their daily life. They also love roost space, so lots of branches for them to hang out on will make them very happy.
Separate nest boxes encourage chickens to lay comfortably without fighting over the nest. Depending on the pecking order there still may be scuffles over who gets to nest when. In the coop design, put the roost space on one side and the nest boxes on the other. This will keep them from pooping on their eggs. They’re very particular creatures and by getting to know them you’ll start to understand their needs better. I went through a really deep learning curve with making sure to raise them properly under this regenerative model.
Lastly, Learn about how to harvest a chicken. Even if you have no intention of eating them, if a predator mortally wounds them, they hurt each other, or an accident happens where the chicken has to be put out of its misery, knowing how to properly butcher chickens is part of raising them humanely. This process also brings you very close to death and natural cycles, and is a sacred process if you give your all to raising the animal with dignity and respect.