Chicken in the backyard?!

Chickens are a major link in a permaculture garden and I have been thinking about getting a chook coop for a while now. I have been admiring various constructions and found great blog posts such as these ones:

• Raw Earth Living
• 10 steps to an organic permaculture garden - by Anne Goddard
• Permaculture step by step #3 - by Josh Byrne

Special fascination for me have the mobile chicken co-ops and the genuine creativity people put in place when building such houses using what they have or find with the help of friends, verge collections or through initiatives such as freecycle. A great example of a mobile chicken coop is this one, using an old water tank on wheels.



Curious chicken at my mother's place

My garden is big enough, the right spot has been identified and cleared of jungle; and I even got some poles and chicken wire already organised. But so far I have been waiting to make the move and get the pen set up. The time is not quite right yet.

Also I have been turned off by the usual small size of chicken tractors, which is the name given to mobile chicken houses that people place on top of their garden beds to ensure the chickens eat pest, like slaters and snails, and leave their goodies as compost.

Today I saw a post on facebook that intrigued me and I am closer to devising what the final chook coop will look like. Check out this genuinely creative and sustainable construction by Matt Pike, described in the Farmer Pal's Forum.

Yesterday we went to the open day at the Lockridge Community Garden and a visit inspired us even more, especially an opportunity to look into the backyard of permaculture gardens in private hands in the vicinity of the relatively community garden.

Keep it up guys. And everybody who would like to get involved should check out PermacultureWest! Well worth connecting with.