I graduated with my masters in 2008 just in time for the banksters to collapse the economy. At my age, I found myself economically obsolete and feeling fairly useless. I decided to use my time to invest in our property to provide food for my family. For that one winter, I put in six-hour days regardless of the weather.
What I wanted was an urban farm which would be sustainable in itself and that begins and ends with the soil. That first year, I bought soil from Soil Smith, truly a maestro of compost.
The first thing I did was convert our front yard into garden since it had more sun than the backyard. My enlightened town’s sustainability center launched yearly front yard garden tours, so that first summer, I had ninety people traipse through. The one item that I got the most compliments on was the dead brown lawn! It remains much greener now without watering since I have encouraged the white clover to take over.
In the backyard, I converted an 8’ x 8’ homemade green house into a chicken coup with my husband building a 15’ x 4’ run. When I wired the enclosure, I ran the chicken wire under the run to prevent raccoons from tunneling through and covered it with 6” of river sand. The sand keeps the odor down when regularly raked and the hens love “bathing” in it. We keep their area clean for their health but also to keep the “farm smells” from bothering the neighbors. I also researched which breeds were quieter; Rhode Island Reds are loud, Buff Orpingtons are quiet. (The rooster in the title photo is a Buffy which did not stop him from crowing!)
We have two hen coups and runs and situated them both in shade. The larger complex faces south. There is a deep roof over their run with their front yard planted in lilies and clematis which offers shade during summer but sunning opportunities during fall and spring. During winter, they love to gawk at the other hens across the way. Chickens weather cold far better than heat.
The hens get an assortment of garden greens every day in lieu of free ranging. Besides kale, they also love rose petals. During the winter, I grow crimson clover as a cover crop which they will eat.
In town, you have to be vigilant against urban raccoons. Despite completely enclosing the run, a very large male pulled the wires apart and massacred my sweet Dominiques. We reinforced with small gauge wire and made sure that we closed the coop door every night. Without fail. It’s the predator’s job to check every single night for the one time that you forget.
A few days before they killed a rat that invaded their cage looking for food, I had defended them in my bare feet at 3 a.m. with nothing but a flashlight and our garden hose. I sleep with the window a little ajar ever since the Dominique massacre.
Great information can be had at BackyardChickens.com where they have a searchable Q & A forum. Before you consider getting chickens, check out any zoning laws about them. In order to avoid getting a rooster, sex-link chicks are a good way to go—the rooster chicks have a white dot on their heads. They are also good layers. With eight chickens, we get enough eggs to supply six adults.
The hens earn their keep not only by the eggs but with manure. Too “hot” to use directly on plants, it needs to be composted by layering it with their hay nest material, ordinary soil, plant trimmings, and rabbit poop, bringing me to the last livestock.
Rabbits produce tidy little pellets of fertilizer which can be applied directly to the plants or used to make manure tea by soaking a shovelful of it in water for 24 hours. By putting the chicken and rabbit manure in the compost, we make more fertile soil.
This brings me right back to the soil which I now no longer have to buy from someone else but can make my own. To avoid attracting any more rats and raccoons than we already have, I put our kitchen waste into the city’s compost bin.
Because we have two coops, it would be an easy thing to do to reserve one for layers and use the other one for fryers. They sell chicks in the spring which can turn into fryers at six weeks of age to fill the freezer. This is what my parents did when we were kids.
Likewise rabbit meat is one of the densest protein rich food you can get. At one time, my husband and I did this but not now. However, it gives me a certain peace of mind that our place could supply even more food than it is now.
We also have two apple trees, two Asian pear trees (which love the PNW), cherry trees, and Italian plum trees. My sister’s place has more plum trees, pears, loads of blueberries, and grapes.
Everything begins and ends with the soil. I learned a great deal about soil from the local organic farmers about soil structure and how tilling the soil actually destroys the architecture which allows for water and nutrients to be available for plant roots. I no longer diligently turn the soil over in the spring which I had been doing. I now plant cover crops such as crimson clover which provides “green manure” and cover the beds with my own compost.
Below you can see an 8 minute video of Shepherd Smith of SoilSmith Services giving a workshop on composting.