[Sca-cooks] Re: [Sca-cooks]Chicken tractors

[Stefan li Rous]

Anne said:
> Now, I may be a naive little city girl, but... I know when I'm being
> sold a bridge! I like the idea of using this for a manure spreader,
> though... *G*

Actually you are closer to the truth than you may know. Now that I;ve
heard the term described I recognise this portable chicken coop as
being what one of my fellow engineers uses at home.

By moving the coop around the yard, not only do the chickens eat the
various bugs and such in different sections, but they also fertilize
that area of the yard while they are there.

We have talked previously on this list about how period chickens
didn't lay eggs constantly the whole year round. Well, niether do
his chickens. His chicken production went way down this past winter.
He didn't have enough for his family's uses much less to sell any
extra to the rest of us. Of course the fact that some "wild" dogs
got into one of the coops on a few occasions also had an impact.
He lost turkeys because the turkeys would stick their heads through
the fence and the dogs would grab the head and rip it off.

The chicken raising is supposed to be done by his children with
any money going toward their college fund. I think dad is still
having to do a lot of the work though. Maybe the main thing it
teaches though is that they don't want to grow up to raise chickens,
so they better make the best of their schooling.

--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****