Emily,
Very cool pictures thanks for sharing. The chicken moat idea, is an interesting one. I think I would be quite ok, cool with it, if the chickens weren't there 100% of the year. The one thing I do like about that idea, is the idea that any of the areas that might be "up hill" will wash down into the garden, I like those kinda things and have an area above the garden that is perfect for those kinda things. I was going to till it up and throw perennial and annual chicken forage mixes and let them go hog wild. I've ran the goats up there a few times. The one thing regarding the moat, is I'm not entirely sure what its purpose is? I do like the idea of keeping back grasses. Good god that is the biggest problem I have, and I personally believe the reason for that is because i haven't cleared ALL grass in and around my garden. But then you end up along fences, well if you have chickens running around the edges, that would be nice. I am a tad bit concerned at how much the fencing would cost to put in a system like that (depends on the size of your area of course).
Why not put heavily pruned treas around the whole garden? Tallest ones starting North West, smallest south east. I have blueberries, with a few elderberries all along the south (they'll be topped off at 5 foot max, and in the winter time, no issues there). On my east I have satsuma trees that I'll top off at about 6 foot. In my personal case, that size of a tree, just isn't going to shade really anything, at least not but maybe an hour in the summer time, and almost nothing in the winter time (because of the angles). I have a large native black cherry to the west of the garden, we planted a pecan, but I wish praying would make it grow faster, because I need that dude about 30-40 foot tall, like yesterday, to end that 3-6 pm sun.
In my case I will have a small foot walkway that will go all the way around the garden, so the areas that could be shaded via the southern blueberries will be mostly walkways in the morning. As far as the chicken tractor idea, I think right now I have 3 foot walk ways in mind, so I probably would do like you said, 3 by 5. I would put it on BIG tires. I'm thinking like the gorrilla kart tires. The one doubly good thing about this idea is you can roll that tractor right out of the garden and off into the hill sides. The wife basically said "create a variable run" with a set coop. Not a bad idea, I might say.
Kate:
Howdy! Encase you didn't realize (I just have to put this so its obvious) this is the same Mike who you went to Ben's PDC with. =) That's very cool about the chickens. Yeah I definitely don't have either the snow nor the cold problem here, but I certainly am aware that, that is an issue. My first reaction to it, is like you say. Stationary coop/setup, with a mobile one in the spring. Like I said in an earlier post, when you do an element analysis on a chicken coop (as you would with any other permaculture element) you'll certainly see it has needs and limitations, of which you're perfectly describing one. 2 feet of snow cover = not moving. The only thing I could think of would be "put it on skiis or a sled" but, I just don't see that ending well. Cull down the numbers that you have, make space for your breeding / excellent egg layers, over winter, come out strong in the spring. Even here I think overwintering too many animals, is a bad bad idea. It'll cut down your feed costs, remove the amount of space and amount of care necessary, then when there is the all clear, you build back up your stock.
Free range is one of the most interesting topics ever. My friend free ranges his birds, and they've gotten more and more ballzy as the days go by. They stayed really good before, but just kept getting further out, and more daring. You don't necessarily have to fence in the ENTIRE 2.5 acres. There is always the idea of "large paddocks" especially using something like step in posts, and electric twine. At least with that setup you can take it down any time you want. Granted as I hear the best setup is high tension wire that is electrified. Just keep the weeds off it, and phew, that'll put a hurtin.
