Corky Love

Hey- thought to mention Babydoll sheep. They're small, edible, and are described as having divine wool.

Looking into getting 2-3 myself.

I'd not heard of the hydrogen peroxide tip, sounds interesting.

I have heard of making a slurry with spores, water, and molasses. Pour over substrate, taadaa!

I've had good luck with taking a shovel scoop of mycelium and transplanting it to a new spot.

In our city, we had a piece of city land, overrun with Himalayan blackberry and unauthorized camps. The neighborhood decided to put in a food forest. (Swan Creek Food Forest)

We have public utilities. I fantasize about removing very maintained lawns and creating community gardens or small food forests on utility property edges.

Another idea I saw via Facebook, a few years ago, urban garden/wildlife corridors.

Jay and John,

(On my phone and can't quote or refer to posts to correct myself.)

Thank you for your feedback!

At a backyard fowl class offered at our state university extension office, we were told not to allow the birds access to the compost pile due to the risk of botulism!

I kept thinking, "I want my chickens to scratch my compost!" Food for thought!

My house is only 1000sqft, but we have a 1 car garage and a shed. We also have some areas we hadn't planned on running the chickens through - some pre-existing zone 5 and probably our zone 1, so the estimates are probably sound.

We have 5 mature fruit trees and 10 young ones, including a mulberry, 15 blueberry plants, a 20x10ft garden (I want to rework the garden idea), a sunchoke patch, and a lot of intention to increase perennial and annual forage in each paddock (entire yard).

I do want an area of hypersecurity for unexpected containment needs. I want a portable hutch, but may start with a stationary hutch in the secured area and move them daily in their weekly paddock and back. I do want to avoid a moonscape, unless in one sacrifice area and no free range - only I poop on my sidewalk!

I plan on using the maggot bucket on a tripod as I can, to supplement their bug needs.

Going with 1000sqft/bird = 8 birds in my yard, with 5 paddocks = 8000/5 = 1600ft paddocks.

I like the info on pecking order and the poor bird at the bottom's need for sanctuary!

It's important that I do this as well as I can, as I've been critical of friends and neighbors with backyard birds, thanks to Paul's high standards.

Greetings Toby and the Urban Farmer community!

I have a quarter acre in Tacoma, WA. I have listened to almost all of Paul's podcasts, read his Chicken 2.0 and Chicken Forage articles, and read Toby's Gaia's Garden. I may not have done my due diligence, in that I have only briefly, and some time ago, perused the boards for the answer to this question. (Another quick search of "chicken squarefoot" got nothing.")

I ask your forgiveness, if this has indeed been asked and answered. (I also ask that someone link the discussion for me!)

I am working on using Paul's best bird practices - 4-5 paddocks, lush forage on textured land, guard dog, etc..., I'd like to have Buff Orps and Muscovy ducks. Someday, I'd like to add rabbits, but don't get distracted by that!

I need to know, how many squarefoot do I need per bird? With or without supplemental feed. I want it better than humane, but I also want to know what my upper limit is. Birds primarily for eggs, sometime down the road I may be willing to let the ducks sit on a clutch a year for meat harvest.

Due to my property size and distance from my neighbors, I can exceed the quick answer from the city of 6 birds per yard.


I am about 1-2yrs from getting fowl. I've started suppressing grass with burlap and woodchips. I'll start spreading perennial and annual forage seed come spring.

I am in Tacoma!

I have a quarter acre and a messy house!

Where's the party at?

The chapters with Kelda are my favorite!

I'm in the Puget Sound area and I'm in an urban setting. The best part is that the two of them don't always agree - allowing for more discussion of a topic. The discussion is like edge - flourishing!

My lovage patch grows thick and tall! Place accordingly.

I have started my downloads! At first it gave me a ticket number request. Closed window and clicked on email link again. Got a "Cannot connect to server because:" message. Closed window and clicked on link again. 3rd time is the charm and with the 3rd click of the email link, I came to the download page!

Thank you for all the effort!

The download went well and all my questions were answered when I went back and re-read the email!

Thank you all for the effort.