covenant against poultry. Alternatives?

Hi All! I'm new to this forum and to permaculture. My husband and I just purchased some acreage, and we're ready to get a farm going. The land we purchased has some unusual resrictions: there is a convenant against having pigs or poultry. All other animals are just fine. We can live without generating our own eggs, but we were interested in chickens for fertilizer and bug control. I'm looking for ideas about how to replace chickens (and other poultry) for those functions. Fertilizer is the easier part, since we are looking into horses and alpacas, but insect control is an issue.

Snakes, lizards, toads, frogs..........

Work on the convenants! Why is insect control an issue or necessary? Tick problem?Mosquito?Fly?

Work on creating habitats for bats, barn swallows, fly catchers and other birds that consume large amounts of insects, and also create environments(plant the right plants, trees, and shrubs and also create the right soils) that are conducive to other beneficial insects that prey on the pests.

When able, nature will create a balance that will take care of unusual amounts of pest type bugs. For manure, rabbits make really great manure and are quiet...no one knows you have them. Their meat is lean and has more protein than does chicken.

Exerpt from Permaculture Techniques "a couple of small ponds, perhaps four feet across and 18 inches
deep. Some of them filled with about 12 inches of soil, and some of them filled with about four or five inches of soil.
A pond that size will turn out about two hundred or three hundred frogs
about twice a summer. The tadpoles live in the pond, and the frogs live in
the cabbages, lettuces, and mulch. They return to the pond and you must
make a place for them to get out. A good sort of pond is one that is slightly
higher than the surrounding soil level, built up and paved with stones.
We put sweet alyssum and thyme and garlic between the stones. The alyssum
trails into the edge of the water, and the little frogs climb out on it.
Another thing you can do is to build up a little stone pile in the pond. Frogs
will drown if they can't get out of ponds, so let them have a way out.
Mosquito control is accomplished in two ways. I always put a bit of garlic
around the pond and just squeeze the bulbs out into it. That is the best. That
kills the larva. Just float off your garlic oils. It's about 100% kill. The
garlic doesn't kill tadpoles. The tadpoles eat some mosquitoes, but they are not a control measure."

Here is a pic of my small pond; fed with well water, no pump, overflows into veggie bed. Black things are tadpoles.

Suzy,

I understand that in some areas where chickens are supposedly not allowed, you can appeal and say that they are your "pets", as opposed to "farm animals". I read that this approach has been successful in some places. As far as other ways to control bugs, it depends on which bugs. If you mean the bad bugs that eat our garden veggies, you do have the reptiles and amphibians previously mentioned, and also the good bugs. That is the predatory and parasitic insects like lady bugs, spiders, preying mantis, wasps. If you mean flying bugs like mosquitos, bats. We have no-see-ums that are bad at times, and folks around here use Calgon "morning glory" body mist. That's the only scent that works on em. Spray some on, and they go the other way.

Nick - thanks for the Calgon tip. I cannot use insecticide sprays like Off. I have used Skin So Soft for years but am open to anything else that might work - especially if it is not oily. Mosquitoes know the exact moment I step out of the door.

worm castings, rabbits

Thank you for your replies, everyone! I guess I wasn't very specific about "bugs". I was thinking of the insects that like to chow down on veggies. I'm liking the frog idea- love frogs, and was intending on having lots of them anyway. I also intend to create habitat for bats. As for the convenant, we've been told that eveyone has chickens despite it. I believe they were originally trying to prevent poultry farms, not just a few chickens. This is good news.

Since many neighbors have chickens already, you can probably get away with enough to keep you in eggs.

Some things to watch for:
* Avoid roosters - most complaints are about early morning crowing.
* Keep them contained - no scavanging throughout the neighborhood.
* Don't tick off the neighbors.
* If you do have a neighbor who is "iffy" about it, offer them an extra dozen eggs once in awhile.

Good luck.

I should clarify my suggestion about the Calgon morning glory spray - it works amazingly well to keep the no-see-ums away, but it doesn't seem to deter the mosquitos. Jeanine, nice tadpoles. I'm more resolved to add a garden pond to the food forest.