J W Richardson

I love that they have consolidated everything into one base!

I just reread this article written by Gene Logsdon about how the Amish were managing the land crisis back in the late eighties. It had stuck with me because they have such a different way of looking at their costs and how integrated their structure was. It seems that permaculture reflects a lot of these ideas.
 This link only goes to the issue, the article, A Lesson for the Modern World - Amish Economics’ begins on page 75.

https://wholeearth.info/p/whole-earth-review-spring-1986?format=spreads&index=73

A follow up -
https://news.mit.edu/2023/ancient-amazonians-intentionally-created-fertile-dark-earth-0920

Trace Oswald wrote:

J W Richardson wrote:Thanks for this thread. I went with three breeds in my flock with part of the idea to get a lot of genetic diversity in order to avoid inbreeding problems. Not sure if I am thinking clearly on this though. I have three roosters from these crosses for a flock of 25-35, and figured some linebreeding would be acceptable in this kind of situation. I don’t cull the hens, no congenital problems seen, a lot of diversity in type among them, but select the roosters for type. Three generations of roosters at this point, with two having the landrace features I am looking for and one being a pure original breed type. What do you think, can I keep my beloved senior rooster around in this type of situation?

I don't think there is any question that you will have inbreeding problems at some point, the only question is when.  I bred dogs for more than 30 years and I really dislike the term "linebreeding" as well.  I would prefer to call it inbreeding, as it is.  I understand the process, I understand the reasoning, I understand the results.  I don't think it is worth it overall.  I think the only reason people call it linebreeding is because it doesn't sounds as bad as inbreeding.  A rose by any other name...

I was hoping having this diverse combination of 3 breeds would give me some leeway in comparison to doing the same with a single breed.

I wonder along the same lines. I haven’t had an aggressive one since I went with hen raised. I wonder if it is an imprinting issue? Humans become chickens in their eyes, so are competition that needs to be challengedA.

Thanks for this thread. I went with three breeds in my flock with part of the idea to get a lot of genetic diversity in order to avoid inbreeding problems. Not sure if I am thinking clearly on this though. I have three roosters from these crosses for a flock of 25-35, and figured some linebreeding would be acceptable in this kind of situation. I don’t cull the hens, no congenital problems seen, a lot of diversity in type among them, but select the roosters for type. Three generations of roosters at this point, with two having the landrace features I am looking for and one being a pure original breed type. What do you think, can I keep my beloved senior rooster around in this type of situation?

I’ve been feeding home made recipe to a mixed flock of Langshans, Swedish Blacks, and Ameraucanas and their crosses for several years. I am able to locally source a 2-1 mix of no spray wheat and peas ($12.00 / 50 lbs), which also seems to be the standard base for non gmo feed. That by itself is close to 16% protein. I buy organic Fertrell fish meal and add maybe 4-5 TBL to a gallon of feed, and soak/ferment. The birds are free range in a rural area, and do a lot of grazing of grass and legumes in season (zone 5) in addition to contributing in a big way to the insect apocalypse. During the winter I add some dried greens, alfalfa meal or pellets usually, or dried kale or nettles. I was adding kelp meal for minerals but now am buying the basic mix with minerals added. Not too sure if I like that as I believe it has calcium, and I have roosters and prefer to feed oyster shells free choice.
 There is a big difference in having free range or penned birds, although I think it is not that hard to come up with a balanced feed that would be fine for penned birds at a fraction of the price for premixed organic. There are sources for comparative feed protein amounts and calculators online.

So, ran out of biochar, but overall success. It had no ammonia massive release, but it could have been headed there, had a day where it started to get strong but not super bad ammonia. I went to Jondo’s idea, a really thick layer of hay as a cap, and that worked to go back to odor ‘free’.
 This will all head outside to compost once the snow melts.

 Just saw this article from Cornell-

http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2019/03/biochar-soaks-ammonia-pollution-study-shows

So glad you are interested, Nancy! I have been thinking about why this works so well and I am wondering if autoallelopathy is playing a role. Reading about allelopathy is certainly a rabbithole!

Jondo Almondo wrote:@JW - With absorbing ammonia emissions from manure, biochar will work ok, but would work better if the whole mix was submerged in water. Can I suggest an extremely thick layer of hay? Many composters use a thick (sometimes compacted and moistened) layer of mulch to 'cap off' their pile and reduce emissions. A tarp over the lot can also contain and condense some of the gasses.
Biochars ability to absorb gasses is related to the duration of high-temperature ranges in it's production. A good biochar for the soil is less ideal for absorbing gasses, activated charcoal (made at higher temps) is great at absorption, not so great for the soil.
Also, if your worried about emissions - burning wet stuff slowly, smoldering matter in a pit is about as emissions intensive as it can get. It's also quite bad for your health. It's potentially worse than a traditional burn pile due to increased dioxin and PM outputs.

That was a very decent article in the NYT. Great to read that individual states are trying to roll out soil education, carbon credits and research in this field. The soil-carbon plan for France is especially ambitious given its national scale.

Hi Jondo, not sure if you were thinking I am doing a low temp slow burn for the biochar? I am going for the opposite, a fast burning fire being fed in small amounts to prevent smothering, then water quenched as soon as the last branches die down.
 
  Hi Nancy, so far so good with the chicken ammonia, I am adding enough char to completely cover droppings every couple days, then topping with more hay, no ammonia fumes so far. I will update in a week or so, finally getting some temps warm enough to really test it.

Re the prunings, I have posted in the biochar forum, a quick summary, I use a simple pit, and stack everything under some pines nearby that give some rain protection. After the first rain in the fall gets the surroundings wet enough, I burn. Most hasn’t had a chance to get too wet at that point. If I go slow with adding stuff that wants to smother, like canes with leaves, I can get a pretty clean burn. Not the perfect system, but easily attainable by anyone with no initial cost. Better than the traditional burn pile, haha.
 It should be a matter of biochar quantity for the ammonia, I am hoping.