Alder Burns wrote:Look up Cathe Fish, in Rough and Ready (near Grass Valley/Nevada City), or Stephanie Ladwig Cooper in Chico.....
I'd be tempted to take this on myself, but I'm still a newbie here in CA and don't even have my own 1 1/2 acres fully designed out yet!
Jennifer Wadsworth wrote:Natasha - this definitely needs a picture! Can you post one here? I am going to try!
Other useful information would be:
--average rainfall/precipitation - 39"
--types of soils and soil pH (going to guess a little on the alkaline side because you sound like you're in a dryland)
--how large the property is - 20 acres
--a little better idea of where you are in NorCal as there are so very many microclimates in that area - Greenwood, Ca
--do you know what your Koppen classification is? If I had to hazard a guess I'd say you were probably in the Mediterranean classification? Hard to know without more information. - Csb, though looks like we are close to the border for Csa
If you are in a Mediterranean climate (wet winters, dry summers) and you are that hot, as Geoff Lawton would say "It's all about anti-evaporation strategies". What does this mean? Expose as little surface area to the sun as possible. Shade - from trees, mulch, shade cloth - whatever - is your FRIEND. Here in Phoenix, we use sunken beds as opposed to raised beds in order to both harvest rainwater and to use the mass of the earth to moderate our temps and create a cooler microclimate. Sunken beds also naturally attract nutrient drop from winds. Beware anything above ground where you are exposing MORE earth to the sun, heat and extreme evaporation. I don't do traditional hugels because they just dry out and desiccate here. However, I have tossed branches into the bottom of my sunken beds before and that worked fine. In hot, dry climates, things will mummify/desiccate before they will decompose. Decomposition requires water.
Anyway - help us out with some more info and a pic! Sounds like you have an interesting property.
Leila Rich wrote:Natasha, unless I wasn't searching right, there's not much in the way of Guinea/chicken threads.
Here's one that talks about Guineas bullying.
Natasha Bailey wrote:Do they mix? We want the chickens to mostly free range (thinking about getting a temporary/movable fence to transport them around within borders...not sure what kind of fencing for that, need to research), we have 12 (no rooster because we've been in an urban environment so haven't been able to keep the roos, so need to introduce one to our flock, I digress). So we would love to bring guinea fowl in (frankly I'd rather have pea fowl, but it seems guineas are far superior at keeping the bug population down), but can they co-mingle and free range together? Would there be issues with parasite/worms/etc or aggression? Should I introduce them as keets or could I even put a few keets under our broody hen (she's a wyandotte if it matters)??