Scott Leonard

The beauty of this country's system is you can pursue whatever "vision" you have to solve whatever problem you have or that you perceive you have, the original poster has a problem with egg breakage by birds, I don't have that problem, I've never had that problem in over 40 years, moreover generationally those that came before me didn't have that problem and did chickens and eggs for a living, very successfully I might add. The steps to attain that success to this day are the same, a simple recipe that if followed will produce repeatable results year over year. While simple in process the steps are nevertheless necessary, knit one, pearl two repeat. As someone that makes his living from agriculture along multiple avenues, chicken/eggs/ goat dairy/ greenhouse horticulture/field crops/grain production/produce there are enough avenues for improvement/extrapolation/experimentation without trying to fix something that's not broken.  In the end it's horses and water

And not to overly obviate the point, I've never had an egg breakage  issue

Nope...I grew up on a farm, gramp and then dad had 12000 layers, 6 flocks 2k per. I've scaled back and diversified into dairy and greenhouse as well, but will be at 400 layers this year. Debeaked ay 12 wks,  
done at night, under red lamps, electric debeakers, quietly, calmly, set to 1/4 the top and touch flatten the bottom, 2-21/2 hrs start to finish, about as traumatizing as trimming your finger nails. Scared fish don't bite and stressed birds don't lay, we always had and I have now over 90% lay production every flock

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Small scale combines exist, in a price range around $3000.

Of my 3, the most expensive was $450, you have to keep an eye out

A book that's good for grains is "The Organic Grain Grower" by Jack Lazor, residing northeast Vermont. His is an operation that's at one end of the spectrum, but gets to the soil level simply and for a range of grains.
 That scything thing will do two things quickly, how little time it takes to work yourself to your knees and how far you have to go to be competent at scythe sharpening. Been there done that, the answer was buy several JD 30 pull combines, be a good attention to detail mechanic and then let John do the hard part

Matt McSpadden wrote:I would never recommend debeaking the birds.

Why?

Are the birds debeaked? Having a blunt tip makes it very hard to crack shells, also make sure there is adequate water

I don't think you'll like the results if the perimeter of the greenhouse is not insulated from the outside soil, you're essentially creating a giant cold frame, yes it gets warm during sunlight hours but it cools just as quickly out of them.  That -4C (25F ?) in winter will kill everything the least bit temp sensitive, no matter how quick the sun comes out. I'd remove the soil the yard or so to the 14C (57+ F) point from the base area, put in a thermal break at the perimeter, even if its wood, recycle the removed soil into pots for plants that can be moved about to their particular needs, you also can quickly remove something that a problem from aphids to blight, without losing everything.  that starting point being higher could allow you to maybe push some of the excess  heat under the house to warm the floor if blocked on the other three sides

Keep them on the mats, the warmer the better. The mat thermostat is set at 85 for ours and the probe is set under the tray out of contact with the mat.  I transplant, in our case into 6 packs for the stand, as soon as the cotyledon's flatten out, then onto the greenhouse benches, day time temps in the 75- 80 range and night 10 cooler, surface soil ever so slightly dry between watering's w warm water. As they get bigger 1-3 leaf stage I move them to cooler, like 5 drop, parts of the grnhse which acts as a slight hardening, then when they're at 65-70 rang out onto the stand. For the field it's transplant again into 3x3 pots wait for the 3rd week of may and into the ground. It's a lot of fussing , makes my wife nuts at me, but we sell out year after year and pick pails and pails full