Luke Boyd

Jeremey Weeks wrote:Jocelyn, I have 200 dual purpose chicks on order to arrive this April. They're going to follow my pigs, which will be in paddocks.

I'm going to use tractors. The biggest issue with non-layers in my admittedly small experience is that they have no reason to stay where you want them. Cornish X might stay stay in a four foot high portable fence, but every chicken I've dealt with can get over six foot fencing if they want. I suppose you could clip wings, but that's added labor and there isn't a lot of room for that if you want to be profitable.


When "food forest" is mentioned, I think of shrubs, trees, etc. All of which make great roosts for chickens. The problem is getting the chickens out of the trees, brambles, etc. This is more labor. I have personal experience trying to flush chickens out of a ponderosa pine.

I think you can keep layers profitably in a food forest, and I plan on doing so. But probably not broilers.

What about harvesting with an air rifle? Not the most PETA thing to suggest but chickens (in my experience) don't roost terribly high, so a decent air rifle with a little bit of practice could make head shots reliably. It would be a little chaotic but certainly no less humane than a cone. You'd have to make allowances for catching the carcass somehow, but that wouldn't be hard. Has anyone heard of this being tried?

Has anyone tried just training broilers to come out of the trees with grain?

My concern with broilers in a food forest has always been predation, precisely because many meat birds can't get up away from the foxes. I've heard it can be quite difficult to secure a forested section from raccoons specifically (brush grounding fences out, raccoons finding a way in through the tree tops, etc). Does anyone have any experience with electro netting around food forests in wet places (like NH)?

I only have a sec, but I thought I'd mention that although Salatin raises broilers in tractors, his layers are in mobile houses in a pasture shift system following cows. Sorry if someone has already pointed this out.

How would I buy the Art Ludwig podcasts if I wanted to?

LasVegasLee wrote:
A grub hoe, only a little more expensive than the cheap garden hoes sold in big boxes and nurseries, $30 for  a hoe that comes with its own sharpener and lasts forever.

An assortment of carbon steel knives that stain easily but sharpen to a razor edge. Carbon steel knives are hard to find nowadays, but you can get a dynamite carbon steel chinese vegetable knife for under $20.

Can we start naming names here?  Companies we like, websites for the purchase of the above, etc.  Applicable information.  Paul provided a link to a spatula in his cast iron podcast and I grabbed one, couldn't be happier.

As for the steel maul handle, ouch!  Buy wooden handle tools with decently sized eyes and spend the time to learn how to re handle.  It's not as hard as you'd think and most handles today are so badly made you can hardly do worse.  Once you can handle adequately even cheap tools will last generations.

For 155.74 euro ($220) it better stack the wood for me too.  That's a little pricey for a splitting axe.  I might try to make one though.  The principal involved would put less strain on the eye which makes the whole tool a lot simpler.

As for splitting up giant rounds, ... why?!  Smaller trees split easy, dry faster and are less work to drop/drag.  Large trees are for timber and boards, branches and baby trees (<10") are for burning.

On that note, I'm really curious about this rocket stove idea, specifically it's using brush as fuel.  Does anyone use one?  Know someone who does?

Luke