Enclosed is a recent issue of Grit!, the newsletter of the American Pastured Poultry Producer's Association, with several articles on field pen design: "Creative Pen Designs" addresses Joel Salatin's view of the common modifications, and "Portable Pens Compared" is an excellent summary of the experiences of different producers using pastured poultry field pens.
As the pastured poultry system continues to increase in popularity, new business opportunities arise. Some producers who have developed promising pen designs may charge for the construction plans or sell kits with specialty materials and fittings to build the pens. For example, Nature's Family Farm (4) in Wisconsin now sells building plans and fittings for a PVC pen (see enclosed flyer).
Field pens for layers.
For layers, field pens can be modified by adding nestboxes. Salatin retrofits his field pen by hanging nestboxes inside the pen. An 18-inch-wide hinged top (across the 10-ft dimension) opens for egg-gathering from 10 nest boxes attached to the top of the pen. The nestboxes are 12 inches deep and 12 inches wide. They are separated by 6-inch partition boards and are 12 inches off the ground. A perch board is lowered during the day, but pulled up at night to prevent the birds from roosting in the nestboxes at night. The enclosed article "Lightweight Nest Boxes" describes how plastic milk crates can be substituted for wooden nestboxes to lighten the pen.
Chicken tractor.
Andy Lee and Patricia Foreman, authors of The Chicken Tractor (5), popularized a small field pen (about 4' x 10') for use in gardens. The book describes how this floorless pen (with about 20 broilers) integrates chickens into vegetable production to provide fertility. Construction plans are enclosed from The Chicken Tractor.
"Free-range" colony housing.
ATTRA's Sustainable Chicken Production also describes the "free-range" system popularized by Herman Beck-Chenoweth's book Free-Range Chicken Production and Marketing (6).
What is inhumane is the FDA regulations, allowing dead horses and pigs to be used in the cattle feed with other dead poultry. The regulations not only allow cattle to be fed dead poultry, they allow poultry to be fed dead cattle. ... Mc Donald's are using lethal poisons and burning down rain forests to create grazing pastures for cattle to be sent back to the states as burgers and pet food. ...
About 25% of Britain's land is arable (пахотный, обрабатываемый, культивируемый), and almost half is suitable for meadows (луга, пойменная земля) and pastures (пастбища). ... Beef cattle and large numbers of sheep, as well as poultry and pigs, are raised throughout much of the country. ...
As I move thru the gateway of the first pasture I see the huge barn with its few corrals for the horses to the East. ... On the side of the barn there is an extremely wide poultry pen. A few feet straight in front I see the ever present solid, secure, and strong fence with barb wire leading to the second pasture. ... After entering the second pasture I begin my journey by foot across lush, green grass. ...
With the finest temperature conditions, which are regulated through high tech temperature control systems, poultry can be raised indoors. ... When raising poultry outside the chances of bacteria, disease increases, and it opens doors to many predators. The first part of cattle's lives are grazing on pasture, they are grass fed. ... Animals can be pasture-raised, treated well and live in a suited condition to their normal behaviors. ...
His life on the farm was a busy one and required a great deal of work: "I used to help plant potatoes, drive the horse drawn mowing machine, drive the oxen and plow, milk cows and move them to pasture, and help with the harvesting and sugaring...Before Thanksgiving, poultry had to be dressed for market, and a little later the fattened hogs were butchered and the meat salted down. ...
The increase in demand for livestock products (meat, eggs, etc.) in Brazil, "70 percent of previously forested land in the Amazon is used as pasture" ( FAO ) to meet the demand of the international market : "Brazil is now the world's largest exporter of beef, and poultry meat and the fourth-largest pork exporter" ( USDA ) . ... Organic and inorganic products of livestock, which consist of animal waste as manure from cows, poultry, pigs as well as fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics, hormones and other waste, are devastating to aquatic ecosystems, as it helps the process o...
Several superstitions cover the chances of rain, such as the following that conclude that it will rain if: within three days the horns of the moon point down, leaves show their backs, cows are lying down in the pasture, there is a ring around the moon, within three days, if you see a black snake in a tree, an ant covers the hole to his ant hill, smoke goes to the ground, or if earthworms come to the surface of the ground. ... Some of the good luck superstitions include: On New Year's Day, it is good luck for a man to be your first visitor, on New Year's Day, por...
Peru Peru is located on the western border of South America. Its bordering countries are Ecuador and Columbia to the north, Chile is to the south, Brazil and Bolivia are to the east, and to the west is the Pacific ocean. The third largest country in South America, Peru is 496,095 square miles. ...
Peru Peru is located on the western border of South America. Its bordering countries are Ecuador and Columbia to the north, Chile is to the south, Brazil and Bolivia are to the east, and to the west is the Pacific ocean. The third largest country in South America, Peru is 496,095 square miles. ...