From prairiedf@globaldialog.com Sun Jun 20 22:23:21 1999 Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 10:38:14 -0500 (CDT) From: Greg David To: sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu Subject: Chickens in a greenhouse Nathan wrote: > > Does anyone have information or contacts for people who have >successfully integrated chickens into greenhouses? > We used to raise our baby chicks in 'Elliot Coleman' style hoop coops(recently we built a 26 x 70 foot steel frame greenhaus). They are twelve feet wide, twenty feet long, with fiberglass hoops supporting the greenhaus plastic. The ends were laminated wood arches I built with nearly full size openable doors on each end. The inside was arranged with two bays of growing tables, one one either side of a center 'walkthru'. Beneith each bay are isolatable pens that the baby chucks were raised in. The heat lamps for the chucks served dual purposes of keeping the animals warm and comfortable and heating the underside of our germination tables. It worked really swell! We kept the chucks in their little pens till they started to look crampt, and then opened up the center walk isle for them. As soon as they started to get up on the tables where the vegies grew, we shipped them off to our chicken tractors(about 4-6 weeks). One can raise about 200 chucks, starting with day olds, in a hoopcoop. We would get 50 a week and rotate them thru the nursery and finally into the center isle. As spring progressed we kept adding bedding to the floor and by the time the everything in the greenhouse was planted outside, the chucks were of a size to survive nicely in our chicken tractors. The hoopcoop was then lifted off its site and the bedding forked into a nice compost heap, wet down, and let heat up. It cost us about $500.00 to build a hoopcoop and another $150.00 to upgrade it to a chuck nursery. It only became disgusting about two day a years when the weather was wet , warm and humid. We never had any disease problems, in fact everything grew like a budget deficet! I really like the system as it is not capital intensive and is of perfect size for our 'scale of opperation'. The hoopcoops themselve are light enough for chicken tractoring, especially if you have 4 persons around to spend 10 minutes a day moving them. As the season progesses we salvage lumber tarps from the local lumber companies and use them for shade cloth to keep the chuck from premature frying. A hoopcoop will succcessfully raise out enough transplants to do a 40 or 50 member CSA(Community Supported Agriculture). As with any animal or greenhouse opperation, someone must tend it daily for temperature control, water and the like. You dasen't be too late in the morning adjusting things or plants will droop and chucks will wilt. We also sprout a lot of grain for our pigs and chickens, but that will have to wait for another day...off to the farm now! Greg Prairie Dock Farm > > To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From PetersFarm@aol.com Mon Jun 21 23:51:01 1999 Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 21:29:35 EDT From: PetersFarm@aol.com To: nrboone@roadrunner.com, sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Subject: Re: Integrating chickens into greenhouses Nathan - I remember reading in Mother Earth News and/or the Boston Globe about an amazing lady on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, who had a very successful greenhouse business, heated and fertilized by chickens (housed at one end) and rabbits (at the other). I think it was called Sol Viva. Among other things, she shipped mesclun to fancy New York restaurants. The greenhouse was over 3,000 square feet and plants grew at three levels, using hangers and catwalks and such. Originally the air heated by the livestock was simply blown into the greenhouse, but that didn't work because of excess ammonia. Eventually a system evolved involving underground piping and air filtering material, which works fine and justifies the cost. As I recall, this was a very profitable business, back around 1994. (betty) Ann Gras To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From KellyD@umsystem.edu Tue Jun 22 11:16:51 1999 Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 07:40:43 -0500 From: "Kelly, Debi" To: "'PetersFarm@aol.com'" , nrboone@roadrunner.com, sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Subject: RE: Integrating chickens into greenhouses There is a book called "Solviva: How to Grow $500,000 on One Acre & Peace on Earth" by Anna Edey, ISBN 0-9662349-0-1. It has just about everything in it concerning heating a greenhouse with animals. There is a couple in Southwestern Missouri that are making an attempt to do something similar. They received one of the MO Sustainable Ag Demonstration Award Grants a couple of years ago. I'm not sure how they are making out but could always find out if needed. debi kelly, MAC > -----Original Message----- > From: PetersFarm@aol.com [SMTP:PetersFarm@aol.com] > Sent: Monday, June 21, 1999 8:30 PM > To: nrboone@roadrunner.com; sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu > Subject: Re: Integrating chickens into greenhouses > > > Nathan - > > I remember reading in Mother Earth News and/or the Boston Globe about an > amazing lady on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, who had a very > successful > greenhouse business, heated and fertilized by chickens (housed at one end) > > and rabbits (at the other). I think it was called Sol Viva. Among other > > things, she shipped mesclun to fancy New York restaurants. > > The greenhouse was over 3,000 square feet and plants grew at three levels, > > using hangers and catwalks and such. > > Originally the air heated by the livestock was simply blown into the > greenhouse, but that didn't work because of excess ammonia. Eventually a > system evolved involving underground piping and air filtering material, > which > works fine and justifies the cost. As I recall, this was a very > profitable > business, back around 1994. > > (betty) Ann Gras > > To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command > "unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command > "unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest". > To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command > "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". > > All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: > http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From keithdj@mindspring.com Wed Jun 23 13:15:41 1999 Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 22:16:36 -0400 From: Keith Johnson To: nrboone@roadrunner.com, "sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu" Subject: Subject: Integrating chickens into greenhouses Nathan, Jerome Osentowski of the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute has integrated chickens into his greenhouse. You can get further details from him at permacul@rof.net You might also wish to try contacting the Permaculture Drylands Institute at PDrylands@aol.com Keith Johnson The Permaculture Activist Magazine Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 07:38:57 -0600 (MDT) From: nrboone@roadrunner.com (Nathan/Rachna Boone) Subject: Integrating chickens into greenhouses Dear sanet, Does anyone have information or contacts for people who have successfully integrated chickens into greenhouses? Thanks, Nathan Boone [ Part 2, "Card for Keith Johnson" Text/X-VCARD (Name: "vcard.vcf") ] [ 11 lines. ] [ Unable to print this part. ]