From earthspn@crocker.com Fri Jun 4 23:26:56 1999 Date: Fri, 04 Jun 1999 10:05:57 -0400 From: Mark To: sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Subject: STarting a flock of chickens >After reading all the banter about chickens, and visiting the Arkansas = >Conservation District Chicken Composting Website (sorry, I don't have = >the address, but it's disgusting), I am considering raising a few = >'chooks' of my own. Can someone suggest a primer on sustainable small = >scale (very small) production, for a suburbanite raised beginner? I = >have an existing chicken coup, pasture, stream, and foxes. Thanks. Mary, Below is one of the more complete books for backyard chicken raising. We have our first six chicks (sorry, can't get myself to say 'chooks'!) about to go into the coop I finished last weekend. Electric fencing is necessary if you have foxes (remember all those great saturday morning cartoons of the fox in the henhouse?). Try Premier fencing -- they are the most affordable I've found. Also consider getting some old-fashioned backyard birds (Dominique, Java, etc). They are good layers, good for meat but also very thorough foragers. More slow growing than the typical broiler, but you are not a contract grower so you can wait! Just my two egg's worth. Mark http://www.storeybooks.com/animal/897-8prim.html ---------------------------------------------------- Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) An independent non-profit organization c/o Hampshire College 893 West Street Amherst MA 01002-5001 T: 413-559-5338 F: 413-559-5404 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