Chickens and Guinea pigs - the fertility guild
I have kept chickens for the last 15 years, in a multitude of settings. Each of these has presented it's own challenges and opportunities, alongside a lot of joy and a teeny bit of heartbreak.
When I first began to keep chickens, I had 3 bantams in a covered enclosure in a small suburban garden. They shared the space with a fluctuation of guinea pigs, and they all seemed to get along famously.
The enclosure housed a large beech tree, two guinea pig hutches and the chicken coop. In the summer, the bantams enjoyed roosting in the tree, and we were lucky enough to not be bothered by foxes at that house. The litter from the guinea pig hutches was swept onto the floor, and the hens enjoyed foraging for the scraps of guinea pig food.
We often took our hens for a 200 metre walk to our allotment, where they happily turned over the soil and fertilised it in a rather large chicken tractor.
At the time, laziness (or having two young toddlers!) dictated that I used what I now know to be a deep litter system. The bottom layer of the coop was formed largely from leaf mould - years of leaf fall from the beech trees in our garden and in the surrounding woodland.
The chicken's loved scratching around in the deep layer, and the high-nitrogen chicken shit acted as the 'green' to the 'brown' of the leaf litter - creating a living compost heap, aerated by the hens scratching behavior.
I cleaned the coop out each month, to stop it smelling and because I needed the fertility for my allotment. The resulting material was mostly after a short while in the compost bin, as I was worried about the potential of burning tender and young plants with a relatively high nitrogen addition.
Pros:
inputs -
outputs:
functions:
<TO WRITE UP>
How I incorporated forage plants
the guinea pig connection
growing for winter feed
issues with bought in grain
increasing egg nutrition
breeding hens
the cockerel dilemma
When I first began to keep chickens, I had 3 bantams in a covered enclosure in a small suburban garden. They shared the space with a fluctuation of guinea pigs, and they all seemed to get along famously.
The enclosure housed a large beech tree, two guinea pig hutches and the chicken coop. In the summer, the bantams enjoyed roosting in the tree, and we were lucky enough to not be bothered by foxes at that house. The litter from the guinea pig hutches was swept onto the floor, and the hens enjoyed foraging for the scraps of guinea pig food.
We often took our hens for a 200 metre walk to our allotment, where they happily turned over the soil and fertilised it in a rather large chicken tractor.
At the time, laziness (or having two young toddlers!) dictated that I used what I now know to be a deep litter system. The bottom layer of the coop was formed largely from leaf mould - years of leaf fall from the beech trees in our garden and in the surrounding woodland.
The chicken's loved scratching around in the deep layer, and the high-nitrogen chicken shit acted as the 'green' to the 'brown' of the leaf litter - creating a living compost heap, aerated by the hens scratching behavior.
I cleaned the coop out each month, to stop it smelling and because I needed the fertility for my allotment. The resulting material was mostly after a short while in the compost bin, as I was worried about the potential of burning tender and young plants with a relatively high nitrogen addition.
Pros:
- It didn't take a lot of time to manage.
- You end up with compost.
- The birds get to scratch through the microbes and beneficial culture of the living compost litter material, which is good for them.
- It doesn't smell.
- It's safe and the birds stay healthy.
inputs -
- bought in grain and straw/ wood shavings
- coop and nest box - made from a scrap cupboard and timber offcuts
- 3 bantam hens
outputs:
- eggs x 2 per day
- soiled straw and feathers - used to boost the compost heap
- damp cardboard - used to mulch trees and perennial plants on the allotment
functions:
- pleasure/ chicken meditation
- soil improver
- compost enhancer/ accelerator
- weedkillers (in chicken tractor) on our allotment
- veg scrap eliminators
- processors of weeds
<TO WRITE UP>
How I incorporated forage plants
the guinea pig connection
growing for winter feed
issues with bought in grain
increasing egg nutrition
breeding hens
the cockerel dilemma