Category 7

Backyard Chicken Health

chicken-health

Keeping backyard chickens is a joy shared by many – the site of a flock of ladies scratching around your garden warms the soul (as long as it’s not your vegie garden). There are simple ways to keep your chickens healthy naturally: give them fresh water, clean housing and bedding, and high-quality feed. Allowing exercise through free-ranging, and providing a stressfree environment by not overcrowding, will encourage happy birds. Happy, healthy chickens will provide you with delicious eggs, meat and free labour in the garden for many years.

Housing And Hygiene

Poultry housing should be large enough to accommodate the number of chickens without stress. There are many theories about the amount of space needed for each bird but, as a general guide, allow around one square metre. A naturally light and airy chicken house will discourage nasty parasites from lurking in dark places.

Growing Garlic For Year-Round Supply

growing-garlic

Tabitha Bilaniwskyj-Zarins answers readers questions about all things poultry.

My frizzle Harriet was unwell (scaly leg mite) which is now under control but her ‘cheeks’ are still a little pale. Is there any particular vegie or something else I could feed her to help build her system back up again? [tashmohring]

A chicken’s omb and wattles should be bright red; if they are pale then this can be a sign of anaemia, lack of oxygen in the blood, or dehydration. The comb may also appear dull and discoloured. The comb and wattles, where the blood is cooled, are a good indication something’s wrong. Seek veterinary advice immediately if Harriet has stopped eating or drinking.

Natural Learning & Homeschooling

People find homeschooling in different ways, and for different reasons. I didn’t even know it existed until I went WWOOFing in Spain about fourteen years ago with my now-husband. We lived with a family in the remote Alpujarras mountain region. They practised self-sufficiency, permaculture, holistic management, co-sleeping and homeschooling.

People find homeschooling in different ways, and for different reasons. I didn’t even know it existed until I went WWOOFing in Spain about fourteen years ago with my now-husband. We lived with a family in the remote Alpujarras mountain region. They practised self-sufficiency, permaculture, holistic management, co-sleeping and homeschooling.

Inspired, we took all of these practices on board. I believe they are all linked, integrated and very much fit in with our life philosophy of moving towards self-sufficiency in all things (i.e. taking responsibility for our own health, food production and children’s education). I homeschool because I believe my children learn best when they are self-motivated, self-directed and truly connected with and interested in what’s around them.

When our children came along natural learning began from birth. Babies and toddlers learn in a very natural way when they’re in a home with caring, interested adults. They learn to walk and talk without the need for formal lessons.

Rare Trades

rare-trades

What is a cooper ?

Someone who makes a watertight vessel out of timber. It involves a lot of skill and practice.

How long have you been coopering ?

‘I’m a fifth-generation cooper. I made my first barrel when I was fifteen, and I came to the trade full-time when I was forty – thirty years ago now. I’m an old bastard.’

What sort of vessels do you make?

‘Mostly buckets and barrels, butter churns, hand-operated washing machine tubs. I’m retired now, and I make mostly for alternative lifestylers, barrels for dry goods, wine and whisky barrels; they’re made to last. I have buckets my grandfather made that are still as good as the day he made them, ninety years ago.’

Nukazuke Japanese Fermenting

nukazuke

Nukazuke or rice bran pickles are a culinary institution in Japan. While they taste sour and salty, like any western-style pickle, nukazuke is a natural, wild ferment.

The ‘nuka bed’, in many Japanese kitchens, contains a live culture of rice bran paste in which fresh vegetables are preserved. Vegetables are inoculated in the bed for days, or even weeks, to prolong their shelf life, add flavour and turn them into a delicious probiotic snack.

Nukazuke has a long history in Japan, and many nuka beds have been passed down in families for generations; some are believed to be 300 years old. Having your own nuka bed is an easy way to keep garden produce fresh without the aid of a fridge, create a healthy addition to your diet and expand your cooking repertoire.

In The Garden: March – June

map of aussie

Brassica seedlings. [March and April]

Successive crops of broad beans, English spinach and peas; and winter vegies such as beetroot, carrot, celery, Florence fennel, leek, parsnip, turnip. [late March through to May]

Green manure crops, for winter digging in. [from March to May]

Hard neck garlic. [April to May]

Asian greens, silverbeet, spring onion and winter lettuce will keep you in fresh greens in winter and early spring. [from April]

Soft-neck garlic. [from May to June]

Non-keeping salad onions, such as red or white varieties. [from May]

As June approaches, shift your focus from planting annual vegies to perennials – lift, divide and replant the following through June and July: asparagus, chive, garlic chive, globe artichoke, horseradish, Jerusalem artichoke,

onion, potato, rhubarb, shallot.

Plant bare-rooted deciduous trees and cane fruit during their winter dormancy.

Some annuals will germinate and grow (slowly) in cold winter soil: use broad bean, English spinach, pea, radish, spring onion to fill gaps.

What Does It Take To Be A Permaculture Aid Worker?

rosemary

Rosemary Morrow is an author, permaculture legend, teacher of teachers, aid worker and the patron of Permafund, a charity within Permaculture Australia which raises funds for projects in disadvantaged communities around the world. This septuagenarian is having a brief recharge after working with refugees in Italy and Spain. I asked her what it takes to be an aid worker; it’s not a task for the faint-hearted.

What sort of person do you need to be?

‘The life of a permaculturalist in a camp is probably three months, if you can last that. You’ll be lonely. If you’re sick you just keep going. The physical conditions are hard. There’s a camp in Greece between an army base, a major highway (that runs either side) and a big industrial centre, between stinking traffic and polluting stuff. In a Kenyan camp they’ve cleared all the wood and water for ten kilometres, and people just walk further and further. There’s a couple of million displaced by the Taliban in Kabul, in absolutely disgusting living conditions with no sewerage or water. People use plastic bags for cooking fuel.

Save Your Seeds: Coriander

coriander

BOTANICAL NAME: Coriandrum sativum – the genus name comes from the Greek word for bug, referring to the smell of its unripe seeds. Also called cilantro and Chinese parsley.

ORIGIN: southern Europe and parts of Eurasia – 3000-year-old seeds were found in Egyptian tombs.

DESCRIPTION: a small annual herb that is usually grown for its leaves in Australia.

CULTIVATION: plant seeds directly in place, at a time of year when you know you can keep the water up to it. Seedlings do not transplant well. If the plant dries out it will go to seed quickly. Try growing it in the shade of larger vegetables.

Backyard Poultry Breeding

backyard-poultry-breeding

Watching a chick hatch from an egg is an amazing process, and to be a part of raising your own flock of chickens is an exciting and rewarding experience.

There are many reasons why you might want to breed your own chickens: just for fun; to replace your laying flock; to produce roosters for harvest to the freezer; to make money; to protect and show rare breeds; or just small-scale backyard production.

To raise chicks to adulthood successfully you need some good basic knowledge and skills, and a safe place for your hen to sit and for chicks to be raised. Despite all your best efforts, things may still go wrong sometimes and the chicks won’t make it.

Eat Your Weeds: Wild Fennel

fennel

Wild fennel Foeniculum vulgare also called fenkel, sweet fennel, finule, is a hardy, frost tolerant biennial or short-lived perennial in the carrot family. It originated in the Mediterranean basin and has naturalised in many parts of the world. It was first recorded in Australia in 1803, and is widely distributed here. Its preferred habitat is rough terrain: empty lots, beside roads and railway lines, in fields, on hillsides and ocean cliffs. It’s particularly well-adapted to disturbed soils, which has enabled its rampant spread.

Fennel is one of the nine sacred healing plants of pre-Christian Europe; one of the ‘Nine Herbs Charm’ of Anglo-Saxon cosmology. Wild fennel is different from the cultivated variety, which has flavourless leaves but an edible, fibrous, iron-rich bulb. Wild fennel doesn’t produce a bulb, but it does produce a thick perennial rootstock. It has highly aromatic leaves and seeds that offer both medicinal and culinary uses and, alongside similar-tasting anise, is one of the primary ingredients in the liqueur absinthe. Wild fennel releases allelopaths (chemical inhibitors) so doesn’t make good a companion for tomatoes and beans.