OUtputs of the Chicken
The yields (outputs) of the chicken, including its products and behaviors, make it indispensable to sustainable living.
Products:
• Eggs and… More Chickens!
Eggs and meat are the products of chickens that most people can easily name.
However, a Permaculture view of chickens takes account of many others:
• Manure
Chicken manure is a great source of nitrogen, a nutrient required in large amounts by growing pastures and crops.
• Methane
Chicken manure can be used as a fuel for methane digesters, thus generating natural gas for cooking and other uses.
• CO2
Like all animals, chickens breathe in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide (along with body heat) can be harnessed using clever Permaculture design of chicken houses to boost the growth of greenhouse plants.
• Feathers
Aside from their potential use to stuff pillows and the like, feathers are valuable food for earthworms and compost.
Behaviors:
• Scratching
To raise chickens ethically they must have something to scratch in, and mulch is their favorite! This scratching can be harnessed to weed and till the soil, while simultaneously fertilizing it.
• Foraging
Chickens are omnivores. They thrive on weeds, rotten fruit, and insect pests, effectively replacing the need for herbicides and pesticides, as well as much of the work of collecting and destroying fallen fruit in your orchard.
Harnessing all these needs, behaviors and "outputs" of chickens to your advantage is how to raise chickens for maximum welfare and yield.
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