Pastured Poultry
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Mary Penick with Buff Orpington. |
The Kerr Center launched its pastured poultry project in 2009. With
their potential to diversify farm income while enhancing soil fertility
and other environmental benefits, pastured poultry enterprises appeal
to a growing number of sustainable farms.
The Kerr Center’s initial pastured poultry flock is small, with
14 hens and two roosters. Egg production is the sole enterprise, with
the fresh eggs going to Kerr Center employees.
The pastured poultry project highlights a growing trend in the Kerr
Center’s management philosophy: integrating livestock and horticulture
enterprises within a single operation, to the benefit of both.
To accomplish this, the chickens occupy the horticulture plot that is
in its year of rest in the vegetable crop rotation. The birds’ manure
adds fertility, and their foraging provides a form of insect control.
Meanwhile, cover crops, already the foundation of the horticulture
program’s fertility regime, also offer forage for the chickens. The current cover/forage
crop mix in the pastured poultry project includes sorghum/sudan and crimson
clover.
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Pastured poultry mobile coop |
The plot where the birds range is roughly half an acre. The flock rotates
through smaller sections of this area over time, so that the single resting
horticulture plot provides ample foraging space for the entire year.
Electronet fencing keeps the birds in their pasture, while protecting
them from predators. A heavy-duty three-sided egg-laying shelter provides
refuge from the elements. Skids on the shelter’s bottom allow it
to be moved with the flock as needed.
The pastured poultry flock consists of heritage breeds of chickens, such as Rhode Island Red, Buff Orpington, Silver-Laced Wyandotte and Black Minorca click here for photos and descriptions. Heritage chickens are standard breeds of chickens that are naturally mating, long-lived and slow growing. (See ALBC link below for free information on heritage breeds.)
One goal of the project is to compare breeds for heat tolerance, temperament, and ease of care.
The Rhode Island Reds hatched on the Overstreet-Kerr Historical Farm, which maintains its own flock. The Overstreet birds are all single-comb, while the Stewardship Farm’s pastured poultry flock has the rose-comb trait.
Kerr Center interns help in the day-to-day management of the pastured poultry flock, among their other duties.
Contact:
Mary Penick
Learn more about:
Pastured Poultry
Heritage Chickens
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC): Definitions, resources for breeders, promotional flyer and press kit, hatcheries and breeders, list of breeds in need of conservation.
Organic Table Egg Production
Cover
Crops
Kerr Center programs:
• Horticulture/Organics
• Overstreet-Kerr Historical Farm
• Heritage Breeds
• Interns
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