-- In a controversial new video permaculture designer Geoff Lawton documents a working commercial chicken system in Vermont with healthy, happy chickens that feed entirely on compost. In the video Lawton says compost is an equal or better feed alternative to grain for chickens and can be obtained entirely free.
More information is available at http://geofflawton.com/fe/59960-feed-chickens-without-grain.
The largest cost of raising chicken commercially is the chicken feed and most feeds are a mixture of grain, legumes and other ingredients. Many commercial chicken growers are struggling financially because the cost of feed is rising cutting profits to slim margins or in some cases eliminating profits altogether.
Finding lower cost methods of growing meat chickens and feeding chickens kept for their egg production is one of the biggest issues for commercial chicken growers.
A newly released video features Karl Hammer of Vermont Compost who produces eggs without feeding them any grain or supplementary feed at all. They free range on compost that is created from a mix of food waste from the local area, manure and spoiled hay.
Lawton says many businesses will pay for the removal of food waste and the compost and eggs produced in the system can be sold which gives the chicken farmer 3 sources of income. The system also creates high value from resources like food waste that would otherwise end up in costly land fills.
Lawton says the compost created as an end product is purchased by local farmers to use for growing crops so the system has a nice loop from compost to grow food, to food waste back to compost again. The best part of the system according to Lawton is the addition of chickens to produce an extra yield of eggs and meat chickens and higher quality compost from the addition of chicken manure all at no extra hard cost.
In the video Karl Hammer of Vermont Compost reveals another advantage of this commercial chicken system. The compost piles stay hot enough in winter to melt ice and snow so the chickens use the compost pile as a heat source eliminating the need for costly heating for chickens in winter.
Release ID: 88372