Permaculture Training Online Pioneers
This Chicken Tower system was invented by April Sampson-Kelly in 1996. She has reillustrated it this week for our course notes. The Chickens have garden weeds for picking at, and nesting in, their manure and scratchings feed the Worms in the bottom drawer of the Tower. Rainwater is also collected, fed to the chickens and worms and recaptured in a tank for the garden. Another smaller worm farm tower was invented by one our graduates.
Here is a visual comparison of the eggs from our poultry, for the effort invested the geese give very little back except security whereas the silkie chickens are low impact, obedient and provide a good supply of eggs. They will eat most kitchen scraps and weeds if you train them when they are young.
The Gorgeous Silkies – Silkies are a very docile breed of chicken. They are perfect for city dwelling, they are quieter, less selective about what foods they will eat and happy to live in a small house.The require low fencing as they don’t jump and fly unless they are hungry. On the downside, they need protection from dogs. In this photo they know they are in trouble because I caught them on the wrong side of the fence.
