Some spring planning updates.

Chickens

It looks like we will be getting chickens this spring, at this point in the form of day-old chicks flown to Winnipeg from SE Ontario beginning of June. It's been decades since we've kept chickens or any animals other than cats, so this makes for a lot of changes and learning (including re-learning) about caring for animals. Yet it seems chickens are a great addition and complement to any natural, permaculture-based, local food production system and are an excellent food source themselves. We have plenty of pasture land and an old insulated log coop to move them into after some cleaning and fixups, so plans are underway!

So far we are looking at getting 30 unsexed Buff Orpington chicks and culling cockerels eventually to keep 1 or 2 roosters and hopefully 10-12 hens. The buffs are a larger, gentle and tame breed, good layers and mothers.

Some buff orpington photos from the 'net:

There is also a possibility of connecting with some Chantecler chicks which share some of the buffs attributes,  and are a cold-hardy Canadian breed developed in early 1900s in Quebec.

White Chantecler:

With plans for raising chickens comes an ever growing list of stuff we will need to house and feed them, besides the chicks and feed:
- heat lamp
- chicken wire
- hardware cloth
- fence posts
- watering supplies
- hopper feeders
- mobile mesh electric fence kit and charger
- frame materials for a chicken tractor (1/2" EMT pipe, pullable 90deg elbows, galv. wire, 6"-8" wagon or castor wheels)
and there will always be more! What am I missing?

We would be interested in any unused or recyclable fencing, mesh, feeders, 1/2" EMT pipe, etc. out there that could be offered for free or a reasonable price - anything on our "stuff we need" list we could connect with in Winnipeg or SE Manitoba would be put to good use!

We will be getting supplement feed from our local feed store, but would like to source some naturally or organically grown whole grains like wheat or oats, to eventually offer as a feed choice separate from the supplement and ground oyster shell feeders. We can transport grain in barrels in the back of our pickup truck. Any recommendations for feed and grain sources would be appreciated!

Hugelkultur

We have lots of poplar "scrub", 2"-6" diameter growing along the path to the river that would make good hugelkultur swales, along with a mix of spruce, ash and maple standing "dead" and rotting logs scattered throughout the adjacent bush and tree line. We have always hoped to turn this stretch of field-turned-bush into a fruit orchard with plants like raspberries, strawberries, haskaps, maybe some saskatoons.
The path to the river looking westward 8 years ago. The evergreens at the end are at the river bank:

 In autumn 2011:

A photo this afternoon:

 Wild raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, chokecherries, and even gone-wild asparagus grow well around here. Planting these and other crops in and around some hugel-swales in this well sheltered area seems worth a try. There is already access to irrigation water from the river through poly pipe installed last year, a very dry year. And the whole 400 ft stretch we want to orchard is visible from our kitchen and living room windows. That may help deal with detecting unwanted visiting munchers like the white tailed deer. Maybe we'll have to try Sepp Holzer's bone sauce recipe to try and save them from the deer.

The main concern is how to incorporate permaculture swale-on-contour principals with the hugelkultur. There are very gentle slopes toward the river and a stream bed through our yard, and when things get wet in our somewhat boggy/marshy terrain some mini streams flow across the surface here and there. Should we create a swale pond across the streamlet with a drain culvert under our walkway/roadway? Leave the streamlet areas alone and slope our swales a little toward them so they catch some water but have a way to drain? Should hugelkultur mounds follow terrain? Then there's north-south orientation. A lot to learn as always! Any thoughts in the crowd?

The "need to get" list for hugelkultur work we want to do this year is mostly labour (some wwoofers are registering!) and seeds. We have shovels, wheelbarrows, chainsaw, pick and axe, etc.

Hoping to find a local source for some "fresh" manure - good worm food and maybe to add a little during swale construction?

We would appreciate any suggestions and resources for:
- annual and perennial leguminous plants and seeds i.e. clover, peas, beans, caragana, and buckwheat seed for a green manure crop. We want to broadcast plant a variety of cover and nitrogen fixing plant varieties as soon as the hugel beds are built, along with some annual food plant varieties that are likely to do well in a hugel bed first year. And the same cover seed legumes can be incorporated behind chicken tractors as a start cover for a food forest. Any seed sources out there to recommend?

We have been offered a loan of a builder's laser level to survey some elevation points with swales in mind. Just waiting for the snow to melt before marking up a bunch of survey markers! It will be great to see how some contour lines might look around the yard, garden and barn.

Thanks for reading and we'll try to keep you up to date!