Book Description
A chicken tractor is a bottomless, portable pen that fits over your garden beds. Just set it wherever you need help in your garden. The chickens peck and scratch the soil to clean your beds, eat pest bugs and weed seeds. Best of all, they provide eggs and meat with that old-fashioned flavor. Chicken tractors have helped thousands of gardeners have better gardens and taken chickens out of factory farms and put them in the garden where they are your personal helpers.
Customer Reviews:
Some good ideas for the beginner but needs some major improvement........2007-06-06
This book has some really good, practical ideas for the beginniner.
If you are into chicken production for meat there is a fair amount of information on that topic. If you are into chickens primarily for egg production (which is most of us) you'll need to figure out how to adapt the use for that purpose. This will involve implementing a nesting area and exterior access door into the design to collect the eggs. This is not a huge deal for the creative, mechanical types but might be an issue for some.
The book is extremely redundant and reads like a babbling person talking in circles. Cloudy, the information is sometimes conflicting and lacking in sufficient detail. The author would have done well to hire true professionals to organize/edit the content and draw the diagrams.
I have built and currently use 5 chicken tractors. The author suggests that you can build these things for less than the cost of lunch by using scrap materials. In my experience most folks would very hardpressed to find the materials needed for free. If you buy all of the materials needed they cost around $100 each.
Two people can build 2 of these in about 7 hours if they have only a smidgen of experience with tools/carpentry. Building one takes about 4-5 hours.
A few notes from my experiences working with chicken tractors:
1. I have used 3' tall chicken tractors for piglets (up to 4 months of age) with excellent results by wrapping the chicken tractor with a stronger gauge wire than typical chicken wire. The pigs root a large hole every day. When I move the "pig tractor" I rake their poop into the hole then rake the soil back into the hole covering the poop. This eliminates 95% of the odor and, of course, fertilizes my garden.
2. This method does not work well for waterfowl unless you have sandy or other soil that drains very quickly. On my farm in the NC mountains, confined ducks and geese immediately create a muddy mess unless there is a drainage system in place under the waterer. Drainage systems are not practical for chicken tractoring.
3. Chicken tractors work great for chickens, turkeys, and guineas. Birds raised in a chicken tractor will produce more eggs and be much more content living in this type of environment than those accustomed to ranging.
4. The author states that the chicken tractor protects poultry from predators. In reality this structure offers little protection from anything other than birds of prey and dogs. I have lost plenty of chicken tractored poultry to fox, oppossums and raccoons. Keep a baited live trap next to your birds or plan to camp out with them every night.
Hope this helps...
Good luck and good farming!
buy or borrow -- lots of good information.......2006-02-27
Because of the reviews I read here, I didn't buy this book when I bought Salatin's Pastured Poutry Profits, now I wish I had. It has a lot of good information and is entertaining to read. I borrowed from the library and am considering buying one for our home library in the future. Andy Lee gives you some good examples in both the NE and NC of how he has raised chickens, for meat and eggs. He has a good background with lots of hand-on experience. He does this for his own food and for some money, these are not just pet "no kill" animals. I found the most interesting part to be his ideas on using a greenhouse to start chicks on the ground in hay under the benches in the spring, then after moving the birds out to tractors, making your greenhouse into a naturally fertized and mulched bed for summer vegetables followed by a fall brooder for another crop of egg laying hens that can overwinter there. He moves his greenhouses and tractors, leaving behind beautifully fertilzed mulched garden beds, that's the most exciting thing for me -- my wrists and arms hurt when I dig with a shovel! He also gives a good idea of costs, of course you may need to adjust for the year and place you live, but it does give a good basic plan to follow. If you want to know how exactly how to build a chicken tractor, follow the basic plans and get some wood and nails and tools and try to do it! They are good enough if you have common sense and want to use what you have on hand or can scrounge up! I gave this only 4 stars (it would be 4-1/2 if I could) just because everyone needs room for improvement, but that's the highest rating I usually ever give. Best of luck to everyone with their farming enterprises, we need to step away from Walmart and the rest!
Very good for the suburban gardener.......2004-05-07
I originally got some chickens because Martha Stewart said they love to eat crickets and here in the desert we have quite a problem with crickets. I found out that chickens are wonderful pets, not much trouble, very friendly and they have personalities. And they really eat bugs - best pest control you can have. I read this book on the concept of the chicken tractor and realized for the suburban gardener this is ideal. Hens eat bugs, grain, and vegetable scraps from the kitchen. Hens are great little composters, and they eat weed seeds and pests up to and including scorpions and baby mice and snakes. They don't need much except food and water, and protection from predators. We allow ours to roam a fenced in yard freely, and pen them up at night. This is a useful book if you just want a few hens and want to improve your soil (we don't move our hens around, once a year we take 4 inches off the soil in their yard and spread it around our trees and gardens.) The eggs are great - I like giving green eggs to little kids because they all have read Dr. Seuss. This book isn't for someone who is more interested in egg-laying or meat production on a large scale. And, by the way, we don't eat our hens. We are running a chicken retirement home - they don't lay eggs any more, but they still till, compost, eat weed seeds, and control pests.
has good concepts, but the steps and details are off.......2003-09-07
I used this book for some research and experiment ideas in agriculture. while it has some great general ideas and concepts, i found that the entire instructions for building the chicken tractor were lacking in detail and had conflicting drawings and steps. some required materials were not listed, and the process was vague. in reading the book, it seemed to me like a great book idea, but was very hastily presented and lacked thorough attention to detail. it looked very "thrown together". it is a book i recommend checking out from a library if you want some ideas, but i wouldn't waste my money purchasing it in hopes of practical steps for a chicken tractor. (the book might give inspiration, but YOU will have to come up with the practical details of trying and experimenting to build your tractor.) hint...lightweight and portable materials and use creativity to adapt their basic (and vaguely presented) tractor
Fine book for right audience.......2001-08-11
amrdmr is worried about the wrong things. We don't raise chickens for pets. Why read this book if you have no plans to butcher you chickens some day. There aren't many old chicken homes.
The purpose of this book was to introduce you to the benefits of pastured poultry and give you a host of ideas. True, it didn't get specific enough when I wanted to implement one of the ideas. But then, the book would have been the size of an encyclopedia.
It was a great introduction book. There are very few that do as good a job.
Customer Reviews:
Finally some actual DATA!.......2006-08-25
I am thankful to find this book, because it is so rare to find any gardening book that actually tells you how many seeds you need for so much ground, or how to predict yield.
The reviews that complain about this valuable information give me an idea why that might be. People are too stupid to either value or use that information.
Well, if you are intelligent enough to be looking for that information, then you'll be happy to have this book.
at best an introduction.......2006-08-11
I was very dissapointed in the length of this book. Compared to other organic gardening books, this should be listed as a brochure, or maybe as a synopsis of "How to Grow More Vegetables..." A buyer's money could be better spent. Personally, I would not buy it again. Figuring that it would cost me half of the cost of the book to return it to Amazon, I'll probably just give it away as a gift to a new gardener. This is not to say that there is no useful information in the book, but more information can be found in other, -longer- books
In-depth answers for NOW questions.......2006-07-18
This is not a book to read in winter when you're dreaming of your perfect garden. This is a book that correctly lists the five plants that have been proven to help deter the Striped Bean Beetle when it's eating your garden down to the nubs. And the intercropping to keep the bean beetle away next year. And soil treatments to keep it from coming back. And what kinds of flowers will attract the beetle's predators. And did you know that veggies will generally produce just fine with up to 30% of their leaf surface eaten, or even produce more when it's attacked just like this? I didn't, until I read this book.
Great information, essential information, complicated information. If you're a dreamer who likes a couple of nice sprays of hybrid cherry tomatoes to munch on each September and want a nice book with pretty color pictures, this isn't the book for you. If you've got dirt under your fingernails and a problem with your French Intensive beds, you will eventually need exactly this book.
Beginners Beware.......2004-08-01
At best, this is a book an experienced gardener might pick up at the library to glean a few useful ideas about biointensive gardening (I found nothing that isn't presented better elsewhere). At worst, unsuspecting beginners will think this book is the authoritative source it claims to be, try to implement it's convoluted techniques, and fail miserably.
All gardening books convey a certain sensibility about gardening that sets the perspective for the endeavor. Sustainable Vegetable is weird mix of new age idealism and rocket science. Trust me, gardening is not as complicated as this book makes it sound!
The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Ed Smith is THE definitive title on the subject.Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew is good for small gardens. Four Season Harvest by Elliott Coleman is excellent for winter gardening. Tanya Denckla's Gardener's A-Z Guides are excellent.
A Good Introduction to Biointensive Gardening.......2002-03-14
A revised edition of Lazy-bed Gardening (1993), The Sustainable Vegetable Garden is a concise and easy-to-read introduction to concept of biointensive gardening. Essentially a resurrection of ancient farming practices, biointensive gardening is supposed to increase yields (the authors claim four times higher than one should expect from a standard garden) while maintaining a garden ecosystem that preserves the vitality of the soil for future gardens and generations of gardeners. For one to be able to subscribe to the system that Jeavons and Cox outline, one really has to have a sizeable garden plot, so that one can grow calorie-crops as well as compost-crops, so in this respect the book is not suited for the typical urban backyard gardener with only a few square meters of plot. One thing that really put me off was the suggested calculation method for determining the numer of seeds that need to be planted in order to attain an optimal yield-rate. Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book, and it has led me to rethink my approach to gardening.
Book Description
Revised and updated.
Hydroponics for the Home Gardener is an easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide to growing organic, healthy vegetable, herbs and house plants without soil.
Clearly illustrated with black and white line drawings, the book covers every aspect of home hydroponic gardening including:
- Building a hydroponic system versus buying a kit
- Plant propagation and indoor pollination
- Outdoor hydroponics, recipes, and much more.
Customer Reviews:
Good book.......2006-07-13
In a world where most hydroponics books talk about the exotic ways to grow things, this book covers a basic approach which would seem to insure success. I don't know about others but it helped me find and correct several misconceptions and problems that I have been experiencing with my hobby level hydro growing (excessive watering, inapropriate nutrient levels, etc.) Overall, a good text for beginning or hobby level hydroponic growing.
Out of date information.......2005-10-21
I purchased this book because it had supposedly been "Completely Revised and Updated" in 2005. That is rather hard to believe as most of the methods discussed are no longer appropriate. Also the copyright says 1992. However the book does have its high points. The section on selecting and growing herbs is outstanding. Also included is very good info on which herbs to use with certain foods along with recipes from professional chefs. Using hydroponic systems outdoors is also covered. I would recommend this book as an addition to a collection of hydroponic books. If you only buy one book there are many other better ones such as "How-To Hydroponics" by Keith Roberto. "Hobby Hydroponics" by Howard M. Resh would be another great choce. All in all anyone would probably learn something new from this or any other hydroponic book that would justify the price.
Gardening By Numbers ý With Missing Numbers.......2003-07-01
I borrowed this book from the library, learned many useful things from it, but also found it maddeningly sketchy and incomplete. Thinking that a new edition would improve things, I ordered this one, but there is very little difference between versions.
A short, introductory text for beginners can get away with describing "how-to" while going light on "why-to," but only if the instructions are error-free and complete. The authors would have been better to leave out the extensive sections on history and commercial methods and concentrate purely on simple systems suitable for the home. They could also have explained a little more why things are done the way they are.
For example: many pages are devoted to the description of methods for circulating nutrient solution, either by hand or automatically. Why nutrients are circulated is barely mentioned. The reader is left wondering why a constant flow of the same nutrient solution is better than just leaving the solution where it is. (Answer: for the same reason that blood circulates.)
So, a maddening book, but still a useful one. I used it to design some cedar window-boxes, fed by inverted 2-litre soda bottles that look like enormous IVs.
After modifying my design to account for the authors' nearly-fatal omission that their choice of growing medium, perlite, is actually lighter than water (!), the tomatoes and herbs exploding out of my boxes now block the sun, and the neighbours are jealous of my IV-covered walls.
Excelent for beginner.......2000-04-17
The book is very good at giving the basics of getting started into the world of soilless plant growth. The book is very easy to read and also gives formulas for producing your own nutrient solutions. I think this is an excellent starter book and it will have you looking for more information.
Average customer rating:
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Chicken Tractor: The Gardener's Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil
Andy Lee
Manufacturer: Good Earth Pub
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Customer Reviews:
Great Ideas.......2007-03-17
This book presents the core concepts of the tractor method of raising chickens or other poultry. For Lee, chicken "tractors" are small moveable pens, used to confine chickens to a specific range. The pens are moved frequently, generally every day or every other day, so that the chickens always have fresh grass and bugs to peck at. The cages protect the birds from predators and provide shelter from the sun and rain. They also ensure that no plot of land receives too much manure or is grazed too heavily. (Lee points out that when chickens are raised in traditional chicken runs, their excrement can be so heavy that the nitrogen content can become so toxic that nothing will grow on the soil; as a result, the birds then don't have access to greens.) But the book isn't only about chickens--it presents an entire agricultural plan, in which the chickens are one part of the farm ecosystem, consuming greens, and providing fertilizer, which then becomes the input for organic garden plots. Lee also provides sample business plans for using poultry grown in tractors to provide a modest income that can cover meat costs for a family, pay property taxes, or even provide cash for general living expenses. The book includes a list of sources for further reading, a resource guide, and index.
Lee includes plans for several chicken tractors of varying capacity in the book. I haven't been able to try them myself yet, but several neighbors have adopted the chicken tractor method of poultry raising, and they all endorse it unreservedly. They say it is much more humane and healthier for the chickens than cage methods. It is safer for the birds and easier for their caregivers than free range methods. It also makes more sense for soil fertility and requires less work tossing around chicken manure than one finds with the traditional chicken pen. If and when I get chickens, this is clearly the way to go. At the end of the book, Lee mentions that the tractor method would also work for other birds, such as turkeys or quails, but unfortunately, he does not provide suggested dimensions of tractors for these birds.
Customer Reviews:
Understanding the process.......2004-09-10
An organic guide to developing and maintaining healthy soil, this book is organized in two parts. "Understanding Your Soil" explores the chemistry and underground wildlife. "Managing Your Soil" is the hands-on section. Chapters offer prescriptions for problem soils (inadequate drainage, slopes, hardpan, contamination) and catering to the needs of vegetables, flowers, lawns, trees and shrubs, container plants.
While the second portion provides for immediate action, the first half is a readable discussion of the interactions of plants and soil. Gershuny shows how to recognize characteristics of your soil by observing weeds and plant growth, and enters the microscopic world of compost and humus. A valuable introduction to the world beneath our feet.
Book Description
While most gardeners aren't blessed with ideal soil to start with, it is possible to improve almost any site. This guide provides clear and practical information on making compost, taking soil samples, all-organic methods of feeding plants, dealing with poor drainage, choosing and using mulches effectively, and more.
Customer Reviews:
Not so Boring on a Boring Subject.......2000-08-06
This book is in the Taylor's Weekend Gardening Guides series of books. Like most books in this series, it is easy to read and understand. While it touches upon some of the science behind why good soil is important, it doesn't bore the average gardener with laborious explanations. It quickly gets to what most gardeners want to know, that is what to do to improve your soil's quality and have healthier plants.
Before you start a new garden it is important to understand the characteristics of your soil and what actions you need to take before you start planting. This book will provide the weekend gardener with all the guidance they need to build healthy soil in their garden. I highly recommend you read this book before you start planting your new garden.
Book Description
Healthy Foods from Healthy Soils invites you and your students to discover where food comes from, how our bodies use food, and what happens to food waste. You'll participate in the ecological cycle of food production > compost formation > recycling back to the soil, while helping children understand how their food choices affect not only their own health, but farmers, the environment, and your local community.
Elizabeth and Kathy use simple concepts and fun activities to show children the big picture-how quality soil is the basis of nutritious foods, and how eating a variety of wholesome foods leads to healthy bodies. Their program enhances existing curricula through methods that include writing, art, scientific investigation, music, and puppetry. Suggested resources encourage you to adapt the program to your needs, small scale or large. For instance, the activity "What If All I Ate Were Potato Chips?" encourages children to investigate the nutritional value of foods, while a seed-sprouting experiment "teaches through the taste buds." School gardens such as an Appetizer Garden or the legendary Three Sisters, or a series of classroom worm-composting activities help students discover the role nutrients play in healthy plant production. Handy extension activities demonstrate ways that students can help effect change in their own lives and communities. Background information, suggested readily available materials, and clear instructions give you enough guidance to integrate these activities into your classroom right away.
Customer Reviews:
Forty-Five Great Lessons for Kids about Healthy Foods and Soils.......2006-06-21
Healthy Foods from Healthy Soils
Elizabeth Patten and Kathy Lyons
Tilbury House, Gardiner, Maine, 2003
Large paperback; $19.95
Elizabeth Patten and Kathy Lyons, with illustrator Helen Stevens, have created a superb book that every K-6 teacher should see and use. Sections include: Where Does Food Come From? Choosing Food for Body & Soul; Putting "Garbage" to Work; and Let's Grow Our Own. Together, the sections clearly present 45 hands-on "lessons" and activities about the importance of agriculture, nutrition and recycling in our lives. Children learn about the power that their food choices have on their health, on local farmers, on the environment and the community by making puppets, keeping food diaries, growing food in their schools, creating model digestive tracts, vermicomposting, and more.
Patten is a Maine dietitian and health educator who lives with her family and several thousand red wigglers. Lyons, also from Maine, is an environmental educator and puppeteer who has created `Annelida,' the worm puppet for a recycling program and the "spokesworm" for the lessons in this book. The lessons that they have created in Healthy Foods from Healthy Soils are keyed to the Benchmarks for Science Literacy and come with links to children's literature and Internet resources. The excellent illustrations throughout the book are designed to entertain children and to help teachers visualize projects.
One lesson asks young children to pretend to be a vegetable or fruit seed. As the teacher reads a story about the life of a seed, from its time in the garden to its germination, growth, fruiting and right through to seed saving in the fall, students act out these stages. The writing brings this lesson to life. "...you aren't the only one down here in this healthy soil!" the teacher will read. "Earthworms are squirming around on their way to find food..."
Another lesson has third to sixth graders map the sources of the food they eat, demonstrating how far food travels to reach them; suggesting a trip to a local market to learn about the origins of foods; and making a regional food guide to the students' area. The authors suggest organizing a "local foods" party in the classroom; inviting a local farmer to talk about his or her job and products; finding out whether the cafeteria serves local food; and encouraging students to check clothing as well as food labels, since fiber is an important agricultural commodity. A table lists eight reasons for supporting a local food system.
A lesson on whole foods helps third through sixth graders differentiate between processed and unprocessed foods and includes language arts, health, math and life skills. One activity suggests that students survey the foods in their home kitchens and count the number of products that contain the top two food additives, sugar and sodium. A "Dollars and $ense" lesson has fifth and sixth graders calculate and compare prices of foods based on the nutrients in them.
This book could be the basis of a core class for children about one of the most important aspects of their lives: eating. The authors note that two or three generations ago, people were connected to the origin of their food and understood the connection between healthy soils and nourishing foods. "Now that so many of us are living with the health consequences of being a `fast-food nation,' a program that addresses these issues in a lively and enjoyable manner is vital," say the authors. Readers could ensure this vitality by purchasing this book for their local schools and libraries.
Jean English, Editor
The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener
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Soil and Your Health: Healthy Soil Is Vital to Your Health (Basic Earth Guides)
Beatrice Trum Hunter , and
Beatrice Hunter Trum
Manufacturer: Basic Health Publications
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The quality of your food depends on the quality of the soil in which it is grown. Is organically produced food superior to conventionally grown food? How do earthworms and trace minerals benefit soil, and the food and feed grown on it? How do intentionally applied fertilizers, pesticides, and sludge, as well as inadvertent contaminants, affect soil? This book is important reading for understanding how quality soil relates to good health.
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- Dairy Cattle Science (4th Edition)
- Designing Commercial Interiors
- Don't Kill the Cow Too Quick: An Englishmans Adventures Homesteading in Panama
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- Environmental and Natural Resource Economics (7th Edition)
- Fisher Price My Little People Farm (Lift the Flap Playbooks)
- Fishes: An Introduction to Ichthyology, Fifth Edition
- Fishes: An Introduction to Ichthyology, Fifth Edition
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