The Small-Scale Poultry Flock: An All-Natural Approach to Raising Chickens and Other Fowl for Home and Market Growers

416 Pages·2011·4.25 MB·English

Praise for The Small-Scale Poultry Flock
“Harvey Ussery has spent a lifetime developing and showcasing a truly viable poultry
model that is ultimately carbon-sequestering, hygienic, neighbor-friendly, and food-
secure. . . . This book is about a call to heritage, to the wisest of wise traditions in food
security and relationships. Harvey brings the latest tools and practices within the grasp of
any aspiring flockster. It is this functional spirit that will make this book a classic in the
small-scale poultry rearing genre.”
—From the foreword by Joel Salatin, Polyface, Inc.
“The Small-Scale Poultry Flock is the only complete guide available to using your
poultry as an integrated part of a self-reliant farmstead—a topic not addressed at this
depth and breadth in any other poultry book. Author Harvey Ussery combines his clear,
down-to-earth writing style with creative strategies throughout. He comprehensively
explores a wide range of topics including chicken behavior, anatomy, holistic health care,
making your own poultry feeds and finding alternative home feeds, breeding your own
poultry stock, butchering poultry, and much more. This book covers it all.”
—Elaine Belanger, editor of Backyard Poultry magazine
“Harvey Ussery delivers all the practical information you need to grow your own eggs-
and-meat birds, in a style and format that will keep you interested and amused. Plus, he
raises the larger question: What kind of world do we want to live in? One that treats
animals as units of production, or one that honors all life, especially that farmstead
marvel, the domesticated chicken?”
—Sally Fallon Morell, president, The Weston A. Price Foundation
“Ussery’s outstanding book is certain to withstand the test of time both for its
encyclopedic and practical information and for its acknowledgment that the future of our
culture and our food security is in the hands of the small farmer and backyard producer.
If you are starting out with your first flock, this is your book. And when you’ve been
keeping poultry for 30+ years, this will still be your best book.”
—Shannon Hayes, author of Radical Homemakers
“This book is packed with practical advice on raising poultry by someone who has not
only done it all, but has learned from his broad experience and knows how to
communicate that wisdom clearly and in a lively, readable style. Harvey Ussery has
written one of the most comprehensive guides out there, but what places it above the rest
of the crowd is that he shows you how to work with nature rather than against it in ways
that will minimize work while ensuring the health and happiness of the flock. Whether
you’re a beginner or an old-time poultry farmer, you shouldn’t go any further without
this excellent manual.”
—Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture
“There is a revolution going on, and it is the popular return of keeping poultry to provide
food for our home tables. This book helps lead the way by integrating the small flock
with its natural environment: the homestead, or small farm. Nowhere else will you find
such valuable information on putting poultry to work in the garden, producing much of
their feed, and producing healthful food for ourselves.”
—Don Schrider, author of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy’s Chicken
Assessment for Improving Productivity and Storey’s Guide to Raising Turkeys (Second
Edition)
“Anyone interested in practical, experienced, insightful information about how to select,
breed, care for, manage, feed, protect, process, eat, and/or market small-scale or personal
poultry flocks for their own eating pleasure or selling to others—and have fun—should
read this book.” —Frederick Kirschenmann, author of Cultivating an Ecological
Conscience
“Here’s the ultimate book for those who want to know everything there is to know about
raising poultry. . . . I could not find—in this encyclopedic array of chicken know-how—
one detail that I would quibble with.”
—Gene Logsdon, author of Holy Shit and The Contrary Farmer
“The Small-Scale Poultry Flock is about establishing a free-range poultry flock fully
integrated into a healthy homestead ecosystem. Based upon the author’s decades of
hands-on experience with many breeds and species, it covers all the basics about raising
poultry, and fills some important gaps not usually covered well enough elsewhere,
including chicken behavior, poultry breeding, raising chicks with broody hens, managing
free-ranging, dealing with predators, using electric net fencing, feeding poultry with
home-grown feeds, and integrating the poultry with soil mineral balance, gardens, lawns
and pastures, orchards, worm bins, and soldier fly (larvae) production. If you want to
raise chickens and can afford just one book, I recommend this one.” —Carol Deppe,
author of The Resilient Gardener
“No other book on small-scale poultry provides so integrated an approach to issues of
soil health, home economy, resource conservation, food quality, and animal welfare.
Harvey Ussery’s tireless passion for experimentation and empirical observation offers a
wealth of information based on decades of first-hand experience. This is the big picture
of poultry; no homesteader or backyard chicken enthusiast should be without a copy.”
—Kate Hunter, of livingthefrugallife.blogspot.com

Copyright © 2011 by Harvey Ussery.
All rights reserved.
The lyrics from “Union Sundown” by Bob Dylan on page 312 are copyright © 1983 by Special Rider Music. All rights
reserved. International copyright secured. Reprinted by permission.
No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from
the publisher.
Project Manager: Patricia Stone
Developmental Editor: Makenna Goodman
Copy Editor: Laura Jorstad
Proofreader: Eileen M. Clawson
Indexer: Shana Milkie
Designer: Peter Holm, Sterling Hill Productions
All photographs by Harvey Ussery, unless otherwise credited.
Chapter 20 opening image by Auke-Bonne van der Weide, [email protected].
Figures 28.7-28.36 by Mike Focazio.
Illustrations by Elayne Sears, unless otherwise credited.
DISCLAIMER: Information offered in this book is based on decades of research and practical experience. However,
the author is not a trained professional in any health, environmental, or other field; neither he nor the publisher is
responsible for the consequences of the application of any information or ideas presented herein.
Printed in the United States of America
First printing September, 2011
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 11 12 13 14 15
Our Commitment to Green Publishing
Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for cultural change and ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book
manufacturing practices with our editorial mission and to reduce the impact of our business enterprise in the
environment. We print our books and catalogs on chlorine-free recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks whenever
possible. This book may cost slightly more because we use recycled paper, and we hope you’ll agree that it’s worth it.
Chelsea Green is a member of the Green Press Initiative (www.greenpressinitiative.org), a nonprofit coalition of
publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the world’s endangered forests and conserve natural
resources. The Small-Scale Poultry Flock was printed on FSC®-certified paper supplied by RR Donnelley that
contains at least 10-percent postconsumer recycled fiber.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ussery, Harvey.
The small-scale poultry flock : an all-natural approach to raising chickens and other fowl for home and market
growers / Harvey Ussery ; foreword by Joel Salatin.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-60358-290-2
1. Poultry. I. Title. II. Title: Small scale poultry flock.
SF487.U87 2011
636.5--dc23
2011021217
Chelsea Green Publishing Company
Post Office Box 428
White River Junction, VT 05001
[phone]
www.chelseagreen.com
Dedicated to
Heather
who started our first flock
and to
Ellen
love of my life
sine qua non
. . . how we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used.
Wendell Berry
CONTENTS
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: Getting Started
Chapter 1. Why Bother?
The “Cheap Chicken” Alternative • Food Safety • Food Quality • Spillover • Maybe
Not So “Cheap" • Karma • Food Security
Chapter 2. The Integrated Small-Scale Flock
How We Got Started • Imitation of Nature • “Efficiency" • Closing the Circle • Putting
It All Together
Chapter 3. Your Basic Bird
Nomenclature • The Working Model Chicken • The Inner Chicken
Chapter 4. Planning the Flock
“Is It Necessary to Have a Rooster . . . ?" • Flock Size • Profile of Your Flock • Choice
of Species • Standard or Bantam? • Factors Influencing Breed Choice • Choosing Your
Breed(s)
Chapter 5. Starting the Flock
Sources of Stock • Starting Chicks in a Brooder • Do You Need to Identify Your Flock?
Part Two: Basic Care
Chapter 6. Housing
Henhouse Design • Other Housing Options • Accessories • Rodents • Access to the
Outdoors
Chapter 7. Manure Management in the Poultry House: The Joys of Deep Litter
Materials for Deep Litter • Alchemy • Deep-Litter Management • Using the Compost •
Disadvantages of Deep Litter • A Win–Win Solution
Chapter 8. Watering
Automating the Water Supply • Watering in Summer • Watering in Winter • The Water
in Waterfowl
Chapter 9. Pasturing the Flock
Day Ranging • Electric Net Fencing • Water and Shelter • Pasture Management •
“Pasturing” on the Lawn
Chapter 10. Managing the Pastured Flock Using Electronet
Net Design • Setting Up the Fence • Moving the Fence • Charging the Fence •
Challenges to Confining the Flock • Stopping Predators: Successes and Failures •
Caring for Electronet • Hazards of the Net
Chapter 11. Mobile Shelters
Designing a Pasture Shelter • Materials • Moving the Shelter
Part Three: Working Partners
Chapter 12. Putting the Flock to Work
The Great Work: Soil Fertility • Tiller Chickens • Shredder-Composter Chickens •
Insect Control • Other Work for the Flock
Chapter 13. Chickens in the Garden
Compost Corner • Chicken Cruiser • Predators • A Future Project
Chapter 14. A Question of Balance
Tracking Soil Changes • Wretched Excess • Strategies for Dealing with Nutrient
Excesses • The Silver Lining
Part Four: Feeding the Small-Scale Flock
Chapter 15. Thoughts on Feeding
The Three Food Groups • The Feeding Spectrum • Feed Costs • The Far End of the
Chicken • A Paradigm Shift
Chapter 16. Purchased Feeds
Three Formulations • Organic Feeds • The Good News
Chapter 17. Making Our Own Feeds
Equipment • Storing Feedstocks • Ingredients • Putting Together a Homemade Mix •
Keeping Feed Fresh • Sample Recipes • Alternatives to Grinding
Chapter 18. Feeding the Flock from Home Resources
Home Feeding • Green Forages • Seeds and Fruits • Live Animal Feeds • Other
Protein Feeds • Sprouting for Enhanced Winter Feeding • A Work in Progress
Chapter 19. Cultivating Recomposers for Poultry Feed
Feed from Worm Bins • Protein from Thin Air • An Alliance with the Soldier
Part Five: Other Management Issues
Chapter 20. One Big Happy Family
Working with the Cock(s) in the Flock • Mixing Young Growing Birds with Adults •
Introduction of New Flock Members • Mixing Species
Chapter 21. Protecting the Flock from Predators
Close Encounters at Boxwood • The Ball Is in Your Court • The Best Offense • Good
Neighbors
Chapter 22. Helping the Flock Stay Healthy
Health Crises at Boxwood • “It’s the Management, Stupid" • Illness versus Injury • The
Best Medicine • What Is Disease, Anyway? • Assisting Natural Immunity • Treating
Illness or Injuries • The Future of Gallus gallus domesticus—in My Backyard
Chapter 23. Managing the Winter Flock
Culling for Winter • Managing Winter Laying • Winter Feeding Strategies
Chapter 24. Other Domestic Fowl
Waterfowl • Guineas • Turkeys
Part Six: Breeding the Small-Scale Flock
Chapter 25. Breeding for Conservation and Breed Improvement
Setting Goals for Your Breeding Project • Improvement Breeding Principles •
Improvement Breeding in Practice • Something New Under the Sun
Chapter 26. Managing the Breeding Season
The Mysteries of Fertilization • Isolating the Breeders • Collecting Hatching Eggs • At
the End of the Season
Chapter 27. Working with Broody Hens
The Mother Wren • The Mother Hen
Part Seven: Poultry for the Table
Chapter 28. Butchering Poultry
Culling Strategies • Getting Ready • Killing the Bird • The Naked Fowl • Evisceration •
Cleanup
Chapter 29. Poultry in the Kitchen
Handling and Storing Eggs • Butchering Day in the Kitchen • First-Day Goodies •
Harvey’s Basic Summer Chicken
Chapter 30. Serving Small Local Markets
Relationship Marketing • Equipment and Logistics • Feeding Issues • Regulations—
and Regulators • Pricing • Market Offerings • Other Income Options • Finding Your
Niche Market • The Joys of Diversity
Epilogue: The Big Picture
Appendices
Appendix A: Making Trap Nests
Appendix B: Making a Dustbox
Appendix C: Making a Mobile A-Frame Shelter
Appendix D: Duck Confit, Convenience Food Extraordinaire
Appendix E: A Feed Formulation Spreadsheet
Appendix F: Spreadsheets for Tracking Egg and Broiler Costs and Profits
Appendix G: Natural Eggs and Industrial Eggs Compared