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

686 Pages·2020·54.1 MB·English

by  Harvey Ussery

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