Our big chickens - Rode Island New Hampshires (honestly that's what I remember they were, but I'm no fundi on chickens yet), are happily living in their winter quaters, while we take the Kukuyo grass on, so that we can give them a warm sheltered egg laying environment. This is working well and we are getting enough eggs to eat between the 7 of us as often as we want eggs. Not enough to sell though. They've only been laying for about 2 months and production has had a gradual increase. We recently took the advise of our local free range organic chicken farmer and started them on a protein enriched feed called Optilay 20, which we get from the Farm City. He also gave us some good tips for suplementing their diet with sprouted seeds and explained that letting the seeds sprout changed the omega 6 oils into omega 3's and made for far more nutritious eggs and chickens - a win win situation. I have not found seed in bulk for sale yet, but when I do I will definately take this advise. He simply leaves them wet in a bucket near the chicken lots, rinces them daily and throws handfuls at the chickens when they've sprouted. As well as this, the chickens are fed the harvested weeds that are growing locally, including amaranthus, chick weed, black jacks and any greens going past our own eating in the garden.

The circles in the garden are a huge part of managing the system both from the aesthetics as well as ease of use. The 2m diameter circle is about the biggest one can go, and having the space that we do, we've gone to the max. The chicken tractor covers all main circles and inbetween we have room for smaller beds for perrenials and fruiting shrubs that we don't want the chickens destroying.

I have allowed two regular bantams to free range on the principal that bantums are great insect eaters and will not go for the plants as much. In theory this works, however their scratching for insects has damaged my seedlings and I have made a decision to put them in a smaller more mobile tractor however cute it is that they're nesting right outside my window - egg and all.

There is so much to talk about when it comes to our chicken project and I would love to hear from anyone if you have questions or advise or even want to come and have a look at it in action. Contact us - you're invited.

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This is our first Earthworm farm. d'ya wanna look inside....?

We had heard of earthworm farms before we started ours. Mostly I heard that they were easy, kitchen waste disposals of the greenest kind and factories of black gold. I hope that this account may help you to work out what makes it these things.

Luckily we had the opportunity to host a course on Sustainable Community Living here on the property which has served as a perfect catalyst to getting all our collective, dormant knowledge out on the table and into action. Including the establishment of accommodation for our most productive guests - the earthworms. If you want to get your system going and are willing to host a sustainable workshop or facilitated course, please mail us and I will put you in touch with those that I know to get a project started.

We followed our faciltator's instructions for the most part, one of which was to find the right container - as opposed to running to the nearest 'Hyper' and buying it. Many suggestions were made with regards to what containers to use.I believe the variables lie in how big your system is (by system I mean your permaculture system, or family or environment, home or business), how much organic waste you are generating, your routine, and available resources - oh and your creativity. Convenience and ease-of-use are major factors in my understanding of permaculture and in this system, extremely important. If it is a chore that is out of your capability to incorporate into your routine, it may not work for you.

The main issues to deal with are keeping the worms contained. The container needs drainage (they'll drown if water is trapped in the container) and a convenient way of catching the vermiliquid that must be tapped or leaked into a bucket. In our box farm, we simply cut a hole and covered it with a sink drain cover and keep a bucket below it. The tap on the white cylindrical container is prone to being blocked and isn't as effective as it is neat looking.

The Container is layered from the bottom up with first quatered (roughly) clay bricks, then river sand, regular ground and then good compost on top before introducing the worms. The lid is idealy one that blocks out sunlight but allows air through. Closing a plastic container completely will suffocate them. We just made big holes in the lids. The grass lid was a lucky find on the streets on garbage day.

We were advised to shred the kitchen waste as far as possible for the ease of processing by the worms but also to avoid rot. This is easy using a regular kitchen blender. Big chunks of food are too much for the worms to deal with quickly enough to avoid mould and smelly results. There are also certain foods to avoid in excess, like onions and citrus, but we haven't tested that extensively. Size of the bits here, count. So far our worms have thrived. It's very satisfying

The blended kitchen waste is fed to them with a fair amount of water - like a cold soup. If you are able to tap the collected water from the bottom out, and it comes out as a dark black/brown liquid - use it directly into soil for plant food, or dilute it for a foliage spray or frequent indoor plant soaks. I haven't noticed any harm done by too much or too strong. But our experience doesn't extend over a long time. When the liquid that came out just looked like dirt mixed with water, then we didn't take it for vermiliquid. I have yet to clarify why this happens. A friend found the same result - we both shrugged it off. If you know, mail me - I'll publish it here.

We kept excess vermiliquid in all the milk bottles we had collected for seedling pots and sold some at a local market and shared it amongst ourselves.

The worms have not only been plentiful, but have populated the area around it. We were finding earthworms everywhere around the worm bins when we had a very rainy summer. We eventually found they were climbing up the side to the lids and just throwing themselves over. All around that corner of the house comes up peppered with small mounds after a rain - A definate sign of Earthworm presence. Talk about spreading the love.

It's about time to make use of the black gold, or wom castings as fertiliser. A part of me wants to just keep things as they are, stay in this part of the process where it's comfortabley going right. But it looks perfect and ready. It's May now and we're fast approaching winter. I think it's fair to say we can save it til spring and use it for the seedling mix.

This weekend past I saw how friends of mine who had also participated in the Sustainable Community Living Course last year, were doing there worm farm. They had a 20 liter bucket with a tap fixed to the bottom, and a felt mat for a lid. It was working exceptionally well and they commented on how quickly the worms worked through the blended food they fed them the night before - Rose even said they can hear them at work at night when everything has gone quiet.

Another neighbour shared his success in using tires with shade netting type ground sheets attached to the underneath. He stacked each tire full on top of one another and found the worms travelled between levels depending on their preffered conditions. He suggested keeping the stack in the sun in winter for some heat and in the shade in summer to keep cool. Check out his site here.

Tire worm farms, though not in use when I photographed them, it was easy to understand how they would work.

An Earthworm Farm in a bucket at a friend's house - no mess, no smell, simple and effective.

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These cement basin farms were in use when I photographed them. I wondered if reletive sun position would have a big influence for the worms in the extreme temperature changes of the concrete? Mail me if you know?