Just brought in 104 chickens (about 12 roosters) of ayam daging warna breed (coloured broilers) at 60-day old (roughly 1 kg each @ about RM 10-11 per bird). These are previously fed with the usual commercial feed of soy and corn (likely GMO).
I soon began to realise that the entry of these birds is required to jumpstart or “energise” my permaculture system to productivity, since a truly integrated farming system should employ animals to do the heavy lifting for you. The way I see it, the main income generating activities at my farm will be driven by animals (meat/eggs), thus my focus should be on them. Any ensuing downstream benefits should cascade to plants naturally and eventually (fertilizer/pest control/increased plant growth).
My food strategy for them? Simple but risky for a newbie like me: moringa, brazilian spinach, selected grassy vegetation, sweet potato leaves, kangkung, azolla, duckweed, ketum ayam (madre de agua / Trichanthera gigantea), insects/termites from overturned logs (occasionally; will be leaving a few in the coop), food waste (barley, minimal grains, anchovy heads, expired oats/chia seeds/quinoa), snails/slugs if found, broken rice (the only purchased input at rock bottom dealer price), BSFL (self farmed), rotten fruits (from loads of star fruit), compost pile, etc.
I will be keeping them in the coop for about two weeks before releasing them during the day to free range only when I’m around. Keeping them inside during this period is to get them familiarised to their home so they could return to it at night.
I’m told that I’m crazy and that it “doesn’t work” without feeding them commercial feed stock. I just refuse to buy and am strongly opposed to the idea of relying on external inputs, especially the much dreaded and rightfully vilified corn and soy GMOs.
As I’m not feeding them corn and soy, free ranging allows the chicken to source for their own energy needs from scratching around looking for bugs, insects, wild seeds and grass, thereby reducing their reliance on regular daily feeds (which currently is a staple of crushed rice known as “temekut” and color sorted rice along with anchovy heads / “kepala ikan bilis”). Supplements include occasional kitchen scraps, azolla/duckweed, moringa and banana trunks/leaves.
Let’s hope and see what happens for this batch. I reckon if I can survive two weeks, after which they will forage outside during the day, I should be fine. Moving forward, I will be building a networked series of permanent paddocks radiating from the coop to enable a means for the chickens to graze rotationally. Only once this is done will my animal system be fully integrated with the food crops and fruit trees.
