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Book Reviews
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Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide to
Happy Hens and Healthy Soil
by Andy Lee and Pat Foreman
(Good Earth Publications, New Straw Bale Edition, 2004, 320 pp)
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For many years I’d wanted to raise chickens for eggs but couldn’t find a place in the backyard for a coop. I knew that farmers sometimes use small moveable pens called chicken tractors so decided to look them up on the internet. That’s where I found the Chicken Tractor book by Andy Lee, which covers everything I needed to know to raise happy hens and improve the soil in our garden.
Many styles of chicken tractors can also be found on the internet. My husband built ours out of two-by-fours at the bottom with an arch of heavy concrete-reinforcing mesh. The book covers many different chicken tractor systems and, for those folks who have more room, a stationary straw bale chicken house. It answers every question I could think of regarding feeding and care of the day-old chicks we brought home, which should start laying at about five months. Peak laying is at two years, and I still had a hang-up about what to do after they quit. Unlike the entrepreneurial author of the book, I’ve decided to let the old girls live out their lives, which totals about five years, while we start over with new chicks. They will have worked hard for us.
Our resident granddaughter thinks of them as pets. They fit well into our suburban efforts toward permaculture as they forage and poop in the daytime among the fruit trees and vegetables, then return to the tractor to roost until the next morning. If anyone wants to email or phone me about trying a similar project, I’d be happy to share what I’ve learned so far, thanks to the boost from this comprehensive, humorous book. (rwilvert@sbcglobal.net or 805-544-8365)
Rosemary Wilvert
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