Go Green this Earth Day with your Backyard Poultry

Go Green this Earth Day with your Backyard Poultry
Reading Time: 5 minutes

When I started my master’s degree in Global Sustainability, I couldn’t even define what sustainability is or what it looks like. Today I know that programs with the highest degree of sustainability are those that balance people, profit, and the planet. For this Earth Day consider going even more green with your backyard bird operation with these tips.

Feeding Chickens

Feeding chickens will be the biggest expense of your backyard operation. Therefore, it could affect your profits. Even if you are not selling your eggs or meat, you should consider the cost and benefits of your backyard flock. I often think about how the $20 bag of chicken feed I use for my local birds to sell local eggs traveled from 6-10 states away. Is that really sustainable? It might be for me, but what about the farmer who is growing the chicken feed or the environment?

“One of the things I like most about having a small flock is that they can utilize a lot of food we normally waste,” Dr. Jonathan Moyle, Poultry Specialist at University of Maryland Extension tells me. “For example, they can consume vegetable waste from leafy green or the parts we normally remove before consuming. While most vegetable peels are safe, don’t feed potato peels, as they can cause poisoning.  Chickens are great at consuming leftovers that will go to waste if not fed to the birds.”

In addition to supplementing their feed with kitchen scraps, they can play on important role in the pest management of your property.  

“My advice is to give the chickens as much room to roam freely as possible for sun, fresh air and exercise. Eating live insects and worms is likely a more nutritious and natural diet for them than grains.” Dr. Joe Dorsey the Director of the Food Sustainability and Security at University of South Florida says.

Dr. Moyle agrees and says that when allowed to roam for a few hours a day or every couple of days their impact will be seen. “Chickens do a good job of cleaning up the garden at the end of the growing season and will also utilize jack o’lantern after Halloween.”

Something that I do to reduce chicken feed waste is to pick up all their dishes of pellets around 3 pm. This encourages them to clean up after themselves and reduce the chance that rodents visit their buffet.

Eco-minded people are often looking for zero-waste operations and chickens can help.

Sourcing Your Own Protein

Global meat consumption has risen and there are a lot of downsides -people, profit, and planet-associated with factory farms. Unhealthy and unsafe working conditions, small farmers having difficulty competing and the runoff of these farms into local water ways are some of the more frequently cited problems.  Marissa Byrum, the director of communications for my local feed store Shell’s Feed & Garden Supply says raising your own protein can be sustainable.  She adds that “No growth hormones or antibiotics are used unless absolutely necessary, and you know where your eggs come from.”

If you can source your own protein locally, you will reduce the food miles and take another step toward going green. Food miles are one factor used when calculating the environmental impact like its carbon footprint.

If you are going to eat meat, sourcing it locally can help lower carbon emissions.

Shelter

To take going green a step further, Byrum also suggests reusing and repurposing materials to build poultry coops and shelters. “How about reusing the plastic kids playhouses as coops? That allows those toys to not be placed in the landfill and upcycled for a new purpose.” With a little modification, I am sure you can create a predator proof haven for the flock.

Bedding

There are lots of ways to be green when it comes to bedding. For my small flock of chickens I use recycled newspaper that I get from my neighbors. For the ducks and turkey I use hay – which is amazing to think that people grow this crop to be fed to animals, it is transported long distances and I am using it for the birds to go the bathroom on!

For those with local saw mills, you may be able to buy truckloads of the sawdust cheaply to use as bedding. Byrum has a new bedding product that she says is also a good sustainable alternative.

“Roost by PittMoss bedding for chickens is made from 100% pre-consumer cardboard. Their proprietary shredding method gives the bedding great absorbency and smell control, and a good composting rate.” She adds that it is great for deep litter method in which you allow the bedding and waste to compost in place. “You can scoop out soiled bedding, replace it in that area, fluff it, and it’s ready to go. You use less bedding overall too.”

If you free range your birds, you’ll use less or no bedding. Nest boxes can be lined with recycled paper, cut herbs and grasses.

Waste Management

How you deal with your poultry’s waste material can either be helpful for the homestead or hurtful for the planet. Dr. Moyle says, “Their manure can be composted and used as garden fertilizer.” Feathers can also be added to the compost. Throwing the waste away adds to carbon emissions and it feels like you are throwing away money – as gardeners spend a lot of money on fertilizers.

Collecting feathers during the molting season should be recycled into nutrient rich compost.

Kenny Coogan is a food, farm, and flower columnist. He has a master’s degree in Global Sustainability and is passionate about Florida’s wildlife and plants. His newest book, “Florida’s Carnivorous Plants” is available at kennycoogan.com

Originally published in the April/May 2022 issue of Backyard Poultry and regularly vetted for accuracy.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *