When summer conditions are ideal, grasshoppers populations here increase to the point that chickens fatten and produce eggs without any supplementary grain feeding. Provided poultry have access to sufficient insects, green grass and legumes, they are able to productively free range without any external inputs.

Currently our bird population is limited to chickens that are gainfully employed in the garden beds. They are permanently housed in a portable chicken tractor.

We encourage the breeding of ground dwelling invertebrates by making a hollow in the ground and then filling it with herbaceous plants. Insects convert the leaf to manure. Insects may then be harvested by hand for chicken fodder. These hollows are part of our garden fertilizer system.

Our complete fencing system is designed to contain all types of flightless birds, suitable also for emus and ostriches if desired.

Within Janahn Forest, pastures for grazing birds are being established, especially in the area surrounding the main dam and adgingbongs.

Egg production from domestic birds places them in the top order of protein and fat production, equaled or surpassed only by milk production.

As our farming system matures, bird numbers will increase. We are developing a system that will provide the natural foods that birds require and so
eliminate imported foods.

Chickens especially are recyclers of offcuts from the kitchen and so are amongst the most valuable pioneer species at Janahn Forest.

Our Permaculture Journal 
featuring 
Stories from Janahn Forest and Beyond
provides a photographic display 
of our intensive 
Cell Gardening Chicken System 
at Janahn Forest

go to : Stories from our Permaculture Journal at www.permaculturedesigninstitute.com.au 

along with a collection of other 
short stories 

Portable Chicken Tractor at work


Wild Ducks at Sunset on our dam


Butterfly Pea is excellent fodder for grazing birds.
It is also a long lived perennial legume.


Slater's - small invertebrates - are converters of saltbush
into manure - they may also be harvested for bird food