Contents page | The Holistic Hen - How to raise quail, chickens and pigeons organically in a food forest

Organically raised chickens, quail, fantail pigeons and the occasional guest poultry all living in 1000m2 of organic forest garden. My articles attempt to look at the poultry's view of life in the backyard and to observe and share how they thrive and survive in the environment we created for them. On the occasions when I need to intervene, I do so with a holistic approach to the bird as an individual and also to infer from the situation what this tells me about the general health, happiness and dynamics of the flock. I also look at stress management and show how to use nutrition and phytotherapy for both prevention and cure of various conditions.

LATEST ARTICLE

Raising Mealworms Organically for Optimum Poultry Protein - Part One - Sourcing/Detoxing & Creating an Environment

Can't wait for a mealworm!

I've always been concerned about the level of protein in the diet of my quail. This is not only from the point of view of egg laying but also and more importantly because from my observation that my quail undergo a complete personality change when they are short of amino acids such as L-methionine. They become fractious and argumentative with each other and shout angrily at me when they see me in the garden. ...read more

Part Two - Optimising the Environment, Population Growth & Grain Mite

As with all my work both writing and films, my intention is to share that observation is key in the understanding of how we can best raise our poultry. This also holds good for how we raise their food. Understanding how invertebrates live, reproduce and interact with their habitat, helps not only in time-saving and avoiding unnecessary labour but also in getting positive results. The first conclusion we came to was that the plastic box was not an optimum environment!......read more

These articles are on-going, they occur either as they happen to us or because someone has asked me for help with their birds and thus to share what I have learned from the experience. Below you will find my my latest YouTube video: