If you had a portable chicken coop, would it be possible to make use of more woodland as foraging areas?

What's the red and blue rectangle in the last photo?

BeninMA --- The rectangle at the bottom is the powerline cut area in the floodplain. Since we can't let tall trees grow there, I figure it's a good spot to expand if we ever want to go beyond our core area.

I've considered a portable chicken coop to enlarge the chicken grazing area, but I think it's simpler to just have multiple coops for them. I do like the flock to sleep close to home so that our dog protects them... They seem to range a lot less of a distance from their coop compared to the hens in Joel Salatin's Eggmobile, which also makes me think that they're getting plenty of insects close to home in the winter, and that moving their home base might not make much of a difference. It's an interesting idea, though, and one we might experiment with if we enlarge the flock.

I believe they call it a "Flood"plain for a reason...

Eric --- Yeah, that's why I'd have to put some thought into the production method down there. Even with the recommended twenty to fifty foot riparian buffer, I'd rather not till an area that floods once or twice a year. So I'm researching no-till grain options....

Thanks for this last post. I found it most interesting

Kathleen --- Glad you enjoyed it! Sometimes I wonder whether folks get anything out of my long-winded analyses of the land.

On second thought, sounds perfect for no-till rice. A nice undersown clover to hold the soil in place- the flood sediment will fertilize it as well....

Eric --- I was thinking of rice after you made your comment, but everything I've read says we're too cold for rice unless we want to baby plants along inside before the frost-free date and then transplant them. I don't think I'm willing to do that for a grain!

Ooohhh neat. That's really cool to see.

I have read of them growing rice as far north as the north east and Minnesota. Especially like wild rice and the likes of it. I used to use a Black rice that came out of the Himalayas in the restaurant. It has a rich dark texture and is very creamy after cooked.

Anna - I was thinking that expanding the chickens' forage base could reduce your need to buy feed -- But I can see how it would be a pain to implement with the layout of your place.

I've heard of cold-hard rice being done in much colder places than where you are. You could corner the market on artisanal "mountain rice"

Olan and Ben --- I enjoyed the article Olan emailed me, but even the most cold hardy rice isn't frost hardy. I noticed this paragraph particularly:

"In the South, farmers put their rice right into the ground using machines, or sometimes even distribute the seed by plane, he said. That won't work in Vermont, where the springs are too cold. Instead, Andrus started 50,000 rice plants in a hoop house, which is like a greenhouse with plastic sides, and later transplanted the young seedlings into his paddies."

That said, wild rice is a whole different species and ball game. That's what they harvest in the far north, but when I read up on it, it sounded like it's very dicey to cultivate. (People still harvest it from the wild, thus the name and price tag.)

Ben --- We've slowly but surely been expanding the chickens' wild foods. A lot of the things we think will help the most --- like mulberry and persimmon trees --- take a long time to mature, but we've already seen about a 15% reduction in feed costs with our laying hens just with our rotational pastures.

Fostermamas --- Glad you liked it!

Olan is right, rice can be grown quite far north. Here they grow it in Hokkaido, which is like Wisconsin. And having read your blog for years now, I think you are actually warmer than we are here in the heart of the rice growing region of Japan! We plant in May and harvest in late September to early October.

Maybe you could try a 5x5 meter test plot before you go whole hog (Hey, maybe you should raise some hogs?) on the entire floodplain. I have gone from till to no-till in some spots, but I don't know how to transition from wild to no-till. I don't know how well that would work. I would think you would have a tremendous problem with perennial weeds and trees. Good luck and keep us posted!

That's a mighty fine looking barn roof you got there! I'm glad planimeter is back in action - that site was down for a while and it was driving me nuts. Is there any ill effect that you know of from growing food under powerlines? Does the power company have any say in how the cut is managed?

Eric --- I'm pretty sure that the rice they're growing in New England comes from northern Japan for that reason. It's still all started inside and transplanted, though, and I have enough labor intensive spring tasks without adding one more....

I've been really enjoying reading about your rice paddy on your blog!

Mitsy --- That's pretty funny that you were going nuts without planimeter. I really enjoy it, but don't use it enough I'd noticed it was down.

My mom is constantly worrying about growing food under a powerline, but her worries don't really make sense since she lives even closer to a powerline than we do and grows her food nearly as close. This isn't one of those huge, high-powered lines that you read about --- it's just a small spur that serves us and a couple of other farms.

The power company can technically come in and manage the powerline, but they're very understaffed for that, so what tends to happen is they ignore it until a bit storm knocks trees onto the line, then they send a crew out to fix it ten days later. (No, we're not bitter. ) As long as people keep the area below it tree-free, they don't seem to care what you do.