This 4' wide, 10' lon g chicken tractor can house nine laying hens and one rooster. Chicken behaviors are extremely useful to us, they scratch the ground, eat grasse s and insects, and deposit a layer of high phosphorous manure. Since the size of the chicken tractor and the appetite of the chickens is too big for the annual garden in front of the main building we run it in the fiel d on the other side of our driveway where we cultivate corn, peas and turnips in its wake. Chickens are truly amazing animals because they convert feed grains and insect pests into highly nutritious meat and eggs and useful feathers. Punctuating the scenery behind the chicken tractor is a series of level water-harvesting ditches dug on contour called swales.
Swales collect th e rain water, soil run-off and detritus washing off of the land.
To conserve the water collected by the swales we heavily mulch all of our fruit trees with hay and wood chips, and cover all garden beds with a light layer of grass clippings. Still higher up slope is a small pond for collecting the run- off channeled onto the institute by steel culverts passing under nearby roads. The pond provides a mini-ecosystem suitable for edible water plants, small fish and crustaceans, and serves as a water reservoir for irrigation and fire fighting. Back on the north side of the main buildin g shaded by a large elm tree is a 6,500 gallon ferro-cement water cistern used to hold the rain water off our roof, and should we run out of rain water to drink there is still pressurized water from a well. Water harvesting is an essential function in a permaculture landscape and is supported by as many components as possible.