Geese
It took a while for Jey to sell me on the geese but they turned out to be a great facet on our farm. They are grazers and keep our orchard trimmed. Most importantly they are amazing watch animals. They patrol the farm and sending up a holler and chase snakes off the farm.
Chickens
Chickens can be helpful or destructive. They need to be kept from scratching up the seedlings and mulch. However they can be useful for fertilizer production, eating insects, and egg production. We are cross breeding our egg layer hens with large improved local chickens and selling the chicks. Chicken food is made from amaranth from the market, coconut fiber after the oil is extracted, black solider fly larvae grown in fruit scraps from the market, and bananas from our farm. Black Solider Fly larvae provide high quality feed high in protein and fat which is easier for chickens to digest in the heat.
Fish
Ponds are built into the erosion gullies to catch rain water. This allows the water to slowly drain to the farm underground dramatically extending the season. Mosquitoes are deadly carriers of malaria so it is important to stock the ponds with fish. Tilapia grow well eating the mosquitoes and algae that proliferates in the goat manure used to seal and fertilize the pond.
Goats
Goats are great for clearing land, on farm fertilizer production, sealing ponds with their manure, and delicious milk!
Bees
Bees are vital for our farm. Before our hive many of our flowers would fall un-pollinated. Our neighbor even hand pollinates all his veggies! We would much rather have a hive, harvest honey, and harvest food. Some of the challenges of having bees are lack of food in the dry season. This causes many wild bees to swarm. A swarm actually went through our goat tractor and killed two of our goats. 🙁 To keep our bees happy we have planted our perimeter fencing with plants that bloom in the dry season as well as fix nitrogen and provide good quality forage for our goats and subsequently mulch for the garden.
