Designing a Passively Irrigated Chook Clock System Based on Chinampas

Discussion in 'Designing, building, making and powering your life' started by ambishop, Jun 23, 2013.

  1. ambishop

    ambishop Junior Member

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    I am putting together a bit of a unique garden system that is based on combining a few systems. I would love to get feedback from anyone who might want to add to this design.

    Basic CAD drawing below:

    [​IMG]

    There is a lot going on in this drawing so it is best to lay out the big picture stuff first.

    Proposed System is based on a scalable passive irrigation system incorporating an dammed duck pond connected to a large square Chook Clock garden (Think of it like a "square mandala" Chook Clock).

    Chook Clock garden will be designed with raised beds irrigated using the chinampa passive irrigation design. Chinampa function is Garden Paths are dug out to 1 meter deep, and filled with gravel, and then flow as narrow & Shallow Streams. This allows water to leach into the garden beds passively and reduces the watering effort for irrigation. Streams may or may not be covered by wood panels to keep from having to walk in shallow streams. - Obviously it is not in the true sense a Chinampa, true to the original Chinampas in Mexico (garden beds made in shallow lakes) but in the same sense to what Geoff Lawton and others refer to as Chinampas (canals around garden beds).

    Image below shows wider stream than in proposed system. I am looking at around 18 inches wide possibly tapering to even more narrow at the top. Possibly covered in Wood panels to avoid having to walk in water. Plus chickens could be scratching soil into streams and requiring cleaning.
    [​IMG]

    Chook garden will be designed in a cubic format with a centrally located chicken hen house. Concept is at monthly intervals the chickens will be give access to free range in a new section of the Chook Clock garden. Chickens will be used at the end of each quadrant's growing cycle for use in scratching out weeds, composting and manuring garden beds in preparation for next months planting. This is equivalent to what is found in mandala chook clock gardens. Same idea, however better format for passive irrigation. Once the chickens have fully prepared quadrant for planting of the next crops, they will be given access to the next quadrant.

    Think of the system as a Rubik's Cube. As shown below where the chickens during one month have access to the blue squares. The next month, that section is closed off and the nutrients from the chickens are allowed to sit, before new plantings start. Chickens are then given area to the next area in the cube like hands around a clock.
    [​IMG]

    It is my plan to restrict access to the garden via netting, with two rows of fencing in each section making 9 sections. Each section of the cube would incorporate each individual garden with the center section dedicated to the chickens leaving 8 outer sections available. One section with access by chickens and one section dormant for soil preparation and nitrogen decomposition. This leaves 6 LARGE sections of garden that account for 6 month growing cycles. Netting will be used for basic chicken control, predator control and some insect control. Not a perfect solution, but the best option that covers all of those fairly well.

    [​IMG]

    Other insect controls will be implemented such as raising insect predators in vermaculture system, and proving access, and pollinators will be incorporated into system.

    Design System is Scalable and allows the size of the garden to correspond to the size of the pond system connected. Pond Size will be based on specific application, based on damned area considering specific catchment area.

    Overflow from dam will be slightly higher than max height of streams. Streams will be fed to by damn from top to bottom of gravel beds so that soaking is the maximum possible. Flow from stream will be designed to feed orchard system outside of garden with raised bed water hungry plants such as banana etc.

    System layout is scalable and usable within multiple climates, however my personal application will be in Northern Rivers, NSW, AU area. Subtropical Coastal Climate, Australia.

    It incorporates a lot, but basically in a nutshell it accomplishes ONE main objective. That objective is to design a self sustaining system that is incredibly productive, uses inputs and nutrients from controlled sources such as chickens ducks and fish, is protected from predators including pests with the netting and most importantly is watered by itself without any outside irrigation using a dam that is filled from a controlled catchment areas using run-off water. This design is the most eco-friendly, environmentally conscience design I can come up with and does NOT require any outside fertilizers, or pumping of water based on designs that have been proven for thousands of years to be the most productive agriculture systems ever designed,... chinampas

    I have a lot more details, but this is the basic system. There are a few concerns that I have such as the streams clogging up with Duck manure from pond, dirt from raised beds, etc. However the ideas about narrowing the top of the streams and covering with wood panels may address this issue.

    I would love to get any feedback that others might be willing to offer as my goal is to purchase a property within the area I am considering that will meet my objectives and layout this system. At this point I am open to any feedback or concerns as am still in the design phase.

    Thanks!
    Martin
     
  2. ambishop

    ambishop Junior Member

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    I am very surprised that there are no comments after this much time. Sorry I could not have been more creative in the design...

    I am talking to a few different people about possibly building this system on their property. I have not found the perfect property or situation, and I am still looking for just the right property to put together this system so if you have any suggestions of anyone to talk with in the Byron Bay or Ballina surrounding area I would appreciate it
     
  3. ecodharmamark

    ecodharmamark Junior Member

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    G'day Martin, welcome to the PRI Forum. Sorry we did not 'observe' your presence earlier; you must have somehow flown under the radar. But, you're here now, and as such it's time for some 'interaction'. The design looks great! I especially like the 'passive' water-level element that you have engineered into the overall design. I wonder, however, how will it cope in an unusually high rainfall event, say a 1-in-100-year flood? It would be a shame to lose all of the nutrient rich material (chook shit, etc.) into local waterways. Also, generally in permaculture, if one is looking for the 'perfect' property, one is probably never going to find it! Often, we just have to work with what we are given/can get. As such, the design should always respond to the site, and not the other way around. Cheers, Markos.
     
  4. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Hi Martin - I'm guessing you must have posted in a busy patch when we were all distracted. I'm with Markos - it is better to use a design to fix an issue on a site - rather than find a site to use a design, even when it is such an attractive one as yours. Having a set idea in your head about what you want to achieve sometimes leaves you missing out on an opportunity to be really creative in response to a local challenge. I like the 'clock' concept - have never heard it called that before even though I use a rotational chook system myself.
     
  5. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    I applaud you on your creative design Martin! Much well-thought out study of inter-relationships between the elements. I'm sure that your system can be adapted to work in many locations and look forward to hearing about it's implementation.

    I particularly like the covered waterways (since I live in a semi-arid place). Although you may not have the same challenges I would, the covers can prevent the high evaporation rate associated with open water and if the covers are boards with spaces between them, will give a "filtered sunshine" effect of a waterway within a forest. Brilliant! Maybe such a system could be adapted even in my climate!
     
  6. Unmutual

    Unmutual Junior Member

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    Yep, not sure how I missed this one either. Weird.

    Question about the canals: wouldn't lining the canals with rocks prevent you from mucking them out? The build up of biological material(fish/duck manures) is very fertile, even if a little smelly. I can see why you'd want very shallow canals, but you're making another source of nutrient difficult to get to. Making them 5 ft across(under 2 meters) might prevent most chickens from attempting the leap to the other side(confirmation of this would be nice). 18" is nothing for a chicken.

    The netting to segregate garden beds might be a little over the top since keeping out pests will also keep out beneficials, including pollinators.

    I'd also consider planting insectary plants along with the veggies. The timing of plants is beginning to give me a headache. How do you deal with long term crops such as garlic, with shorter term crops such as radishes and carrots? Most of my summer veggies are 90+ day crops, so that will slow your rotation down. Are you going to plant any support species, such as nitrogen fixing trees/shrubs in the chinampa gardens along with chop and drop mulches and possible plants that chickens love to eat?

    So at any given time, you'll only have 2 beds not in production. One that the chickens are processing and one that's "cooling down" from the chicken manure. I assume you'll be mucking out the center chicken coop square once a month to lay out that manure too(along with maybe some straw) and add that fertilizer too(deep litter might help out with that).

    I'll have to mirror the concerns about finding the perfect property for this system instead of designing around the property. However, overall it's a great idea that I may have to steal from you.
     
  7. Grahame

    Grahame Senior Member

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    Yeah, before I got to Unmutual's response I was already concerned about the timing for crop rotations too.
     
  8. purplepear

    purplepear Junior Member

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    Great thought process Martin. As others have said, I would have concerns about the interaction of benificials in the netted enclosures and of trying to fit a property to the design instead of vice versa. The water channells have merit though I would look to keep them free of the rocks and instead use them for aquaculture with covered walk ways (making sure the fish had light). The edge looks good though movable housing for the hens will help control intestinal problems by rotating the flock and breaking the life cycle of pests. Very imaginative.
     
  9. ambishop

    ambishop Junior Member

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    Thank you for the response about the over flow. I have put some thought in to this as well, but have not put it through the real world application yet. The damn obviously has an overflow and at the far left side of the design above over flows at the end of each side of the chinampas. The concept is to have the water flow from right to left in the above photo in that over-flow would both go out the dam overflow AND the normal flow paths to the left. The design is to allow water to not become stagnant in the passive irrigation. However in a 100 year flood event I guess there is going to be a big mess if the over flows can not handle the situation. But, in that case, you are pretty much hammered in ANY design. I do however agree with your points and that is something we have to think about for any specific application.
     
  10. ambishop

    ambishop Junior Member

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    Thanks for the feedback. I do appreciate it. In your chook rotation system are you using the traditional pick up the hen house and move it? Ala "mandala" around a circle. In that application it is a little different requiring moving a structure, where the chooks are enclosed. This system uses simple gates where the larger and more difficult to move hen house stays put and gates are opened to give chooks a new "free range area"

    The chook clock is more like a combination between mandala garden and chicken tunnel by Bruce Morgan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlyV8fA6R_Q Bruce's system requires quite a bit of moving things around.

    The design is about as easy as opening one gate and closing another. It does require some upfront planning and costs but once done, you are done.
     
  11. ambishop

    ambishop Junior Member

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    9anda1f thanks for the response. Right I have been playing with the idea of reducing the evaporative surface as much as possible to conserve the water. As you mention most of the water loss will be via evaporation or evapotranspiration so cutting down on the surface area is a plus. Also you may want to consider shading of the damn as much as possible depending on the catchment.
     
  12. ambishop

    ambishop Junior Member

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    Unmutual thanks for the comments about the beneficials insects, I do have some ideas on that as well. I was looking at possibly building a vermiculture section into it somehow and putting in bee hives that have a split entrance. With a top entrance to the area and a standard bottom entrance to the outside. This way the guard bees help manage what comes in and what foragers are given access inside and out.

    The timing aspect is also something that I have been thinking about. My idea is that the entire section does not need to be changed on a rotation and long term plants can stay. Plus you can easily quarden off sections with small fencing.

    For beneficial plants, yes I was thinking of putting in chook medicinal trees within the main section such as worm wood, comfry papaya etc. Plus little internal sections can be maintained that are "off limits" to chooks with a simple fencing. I agree completely with your points, and your point about the short vrs long cycle plants will need to be managed. My initial thoughts are that the entire section does not need to be full free range and internal sections can be fenced off with small garden fencing

    Correct about the cooling down. Typically in mandala gardens you see people plant right after moving the hen house, and I feel that it is best to have this cooling off period. That is the main purpose of the extra section. And yes there is going to be a bit of manure to deal with and it will be used once the hens are moved to the next quadrant. One idea I have been toying with and I do appreciate any input is since chickens most shit when they sleep, to have an area where they roost over a sail cloth that angles DOWN into a wooden box that you have access from the outside.
    Terrible asci drawing example below.

    [------
     
  13. ambishop

    ambishop Junior Member

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    Grahame Thanks for the comment. I agree as well. The garden will have an interior and exterior area of chinampas. Perennials and longer term items to be grown will be outside the chook clock. The Chinampas just happen to pass through the middle of the chook clock, however it is not restricted to be the only growing area. But I do agree about having to manage things as I know in reality things do not always grow to a perfect schedule and sometime plants are doing so well you really do not want to just yank them out.
     
  14. ambishop

    ambishop Junior Member

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    The formatting on the asci diagram does not show up. Here is a screenshot from my computer before posting

    [​IMG]
     
  15. ambishop

    ambishop Junior Member

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    the formatting for the asci image did not post correctly. See image as a screenshot

    [​IMG]
     
  16. Unmutual

    Unmutual Junior Member

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    I've heard of people using vermiculture below the chickens to convert the chicken poop. https://www.eco-ola.com/2012/02/25/worm-bin-and-chicken-poop-compost-catch/ is a good example. I guess you could theoretically feed the worms to the chickens, but I'd need some serious scientific documentation stating that it's safe before I personally did that(too close to mad cow disease type issues for my taste).

    And you're most welcome for the comments.

    For the record, I prefer these types of threads than to deliberate the woes of the world.
     
  17. ambishop

    ambishop Junior Member

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    Thank you for this link. I was not aware of this link and very happy to find it for more research. Thanks again
     
  18. ambishop

    ambishop Junior Member

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  19. ambishop

    ambishop Junior Member

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    ambishop Junior Member

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