To make a very long story short…
From 2005 to 2010, i moved back to a house i own on 2.3 acres, a house that i grew up in, surrounded by a wonderful community. My parents, Jim and Ruthie Bernaert, live there. They are Anusara yoga teachers, and have been gardening organic vegetables for decades. While fresh vegetables are great, i wanted to make more use of the land, and try farming. The first thing i did, in the fall of 2005, was attend a Hawaii County workshop on growing and processing Tea. I joined the Hawaii Tea Society and got a few plants. The next thing our family did was build a fancy chicken coop, and raise free-range chickens. They arrived as day-old chicks on Valentine’s Day, 2006, and started to produce eggs in July. In August, i finally found a way to import organically grown chicken feed, and in 2007-2008 i had the only organically-fed hens on the island.
Trying to make the whole operation sustainable became a long, fascinating growth curve, that continues to this day.
In 2010, i had to return to Silicon Valley for employment, but i still visit the farm as often as possible and continue to post my notes and news about it here on this blog.
I maintain a detailed notes page on biochar at http://ahualoa.net/ag/notes_biochar.html and growing tea in Hawaii at http://ahualoa.net/tea/
Your write up on using azolla for chickens interests me very much.
I visit a pond where it grows and would like to do something more useful with it than skimming it off. There is way more than we need for mulch and compost.
Did you use it dried or wet for the chickens?
Thanks for any updates.
Hope you continue to return regularly to Hawaii. How marvelous to be in both the Bay Area & the Big Island.
Comment by Beverly — May 8, 2012 @ 11:07 am
I tried azolla for the chickens wet. Most larger scale use of it around the tropical world seems to be drying it and pressing it into pellets, along with other feed components.
Comment by ben — May 10, 2012 @ 6:19 pm