Chickens and Aquaponics

[Alex Veidel]

I'd be interested to hear the community's thoughts on raising fish on poultry waste (or as a supplement). I'm under the impression that this is a common commercial practice. I've been reading a book on the subject of chickens, and came across an idea for combining a greenhouse and a hen house. Having a few of the little ladies myself, I was curious as to whether it would be a good idea to place a lip of a fish tank underneath a roost and incorporate an aquaponic system greenhouse with a chicken coop. I know the concept may be a little disgusting to some, but I'd love to hear some pros and cons. I realize chicken feed quality is a priority. One concern I have with the design at large is would the increased humidity have an effect on the health of my poultry? But anyway, concerning the consumption of chicken waste by aquatic life: What are your thoughts?

[jim mckee]

You say poultry waste- you talking poo or offal?

Either way major science involved that only is profitable on a large scale were the industry has money to hire a room full of Bio Scientists.

I like the keep it simple concept.

Warm blood and cold blood animals have different +/-.

I think your best bet is to feed the fish leftover to the chickens (very bio safe to eat the eggs and chicken v.s the other way around), add a grow bed of just shallow water and grow Duckweed for the chickens.

If you are large scale with fish leftovers then look at dehydrating the fish to preserve or trade it to other chicken growers.

Also if you are looking for supplemental chicken food check out Composting worms.  They love the micro stuff that grows on cardboard, horse/cow manure and a big range of common kitchen scraps.  They reproduce very well also.  And very quiet ?  I use them for supplemental fish food

jim

Has the Hovibator with egg turner (love it,, 40 eggs max per run)

[Eric Warwick]

http://gardenpool.org/ You may want to contact these people. Though, I don't think chicken poo in aquaponics is a good idea.

[Alex Veidel]

I'm talkin' poo. Hopefully you're not offended :)

jim mckee said:

You say poultry waste- you talking poo or offal?

Either way major science involved that only is profitable on a large scale were the industry has money to hire a room full of Bio Scientists.

I like the keep it simple concept.

Warm blood and cold blood animals have different +/-.

I think your best bet is to feed the fish leftover to the chickens (very bio safe to eat the eggs and chicken v.s the other way around), add a grow bed of just shallow water and grow Duckweed for the chickens.

If you are large scale with fish leftovers then look at dehydrating the fish to preserve or trade it to other chicken growers.

Also if you are looking for supplemental chicken food check out Composting worms.  They love the micro stuff that grows on cardboard, horse/cow manure and a big range of common kitchen scraps.  They reproduce very well also.  And very quiet ?  I use them for supplemental fish food

jim

Has the Hovibator with egg turner (love it,, 40 eggs max per run)

[Alex Veidel]

OK, so that's a no-go on the poultry waste. Thanks for helpin' me and my little brain squall out.

[jim mckee]

I'm talkin' poo. Hopefully you're not offended

None here.  I've been blessed with the chance to extract stuck chicks from eggs (which has a very low chance of survival,, but I've been lucky).

So if I'm understanding you were asking about chicken litter as food. A high tech lab could do it (it's used for cow feed) but at low tech we won't be able to do it.  For supplemental foods  as I mentioned BSF, worms, crickets, feeder fish, frog eggs, duckweed, azola  all are good for supplemental foods for fish and chickens and most of those eat our garbage .

Speaking of composting worms- anyone priced a Lb of them lately?

Makes a Lb of fresh fish look cheap.

jim

[Jon Parr]

Alex, I didn't catch it if somebody already mentioned it above, but you can scoop the chicken poo and add it to BSF bin, and then use the BSFL for fish food. Same net result, with a break in the pathogen cycle. If you're sold on using the poo directly, then you must first pasteurize it, or dry it out completely (desiccation). I've had luck with desiccation in a solar oven for using rabbit poo to feed fish. It's all about breaking the pathogens, in a cheap and easy enough manor to make it worth it. 

Glen Martinez in Hawaii raises worms under his chickens by using plastic pallets. When the shit reaches the top of the pallets, he lifts them up to shake everything down and keep the chickens from scratching and compacting. Once the whole thing is a foot tall, he moves the coop to new ground, and bags up all the castings and worms for major bank. The whole process is very easy, minimal time, and keeps the flies down.

[Alex Veidel]

Thanks Jon. I'm actually using redworms underneath my sister's rabbit hutch, seems to be working pretty well. I plan on building a rabbit shed and keeping 'em for meat in the backyard. I've always planned on incorporating redworms underneath, and I've thought about adding them to the chicken coop as well, just haven't got around to it. And I'm working on raising the black soldier fly larvae, although they've gone dormant for the winter, so I don't have anything to show for it yet. I wasn't planning on adding fish to a henhouse, but I was just curious if it was feasible. All in theory, you understand :)