Years ago, our current brooding house was a chicken house proper. We had around 50 laying hens and a large yard outside. Meanwhile we used the smaller chicken house as a brooding house, and to house chickens we were raising for meat. There was a problem with the yard to the large house, however, in that it was on a steep hill and in wet weather the base of the hill, between the coop got quite mucky. When we decided to abandon the larger house and move our laying hens–25–to the smaller coop, the large coop was cleaned, sanitized and made into a storage/dumping ground. All the fencing was removed and nature ran wild. Just outside the original yard there has always been a burn-pile. A place to burn rubbish, unrecyclable waste paper, old christmas trees and weeds. The odd cabinet has met its final end there too.

In order to give the new chicks a place to bask in the sun when they are older, I have spent the past few days making a new yard for them. I am not resurecting the old, mucky yard but have instead gone the other direction–into the burn pile. Since we rarely burn waste these days, and when we do, it isn’t much any way I have sifted the old three foot high pile and scattered the ash and carbon over the ground. I also combed out a ton of rusty steel, melted aluminum and unburnt bits of Sears catalogue.

Now, I asked myself how was I going to turn this barren waste land of carbon into a decent yard for chickens which will be providing me food? The easy answer is plant a good blend of pasture grasses including clover–to help fix nitrogen in the soil. But the very problem with this spot is that so much burning has gone on that there is nothing living in the soil to aid nutrition for grass or chickens or bugs.

Enter the realm of beneficial microbes. After preparing the ground like I would have for planting grass in normal soil, all the compost on that I could spare–ie, not much: about 2 wheelburrow loads. Now this is pretty good compost, full of worms but not enough of it to make a dent in the nutrient needs of 600 square feet of wasteland. So I spread the grass seed out and then sprayed on a mixture of Phototropically Enhanced Efficient Microbes–or EM’s, water and a ceramic powder which aids the EMs activities. Now Efficient Microorganisms, or EMs, are a bioactive method of reenergizing soil with beneficial “bugs” to aid in plant growth and soil harmony. I am relatively new to the science of it, and so everything is an experiemnt, but I know others who use it to knock down the odors of chicken manure and treat their soil, so I’d thought I’d give it a try. I am also using EMs in a process involving pickling kitchen waste to turn it into compost through the use of a fermented wheat bran product called Bokashi–but more on that another time.

To be specific, what I did was mix 3 tablespoons of EM solution (with the added phototropic microbes), 1 teaspoon of Ceramic Cera-C powder (good for fighting fungus and activating the microbes) and 2 gallons of water in my garden sprayer. After I spread the seed over the soil, I sprayed the whole lot with about 1 gallon of the mixture. Then I got the bright idea to cover it all with some old, slightly moldy hay I have laying around. It’s been out all winter and is sprouting grass on its own, so why not? As I opened up a bale I was greeted by a bonus surprise–worms, tons of them! So I covered the ground with the damp and funky hay–something I ususally wouldn’t do because of all the weed seed local grass hay has–and then I sprayed another gallon of the EM solution over everything again. The ceramic powder, and the EMs are supposed to help fight fungus, molds and everything bad bug-wise, so I am hoping this will help keep things from getting creepy. The mixture I made was on the strong side because of the lack of microbes present in the soil due to the burning activity. I then dampened everything as I would have for normal grass planting.

Now we shall sit back and wait. I will probably treat the soil/hay several more times at weekly intervals with the EM solution to make sure there are enough microbes to fight the funky hay and help it break down and to give the soil and boost and the worms something to eat. The EMs will also help balance the PH of the soil, which I suppose is overly alkiline due to all the ash. The EM solution in very acid–will harmony ensue? If anything will grow in the spot, then hopefully by the time the chicks are ready to venture outside in 5 weeks they will be met with lush pastures to toddle onto. And if this idea works in this spot I’ve several other areas which lack fertility no matter how much organic material I churn in. Time will tell. In a few weeks I will begin to feed some of my homemade Bokashi to the big chickens for added vigor, better digestion, less stinky waste and a bloom of health stong enough to fight the Avian Flu, or so runs my hypothesis. We shall see in the months to come.

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