$35

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A day of fowl exploration leads us to three thriving backyard chicken coops and flocks. Chickens lend a unique permaculture edge to your garden, providing eggs, fertilizer, soil aeration, pest control and a lively soundtrack while happily composting your kitchen scraps.

We’ll start the day at Happy Hens in Petaluma, the project of Stacey Evans and Rachel Kaplan, two Permaculture moms who decided to share the project of building a coop and caring for chickens. Learn about proper coop siting and construction, chicken care, egg management and surviving the winter without farm fresh eggs.

Next stop is Troy Silveira and Tina Wilder’s home in Penngrove, always a tour favorite because of their recycling ingenuity. Amidst natural building marvels such as their light straw clay meditation hut and living roof, we’ll visit their happy chicken house made almost entirely out of recycled materials. Tina will discuss sharing garden space with free-range chickens, general chicken care, and fertilizer application.

Last but not least, we’ll caravan to Catchtail Garden in Sebastopol, a three-acre parcel of pure wonder being revitalized from years of sheep grazing to a lush Permaculture food forest by owners and visionaries, Deborah Grace and Djubaya. They’ll reveal some of the myriad layers of ingenuity and insight packed into this small farm and show us their fifteen chickens taking turns in their homemade rotational chicken run!

Even small yards can accommodate one or two chickens. This fun tour will leave you inspired to give some hens a home!