Try bantams, the majority of my hens are brooders (which can be a problem as they don't lay eggs after they have enough in their "clutch" to hatch out. I've never had a mean bantam rooster (had a rhode island red that we raised from a chick and had to beat him off with a shovel everytime I went near the chicken coop!) We feed ours some cracked corn and layer crumbles every couple of days. A 50lb bag of each lasts almost a month as most of their day ia spent free rangeing. The hens will hide eggs outside and before you know it you've got a hen showing up with a dozen or more chicks in tow! lol We have a couple dozen hens and you don't tend to miss one or two of them when they are sitting on their hidden nests...I think we had about 30 new additions to the flock last summer that survived! You get alot of roosters, but they make the BEST tasting soup or chicken salad! Cathy

cucumbers, zucchini, and winter squashes would be good to get you going, along with the tomatoes. I grow some beans because, even if it takes a while to pick, it is a sure bet, plus brings customers to your table and then they buy other things...I pick on a low (8-12 inch) stool at the end of the day when I am too tired to do much else. The stool sits straddling the plants in the row, so I pick between my legs and it saves on the back. Or, you could grow the pole types which can be harvested standing. Garlic is also a good crop, but you need to start it in October-ish for next season. RE: the local store saying they'd like to buy produce. You need to find out what they want specifically, how much they might sell, and what price they are willing to pay for it. If you don't know the price, it may be all a waste of time (and money). RE: giving away your excess. All those that you gift with produce will then never become customers, as they'll just wait until you have extra. It might be better to either can/freeze it for yourself, or give it to a food pantry or institution (nursing home, etc.). RE: the area is not rich. Maybe not. Neither is mine, but our farmers market vendors charge a price to make a profit. A community is a mix of poor/medium/rich people. You need to gear your produce for the upper two groups. If you want to donate to the poor, that is good, but don't lower your prices so that you go out of business because you are charging less than it costs (including your time). Various kinds of leaf, romaine and butterhead lettuces sell well if you have an early market, but are more difficult during the warmer part of the season. Special onions sometime go over well...sweet types and red ones. Or leeks. Find a niche that no one is filling and try to be the expert in that area. It might be specialty greens, melons, whatever. Good luck. It'll be an interesting and learning year for you. Ann

That's sounds interesting! Thanks Mia, I'll be inviting both my sisters. :) Alexis

No chicken proof plants really, but you can control the amount of time on lawn or pasture. Scratching combined with their droppings will destruct anything growing if kept on the same ground for more than a few days depending on size of area & density of chickens. When the kids were young we let the chickens and ducks free range in our fenced... part grass part woodland backyard with mostly native plantings with a few hardy perennials around a fir tree. No cultivated beds or precious plants. Containers on the deck & we disliked stepping on droppings, so we blocked access with a piece of plywood. I didn't attempt to grow plants for chickens or keep chickens from plants as they couldn't do much damage to forest underbrush and actually kept the weeds down where now I hand pull them. Length of time varied from 30-60 min. prior to sunset to all day depending on the weather conditions & seasons. Wet weather & winter meant no ranging. Dry weather & spring growing grass meant longer times. If the grass wasn't growing back fast enough to keep up with their scratching ways we would reduce time, reseed, & rake smooth. Chickens loved the swingset worn areas for dust baths, so that became mud in rain. Duration also dependent on the breeds kept & numbers of chickens. Featherlegged bantams scratched less than the clean legged production hens. Now, ten + years later still raising chickens, ducks, rabbits, & doves, but they stay in their pens most of the time. The outside chicken run has about 6" of pea gravel to control drainage, but does build up some mud over time in wet weather as they have tilled the pea gravel with their droppings. Our rainy climate washes away a lot of the manure from the gravel, so it's not really used in our gardens other than when we remove some of the muddy parts. Ducks are in raised pens to keep raccoons out. Young chicks have a separate chick pen with outside run some years & other years are inside their own coop, but herded outside to a movable 6x6 net covered chain link dog kennel during part of the day. Frequency determined by grass durability & weather dependent. Wet weather = mud on our soils in part sun conditions. Swingset & free ranging are long gone now as I've taken over the backyard now. Paver patio, 3 portable fountains, large containers, one raised bed, 6x8 greenhouse wood chip paths, large mixed island beds & a much smaller lawn. Not really permaculture because we bring in purchased feed & bedding and then when soiled haul the bedding + manure from pens to the garden for composting.