A natural system

At SpringRain Farm & Orchard in Chimacum, Washington, the chickens have it made.

SpringRain, a certified organic family farm, is owned and operated by John Bellow and his wife, Roxanne Hudson. They are committed to sustainably producing organic food for their local community. They're also committed to conservation, having donated a conservation easement to the accredited Jefferson Land Trust.

In AcresUSA Vol. 48 No. 1, writer Lauren Turner explained: "Systems thinking is key to the farm's operation. John and Roxanne regard their operation as a complex of integrated natural systems that interact and affect one another, and they plan for the animals and plants to work together. The diversified farming system involves protein, vegetables, fruit and pollinators, and they strive for the farm to be an ecological system that mimics a natural ecosystem."

Turner added:

That means, for instance, that besides raising chickens for meat and their amazing eggs with rich orange yolks, they also think about other services the chickens and ducks provide. Poultry are at the heart of their operation, and they are essential to the farm's integrated pest management system, as they eat insect pests and disease vectors. They are raised among the perennial fruits where their manure provides rich fertilizer for trees and plants. Broiler chickens live in apple and pear orchards, spreading manure and scratching up weed seeds. They eat fallen fruit, which enhances disease management. At night they are protected in custom-built houses that move between rows of trees.

"SpringRain Farm is one of the properties we’ve worked with in the Chimacum Creek Watershed," said Jefferson Land Trust Executive Director Richard Tucker. "They steward 1,000 feet of Chimacum Creek and have worked to reforest and restore the stream, leading to increased salmon habitat. Together we protect working farmland and riparian habitat."