By Austin Bowden-Kerby, Phd. | Permaculture farmer & corals expert
We just sent out five dozen improved-breed Happy Chicken chicks by small plane to Fiji's big Northern island of Vanua Levu, to the small town of Labasa. From there they were taken over land to the Northern Christian Training Centre in Vunika.
home from the airport
Let’s get them open.
***
HERITAGE CORN ADDED TO THE HAPPY CHICKEN DIET
Chickens love to eat dry corn, and we have discovered that corn is an excellent companion crop for intercropping with the staple root crop of Fiji, Cassava. We have been trying since April to get heritage seeds from the USA, including corn and beans. But with strict biosecurity controls and permits and extremely high shipping costs, it has been a challenge. We have finally succeeded and the package has at last arrived in Hawaii. From there it will be hand-carried to our Teitei Livelihoods Farm next month. Among the seeds are six varieties of open-pollinated corn in purple, red, green, black and mixed colors. The plan is to grow the corn as seed crops and to then distribute the seeds to the Happy Chicken farmers. As corn growns year round, we want to promote it as a sustainable feed for chickens. Right now there is only one variety of corn in the country, so we want to spice it up!
Vegetable season in Fiji is during the cool dry season, from May through October. Large amounts of cabbage, tomatoes, bell peppers, and all sorts of crops are produced. However, these crops do poorly during the hot wet cyclone season, which starts in December and runs through April -- as we are in the southern hemisphere, about the same latitude as Hawaii, Belize, and Puerto Rico. Our year-round crops are okra, eggplant, long beans, and corn, as well as root crops like taro, cassava, and sweet potato, with papaya and bananas and coconuts also growing year round.
Austin
Update on our HAPPY CHICKEN POSTER CHILD:
Congratulations to our grandson Keith (Kiki) for coming in first in class on his Fiji 8th grade exit exams- a new record for Loma Primary School! Keith also won the social award…
“The light of good character surpasseth the light of the sun”. This is an excellent start to an amazing future.
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