I interviewed Suzi Hajjar of Stonybrooke Sustainables of Cotati. They currently have 74 chickens and are awaiting the delivery of 30 more chicks this week. Suzi sells her “Eggs of Color (ungraded and unsized) from pasture-ranging happy hens” directly to customers such as myself and at the Cotati Farmer’s market. Suzi started with 25 chicks in 2007 which they hand raised. Suzi is very concerned that her chickens be raised naturally and she researched best practices. She did not give medicated feed to her chicks, instead putting apple cider vinegar in their water, feeding organic feed and giving them electrolytes in their first few weeks- focusing on raising healthy chickens. Late in 2008, she added 50 chicks to her flock. They were raised separately from the older girls but now the 2 flocks have integrated although they have separate roosting areas to which they return each evening. The chickens have about 3 acres to range although Suzi says they probably only use about an acre as they’re hesitant to wander too far. She believes if she had mobile coops or chicken tractors they would range on more of the property.
Suzi says the chickens do all their composting for them. They are fed table scraps, weeds and garden scraps. They have deep straw bedding which makes a good Carbon/Nitrogen ratio for creating compost which Suzi then uses in her garden. She is very gratified by the sustainability of this loop. She feeds by the philosphy mentioned by Plamondon of providing a complete feed for the chickens to ensure good production but allowing them to free range and choose to get their nutrition from what they find. She buys organic feed from Rivertown Feeds in Petaluma. The feed is produced by Bar Ale which was mentioned in an earlier post as being somewhat local. Suzi is very pleased with the feed and was aware of its local nature. Equally important to her is that the feed is fresh and of high quality. She has been disappointed by some other feeds she has tried.
Suzi loves her chickens and finds them to be stress reducers in her life. She also very much enjoys the experience of being at the Farmer’s Market saying it’s a great opportunity to meet customers, learn from other local growers and connect to the community.
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