Summary

We believe that using chickens as an alternative fertilization method will build upon LaFarm’s founding principles along with sticking to its identity. Ultimately, chickens will change the identity of LaFarm from strictly a produce farm to a produce farm with poultry. This change, however, is warranted by the fact that there is a purpose to the poultry; an alternative fertilizer source. Along with impacting LaFarm, the chickens will require input from the Lafayette Community. Funding and support from LaFFCo, a possible LaFarm LLC, educational programs, and student volunteers are all aspects that will allow for chickens at LaFarm.

Politically, LaFarm will be able to add chickens in order to fertilize the expansion area without legal ramifications. By working with the city of Easton,  Lafayette College, and LaFarm, we believe that the addition of chickens will be well received. Acting as a creative alternative farming practice, it can grab people’s attention and bring more community members and students to LaFarm.

The economic analysis allows the next group to see what different costs may be incurred depending on the design of the coop, number of chickens, breed of chickens, and any additional technologies. By combining the economics with the technical breakdown of each coop and technology in our Chicken Tractor Design Program, we are allowing the next group to choose the exact design that they believe will best serve LaFarm. Although the next group will have the final say on the design of the coop, we are recommending that they install the poultry butler powered by the solar array in the coop.

Our Chicken Tractor Design Program is the culmination of our analysis and is a product of this project. We believe that by analyzing the social and political context and then developing this program, we have set up the next group up to design, build and install a working chicken tractor that will be able to solve the fertilization problem that LaFarm currently faces.

Challenges Moving Forward

Looking ahead, there does not appear to be many obstacles standing in the way of completing this project. However, it could easily run into the same roadblocks as a similar LaFarm proposal (the greenhouse) has for last few years. It seems as though no one has stepped up and really taken the initiative to pay for and install the proposed greenhouse, despite years of capstone projects and proposals. Nonetheless, the chicken tractor has several points in its favor. For one, it is significantly cheaper than the greenhouse; the 2017 EGRS Greenhouse Capstone group (report located on this site as well) found the the cost of building a greenhouse will be around twenty thousand dollars. The proposed chicken tractor will only cost about two thousand dollars in its first year, and about one thousand dollars per year afterward, making it a significantly smaller financial hurdle than the one experienced by the greenhouse. With further expansion by a future group upon our work, we do not foresee any issues in physically starting this project.

Work for Future Groups

Using the groundwork that we have laid, a future group should be able to select, purchase, and/or build one of the coop designs after doing more research to figure out what will be best for Sarah Edmonds, LaFarm, and the other stakeholders. They should be able to receive further approval for this project and actually have the ability to purchase chickens and begin the revitalization process. Further projects could focus on building the coop as opposed to buying a premade one, wiring various components of the coop to a solar array, creating a solar powered tractor to move the chicken coop automatically, and creating the infrastructure necessary for selling the eggs that the chickens produce.