Agroforestry systems are characterised by a wide variety of design and management systems. Mobile chicken housing provides cost-efficient, as well as modern, species-appropriate livestock husbandry management.
Mobile chicken coops offer options for every need from the small and simple solutions for the amateur, who has the desire to self-produce without having to make a large investment, to the keeping of a large number of animals in a more industrialised production setting.
In 2016, as part of the AUFWERTEN project, the keeping of 40 chickens using a mobile chicken coop in an alder agroforestry system was tested at the Thomas Domin´s farm near Senftenberg. Due to the high predatory pressure from birds and canines, such as the red fox and the stone marten, and despite the implementation of different defensive measures, the keeping of chickens in the woody stand had to be discontinued after five months,
Nevertheless, as summarised in the last part of the paper, the keeping of chickens and other animals in an agroforestry system can be successfully carried out if some special features are taken into account.
