THE INTEGRAL URBAN HOUSE

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At the Integral Urban House in Berkeley, we have found that rabbit management takes approximately two hours per week. That includes feeding, slaughtering, and general husbandry, but not tanning the pelts or playing with the young. Cleaning the manure out is part of the composting process. The chicken system takes approximately one hour per week. One should add to this any extra time spent in the garden to raise alfalfa for the rabbits or trap flies for the chickens.

Homesite-derived feed will affect both the amount of time and the cost of these systems. Of course, providing alternative feed resources will increase the amount of time you spend dealing with the system, but it is likely to decrease the cost. In general, if the animals are fed solely on commercial feed rations without any supplement, their meat or eggs probably won't be any less expensive than products purchased in the market, though of course you will still have the manure for fertilizer in the garden as a bonus. The more alternative feeds you can raise, trap, or scrounge, the cheaper the system.

Aquaculture has considerable theoretical appeal for those planning to implement the integral house concept. However. actually making a backyard system productive requires extensive knowledge of the biology and behavior of the species raised as well as the artful use of ecological principles in the design of the system. There is no valid cookbook formula for an aquacultural system that will work anywhere. One must always begin by carefully considering the local conditions, designing a system that has the possibility of meeting one's needs, and choosing species that fit that system and each other.

One way to increase the efficiency of backyard fishponds is by using the notion of polyculture skillfully: that is, simulating the development of a natural aquatic community by choosing species whose feeding modes and preferences differ in ways that are complementary. Better use is thus made of food inputs to the pond and, because less food is left over to promote the growth of bacteria and fungi, water quality is improved. At the experimental backyard pond at the Integral Urban House, we have found several species combinations which appear to work in this way. For example, in the cooler seasons we raise Pacifastacus crayfish together with rainbow trout. The trout are voracious omnivores that feed at all levels in the water, and the crayfish are bottom scavengers and detritivores. Both species have the same preferred temperature range. The crayfish eat whatever food is missed by the trout as well as coarse plant material that the trout do not eat, and they also consume the trout excrement, which would otherwise accumulate on the bottom. As detritivores, they live in large part on bacteria growing on decayed matter. Both trout and crayfish grow rapidly under these conditions, and water quality is much better than if the trout are raised alone.

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