I've always had embarrassing yields compared to my uncle with tomatoes, he lives in the same zone as me too, but I still grow more than I need. I've been doing more square-foot gardening raise bed stuff in recent years and that's helped but not as much as advertised, though it is God Awful easier to weed, the soil is so friable compared to the local stuff. My grandfather replication issue is rhubarb, it just never seems to come out the way I remember.
Definitely LED lighting then, I've been converting the house to it for a while now and I love the bright-whiteness of them, but you can get them all red, red-blue, tailored for photosynthesis. You won't get much heat off them though, normally a big plus for efficiency but if you're like me and keep the house cooler you might need to do a grow tent over them and a pan of hot water, if you're non-electric stove or water heater. I'm not really sure, in artificial lighting context, if it's better to use them to extend lighting hours or simply ratchet up brightness, if you're using red/blue only light you can get away with that and if you can run it during your own peak solar hours it's probably better. You could probably also do a parabolic light stand, if you haven't already it's pretty easy to muck one up. Either the classic half-cylinder with the fluorescent tube in it or even a dish or cocked half cylinder bouncing sunlight down.
My only pest issues are deer and japanese beetles, and while my cats hang out in the greenhouse a lot I've never even run into one of the racoons in there and it's right next to one of the favorite hangouts, my goldfish pond, so I've never ratcheted up security besides in regards to wind. I originally just nailed some boards together as a doorway and hung a pair of plastic sheets but after I replaced the main cover with a translucent tarp I did the same for the door, I just have it bungied in place when not wandering in and out and hung up like a shower curtain.
Never raised chickens, though I've flock of turkey that wanders by for a week or so about once a year, always wanted to try permaculture though and chickens seem to be the popular animal add in. Supposed to be a good compost additive but I always worry about the temperature inside my heaps not being hot enough.
Zone 6-ish, Erie lakeshore east stretch, odd-weather lake effect stuff. I should break down and grow grapes, it's the main agricultural product of my township but I've been doing strawberries and rhubarb and waiting with patient rage for my blueberries to finally grow or my dwarf apricot, though at least the blueberries most recent disappointing growth spurt I can partially blame on my new giant six-toed mutant cat Flax, I'd made the soil sandier and he seemed to think it made a good catbox.
I gather blue mason bees are in vogue for straight pollinators right now, supposed to be real easy to keep, better adapted for cold, etc. Never tried bees before, get a fair few of them around anyway.
- Albert Einstein
King of Cairhien 20-7-2
Chancellor of the Landsraad, Archduke of Is'Mod