NY chicken lover!!!!

[stonykill]

http://www.garden-of-eatin.com/how-to-avoid-monsanto/

company's who buy from Monsanto (which incidentally isn't the only source of GMO, just the largest)

Anderson’s Seed & Garden, Inc
Audubon Workshop
Ball Horticultural Company
Breck’s Bulbs
Bunton Seed
Burpee – I get dozens of emails a month about Burpee. They admit to getting non-GMO seed from Seminis. As stated above, my goal is to in no way support Seminis/Monsanto/GMO, therefore, they will stay on the avoid list.
Cook’s Garden
Corona Seeds
DeBruyn Seed Company, Inc.
Dege Garden Center
Dixondale Farms/The Onion Patch
Earl May Seed
Early’s Farm & Garden Centre
E & R Seed Co
El Seed
Farmer Seed & Nursery
Flower of the Month Club
Ferry Morse – For more information on Ferry Morse please see my note on facebook.
Fukuda Seed Store
Gardens Alive
Germania Seed Co
Garden Trends, Inc.d/b/a Harris Seeds
Germania Seed Company
Grimes Horticulture
H.F. Michell Company
HPS
Jungs
Lindenberg Seeds
McClure and Zimmerman Quality Bulb Brokers
Meyer Seed Co of Baltimore, Inc
Mountain Valley Seed
Ontario Seed
Ornamental Edibles
Osborne
Otis S. Twilley Seed Co., Inc.
Park Seed
Park Bulbs
Park’s Countryside Garden
P. L. Rohrer & Bro., Inc.
Pinetree
R.H. Shumway
Rocky Mountain Seed Co
Roots and Rhizomes
Rupp
Seeds for the World
Seminova
Seymour’s Selected Seeds
Snow
Southern States Cooperative, Incorporated
Stokes
Spring Hill Nurseries
Totally Tomato
T&T Seeds
Tomato Growers Supply
The Page Seed Company
The Vermont Bean Seed Company
Tomato Growers Supply Company
Vesey’s Seeds
Vis Seed Company, Inc.
Wayside Gardens
Willhite Seed Co.
William Dam Seeds

Where I buy my seeds : http://www.seedforsecurity.com/

Rik is a good honest yet paranoid man. He started this business preparing for Y2K. He and his wife Nan are incredible modern day homesteaders. Not like those wannabe's you see on Fb. These people are the real deal. While I have never personally met Rik we have been email and forum friends for 10 years at least.

 

[stonykill]

feel safe about buying seeds now?

 

[Cass]

My 2 cents: If I were in a 3rd world country subsisting on dirt I'd be grateful to eat GMO or any other kind of edible substance. However I'm in the USA so this scenario doesn't apply. Here's how I see the evolution of food. Go on sites like Eat Wild, and other organic food sites. Making mass raw product for large corporations isn't going to change. BUT...allowing chef's to purchase direct from the farm is still a possibility in our quickly becoming socialistic nation. We cannot market to the large companies, or we will be forced into the Monsanto GMO lawsuits and business. If we connect direct with the cooks, the chefs, the restaurants, with a healthier product we could obtain sustainable sales. My goal has never been to sell raw product, or animal carcass, although I would do this for restaurants. My goal is to create the best quality raw ingredients, make food, and sell the prepared product. Funny how dog cookies are probably healthier than human cookies, isn't it? Monsanto isn't going to dive into the apple pie that I baked, or the omlettes, or the bread, right?.
Our great dictator and his administration have tied our hands when it comes to production of wheat, soy, and other Monsanto raw ingredients. But we can still circumvent this socialism by selling local, or selling to restaurants, chefs, or selling prepared food. When we build our house we plan to have catering capacity in our kitchen on the farm. Why sell raw eggs at the farmer's market when we can sell egg products from unvaccinated, organic, non-GMO fed poultry? Better for us, better for our community.
As for the ? do I eat GMO? Probably, it's in everything. I want my chickens to eat non-GMO so that I can have non-GMO cooked food for sale for those interested. Our farm hasn't been active in about 10 years so I believe that we can be certified organic once we are up and running.

Our fields have been maintained by a local farmer and without any kind of pesticides or chemicals.

We plan to have a healthy ecosystem, we have a natural spring fed stream running down one side, pond, fruit trees, so are thinking of eventually getting ducks, and expanding poultry, have 1 dairy cow for personal use, goats or sheep, and a horse of course (for fun)! Currently we're working on the infrastructure and buildings. Hope to be up and running in a year.

Oh, I wanna come visit. Really. Are you coming to the picnic? Would love to meet you. If I wasn't sick (chronic leukemia) so I am so tired some days, tying my shoes is more than I can do, I would LOVE to do exactly what you plan to do.

 

[why do birds]

Silkies have 5 toes and I never saw one roost. Chop sticks are too narrow for them to roost on anyway. Something one inch wide would be better for their feet, if they decide to roost at all. Mostly my silkies huddled on the floor together.

And OMG, you are going to make yourself nuts. Give them tap water, the minerals in it are good for them. You are duplicating your efforts by giving both ACV and probiotics. They are gonna get constipated. One or the other, cuz they are the same thing.

Do not give chicks DE. It is a lung irritant. Some folks put it in their birds dusting location to kill small insects that infect chickens. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT put it in your house where you and your family will be breathing it. I wear breathing protection when I sprinkle it in the nest boxes and that is in an OUTDOOR coop.

You need to expose your birds, slowly, to the real world or once they go outside they will get sick. Add some dirt from outdoors to their grit box. Just a sprinkle of it. Unless your birds are always going to be house chickens, they need to gain immunity to things in the real worldl.

I know you love your chickies. I know you will cry if something happens to one of them. (we all do) But an old farmer once told me, "If you are going to have live stock you are gonna have dead stock at some point". I still tear up when one of mine dies. But they will get sick sometimes and they will die at some point. Maybe not this week, but sometime it will happen. Think of their passing (sometime in the distant future) as an opportunity to add fresh birds to your flock; a time to learn to love another bird or another breed.

Thanks so much for the advice! We were so devastated when the white silkie chick got stuck in it's shell trying to hatch. We had a hard time not blaming ourselves for not intervening in time. Good idea about the slow dirt introduction. It may be awhile though, as one here is germ phobic and the whole allowing dirt into the house probably isn't going to work. We drive down our farm fields with the windows up and the AC on in the summertime. We're looking at completely closed cab tractors for when we move. We're going to be germaphobic farmers.

Goodness scratious wish us luck!

 

[why do birds]

Oh, I wanna come visit. Really. Are you coming to the picnic? Would love to meet you. If I wasn't sick (chronic leukemia) so I am so tired some days, tying my shoes is more than I can do, I would LOVE to do exactly what you plan to do.

Oh Cass, would love to meet you too! I'm so sorry to hear about the CL! I would try to make it to the picnic. I don't know when the picnic is. I was on interferons for many years for an autoimmune disease and remember the days when I couldn't get out of bed. It's much better now that the interferon therapy has ended for me. If you know when the picnic is, lmk and I'll try to get there.

 

[Cass]

If you can tell me which seed companies are not owned by Monsanto I will patronize those companies only.

I'll work on that. I can tell you it's a very short list.

Wouldn't it be nice if ALL roosters laid eggs?

Only if they kept the ablity to father chicks....otherwise they taste good in stew

AMEN

(most Amens are non religious unless implied and you capitalize all the letters.

)

Amen just means "So be it".

I didn't know that. I guess I can go back to bed now, I learned something new today.


PS I see Stony put up a list of seed companies in bed with Monsanto. I read it quickly and I don't think it's all inclusive, like he said. And sometimes, just to keep us on our toes the seed company is 2 or 3 steps away from Monsanto, so it is hard to know for sure who is and who isn't. Always buy non-hybird, non-GMO and you and avoid Monsanto and the large companies that are putting small farmers out of business....cuz there is no money to be made in an open-pollinated species of plant. Personally, I am going to start saving my own seeds from year to year. The price of seeds is getting to be a little out of hand, due to crop failures of past years. I bought from Annie's Seeds and the packaging has all the markings of being a small, privately owned company. (Non-glossy packets, bubble envelope for shipping, not a box and computer generated return address labels. Smacks of "small business" to me)

 

[stonykill]

I didn't know that. I guess I can go back to bed now, I learned something new today.

that is sorta, kinda, almost correct. Here is the definition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amen

 

[stonykill]

PS I see Stony put up a list of seed companies in bed with Monsanto. I read it quickly and I don't think it's all inclusive, like he said. And sometimes, just to keep us on our toes the seed company is 2 or 3 steps away from Monsanto, so it is hard to know for sure who is and who isn't. Always buy non-hybird, non-GMO and you and avoid Monsanto and the large companies that are putting small farmers out of business....cuz there is no money to be made in an open-pollinated species of plant. Personally, I am going to start saving my own seeds from year to year. The price of seeds is getting to be a little out of hand, due to crop failures of past years. I bought from Annie's Seeds and the packaging has all the markings of being a small, privately owned company. (Non-glossy packets, bubble envelope for shipping, not a box and computer generated return address labels. Smacks of "small business" to me)

yeah I saw all of the GMO commotion. So I put up a link. Here is the deal. The ONLY way to buy a seed that is 100% guaranteed to be non GMO is to buy the seeds from a small company who has been saving seeds for about 20 years. This ensures 1st that the seeds are not hybrid and ensures non GMO. I see no other way and basically trust no one. Ok ok, I trust a handful of people.

 

[Cass]

Oh Cass, would love to meet you too! I'm so sorry to hear about the CL! I would try to make it to the picnic. I don't know when the picnic is. I was on interferons for many years for an autoimmune disease and remember the days when I couldn't get out of bed. It's much better now that the interferon therapy has ended for me. If you know when the picnic is, lmk and I'll try to get there.

Picnic is at Tab's Chicken Obsession's house this year. She is a wonderful hostess and everyone pitches in to help. She will be putting up a separate thread regarding the picnic when it get s alittle closer. Date is May 17, 2014. (there was no picnic in 2013. I tried, lord knows I tried to get one going) Rome, NY is her location. And the road to a friend's house is never too long.

Germ phobic farmers. LOL THAT I gotta see. They do make totally enclosed cab tractors...with A/C to boot, actually. But I would think gloves and a face mask would be cheaper. Germs are only toxic to humans if they get IN the body....so wash those hands and your hair and you'll be fine. (Why do you think you always saw cowboys rinsing their heads under the outside water spigot in old cowboy movies. To remove the dirt (and the germs contained therein) from their heads before going in to eat.)

 

[Glasshen]

I have come to believe that the over hybridization and GMO of particularly wheat and corn has affected many people. It wasn't too long ago I never had heard of celiac disease, but now I have several friends with that diagnosis. They can eat ancient wheats, but not the modern screwed around with wheat. These changes came about for greater productivity and profit, but now the plants are not what our bodies can easily process, since much of this change has happened in the last 50or about years, and we need longer than that to adapt. There are many more people who have sensitivities which are not diagnosed which create stresses in our systems which lead us to be more susceptible to lots of crummy diseases. Yes, it is well near impossible to avoid all this stuff, but at least we'll be able to eat regular Cherios!

I do hope that the tide will turn and things will start to benefit people rather than large dishonest corporations.

I do what I can without making myself crazy. Organic non GMO feed is priced beyond what I will pay. So I just do the best I can.