Oustanding Article in Mother Earth

[1acrefarm]

I went awhile without letting mine freerange. I have way too many predators. My egg quality has not slipped much because I take goodies to them when I weed the gardens or catch insects off of them. I also pull wheat and clover for them. One of my woodpiles is right against their run too so they can get insects off of it. They got to where they would run out when I opened the door to the run or barn. That is when I decided they will get to freerange a couple hours a day predator or no predator atleast 3 days a week. Ofcourse I will be watching them armed.

 

[BerdooFarm]

airheart43, Sorry I didn't see your post the first time around. This is a pretty big message board and I'm barely finding my way around the various forums.

The finding of "may have • 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids"
is interesting to me. If I remember correctly, Salatin of PolyFace supplemented his chicken's diet with kelp to increase omega-3 acids in eggs. There are also seeds mixes one can buy for chicken grasses which include flax (which also increases omega-3s.)
Not doing either flax or kelp and still increasing the omega-3s is awesome!

As far as bird flu goes, I don't have it all figured out but if it or any other disease came through and wiped out our flock.. we'd be out less than a sixty-five bucks. It's a real possibility. And I imagine- we'd start up again as soon as possible. I try to teach my kids and follow myself some simple things like hand washing, taking notice of the animals health etc.. to prevent/ minimize risks to ourselves.

How many other endeavors are so inexpensive, so healthy, so easy- so wholesome as raising your own eggs?

I constantly find my garden and chickens attract plenty of the wild things... So we get to enjoy nature more right in the backyard. Uh-oh, now I'll be veering off into the mental/physical health benefits of getting outside an gardening next....

 

[SeaChick]

Thanks for mentioneing Ominivore's Dilemma. I hope more people will read it... it's such a fascinating book!!! Everyone in my family read it cover-to-cover last month. GREAT BOOK.

 

[Wildsky]

Great article, but I wonder why people will only believe these tests etc... isn't it logical to almost everyone that eggs are better from a happy chicken?

My kids, eating our first few eggs like candy is proof enough to me.....! (and they still fight over the egg when we get only ONE)

 

[tarazod]

Yes, the Mother Earth News article on pastured eggs is excellent. They have done the study twice now, and both times pastured eggs come back nutritional higher than regular store-bought eggs.

We had the great opportunity of visiting with Cheryl Long, the Editor-in-Chief of Mother Earth News. She not only spoke about the pastured egg studies but also on coops, runs, and everything chicken. She's just a wonderful personality and extremely knowledgeable.

Her pastured egg interview and her ideas on easy and affordable coops will be in our feature-length film which documents the backyard chicken movement that is taking place across the US and around the world.

To learn more about the film, Mad City Chickens and it's progress, visit:

http://www.tarazod.com/filmsmadchicks.html