Rants and raves of an old soul in a new age.

[Arielle]

I am in complete agreement. I am 30 and the mother of three children that are restricted in their use of technology and encouraged to spend time being creative. I have chickens and my roosters are processed to feed our family. Half of my property is used to grow fruits, vegetables and grains. I have a water collection to supplement the waterboarding use for chickens and gardens. Many people think I'm a "crunchy hippie" but I see it as living the way life was meant to be.

By the way, I live on just a hair over 1/4 of an acre in my town's village.

I grew up with a number of "crunchie hippies" and they were just a bit older than I but because my parents never said a bad thing about them, I guess I remember many of these people with sincere admiration. I just noticed you are from Maine-- I am from Maine too. My mother grew a lot of food on just a small acreage to feed 6 children. THough I think that was just her excuse to indulge in gardening. lol

I do think thereare some people that are realizing that food = health. Many many people attending farm stands, and paying huge prices for frozen organic chicken and fresh produce. I feel fortunate that I can grow my own at a lesser price. BUt I am still in the learning stages with much to learn. Like keep the chickens out of the garden or else they will eat every tomato with in jumping reach!! Or conversely, plant enough tomatos to feed the chickens too!!

I would like to go back to Mayberry, but I actually felt very stifled by the everyone- knows everyone relationships and felt like I was under a microscope. WHat I hope I have carried with me is is willingness to look people in the eye on the street or in the grocery store and smile at a stranger. It costs me nothing , and on some base level brings me a moment of joy.

I apreciate having the opportunity to meet like minded people via the internet-- I sometimes forget that we are actually thousands of miles apart and unlikely to meet in person but that has little meaning when we can share ideas and foster good will and great ideas.

Who is creative at googling and can pull up that family on utube that gardens on a very small space and sell to the community vegies and I know they have hens for eggs but not sure if they sell those or not. An older man long retired from a lifetime of subsitance farming showed it to me this summer at the public library on the internet. I usually pick his brain for gardening ideas as he is great at it and he sees the great value in food as medicine. Rather that eating healthy foods and junking the junk results in a much healthier life.

I am back to making my own yogurt again. ANd my kids are loving it too. Way less expensive than store bought. ANd my kids know how to pluck a chicken even if it is very slow due to the "ewww" factor. Can't quite figure it. THe love to catch and hold the birds, just not a wet one. Must be like a wet dog or something. lol

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

I definitely find that backyard farming is making a come back. Some veterinarians are very excited (some not so much

) that keeping backyard chickens is HUGE right now in more suburban areas. The hot topic in a lot of lectures here at vet school is treating chickens and other backyard livestock in small animal clinics. I think that is pretty exciting and I hope we continue to see more and more people raise their own food.

I think in the next 10-20 years we will see a movement towards more sustainable living. Right now, it is still more expensive to go that route. As technology gets better, I'm fairly certain sustainability will be more affordable for the "backyard" people. I'm also hoping we will see an increase in renewable energy sources, which will be a BIG breakthrough for our planet.

I think there are a lot of people who feel the same as you. While I do think people should definitely move in a more sustainable way of living, I also think we are living in an exciting time technology wise. We have discovered so much in such a short time. Who knows what will be the next big discovery!

 

[member 142084]

I am in complete agreement. I am 30 and the mother of three children that are restricted in their use of technology and encouraged to spend time being creative. I have chickens and my roosters are processed to feed our family. Half of my property is used to grow fruits, vegetables and grains. I have a water collection to supplement the waterboarding use for chickens and gardens. Many people think I'm a "crunchy hippie" but I see it as living the way life was meant to be.

By the way, I live on just a hair over 1/4 of an acre in my town's village.

 

[Bitterroot]

Who is creative at googling and can pull up that family on utube that gardens on a very small space and sell to the community vegies and I know they have hens for eggs but not sure if they sell those or not. An older man long retired from a lifetime of subsitance farming showed it to me this summer at the public library on the internet. I usually pick his brain for gardening ideas as he is great at it and he sees the great value in food as medicine. Rather that eating healthy foods and junking the junk results in a much healthier life.

These folks?

http://urbanhomestead.org/

ETA youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/user/dervaes/videos

 

[Arielle]

I have spent much of the last 2 years reading the heritage thread--- the benefits of raising your own chickens is vet costs become nil. An ax. I realize this sounds harsh, but the health and vitality of the flock benfits fromt this management. I had a great uncle that raised winning racing pigeons partly because any sick bird was a dead bird. Gone out of the flock. Won all his races enough to feed the birds.

Takes a bit of work to find new technigues or rediscover old ones to utilize in an effort to use less less energy, and grow better quality foods. Yes the good foods do cost more, but I do think they are worth it. Realizing the recycling methods can be very useful. Using the animals to harvest the pastures is a benefit too. Grazing small areas and moving the livestock frewuently is very beneficial, IT makes the small acreage produce more per acre than just letting the animals run free over the entire lot.

Some poeple run several animals over the same pasture land. One fellow uses pigs, goats/sheep and chickens. AN raises organic grass fed pigs. I don't know if we are allowed to mention other web sites but SUgar mtn farm has opened my eyes to new possibilities.

I'm reworking my model completely-- just taking a bit of time, more than I would like. We are eating a lot of chicken these days and I plan to sell off many of the hens. TO reduce to just what my family will eat. ANd increase the type of birds that lay all year round. Progress, if slow, is still progress.

WEa re clearling more land over the next few weeks so DH tells me. At least he likes to run the chain saw and in the winter is a great time to do hot heavy work to stay warm. My plan is to add clover next spring and other legumes and grasses. A long slow process to get the land changed from woodland to pasture. A rough pasture will work though for chickens and sheep.

 

[member 142084]

Wish I could irrigate, I am stuck buying most of the feed. I have too many birds for the scraps to offset it enough.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

I have spent much of the last 2 years reading the heritage thread--- the benefits of raising your own chickens is vet costs become nil. An ax. I realize this sounds harsh, but the health and vitality of the flock benfits fromt this management. I had a great uncle that raised winning racing pigeons partly because any sick bird was a dead bird. Gone out of the flock. Won all his races enough to feed the birds. 

Takes a bit of work to find new technigues or rediscover old ones to utilize in an effort to use less less energy, and grow better quality foods.  Yes the good foods do cost more, but I do think they are worth it.  Realizing the recycling methods can be very useful. Using the animals to harvest the pastures is a benefit too. Grazing small areas and moving the livestock frewuently is very beneficial, IT makes the small acreage produce more per acre than just letting the animals run free over the entire lot. 

Some poeple run several animals over the same pasture land. One fellow uses pigs, goats/sheep and chickens. AN raises organic grass fed pigs. I don't know if we are allowed to mention other web sites but SUgar mtn farm has opened my eyes to new possibilities. 

I'm reworking my model completely-- just taking a bit of time, more than I would like. We are eating a lot of chicken these days and I plan to sell off many of the hens. TO reduce to just what my family will eat. ANd increase the type of birds that lay all year round. Progress, if slow, is still progress. 

WEa re clearling more land over the next few weeks so DH tells me. At least he likes to run the chain saw and in the winter is a great time to do hot heavy work to stay warm. My plan is to add clover next spring and other legumes and grasses. A long slow process to get the land changed from woodland to pasture. A rough pasture will work though for  chickens and sheep. 

For the most part, I agree that culling is quite effective. The thing is a lot of suburbanites are only raising a few chickens and so the likelihood for attachment goes way up. It's not as easy for a small time backyard farmer to just cull a bird as it is for someone who raises animals purely for meat/eggs. I still find it difficult to cull after years if dealing with poultry, but I've finally been able to pick up the ax myself and do what needs to be done. Not everyone can do this though, and I expect it to be difficult!

The exotics service at my school sees chickens quite often. They have done some wacky surgeries. I would never consider most of these surgeries for my own birds, but people pay to have this stuff done! Works for me because chickens are a nice bird to work with. No claws or large beaks!

 

[member 142084]

I can't do the axe.. I am afraid I will maime the poor thing or lop one of my members off. I found out the loppers work great Hang the birdie ( i say a prayer of thanks) I use rebar between to trees over a hole and use bailing twine to hang with. I have a pair of large loppers, used only for culling. I sharpen them with the knife sharpener. You pull the neck feather down towards the head, settle the open bladed then step back and "lop" or I hold the head and someone else lops, toss and walk away. Very easy.

 

[Arielle]

I personally dont use an ax either-- only time for the ax is if DH is available as he can swing with accuracy while I hold. It is a very sad time.

Only recently have I learned to dispatch a bird. ANd it is still hard to do. ANd I say a prayer too. I have always appreciated having food but now I have moved to another level of appreciation.

I understand the pet thing--our first chicken is a pet and several roosters have been "saved" from the stew pot but I have drawn a new line in the sand so to speak on treating chickens vs culling.

I do see great value in vets knowing about chickens and fowl as here we have lost the large animal vets locally--no farm vets that I know of anymore but one that is a holistic vet. Recognizing important diseases in a flock, even a small flock is import for the benefit of all birds in the area, so I"m rahter excited that poultry is part of the rotations and learning at vet school now. YEAH.

 

[member 142084]

Yes it leaves us to gain wisdom ourselves and deal with the issue. I was trained by a vet but not on birds. I have a rooster now with an issue. My breeding Lemon Cuckoo Orpington. He is my favorite guy. Time will tell.