Sticking with my Free-Range Chickens

The FDA Doesn't Want Chickens To Explore The Great Outdoors

Even with the new city roosters who can't tell time crowing at all hours of the day and night, I'm still sticking with my free-range birds. Since we have twelve hens in our yard, not three thousand, and have had hens presumably interacting with wild birds for some years and have yet to have an outbreak of salmonella, we must be doing something if not right, then at least okay.

I read somewhere that chickens have a natural carrying capacity of two thousand or so, and getting above that number often led to outbreaks of disease. I wish I could remember where it is I saw this statistic, but even if it isn't right, we should remember that typically chickens haven't lived in the crowded, confined conditions that we have asked them to adjust to over the last fifty years.

Rather than scratch our heads and point at wildlife for spreading disease, maybe we need to look more closely at traditional methods of raising poultry and apply that to the commercial industry. That's probably heresy akin to suggesting crop rotation to get rid of root worm in corn, god forbid we use traditional methods to solve a problem we can pour pesticide on, but it's Friday, and my baby just woke up, so that's the best suggestion I've got.

Have a great weekend everyone.

One True Ingredient: Bad Ass

Dad brought two roosters by tonight.

“They were free,” he said.

“I figured,” I replied. I eyed the two full-grown roosters, one red, one black, sizing them up.

“I thought I could trade ‘em for one of your roosters.”

I shrugged, thinking to myself that at least my roosters weren’t already fully formed assholes. They’re either young enough or cowed enough by the hens that so far they haven’t been overly aggressive. These two, even in the kennel, looked like fully blown assholes. But I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.

“Sure,” I said.

My first mistake was dropping the roosters in amongst the hens. We have a chicken tractor rather than a coop, but one side has roosts for hens while the other side doesn’t. There’s chicken wire in between so they can’t hassle one another. The hens also have a door now so they can get out to roam in the afternoon. They have two roosters with them, but the Buff Orphington roosters are under eighteen weeks old and pretty mild for roosters.

We don’t have the term cocky for nothing, I tell you what.

Before long, the new roosters had the hens completely harassed. They piled up in corners and on top of the young roosters and were repeatedly pushed away from the food at one end and the water at the other. The new roosters, it seemed, lived up to my expectation of bully to glorious effect.

Now kicking myself with a fussy child and absent partner, once the Offspring nodded off to the land of sugarplums and puppydog tails, I marched out to the coop, climbed inside on hands and knees (as it’s very low) and proceeded to corner and catch the offending pair of cocks, dragging them out of the coop behind me. One attempted to reach around and peck me, whereupon I seized him around the neck and narrowly restrained myself from strangling him. And for the second time that day, these birds found themselves overpowered by a Barclay, only this second one was a pissed off, tired, overworked, no patience momma.

The only condoned rape on Barclay Farms from now on will now be between two consenting males. Mom has spoken.

My harried hens fluffed themselves and slowly, very slowly, began to move normally about their side of the coop once more. The offending roosters, I shoved into the opposing side and fastened the door.

As the roosters crow this morning, making me feel vaguely Amish, Dad’s suggestion of putting them in the cookpot has some appeal. The future ingredient to one of our meals was therefore the topic of this week’s episode of “One True Ingredient.” The other bonus ingredient this week I thought of while cornering and seizing both cocks around their necks, one in each hand and proceeding to drag them out by their feet at nine o’clock at night.

That ingredient? Be bad ass.

Keep choking your chicken.

Pastured Poultry

Here's a template for making the farm make money, the age old debate between my dad and I on how to do it.  


http://www.ibiblio.org/farming-connection/grazing/nypa/nypa9.htm

Resources for Farmers - And a Passion for Grassin'

So we’ve talked the last few days about grazing and why graze. I’d like to tilt the viewfinder a little today and give farmers out there some resources for grazing. Here’s one I found right off this morning that looks pretty fun, full of how-tos and fencing. http://www.ibiblio.org/farming-connection/grazing/home.htm. That one looks to mostly cater to beef, but a useful poultry resource for us has been http://www.attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/poultry/. Purdue also has some great info on grazing and pasture management http://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/forages/rotational/index.html.

So hopefully that’s enough to get you started. I’ve got tons more resources, of course, but that’s enough to wade through for now, I think. One thing about it, it’s never hard to sell farmers on the benefits of grass. I think most of us would rather see our animals out on pasture more than anything else. The problem is that’s not where the demand of the market is. The demand is for cheaply raised meat that grows quickly and that’s exactly what the public has gotten, full of antibiotics and hormones. But, that is what they asked for.

Last I heard, less than 2% of the population is involved with food production in America, with fewer young people getting involved as the years go by. And when you think about it, why should they get involved? There’s little money and long hours involved with farming, passion for grassin’ or not. The key now is niche markets and educating the public on where their food comes from. I’m continually amazed at how many people my own age have never even been up close to a horse, let alone a cow. They have no clue about grass-fed versus grain-fed and no incentive to care. But food is the basis of everything. Without food, there’s no room for civilization. Farmers are integral to everything. I mean, how many people, realistically, can feed themselves without a grocery store? So there’s the incentive to learn about where your food comes from: no store, no eat. Scary. So my advice to aspiring and current farmers? Business planning.

I’ve mentioned Annie’s Project on the blog before, but for those who didn’t catch that post, it’s a nationwide class held to educate women in agriculture about opportunities and management in agriculture. For it, I picked up a lot of information on how to manage and build your farm on paper. This aspect of ag is actually a post or two all in itself so I’ll leave off today with a few starting resources on ag business and pick up tomorrow discussing the importance of business planning and how it can benefit your ag business.

http://www.michigan.gov/mda/0,1607,7-125-1568_2388---,00.html Haven’t explored this one yet, but does look to have some useful info.

The best site for farmers interested in business planning is https://www.msu.edu/~steind/. Dennis Stein is part of Michigan State University’s Extension Service and a great personality.

Here’s a link for beginning farmers and looks great for people just thinking about adding farming to their repertoire. After all, the reason most small businesses fail is poor planning. http://beginningfarmers.org/farm-business-planning/

Sorry for the tangent today, folks, but I get excited about ag and all its facets. I’ll try to be more focused tomorrow and more interesting to those who yawn their way through my rhapsodies over turf grass. Cheers.