Stamp Of Approval

So, I am looking for a way to make my eggs standout. Not in size or color or education... not in shiney new shoes or jewelry, but in nutrition. The basic egg is 90 days old before you get it. It is raised in miserable conditions, so unnatural, that the chicken doesn't even produce to its normal capacity, but to at best 80%. Then the egg producer needs to get more chickens to make up for the 20% loss and then crowding kicks in. I mean awful shanty-town crowding where the chickens don't even look like chickens anymore, but toothpick models made by kindergarteners.... creepy, weird looking chickens. They end up living FEMA housing, with no medical insurance no nothing and then when they are at the end of their egg laying years, their legs break, their feathers fall off and get pneumonia and die.

So my goal to to prove to the consumers that my, all of our backyard chicken, eggs are different. Higher in nutrition therefore better for you and all the while living like a film star...with feathers, like a boa... and a posse'.

Therefore my goal is to locate a food tester and have these eggs evaluated for nutrition and size. Then stamp on the egg the values. Approximate of course...

I will check with Chuck Norris if he is OK with his fist of fury approval on eggs.

Omnivores Dilemma

A friend of mine - we'll call him "Joe"... recommended a book. While I will avoid appearing like the Oprah's Book Club although you can call me the "Chicken Whisper"..., I think this could be a good recommendation. I have also read a few reviews and this seems to be right up our ally... Here is a quick review written by Beverly Crumpacker (I hate chuckling over some one's name - but Crumpacker slays me - what is the derivation of this name? Crumpacker? Was it Crumbpacker? Did it have to do with some one's job in Elizabethan England?) I digress...

"We've lost touch with the natural loops of farming, in which livestock and crops are connected in mutually beneficial circles. Pollan discusses the alternatives to industrial farming, but these two long (and occasionally self-indulgent) sections lack the focus and intensity -- the anger beneath the surface -- of the first. He spends a week at Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm in the Shenandoah Valley, a farm that works with nature, rather than despite it. Salatin calls himself a grass farmer, though his farm produces cows, chickens, eggs and corn. But everything begins with the grass: The cows nibble at it at the precise moment when it's at its sweetest and are moved from pasture to pasture to keep the grass at its best height. Their droppings fertilize the grass, and the cycle is under way. There's a kind of lyrical symmetry to everything that happens on this farm. Even the final slaughtering of chickens is done quickly and humanely, in the open air. It isn't pleasant, but compared to the way cattle are fattened and slaughtered in meat industry feedlots and slaughterhouses, it is remarkably reasonable."

Whew - Time Is Flying And Chicks Are Growing!!!

UPDATE - June 25, 2009. I took these pictures this morning before flying off to work. Loa (Arcauna) is on the left. This bird is looking good. Gold with brown and white markings. Loa has this weird little trait where she, tilts her head in 20 different directions in order to check you out. I understand I am confusing and she does not understand my sense of humor...sometimes I don't pick up my shoes or leave soda cans around the house... wait am I still talking about Loa...? Anyway, Loa is great fun and very curious. Millie (RIR) is a spaz, but taking on the typical reddish coloring and flat back of a RIR. Hoot (Arcauna) is on the far right and is getting some nice coloring as well. Gray and white, she is looking like an Eagle, but flies like Eddie The Eagle - remember him from the 1988 Calgary Olympics?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7MmJIy0bjo

Not sure what language they are speaking, it has to be Scandanavian or Jibberish...

Here is another picture with Millie in the foreground, Loa on the left and Hoot in the back. Hoot is always the first to the dinner table, the first one out of the coop and the first one to fly AT me.

By the way, the ABM bedding material is working out great. At first there were some "drive-bys" and I could smell the stench, and then it seemed to level off and become non-existent. Thank goodness, nothing like having trailer trash farmer wanna-be's living next door to you.

Grass Fed Chickens

Seems adding some natural grasses to the food along with legume scraps and other natural non-meat makes chickens much healthier and thereby able to produce much healthier eggs. Here is some common sense... and an excerpt from www.loinsgrip.com

"Very few commercial chickens really get to eat grass or scraps. Chickens, being birds, naturally need to eat grains along with their grass, so free-range chicken is not as high in Omega-3 as is grass-fed beef or lamb. The best Omega-3 levels in chicken come from a poultry diet to which abundant fish meal has been added. By marketing chickens with "all vegetable diet," we are throwing the baby out with the bath water. Chickens need bugs and animal protein! Fish meal brings about great poultry health ~ English farmers who feed their chickens fish meal report their chickens live and lay eggs for over 10 years. In some leading-edge restaurants in the US they are beginning to use the "grass-fed" label in their menus. Many big-city chefs and butchers have heard a rumor that "chickens cannot eat grass." Pastured poultry farmers just love to hear about things like this ~ they roll around laughing ~ it makes their day. Chickens that are really free range will consume about 30% of their calories from grass. Since grass has very few calories, that translates to a LOT of grass.

Omega-3 Eggs:

Eggs with the highest levels of Omega-3's come from chickens raised on grass and/or fed fish meal, with the grain component greatly minimized. But lacking this, some commercial enterprises are producing eggs from chickens fed on flax seed. They use the words "Omega-3" on the egg carton, and state the Omega-3 levels in their eggs. If your heart health is important to you, try to get fish-meal-fed, grass-fed eggs. Better yet, raise your own. Most cities allow 5 "domestic" animals. If you keep your 5 chickens clean and in a large, caged area, with lots of grass growing behind wire so they can't kill it, just eat off the tops, and feed them fish meal and good bugs along with their regular diet, you will have some really good Omega-3 eggs.

So off to get some fish meal....!

Buying Local And Health

As I have blogged previously, backyard, locally farmed eggs sell quickly at Farmers Markets. Perusing the web and asking people, in my sphere of influence (which are all the personalities in my mind - so at least 100 people) who are more locally focused, about whether they would buy eggs from backyard farmers, it is apparent they will and do and pay more for it. I have a cadre of people who know we have chickens and are lined up for the extra's. I realize I am not going to have enough to bring to a farmers market and that is OK, cause I need more things to do like I need a virus. Economics may dictate my change of mind, but then so could sleep. So, I was curious about the eating local food issue... Is it better to eat local and what factors are effected in eating local. I am not talking about the local BK or California Pizza Kitchen... I mean locally grown food. So here goes -

According to a study by the New Economics Foundation in London (I know it is around the world, but economics are economics), a dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. When businesses are not owned locally, money leaves the community at every transaction. Think about this - going to Safeway or Piggly Wiggly... sends your money off to another state or part of the state, where this money is then sent to suppliers around the country. It is likely your $5 worth of strawberries just went to Chile. Nice... so my $5.00 is not going to be spent by a local grower who could put their profit back into the local economy?

While produce that is purchased in the supermarket or a big-box store has been in transit or cold-stored for days or weeks, produce that you purchase at your local farmer's market has often been picked within 24 hours of your purchase. This freshness not only affects the taste of your food, but the nutritional value which declines with time. OK, there! Its quite possibly healthier.

Ever tried a tomato that was picked and eaten right off the vine? No argument here!

Because the produce will be handled less, locally grown fruit does not have to be "rugged" or to stand up to the rigors of shipping. This means that you are going to be getting peaches so ripe that they fall apart as you eat them, figs that would have been smashed to bits if they were sold using traditional methods, and melons that were allowed to ripen until the last possible minute on the vine.

In a March 2005 study by the journal Food Policy, it was found that the miles that organic food often travels to our plate creates environmental damage that outweighs the benefit of buying organic.

Which gets me to eggs - with the average egg being 90 days old by the time you buy it at your local grocery store... and the way in which hens are kept in hatcheries, how in the world could these eggs be healthy? There is nothing natural about the way eggs are produced versus those in backyards and on true - Cage Free farms. Higher Omega 3, protein, Vitamin D and E...

I might become like Rocky Balboa and start drinking eggs....! Or vomit in my shirt pocket.

Hand Augering Wells

So, one of the benefits of living where I do is... the water table is at 15ft. Yes, 15ft... So, this gives me the leverage to "hand auger" a well versus paying someone to come in drill a well in my backyard. The price differential is about $3000. After researching this, I found a company on the East Coast, who specializes in hand-augering equipment for wells. The coolest thing here is; they are a Christian organization who's mission is to provide the means and the tools for countries where fresh water is miles away and where the water if not boiled, could make them deathly ill. HydroMissions provides the parts or a pre-packaged unit for hand-augering your well. The beauty of a well, is... our earth acts as a natural bio-filter for water, thereby extracting all the nastys that will keep you on the Johnny On The Spot... The water should still should be tested for microbes and alkalinity, but for watering your yard, crops and tapping it into certain household needs is very doable.

So, here is the link to HydroMissions:

http://www.hydromissions.com/

The steps will be; get the equipment, casing, pump and begin drilling. A 4" casing will be used and I anticipate hitting water at 15ft. I will need to drill to 30ft, as you need to double the distance to compensate for head pressure and usage.

Usually, outside of coastal locations, the water will be very high in mineral content and good for your crops and lawn. I would not recommend watering your chickens with this water unless you have the water chemistry tested. There are a number companies on the web or in your local area who can test your water for less than $50. To me this is worth it...as I have kids and animals, sometimes hard to tell the difference and peace of mind for health's sake is worth it.

I will report more later, but in the meantime ask around and find out where your water table is, see if you can't hand auger a well in your backyard and get off the grid.

HobbyFarms?

I am sorry, but this is a world of discovery for me. All of you have probably hit this site and seen the great information it has. Everything I am trying to do wrapped up in a neat little magazine. And now, Urban Farms? - How cool does it get? I am dizzy from excitement. Having been raised with an entreprenuer mind-set and "control -issues"... I rail against authority - mainly government intervention. I loathe it, find it to be the most fruitless form of transactional relationship anywhere in the world. I digress, Urban Farm is more my speed, as I am trying to turn my lawn into a place where we as a family can forage. I know, we'll be competing with the chickens and possibly other neighbors, but that is why I've purchased a shotgun.

A couple of tips in these sites -

1. Great chicken description pages in HobbyFarm.

2. Great ideas on gardens in both; including composting, seed starting...etc.

3. Great ideas on "Out-Buildings"... every home needs one. I built the Simpson Strong-Tie shed, using it's plans and connectors, yet added some of my own features - windows, dutch doors and evetually, water and electricity - Man's Got To Have Some Peace!

Check these out... very nice sites.

Coming Soon "Le Coop" Cam

OK.. so I am going to do it... I need to find a deal on this thing first, but I am going to install a coop cam.

This will enable all to pan, tilt, zoom the camera from the web and even hear them clucking. The nice thing is; you will be able to control - one at a time, but it will enable you to have some fun. I need to run my CAT5 cable to the router, as I am NOT going wireless, too spotty and a long way from the router...with a lot of house in the way. Wireless technology likes "line of site", so this cam will not be line of site to the coop. I am going to mount it about 10 ft up on our chimney so you will have a nice perspective. So... hang in there... The Chick Cam is coming!!!!!

We Blew Past 1500 Visits!!!

Really cool - we have blown past 1500 visits in just 16 days.

Rhode Island Reds

Great article I discovered on Rhode Island Reds (RIR). We have one of these - Millie. She is a cool little hen and is turning out to be stunning. This is an excerpt from a radio interview I grabbed from "Living the Country Life" Website. Another nice website.

One of my favorite chicken breeds is the Rhode Island Red. It's the chicken of choice for those who want quality egg-layers and good fryers.

Bud Wood owns a hatchery and says Rhode Island Reds are one of the earliest breeds developed in the United States and are among his best sellers because of their production qualities.

'They're a fairly gentle breed, and they lay a nice big, dark brown egg," Wood says. "They're a hardy breed, and easy to raise. Rhode Island Red is probably the beginning genetics of all of the commercial brown egg layers today."

At peak production, the hens are egg-laying machines. Just one hen will give you five to six eggs a week.

The Reds have a larger body type than other breeds. Wood recommends feeding them a commercial layer mix, which gives them all the nutrition they need. You can also provide a place to forage. It cuts their consumption of commercial feed way down, maybe even in half. Grubbing around the yard for plants and bugs makes their yolks a brighter yellow color.

We attempted to let them out in the garden yesterday, but they are as trepiditious as a kid is eating brussel sprouts.

Happy Father's Day