Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Are you concerned with the price of eggs? Well, as I see it, there are two options. Either you could participate in the slave suggestion ritual known as voting for a political candidate in the hopes that your preferred candidate will take office so that they can start pressuring the central bank (that shouldn’t exist) to tighten the money supply in the hopes of curbing monetary inflation while simultaneously easing regulatory burden on corporate farmers (who we shouldn’t be buying food from) so that they will be incentivized to increase production while simultaneously using taxpayer money (which shouldn’t be stolen in the first place) to invest in infrastructure projects in the hope of growing out the economy and thus reducing price inflation . . . or you could raise chickens. Let’s explore Option 2 today, shall we?
Video player not working? Use these links to watch it somewhere else!
WATCH ON: 
/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 
or DOWNLOAD THE MP4
SHOW NOTES:
Egg prices continue to crack record highs: USDA
Why are egg prices so high? USDA predicts cost will keep rising due to bird flu outbreaks
Egg price inflation is so bad that some NYC stores are selling them ‘loosie’ cigarette style
The Fearless Podcast #92: AI: The Future of Warfare and Medicine
Kartik Gada did a video on the “egg price is egg-regious” (pun intended) topic:
https://youtu.be/0Y1IvKCEAzU
I once heard about a study from Belgium from the end 80s, in which was discussed how much waste could be reduced by chickens. Unfortunately, I could not find it on the fly and, thus, cannot link it. So, take it with a grain of salt.
We have a couple of chickens and I would not live without them. You always have so much vegetable peel or other waste, it’s realy handy.
I know about that study. I think it involved 4000 chickens in 2000 households. They were fed leftovers (chickens are very thankful in this sense, common species like to eat everything) and the reduction of refuse at the end of the year measured in hundreds of tonnes.
I do expect an increase in poop was recorded, but in any garden that is a very welcome addition.
You can get some chickens but it will be forbidden to have them or you have to kill them because of some fantasy that says all birds are having flu which could, may, might jump to people.
Yes, that’s what makes me hesitate, although I had hoped to have backyard chickens once I retired (and bees, but that’s another story). It would be devastating if that knock on the door came telling me that my chickens would have to be culled. And since I live in California, the possibility of that happening is very real. When our governor declared the supposed bird flu emergency, I went out the same day, bought 6 dozen eggs, and freeze dried them. Hoping to do more. Not the same as having fresh eggs, but it’s the best I can do for now.
Hey if you’re a fan of honey (you mentioned bees) you might want to go buy a few jars now.
Blackpilled over on odysee keeps bees and said it’s going a be a BAD year for Honey because so many hives have died off…. Iirc he said California agriculture was having a shortage for pollination or something like that.
It’s not like Honey goes bad and it’ll get eaten at some point anyways- most people are eating that sugar syrup fake honey and won’t notice though
Thanks, Duck. I actually know a couple of local beekeepers who have shared their bounty, but yes, I know that our pollinators are having a rough time. One of the reasons I decided against keeping a hive myself was the number of pests and diseases that honeybees can succumb to. It’s not as simple as letting them do their thing and reaping the benefits. I get emotionally attached to these little critters; I guess I’m kind of a softie despite being raised a farm girl.
Luke Smith “Pessimism is for losers “
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JQIcUBd-5fk&pp=ygUUTHVrZSBzbWl0aCBwZXNzaW1pc20%3D
He says it better then I can but just assuming you will loose every time is just a cope for lazy cowardly people.
The future is always in motion, to paraphrase Yoda, and there are lots of moving parts we can’t see- and having a plan, even a bad plan, is better then doing nothing most of the time because if you are active chances are you can work something out on the fly
How do you differentiate between optimism, pessimism and realism, and who makes that distinction, you?
Seeing the world as it truly is, is anything but lazy and/or cowardice. I know we live in a time where bravery is cowardice, love is hate, round is flat, treason is patriotic, and judgement is compassion, but the truth will out.
Nietzsche wrote a lot about untruth and the will for ignorance, the idea that learning truth is often not pleasurable, “There is no pre-established harmony the furthering of the truth and the good of mankind”.
I do not see hopelessness, I simply see consequence. It is interesting assigning labels to reality, as if labeling our predicament will change it.
America has created that which is/will destroying us, both technically and morally, poetic justice at its most terrible. I do not welcome it, but I know it is a just consequence of America’s history. Why should we escape that which we were all to willfully subjected innumerable peoples around the world to? Are we better than the Iraqis, I don’t think so, quite to the contrary.
When I see this situation with eggs, I don’t give a shit about the eggs and the chickens, for me, it is just another example of how they do control everything. Covid demonstrated their control, it is absolute and they are tightening their grip. If you see that perspective as being “black-pilled”, that simply says more about your mental limitations of excepting reality.
I have no doubt you will endeavor to argue how erroneous my perspective is, a debate I would welcome if it were based on logic and reason, not logical fallacies, self-righteousness and condescension, which, if history is any lesson would most certainly be the case. As such, I make my point and move on.
“….for me, it is just another example of how they do control everythin….”
See… you have already lost.
I was told a story by an instructor one time about a guy who was shot in the arm and died on the spot… it was decided he had watched too much TV and assumed that all gunshots are instantly fatal.
In actual fact you have a good chance of survival wiyh a single pistol caliber round. You can also keep fighting and stab a gun man to death a lot of the time. He will be dead before you.
But if you THINK you have list you have lost.
You see yourself as the victim…. That’s why you are nothing but prey. It’s actually true, tbh, that you ARE a victim because thats how you think- we just got so rich that people like you could pretend to be more.
As to the syphalis philosopher…. You ought to be able to see that you are embodying SLAVE mentality, whining that the Master does what he likes and never trying yourself to work your own will.
I think you parrot his philosophy without having understood it… rather then Will to Power you have only Will to indulge your passions and lusts.
As to condescension…. What level of respect do you think weakness deserves? It might warrant compassion and pity, but never respect
Great episode, James! Checking out the full Jack Spirko interview right now. Thank you!
Someone who you may be interested in interviewing is Jill Winger of the Old Fashioned on Purpose podcast. https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/
She has podcasted for years on a wide variety of self-reliant homesteading subjects like raising chickens/cows, making bread, vegetable gardening, etc.
I’ve listened to her since around 2020 and she focuses only on solutions and things every person can do to be more self-reliant.
I will say that we were blessed because keeping chickens turned out to be pretty easy because set up to do it in the laziest way where I had to do least maintenance.
I bought a hipster wooden coop- then used the as the nest box and build a bigger run around it. The wooden gram was ALL kept off the ground on a row of bricks ( sitting in water destroys wood) and all given a good coat of paint.
Under the row of bricks I ran a row of paver stones because very few predators will dig that far to get in. I cemented the pavers and bricks together but the wooden frame sits on top under its own weight.
The roof of the hipster coup got a layer of shingles so the wood would not get wet and rot, the way it was designed to do. The extension is basically a frame making a low box and I suggest using small mesh wire cloth rather then chicken wire (rodents don’t fit thru) but either will do. The exposed frame on the roof is covered with some heavy duty plastic liner to keep it dry (be sure to use an extra block so water runs off and does not sit on it) because water is the enemy of wood.
I wired the top of the run but left it open so sunlight can get in (the hipster coup has a roof where they hide when it rains because chickens hate being wet)
I made more access points (one door- sucky and one panel of painted wood that has long bolts running from frame thru wood so I can unbolt it two of three times a year)
I put a deep litter of leaves into the coup in autumn and the chickens bury themselves and dig it and work it down to compost- they are less stressed and happier during lockdown season when there are no leaves to hide them from hawks.
Having leaves to dig makes chicly less aggressive d they eat much less when not board, bord chickens eat and eat and eat.
In summer they run around my smallish lot and eat even less. I throw scratch out for them and while they are locked up seed the bare spots with scratch so it germinates and they have greens. They love bugs so we have less pests and I keep bantams because they are less destructive then big chickens. They also live kitchen scraps, except they won’t eat store bread when I tried them in it… they do eat home made bread. In winter I drop a stick of butter in rice and use that as a high energy treat and they love cabbage.
We have good cover when they’re out, and the roosters will keep watch. Bantams breed themselves (I have 8chicks now) and they have behaviors you don’t see in the first generation like coparenting.
Main take away is IMO build stuff to last and be easy to maintain…. And let selection pressure adjust your flock’s genetics
Continued
Problems we have had
Nest box floor in the hipster coup was like a bird cage tray and the poop rotted it out (actually the dog fell thru it while stealing eggs) so I put Battons and two layers of corrugated plastic as a new floor
Disease – they will get a black rash on their heads from mosquitoes (I think) born pox. The ones that survived must have had good genes since not seen that for a while
Water they will NOT drink water with ice so in winter you need to constantly change it
Also I have a bowl for them but with chicks water via a dripping hose (drowned chicks make me sad) and then when middle sized chicks I put bricks in it so they can’t drown.
Big chickens will destroy all grass, bantams are better IMO. I can have more of them and they eat less and take care of themselves and replace themselves
I had to reach a screwdriver thru wire and dig a chick out of leaves the other day… it had been burried and small dog was trying to lick it thru the mesh.
Most dogs won’t mess with a grown bantam but babies are nummy treats
Bantams are way too aggressive to keep with a “nice” chicken like Buff Orpingtons which can be trained to sit in your lap and get petted.
You may get rodents…. Dogs think they are nummy treats and chickens will eat them if they can see them. (But they don’t see much in the dark…) so you may want to keep traps and bait (I use plaster of Paris mixed with flour and sugar) under a crate with a brick in it so only rodents can get at it.
You need to kill spares when they replace themselves… And they get smarter and harder to kill over generations. One day they may try to eat ME.
Butchering chickens is nasty, and roosters are tough BUT they have way more flavor than store bought abomination chickens.
Bantams are small so I don’t bother eating them much anymore TBH.
Good things
Eggs
Fewer bug
They are fascinating to watch….. they have personalities and relationships.
I think you can learn a lot watching chickens.
I do use comercial feed but I could probably keep four to six banams on scraps. A bag lasts a looong time since i try to have it as a suplimet rather then their main fuel…feed gets bugs which they eat just fine but are not good to have in your house so ideally is kept in tubs
Duck: Do you sprout your grain? Goes farther, more nutrients.
That’s a good idea, but no. I let scratch germinate in the yard and they eat a lot of it like that as well as the shoots and stuff.
I do sprout salad greens for me though- everyone should have some spouting seeds and jars even if only for emergency greens. I like them much better then regular salad TBH
In Denver proper, we have coyotes, raccoons and cats. Until I am able to predator proof a chicken run, I trade my excess zucchini, spaghetti squash, pumpkin and cabbage with my friend (and boy howdy, do I have excess lol). I feed his chickens and he rewards me with eggs. Even better, I give him a straw bale and he uses it as bedding, then returns the chicken “decorated” straw to me for compost. (Chicken manure is “hot” and must be cured for 6 months before applying it to gardens.)
Speaking of Solutions…dear Corbetteers, If you had to choose only 3 succinct yard signs,
3 signs which say it A L L (naturally in addition to “The Corbett Report.com”) what would they be? (ie. “Trust the Silenced!”) Any input from you brilliant People would be greatly appreciated!
Molon labe.
Thanks mkey
https://www.backyardchickens.com/
Good starter website
Thanks! I’m just starting out and want to build or buy a chicken coop soon and start with some egg layers first to learn more about them before raising meat birds.
My husband had the idea of growing meal worms or some type of bug in the winter time so we wouldn’t have to spend a lot on chicken scratch. Plus bugs are more nutritious for them right? But it freezes where I live sometimes so I was considering putting in a green house to grow food in the winter and the bugs for my birds.
Is that a stupid idea? I know next to nothing about raising animals, growing food, etc.
I was considering buying a chicken coop versus having one built because I will probably have to pay someone to build a good one. My husband is handy but not good a carpentry. I don’t want a crappy home built chicken coop that falls apart.
Oh another question, I am not all done with putting my big fence in yet (deer fence), should I wait to do that? I worry about coyotes getting my chickens, or would a good chicken coop solve that problem? I was also going to get some pea fowl to repel the coyotes. I have a small herding dog, so she’s not going to be able to fend off coyotes.
I suppose coyotes could get over a deer fence so maybe it doesn’t matter either way.
I’ll check out your link. I want to get started with the chickens as soon as possible.
You can grow meal worms very easily (and eat them yourself if need be) ….. I don’t bother much because I am lazy but some people on YouTube have breeders set up where three layers of boxes let the beetles drop the eggs down to the lower layers automatically…. I just used a tub wiyh flour and apple slices (for “watering” ).
DONT use them as your main feed or you will overload the birds kidneys or something- they are a very good supplement and treat.
If you don’t mind the smell you can make a maggot bucket – drill holes around the edge of a Home depot bucket and then put dead meaty stuff and layers of straw and the fly’s lay eggs a and the maggots climb out and get eaten (I don’t do this because u built my coup low and if they get in the bucket it’s nasty. 🙁 very nasty)
Stinky too – hang it in a pole.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MUb4a90jyco&pp=ygUWQ2hpY2tlbnMgbWFnZ2l0IGJ1Y2tldA%3D%3D
Chickens love insects and grubs and such but interesting they do NOT like spiders- first time they saw one my Orpies keep giving it the side eye and making unhappy sounds.
I will say that you can buy a bag of them off Amazon or whatever and start with that BUT ai have heard that when they inbreed for long enough they get too related and don’t like to breed- I found my colony would die off after a couple of years.
Also you need to keep on top of changing the slices of veg or they get stinky 🙁 yuck.
As to coyotes…. If you have them you may need to
A)kill them
B) keep your chickens locked up all the time. That’s sad but may be needed.
The row of pavers under the coup perimeter makes it hard for them to dig thru and some people run a second fence of chicken wire out at an angle outside the real coup – making two fences means they just dig into the dead space outside the real wire.
Also I would always put a wire roof in a chicken run to keep hawks out… hawks are big enough to eat my small dog lol
I don’t have that issue because dogs and such but if you do I’d really suggest pavers as a base to your coup. Locked up chickens eat more but won’t stink if you do deep litter.
If uou get a dog as a pup it’s a good idea to put it near a mommy chicken and babies and have her peck hell out of it…. They will keep the fear for a long time and not bother hens.
Good luck, I hope you can let them wonder because they really are better than TV. 🙂
https://m.youtube.com/@TheUrbanRescueRanch/videos
Not related but you might want to check this dude out… he’s kinda interesting
Can’t I let them out in the day time though? I let my dog out during the day. I was planning on just putting them in at dusk, when the coyotes come out.
I have rarely seen a coyote in the day. I’d rather just keep them away than shoot them. Not opposed to shooting one if necessary but I’d rather prevent the need to do so.
You must keep them in the run for a few weeks before you let them out… when they know where they live they put themselves away when it gets dark…. You just lock them up. If you try to herd them like geese you may be disappointed 😉 hence the importance of making them see the coup as home.
I let mine out, you CAN if they have cover to hide from hawks and such and if coyotes are not a big problem there. We have trees and low bushes they like to hide under.
I’d suggest giving it a try and if you start to loose chickens just chalk it up as experience and keep them in the run. A good rooster will watch out and protect his girls, and that way you are also breeding them to suit your situation too.
I would personally say it’s a good idea to build the run big enough that they CAN be locked up if you need to because it’s a PITA to expand afterwards.
Thanks for the advice. It’s very helpful.
Pouring a cement barrier around the run, then sinking chain link fence into that cement, then finishing enclosing the top with chicken wire, protects them from the hawks and the diggers.
Thanks for all the info!
Thanks for that advice. I never thought of putting the fence into the concrete. All of this stuff is kind of new to me since I’ve lived in a city for most of my life.
Moved to a very rural area full time a little over a year ago.
It’s been slow going with developing my parcel of land for a homestead because I’ve needed some help with fencing and other things that require heavy equipment.
Many of the contractors here are booked way out and always have many projects going at once.
I want to do things the right way and not have to fix it later on.
I’ve mentioned it before, but that “Choosing Chickens” Solutions Watch literally changed the whole trajectory of my life.
I enrolled and completed my Permaculture Design Certification, as well as Teacher Training. I now guest teach for Permaculture courses and have my own organic gardening business. And we have a little mixed breed backyard chicken flock as well.
(Shameless plug, if you’re in Colorado Springs, I sell my eggs for $6 dozen. You can request my email from Corbett and we can meet up).
Chickens are messy creatures, but provide an abundance and are quite entertaining. The biggest problem we have is that they have attracted mice around their feed. But some of the chickens are quick enough to catch and eat the vermin. (They’re raptors, after all). Our yard is fenced off in several sections and we let them roam in a limited space so the chicken sh*t isn’t everywhere.
I’ve been working on my urban single acre homestead for 25 years (omg!) and actively growing food for the last 10. The fridge just now has corn fritters, from my own sweetcorn…slumgullion, from my own garlic, onions, potatoes and cabbage…and the BEST cream of asparagus soup, from my own asparagus (received 56 pound from the good Earth last year, just from my little beds). 10 years ag I believed that seed came only from seed packets, and now I have a substantial heirloom seed cache (aluminum tolerant of the stratospheric aerosal fallout, and tough survivors in my harsh Colorado conditions). I am still not yet ready for egg chickens due to my fear of the predators. I am wheelchair reliant, and have done this garden from my knees, with a little bitty shovel and very little money. I have learned so much…yet still…compared to all of our farming ancestors, I know just about as much as what an average 5th grader might know, growing up on a farm! The knowledge has been removed from us by 2 to 3 generations, and just waits to be re-kindled. But so many of us must start from scratch. My 2 magic keys to success with the garden are that I share EVERYTHING with EVERYBODY (by August my mailman won’t make eye contact with me for fear I’ll stuff the mailbox with zucchini for him lol) and I am just too dumb to quit! Sounds like you’re striving to get alot done in a hurry! Just think of ole Rigglebug out here, crawlin’ around in my 25 year project! Your answers will come for you, I am sure, but a year in homestead timelines is not a long time. All the best to you! I am rootin’ for ya!
I have raised back yard birds. It cost more to raise your own chicken if you are buying organic feed and the initial cost of buying a coup, chickens, feeder and bedding. Not to mention the extra time daily. There are way to lower the cost such as growing your own feed and building your own coup, buying feed in bulk…but in the short term it cost more to raise you own chickens. On the other hand the eggs are fresh daily and you know they live a good life with organic feed and whatever they forage for in your yard. My kids also learned responsibility and all about chickens and eggs. I would recommend raising your own chicken if you have kids but it is not cheaper and it’s work for someone in the family everyday.
investor speculation: one of the biggest destroyers of societies
I haven’t paid for an egg from the grocery store in…maybe 7 years or more? I simply located backyard-chicken-keepers and bought eggs from them until we finally escaped the big city last year and now have an acre with 6 hens that have been a part of our lives for about 10 months. Our property has a bunch of trees and, despite hawks and owls living in those trees, haven’t lost a single hen BUT I know that could change anytime. I prefer them roaming our property (and they roam all over the neighbors’ yards since none of us have fences) and they do keep the bug population down in the Spring and Summer.
If you live in a situation where you can’t raise chickens, and moving isn’t a viable option, use a local Classifieds app such as Nextdoor or (blecht!) Facebook Marketplace and find a local purveyor – I can almost guarantee that someone within a short drive will sell you some backyard eggs; I had 3 sources in my former large city that kept me supplied and it felt great the last time store eggs shot up over $4/dozen knowing I was only paying $3/dozen and mine were better quality!
Rather difficult to do when one lives where Badgers, Eagles, Owls, Coyotes, and the occasional mystery carnivore hang out. Tried it. We lose barn cats too much as well. (4 since the year’s start) Would cost far too much to create a safe, healthy environment for the chickens. Guess some sort of guard dog would help and could be trained in a year’s time or so.
Another recent thing I came across in this topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8GCayqd2OU
I started keeping chickens during Covid lockdown 2020 because that situation shocked me out of complacency. I also expanded my garden. We are only allowed to keep 5 chickens, no roosters allowed, where I live, but I get an abundance of eggs. Predators like hawks, owls and raccoons have to be dealt with, but on less than a quarter acre of space I am becoming more self reliant. I am in the process of replacing ornamental perennials with dwarf fruit trees and berry bushes. Has restored my sanity to focus on these things rather than the chaos I can do little or nothing about.
I’m in the Midwest and have buff Orpingtons and speckled Sussex and one old Brahmin who no longer lays. She came with the used coop I acquired. Lost two Easter eggers to predators and one to being overly broody that got sick from not eating. I free range them in the backyard and have fallen in love with them! You do have to have someone reliable to take care of them when you’re gone, that is my only problem with them. And fence off the raised beds as they love to dig in them and eat things like the lettuce. I also have a winter source for eggs and meat and produce from a regenerative farmer and farmer’s markets in our area are terrific.
“how else can we possibly imagine the world working other than having this vast, complicated machinery of infrastructure and bureaucracy and politicians and all of this to coordinate this mass international infrastructural effort to try to get eggs onto your plate? … ..Oh wait, eggs are produced for free every single day. Wow, look at that.
𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭. So let’s try to remember that fact. Let’s try to remember what the real solutions are based on. Our connection to the real world and the people around us.”
Well said James.
Locally I connected with an Amish lady that has more property than me when I was doing a talk at a preserving group. The group encouraged her to scale up her free range (non-gmo feed) chicken population and pre-paid for some eggs to help her with equipment.
I also provided her with heirloom seeds which can grow low maintenance nutrient dense feed for her chickens (like Amaranth) and medicinal ingredients for her health food store (elderberries, holy basil, lemon balm etc) and she trades me for eggs.
I often bring home made hot sauce and seedlings I propagate from trees in our yard (aligning with, recognizing and proliferating nature’s abundance) to trade for eggs.
I also sometimes just buy her eggs (as we all need money to pay the armed thugs that demand their protection money in government) and I know they are high quality and the chickens live a good life.
Thanks for the great episode.
I love how you supported someone locally that way! Seeds and propagations are a great currency. Right now, we’re developing a food forest at our church that includes edible trees and medicinal perennials. One day, I hope it’ll be a source of food, inspiration, and specimens folks can propagate for their own homes.
@candm
Thanks! 🙂 Though it was a team effort. Lots of people pledging to become her customer helped her feel confident to get some new gear and scaleup. This in turn helped the people like myself that have small yards (or no yard at all) and we want to eat eggs but do not trust the store bought ones and we do not want to fund factory farming operations. So it was a win win all around!
Also, I had way more heirloom seeds than I needed for myself, and I am striving to embrace Gift Thinking (gift economics) where I can, so giving them a home on her property lets them fulfill their purpose, preserves heirloom diversity, helps people feed/heal themselves and helps feed her chickens, another win win.
The good will generated between community members through such interactions where people work together to achieve shared goals while decentralizing access to food is also more valuable than any amount of money. Down the line if things get tough we can rely on each other and our community will be more resilient (even if the government becomes totalitarian in an obvious aggressive way or centralized food infrastructure is crippled/interrupted.
I love what you are doing at your church! What a beautiful vision you have for the future. This aligns with the 7th generation principle of the First Nations people that call the region where I live in the Great Lakes area their ancestral home.
What you describe also aligns with another concept I have been developing for local community food forest projects I am working on and for my next book which involves designing “Bio-Cultural Refugium” (for more info: https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/full-r-future-2025-presentation-with ).
Tending and harvesting the trees and herbs you plant can become part of traditions for shared meal events and perhaps included in prayers of gratitude and that would become a cultural component that you are nurturing along side the biological component (or a “biocultural refugium”). 🙂
If you have more space to plant trees or shrubs I would be willing to gift you some seeds from my collection later this spring if you wanna give them a place to set down roots for future generations.
@candm
Your Church Food Forest also made me think of this interesting phenomenon of “The Church Forests of Ethiopia”
https://emergencemagazine.org/feature/the-church-forests-of-ethiopia/
In the case of the forests in Ethiopia surrounding their churches, they are different than your church forest (in that those Ethiopian church forests are actually fragments of the original old growth forest that covered much of the land prior to industrialization, and the people of those churches over the centuries have protected those islands of old growth biodiversity and created a sort of symbiotic relationship with their community/spiritual practices) where as you seem to be describing that you could create a food and medicine focused ecosystem from scratch and grow it to become old growth for future generations.
I think both endeavors are noble and beautiful. 🙂
@candm
Here is a video showing some footage of these Church Forests of Ethiopia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fGe-CPWZlE
Here is another fun fact about chickens and how they embody and exemplify the inherent abundance and genius in nature.
Chickens actually engage in what one might describe as “alchemy” when they produce eggs.
The modern sciencey term for that process is called “biotransmutation”.
Regardless of immense resistance to this idea, the medieval precursor to modern chemistry, alchemy, with its long-sought-after transformation of baser elements like lead into gold, represented more than merely dabbling in metaphor and indulging in magical thinking. In retrospect, we, in the postnuclear age, are intimately familiar with powerful exceptions to the strict laws of conservation of energy and mass through technologies like particle accelerators and the phenomenon of radioactive decay–two instances where elements can and do change into one another. Physicists even managed to synthesize gold from mercury in a nuclear reactor back in 1941, albeit in infinitesimal quantities and as a radioactive isotope.
Conventional thinking would have us believe that these exceptions only occur when exceptionally high pressures and temperatures are involved and not in the relatively cold, wet “reactors” of living things such as mammalian cells.
It was the celebrated French chemist Nicolas-Louis Vauquelin (1763-1829) who first discovered the phenomenon of biotransformation when he observed that chickens produce far more calcium in their eggshells than they ingested, leading him to write: “Having calculated all the lime in oats fed to a hen, found still more in the shells of its eggs. Therefore, there is a creation of matter. In that way, no one knows.” This finding violated the dictum of Vauquelin’s contemporary, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794), the “father of modern chemistry,” who posited that while the combination of elements could be changed, elements themselves were unchanging, and therefore nothing was created. Henceforward, Vauquelin’s findings would be mostly ignored. Despite that, other scientists would follow who confirmed Vauqelin’s discovery:
William Prout (1785-1850): Studied incubating chickens and found that hatched chicks had more lime (calcium) in their bodies than originally present in the egg, which was not contributed from the shell.
Plants do it too!
Yes we have a lot to learn from our winged and rooted kin in the realm of alchemy 🙂
For more info : https://greenmedinfo.com/blog/how-body-harvests-nature-s-alternative-energy-sources-power-cellular-pathways
As far as I can see turning mercury not gold does NOT violate the conservation of energy or mass since the process is basically throwing particles at the mercury atoms until enough smash into the nucleus and change the atomic Number.
That was very interesting about chickens and calcium, but I would argue that they are not transmuteing elements as much a extracting them via unknown chemical methods- while we think of calcium as calcium carbonate and such because that’s what we see , it’s something like the 5th most common element on earth and is actually highly reactive and thus bound up in other compounds…. It is much more likely that the are chemically extracting calcium from sources that were not taken into account by the experimenter….. rather like the measurement of calories in food is a pretty rubbish measure since how many calories are available from that food depend on hormones and bodily processes
Also alchemy has a great deal more to do with the occult idea of transforming the human soul then metals. It is related to Transhumanism and I would suspect that there is a lineage from those chaps to Elon Musk in transmission if those ideas
@Duck
cool man, you are really into this stuff.
Well you`ll have to bring your arguments and amendments to Sayer Ji (the author of the article I linked).
Either way, I am happy that chickens can do a lot with a little! 🙂
Core- Bet!
I was going to prepare for the good walk spoiled season now that the snow has melted. I thought a walk in the forest would nice but the damn trees keep getting in the way. Eggs come from chickens ? Probably located in a forest.
Chickens are fun to be around. I inherited a variety of birds from one friend who moved and one who died. There are huge birds and small birds along with two of the nicest roosters I have ever met. Then I inherited two geese. I never knew geese could be so friendly. What characters! I am an old man and the birds keep me active. I have to pitchfork out the chicken coop today which gives me great exercise and great compost. And it feels good to have a pitchfork around.
Geese can be mean as hell, but they love the company of their human pets. Somewhat the same goes for roosters, but where the geese can shove with body weight, the rooster has to pick up the slack with extra aggression. Strange that your roosters are not meam, could it be they identify as hens? It’s a brave new world, after all.
I have the same impression about how mean and dangerous most geese and roosters can be. But these geese were raised nicely and accept food from my hand. One lets me pet her when she is gobbling down oatmeal and rice. Both geese will chase away the chickens, roosters and even most dogs when in close proximity. I have heard that males in spring can be hazard, but I have a mother and daughter.
I helped the friend from whom I got the roosters down size her rooster hatchlings. The mean ones taste the best. I ended up getting a very old big rooster who struts and chases off the young rooster, but from the look of the hens’ back feathers, he is slowing down compared to last year. I have been face to face with this big handsome old bird in the chicken coop with no hostility and he even allows a pet or two before strutting off. The other rooster is a much smaller bare neck. His father was an interloper on the flock who stayed away from resident rooster but was a favorite of the hens because of his smaller size. The son I have is bigger, but still small for a rooster. This young fellow is named Punch, but is looking for the name Randy because of his activity with the hens. He is fast enough to avoid the big old rooster and has no trouble catching any of the hens. There is plenty of squawking every day punctuating his successes. I feel confident that if I stay with the smallest of his male offspring, I will continue to have nice roosters and big enough eggs.
I personally have raised dozens of different breeds of laying hens over the past 2 decades or so and honestly I’ve never seen any significant difference between them other than egg color (this of course is ignoring the difference between meat birds and egg layers).
My revolutionary moment came when studying Joel Salatin and boils down to these 2 points (which seem to often get ignored when talking about this topic)
1. Rotation
2. Deep bedding
Rotation is simply about moving the animals to a new spot or paddock. This is crucial for making sure the manure load doesn’t overload the plants they’re living above and also the chickens always have access to fresh bugs/worms/crickets ext. This prevents the chickens run from becoming a ‘moonscape’ devoid of plants as commonly observed in overgrazed chicken runs (or even ‘free range’ areas) seen in many backyard flocks and homesteads. You can accomplish moving them by having a portable chicken coop either on wheels or on a sled that can be pulled by hand, tractor or atv. Personally my experience when switching to a chicken coop on wheels was profound and I would never go back to ‘free range’ or confined runs with stationary coops.
The next major breakthrew in my animal husbandry experience came when I learned about deep bedding. This is in some ways a corollary to rotation. It is simply the practice of continually mixing high carbon materials (woodchips, straw ext) with the high nitrogen manure left from the chickens creating a deep (1 foot to as much as 3 to 4 feet even) bed of litter. Its kind of similar to composting but it also has some distinct differences. The carbon to nitrogen ratio should be similar however compost is meant to be aerobic while deep bedding is very much an-aerobic due to the fact that the animals are living on top of it thereby compressing it and pushing out the air. The deep bedding locks in nitrogen preventing leaching and also removes any foul smell that would be a result of the manure build up. This gives the animals a clean, dry and healthy floor to live on. After the bedding has reached its max level, you simply empty it outside and it will become aerobic and breakdown into humus just like normal compost..
But, like rotation, you need a coop that is designed for this as it will need tall enough area with rigid sides to contain the bedding materials.
These 2 concepts are not mutually exclusive as you can do deep bedding in the winter and rotation in the spring/summer/fall. You could also do deep bedding year round inside the coop while still having an outdoor area.
Once you understand these concepts and how to put them into practice your view of livestock management will be changed forever (at least for me it was) and what particular breed you have will be of much less concern as any breed will thrive when provided with a healthy environment. Just my 2 cents.
I am surprised you did not see personality differences between the breeds TBH.
We hand raised Buff Orpingtons when we got started and they were very friendly and could be petted…. We hand raised our first lot of bantams and while you could catch and pet them they were NOT friendly at all. We had a few different types and out of all of them Buff Orpies were the nicest…. Someone gave us a feral bantam they found (it had a weird disk ridge on its neck that has passed down) and those genes made the subsequent generations super sneaky and convinced humans are not their friends.
We love Orpies but the mini chickens bully them horribly and they also die young even if they churned eggs out like a champ. I still recall the last orpie dying (I was glad not to have to do it – she was sick) and there was a 21 chicken salute the moment she went…other chickens did not get the same amount of fuss from the flock.
I finally gave in to my wifes desire for chickens early in the pandemic. There are many things that are awesome about chickens but free hasn’t been one of them. To be fair, we try our best to give them their best lives, organic non GMO feed, sturdy secure cleanable coop(polished concrete floor a must in our environment for rodents and predators), large run in an orchard. In just the five years we have been involved our food costs have doubled. We have Barred Rocks which are a dual purpose laying as many as 200 eggs a year and weighing 5-12lbs. They are pretty cold tolerant and good foragers which is good for us as we live in the mountains. Birds of Prey have been our biggest predator threat, but many neighbours suffer worst from weasels, cats and bears. The work they do in the garden composting and digging out rocks is remarkable but hard to control. With their bedding and digging they make for a lot of good dirt. animals will do as they will and need to be managed according to the environment you are trying to create. The wholesomeness of food from your backyard is hard to beat and our gardens and lives are richer for it.
First time commenting so thanks for all you do in creating this environment James and all
Chickens are awesome! Entertaining, relatively easy to keep and, as David Mitchell said, “eggs come out of their arses!” One of their best qualities is their ability to consume almost all of your kitchen scraps and turn them into poops (fertilizer) and eggs (food). Our coop has a chicken compost as well, so the food and poops mix with the straw and somehow magically produce insects, which the chickens eat as well, then you harvest the compost for your garden. I just posted a substack article about designing and building your own coop, which you can read here: https://roughhousing.substack.com/p/its-chicken-time
I recently got covid-restricted by Barnes & Noble for trying to buy Reportage
Check out the screenshot of the error message during the order confirmation:
https://bautze.net/vocalgym/images/5f19f7777b6847cf88830751f05af419.png
Anyway: We do have like 15 chicken, 4 turkey, 5 ducks, 15 quails, 9 cats, 3 dogs and like 3 sheep at home. I do second the thoughts on eggs.
Yes, I understand Germany has gone completely insane as far as restrictions are concerned. I feel for you but glad you at least are able to raise your own food.
Hello James,
My family has kept backyard chickens for the past seven years. Our flock size has averaged around 15 hens, and we focus on producing eggs for our family and a few other families in our circle of friends (we call it our “Framily”).
I recommend backyard chickens for anyone, as it takes very little space and when set up correctly, very little daily work.
The two most important things I’ve learned, and one learns much from this endeavor, are related. The first is not to spend too much money on too many aspects of your infrastructure at once. When I started, I bought fancy waterers, feeders, heat lamps for in the coop, and many other gadgets that ended up being useless. My flock tended to prefer the simpler, time-tested designs for water buckets and feeders. Try one device at a time, and see if your birds like it, and will use it. The second important thing to know is that your birds can be wet and they can be cold, but they can’t be wet and cold. If they have a weather-tight coop to go to and stay dry, they can survive surprisingly low winter temperatures. I thought they would need heat lamps and all sorts of support, but as long as they stayed dry, they lasted through some bitterly cold Oklahoma winters without supplemental heat.
I suppose there is a third important thing to remember, and that is that chickens are prey animals. You will lose birds to predators, in spite of your efforts to protect them.
I hope every Corbetteer that owns property with a little bit of grass is inspired to start their own flock. Along with a backyard garden, raising your own chickens is one of the most productive and liberating things the average person can do in their home.
Keep up the great work, James. We all appreciate it!
Sincerely,
Tim
I’ve been raising layer hens for several years now. I bought a new house 2 years ago in a small rural town in Texas and am in the process of becoming as self reliant as possible by planting a food forest (pecan trees, fruit trees, shrubs that provide food or medicine- blueberry, elderberry, herbs, and ground covers). In addition to the food forest I have 9 layers hens (2 cream leghorns, 3 red sex-linked, 3 Rhode Island Reds and 1 Black Copper Maran. We got the BCM to scare off hawks who think because she’s black she’s a crow which supposedly frightens them (so far no more losses to hawks). We plan to add TAMUK rabbits soon for a good meat source. They’re the most heat tolerant rabbit which is super important in Texas. We’re a little apprehensive that we might not have what it takes to “process” a sweet bunny but we do like meat and I feel strongly that if I’m a meat eater I should be able to do the deed. We buy half a cow each year but that’s pricey. I give tours of my food forest on my little 1/5 acre lot to inspire others that they too can become self reliant even on a small residential lot. We’re a couple seniors so if we can do it anyone can. As another commenter said, it’s not cheap to raise chickens for eggs but we feel good food is worth a lot and is certainly less expensive than getting sick. We feed them a mixture of organic grains that we get from AzureStandard.com. We built our own coop, do the Joel Salatin deep litter thing, have an automatic door (absolutely crucial IMO- forgetting to close the door just one time and you can lose them all to one raccoon), let them roam all over our yard and a few neighbors as well so we give them eggs to say sorry. It’s impossible to train chickens not to roam and get into all our flower beds but I’m pretty liberal with chicken wire fencing and I’m happy that they foraging for bugs. We actually grow even more bugs for them with our Black Soldier Fly Bin. Look up how to make or buy one. Black Soldier Fly larvae are like crack cocaine to chickens and we have the best eggs I’ve ever tasted plus the girls are phenomenal layers. We generally get one per day per hen. I still spend lots of time online trying to figure out how the world got to this point and how we can survive all this insanity but also focusing on my plantings and my chickens eases my mind a lot. And knowing I won’t be completely reliant on others if the SHTF is also comforting. I just wish everyone was working on becoming self reliant which is why I give my tours. Thank you, James, for all you do to inspire and coach others so that we can all survive these next years as successfully as possible.
More people need to plant a food forest on their property like you! Often, I’ll look at all the crepe myrtles planted in my area and try to imagine if people chose fruit trees instead. The world would be a different place!
Making a Black Soldier Fly Bin is next on my checklist for our chickens. Which basic model did you find works best for you?
I went in on an order with about 10 other homesteaders so we got a volume discount on a very expensive but very well designed BSF bin called the Prota-Pod from tarrivertradingpost.us. They’re out of N. Carolina so hopefully you’re close by so shipping won’t be so much. I paid $289 in Texas that included shipping because there were so many of us. Otherwise it’s $350. plus shipping. If that’s cost prohibitive there are many videos online for DIY. I get massive amounts and even freeze the extra during the highest output to pass out in the winter when the bin gets emptied out till spring. That’s a disgusting job but nobody said homesteading is easy. You can always buy freeze dried BSF larvae but they are a distant second according to my girls. Best of luck with whatever direction you take!
I forgot to mention that I get the food waste from a local restaurant to feed our BSF bin. It would be hard to feed it enough every day unless you have a huge family with lots to throw away. They like protein the most. You could get by on your own if you also raise a lot of meat rabbits or chickens with yours waste from processing.
Core-`Bett,
Eggcellent eggsagerated eggsample of eggstream cogeggnition dissonance.
Also, Brock , your eggsuberant artistic eggspreshion so eggsageratedly eggsplicite visually, really brought it all together. I had to go wash the egg off the table from laughing so hard while eating pouched eggs for breakfast. What talent. Eggceptional eggsample of teamwork.., egging each other to perfection.
The first chicken culling just affected egg availability and pricing.
This round has extended to the hatcheries that supply chicks to many local outlets like Tractor Supply.
If you can’t find chicks, chances are you’ll find someone locally running a small incubator operation via Craigslist or such. My teen daughter not only handles all our chickens chores and eggs, but she has a side gig selling chicks hatched from her incubator and loves it.
Tip: Chickens don’t lay the entire year – they take a break sometime in the winter. You can preserve some eggs from the surplus period in limed water, “water glassing eggs,” and have some on hand for recipes during the hens’ downtime.
One guest you would enjoy interviewing is Joel Salatin. His book, “Folks, This Ain’t Normal,” is required reading for my homeschool kids. His philosophy in farming and food security speaks to a broad audience.
I work with lots of different breeds of chickens and the only differences I’ve noticed is the size and colour of the eggs and birds. Chickens are pretty chill (you can get the occasional aggressive rooster that will scratch you with its claws – wear wellies or boots and tough trousers) but they will get under your feet and freeze and poop while standing in your way rather than moving. Chicken poo is like glue and is extremely difficult to completely get out of your clothes – if you have more than 2-3 coop trays or walkways to wash you’ll want to use a jet wash – chicken poo is very sticky and tough to remove.
From what I’ve seen every breed of chicken will peck at the ground even if they have plenty of food – they will peck until there is nothing but mud and then peck at that too. If you live in an area where you don’t get a lot of dry days and don’t get to much sun you’ll definitely want to look at ways of protecting the land – if you don’t the land can get boggy very quickly – don’t worry though if you can’t do anything cos the chickens will be fine. Most chickens stop laying an egg everyday after 26 weeks (age) and don’t lay many eggs through winter – there are methods for getting the chickens to lay more eggs through winter that does not involve lights or messing with the chickens natural egg laying cycle – like chicken factories do by keeping them under lights constantly.
Chickens will eat chicken eggs and can become addicted to them – I’ve had to isolate chickens because they developed egg addictions and would go around and eat any egg they could find. Chickens love to escape – Chicken Run the film is a pretty accurate depiction of what you can expect. Don’t try to be Rocky and catch them in your hands unless you want a serious work out and to be embarrassed by a chicken – instead herd them like sheep.
Chickens don’t need much water or food and will fend for themselves if they need to. If you have lots of different breeds you might need to keep the smaller ones separate from the bigger ones cos the smaller ones will likely get bullied.
DO NOT WASH THE EGGS – until you are ready to use them. If you don’t wash the eggs and keep them in a cool dry place they can last for up to 2 years.
Chickens are simple to look after but it can be difficult – physically more than anything – you’ll have your own unique problems that will come up that you’ll have to solve with some mental creativity but that’s just life. And of course there are no days off – so you need to be comfortable working outside no matter the weather or how you feel.
You will likely be able to get chickens for free – charities save chickens that would be slaughtered – they are usually 26weeks + and look scraggy cos they were factory farm chickens – nothing that a bit of TLC doesn’t solve
With all that said Chickens are great animals and pretty fun to look after. And of course you will not get a better tasting eggs than one your chickens have laid that day
All well and good, but if you are on the legislative side of things, you know many countries don’t allow raising of chickens. And if you live in an HOA, which is an ever growing number of communities, forget raising chickens.
If you live in an HOA whose fault is that?
If your county is against chickens the number of people who actually vote in those elections is probably small and you could have a good chance of swinging things your way with a little effort. Same with HOAs, most residents don’t bother with politics and get ruled by their inferiors.
It’s all down to what peoples priorities are- if they just HAVE to live close to theaters and all the other cool things then clearly comfort and convenience are their priorities. That’s their choice and they made the decision that these things matter more then being alive and free.
Kurt Saxon wrote a piece a loooong time ago, think it was called “the survival mentality “ or something like that, in which he laid out the mindsets of twi guys who buys a house then finds its in an earthquake zone….One guy just tries not to think about the down side because he’s sunk all that sunk cost fallacy into the place while the other cuts his losses and moves before he looses everything.
I don’t feel sorry for people who have sunk cost fallacy telling them they need to stay in a HOA in an area where they can earn lots of money (but which has massively higher cost of living) because they have made their choice.m about what matters to them
I knew that if I got a response from you, that is precisely what you would say.
People often don’t have the same choices I do, thus I consider myself lucky and don’t judge other’s because I am not in their shoes.
Outside HOA, most urban and suburban authorities do not permit chickens, and even when they do, they do not permit roosters and limit number of chickens (usually 4).
You are predictably oblivious, you seem to have that Christina illness of blaming the victim, not the system.
You think a lot of your opinion, it seems your self-delusion is not simply limited to the threat we face.
Good luck, if you think you are safer away from populated areas, you have another thing coming. You will see.
“….Good luck, if you think you are safer away from populated areas, you have another thing coming. You will see….”
The cope is strong in you.
lol, if you think that living in a city is as safe as a small town when the balloon goes up your a fool.
“….of blaming the victim, not the system….”
That is an incredibly feminine way of thinking. Learned helplessness is a horrible drug.
Sure SOMETIMES your fked either way, SOMETIMES but not all the time.
YOU choose where you live, if hipster amusements are more important to you then chickens that’s fine… you made your choice don’t expect me to cry for you if it doesn’t work out.
For someone who claims to decide right and wrong for themselves you are awfully lacking in the Will to Power. You sound more like what the Unabomber called an over socialized person then anyone who is ever going to be free.
Does anyone MAKE uou live where you can’t have chickens?
Does anyone STOP you from agitation to change the rules?
You think like a peasant, not a free man.
I live in an HOA and it’s not that bad. There are some benefits to it like maintaining the roads. I live in an area with dirt roads and road maintenance is part of what I pay for. Plus there are some rules about the type of home that can be built. There are some other rules, but not so many that people can’t do most of what they want on their own parcel.
In fact, there is not much ability to enforce violations, which in one recent case was not the best IMO although I don’t live next to the person so it doesn’t affect me substantially. Someone had violated the rules about disturbing too much dirt and their pad looks ugly, almost like you’d do for an industrial lot or something rather than for a residential area. But their neighbor didn’t care and no one really did anything since most people mind their own business around here.
Raising live stock is permitted and there are other residents who have chickens, cows, horses, etc.
My point is that I think it depends on the HOA and there can be some benefits to it. It is a voluntary community and I chose to live here so can’t complain. And another way to affect the rules is to join the board or go to the meetings to have more control. My HOA is not like some tyrannical government but the rules seem to make some sense.
I don’t want my area becoming a trailer park full of meth addicts. There is some of that in the county I live in, so if the HOA keeps some of that out, it doesn’t bother me.
“….And another way to affect the rules is to join the board or go to the meetings to have more control….”
100%
I read that the word “idiot” is from Greek for a guy who pays no attention to politics.
Glad it appears to be working out for you there.
Another great episode, James!
… and lot’s of great comments, suggestions
Having raised chickens and ducks since the early 90’s, with my wife being the primary breed-chooser, I was very interested in the choosing considerations Jack Spirko offered in the video clip. So many variables to consider!
… surely there’s a fowl-cu-lator app for that 🙂
Since 2006 we’ve lived on close to eight acres ‘out in the sticks’ in S.E. Central Ohio, where we’ve had the luxury of letting our fowl free range – methinks, in their ‘natural’ habitat, they get their best nutritional value from mucking about eating bugs, worms, various ‘flora’, etc. + most commercial fowl-feed contains too many chemical fortifiers and grains grown with who-knows-what/how methods and seed stock for my, or their, taste
Nevertheless, our flock here, averaging 30+ chickens & a dozen ducks, have been culled by four-footed and winged critters… down to my last duck who ‘departed’ just this past year. Well, and we had similar culling at our former 10-year home, when the chickens were ‘contained’ in both the coop and fenced outside chicken run.
The main addition to this thread is to offer one of the best forums I’ve come across for fowl, and all things permaculture, homesteading, +++ – the forums at permies.com – the myriad members are very active and more than willing to share their knowledge and experiences. Check ‘em out at the link below (the link is to the “List of All Forums” – look in the “critters” main category
– I recollect seeing some threads discussing more natural alternatives to commercial feed
https://permies.com/forums/forums/allForums
Cheers, y’all
I got 3 Rhode Island Reds last November and they’re now each laying an egg every day! I’m based in Ireland, so no major cold weather to contend with- Just a lot of rain. XD
I made a 2m x 2m x 1m chicken cage using aluminum tubes and 30m of close-knit steel mesh.
The joints are made of 3D printed plastic parts-
The mesh wraps the structure entirely so that no rodents or foxes can penetrate through top bottom or sides.
I bought a kit for the hutch- My kids and I put that together and put it inside the cage.
Things you need:
Plenty of sawdust or straw to put inside the hutch- which you need to clean out daily.
Good quality grain.
A feeder to dispense the grain.
Ideally a sheltered area to keep the feeder in, so the grain doesn’t get washed out.
A water dispenser. (I was advised to put a few cloves of garlic in the water along with cider vinegar to help protect them against worms.)
I only let the chickens out of the cage when I can keep an eye on them as they have a tendency to wander and get lost. They do come back but it’s risky and frustrating when they go missing.
I’m going to make a bigger run area with a light fence so they can wander around during the day-
I’ll then transfer them into the cage in the evening to protect them from foxes etc.
Once set up they’re very easy to keep. They don’t make much noise and kids love them. They’re kind of like pets. I’m happy to share more info.
If you absolutely cannot do backyard chickens due to neighborhood regulations or lack of space, I would look into http://www.farmmatch.com. Once you put in your zip code it will let you know of farmers near you selling everything from eggs to raw milk to pasture raised beef and chickens. We have been drinking raw milk for the past 6 months. We do have chickens and we just roll our eyes when we walk past the egg display in the store! Thinking of investing in an incubator now so when these chickens stop producing we don’t have to buy vaxxed chicks from the “Man”.
http://www.farmmatch.com
On “putting your toe in that water”, I got an allotment a few years ago. I wasn’t sure how well I’d like it but I thought, if it wasn’t for me, I could always give it back to the council. Now, I can’t keep out of it, all seasons. The work alone is the best therapy I’ve ever had. I can be as creative as I like at the same time as getting my free vitamin D. I know it’s easier for me than most as I’m semi retired but, previously I sprouted seeds and grew micro greens in the wardrobe (to my wife’s chagrin). For younger people, with sh*tloads of commitments, it’s hard to find the time. But I say gird yer toes and if supermarkets start demanding facial recognition before entry you might just walk on by. And if you can divert the kids’ attention from their screens for a moment show them how to grow strawberries on a window sill. https://www.colourfence.co.uk/blog/how-to-grow-strawberries-indoors/2018/09/ At least it’ll teach them patience.
In my household we have discussed the pros and cons of having our own hens for some years but haven’t (yet) done it. The cons would include: initial set up costs and work required to provide a coop and run; difficulties in protecting the birds from predators (fox and pine martins here); the need to buy in food (especially in the winter) if it’s too risky to allow the birds to roam; the difficulty I would have in dealing with birds that die or need to be culled. All this just to get a few eggs that have been cheap and easy to purchase? Although cost isn’t the only consideration, with the current and predicted price rises of eggs it may be that the equation is now altering sufficiently to make it worth doing. Having said that I would probably rather buy organic eggs from a neighbour and let others do all the work while we concentrate on growing our own veg. This may all sound defeatist but having responsibility for the wellbeing of birds goes far beyond tending potatoes and onions! I’m just not sure that I am a bird man.
Our family have had chickens for about 4 years now giving us delicious darker yoke eggs. We let them free-range during the warmer months which saves a lot on food costs which also tends to produce a darker yoke. Egg production slows down a bit during the colder months but we started putting a small electric oil heater in their coop which helped take the edge off those bitter cold days and prevent their eggs from cracking when they freeze. I collect their poop in plastic barrels cut in half and when it’s full I’ll drag it to the compost and dump it there.
We sell eggs to our friends when we get a surplus. We don’t really make money off the egg sales. I haven’t done a cost analysis yet, but factoring in feed cost, coop maintenance and accessories, electricity, I’d suspect the overall cost of our eggs would be similar to store bought. But it’s a good learning experience for the kids and these “pets” are fun to have around. I find that once you’ve been eating “organic” free range eggs, you can tell the difference when you eat a store bought/restaurant egg.
We have 8 chickens and I would not live without them. we always have so much vegetable peel or other waste, it’s realy handy. and the EGGS !!! i truly love my chickens
By the way Professor James : YOUR book REORTAGE just came +i cannot stop reading it ,such a powerfull information packed in your wonderful way to explain things ,thank you a million times for this book,all the very best to you +your family ,paulo wallner
Dear James,
Thank you for your simple solution. We can definitely relate to it!
We are two sisters, 11 and 13, raising five adorable chickens. We live in San Francisco and have a small, sandy backyard three blocks away from the ocean—never too cold, never too hot.
In 2020, we tried growing vegetables but quickly realized how hard it was in the foggy and salty San Francisco air! Chickens were a much better fit!
We researched the best chicken breeds for our family’s needs: not too loud for our neighbors, good layers, and friendly. We ended up getting Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rocks, and Americanas. We chose chicks one day old. We learnt to take care of them as they grew. They still make quite a bit of noise when they lay! We are lucky to have kind neighbors.
Even in San Francisco, they have predators: raccoons, hawks and cats. We built a protective coop with the help of our dad.
They bring us delicious eggs daily and teach us great responsibility. My sister and I take care of them together. Every day, we do our chores: cleaning the coop, scooping the poop, feeding them, and giving them scraps. We regularly visit a local store to collect leftover fruits and vegetables for them. We learnt a lot along the way: how to grow mill worms, ferment grains, prepare water with garlic and vinegar to keep them healthy…
Negative aspects:
• Harder to travel – who would want to open the coop at 7 AM for us?
• Poop everywhere!
• Costly – building a coop, feeding them in the city.
Our main message: If we can do it, you can too! Our chickens ended up being incredibly cuddly and friendly pets, more than we could have ever imagined. We really love them. Eggs are a great reward!
P.S. We also have a beehive, and bees and chickens live well together.
PPS. We make greeting cards where our chickens share their thoughts: “Look Forward, You’re Not Going Back”.
Best wishes,
S & Z
God bless.
Chickens are definitely the gateway livestock I will agree with your guests and commenters!
I think you’ve said it quite right James, it’s simple, but it’s not easy. We have about 30 chickens now and sell eggs to our neighbor, for very cheap. We don’t fluctuate with the crazy market, because it’s our neighbors, our friends.
We could sell more eggs if necessary, or if there was more of a market around here, but we have no problem using them up with 3 dogs and pigs. We have goats and sheep now too. I never expected to have any livestock, we started with chickens and ducks.
It has become easier though with chickens, as we learned what works for us. There is a learning curve and I think folks tend to give up too early. Learn to live with having to deal with snakes, for example, of course it’s not fun (for most of us), challenge yourself, and deal with it.
I grew up in the suburbs, my mom found plants too dirty and was a germaphobe and still declares she honestly loved working in an office her entire adult life. Hubby and I have daily (serious) convos about where the next load of shit should be spread in our many gardens. 😆. I love it! I prefer it over every other job I’ve ever had, and I’ve had plenty. We got into this at 40, we are now mid-50s, and I don’t praise Jesus, I praise my own damn good choices and willingness to sacrifice and do the right thing and marry a crazy man and leave education after 20+ years and even give up my greatest passion—travel—for high principled reasons I still stand by now, as much as I miss those days and am still disgusted with the state of travel and particularly, aviation. Anyway, tangent!
Thanks, James, you know you are still the only one we both like equally, Hubby and I, as far as honest to goodness ‘newsmen’ out there, what’s the right title, I don’t know. Give yourself some sort of one-name postition title please, just invent something, from all the things that you do! 😊 It would make things simpler, though not easy!
Oh, and BTW, buyer beware! Some of those claiming to be ‘local’ are not. Go there, meet your producer, shake his hand, look him in the eye!