Did you know that the top five causes of mortality in chickens can be mostly prevented by management? That's good news for those of us with chickens. At the Livestock Conservancy conference in November, Julie Gauthier of Chickcharney Farm in North Carolina led a workshop about managing poultry health. She shared many helpful ideas for ensuring the long term health of your … [Read more...]
Tips for Protecting Your Livestock from Predators
One of the biggest challenges for anyone raising livestock is preventing predator attacks. This is true whether you have 300 head of sheep in Wyoming or 3 hens in Chicago. Predators are not simply big scary animals like lions and tigers and bears. They can also be your neighbor's dog or cat. All carnivores have an instinct to kill animals. I'll never forget how surprised I … [Read more...]
7 Benefits of Gardening with Chickens
I've been intrigued by the idea of gardening with chickens for a while so was excited to attend a presentation about this at The Livestock Conservancy conference by Jim Edrington. Though Jim has worked at The Seed Savers Exchange for many years, he focused on sharing his experiences incorporating chickens in his gardens at home. As you might guess, there are some … [Read more...]
Raising Peafowl
For more than a dozen years every animal on the farm had a practical purpose for being here. For example, goats give milk and barn cats kill rodents. Many animals are multi-purpose. Heritage chickens give us meat and eggs. Shetland sheep gave us wool and meat. So, many people are surprised that we have peafowl. People often ask with a smile, "Why do you have peacocks?" (because … [Read more...]
Hatching & Brooding Your Own Chicks
To continue “Chicken Week” on the blog, I wanted to write about Hatching & Brooding Your Own Chicks by Gail Damerow. I read this book last spring as part of a Pastured Poultry course I took through the UMass Amherst Stockbridge School of Agriculture. For the class, we also read Harvey Ussery's The Small-Scale Poultry Flock and Joel Salatin’s Pastured Poultry Profit$, both … [Read more...]
Poultry processing options
Raising chickens, turkey, and other poultry to sell as meat is a little more complicated that just finding out what you can legally do in terms of slaughter. Liability is also an important consideration. Meat sold across state lines falls within the jurisdiction of the USDA, so should be processed in a USDA-inspected facility. If you are selling meat within … [Read more...]
Book review: Pastured Poultry Profit$
“I think few things would be as gratifying as seeing neighborhoods all over the country run a chicken pen in their yard to mow it, fertilize it, and produce their own chickens. How exciting.” – Joel Salatin Pastured Poultry Profit$ provides the perfect companion to Harvey Ussery's The Small-Scale Poultry Flock, which I reviewed last week here. I purchased both books for a … [Read more...]
Book review: The Small-Scale Poultry Flock
Whether you are just getting started with chickens or have had them for awhile, Harvey Ussery's The Small-Scale Poultry Flock provides an informative and entertaining read. I originally purchased the book when taking a Pastured Poultry class through UMass Amherst Stockbridge School of Agriculture, and I know it will be invaluable to me as I start raising my own chickens. The … [Read more...]
5 tips for turkeys in cold weather
by Victoria Redhed Miller We live in the foothills of the Olympic Mountains in northwest Washington state. At our elevation of about 1000 feet, we typically get a fair amount of snow between November and February. An average winter would include a lot of nights with temperatures in the 20s, some nights in the teens and often a week or so in single digits in … [Read more...]