Canning

Brian and Laura come back from vacation, take some feedback, talk about new critters, try to buy a truck, itch like the dickens, keep deer out of the garden, and do some irrigation.. redneck style.

Links:
Pearson’s Farm (formerly Big 6 Farm)
Richard Scarry
Rain Chains (Our Rain Chain)

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Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
Call the Pollin Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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Phoenix Rooster

We take some great feedback. Jams, jellies, marmalades, and preserves, oh my! Farmstead updates. Chicken Incest! And we talk some about some of the fundamental answers to the question ‘why?’

Links
Henderson’s Handy Dandy Chicken Chart
Young Harris Beekeeping Institute
Fresh South Market
Nature’s Harmony Farmcast

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Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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Chaugg's Swanky Chicken Tractor

Join us for spring updates, great feedback, possum adventures, raised beds, window boxes, and other small scale farming techniques.

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Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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Garden Harvest

Laura and I take some feedback, pontificate spring preps, talk about gardening, beekeeping, and other springtime activities. Laura would like to apologize for mistakenly referring to the Brandywine Tomato as a “Rutgers”.

Links from the show:

Roy’s Alaskan Homestead Blog
Ison’s Nursery
Murray McMurray Hatchery

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Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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Red Maple Flowers

I somehow talk Laura into doing another show where we throw out some updates on the dog, seed starting, and the bees. We take some great feedback, including an actual voicemail! We finally wrap the show up by reading some of the better ads out of the market bulletin.

Ison’s Nursery
Georgia Framers and Consumers Market Bulletin

Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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In Columbia, realtors are claiming that allowing people to keep chickens is going to lower their property values. Wha?? Seriously??

You know, there are plenty of other places where ordinances allowing backyard poultry have been introduced, and I’ve yet to hear anything about declining property values. Nada. Zip. (And I actually keep up on that sort of stuff)

You can’t tell me feeding a stupid chicken is going to cost less than buying a dozen eggs at the store…they’re a dollar at Wal-mart,” said Van Gorp. “If you don’t like your neighbor in the first place, now they’re keeping chickens, it might the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

Obviously, these people just don’t get it. People don’t keep chickens because they’re trying to save money. They do it to know where their food comes from or they do it because they want to live a more sustainable life, among many other reasons.

“It’s going to make it more difficult for buyers to find the house they want, and sellers to sell their homes,” said Radman.

Last I checked, this is one of the most flooded real estate markets in recent history. People are having no problems whatsoever finding houses.

Show me the proof.

Full Article Here

We live in an era when even chickens can become government employees.

From: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126326011266225669.html

Excerpt:
PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH COUNTRY — Nestled in and around this scenic agricultural belt are secret facilities that don’t take kindly to visitors.

“Keep Out” reads a sign near the gated entrance at one site. Some of the stark, windowless warehouses require electronic pin codes and hazmat-style jumpsuits to enter. A sign on a metal gate ominously warns that it is a “Disease Control Area.” Trespassers could bring a swift response from police geared up to fight bio-terrorism.

These aren’t government labs, military facilities or weapons plants.

They are egg farms.

At clandestine farms across Pennsylvania, thousands of roosters and hens have been toiling away for months in confidential conditions normally reserved for important government ops. Their mission: Fertilize enough eggs to keep supplies of swine-flu vaccine flowing.

This is just a really cool idea.

From Mlive.com

JAMESTOWN TOWNSHIP — Did you buy chickens to go with that Christmas ham? If not, John De Vries will lease you some laying hens.
The Jamestown Township man who used to own a deli on Grand Rapids’ West Side has launched a new venture seeking to capitalize on a trend toward backyard chicken farming.
His rentahen.net provides a coop on wheels, three egg-laying hens and accessories for a $99 setup fee and a reduced $35 monthly rent.

Full Article Here

I hope it works out for the guy. I think his premise is absolutely correct that if you can remove some of the barriers to entry that more people will be keeping backyard poultry.

Link to Article from the Chicago Tribune

This is the actual statement (PDF Format)

Arrgh. These guys kill me. I guess they would rather have these chickens in boxes so small they can’t stand up or packed into chicken houses ear to ear. Backyard poultry is better all the way around. The chickens live a better and healthier life and you completely localize a food source.

The best argument is that killing chickens traumatizes onlooking children. I suppose that having a kid know where his food comes from is now a form of trauma.

How did we get to this point??

Hats off to Kathy Rubalcaba in Vermont. She’ll be on Backyard Poulty with The Chicken Whisperer radio show this week. The scenario she finds herself in is not unique. It’s playing out in suburbia across america as people come to learn more about backyard poultry keeping and the benefits associated with it.

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Full Article Here

BARRE TOWN – When it comes to Kathy Rubalcaba’s chickens, the eggs definitely came first. Then came her battles with the town, which the East Barre woman says she’s been fighting ever since the first few of them hatched about 18 months ago.

Rubalcaba’s struggles will continue tonight when the town’s selectboard considers the case of a chicken that reportedly flew the coop and a rooster that allegedly crowed at the crack of dawn.

Both birds belong to Rubalcaba, and both were the subject of separate complaints issued last month under the town’s “Nuisance Control Ordinance.”

They aren’t the first, according to Rubalcaba, who was in district court late last week for a status conference in another case of fowl play – this one involving a months-old complaint of another crowing rooster. She has also seen one chicken-related ticket issued by the town’s police department tossed out by a judge in the past year.

“This is silliness,” says Rubalcaba. “They’re just chickens!”

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Just chickens indeed. I’m looking forward to listening to the show.

This quote from Jules Dervaes sumes this phenomenon very well:

“Growing food is one of the most dangerous occupations on this earth because you are in danger of becoming free.”