I am going to start by joining this group Beginner Beekeeping
Places to buy honey bees.
Here is a link to an article my mom told me about. Bee Colony Collapse
3/29/09
My Easter Egg Birds - Araucanas/Americanas
I have several of these wonderful birds. Cheesecake the Grand Champion of the Topsfield Fair and Buttercup. They are both quite chatty and lay light blue eggs.
Murray McMurray, best source for spring chicks
LakenVelders - I would love several of these beautiful birds
3/27/09
3/26/09
Looking for information on Call Ducks
Anyone have some information on Call Ducks?
This picture is not of our Call Ducks, but I just couldn't resist putting their picture up.
This picture is not of our Call Ducks, but I just couldn't resist putting their picture up.
Another Argument for Team Vegetarian: The Kids Are Doing It
I have been a vegetarian for a few years now, it is hard. My friends tease me, everyone tells me to eat more protein, I want to eat a Pork Bun at Dim Sum, but I don't. If you have ever seen how those animals are treated you wouldn't either, and there is plenty of protein in spinach. - by Orren
I’m always looking for new reasons to argue for the benefits of a vegetarian diet. This latest bit is less convincing than, say, “it lowers your risk of heart disease by 60%.” But still, it’s encouraging to those who care about such things, that more American kids than ever are turning away from meat. One in 200, in fact. It’s certainly something. And yet global meat consumption is growing at a rate of 2% a year, with traditionally vegetarian countries mimicking our not-so-awesome eating habits, to not-so-awesome results.
So let’s review some of the better arguments for vegetarianism, shall we? Obviously, eating a mostly vegetarian diet isn’t always convenient. It can be limiting, especially if you consider yourself, as I do, a foodie. It also doesn’t always make you the best dinner guest, and can change social rituals a little bit (I love nothing more than a four-hour dinner of shared everything). But to me, the benefits outsize the compromises.
For those unmoved by such things, consider the most persuasive and high-stakes argument of them all: The UN report which found that cattle rearing produces more greenhouse gasses than the transportation industry. That means that cutting down on your meat intake will actually do more for the environment than trading in your SUV.Again in September, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pleaded with people the world over to at the very least curb their meat intake. Their one-meat-free-day-a-week suggestion was a little on the light side if you ask me, but it was something. Baby steps, right? The report doesn’t seem to have reduced meat consumption, though. Probably because altering our diet seems to be the one leap that otherwise environmentally conscious people want to make. Or is it?
Lately there’s been a rash of stories, columns and fun facts bringing vegetarianism back into the discussion. There are columnists like this, who say “not everyone can make the leap to full-fledged vegetarian,” but contemplates the limits of her “flexitarian” diet. Then there is this: the latest in the meat-eater-goes-veg magazine story.
by: Siobhan O'Connor
Organics Have Been Debunked. What Do We Do Now?
I think this is a sad, interesting story.
Locally grown, organic food used to be the last word in environmental awareness. Not anymore. For one, organics have a negligible carbon impact (though exceptions might exist); eating less red meat is probably the best you can do to lower your carbon footprint. And locally grown food might not be a workable model, at large scales.
Mother Jones, the lefty magazine, just did an extensive feature, and it’s a wake-up call. It won’t be news to anyone that follows the issue, but it’s worth highlighting because the issue is so large and the organic myths have been so prolific:
“When most of us imagine what a sustainable food economy might look like, chances are we picture a variation on something that already exists—such as organic farming, or a network of local farms and farmers markets, or urban pea patches—only on a much larger scale. The future of food, in other words, will be built from ideas and models that are familiar, relatively simple, and easily distilled into a buying decision: Look for the right label, and you’re done.But that’s not the reality. Many of the familiar models don’t work well on the scale required to feed billions of people. Or they focus too narrowly on one issue (salad greens that are organic but picked by exploited workers). Or they work only in limited circumstances. (A $4 heirloom tomato is hardly going to save the world.)”
from good.is
3/25/09
New members of the team
Yesterday I added 4 new members to the flock. I added two boys and two girls. Although one of the boys and both the girls are ducks, not chickens. However, the other boy is a white silkie rooster. All of them are about 3 years old. One of the call ducks is perfectly white and the other two are of the mallard type. They are so cute.
| "Call ducks were originally known as Coy ducks or decoy ducks from the Dutch word de kooi meaning 'trap'. Willughby, writing in 1678, described how Coy ducks were used to catch wildfowl. The tame ducks were fed at the entrance to great traps constructed in the form of a 'pipe'. Wild fowl were enticed down by the quacking (calling) of the tame birds, and then caught and slaughtered for the commercial market. These early decoy ducks may not have been like the Dutch Call ducks we know today; they may have been decoys by training rather than breed." -- from callducks.net |
3/22/09
The Food Project at school
Our school is going to be working in our greenhouse with The Food Project. I am hoping we can have chickens in the greenhouse too!
Here is what TFP does:
Our Mission
To create a thoughtful and productive community of youth and adults from diverse backgrounds who work together to build a sustainable food system. This community produces healthy food for residents of the city and suburbs, provides youth leadership opportunities, and inspires and supports others to create change in their own communities.
Here is what TFP does:
Our Mission
To create a thoughtful and productive community of youth and adults from diverse backgrounds who work together to build a sustainable food system. This community produces healthy food for residents of the city and suburbs, provides youth leadership opportunities, and inspires and supports others to create change in their own communities.
Where have the bees gone?
I am really interested in bees. I think we need to protect and help them. Think I will start raising Happy Bees make Healthy Honey
Flock Tender APA Achievements
I am starting to work on my American Poultry Association FLOCK TENDER level.
From APA:
There are five(5) levels a young person may reach in this program.
PeeWee Level , Coop Tender Level, Flock Tender, Flock Master and Poultry Master.
A student must earn a number of points at each level to move up the ladder to the next step of achieving his or her goal. The program must be completed by the time the student reaches his 21st birthday. Once he/ she has reached their level they will receive a level patch to wear on a jacket and a certificate of achievement. This will also be a wonderful reference on future workplace application.
This 85-page record/notebook for the Flock Master level of the APA-ABA Youth Program is the final notebook available for the higher levels of the A.C.E. program. The table of contents lists the following: Book Owner Identification, the Introduction to the Flock Master, Table of Contents, Activity Introduction, Activity Work Sheets, Competition Introduction, Competition Work Sheet, Education Introduction, Educational Work Sheets, and the Conclusion. It is laid out in an easy format for the youth member to follow, spaces to be filled in and the member can add more pages if he/she would like to add more to his/her record book.
From APA:
There are five(5) levels a young person may reach in this program.
PeeWee Level , Coop Tender Level, Flock Tender, Flock Master and Poultry Master.
A student must earn a number of points at each level to move up the ladder to the next step of achieving his or her goal. The program must be completed by the time the student reaches his 21st birthday. Once he/ she has reached their level they will receive a level patch to wear on a jacket and a certificate of achievement. This will also be a wonderful reference on future workplace application.
This 85-page record/notebook for the Flock Master level of the APA-ABA Youth Program is the final notebook available for the higher levels of the A.C.E. program. The table of contents lists the following: Book Owner Identification, the Introduction to the Flock Master, Table of Contents, Activity Introduction, Activity Work Sheets, Competition Introduction, Competition Work Sheet, Education Introduction, Educational Work Sheets, and the Conclusion. It is laid out in an easy format for the youth member to follow, spaces to be filled in and the member can add more pages if he/she would like to add more to his/her record book.
My beautiful Blue Cochins are broody
I have 4 Blue Cochins. They are broody right now. I can't wait to see if there are going to hatch some chicks! The girls want to leave the barn now and go out to the field and explore. I think this will improve their egg production.
3/10/09
A documentary about young farmers
The Greenhorns is a documentary film that explores the lives of America’s young farming community—its spirit, practices, and needs. As the nation experiences a groundswell of interest in sustainable lifestyles, we see the promising beginnings of an agricultural revival. Young farmers’ efforts feed us safe food, conserve valuable land.
3/5/09
3/1/09
Rocco
I have barely told anyone about my new rooster rocco. he is a silkie and a barred rock mixed breed. I love him soooooooooo much. He is very friendly. And he is very sassy. He also has a very proud crow
Putting Meat Back in its Place
1. Forget the protein thing.
Roughly simultaneously with your declaration that you’re cutting back on meat, someone will ask “How are you going to get enough protein?” The answer is “by being omnivorous.” Plants have protein, too; in fact, per calorie, many plants have more protein than meat. (For example, a cheeseburger contains 14.57 grams of protein in 286 calories, or about .05 grams of protein per calorie; a serving of spinach has 2.97 grams of protein in 23 calories, or .12 grams of protein per calorie; lentils have .07 grams per calorie.) By eating a variety, you can get all essential amino acids.
You also don’t have to eat the national average of a half-pound of meat a day to get enough protein. On average, Americans eat about twice as much as the 56 grams of daily protein recommended by the United States Department of Agriculture (a guideline that some nutritionists think is too high). For anyone eating a well-balanced diet, protein is probably not an issue.
Roughly simultaneously with your declaration that you’re cutting back on meat, someone will ask “How are you going to get enough protein?” The answer is “by being omnivorous.” Plants have protein, too; in fact, per calorie, many plants have more protein than meat. (For example, a cheeseburger contains 14.57 grams of protein in 286 calories, or about .05 grams of protein per calorie; a serving of spinach has 2.97 grams of protein in 23 calories, or .12 grams of protein per calorie; lentils have .07 grams per calorie.) By eating a variety, you can get all essential amino acids.
You also don’t have to eat the national average of a half-pound of meat a day to get enough protein. On average, Americans eat about twice as much as the 56 grams of daily protein recommended by the United States Department of Agriculture (a guideline that some nutritionists think is too high). For anyone eating a well-balanced diet, protein is probably not an issue.
Meat and the Planet
When you think about the growth of human population over the last century or so, it is all too easy to imagine it merely as an increase in the number of humans. But as we multiply, so do all the things associated with us, including our livestock. At present, there are about 1.5 billion cattle and domestic buffalo and about 1.7 billion sheep and goats. With pigs and poultry, they form a critical part of our enormous biological footprint upon this planet.
Just how enormous was not really apparent until the publication of a new report, called “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Consider these numbers. Global livestock grazing and feed production use “30 percent of the land surface of the planet.” Livestock — which consume more food than they yield — also compete directly with humans for water. And the drive to expand grazing land destroys more biologically sensitive terrain, rain forests especially, than anything else.
But what is even more striking, and alarming, is that livestock are responsible for about 18 percent of the global warming effect, more than transportation’s contribution. The culprits are methane — the natural result of bovine digestion — and the nitrogen emitted by manure. Deforestation of grazing land adds to the effect.
Mark Bittman: Eating Right Can Save The Planet
Morning Edition, January 22, 2009 · If you're one of those people hoping to change the world in 2009, writer Mark Bittman says you can start by changing what you eat.
In his new book, Food Matters, The New York Times food columnist writes about the environmental impact of industrial farming — and how individuals can make a difference by cutting down on the amount of animal products they consume.
"All industrial farming — from fish farming to chicken farming to egg and dairy farming — has an environmental impact," he tells Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep.
Bittman's recommendation? Eat more fruits and vegetables and skip a few helpings of meat.
"There's nothing wrong with eating smaller amounts of meat," he says. "It's quite common sense that you can eliminate animal products from some of your diet."
Bittman says that Americans raise and slaughter 10 billion animals each year for consumption. If we all decreased consumption of animal products by 10 percent, he says, it "would have both an environmental impact and an impact on all of our mutual health."
As for Bittman's personal diet, it used to be that he'd eat bacon and eggs for breakfast and a hamburger for lunch. But a few years ago, he changed his ways. Now, a typical day's fare might include a bowl of oatmeal (see Bittman's recipe for porridge) with maple syrup for breakfast, fruits and vegetables for lunch, then a more "old-style" type meal — which might include meat — for dinner.
After just a few months of the new diet, Bittman says, he noticed improvements to his health: "I lost 35 pounds — which is about 15 percent of my body weight — my cholesterol went down 40 points; my blood sugar went from borderline bad to just fine; [and] my knees, which were starting to give out as a result of running at too high a weight, got better."
All of those things — and, he says, he's shrinking his carbon footprint.
"Feeling like you're changing the world," he says. "That's a nice thing, too."Farming for the Future
In the rolling foothills of Southeast Ohio exists a movement of small-scale farmers who cultivate without chemicals or major mechanical input. For these visionary men and women of the earth, pesticides are an unnecessary hazard, while one’s own sweat and toil proves more efficient than fossil-fueled machines. Farming for the Future escapes from the grocery store to tromp through the fields with a diverse group of forward-thinking yeomen, illuminating the subtler and oft-forgotten aspects of the vital commodity we call food
You might want to see this video if you eat chicken
A disturbing video. I don't mean to scare you, but I think it is important to know where our food comes from.
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