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| [RIP Big Rick] |
Depending on how much time, energy, and money you put into raising chickens, it may or may not be cost-effective. In my experience, it was slightly more expensive keeping chickens than buying eggs at the store, since chicken feed was expensive. However, the major benefit (in my opinion) was being able to control the chickens’ diet and lifestyle. Also, once I started making the chicken feed myself and selling some of the surplus eggs, I was closer to breaking even. I usually mixed a bunch of rice, greens (edible weeds), fallen fruit, some type of protein, and leftover oyster shells from the oyster men by the beach. If a chicken became sick, I also threw in some garlic to ward off disease. Every once in awhile, I bought a giant sack of (probably GMO) corn, to help keep costs low, but I tried to provide the homemade feed as often as possible, though it was more work to make it.
Reading the excerpt from Novella Carpenter’s City Farm brought me back to my first blog post, about the importance of sharing food stories. I think it’s important to intersperse narratives and stories among the more academic readings, because it allows us to personally connect with the content. The chapters in this reading reminded me of the joys and nuisances of raising animals, but also offered the interesting perspective of doing so in the urban environment. I enjoyed Carpenter’s juxtaposition of city and farm elements, which made me want to look into chicken keeping options in Tallahassee.____________________________________________________________________
3/17/16 Update:
There are free baby chicks on Craigslist!: https://tallahassee.craigslist.org/zip/5495481961.html
...In case anyone is considering keeping chickens after this week's readings and class discussion :)
Sarah, your post is very enlightening, I am ashamed that I didn't know garlic fought disease but I am glad I do know now. From your post I also better understand the complexities that arise from raising chickens in an urban setting. I see that it can be stressful trying to figure the best system that will keep the chicken coop running efficiently. Lowering the amount of roosters was probably a good thing for the hens, and giving them garlic may help with fighting disease, however, what do you do when most of them get sick? And how easy will it be to continue to provide them with better feed options, or dispose of the fallen chickens and roosters, and who will regulate these practices to make sure there are done properly? You did mention that there are nuisances to raising chickens so these are probably some of them, but it is interesting to see how this kind of agriculture can find a way to fit into the urban setting.
ReplyDeleteThanks Daphne! You're absolutely right -- applying the situation to the urban context would bring up some issues, like keeping chickens healthy or disposing of bodies if one dies. Another concern is keeping them in the yard if they're free range. Before, we had ten-foot fences that kept them in. Now, my boyfriend is raising chickens and ducks in a semi-urban space with a shorter fence, and he's already had problems with escaping birds. A duck turned up dead the other day -- it seems that it flew over the front fence and was hit by oncoming traffic. He ended up burying it (didn't think about cooking it until it was already in the ground) but this may not actually be legal, depending on the zoning ordinances.
DeleteHad I been in the city, I probably also would have needed an enclosed chicken coop, at least at night. Though we had the rare instance of a mongoose or dog getting in and swiping a chicken, this might be even greater an issue in the city, depending on where you live and what types of animals (and people) live around you.
I agree that it's so interesting and important to hear about others food stories. More than just their daily eating habits, I think it's crucial to learn about the failures and successes of people trying to do things 'outside of the norm' like with making your own feed. When I think about local stories and information sharing, I think about farming in the context of The Great Green Wall initiative. If you haven't heard of it, look it up because it's interesting! It's essentially an initiative that wants to combat desertification and aid in the agriculture of the Sahel region. Before this initiative began, a lot of interviews were occurring asking for the success stories of local people to find out how they were successfully combating these issues; saving water, reduce topsoil loss, trying to create new topsoil.
ReplyDeleteWith everything in agriculture, especially on the urban agriculture scale, learning peoples successes and sharing this learning process can help to gain more urban ag participants.
I just looked up their webpage -- it is really interesting! Thanks for sharing, I'm probably going to read up some more on this!
DeleteLet me just start off by saying that Big Rick has to be the most intimidating rooster I have ever seen. Thank you for telling us about your chicken history, Sarah. I love the visuals.
ReplyDeleteJust by reading your post, I have already learned much of what it takes to raise chickens. How to create chicken feed, keep a better rooster to chicken ratio, and how to keep them healthy is stuff I had no idea about.
As you point out, farming and gardening stories do create a strong connection between people while also being educational. If I wanted to start raising chickens (alongside my future bee hive), I would much rather have someone personally teach me than to look everything up on the internet. It would give me the opportunity to learn from other's mistakes. So I think food stories are essential to round out the academic and professional knowledge. Is "local knowledge" the right term for this?
Big Rick was extremely intimidating. We referred to him as "Big Rick, the Big ___". He passed away when a construction worker dropped a pipe on him...we found him the next day. Another rooster, Reynaldo, took his place in the pecking order afterwards.
DeleteI actually did spend a lot of time reading books about chickens, because I was trying to use more permaculture or "sustainable"-type chicken raising techniques than the norm. Some people near me kept chickens for eggs, but a few were just raising roosters for cock fighting. I did learn from my boyfriend's mom (who lived down the street from us) that you could use a golf ball in the chicken's nest instead of leaving an egg. Usually, if you leave an egg (or golf ball), it will encourage hens to use that spot to lay eggs. Maybe some other possibilities for "local knowledge" are "personal", "anecdotal", or "traditional" knowledge? Thanks for the comment! Good luck in your future hives, maybe one day you can teach me about beekeeping!!
I always love your posts, and the chicken pictures are great! I have a chicken story too:
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a pretty rural area and my next door neighbors kept between 8 and 10 hens (occasionally one roosters) and few ducks on about an acre and a half. I spent a lot of time at their place along with many of the other kids in the neighborhood, and the chickens were one of the main attractions (their ducks were pretty unfriendly and great at flying away and never being seen again).
When we weren't carrying them around, the chickens spent most of the daytime roaming about in the family's impressive garden and the woods around the house eating whatever they could find, mostly insects. I was told that they were pretty useful for pest control in the garden, and they also reduced the tick population which is nice when you have a bunch of kids running around in the woods.
I know that they bought feed for the chickens, but they supplemented it a lot with kitchen scraps and any weeds and damaged/surplus vegetables from the garden, and the chickens were pretty effective at finding enough protein from bugs and worms on their own. I'd say they were the happiest chickens I've ever met, except that they probably hated being chased and carried around by kids on a daily basis, and they were very healthy. Two of the original hens were still around by the time I moved away from the area in my teen years.
They really didn't have much of an issue with disease over the years, but the raccoons were relentless. There was a nice, big chicken coop which seemed pretty secure, but those crafty guys would come around almost every night looking for weak spots (sometimes just reaching in through gaps in the fencing and grabbing an unlucky bird - pretty brutal stuff), and there were also plenty of foxes and possums interested in a chicken dinner. I remember relocating a few egg-stealing snakes from their chicken coop as well. They lost a few chickens to predators every year despite nearly constant maintenance on the coop.
I feel like chickens in rural areas with a lot of living space and the ability to roam around may be less burdened by disease than their urban counterparts who may have to deal with a more cramped living arrangement in which illnesses spread easily. On the other hand, predators may not be as much of a problem to chickens in the city (depending where you are).
Those are some cool neighbors! And WOW -- the chickens must have been healthy to have lived for so long! I've always heard that chickens are great pest controllers too. However, when I unleashed a few of mine into the garden, they ended up eating most of the plants. Once we moved them into an enclosed area, I tried planting corn near their coop a few times (as a low maintenance way of feeding them in the future), but was again thwarted as they tore up all the sprouts. I've heard ducks aren't as bad about eating the plants, but will still eat the slugs and other insects. Although if they're as unfriendly and rebellious as the ones your neighbors had, maybe chickens are a better option :) If ducks are anything like geese, I'd be wary -- I'm still traumatized by the goose that bit me when I was five.
DeleteI love chicken stories, thanks for sharing yours!