Posted in Backyard Chickens, Farm to Fork, Growing Goodies, Oh Say Can You CSA!, Real Time Farms blog on May 10, 2012
Transition Challenge Month, yup. Brought to you by the Transition United States, yup. Clearer now? Until I was asked to teach a Backyard Chicken class for a Reskilling Festival co-hosted by Transition Ann Arbor, I did not know either. Nor had I heard the phrases “peak oil” or “energy descent”. But in my humble opinion, [...]
Posted in Backyard Chickens, Real Time Farms blog on August 15, 2011
A year ago this month, there was a national egg recall. You would think more communities would be welcoming the chicken to backyards as a result. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case – many cities are still mired in debatessimilar to what happened in Grand Rapids, MI last August. The egg recall [...]
Posted in AnnArbor.com, Backyard Chickens, Vision on June 17, 2011
On Sunday, I watched two of my “girls” deflowered by a rooster. I had been feeling wary of this upcoming event and my role as a chicken pimp, but we had no choice. Either we were going to kill the girls and bring them with us to our temporary rental home in the freezer, or [...]
Posted in AnnArbor.com, Backyard Chickens on February 18, 2011
I returned Wednesday to Ann Arbor from a week away. I left town with snowdrifts and nary a sight of grass or earth anywhere. I return to puddles, calcifying stalagmites of gray snow forms and soil once again visible in our back garden. The soft breeze and the smell of warming earth enveloped me on [...]
Posted in Backyard Chickens, Farm to Fork, Growing Goodies, Watch & Listen on January 7, 2011
(Note: This article contains very vivid descriptions of chicken slaughter.) According to Human Rights Watch, the average speed of dead poultry moving past the inspectors in a slaughtering plant is 70 per minute. That means in the time it took you to read this last sentence you would have been expected to examine six birds [...]
Posted in AnnArbor.com, Backyard Chickens, Farm to Fork, Health, Watch & Listen on November 29, 2010
(In the video you can see the difference between a molting Buff Orpington and one with full plumage.) The chickens have been part of our lives for 17 months now. The patina of the unknown had faded into a routine. Thank goodness for Mother Nature. Just when I thought all was staid, she sends the [...]
