I had been thinking. It might be time for more chickens. Previously we only had 3, so there was an inconsistent and small amount of eggs. I decided to check craigslist, of course, where else would you go for chickens? Sure enough we found 500 free organic chickens nearby. When a company or family produces commercially they get rid of the chickens as they get older and production slows. We picked up last year's chickens, egg production had dropped to 50% and it was no longer worth it for the farmer to keep supporting these chickens.
The sad thing is that, what do you do with them? These "hy-line" layers have a small amount of meat on them. We were told about 3lbs, which is not enough pay back to process them. Mark and Katherine made the comment that it is still meat . . .if you process them yourself. My thought is we get a largish number of chickens, and then before winter (when we can no longer support them all to move inside) we invite uber rough-it-man backwoodsman grandpa to show us how to clean a chicken.
Hmmm, to clean a chicken. I have never killed an animal. I was vegetarian for two years and decided morally, ethically, and spiritually that life was about balance and eating "happy meat" (as my friend Jess calls it --grass fed, antibiotic free, hormone free etc.) actually seemed the better choice. This was a big decision for me. In a way I wanted to actually hunt or kill the first animal that I ate after being a vegetarian so that I could fully appreciate the life I was taking, but I was busy and didn't get to go out bow-hunting with anyone at that time. . . anyway, chickens. I think that, though I would not be excited to kill and clean a chicken, it would be an interesting experience if I am going to be eating some meat. In a way I feel, what right do I have to eat meat if I can't appreciate the balance and appreciate this life as life, which is a beautiful thing. No really, back to chickens. I'll get off of my meat soap box.
So we got chickens. I asked what would happen to the chickens that didn't get picked up . . .the option then was that they would have to be killed and composted. The farmer genuinely felt bad about this, which is why he posted them on craigslist. I really enjoyed this family, but as the farmer said, with producing eggs commercially sometimes you just have to make that choice.
I know that in this economy people have to make money, I am glad that someone is trying to use organic feed and that the chickens have the option to go outside. . .but is there a better option? Maybe if we all had our own chickens (those that can, which many backyards are allowed) and scaled down and the tough choices of commercial scale weren't as necessary.
If I could find a group of people in the area interested I would teach them how to build chicken tractors for their back yards, go pick up another truckload of free chickens, and watch local backyards become populated with chickens and children dive into oology. Here is a great recording on how backyard chickens can fuel a food revolution, from Sustainable World Radio. With the Urban Chicken Movement having opened many doors I think we should take advantage of it and step into a more local, sustainable economy. . .beside that, if you have your own chickens you can eliminate the hormones and antibiotics which are creating their own cycle of problems on mass scales that they are being used and going into our bodies, and the earth, and the water . . .and . . .and . . .well, it is one place to start.
The good news is we have 27 new chickens that we are starting out getting used to our place. Soon we are going to see how free ranging will work with them, despite cats and critters. Animals are an integral part of a permaculture system, and it would be nice to have them walk through the garden and eat the cut-worms off of the tomatoes.
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