The Poultry Project 3: First Feathers

The ducks are now officially a month old, continue to grow noticeably every day. Real feathers of the white variety are beginning to overtake yellow down. Weather’s warming, so they get to enjoy more outdoors time, and their voices are changing from cheeps to some kind of croaky honk (not quite a quack).

Notice in the picture above that you can see the beginning of the long feathers along the wings. I can’t imagine ducks this big could actually fly, but those stubby little wings will certainly look impressive in a tip-toe display to intimidate a dog or cat or fox once the long feathers fill them out. A turkey hen came through the yard yesterday before soaring off when the dogs noticed. She looked about twice the size of the ducks, and they’re as yet just about a third of their adult weight.

There’s still a good amount of room in the upside-down coop for them, but they’re worse than kids for making messes. Must finish it up (exterior walls and a roof) soon, get it outside where duck poop will do some good for something other than the compost bin.

Meanwhile, we’ve been clearing away recyclable electronics trash from under the boxwood where we plan to put the coops. Must find a recycling outfit and finally take the stuff, old computers and monitors and such that shouldn’t go into the landfill. We’re figuring to get a kiddie type wading pool and dig it in on one side so it will sit flat, exposed on the other side so we can drain it to clean it out. Ducks, the literature tells me, can foul up entire lakes and inlets, so a kiddie pool isn’t going to stay clean very long. They should eat any insects and mosquito larvae that tries to turn the pool into home, along with tree frog tadpoles. Free food!

As the ducklings begin to approach adulthood, we’ve been checking around for chickens. Have my heart set on Araucana hens, which I’d like to get with first feathers already grown so I don’t have to chance a rooster – which I definitely do NOT want. These are small hens that lay small eggs, but we don’t eat enough eggs to care how big they are – besides, we should be getting duck eggs occasionally, and those will definitely fill out a quiche. Araucanas lay blue, green and blue-green eggs. Sort of like having Easter all year long! Haven’t yet confirmed a breeder locally for these, so we may end up having to go to Tennessee in order to get them. Or settle for some more common breed.

Meanwhile, the morels were fairly thin this year due to strange weather, but I did manage to get a couple of large ones to slice up and cook into a stir-fry. Asparagus is about done, the strawberries can’t figure out what season it is, and the peas are looking a bit sickly after the late freeze week before last. Corn is up, though, and looking quite healthy. Will take a chance now that it’s May and plant the tomatoes out, still waiting for the peppers to sprout.

Next time you see Emilio and Abigail – a.k.a. Da Ducks – they should be totally white, or at least mostly white and big enough to wander the yard with the dogs. So stay tuned!

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Corporate Food & Human Backlash

The current collapse of the world financial system has revealed some structural problems in our national economy that have flourished over a period of decades as corporate interests bought politicians and lobbyists to craft legislation to remove legal roadblocks to mass theft and market manipulation. And despite some changes in the D.C. political landscape, our government remains apparently helpless to do anything about corporate malfeasance on any level. With all the bad economic news dominating the public consciousness, some issues in the food supply sector are having a difficult time being properly correlated and attended to despite the serious level of danger they present to public health.

The food supply issues didn’t begin with the market manipulations on Wall Street and from there to exchanges all over the world. Though for many people the first alarms went off as the CDS fraud crashed the economy in 2008 and the financial players went looking for other markets to wreak havoc on. They seized on commodities – staple foods from the agricultural sector increasingly dominated by multinational corporations like Monsanto, ADM and Cargill. As a traceable beginning in 2008 to what this year became the “Arab Spring” movement across North Africa and spreading to the Middle East and southern Asia, food riots broke out in Egypt and Syria and portions of India as well as elsewhere when people could no longer afford to feed themselves and their families. Things have only gotten worse in the years since, and Americans are slowly waking up.

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Filed under Alternatives, Community, Cooperatives, Economics, Education, Family, Food Production, Food Safety, Garden, Health, Homestead, Hunger, Livestock, Monsanto, Nutritition, Pets, Rural Development, Sustainable Living, Trade | Comment (0)

Something a Little Different: Homemade Pet Foods/Treats

As the situation in Fukushima, Japan is not getting any better – thus the bulk of my terraces aren’t yet tilled and crops not yet planted – I thought it might be a good time to talk about something different. Homemade pet foods and treats! Not just leftover tuna for the cats, or plate-licking for the pooches, but real, honest to goodness pet foods and treats you can make in the kitchen for your furry housemates.

The last couple of years have been tragically tainted with the scandal of Chinese protein imports containing more melamine (a plastic they make dinnerware out of) than actual protein. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of pets died painfully in the wake of the scandal, and babies who got melamine in their infant formula suffered and died as well. So for many animal-lovers, having some ready recipes for tasty, nutritionally balanced (even vegetarian!) pet foods and treats will be welcome.

On our homestead we have 1.5 dogs (our shepherd/lab mix Lady Starfish and McDuff the Border Collie who spends half the year with us), 4 cats and two birds. Someday we want chickens and goats, but we’re going to need some serious bear and fox proof fencing first. These are the pets. We feed the dogs and cats a diet exclusively of dry, higher end food. Through the years we’ve had various vets and other experts explain why this is a better diet than cans of by-products. Avoiding kidney problems in older animals and dental caries (not to mention ‘dog breath’) is good enough for me.

If you read the labels on various mid-range and high end ‘diets’ by major manufacturers, you will find what might be a surprising amount of grains and vegetables. Even though dogs and cats are indeed carnivores, they – dogs much more importantly than cats – need some plant foods as well. Most pet owners know that their animals will eat dinner leftovers with relish and grass/weeds when they’re feeling ill, but it’s good to know what kinds of grains and vegetables are best digested. And what kinds of foods to strictly avoid. Some of the recipes below give a good indication of that.

First, here are some good links to recipe and sharing sites that offer a variety of foods, snacks and other nifty pet things (like dog shampoo, toys, cat litter and more) that you can produce at the homestead.

Savvy Homemade: Pet Food, Treats and More
Healthy Recipes for Pets
Home Cooked Pet Diets

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