Heritage turkeys are experiencing a renaissance on the small farm, buoyed by interest in local food, and media articles like this Thanksgiving New York Times ariticle:
“It’s a hot item,” said Bill Niman, a prominent advocate for sustainable agriculture who this year jumped into the so-called heritage turkey market — older breeds of birds that had
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It takes a brave man to blog about a subject he knows increasingly less about.
I am talking about roosters.
When I bought the feed-store chicks in April, I wanted barred rock pullets, but the store had only straight run. So I rolled the genetic dice with the Z and W chromosomes and bought two chicks. Both
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Life on a small farm is both science and art. Designing shelters for animals, poultry, or other livestock is based on good thinking, local custom, and what you have to work with. In this case, I’m using all three and we’ll see the outcome.
In Storey’s Guide for Raising Chickens, there is a simple shelter for
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I shared the discovery of the first pheasant egg, and Sunday, I found the first duck egg. It was broken and was on the wood platform the duck swimming pool rests on.
Whether the duck egg broke on the wood, was stepped on by one of the ducks, or had a soft shell due to it
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There is something odd in the idea of a couple of older guys who live on farms going to Des Moines for a book reading and signing by the author on a Friday night. Of course, if one of the guys is the author himself, he has a good reason. I, on the other hand,
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Last year’s July 4th weekend project with my son was the building the pheasant fly pen, a 45 x 25 net enclosed space for the pheasants to grow out from 6 weeks to about 18 weeks. It is covered with netting and has about 6 – 7 feet of head room
Along the east, long side,
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I’ve written about receiving shipments of 52 pheasants in the US mail. From what I’ve read online at many of the hatchery sites, it seems that the smallest shipment is 25 birds. In this number, the birds generate enough body heat to survive there one or two day trip.
While raising pheasants for release requires one
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An effort is under way to change Iowa City law to allow residents to keep chickens in their backyards.
Iowa City resident Stacey Driscoll started an online petition Tuesday calling on the city to allow people to keep up to five hens, no roosters, in residential areas.
The self-described avid backyard gardener said she’d heard of people
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Frederick J. Dunn offers advice and links on choosing chicken breeds as spring approaches, courtesy of Mother Earth News:
I keep both ornamental and dual-purpose poultry. Ornamental birds are just that, nice to look at and be entertained by — or even to show in competition for those interested in the “poultry fancy.” My recommendations for dual-purpose (meat and eggs) are traditional breeds: the Rhode Island red and barred Plymouth rock. Both (rocks and reds) are independent on open range, forage well, produce eggs in abundance and (if you choose) will make flavorful table fare. In fact, the ALBC hosted Renewing America’s Food Traditions blind taste test, and the barred Plymouth rock was most preferred.
I don’t know where this is going to end up.
I first thought the ducks, once grown, would live on the pond. My concern about possible predators and the ducks becoming midnight snacks for coyotes had me thinking of a floating duck house. Then the option of building or perhaps buying a dog house kit — and starting the ducks in the pen, and moving them to the pond.
