Rebel With a Fork Blog

Posts Tagged ‘raising your own chickens’

I have kept quiet on the egg issue because frankly, other people have really picked up the ball on this issue and I’m sure you’ve seen at least one of the video clips of how deplorable the commercial chicken farms are.

I’ve even had people tell me they want to raise their own chickens. One town not too far from here has revised their ordinances to allow raising chickens.

So, we know we don’t want eggs from chickens raised in small cages and dirty disgusting conditions.

And we know we don’t want eggs that come from chickens who have been pumped full of hormones and antibiotics. Except that chickens raised in the disgusting deplorable conditions would have to have antibiotics.

So, we think that farmstand eggs from local farmers are the healthiest choice, right? They run free, the coops are clean. Unfortunately, there’s still one more little issue.

What are the chickens fed?

I was talking to a small farmer recently about her eggs. She said she won’t be able to call them organic. Seems she had switched to a cheaper feed to save money.

Cheaper feed is GMO corn.

And eggs are a highly nutritious food. I know you’ll say, “Oh, but the cholesterol!” Turns out that’s a bunch of hooey too. When I was growing up, lots of people at 2 or 3 eggs every morning, and they weren’t anywhere near as sick as people are now. I’m not saying to load up on eggs, but heck – a good Sunday morning breakfast is a real treat. And omelets make a fast, inexpensive dinner – even if you bought organic eggs.

If you want the healthiest eggs, you have to either buy organic, or raise your own. I saw that one of the hot rising products at Clickbank is on building Chicken Coops. Or there’s another hot one on keeping backyard chickens.

I want to have organic vegetable gardens grown with heritage seeds, a windmill, and solar panels. But do I want to raise chickens? I don’t know about that.

Maybe there’s a chicken group, you know like the share croppers groups? Where you just pay your share of the upkeep.

But if you’re looking for ways to make some extra money, there are lots of people looking for locally produced food these days. And don’t forget about jams, preserves, and other food goodies.

I’m making myself hungry. Time to go pick something good to eat