While searching online for a way to earn an income on the road last week, I found a farming related research project on a contracting site. I wrote between eight and ten proposals that day, all toward agriculture-related projects. This was aimed toward veterinary interns, but I decided to submit a proposal based on my experience in farming, and it was approved.
Starting next week, my girlfriend and I will be talking to farms, starting in Florida, to test their soils, in support of the privately funded research project. They aim to isolate mycobacteriophages targeting Johne’s Disease. If all goes well, in Florida, we will be contacting farms along a 5,000+ mile route we’re currently mapping out, to drive from Florida and Alaska.
At a glance, the economics seem simple: Why raise chickens when it could cost $5 or more per dozen (or more) to build the accommodations and keep them fed while commercial eggs are $2/dz. and a quick trip to the store?
Well, it depends on your perspective, where you live, and what you value.
Just don’t stop at the value of the egg when you’re doing the math to figure out whether or not it’s worthwhile.
Depending on how you go about it, you can spend quite a bit of time and energy building a coop, fence and worrying about keeping predators out. Then there’s collecting the eggs, feeding and watering, etc.
Some chicken owners do less, and the birds simply become part of the landscape, while others invite em’ to sleep in their bed at night. That’s not recommended, but it happens.
If you have no time for such things, then for you not only is having chickens or other animals an inconvenience, it could mean rearranging your life, questioning your way of doing things in order to discover the underlying benefits. In an age of dissatisfaction with status quo, is that such a bad thing?
These benefits, once you get past the drawbacks, can be both deep and profound, whether as an urban homesteader, farmer, or hunter/gatherer.
There is yet an underlying process of awakening to the thing we call “homesteading” that must be endured in order to fully appreciate how and why it is important for you, your community, and the world.
If you start to farm, homestead or raise animals, you’re in for a multi-faceted experience, perhaps a little self-questioning, unless you approach it with a particular mind-set. Expect to set your life up around things you are cultivating, raising, developing, and expect their fruition to unfold at a pace out of your control, yet fully predictable. The rest is up to you.
Benefits of raising chickens (some which most people don’t think about):
Tangible:
The egg
The meat
The fertilizer/manure
The chicken byproducts (feather, bone, offal)
The reduction of scraps in the garbage/landfills
The aeration of soils & compost
The increased capacity of composting
The pest control
Intangible:
The peace of mind of having even if stores run out of eggs/meat
The leverage to sell/trade to neighbors for goods/cash
The strength/knowledge from building the coop and/or fencing
The sense of observation built by caring for the living
The responsibility that comes with commitment
The connection to reality – controlling life and death cycle
The entertainment, laughs and conversation starters
The endless supply of photos you could post online
Lake front concept includes many permaculture-based elements – fruit trees, bees, pond, gardens, greenhouse, barn, stable, shop, yurt and aquaponics systems.
Home design integrates stacked shipping containers, and is scheduled to break ground next spring.
Original concept designed on paper, then transferred to Adobe Illustrator for final presentation.
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