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I predict the overturning of that short-sighted ordinance, especially when backyard chickens enthusiasts band together by joining hands and chanting while they shake their love beads.
If this nation still subscribed to the "Victory Garden" mentality of the last World War, self-reliance and self-sufficiency would still be a given for the majority of our citizens. Gardens and chickens should be part of every back yard that's able to sustain them.
And save your breath, Marmac. We already know you have a phobia about feathers.
In the city I have a very small yard. The law allows me to have two dogs but "barnyard" animals are against the ordinance. There was a lady a few blocks over I would see time to time out walking her pot-bellied pig when I was walking my dog. Some neighbors were offended someone would have a pig, made a stink (neighbors, not the pig) and she was forced to make the decision to get rid of her pig or move. I'm not certain how it turned out but from the number of pot bellied pigs on Petfinder I suspect it is common enough to be a problem.
It would seem to me that a single milk goat takes up no more space in a yard than do two dogs, is probably quieter, and simultaneously mows the lawn while providing milk for the owner/family. As long as there is no rooster chickens are pretty quiet too and I really don't see the problem of a family having three in their backyard.
To not end this thread on that note since the topic is about chickens, not raccoons, are there any readers who do have chickens as pets and use their eggs as food?
There are often chickens, particularly roosters, listed in the classified sections of newspapers. Sometimes, sellers at farmers' markets seel them when they stop laying.
---Herbicides are not necessary to protect ones crops, just education---
Perhaps you could educate the Amish.
How can I tell if a farm is Amish?
Usually by the thick, tall green weeds growing in their scraggly oat fields and the tall foxtail weeds in their scraggly corn fields.
Maybe you could educate ny organic neighbor whose farm is so infested with mustard seeds he plants oats every year and when it's stiil green his fields turn bright yellow from mustard and he gets notice every year from the township that the mustard must be destroyed ( thus he complains he needs oats for grain but ends up cutting it for hay cuz he can't use herbicides )
Yes, you could demand high wages --educating--the Amish and my neighbor.
Um, your neighbor is Amish? And you have a NY organic farmer there too? Right..........just because the farmer is organic doesnt mean they know anything about companion plantings, that goes for the Amish one, too.
I'm sorry, I'm not any fancy NY farmer, I'm just a Missouri hillbilly girl who learned these techniques from her grandparents and great-grandparents and so forth.
We been farmin them thar hills fer a long spell, dontcha know?
FYI, just so you arent worrying about me, I already command a pretty high $ with my interior design work......bet you have an "expert opinion" about that as well.
In the city I have a very small yard. The law allows me to have two dogs but "barnyard" animals are against the ordinance. There was a lady a few blocks over I would see time to time out walking her pot-bellied pig when I was walking my dog. Some neighbors were offended someone would have a pig, made a stink (neighbors, not the pig) and she was forced to make the decision to get rid of her pig or move. I'm not certain how it turned out but from the number of pot bellied pigs on Petfinder I suspect it is common enough to be a problem.
It would seem to me that a single milk goat takes up no more space in a yard than do two dogs, is probably quieter, and simultaneously mows the lawn while providing milk for the owner/family. As long as there is no rooster chickens are pretty quiet too and I really don't see the problem of a family having three in their backyard.
Not to mention, the goat also fertilizes the lawn.
We use our goats manure as fertilizer after composting, it makes great fertilizer!
Um, your neighbor is Amish? And you have a NY organic farmer there too? Right..........just because the farmer is organic doesnt mean they know anything about companion plantings, that goes for the Amish one, too.
I'm sorry, I'm not any fancy NY farmer, I'm just a Missouri hillbilly girl who learned these techniques from her grandparents and great-grandparents and so forth.
We been farmin them thar hills fer a long spell, dontcha know?
FYI, just so you arent worrying about me, I already command a pretty high $ with my interior design work......bet you have an "expert opinion" about that as well.
Ever wonder why you don't see many big grain bins on Amish farms?
With the low yields they get ( due to weeds) they couldn't fill them.
Guess if they stuck to a couple acres of Missouri hillbilly ground, they could solve their problems by hoeing.
Nope, I'm not an interior design expert and you sure aren't a farming expert ( quite evident )
The area of Missouri I am speaking of is one of the most fertile places on earth, I am sooooo glad you are an expert on Missouri, you sure have showed it on the Missouri forum.
The youtube vid is of the Eckenfels farm.
I have know Bob and Sue Eckenfels my entire life, most farms in the area are just like this.
I own a farm in Ste Gen County, Missouri, a working one, just like our farm in Florida is a working one.
So you are an expert on farming? And you know for a fact just how much I do or do not know?
Thanks for the laugh, sweetie!
Bless your little Minnesota heart!
Have a nice day!
Last edited by kshe95girl; 10-09-2010 at 10:56 AM..
Reason: link didnt work
Not to mention, the goat also fertilizes the lawn.
We use our goats manure as fertilizer after composting, it makes great fertilizer!
I think a problem with goats is they're omnivorous voracious eaters of all plant material. Up here in north Florida - people rent out herds of goats to eat kudzu and other undesirable vegetation. Rabbits can eat a lot too. When it's dry here - they'll come out of the marsh and and do a pretty good job of eating parts of our lawn down to the ground.
What do you grow on your farm in Ocala? I've been in Florida over 40 years - and remember when Ocala was almost 100% rural.
I'm not competent to say anything about growing oats - but people can be really dumb even about butterfly gardens. Like a client of our lawn service insisted that it spray milkweed to get rid of Monarch butterfly caterpillars and other caterpillars on parsley plants (which are larval host plants for lots of butterflies and moths). Lawn service quite rightly refused to do so. Robyn
There are often chickens, particularly roosters, listed in the classified sections of newspapers. Sometimes, sellers at farmers' markets seel them when they stop laying.
Apropos of that article - we once took a week long course at Cornell Adult University called Farming in the Fingerlakes. We spent a day on "egg" chickens. One job in commercial egg chicken production is that of "chicken sexer" (feeling very young chicks to determine whether they're male or female). For some reason - at the time - the job was dominated by Asian women (who were very good at it). Robyn
I think a problem with goats is they're omnivorous voracious eaters of all plant material. Up here in north Florida - people rent out herds of goats to eat kudzu and other undesirable vegetation. Rabbits can eat a lot too. When it's dry here - they'll come out of the marsh and and do a pretty good job of eating parts of our lawn down to the ground.
What do you grow on your farm in Ocala? I've been in Florida over 40 years - and remember when Ocala was almost 100% rural.
I'm not competent to say anything about growing oats - but people can be really dumb even about butterfly gardens. Like a client of our lawn service insisted that it spray milkweed to get rid of Monarch butterfly caterpillars and other caterpillars on parsley plants (which are larval host plants for lots of butterflies and moths). Lawn service quite rightly refused to do so. Robyn
Lol about the client of your lawn service and the Monarchs, another example of what companion planting could have done!
We currently are growing organic produce here, along with organic free range eggs. We have been here almost 7 years, the property belonged to DHs parents for 20 years before that.
I am teaching myself to make goats cheeses. A neighbor of mine up in Missouri makes award winning goats cheeses, I hang out with them quite a bit, soaking up everything I can. This is their site, great people!
Its a long, slow process to get this property up and running, as it was woods when my in-laws bought it, and they didnt do a great deal with it, it was their retirement property.
We would eventually like to have enough dairy goats to be able to do what what my neighbors in Missouri are doing, we will get there, eventually!
I've been in Florida for 21 years, I have seen a lot of changes in Ocala, most of them not for the better, unfortunately.
Last edited by kshe95girl; 10-09-2010 at 01:56 PM..
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