If you missed the Mother Earth News Fair in PA...

...well, let me tell you, you really did miss out. I hear there were over 15,000 visitors over the three days of the Fair, and the energy and atmosphere were consistently positive. If I'd been swift enough to bring a camera, you'd see one picture after another of smiling faces, families having fun with each other, and altogether a sense of eagerness to learn and connect with other people aiming to live life more sustainably and meaningfully.

As for me, I had a terrific time. The Seven Springs Mountain Resort is quite an amazing place: 5,000 acres of ski slopes, golf courses, tennis courts, indoor swimming pool, even an indoor arcade. I stayed in a large and beautiful condo with three other women: my friend Jeannette Beranger from the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, her colleague Alison Martin, and Pat Foreman, author of Chicken Tractor and City Chicks, among other books. It was lovely seeing Jeannette again, and getting to know Alison and Pat a little was wonderful. I learned a lot just hanging out with these three women, and they all have been generous in their encouragement of my writing projects and ambitions.

My two presentations, one on raising turkeys and the other on raising ducks, went quite well. Considering it was raining occasionally on Saturday afternoon, I was surprised at the crowd that showed up to hear about turkeys. I really enjoy the interaction with the audience; in each of the three times I've done presentations at the Fair, I've learned something new. Even if you raise the same kind of birds that I do, something about your situation or experience will be different from mine, and this is where I think events such as the Mother Earth News Fair are so valuable. There are more and more people who, for various reasons, wish to start taking control of their own food supply, and no matter how many books or Internet pages you read, it's always helpful to connect with someone with  real-life experience. (This, by the way, is just as true for me as for anyone who attended my presentations.)

Thanks to James Duft and those of you at Mother Earth News whose names I don't know, for offering me this opportunity once again. Your generosity in arranging for housing, as well as a ride to and from the airport, is truly appreciated. Thanks also to those of you who attended one or both of my presentations; I loved having the opportunity to share and learn with you.

Days are getting shorter; should you have lights in your chicken coops?

As we move into fall months, and days are getting noticeably shorter, many of our birds have begun to moult. Our turkeys actually started moulting in August. Our older ducks and chickens are definitely moulting now as well. We always hope that the moult will hold off until later in the fall, since the later it starts, generally the shorter the moulting process is.

Why does this matter? When the birds are moulting, the egg production slows to a trickle, and many birds completely stop laying for the duration of the moult. Since we are in business selling our organic duck and chicken eggs, any drop in production is naturally a concern for us.

So what, if anything, can we do about this? Most books and magazine articles I've read advocate lighting the interior of chicken coops when the days get shorter. The theory is that peak egg production is related to the number of hours of daylight; thus, hens should be laying at their highest rate during the early summer months when days are longest. So it seems logical to add light in the coops as days get shorter.

However, we have chosen not to do this. Why? Most people who know us are aware that we live off the grid and are in the process of installing our solar electric system. They say, "Well, as soon as you have electricity you're going to light your coops, right?"

Wrong. We have spent a lot of time over the years debating this question. In short, our conclusion is that the moult is a natural part of the annual "rhythm" of these birds' lives. We simply feel it's better for them to have a break from egg-laying and not try to artificially circumvent the important moulting process.

As I mentioned, we are in business selling eggs. So how do we address the issue of dropping production in the fall and winter months? Our strategy is to plan the hatching of new birds at a point that ensures that the young birds will be starting to lay around the time the older birds are slowing down. Yes, this involves a lot of organization and management. Yes, we are sometimes caught off-guard by odd weather patterns and other factors that can influence when the moult starts and ends. But overall this strategy has worked quite well for us.

I think since everyone's situation is different, you should ultimately do whatever works best for you and your birds. I would just encourage you to keep an open mind and consider alternatives to putting artificial lighting in your coops. Even if you can't hatch or buy new chicks each spring, the moult usually lasts only a month or two. Cows get a break from milking every winter; think about giving your hens a break, too.

Stop calling me a twit!

I know, I know. But here's the thing: This week I finally got around to signing up for a Twitter account.  I don't really know what took me so long, especially considering I don't have much to do other than lie on the futon with my feet up eating bonbons all day. Just lazy, I guess.

Anyway, you can find me on Twitter at @offgridwriter. Feel free to tweet. Just keep in mind that I am, in fact, an off-grid writer, and do not have such luxuries as a full-time Internet connection. So don't be surprised if I don't tweet back instantly. I'm still getting used to it (and the page loads slowly). Besides, I'm busy eating bonbons.

Preparing (again) for the Mother Earth News Fair

As you know, I've had the privilege of sharing my presentation on raising turkeys at the Mother Earth News Fair twice now. This past June I had a great time at the Fair in Puyallup, and was invited to come to the Fair in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania, later this month. I will be doing my turkey presentation again, and also a new presentation on raising ducks.

I hope you can make it to the Fair. It runs 3 days, Sept. 21-23, and I hear they are expecting 20,000 people to visit.

It should be a really fun weekend. For anyone trying to find ways to live more sustainably, consume less and experience the satisfaction of moving toward self-sufficiency, the Fair offers a huge selection of workshops, demonstrations, products and books for sale, and the opportunity to connect with the growing number of like-minded people.

One of the keynote speakers this time is Temple Grandin, the well-known animal scientist who has been responsible for many innovations regarding the humane treatment of livestock and other animals. I am looking forward to hearing her talk; what an inspiration.

So come on out if you can! I will be speaking on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy stage, once on Saturday and once Sunday. I hope to see you there!

Northern Goshawks prefer organic chicken, too

Young adult male Northern Goshawk.

Last week I was able to get some decent photos of a Northern Goshawk at our farm. Unfortunately it was standing on the dead body of one of our young New Hampshire cockerels, but what can you do.

We're guessing that this is a young adult male Goshawk. Looking closely at my photos, it appears that this bird is almost completely into its adult plumage. And like most raptors, the male Goshawk is smaller than the female, and this one is definitely smaller than the chicken  it killed. In fact, the hawk couldn't get off the ground with the chicken. (The adult Goshawk tops out at 2.1 pounds, and this 14-week-old cockerel was easily twice that weight.) The photo below shows the hawk trying hard to move the chicken, but it only managed to jerk it a few inches across the grass. I wonder if the hawk learned a lesson from this? Hmm.

The Goshawk tries unsuccessfully to fly off with a chicken twice its size.

I've been trying to get photos of a Goshawk for a while now. Our friend Shelly Ament, a wildlife biologist with Washington's Fish and Wildlife Department, told us that Goshawks are not often seen by humans in the wild. (Ha, I thought. Try letting some chickens free-range in YOUR backyard.) I retrieved a primary wing feather, which I saw fall from the hawk while it was flapping its wings, and we saved it to give to Shelly. She had asked us to be on the lookout for Goshawk feathers. Her department is interested in comparing the genetics of Goshawks in our area to those of hawks in British Columbia, so she was quite pleased to have the feather.

The white supercilium (eyebrow) clearly identifies the Northern Goshawk.

Since we choose to free-range our chickens, turkeys and ducks, we do lose birds to predators from time to time. Still, we feel fortunate to live in a place where we sometimes see beautiful animals like the Northern Goshawk. What a gorgeous bird.

Cat on a hot chick brooder

Poor Cosmo. Our cat suffered through a bout of empty-nest syndrome this spring, after we moved our 51 New Hampshire chicks from their indoor brooder to an outdoor transition coop.

For more than two weeks, faithful Cosmo curled up atop the warm brooder, watching the chicks inside for hours at a time. Naturally, being a cat, he took frequent breaks from this strenuous activity to take naps. No doubt he dreamed about what he would do if the lid were left off the brooder one day. It must have been tantalizing, being literally a few inches above the heads of a lot of tiny little birds. He's a good cat, though, and he didn't really try too hard to get in there. At least, not while we were looking...

As the chicks got bigger (New Hampshires grow fast), occasionally one of them would reach up and peck at Cosmo's tail through the screened lid. It didn't seem to bother Cosmo much; in fact, I wondered if he actually enjoyed these little interactions. He certainly seemed to be fascinated by the little creatures, and I'm sure he got used to hearing their non-stop peeping.

When the day finally came for the big move, it seemed to be a bit of a shock to Cosmo. Suddenly his nice warm perch, complete with soothing background music, was gone. We felt a little bit guilty when we saw how out of sorts he was. But after all, 51 growing chicks do poop, and even with daily cleaning, frankly, we were ready for the babies to move outside.

Now the chicks are going on 9 weeks old, and Cosmo sits on his perch by the living room window, watching them in the sun. Aww.... they just grow up so fast, don't they, Cosmo?

Canyon Creek Farms: we're certifiable

 3-week-old Khaki Campbell ducklings

You've suspected that all along, haven't you? Now we can confirm the truth: Canyon Creek Farms is on the verge of being certified organic.

After wading through the paperwork and waiting for the results of our application review, we are now awaiting the final inspection. There is a huge lot of record-keeping that is required, so I have been working hard on a database system to handle that part of the certification process. We will be inspected at least once per year, and we must be able to show records of basically every single thing that we did or bought or used during the year. Feed purchases. Every application of fertilizer or compost. If we vaccinate or otherwise give medical treatment to an animal, it must be documented. When we buy seeds or plants they have to be certified organic.

Sounds like a lot of work, right? So why are we doing it? Well, partly it's a matter of pride: We have been working hard on our farm for six years now, and we're producing top-quality chicken and duck eggs, as well as Tamworth pork. We have been managing all our animals and crops organically from the start, so we figured that the next logical step would be certification.

 Tamworth piglets

If you've bought our duck eggs recently at Sunny Farms or Nash's Farm Store, you probably noticed that they are labeled "organic." How can we call them organic when we aren't yet certified? The National Organic Program (NOP) rules state that if a farm sells less than $5,000 per year in organic product sales, it can label its products organic. However, we can't use the USDA Organic logo, and we are subject to inspection to ensure we are complying with the organic standards.

Now that more of our eggs are being sold at local retail stores, we anticipate that our farm product sales will soon top $5,000 per year, which would make us ineligible for this exception.

New Hampshire pullets

Up to now, we've thought of our little farm business as more of a hobby, but it's time to step it up a notch and take ourselves more seriously. We've worked hard to provide wonderful eggs and pork for the local community. It's time we honor the loyalty of our customers as well.