Month: February 2023

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Statistical probabilities with the blue egg gene

For a lot of my project birds, I am working with the blue egg gene to create blue or green eggs. A green egg is just blue, plus some brown color. This gene is tricky to work with for 2 reasons:

  • It is dominant – that means that a hen that lays a blue egg might only have 1 copy of the blue egg gene and so could make a chick that carries no copies.
  • The cockerels never lay eggs, so you can’t tell if they have even 1 copy of this dominant gene

Short of paying for a genetic test, the best I can do is to compute probabilities of having at least 1 copy of the gene. Because there seems to be a shortage of layer chicks this year, and the pullets that I am finished with from my Isabel Welbar project are such great layers, I decided to put them into my Opal Legbar pen. Until last week, there were 5 cockerels in there. Two are homozygous for the blue egg gene and the other 3 are hetereozygous. Some of the pullets lay olive eggs and some lay medium brown eggs, about half and half.

So, for all of us that loved word problems in high school math, here is a chance to apply that. Statistical probabilities are portions of 100%, and this is a binary possibility (lay green eggs or not). So, I’m going to compute the chance of getting non-green and subtract that from 100%.

60% of the fathers have 1 copy of the white egg gene (non-blue), they will have a 50% chance of passing that to their progeny, so the chance of getting a white egg gene from the father is 30% (.5 x .6). The chance of getting a white egg gene is 100% from the brown egg pullets and 50% from the green egg pullets. Given half of the pullets lay brown, the chance of getting a white egg gene for the mother is 75%. To lay a non-green egg, the chick must get a white egg gene from both parents (white is recessive to blue). So we multiply the 2 probabilities (.75 x .3) and get 22.5% (chance of non-green). Subtract that from 100% and we get a 77.5% chance of each chick laying a green egg.

On February 15, I removed the 3 Opal cockerels that have a copy of the white egg gene, leaving only the 2 that have 2 copies of the blue egg gene. It takes some time to ensure the hens are not retaining sperm from the removed cockerels, but once that passes, the probabilities change. Since only 1 copy of the blue egg gene is needed to turn the daughters eggs green, the chance of green eggs will go to 100% very soon.

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Genetic testing of chickens

I have started using a genetic testing laboratory in Florida to test some of my breeders for the blue egg gene. The process is easy, but not cheap, and results can be disappointing. This last batch I tested all 5 of my Opal Legbar cockerels and 2 of the best looking pullets. The entire flock was sired by a genetically tested cockerel that was homozygous for blue eggs, so the expected results were to get at least half the flock to test homozygous (meaning they have 2 copies of the blue egg gene and so will breed “true” for blue eggs).

Of the 3 cockerels, only 2 were homozygous. I have since removed the other 3 to the “bull pen” where extra roosters live. This means that soon, all the eggs I collect from the Opals will produce chicks that have at least 1 copy of the blue egg gene (and therefore lay blue eggs, as that trait is dominant over white eggs). The conclusion from all this is that starting in April, every Opal pullet chick that hatches will have a (nearly) 100% chance of laying blue eggs. I say nearly because is it possible for a pullet to store sperm from one of the removed cockerels for several weeks, but generally breeders observe that the more recent breedings take precedence over the older breeding, making this less and less likely as time passes.

Now, as for the 2 pullets, they both tested heterozygous. That means they will lay blue eggs (and they do), but half their offspring will inherit a gene for white eggs. This makes them less valuable as the genetic basis for future breeders, as all their offspring would need to be tested to see if they were homozygous.

In a week or 2, I will be sending off samples of other pullets to test. Once I identify 1 or more homozygous pullets, they can be paired with one of the 2 cockerels and will be the foundation of next year’s flock of all homozygous Opal Legbars.

Good breeding practices can be tedious and/or expensive, but it is necessary to advance the breeding of these exciting birds.

If you would like info about the lab that does the testing, their website is https://iqbirdtesting.com/

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Locally bred and hatched poultry

Are you concerned that when you buy chicks some might turn out to be roosters? Very disappointing, and in most cases the seller is not going to help you with your problem. You can buy from us with confidence because we breed several different breeds that are easily sexable as chicks, and I will stand behind that by replacing (if I have a suitable replacement pullet) or refunding your money.

We can do this because we use the genetics of chick down color to show the sex of each chick as it hatches. With the autosexing breeds, the difference is substantial, making them sexable as soon as they are hatched. Read about our guarantee here

There are details about each breed we raise in the links above. All chicks will be vaccinated for Marek’s. Please read our page on vaccinations for information about caring for vaccinated chicks. Only chickens get Marek’s, so ducks, turkeys, guineas and quail are not vaccinated.

We try to keep the availability page sort of up to date, but this is a challenge as some go quickly. There is also a waiting list I can add you too, but honestly this is difficult to keep up with as well.

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Isabel Crele Welsummers

My highest priority project is to add the gene for lavender into my line of Gold Welbars. I am now on the F4 generation for this project and making good progress. Egg color has been lighter than I want, but this generation has started to come close to the color of the Welbar and Lavender Marans. This pic shows the darkest egg gathered in the last 3 days from 4 different breeds, left to right:

  • Isabel Crele Welsummer pullet (Gold Welbar + the lavender gene)
  • Lavender Marans
  • Crele Welsummer (Welbar)
  • Copper Marans
Eggs of various dark egg layers

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Changes for 2023

Every year I “tweak” the way things are run with chick hatching. Mostly that is getting some new breeds and getting rid of other breeds. In 2023, I am planning to cut back on the numbers of chicks I hatch for sale. Most of my flocks are smaller now and will produce fewer eggs than last year. I want to concentrate more on my genetics work to create new color varieties. For anyone wanting new and unique birds for their flocks, I will often have surplus chicks with great genetic variation.

Breeds that are new in 2023

In 2022, I added several new breeds of chickens, plus my first geese. After expanding my flocks, I should have these to sell in 2023:

  • Ayam cemani – these chickens are almost mythical. All black, and I mean completely black. Their blood is red and their eggs are normal (light brown), but everything else is jet black – eyes, skin,combs,wattles,flesh, even their bones. These are prized for their meat in some Asian cultures, but are really just pet chickens, IMO.
  • Ayam ketawa – the Laughing Chicken. These are close to wild jungle fowl in appearance and behavior. Rooster’s laugh is supposed to sound like laughter. Haven’t found that to be true in my flock yet.
  • True Blue Opal Legbars – Previous years, the Opal Legbar chicks could end up laying light brown eggs instead of blue. Because of breakthroughs in genetic blood tests, I hope to use only roosters with 2 copies of the blue egg gene, guaranteeing that their daughters will lay blue eggs.
  • Sexlinked Ameraucanas in black and lavender – These are the culmination of years of genetic work to overcome the greatest drawback of standard bred Ameraucanas – they are not sexable at hatch. These sexlinks are sexable, and they are pure Ameraucanas. Blacks are easily sexed, lavenders a bit harder, but still sexable at a much younger age than the Ameraucanas I used to sell as straight run only.
  • Sexlinked Olive Eggers – These were new in 2022. What is new this year is that I am using Copper Marans instead of lavender Marans for the black sexlinks. Hopefully that will produce darker green eggs.
  • Lavender Olive Egger project – Unique line of autosexing lavender birds that lay medium brown or olive colored eggs. Project is still not complete, but offering some of these for sale for the first time. They are Welsummers that contain genes for sexlinked barring (making them autosexing) and lavender, as well as some having a copy of the blue egg gene making their eggs dark green.
  • Jumbo Coturnix quail – 2 color varieties and a sexlinked hybrid of the 2 for those interested in raising all females for egg production
  • Shetland ducks – a lightweight egg layer breed that is calmer than the Campbells and Welsh Harlequins I have raised in past years. They are also super rare, so having more people keep flocks of these is a help in conserving them.
  • Hybrid laying ducks – I am taking hints from Metzer’s hatchery. They sell a hybrid duck called a Golden 300. They don’t say what they use to create the hybrid, but looking at the pictures, it seems pretty obvious that they are using Khaki Campbell drakes over Blue or Black Swedish hens. The Campbells are top-notch layers, but much too nervous for my taste. My flock of Shetland ducks are much calmer, more like the Swedish breed, but lighter in weight, and a result, probably better and more efficient layers, so why not use them instead of Swedish? I recently obtained some nice looking Khaki drakes and will be pairing them with some of the Shetland ducks. This will be a new cross, so no track record here, but if you are looking for locally bred laying ducks, I think these may be just the ticket. My goal with this hybrid are ducks that look like, and lay like, pure Khaki Campbells, but have a calmer disposition. Oh, and as a bonus, the ducklings are sex-linked, males will be black and females will be khaki (brown).
  • Pilgrim geese – Autosexing geese. These are medium sized and a very practical breed if you want to try adding geese to your flock. Goslings that are hand reared become deeply imprinted on humans. Geese are often used for protection of other birds. They are large and can be intimidating for the smaller predators.

Breeds that are being retired in 2023

This will be the last year I have these chicks available. I would love to find a local breeder to take over supplying these chicks. Contact me if you are interested.

  • Lavender Marans (keeping Copper Marans)
  • Lavender Cochin bantams (keeping mottled frizzles)
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Incubation Notes

Cleaning eggs to be incubated

I often have some very dirty eggs that I want to try to hatch. That is not ideal, but for valuable eggs it is worth trying. Some days it seems like all of the eggs I collect are dirty. The recommendation is to wash them in water that is 10 – 15 degrees warmer than the egg. This prevents the porous shell from pulling the dirty water and any contaminants into the shell. I have been doing this for some time now, and for the last year I have used Tek Trol to disinfect the incubator and the eggs.

Hatching in tabletop incubators

I incubate eggs in cabinet incubators, but I try not to hatch chicks in those, as it creates quite a mess and also, I prefer to raise the humidity and drop the temps for hatching. Because the environment needed for hatching is somewhat different, I prefer to hatch in tabletop incubators, not cabinets.

Temperatures

  • Incubation 99.5 to 100
  • Hatching 98.5 to 99.5

Humidity

  • Incubation 30% – 40%
  • Hatching 60% to 95%

The biggest issue I have with the cheap styrofoam incubators is that they are underpowered and hard to clean. The Genesis from GQF is the exception regarding power, it is digital and has a much more powerful heating element – but it costs more. During hatch, chicks are not nearly as sensitive to cooler temps. They are, after all, mere hours away from being housed in a brooder that is kept around 95 degrees. This makes the cheap incubators more valuable for hatching than for the actual incubation period.

Cleaning styrofoam incubators is another matter. Anything that touches the styrofoam tends to stick or even embed itself. Better made, hard plastic incubators like the Brinseas or R-COM’s are a breeze to clean. To prevent a hard to clean mess, I line the bottom of the styrofoam incubator with a disposable “puppy pad”, like this: 

Cleaning styrofoam incubators is another matter. Anything that touches the styrofoam tends to stick or even embed itself. Better made, hard plastic incubators like the Brinseas or R-COM’s are a breeze to clean. To prevent a hard to clean mess, I line the bottom of the styrofoam incubator with a disposable  puppy pad. You could try reusable cloth towel that are thoroughly washed between hatches, but I find the disposable pads save me a lot of time. Put the pad in first, then the plastic bottom that holds water. Some water might wick up the towels when you are filling the humidity channels, but it will dry safely.

I hate the metal grid that came with my incubator. Plastic grids work much better. If you only have the metal, buy some coarse needlepoint canvas from the craft store. take measurements with you when purchasing, you will need to cut to size.

On top of the grid, I used rubberized shelf liner, overlapping as needed. This stuff is reusable, but it gets quite dirty and will need soaking for a while after each use.

Finally, the unit is turned on and brought up to temperature. This is where the more powerful units really save time. The Genesis can come up to temp in an hour or less. When the temps are where you want them, meaning the interior of the incubator and the water in the bottom are warmed, you can move the eggs into the hatcher.

Separating chicks in the hatcher

What to do if you are hatching multiple breeds or pens and can’t be sure you can tell the chicks apart? You can use mesh bags to keep the chicks separate in the hatcher. I use these supplies:

These baskets have smooth bottoms, so always line them with the non-slip shelf liner. The bags zip closed. I put the eggs into a basket then put it basket and all, into a bag and zip it shut. I fold the extra part of the bag under the basket, then put it into the hatcher.

Thermometers

I want to explain the ones I use and why.

  • cheap digital humidistat and thermometer combos with sensor on a wire that make it placeable anywhere. I put these in every incubator, sometimes several. Good to glance at often as they are precise enough to show issues like faulty thermostats or heating elements. Humidity is usually “close enough” to accurate.
  • IR “gun” – these are so fun to use, esp if they have a laser pointer. I use these for checking floor temps in brooders. Did you know chicks will chase a red laser dot like a cat?
  • Braun ThermoScan 5 Digital Ear Thermometer (IRT6500US) Just got this, but it will be my goto for spot checking the incubators and tuning their thermostats. This is what commercial hatcheries use and their incubator manufacturers recommend. It is a contact thermometer that takes about a second to register a temp of the egg shell. Take the temp around the widest part of the egg, and take several egg shell temps. The “ideal” is 100.2, but .5 either side is acceptable. I tested mine on the few eggs I have in my Brinsea cabinet and they were 100.2. I have been getting very high hatches in that incubator, so now I can tune all my others to be this same temp.

Price shop for the Braun, I have seen it for $29 and another place was over $100 for the same model. The 6 and 7 models are more expensive, but the extra features (remember more past temps, adjust the display color for different temps to indicate fever) are not useful for egg temps.

Last year I used a child’s digital thermometer to check my other thermometers. Not doing that anymore, now I intend to adjust each thermostat to keep the egg shell temp and note the readings of the other thermometers in each incubator, so I can pick up variances quickly, but always go to the Braun for the real check.

Documentation

Incubation HandbookDownload
Incubation Temperature ChartDownload
RCOM Max 20Download
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Cabinet Incubators

I have experience with several makes and models of cabinet incubators.

Reviews

Dickey Incubators

Cheapest to buy new. Sturdy, all wood construction. Excellent basic incubator, this is certainly the best value for the money.

GQF Manufacturing

These are the most commonly used in the US. Parts are readily available from multiple vendors. Often available used and used ones can be a great value if you are handy and can take them apart to clean and replace any parts that have failed. Middle of the road, this is a good choice for a first cabinet, as lots of people can help you with use, care and maintenance.

Brinsea

Imported from the UK, these are expensive to buy and parts are expensive, if you can even find them in the US. New, they come more complete than the others, including egg trays and spacers that are extra for the others. All that said, this is where I put my most valuable eggs, the ones that can be tricky to hatch (geese, peafowl, etc).

General Comments

  • Why do all the manufacturers insist on using cheap hardware? These are major investments that people intend to use for decades, so why not use stainless hardware to avoid the inevitable rust? It could not cost that much extra when building them and you would gain a reputation for quality just from that alone! It just makes sense.
  • Brinsea and R-COM are the top of the line in non-commercial incubators. If you have the money to invest, buy them instead of the cheaper domestic incubators, you will have better hatches. It is interesting to me that on the Strombergs page the Brinsea 580 is exactly twice the price of a GQF 1502, and the 580 holds exactly twice as many eggs. I see many cases where people get 2 or more 1502’s. If you planned to buy 2 1502’s, why not get the Brinsea 580 instead? If I were starting over buyng incubators, that is what I would do.

Documentation

GQF Cabinet Model 2013Download

Follow these instructions to re-calibrate your Command Center 3258

  1. Set your LCD to (SET TEMP 100) degrees and give the incubator time to stabilize.
  2. Turn off the incubator 
  3. Press the Cooler and the Auto buttons at the same time and hold them down
  4. While holding these buttons down, turn power back on to incubator… hold buttons for (6) seconds
  5. After holding the two buttons for at least (6) seconds, release them.
  6. You will see “SET TEMP” and either a (+ or – number) (example: -1.0)  The factory default is -1.2
  7. Use the temperature up or down button to adjust the command center.  (Ex.  If you are 1 degree high (101), then you’ll need to use the cooler button to lower temp. – 1 degree) You can add or take away temperature until it matches the desired instrument (thermometer/hygrometer) you are using.
  8. Run the incubator until your thermometer and LCD are reading as close together as possible. —- Humidity—-
  9. While the incubator is still on, press and hold the cooler and warmer buttons for 5 seconds. When released, the humidity calibration screen will appear. Here you can adjust the humidity to your trusted hygrometer. TO EXIT THIS MODE: Either press and hold the cooler and warmer buttons for (5) seconds and release. Or you can turn off the incubator and then turn it back on again.

Dickey Incubator Instructions

Brinsea OvaEasy 190,380,580,Advance Series 2Download
Brinsea Advance Humidity Pump OE and TLC KitDownload

GQF Incubator – replacing rusty screws

I am cleaning and refurbishing my 1502 cabinet incubators. I bought stainless steel hardware to replace the rusty ones that GQF uses. Why can’t they put stainless hardware on a $700 incubator? The environment inside an incubator is warm and humid, perfect for rust formation.

For future reference, or to help others doing the same, these are the specs for the hardware: #8-32 x 3/4 inch flat head machine screws #8-32 x 1 inch machine screws (only a few of these, but you could use them in place of the 3/4 inch ones) matching hex nuts #8 x 1/2 phillips hex head sheet metal screws

I will update this if I replace other fasteners.

Some of the screws were too rusted to extract. I used Duro Extend to treat the screws to delay further rusting. It would have been better to replace these with stainless before they got this bad, but sometimes you have to make do.

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Vaccinating Chicks

Equipment and supplies to vaccinate chicks for Marek’s

This is a reference list for my use, but sharing it with others seems like a great idea as well.

Specialized equipment and supplies

All of these links are for Jeffers Pet, but you can obviously look for these elsewhere if you like, they don’t give me any money for pushing traffic to them😉

Other supplies

  • small disposable plastic cups (for mixing partial dose vaccine)
  • small tweezers (to section vaccine disk and pull 1 piece out)
  • empty vaccine jar (or similar) with permanent rubber stopper (needed if you do partial doses)
  • small pliers to remove sealing band from vaccine bottle

Work area

  • well lit and clean
  • absorbent work surface (newspapers or paper towels)

Storage considerations

The vaccine comes with 2 parts:

  • Diluent – 200ml glass bottle. Can be stored at room temperatute. I have seen a recommendation for under 80 degrees, which seems reasonable.
  • The freeze dried wafer with the virus in a small glass bottle – Needs to be stored between 2 and 7 degrees C (35 – 45 degrees F)
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How to make money hatching and selling chicks

If this was advice on how to “get rich quick” you can be sure I would be charging you money for the info, rather than publish it online for free. The only way to make a million dollars in the poultry business is to start with 2 million dollars. If you manage to break even you are doing well. And you will be working for free, or at least far less than the minimum wage, such are the economics of this hobby.

If you really think you have what it takes, or just want to try, here are the “secrets” I have discovered over the years:

  • Explore your local market – see who else is selling chicks and how much they are getting for them.
  • Invest in premium stock from reputable breeders. It takes as much feed and time to maintain a flock of Easter Eggers from a hatchery as a flock of standard bred Ameraucanas. I have had people drive many hours to get real Ameraucanas, then pay 5 times what TSC sells their EE’s for.
  • Pick breeds and hybrids that have some existing demand. A corallary here is that chicks that you can sex (autosexing or sexlinked) will sell much better than straight run. I have found that I sell at least 10 times more pullet chicks than straight run. Your market may differ, but will still be very small if all you offer are straigh run.
  • If you sell pullet chicks, figure out ahead of time what you will do with the cockerels. Don’t assume people will buy them, even if cheap or free.

What breeds sell best ?

Anything that is sexable and lays unusually colored eggs.

Sexable chicks

Sexable chicks have special genetics that make the sexes look different at hatch. This uses the special case of genes that reside on the sex chromosome. Males have 2 copies of these genes, whereas females have only 1 copy and the breeder takes advantage of that difference with carefully arranged matings.

Autosexing Breeds

These have become very popular since the introduction of Cream Legbars into this country. They remain the most popular of these breeds, for very good reasons. I keep flocks of these breeds because they are so easy to sex and lay a lot of eggs, making them my best sellers.

Sex-linked Hybrids

While the autosexing breeds all look somewhat similar in pattern (because they have the gene for sexlinked barring), sexlinked hybrids are typically solid colored pullets. Not all the crosses you can make with sexlinked genes are possible to sex at hatch. For example, the color dilution genes blue and lavender make the chicks much harder to sex by the presence/absence of the head spot.

There are 2 types of color sex-linked hybrids:

  • Black sexlinks – This uses breeds whose base color is black and where one breed has the gene for sex-linked barring and the other breed does not. Female barred rocks, for example, can create black sexlinks with a wide variety of breeds that are non-barred. Both parent breeds contribute qualities to the chicks, so if you use, for example, a black Ameraucana rooster with your barred rock hens, all the pure black chicks will lay light green eggs.
  • Gold/Silver sexlinks – The very common production sexlink is of this type, a white rock (actually silver in color, which looks white) hen and a Rhode Island Red cock (these have the gold sexlinked gene). Resulting chicks are gold/red if female and yellow/silver if male.

Straight run chicks

Selling chicks straight run has benefits for the seller – you can raise any breed, not just ones that are sexable at hatch, and you don’t have to dispose of the male chicks. However, you will certainly find the market to be much, much smaller. It can be hard to even give away straight run chicks at times. Go ahead and try it if you are really that sure you can sell the chicks, I hope I am wrong in your case.

If you want to sell unsexed chicks, keep your scale small and do your research about what breeds are truly in demand. Polish are an example of a breed that even hatcheries sell straight run, because the extra males are quite useless to everyone. If I bred polish, I could sell a few each year, probably 5 or 6, no more. But if you find out what breeds are in high demand (and this changes from time to time), you can do much better. These are the breeds that were in high demand in 2022 and will likely remain in demand for a few more years:

  • Ayam cemani – the all black chicken that even non-chicken people have heard of. Some breeders advertise high prices to give these an air of rarity, that it is a privilege to own these birds. That is an entirely artificial market restriction meant to maximize profit. The other end has novice breeders selling anything that hatches from an egg laid by a bird they bought as an AC. Many of the cheaper birds should be culled, or at least not sold as pure AC. If a chick has any white skin, even the tip of a toe, it should not be considered an AC. I think there is a market for good quality at a fair price ($99 per chick is not a fair price, that is absurd!).
  • Copper Marans – no other Marans are as popular and you can sell Copper Marans for a while even if the eggs they lay are not very dark, but eventually your market will slow as customers realize your chicks are just like they get from the major hatcheries. If you want to sell Marans, buy broodstock from the best breeders with a reputation for dark egg lines. You might think that you should buy eggs then, and that might work, but eggs are risk and Marans eggs are extra hard to hatch, even if not shipped. The prices you get per chick are less than the AC, but the market is broader and if you can learn to hatch the darker eggs effectively, you can make back the feed money on these birds. It is more effort to work with Copper Marans lines that lay dark eggs, you must constantly select for the darkest eggs, which tends to make productivity and hatchability suffer. There are lines of Copper Marans that have become legendary for very dark eggs, but these tend to die out from inbreeding or other problems. Keeping a line healthy, productive and still laying dark eggs, is a substantial challenge.

That’s the list, I don’t know of any other breeds/colors that will sell as straight run with any regularity.

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The Future of Farming and Climate Change

In all the noise and politicization around climate change, I wonder whether we are spending our “climate dollars” efficiently. Government programs are notorious for being wasteful and attracting people that are just chasing the money. Most of the ardent supporters of these programs are wanting significant changes and grassroots movements pressing for those changes. The government programs seldom generate real changes in attitudes, simply procedural changes that are deemed to have a good ROI by the applicants.

One of the problems with our current situation is that the “quantity of influence” held by people is quite uneven. The average person has a rather small carbon footprint, so anything they do to reduce that will have rather small effects on the global situation. Some people invest huge amounts of money on climate-friendly infrastructure or vehicles. The end result is a significant reduction in their footprint, but of a small starting footprint, so the net climate effect per dollar is very small, really mostly symbolic. But a small number of people wield a much greater influence than the average. Executives of certain large corporations come to mind, but I want to discuss farmers, who also have climate change influence far greater than their neighbors.

I suspect that anyone that has not lived or worked on a farm has a completely wrong idea of what happens there. We see a documentary on TV about a large factory farm and assume the farm we drive by in our local area operates the same way. They don’t. If you were to talk to the farmers who own the small farms around town you would find them motivated by a generational pride because they grow food for the world, and a desire to provide for their family. Sadly, many family farms have fallen on hard times. This trend has been happening for decades and seems to be accelerating. Many farms have been sold off for housing development or rented to large farming operators while the land owners go work an off-farm job to meet their financial needs. The rental fees for their land generally cover the taxes and insurance, but not enough extra to provide an income. These farmers control their land only in the most basic sense of ownership, the choices about what gets planted and what chemicals are used on their land are ceded to the large farming operators that rented the land. Since the renters have no stake in the long term health of the soil and environment, their goal is to maximize their profits, often at the expense of the environment, especially biodiversity, which their land use practices specifically select against, as monocultures are most profitable in the short term.

Most farmers care deeply about the health of their land and soil. They understand that a healthy environment makes a healthy family, and take pleasure in “country living” that nourishes the body and the soul.

Farming is built on the principle that you make do with what you have and share what you can. A farmer can figure out the best and/or cheapest way to accomplish a goal, whether it is fixing some equipment or building housing for livestock. Given that, it is hardly surprising that farmers look at government programs with a great deal of skepticism. They know there is no truly “free lunch”, that all government money comes with strings attached, and start with the assumption that they will be worse off in the end if they join the program.

Is there a better way? For many years, the idea of Community Supported Agriculture has been suggested as the way forward. One version of this has become so popular that it is the only thing people think of when the hear the term “CSA”. But what about the farmers that are not in a position to grow direct to consumer food products? Is there a way for the community to support them? Is there a reason for people to support these farms?

Obviously, I think there is good reason for community support of small farms and farming families. The farms that remain in our communities are tremendous resources that can capture carbon, clear air pollution, stop erosion and the silting of waterways, and many other good things. They provide habitats for all sorts of wildlife, from native plants and pollinators to game animals. For generations the communities have benefited from the farms and left it to the government and free market to keep the farms afloat. If you look a the current state of affairs, you must conclude that that approach has failed, or at least stopped working in recent years. The renters of farmland actively try to remove biodiversity from the land in order to increase profits (which are often marginal to be fair). Even if the farmer wanted to restore the land to the way it was in the past, how can they afford to pay the expenses when no income is being produced?

Enter, the community. If community members who see benefits from a farm would step up to provide support, this situation could be turned around, to the immense benefit of the farmer, the farm family, the local community, and even the wider world. I am not claiming this will be easy, it could even prove to be unworkable in the end, but if we don’t try, nothing changes.

So, where to start is the major question now. I have lots of ideas to lay out here, but lack of resources (time and energy, mostly) is delaying an actual start. I need help. But why would others want to help? Here are some ideas that motivate me, or that I could imagine would motivate certain other people. I want this to be apolitical and non-partisan, so I am including ideas from all parts of the political-idealogical spectrum. To do otherwise would seem to exclude half of the potential participants. Good community land use shoud not be the exclusive domain of any idealogy, there is room here to meet in the middle.

Reasons to want community supported land use improvements
  • Concern about the changing global climate
  • Improved game habitat for hunting
  • Distaste for modern agribusiness and support of small food producing enterprises
  • Desire for a healthier local environment for our families
    • Reduced pesticide pollution – eliminate use of Roundup and other chemicals that could harm our environment, introduce organic practices
    • Reduced air pollution – lower burning of fuels, better absorption of pollutants by trees and perennial forage crops
    • Reduced water pollution and conservation – riparian buffers to manage runoff and integrity of streams
    • Reduced noise pollution – less running of large equipment, more year round vegetation to buffer noises
    • Natural lands for a place to enjoy nature in a variety of ways – hiking, bird watching, biology lessons
  • Preservation of historical practices and spaces
  • Development of educational and research areas for agricultural technologies
    • Silvipasture or agroforestry
    • Regenerative and sustainable food production
    • Pastured (grass fed) meat production with mob and successional grazing
    • Food forests, biodynamic and biodiverse permaculture
  • Sites to help preserve native plants and insects
    • Monarch butterflies get the big press, but keeping them happy preserves many others
    • Honeybee foraging
  • Social and economic justice – Sites for locals to create garden spaces and grow their own food (community gardening)
The Vision

I would like to see a local farm of about 100 acres converted from mostly conventional cropped land (corn and soybeans) into a perennial forage rangeland, with alley cropping of productive forage trees. Portions will be cut for hay, to control taller plants in the alleyways and provide some return to the farmer. Other sections could be fenced for rotational grazing. According to the interests of the community, specific areas would be designated for other specialized uses. For example, a local bee keeper might want a well secured area to keep hives of honeybees and a nearby field planted to a variety of nectar rich species. The field could be multi-use (open to visitors and contain non-bee specific plantings) but the hive area set aside for that one member.

The overall use of the land would demand certain practices, chemical-free and sustainable come immediately to mind, but different areas might have different target uses. The overall goal is to use the land in whatever ways provides the most benefits for our community and the landowner, intending this to become a permanent change to the way this land is used.

The Plan

First year:

  • Obtain contributions to takeover the land lease for the entire farm (multi-year commitment from donors)
  • Have the cropland prepared and seeded to perennial forage (mix of grasses and legumes)

As resources permit (could be first year):

  • Layout alley planting areas – leave in forage until ready to plant
  • Begin planting alleys according to plans
  • Fence and plant riparian buffer areas for stream
  • Setup specialized use areas as community members present the needs with plans for managing those are areas

Future years:

  • Erect temporary fencing for rotational grazing
  • Hay to be harvested in unimproved areas
Needs

Interested so far? Want to help? These are some skills and resources that would be very helpful:

  • Project management – this is a big idea with a lot of unknowns
  • Fund raising – are their grants that could be obtained? how much control would we have to give up to get those? what about grass-roots funding from the community?
  • Land survey and design
  • Ideas for additional uses
  • Ideas for additional sources of funding
  • Organizing communications – how to get contributors and keep them informed of opportunities as the project progresses
  • Financial contributions, both ongoing (for taxes and insurance) and one-off (plantings, fencing or other land development)
  • Volunteer time – planting, weeding, fence installation and maintenance