Third Week – Have you lost your mind?

First the chicken update - these birds are HUGE! Over the weekend, I had to move them out of the pool and into a coop. They will stay in the coop until the b-day in July. One of the biggest worries I have about the Great Bos Chicken Experiment is having them meet their demise as the result of something else. Specifically, I really don’t want to work my butt off only to make a fox or weasel very happy one evening! This coop is movable and the theory is that foxes are great planners so moving the coop around every day or so throws them off. That is my hope!

So far, I have answered how I am doing this and how my kids are doing this but the third question that everyone keeps asking is “Why?” Implicit in that question is “Have you lost your mind?!?! You – a chicken farmer?!?!” This is a bit of a complicated question to answer.

It started out last summer when my book club read a non-fiction book by Barbara Kingsolver. Kingsolver is more known for her wonderful works of fiction that are now standard reading in many high school English classes (Bean Trees) or for being an Oprah Book Club selection several years ago (Poisonwood Bible). Then, last summer my book club read her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It chronicles a year in the life of her and her family where they decided to eat only things they grew or that that they could purchase from local farmers. It is an easy read and very fascinating look at what we have done to our food. I would HIGHLY recommend it.

Then in the fall and again in the winter, I was hospitalized with sudden and unusual liver problems. Long story short is that I was finally diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), a non-contagious virus that is a complication of the mono virus. (Way to complicated to go into here but if you want more info go to - http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/autoimmune-hepatitis/DS00676 ).

The liver is an amazing organ that does a lot of things but one of the biggest things is that it removes toxins from your system. So in an effort to help my liver out as much as possible, I have been searching for ways to practically eat better without spending a fortune. The Great Bos Chicken Experiment is part of that mission. Since I only eat shellfish and chicken (all other meats make my AIH worse) I thought we would give this a try. It cost me $50 to have the 26 chickens shipped overnight to me and $6 for their baby food (tomorrow I have to go purchase their adult food). I should net out at getting about 150 pounds of chicken meat for way less than the $1.99 per pound I can get at BJ’s. Plus, my chickens are not stressed, not pooping on top of each other and I get to control what they eat. The organic meat at my local market is $9.99 per pound!

So all this will help out with my meat portion of my food but in addition, I have joined Ceilidh Meadows for the summer (http://ceilidhmeadows.blogspot.com/). This farm is what is known a Community Supported Agriculture Farm (CSA). I paid to join the farm and Farmer Donna provides me a portion of her produce all summer long. I am very excited to get fresh, local, non-chemical treated fruits and vegetables for the summer!

Feel free to keep the questions coming!