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Chickens and Compost

Your Chickens Can Be Amazing Ecological Allies
What do we mean by that? Well, we all know the natural world faces a whole host of issues. Sometimes the scope and scale of it all can be overwhelming. We FEEL you, we have been there. These days instead of being paralyzed by how bad things seem we put our life force and energy into what positive things we can do and slowly we have seen amazing changes take place over time in our lives and business. You can join us right now with one simple straight forward solution to a problem.
Problem: food waste going into the landfill and taking space while creating methane and other green houses gases.
Solution: Get yourself a little countertop compost container (it has a charcoal filter so no smell will be present) and feed
your kitchen/meal scraps to your chickens. Viola, your trash suddenly becomes food for the flock and richer eggs for you!
Interested in composting? For food waste we do not feed to our chickens (like banana peels, avocado pits, egg shells, coffee grounds, tea bags, ect.) we use this under the counter container. We just put it on the door under our sink and take it out to the compost pile each time we bring the food scraps to the flocks. Easy peasy! We like to put our non chicken food scraps in our compost pile along with the spent bedding from our brooders and coops. The straw and eco flake we use are excellent sources of carbon, the chicken droppings are excellent nitrogen and the food waste balances it all out. If you cannot have a compost pile and live in an urban setting, this type of waste can be put in a yard waste bin the trash company collects. They will turn it into soil for you!
Pro tip: to prevent attracting rodents, feed your flocks the chicken safe food scraps in the late morning or mid day so they have plenty of time to devour the days treats before sunset when rodents like to travel.
With all of that lovely compost it will be time to start a garden! Before you know it, the few birds you brought into your life will quietly invite you to a whole new lifestyle. More time outside, more time closer to the land and your food sources. It is a beautiful thing!
Our Farm/Hatchery Commitment to a Healthy Planet
Taking care of the natural world has been the forefront of our mission as a family, farm, hatchery and business. In 2019 we were able to go 100% plastic free in all of our shipments. In 2020 we went zero waste and in 2020 we erected a giant solar array in our pastures so now every chick is hatched by the power of the sun.
We recognize that shipping chicks nationwide has a carbon cost to it. To offset in a real way, in 2020 we began to support the Children’s Eternal Rainforest in Costa Rica. Their story is nothing short of incredible (it was started by elementary aged school children) and they are an organization worth supporting. The acreage of rainforest they protect and slowly expand are the very lungs of our planet. The air we breathe is all one, supporting our rainforests allows us all to breathe richly and deeply! A portion of every single purchase you make through us directly supports them, thank you for allowing us to do that. 🙂
Farm Update
We are still hatching chicks weekly and offering them for local pickup as well as shipping. Nationally, the weather is beginning to warmup for those that have been experiencing long sustained winters. We can finally get chicks sent your way, yay! Many of you have asked about fertile hatching eggs. Back in January of this year we opened sales and they sold out swiftly for 2023. We will be shipping our first round of eggs this week for those of you who did place an order. At this time we do not anticipate having eggs available again in 2023 but if we do open sales again we will let you all know via this newsletter.
Happy Earth Day weekend everyone!
alchemist_farmChickens and Compost

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