Are backyard chickens a need or a want?

So I suppose that for me it is the natural course to go from buying organic to growing organic. This past year I planted my very first vegetable garden. The only things that survived were beets, squash, beans and a few carrots. The cilantro, cucumbers and tomatoes for some reason decided they didn't like the weather. Or perhaps it was my soil. Anyways I am doing research on what to plant when this coming season and hopefully as I learn more, I have more success.

As my mind has turned toward more things organic I have craved many things. My latest craving or desire is backyard chickens. I wanted them last year but with a one month old baby thought perhaps I should leave it until the following year. Well, the following year is almost upon us! I have been talking about it so much I have the accountant excited at the prospect. We got online last night and requested a catalog from a hatchery just so we could look through the chickens. Our favorite so far is the black silkie look how fluffy it is! I must admit what brought this somewhat strange craving up is reading a book I had checked out from the library called "Made from Scratch: The pleasures of a handmade life" by Jenna Woginrich. It was a very entertaining read. The author is a girl in her mid twenties who moved from the east coast to Pennsylvania to "homestead". In the book she rights about chickens, bee keeping, angora rabbits (I want a few of these when the children are older), and so forth. Check out her blog here. Some of the tales she tells made me laugh out loud. Which resulted in the accountant wanting to know what I was reading about. So I would read out loud to him and he would laugh too.
So I have called my local co-op and found out the chickens arrive in mid March. They are only about 2.60 each. So the accountant and I have started planning. We have looked at many chicken coop plans. We are going to keep it simple. I am number 13 in line on the holds list at the library for the book "Building Chicken Coops for Dummies" and number ten for the book "Raising Chickens for Dummies". I think I want 5-8 chickens. Good egg laying ones. Not so into raising them for meat. At least not now. One more thing I must admit. I am not doing this to save money. Perhaps I will in the long run but that is not what I desire in my pursuit of raising them. I am wanting chickens for my children, so that we know more about where our food comes from. An egg is not "from the grocery store" it comes from a real live creature, one that walks around the yard eating bugs!
So come end of summer I might have eggs for you all! Nice organic farm fresh eggs. Doesn't that sound yummy? I welcome any advice you want to give me as this is a new and exciting adventure we are preparing to embark on!

Genetically Modified Foods: Get the Facts

1 2 3 next >> For years, scientists have been cross-breeding plants and animals to...

Genetically Modified Foods, Pt. 3

Are genetically engineered foods safe? Dr. Oz leads an investigation to find out. See how you can protect your family. Click here for more...

Genetically Modified Foods, Pt. 2

Are genetically engineered foods safe? Dr. Oz leads an investigation to find out. See how you can protect your family. Click here for more...

Genetically Modified Foods, Pt. 1

Are genetically engineered foods safe? Dr. Oz leads an investigation to find out. See how you can protect your family. Click here for more...

Article with list of RBGH free milk companies

http://www.organicconsumers.org/rBGH/rbghlist.cfm. They also list those companies that are only partially free of RBGH. These are marked with a P.

BPA. It's more places than I thought!

BPA: What is it? Why should I even think about it? I started thinking about all these toxic nasty chemicals when I got pregnant and even more so when my thyroid decided to not work properly. BPA is a chemical that is a hormone disruptor, commonly used in plastics and epoxies. It lurks in our daily lives in SO many places.  It is one of the most commonly produced chemicals in the world. Studies have proven over and over that there is no "safe" level. All levels of exposure to BPA in our lives produces hormone disruption of some kind in our or our children's bodies. In Canada it has been labeled TOXIC by the government. In the USA it is estimated to be in 70 percent of our plastics. Polycarbonate plastics to be specific often labeled with the number 7.
 It is used to make:
 Cd's, DVD,s, water bottles, drinking plastic glasses, kitchen appliances (like coffee pots), plastic utensils, plastic eyeglass lenses, water jugs used in office water coolers, hockey helmet visors, medical supplies, apple laptops, blackberry's, the lining of food cans, soda bottles, grocery store reciepts (Whole foods has one of the highest levels in their reciepts), newspaper print, recycled paper, epoxies, dental filling materials, surface waters, protective coating around wire piping, toys, used extensively in cars and trucks for things like headlights...
The good news about BPA is that it is metabolized quickly in the body, the bad news is we are marinating in it, so it is practically impossible to rid oneself of exposure but we can LIMIT exposure. Our highest direct exposure is through our food.
So if it surrounds me...why should I even try to limit my exposure? Here is why...the health problems it has been proven to cause( due to it's hormone mimicking). The short list of health issues caused by BPA exposure is damage in utero to future females eggs (damaging more than one generation at a time, three generations to be exact). "BPA also increases the susceptibility to prostate cancer, it reprogrammes the prostate gland and affects how it functions throughout life." There is a direct link between BPA and breast cancer, prostate cancer, increased obesity, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular disease. In babies it causes uro-genital abnormalities (male babies specifically), decline in semen quality in men, early onset of puberty in girls, metabolic disorders, and neurobehavioural problems.
According to lead researchers " It is not possible to envision any way of protecting people when such low active doses have such dramatic effects." There is NO safe dose. Pregnancy and early life are especially sensitive periods given infants body mass ratio to the high exposure rate. ( until recently it was in most baby bottles and unless marked otherwise it is what lines the cans of baby formula containers)
Your first question if you are like me might be "So what's the point if it's everywhere?"  Well for me my little girl and future generation is the point. I have to at least try. I won't purposefully expose her to what I know to be toxic. Here is what I do to avoid BPA in my life as much as I can.

• I no longer buy highly acidic canned foods like tomatoes. The acidity eats away at the coating of the can. If you must buy pre diced tomatoes buy them jarred or can them yourself. 
• opt for foods canned in glass or BPA free cans like Eden foods.
• Pick paper over plastic at the grocery store
• Touch your grocery reciepts with your bare hands as little as possible
• Avoid putting plastic in the microwave. 
• Do not put cling wrap in direct contact with food
• Do not use disposable water bottles
• When using plastic use the mantra 4,5,1 and 2 the rest are bad for you

Resources:

Our Stolen Future

Slow Death by Rubber Duck 

Websites: The environmental working Group

Zrecs