Posts Tagged: chickens
December farm stories
Davis Wednesday afternoon farmers' market can be quiet in December, so what better time to learn a little about what's going on back at the farms? Every farmer I talked with today had delicious treats to sell and a story to tell. Here are a few:
The fuzzy green fruit for sale today from Stenzel's Kiwi Farm was harvested late in October and has been held in cold storage at 32 degrees since then. The fruit will last about six months stored this way, allowing Stenzel to bring out what he needs, grade it by size, let it ripen a little, but sell it while it's still firm. When you bring your kiwis home, let them ripen three or four days more for the best flavor.
Give it a try - visit your local winter farmers market and learn some new stories!
To find farmers' markets in your community, visit the UC small farm program's California Agriculture Tourism Directory.
Any chicken can shed salmonella
Last month's enormous egg recall continues to generate news coverage about efforts to keep salmonella-contaminated eggs out of the U.S. food supply.
Experts quoted in a Los Angeles Times story published yesterday agreed that salmonella contamination can happen in any egg production system - large operations, small family farms or in the backyard. Chickens infected with salmonella shed the pathogen in their feces, which can contaminate the egg shell. In rare instances, salmonella infects a hen's ovaries and can end up inside the eggs she lays, the article said.
A Texas A&M University professor said eggs from large-scale producers should, theoretically, be safer because they are subject to state and federal regulations requiring inspections and regular testing for pathogens, including salmonella.
A Louisiana State University professor said the cages on commercial farms have slanted bottoms so eggs roll out right after they're laid, making it less likely they will come in contact with hen droppings.
Michele Jay-Russell, food safety specialist at the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security at UC Davis, told reporter Elena Conis when a foodborne illness breaks out in a large commercial concern, the problem becomes a huge, national problem very quickly. But that doesn't mean smaller-scale production is safer.
The article cited two studies comparing the occurrence of salmonella in free-range and conventionally produced eggs:
- A 1996 study published in the journal Avian Disease found higher levels of a specific type of salmonella in free-range compared to caged birds.
- A 2004 study conducted by researchers at the Poultry Microbiological Safety Research Unit at the Richard B. Russell Agricultural Research Center in Athens, Ga., found no difference in salmonella levels in free-range chickens compared to conventionally raised chickens.
Backyard producers should also take precautions to avoid foodborne illness.
Egg recall collides with California's Prop 2
As producers and government agencies continue to investigate last month's enormous recall of Iowa-produced eggs, California egg farmers are pondering whether new rules that will govern the state's hen houses will play a role in preventing or exacerbating egg-borne illness, said an article in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Proposition 2, enacted by a wide margin of California voters in 2008, will require egg producers to provide adequate room for their hens to turn around freely, lie down, stand up and fully extend their limbs.
A Humane Society of the United States spokesperson told Chron reporter Carolyn Lockhead that the evidence is "very clear" that caging laying hens increases the risk of salmonella. However, Ralph Ernst, extension poultry specialist emeritus at UC Davis, who helped write California's voluntary egg production rules, told her that cages "are more sanitary than any other housing system, period."
A farmer quoted in the story said the caged environment separates the birds from their feces.
"In a cage-free environment you do not do that," Petaluma farmer Arnie Riebli said. "You allow the birds to walk in it and you allow the birds to eat it. Believe me, all you're doing is feeding them bacteria. Would you allow a small child to play in his excrement or eat his excrement?"
How regulators will interpret and enforce Prop 2's requirements are still unclear. Some farmers believe larger, "furnished" cages will be allowed.
Dan Sumner, director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, said there is no reason to think that cages have any specific effect on the food safety aspect of the eggs.
"Cage-free is probably more dangerous when it comes to salmonella," Sumner was quoted.
Chickens, chickens everywhere
The surge in popularity of home chicken-raising is astounding. From cities to farms, more and more people are keeping small numbers of chickens for egg production, as family pets, and sometimes for meat production. The city of Davis, Calif. even had a “Tour de Cluck” recently – a bicycle tour of 25 home chicken coops in Davis (the tour sold all 500 tickets and served as a local educational fundraiser).The amount of attention and care that families spend on their chickens shows that chickens are a labor of love, much as any family pet. Every hen I visited on the Tour de Cluck had a name, and each owner assured me that their “girls” all have their own personalities. Some of the chicken coops were woodworking pieces of art.
Chicken stories are showing up in all types of mainstream media. Feature articles have appeared recently in The New Yorker (Susan Orlean’s home chickens), the New York Times (why Americans raise chickens; women in Berkeley who raise chickens); and a book review of raising chickens in the city), and in the CA&ES Outlook alumni magazine where I work at UC Davis – the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (backyard chicken farming, page 10).
Chickens aren’t difficult to manage, but like raising any animal, the prospective chicken owner should know what he or she is taking on, and should be a responsible animal owner. While it may be fun to muse over the fancy breeds, or to salivate over the thought of fresh omelets each day, it’s important to learn about housing, nutrition, health, local ordinances (which may limit the number of hens and/or the ability to keep roosters), and other pertinent topics.
Where to get information?
- Bookstore shelves are awash with chicken-raising books. Check your local bookstore or online book source. There are even chicken-raising books in the “idiot’s” and “dummies” series (The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Raising Chickens; Raising Chickens for Dummies; and Building Chicken Coops for Dummies).
- Sunset magazine has a useful list of books on raising chickens
- Sunset magazine also has a free download on how to raise chickens
- Backyard Poultry is a popular bimonthly magazine with special topics each month (breeds, health, nutrition, etc.).
- Your local Cooperative Extension or 4-H office should be able to match you up with chicken-raising resources. Here are two University of California sites with information on raising chickens: UC Davis Poultry Page, and ANR publications.
Whatever your reason for raising chickens — and the reasons are many — do your homework first and make sure you get the proper supplies and the breeds that will give you years of pleasure . . . and fresh eggs.
Gov extends chicken cage rule to imports
Egg prices will rise about 2 cents each at the farm gate when new laws go into effect in 2015 that require egg-laying hens be given more space to move around. California voters overwhelmingly passed Prop. 2 in 2008, requiring the state's producers to modify their egg production practices.
This week, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a law that requires the producers of all eggs sold in California - even if they are out of state - to follow the same guidelines.
In stories about the latest development, the media sought expert analysis from Dan Sumner, director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, who co-wrote a report that said the California egg industry produces almost 5 billion eggs per year and was worth $337 million in 2007.
Sumner told the San Francisco Chronicle egg prices will rise across the board because of the new production practices.
"People will eat fewer eggs, but not a lot fewer eggs because they are still pretty cheap," Sumner said. He noted that about 40 percent of eggs consumed by Californians are in processed foods or are "liquid eggs" that are not in shells and that those that are imported are unaffected.
In a story yesterday on KGO-TV, a San Francisco news outlet, Sumner called consumer reaction to the new laws "a bit of a puzzle."
Currently consumers can choose to purchase the more-expensive cage-free eggs, but about 97 percent of consumers choose regular eggs.
"This is a product that just about everybody eats and almost everybody chooses to eat eggs raised with hens in cages; and we take that product and make it illegal," Sumner said.