Teenage Mutant Ninja Chickens

Teenage Mutant Ninja Chickens – that’s what I am raising out in my pasture pens. There is something not quite normal about Cornish Cross chickens. Oh don’t get me wrong. They have their good points - they are fast growing, fairly low maintenance, and rather tasty – they’re just odd.

My laying birds eat to live. My Cornish Cross broilers live to eat. The voracious appetites of these guys can be a bit unnerving sometimes.

This is why I think of them as Teenage Mutant Ninja Chickens:

Teenage: because they eat like my teenage sons. However, my sons put every calorie to good use, whereas I wonder about the feed efficiency of these broilers. I mean they are always eating and yet they seem to be always hungry. It reminds me of American consumerism.

Mutant: these birds are not a naturally occurring breed, but are specifically bred for their fast weight gain and proportions. Mutations occur with a loss of genetic information and are usually not benign in nature. The overlarge breasts and legs of this breed may seem good for eating but cause some real issues for the birds. Lately, I have been more aware of the health issues that plague the species. I found a few large broilers that had stumbled on some uneven ground and fallen on their backs. They could not roll over to get back onto their feet. Some died in this position. I flipped one that was still alive onto her feet and she immediately skeedaddled over to the feeder, wild with hunger. Weird.

Ninja: There is an air of mystery about these chickens. They grow so fast you can almost see the weight gain happening. Chicken also makes really good oriental stir-fries.

Chickens: Well, they look like chickens and they taste like chickens. They somewhat act like chickens. They must be chickens.

Overall, I am satisfied with the end result of raising and selling these birds.

And yet, I can’t help but feel that there must be a better way, a better breed to try… some way that I can improve the pastured poultry model. I will keep trying new things, experimenting with different feeds, breeds, pens, feeders, waterers, etc…

I just won an Ebay auction for 6+ fertile eggs from Tim Shell’s rare Improved Corndell Cross breed. Another experiment is about to begin.

Farmers Market Update

Things are going fairly well here at Full Quiver Farm. We have had 2 successful weeks at the Vestal, NY farmers market. People are enjoying my wife and daughters’ good breads, pies, and cookies. This is no surprise to me since I have always enjoyed their baked goods.

What was surprising to me is that we nearly sold out on everything even though there was some real competition from other more established vendors. These folks have very professional set ups that make their products look like they came from professional bakeries. They each had a huge selection of wares. Our breads and other baked goods look like they came from a kitchen, which they have.

And maybe that’s what people are looking for – home baked breads and a few old-fashioned cookies that are fresh and good. No high gloss or fancy packaging, just real food.

As far as the chicken goes, it was surprising to me how many people have never heard of pastured poultry. They were generally interested in learning about how we raise our chickens and turkeys. Many were surprised to learn of the lower fat content and greater amounts of vitamin A and omega-3 fatty acids. We sold a lot of chicken!

But as good as the products are, we would not have done well at all if the Lord did not go before us and give us favor in the eyes of our customers. He is continually showing Himself faithful to provide for us.

Please pray that we will also be similarly blessed when we start a second market in Whitney Point, NY next week.

To God be the glory. Great things He has done.

First Day at Farmers Market & Recommended Poultry Sources

Full Quiver Farm at Local Farmers Markets

This year we will be selling our pastured poultry and fresh baked goods at two local farmers markets. They are located at Whitney Pioint, NY and in Vestal, NY. We really enjoyed our first foray into farmers markets last year in Whitney Point, developing good realtionships with customers and the other vendors.

Today, we start at the Vestal farmers market, which is a lot bigger and busier. There are other vendors competing with us who have already established a solid customer base for the same types of products. I admit to being a tad nervous. This is good though since it adds energy to our efforts.

Recommended Poultry Sources

Moyers Chicks: For best prices on broiler chicks. Excellent customer service.

Cackle Hatchery: Best prices on Turkeys, especially heritage breeds. Also, scores high for customer service.

Ideal Poultry Breeding Farms, Inc. I plan to order from them soon. They have an large variety of heritage chicken breeds available.

Robert Plamondon has some excellent information on poultry at his family's various sites. www.plamondon.com

More to come later.

Encouragement from Cumberland Books

I recently discovered the Cumberland Book catalog via Herrick Kimball's always excellent The Deliberate Agrarian blog.

The catalog has books that are "carefully chosen, lovingly described." The selection is wonderful.

But even if you do not order any books the catalog is worth checking out just for the insightful reviews and articles.

By way of example, check out these insightful words about why people pursue bizarre belief systems:

Back in my college days (early 70s), I was a major fan of a surrealistic comedy group known as the Firesign Theater. They mostly made albums, and my favorite by far was a satire of conspiracy-minded types, telling the story of Dr. Harry Cox, a fellow who spent his days researching and propagating wacky theories;alien abductions, psychic phenomena, international cabals from his trailer park in the California high desert. He referred to his disciples as "seekers," and pointed out that "there's a seeker born every minute."
The name of the album was Everything You Know is Wrong. About halfway through the recording Dr. Cox finds out something new and important, and breaks in to tell his listeners,"Seekers, I was right! Everything I knew was wrong!"

That joke points up an ever-present danger that faces those of us who deliberately seek out alternatives to conventional thinking.

When we see, hear, or read something very different from what we've always taken for granted; something about worship, or the roles of men and women, or cultural trends, or allegiances to political parties, or how to raise children, or what the word "fascist" means;we suddenly realize that our wisdom is merely received wisdom, that there is no particular basis for our beliefs about the matter.


Sometime, somewhere, we were handed an explanation that sounded plausible, and we accepted it without question. There��s a lot that can be learned when you approach such matters with an open mind, recognizing that your thinking on many topics may be more the fruit of cultural propaganda or a government-designed education than of careful study. But as we see in the example of Dr. Harry Cox, credulousness can cut both ways. We are in just as much danger of embracing a different worldview not because it is true but because it is new and exciting. Our latent gnosticism latches onto oddball ideas in the hope that they may turn out to be secret knowledge, understood only by an elite few. And by signing up for their program, we get to join their club.

This is the territory of the cults. Not just Mormons and Jehovah��s witnesses but full preterists and Oneness Pentecostals base their brotherhood not on the plain teaching of Scripture but on imaginative readings of a few passages. The fact that scholarship, church tradition, informed opinion, and simple common sense are squarely opposed to them does not lead them to rethink their ideas; rather it confirms their belief that powerful and malign forces must be at work behind the scenes, blinding the average man to the truth they've stumbled upon.

It won't do to ignore the dangers that lie in wait for us. Too many times we've seen friends and colleagues begin by rethinking the party line and end up parroting an even more outlandish alternative.

To raise questions about prevailing opinion without wandering off into the fever swamps of gnosticism takes discernment and humility. Many of the books we recommend in this catalog take a skeptical look at the conventional thinking on this or that topic. We think that they present the facts accurately, that their reasoning is clear and sound, and that their conclusions are sober and solid. But we also encourage you to read these books as a Berean would, testing their claims against what you already know and what Scripture tells you, drawing your own conclusions, and drawing them cautiously.

I have seen a number of solid Christian friends pursue off-the-wall heretical beliefs. I could never understand how such intelligent, perceptive people could accept such obvious spiritual nonsense. The wise words from Cumberland Books helped me to understand.

I am thankful to them.