The B Street Permaculture Project
Animals
Egg Chickens
We have a laying flock of about 30 hens who give us about 6 dozen eggs/ week. We sell these eggs to b-street supporters and the money we make is just about enough to cover the costs of raising our animals. We expect egg production to increase as the days get longer and weather gets warmer so if you've volunteered at B Street and would like to get added to the egg list, let us know.
Milk goats
We've been hosting a stinky boy goat for the past month so hopefully we will be rewarded for our hospitality with the birth of a couple of kids at the end of May. Shortly after that we will begin milking and making cheese. We have lots of recepies to try and are waiting anxiously to get started!
Rabbits
Our angoras are getting very fuzzy. We've been hand-plucking their fur as it is ready to come out but will probably have to do some shearing in the next week or so. The owner of the rabbits will take the fur and blend it into a wool/angora yarn that she sells in local yarn shops. We get to keep some for use in fiber projects with kids.
Meat chicken exhibit
As most of you know, the industrialized meat industry poses many environmental and ethical problems for meat-eaters. As a way to help raise awareness of these issues, we plan to install a humane chicken-raising exhibit that provides information on some of the problems with the industrialized production of meat (genetics, economics, waste disposal etc. etc. etc.) As a side benefit, we will be able to provide locally grown, humanely produced, organic meat for various social events that take place at B Street. We may also have some chickens for sale.
Bees
Disappearing bees are a problem that has surfaced all over the globe and there are many questions as to the cause of this problem. Some theories on why bees are disappearing include the use of GM crops, overstressed bees due to intensive management practices, varroa mites, introduced from Asia, the widespread practice in agriculture of spraying wildflowers with herbicides, practicing monoculture and cell phones. So far our B Street bees are fine and busy but that doesn't stop us from worrying. We love our bees and hope the low-impact top bar hive arrangement we are using will help them stay healthy.