Adventures in Backyard Agriculture: Raising Chickens

Posted on By Andrew Thaler 2 Comments on Adventures in Backyard Agriculture: Raising Chickens
Conservation

I have a basket of baby chickens. Your argument is invalid.

So you’ve decided to commit to a more sustainable lifestyle, you’ve built a Pico-farm and are ready to stock it with a flock of happy, egg-laying chickens. Congratulations, you’ve reached the fun part.

Before you go out and buy chickens, you need to ask yourself a few questions: do you want hens only, or do you want a rooster for breeding? Do you want to raise them from chicks or buy adults ready to lay? How big a flock do you want?

Read More “Adventures in Backyard Agriculture: Raising Chickens” »

Adventures in Backyard Agriculture: Dwarf Goats

Posted on By Bluegrass Blue Crab
Uncategorized

Following Southern Fried Scientist’s sustainable pets movement, two Nigerian Dwarf goats have recently joined my life. While they have garnered traffic-stopping attention in town upon their arrival, goats are not such a foreign idea to the old-timers in the neighborhood. Goats used to be fairly common in the urban homestead back when the line between city and rural was a little less clear.

Read More “Adventures in Backyard Agriculture: Dwarf Goats” »

Adventures in Backyard Agriculture: Building the Pico-farm.

Posted on By Andrew Thaler 11 Comments on Adventures in Backyard Agriculture: Building the Pico-farm.
Conservation

Several months ago, I began a new personal challenge to live more sustainably. I wanted to do something more substantial and larger in scale than the conventional methods of reducing your environmental impacts, which involve changes in habit, not changes in lifestyle. After many discussions, Bluegrass Blue Crab and myself decided it was time to try our hands at backyard agriculture.

Read More “Adventures in Backyard Agriculture: Building the Pico-farm.” »

New Scaly-Foot Gastropod found in Indian Ocean

Posted on By Guest Writer 1 Comment on New Scaly-Foot Gastropod found in Indian Ocean
Science

Megumi Shimizu is a second year PhD student at the Duke University Marine Lab. Since the news has so far only been reported in Japanese, we asked her to provide a short write-up of the discovery. The first scaly-foot gastropod, Crysomallon squamiferum, was found in the Indian Ocean ten years ago (Van Dover et al 2001), … Read More “New Scaly-Foot Gastropod found in Indian Ocean” »

Sea Shepherds of Pacific Sharks?

Posted on By Bluegrass Blue Crab 1 Comment on Sea Shepherds of Pacific Sharks?
Conservation

Palau’s new shark sanctuary covers 600,000 square kilometers of almost all open ocean, making patrolling for outlaws a bit like searching for a needle in a haystack. In addition, Palau is attempting to make its new sanctuary a model for marine conservation for other small island nations, many of which are more water than land. So the eyes of the Pacific, if not the world, are on Palau to set a model. And they’re going to need help – but the big question is from whom?

Read More “Sea Shepherds of Pacific Sharks?” »