Mainely Cochrans in Presque Isle--one family's busy life in northern Maine
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Chickens!!!
On Tuesday night Tim and I will be going before the Presque Isle zoning board to fight to keep our chickens. Unfortunately we have one very vocal neighbor who appears to hate anything chicken and has been bending the the code enforcement officer's ear multiple times over the last year. Because of her insistance that she has become ill from our chickens (200 feet away from her apartment) and her threats to "hire a lawyer and go to the newspaper!" he decided to tell us to get rid our feathered ladies. We've hired a lawyer to help represent us.
Needless to say, I am very upset about this. We (especially Jeremy) love the eggs. I also love their poop which has made my garden the best it has ever been this year. Denise loaded up some pictures or our set up, a few of our girls, and my garden from early in the summer.
Here is my proposed statement I plan to read to the board:
Good evening. My name
is Mari Cochran, and I am the owner of 65 Dyer St, the property often referred
to as the old Moscowitz house. My
husband, Tim, and I believe the keeping of chickens in the city supports a
local, sustainable food system by providing an affordable, nutritious source of
protein through fresh eggs. The keeping
of chickens also provides free, quality, nitrogen-rich fertilizer;
chemical-free pest control; animal companionship and pleasure; weed control;
and less noise, mess, and expense than dogs and cats. We purchased our lovely old house, in part because
of the large piece of land it sets on—1.4 acres, one of the largest in Presque
Isle. There are no houses or residential
properties abutting the back yard, but instead, other large grassy areas, or a
very large parking lot. When I retired
from the Air Force, we moved here in large part because of my memories of my
wonderful garden when I was stationed at Loring Air Force Base in the early 1990s. As I have matured, I have found gardening,
and specifically organic gardening, to
be my passion. Over these last few
years, my husband has built me a lovely area of 31 permanent raised beds and
two grow houses. We have compost bins,
but it has been difficult to accumulate enough organic matter to adequately
feed a garden of this size. In years
past we have had dump loads of manure, but in addition to be rather smelly, I
found this often seedy. And getting my
husband to get enough manure for my garden was tough. I am speaking of my garden so much because
setting up the chicken coop with my lady hens is an integral part of my garden
plan. Chicken waste aged with the pine
shavings bedding produces the near perfect compost with a 20 to 1 carbon to nitrogen
ratio. As illustrated in the “How to
Make Compost” from Mother Earth News, my coop is next to the garden. The hens love the kitchen scraps, and many of
the waste portions from my garden—radish or turnip greens, the ends of broccoli
and other cruciferous plants, to name a few.
The city of Presque Isle, with the Pay as you Throw garbage system has
challenged the residents to reduce waste accumulating in the land fill. With our hens, we have virtually no kitchen
waste going into our garbage bags, the exception being bones from meat. The chickens get first pick of our wastes,
and the rest goes to the worm farm in the cellar, or out the enclosed
composter.
The second major point behind our desire to raise chickens
is for the health benefits of pastured chicken eggs. As a physician with my own private business
on Main Street, every day I hear patients complaining of ailments that were
basically unheard of or very rare when I was in medical school in the
1980s. Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue
syndrome, Asperger’s and Autism spectrum disorders, mitochondrial disease, as
well as the rise in many cancers have become a plague on our society. The cause behind many these diseases are as
yet unknown. I have very definite
concerns about the rise in use of chemicals in our food supply to include,
preservatives, antibiotics, hormones, dyes, pesticides and herbicides and what
they may be doing to our bodies. I have a strong desire to protect my two
teenage children and to offer them the safest food supply that I can
realistically. We work very hard to limit prepared foods and dyes from coming
into our home. Our pastured chicken eggs
are hormone, antibiotic, herbicide and pesticide free. Their waste is also chemical free, so I know
what is going into my garden. In
addition, studies show that chickens living in the traditional
backyard-pastured set up have much greater in the essential omega 3 fatty
acids—much more heart healthy as opposed to warehouse raised chickens which
produce eggs with higher omega 6 fatty acids.
As a mother and a physician, I would never expose my family or
neighborhood to a potential hazard.
Instead of forcing us to give up our chickens, I believe our backyard
chicken coop/garden set up should be used as a model for a much healthier
lifestyle.
How do you weigh in with neighbors keeping chickens in their backyard?
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