As grocery costs escalate and concerns are raised about the effects of genetically modified foods on people's long-term health, increasing numbers of U.P. residents are looking for ways to meet their food needs closer to home--in their own backyards, to be exact. And not all of the harvest grows out of the earth. For two area women, backyard farming is all about the birds and the bees.
"Chicken farmer" is not the first thought that comes to mind when meeting Tina McDonald, a petite, 20-something laboratory technician who lives on the Keweenaw Peninsula. But McDonald devotes a portion of time each day to tending the small flock of chickens she keeps in her backyard in the town of Lake Linden.
McDonald's interest in owning chicken was ignited by two loves: a love of animals, and a love of fresh eggs. "I eat a ton of eggs, and the thought of fresh eggs every day was awesome," McDonald says.
Her neighbors have been "accepting" of her birds, and she has not had any complaints. In fact, she is not the area's only small-scale chicken farmer. One of her neighbors also keeps a small flock of chickens.
McDonald's flock includes two Jersey Giants, two Leghorns and three Reds. Preparing for their arrival, McDonald says, involved little more than building a coop and a chicken run and purchasing chicken feed. Daily care includes providing fresh food and water,collecting eggs, and keeping the coop clean.
Chickens are surprisingly easy to care for, McDonald says, noting that the birds are also surprisingly social creatures. In fact, her favorite part of caring for the birds has been watching each of them reveal their own particular characteristics. "They do have personalities, believe it or not," she says. "Some are a bit shy, while others will come and sit on your hand. They are very entertaining!"
While she enjoys eating the fresh eggs her flock regularly provides, McDonald's affection for her feathered friends means no members of her little flock are destined for the dinner table. "I consider them to be pets. I don't think I would have the heart to raise meat chickens."
Natasha Lantz, community liaison for the
Marquette Food Co-op, has observed a significant increase in interest in local farming.
"As people learn about where their food comes from, they become more determined to be less dependent on such an industrialized system," Lantz says."Raising bees and chickens is a relatively easy way to begin providing for some of a person's own food needs."
The co-op offers classes and educational forums on beekeeping and chicken farming for both experienced farmers and backyard beginners. "When it comes to bees and chickens in more urban settings, the Marquette Food Co-op works to provide a forum in which this topic can be discussed in a reasonable and educational manner," says Lantz.
At present, Lantz says, there are no city or township ordinances regulating the keeping of bees or chickens. "To my knowledge there are no U.P. cities (or) townships that have ordinances in place that specifically name bees and chickens in the wording of their ordinances. However, there are numerous cities and townships that are interested in allowing such activities. The Central U.P. Food Hub is currently doing an assessment of selected zoning ordinances and master plans from cities and townships in the central region of the U.P. to ascertain this very information."
Marquette Township resident Sue Payant became interested in beekeeping four years ago, when she and her husband attended attended a beekeeping demonstration at the
MooseWood Nature Center in Marquette.
"We were instantly drawn to this as a hobby, a conservation effort and a source of education and enjoyment," Payant says.
The couple spent the next year studying and gathering equipment. They joined the
Superior Beekeeping Club, and Payant's husband put his woodworking skills to good use, constructing the couple's first hives.
"We placed two hives at our camp during our first year of beekeeping. It was fun to watch the hives grow. We tried different methods of supplement feeding. We were obsessed with bees. It seems like we were always talking about them. One of our hives survived the winter. We have some ideas of what went wrong and what we will do differently next year."
Beekeeping is a more costly undertaking than raising chickens, Payant explains.
"The beekeeping catalogues will lead you to believe you can purchase a complete hive kit for around $150," says Payant. "This is just a start. You will find you need more hive bodies, frames and foundation as your colony grows. If you want to collect honey you will need separate hive bodies and a queen excluder. This doesn't take into account protective gear, a smoker, a hive tool, a bee brush and some reference books to keep on hand. Now you are closer to $500 and you haven't considered the cost of the bees, extracting the honey and how you are going to insulate the hives for the winter."
The conservation aspect of beekeeping is key to Payant's interest in the activity. "Bees as pollinators are essential to our environment. Thirty percent of foods and beverages we consume are dependent on pollinators to reproduce. Over the past 50 years we have witnessed a 50 percent decline in managed honeybee colonies in the U.S. I feel the small backyard beekeeping movement can certainly be of help while these problems are being sorted out."
The Payants' beekeeping passion provides benefits at the personal level, as well; they harvest enough honey from their bees to share it as Christmas gifts with family and friends.
Backyard farming "helps to remove the disconnect that industrial agriculture has created between ourselves and our food," says Lantz.
Payant expresses a similar sentiment: "My greatest pleasures come from caring for and learning about something living and the thought that I may be making an environmental contribution."
Deb Pascoe of Marquette is a freelance writer and a peer recovery coach for Child and Family Services of the U.P. A former columnist for The Mining Journal, her book, "Life With a View ," a collection of her past columns, is available in area bookstores.