In response to the starting of this thread "What will you do differently?" I had a major recurrence of prepper-ism, in spite of being a de-farmed transplant to urbanity. We used to cut our own firewood, make maple syrup, shampoo from plants, elderberry everything, veggies, herbs, angora fiber for spinning, weaving, felting and knitting. Then the animals: quail, heritage breed chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, quail, rabbits and pigs.
Now, in the city, how can we transplant any of that knowledge into a downtown core in a rented (grr) duplex with a shared yard, a**hole nay-boors, and govmint bylaws?? Stealthily, craftily, and stubbornly. Those might become my super powers...
When the food supply-chain breakage news started to break, so did my weakened sanity. We had already been slowly gathering extra supplies a little at a time in the event of needing to do a 2-week quarantine. Seemed reasonable. Until store shelves started emptying out and I swear I could smell the excrement nearing the ventilation device! My foot hit the gas, prep wise, and the aspects of that occurrence which are germane to this forum, centre on my new quail and pigeons.
In the city of Windsor it is legal to keep up to 80!!! pigeons, including the ironically-named "Runts", who are the largest of the utility pigeon breeds. They are bigger than my leghorns, nearly the size of Chanteclers, sweet, intelligent, and beautiful! I love them. We will eat their young. Muwahaha. But only when the trucks stop rolling. Problems include: rats and cats, owner is a newbie, limited space to house them without creating a permanent structure (rental grr), and no truck. Also this is a huuuge racing-pigeon area. Very hard to find stock to buy, especially during lockdown, and with auctions and shows cancelled. I think we got the last birds for sale this side of the Rockies! A guy recently offered to pay whatever I wanted for mine! Not much info or support here in squab raising for 'utility' (ie, we eat their young) birds. Also tricky storing huge sacks of feed and bedding with no outbuilding or garage, then where am I putting the
...Big change I made was to give up weaving (20-year hobby), sell my looms, thread stash, and equipment to make room for indoor birds. One giant runt pigeon without a roo lives indoors as a pet, but really needs a safe outdoor fly space. We have hawks here! Although she is likely larger than one, but not as adroit. Outdoors in too-small rabbit cages we have two pair of giant runts who are each setting clutches of 4. Fingers crossed. Their repro methods are so foreign to me. The young have to be raised by pigeons and cannot be bator-hatched then put on feed. It's more like with songbirds.
Am allowed two non-native quail indoors as pets, just haven't decided which of the 6 to keep. Heehee. The roos were brined and scrumptious! The hens obediently make me 6 eggs per day, also scrumptious! They are 5 Italian golden coturnix, and one may be a 'Sparkly' jumbo brown. The girls line up for "back rubs" (I know what they are really after) every time they see me and are exceedingly adorable! Got em off a hairdresser in town, who also farms. Joined a quail FB group with over 6,000 members worldwide, getting quail info and first-hand international covid reports.
It has occurred to me that if you can't defend your food supply, you may be just prepping for looters, so having birds indoors pleases my inner prepper. Bator and more birds on the shopping list. Am actually allowed an air pistol or air rifle here, as long as it is never shown to anyone, verbally referred to, or fired. Woot. I could fish, but...Detroit.
Gawd, this is too long. Won't be surprised if you ban me! Now I feel I have made up for lost time and am up-to-date! Can't put off doing my asparagus pickling any longer. Cheers to all!
