Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 34 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and B.) Two cases of Alpine Aire freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $400 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo , and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, C.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and D.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.) , and B.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value.

Round 34 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

How Long Will Your Provisions Last?, by D.G.

2

Growing up on a farm in the Midwest I was exposed to the “self-sufficiency” mindset early on, even though I probably didn’t fully appreciate it at the time.  I can remember my grandmother keeping a large kitchen drawer nearly stuffed full of aluminum foil scraps, string, and assorted sacks and bags, all to be reused and never thrown away until completely used up.  Being snowed in for a few days each winter was never a big concern.  When the electricity was out we had propane and firewood to heat the house, plenty of food had been canned in the summer, and the worst thing we had to do was chip ice out of the water tanks for the livestock.  It seemed like a fair trade for some welcomed “snow days” away from school.

Like many of my cohorts, I grew up and left that world for a career in business and the relative “security” that a salary and benefits could provide.  Some 25 years later, however, it became apparent that the need for tangible security through diligent and thoughtful preparation was far more important than the gratification of immediate but not necessarily important wants.  Now having started to give serious attention to prepping only about one year ago, it’s amazing to see how the deliberate accumulation of “beans, bullets, and bandages” begins to come together as an appreciable stockpile. JWR’s “List of Lists” spreadsheet is a great help in the preparation process, but it’s at around this time that I began to realize that it’s not enough to just buy the necessary or recommended supplies.  I really started feeling pressure to organize more effectively and find a way to manage all the items that are accumulating.

With particular attention to the food supplies being stored, I knew I needed to be able to answer the following:

  1. Exactly what foods (type, quantity, & nutritional value) are stored?
  2. What dates are the foods set to expire?
  3. What is the value of these foods?
  4. How long will these foods support my family and me?

 

The reasons to know this are important and simple.

  1. I need to know how to consider the foods already stored against the list of foods still required to balance a diet (assuming you may not be able to supplement your stores for some period of time).
  2. I need to know the expiration date of stored foods in order to rotate stock effectively and be able to donate those food stores to an appropriate shelter or organization while they still have enough life to be distributed and used by those in need.
  3. I need to record the value paid for these foods so at the very least we can deduct the cost on our tax returns under charitable contributions.
  4. Most importantly, I need to know how long these stored foods will hold out.

 

Since I have a penchant for Excel, I developed a simple spreadsheet to track my food stores and help me plan for future needs.  This spreadsheet is organized in three sections, with several columns for recording information.  For purposes of example I will use a can of cooked chicken breast to illustrate how the spreadsheet works.  This can of chicken breast is 13.0 oz. and costs $2.00 at the local Sam’s Club.  The label says each serving is 2.5 oz and has 70 calories, 2 grams of fat, no carbohydrates, and 12 grams protein.  The expiration day is December 2013.

The first section includes the general information about each food, such as Category (i.e, Meat), Quantity, Description (Chicken Breast), Brand (Member’s Mark), Package Size, Serving Size, and so on.

Category

QTY

Description

Brand

Vendor

Size

Unit

Serving Size

Servings
Meat 10 Chicken Breast Members Mark Sam’s Club     13.00 oz.     2.50 oz.        70 g      52

The second section is for the nutritional content of each food.  This includes serving size, the calories per serving as well as the grams of fat, carbohydrates, sugar, protein, and fiber in each serving, as well as columns to calculate the total nutrients.

     

Per Serving (g)

  

Category

QTY

Description

Calories

Total  Calories

Fat

Tot Fat

Carbs

Tot Carbs

Protein

Total Protein
Meat

10

 Chicken Breast

70

3,640

2

78

–

–

12

624

Nearly every commercially available food product in the U.S. has a label which contains this information.  For home canned or preserved foods, a kitchen scale can be used to record the weight of a container and either a label from a comparable commercial product (such as canned fruit) or a food guide available from www.usda.gov or a good bookstore can be used to estimate the nutrition value of those items.  Now with all of this information I can begin to make informed decisions about how many people I can feed and for how long.

In order to do this I’ve added three lines to my spreadsheet.  The first is a total for each of the columns called Total Calories, Total Carbohydrate, Total Fat, and Total Protein.  The second line is used to enter the average daily nutrient requirements for each person.  And the third line is simply the number of people to be supported and the calculated number of days our supplies will last.

In order to complete this part the spreadsheet I need to know what amount of nutrient components a person will require each day.  As a guide I used the Daily Reference Intake (DRI) available from the USDA web site.  The chart below is an adaptation of the daily needs for an individual based on the DRI information.  For people four years or older, eating 2,000 calories per day, the Daily Values are:

Total Fat 65 g
Total Carbohydrate 300 g
Fiber 25 g
Protein 50 g

*Source adapted from: USDA. Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrates, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids (2002/2005).

The DRI and other sources of information from the USDA and FDA are extensive and can help you plan needs using more exacting numbers than contained here.  The complete data includes guidelines including by gender, age, activity level and even information for pregnant and lactating women.

In this example and for simplicity, I will plan for four adults.  Of course, you will want to modify these requirements depending upon the actual number and make up of those people with whom you going to share your food stores.  You may also want to allow some margin for friends and neighbors that will inevitably end up on your doorstep when trouble begins as well as any supplies you want to designate for charitable giving or barter.

Now let’s assume that today my food stores include a total of 160,000 total calories, 6,000 grams of fat, 20,000 total carbohydrates, and 5,000 grams of protein.  Using the guidelines above, and with the arithmetic formulas in the spreadsheet I will determine that I have about 20 days worth of calories, 23 days of fat, 17 days of carbohydrates, and about 25 days of protein.  The chart below illustrates these numbers:

 

Total Calories

Total Fat

Total Carbs

Total Protein
 

Total Values:

160,000

6,000

20,000

5,000
 

Average Daily Requirements:

2,000

65 g

300 g

50 g
Persons Supported:

4

Days Supplied:

20

23

17

25

 

Not too far off balance, but if your goal is 30 days of supplies on hand you might be surprised to learn that you have a little ways to go.  But nonetheless, using this tool still gives me a better idea of how to plan future purchases and the number of days I can support people with a reasonably balanced and varied diet.

The third section is where I record the price paid for each of these stored foods and the expiration date stamped on the container.  Instead of Expiration Date (it really doesn’t expire, does it?) I prefer to use the term “Donate By”.  Here columns exist for Price/Package, Price/Unit of Measure (typically ounces), Price/Serving, Total Price, and Donate By Date.

QTY

Description

 Size

Unit

 $/Pkg

 $/Unit

 $/Serving

  Total Price

Donate By

10

 Chicken Breast     13.00

oz.

  $2.00  $0.15  $0.384  $20.00

Dec-13

Total price is of course the price per package x the number of packages purchased.  At the bottom of this column I total up the entire amount spent of food storage.  This helps to understand the amount of money required to maintain a well stocked pantry or to replace those stocks when consumed or donated.

The one item I haven’t mentioned here is water.  Your stored water supplies whether in bottles, buckets, or barrels can be tracked using this spreadsheet as well.  However, since there are no nutrients to consider, I just make sure to divided my stored water by 7.5 liters (about 2 gallons) as an allowance for each person per day.  You may want to allow more for increased cooking or washing requirements, but it’s still very easy to calculate.

To be successful (in nearly every endeavor) you need a well thought out plan.  Since the accumulation of emergency food provisions is not likely to be done all at one time, and that those stocks need to be rotated and certain foods will be more or less available at any given time, it’s important to inventory what you have and how far it will really go.  I am more than happy to share my workbook with other preppers and hope you find it useful for planning and tracking your stored food resources.

JWR Adds: D.G.’s Excel spreadsheet is available here.

Letter Re: Steel Cables as Road Obstacles for Rural Retreats

Hello,  
I bought and read your book (“How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It”) and have read several sections of your blog, but I’m having a lot of trouble finding an item you mentioned several times – “defensive road cables”. I have Googled this exact term and all I get is your article quoted over and over. Can you please send me a link or two or three where I can buy these or other info that will help me find them. Thanks.   – M.B.V. 

JWR Replies: To block vehicle traffic from roads, I was referring to 1/2″ to 5/8″ diameter steel cable and cable clamps to fit the same. These are available at any logging or machinery supply company.  They are set 18″ to 24″ above the ground, and locked with large padlocks. If large trees are not already growing in suitable locations for attachment, then you should set stout steel posts in concrete. Used lengths of standard gauge railroad track work well. You can use a cutting torch to punch holes through the thin (side) sections, to thread through the cable. After the cable clamps are positioned and tightened, you should braze or weld a blob on each bolt and nut end, to prevent the nuts from being loosened.

An important proviso: As previously mentioned in my blog and per widely-accepted military doctrine, any obstacle that is not within line of sight (and line of fire) of your retreat’s defenders will only serve as a brief delay—not a true obstacle to advance.

Letter Re: Coffee in a Post-Collapse Society

Dear Mr. Rawles,  
I would like to add one more consideration to the post-collapse coffee junkie.  My fellow caffeine addicts may be under the misperception that their fix has to come from Java, Columbia or China.  Not strictly true.  Although it is not “coffee” per se, there is a native plant which can provide a caffeine jolt, hold off that dreaded withdrawal headache for you or be used to treat asthma attacks.  Ilex vomitoria var pendula, a.k.a. “Weeping Holly“, is the only native caffeine producing plant, and grows very well anywhere other hollies grow.  The preparation is a little different, in that young leaves and twigs can be dried then roasted to a golden brown and ground in a mortar to a powder.  To prepare what the Native Americans referred to as “the black drink” you put some powder in a vessel, add cold water to steep then add hot water before drinking.  The steep time and dilution need to be experimented with to your taste, but can be anywhere from a mild tea to a heart-pounding, nausea-inducing level of caffeination. 

Incidentally, although they are very pretty and wildlife loves them, the berries are mildly toxic (and the source of the very unattractive species name) and should be left alone. –  Chris in Virginia

Economics and Investing:

Reader J.B.G. suggested this article: World Bank: Food prices have entered the ‘danger zone’

C.D.V. sent this: Chris Martenson: Insolvent and Going Deeper

By way of the Fierce Finance e-newsletter, I found this: Is Goldman Sachs Too Big to Fail?

T.L.B. liked this one: What The Silver Vigilantes Understand That You Probably Don’t (Arithmetic, Human Nature and other Stuff)

From my friend Bob G.: 20 Signs That A Horrific Global Food Crisis Is Coming

Items from The Economatrix:

US Burning Economic Candle at Both Ends

Feds’ Exit Doors Close:  Inflationary Spiral Ahead

Keeping Capital In A Depression

Commodities Plummet On Demand Fears

Manufacturing, Inflation News Sends Stocks Higher

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:

Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.

He giveth to the beast his food, [and] to the young ravens which cry.” – Psalm 147:7-9 (KJV)

Note from JWR:

Today we present another two entries for Round 34 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and B.) Two cases of Alpine Aire freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $400 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo , and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, C.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and D.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.) , and B.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value.

Round 34 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Caving Caveats, by S.B.

I’m an amateur caver, all the caves I know of I found through a local college caving course which I’ve taken a few times. We learned from our instructor, a former Marine, with lots of experience, that most cavers are very zealous when it comes to locations of caving sites. Largely because graffiti pop-culture day-hiking tourists are so devastating to pristine cave environments, serious spelunkers will not share that information beyond their associations. I would not expect to find that kind of information resource online. Serious cavers simply won’t breach their own operational security (OPSEC) to do that. IF anyone were to find a source online, I would expect that database to cover already known tourist and day-hiker caves. I’ve been through enough such caves to see what unsteward-like conduct will do to an otherwise gorgeous environment.

Which brings us to the question, from a prepping or survival standpoint, are caves a viable option? I’ve been giving this some thought. I am presently deployed to Balkans and, unfortunately, separated from my lists, notes, and references. What follows is strictly off the cuff from my own personal experience over the course of a few semesters of adventure caving and my own hiking encounters. My intended audience are the souls who have little to no experience with caving in any capacity and who are considering utilizing natural caves as part of a bug out, retreat, or cache plan.

Caves and Mines are not a good first choice for a bug out, retreat, or cache. That is my bias, up front and as a general rule I believe that statement to be accurate. To be clear, I am a prepper that happens to enjoy recreational caving, climbing and rappelling. What follows are some pros and cons that should be taken into consideration.

Education

Caving is not as simple as grabbing a flashlight, bottle of water, sneakers, a sweater and heading to the nearest dark hole in the ground to explore. Recommended: If you are interested in prepping possibilities of caves or mines, first search out a local intro level class to caving/spelunking. The safety considerations are identical whether you are a day hiker wanting to casually poke around, or a prepper wishing to factor this into your contingency plans. An intro level class by an experienced recreational caving specialist is the best way of learning about recommended equipment, planning, and especially safety. What I cover in this article is by no means exhaustive and is directed to a specific audience: preppers who may consider including caves or mines as part of their G.O.O.D., Retreat, or Cache plan.
  
Underground terrain may be of the man-made (mine tunnels) or natural (lava tube) variety. Naturally occurring sub-terrain being perhaps a little safer than man-made: how old are those tunnel braces? Regardless of which you choose to venture into: the subterranean world is a hostile environment. Surface temperatures in excess of 90 degrees Fahrenheit will still yield subsurface temperatures in the high 50s or low 60s. Do not expect to find food or water and be warned that even your air supply is suspect. Any waste generated must be carried out: it will not decompose below ground. Cavers have to carry everything in and pack everything out. Light, food, warmth, water, insulation, etc… You can dehydrate underground and become hypothermic (all that cool rock and air will just suck heat out if you aren’t careful).

Safety
It is never recommended to enter a cave solo. Once well underground it is YOYO time. Cell phones and radios won’t work deep underground. Our instructor shared this story with us: a group of cavers entered a local lava tube. From parking lot to end of tube took 30 minutes at a totally unhurried pace, maybe 2,000 meters total: 3/4s of which was underground. One caver fell and broke a leg. Someone had to go above ground for help. After the ranger station was notified, it took 12 hours to extract the injured person, 8 hours of which were spent by the SAR team extracting the casualty: a young Boy Scout. Litter-bearing in a cave environment is way more complex, exhausting and time-consuming.

Now, in this same cave, another day group entered once-upon-a-time. On their way out, one of their party, wearing a hard hat, took a step up and received a concussion after smacking a boulder directly above her. In a different cave, a day group stopped to take a break: a man put his hands on the roof above him to rest, little did he know that when he dropped his hands to resume movement a 70-lb chunk of rock would have been dislodged just enough by his unsuspecting contact to fall.

On a recreational day trip this is how I would roll:

Four people minimum, with a “surface watch:” someone dependable who will call for SAR after “x” hrs if not informed of our safe return. Hardhat, sturdy boots (steel or composite toes would be a good idea) elbow and knee pads, leather gloves, eye-protection, headlamps, hand light, back-up light source (another head or hand light), extra batteries, first aid kit, a layer of warm clothing, extra socks and a dry shirt, day’s worth of food and water, a fully charged cell phone that is off, waste “#1” bottle (wide mouth is always better: think empty Gatorade bottle…) waste “#2” bag (Foil zip-lock recommended: plastic will not retain odor completely), as well as climbing harness, rope, webbing and rappel/climb protection equipment as necessary (which will depend on cave environment), for each person.

Why four people? In the event of serious incapacitating injury, one person stays with casualty and two people go for help. Admittedly, you could get by with a party of three but IMHO two heads are better than one (especially in an emergency) and what happens if an injury befalls the party going for help? A four-person team allows some redundancy on this score. A three-person team leaves everyone exposed to a single catastrophic point of failure in the event Murphy strikes twice in the same cave.

Obviously in SHTF situation, you might not have the luxury of setting out with a picked team, and will certainly have no access to front-country emergency care if something were to go terribly wrong.

Other Considerations:
Underground does not equal hard to find or easy to hide. I have a few Army buddies who find caves by poring over topographical maps in search of depression features, which they will then poke around the vicinity to find caves. Also, on topographical maps, mines are often marked. That secret cave or mine may be on every map for savvy eyes to find and explore.
Know your cave! One cave I’ve explored has five possible ways in and out (one is a water feature–stale, no circulation–which I would drink from only as a last resort). Another cave allows for a 90+ ft rappel entry, two access points on foot and numerous opportunities to fall. A cave with multiple entries allows for egress options, but will pose a security risk—especially for someone going solo or a small group. A single access point allows you to clear your immediate area and be reasonably secure in what direction trouble may be expected from. Such restricted access, however, may also serve to trap you.

Cave environments will vary from dry/dusty to moist/damp. If you had to lug a bullet launcher, take the appropriate measures. Underground is not the place to engage in a kinetic lead dual. Sound will be amplified in an enclosed space; infrared enhanced night vision would be a must in a total dark environment, but would only be an advantage against an adversary that is not similarly equipped. Ricochets are a concern of course, but sound and impact bouncing off of surfaces may have greater adverse affects if a roof or wall falls in. Of course…smoke, gas, and hunger would serve just as well to flush someone out of a cave, as would sealing all points of access to otherwise neutralize occupants.

Caves for Preppers:
With all that in mind, let’s look at retreat, G.O.O.D or cache possibilities.

Retreat:

Better than nothing as a last resort. Would still have the logistical burden of pre-positioning preps on site, which would only work if this site was on land you owned. Even at that, a day-hiking trespasser might happen along upon your preps anyway if left inside unsecured. A cave-in or collapse would also be most uncool, too. If you locate a cave on your property free of human traces (and animal for that matter) and which does not also appear on the latest survey map, then such a cave might be worth exploring as a temporary retreat, especially if the alternative is a tarp shelter under a tree.

Caves are fun to explore, and do generally provide excellent shelter from the elements (wind and precipitation), but would make a poor living environment long-term post-TEOTWAWKI for anyone but a small group of healthy active adults.

I can hear it now… what about those cave dwelling tribes of yore in the Southwest? Those tribes (many active, fit healthy adults) took many years to carve their homes out of cliff sides. A very defensible position considering they also stored their own food, as well as the level of war making technology available at that time.

G.O.O.D: If you have Leather Personnel Carriers (LPCs), i.e. boots) bug out route planned sound-of-music style it might be worth identifying caves along the way that might serve as a layover point. This is more likely to be practical immediately after SHTF. Besides competing with animals, other folks may have the notion to squat in any available shelter as time goes on. In an immediate SHTF moment, I don’t think there is going to be an urgent push to go check out every known cave to establish cavemansteads or hunt down displaced persons or survivors. Hope is not a good plan, however, and I would plan on cave-layovers to be brief: a night or two tops. Pick terrain that permits long visibility, exercise strict light and noise discipline and have more than one egress to choose from if possible.

Cache: A cave would make a pretty decent landmark; unless serious upheaval takes place it probably won’t be going anywhere. Do not leave a cache in the cave, unless you are willing to lose its contents. Flooding, animals, hikers, etc… better to leave a small cache discreetly somewhere nearby. So if you had to G.O.O.D in LPCs on short notice, you could take a route that allows you to equip, shelter, and rest periodically on the way to whatever-your-final-destination-of-choice is. This mitigates the possibility of discovering that “oops, someone beat me to the cave” and is now: either in possession of your cache or squatting unsuspectingly on it. In such a case, simply acquire stash and move on. Your object, hopefully, being to get to a safe haven (a la American Redoubt?) rather than pick a fight.

In Closing
Caves and Mines are not a good first choice for a bug out, retreat, or cache. Unless I know more about the structural integrity of a particular mine tunnel or cave, I wouldn’t venture further than the entrance unless compelled by urgent need. Nor would I trust the contents of an emergency cache to reside in a cave or mine under any circumstance—I prefer not to accept exposure to so many factors that could be mitigated by simply burying a stash in the general neighborhood. I also like having options: putting shelter and supplies in one basket doesn’t allow for enough flexibility if a carnivore or someone else should claim that shelter space for home territory. Caves make better choices than mine tunnels: they are less likely to be explicitly identified on a map than mines and have less risk (not to be confused for no risk) of collapse.

Caves could be useful to preppers. Just be aware of the risk already inherent to subterranean environs and redundantly cover each base to mitigate risk as well as leave enough flexibility so that you have options if/when/ever the time should come to operationally test your plan.

If you have good knowledge of an area, have put in the sweat equity to know what is available around you, and implemented ways to support your goals while mitigating risk, caves could be a useful option… or a death trap.

Chickens: Easy and Fun Food for Your Family’s Survival, by Southern Miss

Raising chickens is a wise investment in your survival, especially if you are now living on your rural retreat. We live in the deep southern United States, so it would be much different the farther north you live. I can only speak out of my own experience, so you will have to take what I say, combine it with all the other things you have read, heard and experienced on the subject, and modify it for where you live.

Housing
You need to have plenty of room for the chickens to live. If your chickens free range every day, less pen space is required. We keep our chickens in 10’x10’Xx6’ dog pens with chain link fence. The roof is recycled roofing tin, attached with recycled electric fence wire. In a pen that size, I keep one rooster and about 12 hens. If they never free ranged, they would need about twice that much room.

Down here, we don’t worry about winter temperatures, since winter is very mild and short. In the winter, we give them a wind break by tying either roofing tin, recycled plastic feed sacks or other tarp-type material onto the sides. We have chickens that are cold and heat tolerant, though the heat is the biggest concern.

We have a dog, which is essential to the life of the farm. He stays in his own 10’x10’x6’ dog pen with metal roofing, while the chickens are out free ranging. When the chickens are shut up in their pens, he roams free, checking for skunks, possums, other dogs, etc. He keeps them from digging under the dog/chicken pens.

Nesting Boxes
The hens need a quiet, dark place to lay their eggs. Five gallon buckets make wonderful nests. Wash it out well, then cut a hole in the lid, with a lip, to hold the nesting material inside. Put the lid on the bucket. Make sure it’s dry inside, then put in some straw, grass, leaves, etc. It has to be refilled often, since the hens throw the hay about, to try to camouflage themselves. If you wish, a nesting box can be made from wood or metal. Dimensions and building plans can be found in various places.

Feed

In a SHTF scenario, chickens could be fed table scraps, corn or wheat, and free ranging. While it’s ideal to keep commercial feed in front of them, they can make do with whatever they get to eat. They get a lot of green grass and minerals and bugs by free ranging. I haven’t tried to feed them without commercial feed. There are recipes around for substitutes for the essential nutrients, but I haven’t tried them. I do know that my chickens are healthier and happier when they free range, and it saves a lot of feed (money). Some people don’t want the chicken poop all over the yard, but chickens can be trained to stay out of certain areas. If you have compost bins around your trees and borders around your flower beds, you might want to make them tall enough that the chickens can’t scratch out everything. Compost and chickens make a great combination, since the chickens are more than happy to aerate the compost for you, and they get lots of bugs and other nutrients from it. They do not, however, discriminate against flowerbeds- that’s one way to find out which flowers are edible; the chickens must be trained to leave them alone by firmly and consistently being shoed away. They also like grapes, blueberries, pears and apples, so beware. Remember, they have a very small brain and a very short memory. They operate mostly on habit.

Chickens love cracked corn. You can lead them like puppies with corn chops, so keep it on hand, but try to not feed them too much— fat hens don’t lay too well. When training them to come back into their cage after free ranging, throw some corn inside the pen. If you can get a few to come eat the corn, they will call the others. After a while, they will come to you when you come out to the back yard, expecting to be fed. When training them to follow you into the pen, it’s helpful to pull their feed about 2 hours before close, then lead them back in with corn and feed. If you are fattening some to eat, such as roosters, feed them only corn. It will fatten them up like nothing else.

Roosters
Having chickens is a (fun) time commitment. You must maintain your relationship with them. If you are not out and about with your rooster enough, he will think you do not belong near his pen or hens, and will attack you. You must consistently and firmly pick him up if he attacks someone, to show him that he may be boss of the hen house, but not of you.

Having a rooster has many benefits. He is very protective of his flock, and when they are free ranging, he is constantly on the lookout for dogs, hawks, owls, possums, etc. Often he will send out a warning call if he isn’t familiar with some sound, and all the hens will hunker down and be very still and quiet. If you have a big problem with varmints, I suppose you couldn’t free range. It is important to keep the roosters’ spurs trimmed. I personally do not like the idea of removing them, since I do want him to be able to fight, but I don’t want him spurring me or my family or the hens, so I believe in trimming them, similar to trimming a cat’s nails. I pay attention to the phases of the moon, not to worship it, but to be able to understand phenomenon in the physical world. It is a good thing to trim the rooster spurs close to the new moon, to cause him as little pain and blood as possible. If you cause him pain, he will cause you pain. It’s best to do the trimming after he’s gone on the roost. Take a file, nail clippers, scissors, or a veterinarians’ nail trimmer, and another person with you into the chicken pen. Take the rooster off the roost, tuck him under your arm and hold his feet, one in each hand. The other person should trim off his spurs. Cut close to the end, then round it off. Next month do it again, and so on, until they are shorter. Work as quickly as possible, then put him back on the roost. If you do draw blood, don’t worry, it will dry and he will forget. The next morning, he will be crowing his cheerful wake up call just like always.

Hens
It is a good thing to have a broody hen to be able to maintain your flock if you have no electricity. However, if allowed to free range, a broody hen will often make a nest in some secluded spot, away from your peering eyes. Just follow her when she goes to lay, or watch where she comes from when she cackles, to be able to find her eggs. I haven’t had a hen hatch any eggs, since they are less people friendly when they do. A broody hen is much more self-sufficient, which is a good fit for a survival situation.

Hatching Eggs
I started out with Rhode Island Red chickens, since they are supposed to be a dual purpose chicken (eggs and meat), and my husband liked them. The Rhode Island Red roosters tend, however, to be aggressive. I then tried some Barred Rocks, in a different pen, while keeping the Rhode Island Reds as well. The Barred Rocks are much more docile, and make better meat chickens. And they lay as well as a Rhode Island Red. I am going to try some Buff Orpingtons now. They are supposed to always be broody, though the Barred Rocks are sometimes broody. It is possible to take the eggs off of one hen and give them to another that is broody, so a Buff Orpington or broody Barred Rock can hatch Rhode Island Red eggs. It is important if you want to hatch chicks to have a heritage breed, which all three of these breeds are. A heritage breed reproduces well, generation after generation. It is ok to in-breed chickens, though it is better if you don’t. If you are worried about it, you can get a new rooster from time to time to introduce new blood. Hopefully, you can find one of the same type, to keep your flock of the same breed. In a survival situation, it is a very good thing to start with as healthy chicks as possible, so that they will require much less maintenance with limited resources. Free range eggs make stronger, faster growing chicks. I have hatched caged eggs and also free range eggs, and much, much prefer the free range eggs. I won’t go into the details of how to hatch eggs, as the instructions are readily available. It’s a lot of work to replicate the conditions that a hen provides.

Raising Chicks
When the chicks first hatch, it is important to get them into a brooder box. You can buy fancy expensive brooders that work very well. Or you can make your own, if just for a few chicks, from a cardboard box and light. Put a thermometer in the area by the light. The ideal temperature for very young chicks is 95° to 100°F. Have an area where they can get away to cool off— a long narrow box is a good shape. In my commercial brooders, I have a red fabric homemade curtain to separate the heated area from the “cool” area. They can easily go under it to regulate their temperature. You will learn the difference between a frantic “I’m too cold” chirp, and a calm, happy chirp. If you hear the frantic chirp, and see them hovered under the light for a long time, you might put in a bigger wattage of light bulb and drape a towel over the box, being careful to not touch the light with the towel. It is very important to keep the box clean. In a homemade brooder, you have to change the paper out at least twice a day. A paper towel is a good choice to cover the floor, placed over newspaper to be absorbent. Newspaper is too slick for the chicks to walk on. The commercial brooders save a lot of cleaning by putting the absorbent newspaper under a net wire floor.

Chicks can be started on straight corn meal instead of commercial chick starter, but when they get to be about 3-4 months old, they will need lot more foods with more protein. Always make sure that the feed and water are clean, and make sure that they are always available. If you are using plastic water troughs, add a few drops of vinegar to the water. It helps to clean the digestive track of the little chicks, though free range eggs hatch healthier chicks that don’t have too much trouble with that. Baby chicks can’t free range. They are so vulnerable to cats, varmints and older chickens. If I was having the hen raise them, she would stay in a small pen and not free range during that time.

Problems
This isn’t going to cover nearly all the problems, but here are a few.

Cannibalism. This is where the birds (young or old) peck each other and draw blood. I used to have problems with this, until I found out that they only do this when they are terribly deficient in meat. Free range chickens get plenty of bugs and small creatures for protein, so they don’t peck each other. Whenever I have any kind of meat or animal bones that I don’t want, I feed it to the chickens. The bones can either be beaten up with a hammer, if you have a strong arm, or pressure cooked for an hour or more in vinegar water.

Thin Egg Shells. This is the result of a calcium deficiency in the hens’ diet. The cheap and easy way to fix this is to save all your egg shells after using the eggs, wash and dry them, and grind them up. Feed this to the hens. The more effective solution is to buy oyster shells and feed to them. I add both to their feed. It saves a broken egg if you happen to drop one or two.

Blood spots in the eggs. This is the result of bacteria in the water. Always keep fresh water available to them. Better yet, save your rain water to give them— they prefer it. Add a little vinegar to their water, if it is in a plastic container. Vinegar will rust metal containers, which will produce more blood spots in the eggs. A simple solution: cut a hole in a milk carton and put some water in it, and add a little vinegar.

Ant Killer
Here in the south, we have these wonderful (yeah right) creatures called Fire Ants. I have yet to find any way to get rid of them other than to put fire ant killer on them. I have to be really careful about it around the chickens, though, because it will kill chickens. It is poison, wrapped around cornmeal. If it is put down in the ant mound, the chickens won’t bother it, but heaped on top, the chickens will eat it before the ants get to it.  

You have to love the chickens to do a good job raising them. Mine get every little scrap of meat or vegetable I can save for them. They love carrots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, strawberries, apples and pears, peaches, etc. And they fight over any little scrap of meat. They love anything made with flour (whole wheat or white), corn, oats, etc. They will clean up termites if given the chance (so I hear). Chickens are so much fun to keep. They are an investment in my sanity during a SHTF scenario since I enjoy watching them. Farm raised eggs also make a wonderful cash crop. You would not believe the demand among people who aren’t quite ready to take the plunge into farm living, but want the best of both worlds. Before my first batch of chickens hatched, I had people asking me for eggs. I have planned to make a little sign for our road, advertising eggs for sale; I might get to that if I ever have any excess eggs. Store bought eggs simply do not compare with farm eggs. The shells are thicker and the yolks are usually a dark, deep orange. The eggs have 4-6 times as much vitamin D, 1/3 less cholesterol, 1/4 less saturated fat, 2/3 more Vitamin A, 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids, 3 times more Vitamin E, and 7 times more beta carotene than caged eggs. And no one will ever be able to convince me that caged chickens are happier than my free range chickens, and happy animals make happy meat and eggs.

Letter Re: The MGI Hydra Multi-Caliber Rifle

Mr. Rawles-  

I continue to enjoy your blog.   I read with interest Pat Cascio’s review of the MGI Hydra rifle. 

I can think of a one very good scenario where such a system is very valuable:  In a political environment where licensing restricts the number of guns that one can own.  The Witness brand semi-auto handguns are popular in Europe for this very reason.  One receiver can support several different caliber conversions.  Unfortunately, those same places usually take a dim view of private ownership of AR-15 style weapons platforms, so other restrictions may prevent ownership in any case.  

For most people, the Hydra is a solution in search of a problem.   The caliber conversion costs as much or more as entire, good quality firearms.  Certainly as much as complete uppers in various calibers for the AR-15 platform.  For the cost of a Hydra rifle and a single caliber conversion, one could purchase two good quality AR-15s in different calibers.  Or an AR-15 and a very high quality bolt action rifle with good optics.  Or a rifle and two good pistols.  And so on.   The parts swap process, although described as reasonably quick, is not conducive to portability or longevity.  Loose parts get lost in the field.  In SHTF times, servicing the Hydra platform to replace a broken part could prove very difficult or impossible.   I appreciate Pat’s reviews, but this one seems like a product that preparedness-minded folks should avoid, unless they have a lot of spare money that doesn’t need to be going to other, more appropriate preparations.   Thanks,   – Rich S.

JWR Replies: One other legal circumstance would also make the MGI Hydra a good choice: Locales where particular cartridge chamberings are restricted. In Mexico and France, for example, there are restrictions on having firearms chambered in currently-issued military calibers. This explains why both AR-15s and Mini-14s have been chambered in .222 Remington. It also explains the popularity of Colt M1911 pistols chambered in .38 Super. (Both 9mm Parabellum and .45 ACP are restricted in Mexico.) A rifle with quick-change barrels would be a real advantage, especially if laws were to change rapidly. Your rifle could easily be adapted quite rapidly.

Letter Re: Coffee in a Post-Collapse Society

Jim,
I’d like to put my two cents in the coffee discussion. I work with a major coffee roaster and I know we and probably no other roaster in the country packages stale coffee. When beans are roasted they can be exposed to oxygen for a long time with out going stale. However, when the beans are ground they do have to be packaged quickly or they will go stale. If our ground coffee is not packed within 28 hours it is sent to the compost center.

The comment about the coffee being packed stale because other wise the bags would "blow up" is misleading. After the coffee is ground is gives off a lot of CO2, as it gets older less CO2 is released. If you were to put fresh ground coffee into a sealed bag, the bag would in deed expand greatly. That is why most if not all roasters have a one way valve built into the bag, the CO2 is released as the coffee outgases and no oxygen is allowed in the bag to make the coffee stale.

Our coffee has a printed shelf life of nine months, but it would take a real coffee expert to tell the difference in taste if the coffee was several years old. – L.C.

Economics and Investing:

I’m sure that most SurvivalBlog readers watch precious metals prices closely. Friday on the COMEX was amazing: Spot gold at $1,486.40 per ounce and spot silver at $43.05 per ounce! At this point, it is best to wait for a big retracement before buying any more.

Big banks are government-backed: Fed’s Hoenig

Reader G.P. suggested this Daily Mail article: $5 gas by summer? Prices near $4 a gallon as frugal Americans cut back at the pump (and some even start stockpiling food)

Goldman Sachs Calls the Top in Oil and Metals: Clients Advised to Close Positions. JWR’s Comment: Given the market fundamentals, I’m dubious. But as I recently mentioned, this would now be a good time for anyone that bought gold at less than $750 to sell up to one-third of their gold and immediately reinvest the proceeds in other tangibles, to diversify.

G.G. sent this: U.S. Deficit to Rise to Largest Among Major Economies, IMF Says

Larry T. recommended this article: Chinese Real Estate Bubble Pops: Beijing Real Estate Prices Plunge 27% In One Month

The latest FDIC Friday Financial Failure Follies: New Horizons Bank and Bartow County Bank, both in Georgia.

Items from The Economatrix:

Stocks Edge Higher But Leave Banks Behind

Rising Gas Prices Push Wholesale Costs Higher

Senate Report: Goldman Sachs Behind Economic Crash (But the government helped too by not providing oversight)

Higher Prices Because of Japan Earthquake

Odds ‘n Sods:

Americans Saving Money By Purchasing Old Military Equipment. (A tip of the hat to Sue C. for the link.)

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Timothy R. flagged this: New Bill is Direct Threat to Ham Radio

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Frequent content contributor Pierre M. sent this: Yellowstone Supervolcano Bigger Than Thought. Be sure to follow the infographic link.

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Safecastle is conducting a non-fiction video and article writing contest that will last from March until the end of 2011. SurvivalBlog writing contest winners are automatically included in the judging. Safecastle is giving away more than $12,000 worth of gear. Some of the prizes include: Joey-XP Teardrop Trailer, list price of $7,065, an EcoloBlue 30 atmospheric water generator, list price, $1,500, a Katadyn Pocket water filter, value $320, and an Excalibur 9-Tray Dehydrators, value $275. For details about the contest, visit this forum thread. Questions or comments about the contest can be posted here.