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On a recent visit to our family farm, I encountered an autobiography written by Iva Wells, a neighbor and family friend.  She is a woman has lived in northern Minnesota and North Dakota of her life and has chosen to recollect some of her farming lifestyle memories throughout her years.  Of her many trials and triumphs living the agrarian ideal, Iva writes about purchasing, receiving, and raising chickens.  Here is an excerpt from her book Family Life on a Reservation Farm: The Autobiography of Iva Wells.

Chickens and Eggs

To supplement the income from the cattle, most farm women had a flock of chickens to raise and tend.  Every spring, one could walk into most rural post offices and hear the peeping of baby chicks, which had arrived through the mail.  The chicks were usually in groups of 25 within each of 4 compartments in a cardboard box with small holes for ventilation.  The chicks were a common spring sound in the post office as they waited to be picked up by the farmer.  They had probably been on the road from the hatchery for two days.  They would be in good condition with very few fatalities because they lived those first few days from the yolk of the egg, from which they were hatched.

Jim built a very nice “brooder house” for my baby chicks which would be their until fall.  This brooder house was kept warm by an oil stove with a metal skirt called a “hover” around it.  I always ordered 400 chickens every March.  As soon as I would get them home, I would take them into the warm brooder house and one at a time, I would dip their beaks in warm water and then let them run to a feeder where they would immediately begin to pick and eat food.

The chicks would gather and lay under the hover to keep warm.  The temperature had to be kept at a warm, even heat to prevent the chicks from crowding together in a pile and suffocating the ones on the bottom.  Since it was only March, we could and often did have some vicious snowstorms that had me worrying all night about those little baby chicks!  I would wonder if the stove was heating properly or if the strong winds had blown out the flame!

Some March storms were worse than others.  One year, I had many sleepless nights and I would get up, dress, and walk in knee-deep snow every 2 hours to check on the chicks!

It is interesting to see the decades old tradition of mail-order chicks from a historical perspective.  The logistics and concerns of receiving chicks remains largely the same – chicks are hatched and shipped the through the postal service, their two-day journey is supported by the nutritious yolk, and warmth is the key for young poultry.  However, much of the technology has changed in the process – mail order catalogs are being replaced with eCommerce poultry websites, planes now fly many young birds to their destinations, and electric heat systems now take the place of coops heated by an oil stove.

The practice of raising chickens and other poultry has been a source of income, food, and fulfillment for countless generations.  As Americans look for ways to be more environmentally friendly, economically self-sufficient, and nutritionally more in-touch, examples such as these prove that we often need not look any further than the agrarian practices of the past to find guidance for the future.

Here is a cool story about Joe the Truck and Frank, his pet duck. Joe offers the very insightful tidbit, “As stupid as it sounds, maybe if everyone had a duck in their life, people wouldn’t be so mad at eachother.”

We occasionally read or hear about tragic stories of people dumping ducks, chickens, and other birds in dumpsters or outside.  There is absolutely no reason to ever dump birds in an environment where they cannot survive.  All birds, especially domesticated ducks and chickens, have value and can be given a good and purposeful home.

Many people do not realize that most ducks and chickens one comes into contact with are domesticated breeds.  Thus, they had their wild instincts bred out over time in order to achieve the most desirable farming traits.  They will not adapt to a wild environment in most situations, and certainly should not be killed or dumped simply because they are unwanted.

If you have ducks or chickens which you cannot care for or do not want, please do not destroy them.  These are several key options which you can pursue to find them an adequate home, all of which require little effort.

How to find a good home for unwanted ducks or chickens -

• Post an ad for free ducklings or chicks on Craigslist.org .  People all over the country raise ducks and chickens for a variety of beneficial purposes including egg production, pets, and as meat.  If you simply advertise on Craigslist that you have some free birds available to be picked up, you will receive plenty of interest.  Often time times, a good home can be found within a few hours.
• Look for people seeking ducks and birds in your area on farming message boards, such as BestFarmBuys.com or AgriSeek.com . If you find the right person, you may even be able to sell you birds and make some money.
• Contact a local farm or hatchery and ask them to take the birds.  There are countless places which raise birds for a variety of purposes all around the country.
• Contact a local wildlife rehabilitater or waterfowl rescuer.  While this a great option and a valuable resource, these valuable people are very busy.  Thus, it may be better if you attempt one of the options above prior to contacting a rescuer.
• Contact your local Fish and Game department.  Again, this option should be used only when you’ve attempted the first three options.

I recently wrote a blog post on the ways that ducks come to symbolize various elements of American culture.  Specifically, I explored how Scrooge McDuck embodies capitalism in the United States.

It is worth further exploring this notion in light of a recent pop culture display in Saturday Night Live’s recurring sketch Weekend Update, the ever relevant bastion of American satirical news.

You can view the quick sketch here  -

During this interview with the Weekend Update anchors, we see Scrooge McDuck (played by Andy Samberg) gloating about his sound investment strategy of owning pure gold.  By owning nothing but gold coins, he has limited his risk exposure rather than subjecting his financial well being to the ebbs and flows of the US stock market.  I believe this hyperbolic boast has some legitimate economic commentary.

The primary investment vehicle of the average American is the 401k.  However, did you know that you cannot directly own gold (or fine art) with your 401k?  Granted, you can invest in securities which have an interest in gold, but you cannot actually own the precious metal as Scrooge McDuck does.

In order to receive the tax-deferred benefits of a 401k, you cannot invest in a collectible since it creates little to no economic capital for growth.  Thus, the chief vehicle of American investing inherently discourages the conservatism that has yielded so much wealth for Scrooge McDuck in a cyclical economy.

There is a fundamental conflict of interest between the individual investor and Wall Street when the manner of investment is the 401k.  While a 401k can be an excellent tool to grow personal wealth, it also can be a mechanism for a relatively small number of Wall Street bankers to enslave the discretionary capital of the masses via enticement with tax benefits and the illusion of a worry free retirement.

Of course, the intention of the SNL sketch was not to illustrate this point.  However, when one examines the roots of Scrooge McDuck, and his evolving reflection of American capitalism, it becomes apparent that the financial practices which made him wealthy, and the fiscal policies which gave him and all other Americans the opportunity to become wealthy, are today being suppressed by the interests of Wall Street plutocrats.

It is also worth noting that in this SNL sketch we see Scrooge McDuck lament his freakish and isolated nature brought on by his fowlish form.  He claims that he was once a human, but the side effects of swimming in gold coins have yielded diseases polymorphing him into a duck.  He even goes so far as to say, “My life is like a deleted scene from The Island of Dr. Moreau.” This aboration of devolving from a human to a duck , although not a part of official Disney Scrooge McDuck cannon, is similar to my own commentary in which I wrote -

[Scrooge McDuck's] ambition and material greed have placed him up as a duck for sale, owned more by his riches and their ensuing responsibilities than his own character.  Thus Scrooge McDuck may be able to swim through oceans of gold coins in his expansive mansion, but he will always be a goofy, waddling duck – holed up to live in solitude in his fortress of lonely extravagance.

However, in the end of this SNL bit, Scrooge McDuck decrees that “It’s worth it! Gold coins!”

America has a fascination with ducks.  They serve as mascots, heroes, villains, sidekicks, icons, pitchmen, etc. in our everyday culture and society.  We’ve often anthropomorphically portrayed the duck in manner that is reflective of our overall mindset and values.  If one wants to truly understand the American culture, look no further than our ducks…

Thus to explore American Capitalism using the wisdom of our waterfowl, we look to Scrooge McDuck…

Scrooge McDuck embodies the good and bad of American capitalism.

One of the most defining characteristics of the United States society is our commitment to capitalism, and no duck embodies this American drive for wealth and achievement more than Scrooge McDuck.

Scrooge McDuck emerged out of the war-galvanized American ideals of the late 1940s.  He embodies all the economic opportunitites of capitalism, and the ensuing responsibilities and hazards brought on by wealth and achievement.

His name Scrooge is an obvious reference to the cold-hearted miser Ebeneezer Scrooge of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.  When one examines his fictional background, immigrating penniless from Scotland, and becoming and American rags-to-riches success, it evokes the notion of fellow Scotsman and robber baron Andrew Carnegie.  Thus in Scrooge McDuck we see that every American is afforded and opportunity to succeed, but we also see the dehumanization that takes hold when greed and materialistic gain is at the root of endeavor.

Scrooge McDuck often serves as a villain, evoking the public outcry of a dominant titan of industry interested in nothing but profits at any human expense.  American culture as a whole despises him as we despise Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Vanderbilt for their opulence and greed.  The portrayal of these characteristics in a duck somewhat satisfies the American psyche in that as one achieves more and more wealth, they become less and less human.

While Scrooge McDuck owns multitudes of wealth, in some regards he does not even own himself.  His ambition and material greed have placed him up as a duck for sale, owned more by his riches and their ensuing responsibilities than his own character.  Thus Scrooge McDuck may be able to swim through oceans of gold coins in his expansive mansion, but he will always be a goofy, waddling duck – holed up to live in solitude in his fortress of lonely extravagance.

However, our hatred for the capitalistic magnates is conflicted with our enthusiastic joy in the inherent and universal opportunity which capitalism and Scrooge McDuck present to one and all.  This is evident when Scrooge McDuck offers sound economic theory and puts it into practice.  As most of us carry a deep disdain for anyone higher on the capitalistic ladder than one, few of us would give up our own economic freedom which has enabled the financial success of Scrooge and others.  Thus we humbly acknowledge and respect his economic outlook, just as we currently do with capitalistic sages such as Warren Buffet and Bill Gates.

In summary, Scrooge McDuck represents the American love-hate relationship with capitalism.  We hate him for his success, and he hates us back.  We take solace in knowing that even though he swims through money like duck in a pond, he is at times overcome with misery in light of the gravity of his economic alienation.  Furthermore, we cannot deny that even though we hate his success, we would never deny our love for the opportunity to achieve a similar level of financial success.  Thus we always respect the economic wisdom of economic titans such as Scrooge McDuck.