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Re: Adopt-A-Hive



WHOA!  Be very, very, careful with the "adopt-a" ideas for livestock. 
Especially milk.

I'm now trying to work with New York Ag & Markets and Cornell Cooperative
Extension to try and work out some way that my CSA members can "adopt" or
share goats and get goats milk.  Uh uh, so far.  They all agree it's a bad
idea.

In almost all states in the US, farm sales of milk are prohibited unless
you have a Grade A dairy and full facilities.  Basically, selling milk or
even giving it away, even labelled in 3-foot-high-letters that it is for
animal consumption only (as for puppies), is one of the best ways to lose a
farm.  Between the regulatory agencies who can and are likely to swoop
down, and the liability in today's sue-happy world, this is a great big no,
no, no.

Buy a couple of feeder pigs, feed them the milk, and sell the pork.

If anybody really wants fresh real milk about the only way they can legally
get it is to buy a farm and raise their own.

Sorry, but the $2 or so I'd get for a quart of goat's milk -- as tempting
as the help toward the feed bills would be -- is not worth losing what I've
worked so very hard to gain here.  Folks can now buy goat's milk for $2.69
a quart in Tops Supermarket.

But they can pet my goats and even take them on hikes -- I've even ordered
goat packs so the guys can carry canteens and gardening tools and lunches. 
But that's just part of the CSA draw, no extra charge.

They just can't get milk from my goats.  Some fights are not worth
fighting, and I'm tired.

I myself will keep drinking fresh raw goat's milk.  I was nearly crippled
with arthritis and fibromyalgia before I started, and I'm now in better
health than I enjoyed ten years ago.  But I am maintaining a farm and a
goat herd for this "privilege" of good health.

Dori Green:  Writer, Farmer, Facilitator
Ash Grove Community Farm & Center for Sustainable Living
http://www.servtech.com/public/funfarm/index.html