|  | | | The Happy Rooster | | | Maintained by: | | We sell cruelty-free chicken feathers & goose quills from our hobby farm in Pine County, MN, plus cruelty-free macaw, peacock, turkey, emu, parrot & guinea feathers, wildflower seeds, peace & nature ACEOs, coloring pages ebooks, and reincarnation consultations with Rabbi Yonassan Gershom | |
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Boldly go where no rabbi has gone before!
Jewish Themes in Star Trek
Available HERE in hardcover, paperback or on a CD -- look under "Rabbi Gershom" to find the listings!
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|  | | DO YOU KNOW WHERE
YOUR FEATHERS COME FROM?
(by Rabbi Gershom, owner of The Happy Rooster store)
FACT: Most commercially-produced feathers are a by-product of the meat industry and come from factory farms, where chickens spend their short, miserable lives crammed together in tiny cages where they can't spread a wing or even move around. Geese are forcibly fed three times a day to produce fois gras (fatty goose liver), considered a gourmet delicacy. But the poor geese that fois gras comes from have their livers enlarged 8-10 times normal, to the point they can't even walk. Fois gras production is outlawed in Israel because it violates tsaar baalei chayim -- the principle in Jewish law forbidding cruelty to animals. Unfortunately, it is still legal in the USA and elsewhere.
QUESTION: Do you want that kind of negative energy in your craft or ritual items? NO??? Then buy your feathers from us. These feathers come from happy, healthy backyard companion birds living on our family hobby farm -- perfect for ceremonial items, dream catchers, wands, headresses, costumes, the "searching for leaven" ritual before Passover -- anytime you need a feather and don't want that ugly factory-farm energy in your life. | | | |
| All the feathers we sell at The Happy Rooster store have fallen naturally from the birds during their normal molting process. Many are produced right here on our farm, while others come from a network of trusted people with pet birds. Rest assured, no birds were harmed in obtaining ANY feather you see advertised on my site!
We are an ovo-lacto vegetarian household, we do not slaughter our poultry, although we do eat the eggs. In fact, we began keeping chickens in order to have an alternative to factory-farm eggs. All of our birds get to live out their full lifespans (8-10 years for chickens, average of 30+ years for geese). In fact, some of our happy birds were filmed for the 2007 documentary, A Sacred Duty: Applying Jewish Values to Heal the Earth, produced by the Jewish Vegetarians of North America. (For more on this film and a link to view it free on YouTube, visit my blog page.
As my birds drop their old feathers, I pick them up and save them. When I have enough for a sale, I offer them at The Happy Rooster, my eBay store ). This helps me to feed my feathered friends, some of whom are rescues, for example: Clyde the Rooster, who strutted his stuff for many years here, was abandoned as a half-grown chick with his hatchmate, Bonnie, at a freeway rest stop. He died in the winter of 2006 from old age, but left many happy descendants behind. Then there's Sunshine, a lovely golden-and-white rooster who was also a rescue, found while being chased by dogs. And Prince the White Chinese Goose (shown here) was found by my wife and me as a half-grown gosling waddling down a back dirt road, crying in loneliness and panic. (Read his story on my blog.) So please -- DO NOT buy live "Easter chicks" or ducklings for your kids unless you can keep them for life. The same goes for hatching egg projects. If that incubator egg hatches, you will have a live bird to care for -- and domestic fowls CANNOT survive alone in the wild. So think ahead before buying or hatching poultry chicks!
Want to read more stories about our birds and find out what they're up to lately? Visit my blog! | |  | | | |
|  | | Every lot of feathers is different, because I have a mixed flock of chickens and geese, and not everybody moults at the same time. Chicken feathers will be in a variety of combinations of brown, black, white, greys, orange, grey-barred, two-tone, tri-color, mottled, some with metalic green, red-orange, etc. Goose feathers are white, grey, or a combination of the two. Special lots are sometimes offered with other species included as well: Macaw, parrot, guinea, duck, peacock, etc. Visit The Happy Rooster store to see what's in stock now.
Don't see what you want? Feathers are seasonal: Geese shed their wing feathers all at once and are flightless until the new ones grow in. This usually happens in June-July, so, if you want goose quills, that's the best time to shop for them here. Chickens, peacocks, and many other birds shed in late summer and fall. Other times of the year I usually have feathers, but the slection may not be as ghood. Sign up for The Happy Rooster newsletter by adding my eBay Store to your Favorites and I will notify you when new feathers are available.
Last but not least, I want you to know that my family here at the The Happy Rooster opposes the USDA National Animal Identification System (NAIS) because it favors cruel factory farms and agribusiness, while placing undue burdens and restrictions on organic and free-run, cruelty-free flocks. If NAIS becomes mandatory as the USDA wants to do, it could spell the end of my cruelty-free feather business. Learn more about NAIS and what you can do to protect the rights of poultry to run free at: noNAIS.org. Then get active and help STOP this intrusive program!!!
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Back to Happy Rooster homepage, where you can find more feathers listed! | | | |
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