We have eggs!

Lucy, the Barred Rock, laid her first egg on Monday morning at about 10:30am!  It was perfectly formed and weighed 1.5 ounces - putting it into the "small" category.  Lucy announced her egg-laying success in a "loud and proud" fashion!

She has since laid 4 more eggs.  Wednesday and Saturday were her days off.  Here latest eggs weighed 1.75 ounces (or ~49 grams).  I believe that the pullets are 24 weeks old, but there's a little uncertainty since I bought them at the local feed store.

This is the story that leads up to the egg:

Several weeks ago, I filled up the nest box with some wood shavings and placed three golf balls on top.  The idea is to give the pullets time to peck the golf balls (pseudo eggs) and get bored of that.  Then, hopefully, they won't ever become egg eaters.  Also the golf balls denote the "egg-laying spot" for future use. 

Well, last week, I noticed that someone (I mean some chicken :) was rolling the golf balls out of the nesting box and into the coop each day.  I didn't want anybody to start laying under the roosts in the coop, so, I decided to move the golf balls back into the nesting box.  On Sunday night, I forgot to do this.  But on Monday morning when I checked the nest box, Lucy had rolled the golf balls into their proper spot, like a champ.  Then, she proceeded to add her own version of a golf ball!

The "sophistication" of chickens is questioned in Carmel

Most people at the recent Carmel City Council meeting were in favor of changing the current ordinance and allowing a few hens within city limits.  However, resident James Jungroth is still adamantly against chickens and predicts that "in just a few years, an unruly flock led by an abandoned fighting cock will disrupt the city, flummox animal control, spark fights between neighbors, make Carmel a laughingstock and generate a costly lawsuit after an aggressive rooster mauls a child."  Wow...doomsday, anybody?  Nevermind the fact that at least 3-4 people are attacked by a dog on Carmel Beach every year.  Forget about that...dogs are good.  Chickens are bad.

 

Wake up, Lucy.  You are scary!

Others questioned the "sophistication" of chickens, such as Monta Potter, who said, "I would hope that we are not made fun of.  I think it's important that we continue to promote ourselves as a sophisticated city."  Worry, much?

Marlene Martin, proud chicken owner, who lives outside the city limits says that her chickens are much less trouble that either dogs or cats.  She said, "I'm not sure if I'm sophisticated, or not, but I love chickens.  It actually hurts me to think someone would think they're not sophisticated.  We have sexist, racist, ageist - this is animalist."

The council agreed that a new law should be drafted to allow chickens.  The planning commission will first consider the ordinance and then forward it to the council with recommendations.

I can just hear that crazy, child-mauling rooster pecking at the door.

You can download the full story from the Carmel Pinecone, here.

My chickens can jump...

White men may not be able to jump, but my chickens can :)




Savannah is jumping up to eat a fushia berry. It's fun to watch the chickens jump around the plant to eat the berries (and sometimes flowers). I've tasted the fushsia berries and they seem pretty bland to me. Not sure what the attraction is for the chickens.

I thought we were novel...

You know, the whole movement of raising chickens in small urban or suburban backyards? Did you think it was a new thing? Well, I did.

Of course, we all know that raising chickens used to be 'standard procedure' on family farms a century ago. Those hard-working farmers raised enough meat birds and eggs for the family and sold the extras. But what about city people? Weren't urban folks the ones who were buying the extra meat and eggs from the farming families? That's what I thought. However, an article from the American Poultry Journal discusses how some city dwellers are choosing to raise their own chickens. And it was published in 1921. Here's the text:

You can click the images above to read the text, if you would like.

^{Ecclesiastes 1:9}

⁹ What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

These look familiar...

Can legislation solve the egg problem?

Some people think that creating more rules for the factory farms can help reduce (or eliminate?) food-borne illness outbreaks. This recent NPR story supports that premise. Can the FDA really solve the problem? I'm not so sure. I mean, they still think it's fine for BPA to be in contact with (and IN) our food and throughout our environment, even though there is evidence that it is not completely safe.

The FDA seems to always be behind the curve. Only this year did they admit that BPA might be "of concern". Come on, people have been talking about the dangers of BPA for years!

This is not how factory farmers gather their eggs :)
Image credit: woodleywonderworks

So, back to the original question, can the FDA, or any other government agency, prevent food-borne illness? Is this a realistic goal?

A stay-clean, efficient, and easy watering device for the chickens

So, who likes cleaning out their old-fashioned, galvanized chicken waterer? Not me. That's a chore that I did not look forward to everyday. Fortunately, I ran across another idea on backyardchickens.com. The basic design is to attach a specially designed water nipple to the bottom of a plastic bucket. This design is similar to what a guinea pig or hamster might drink out of.

I purchased 6 of these nipples from FarmTek.com for $2.05 each.

I bought a 2-gallon white plastic bucket from Home Depot ($3) and drilled 2 holes (3/8 " in diameter) into the bottom of the bucket. Then I screwed the nipples into these holes. Based on reading about someone else's experience, I didn't think I would need a washer and a nut. But I did. The bucket leaked without adding a rubber washer and a metric-sized nut to the inside of the bucket. Home Depot didn't have the washers and nuts, but a nice guy at Napa found them for me in his store. (He also mentioned that his adult son wants to get chickens. I encouraged him on this, of course.)


I was concerned that the chickens might not know how to use the nipple waterer. But it only took them about 30 seconds to figure it out. Smart girls.

This was such as easy project! I'm so glad that I found out about it. It's nice not to have to deal with the mess of the old waterer. And even more importantly, I like knowing that the girls always have clean water to drink.


This is my feeder, which also is working well.

Notice that it's raised off the ground, which seems to prevent spillage...to some degree.

I was wondering when this was going to happen...

Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA and chickens... This story makes me glad (again) that I don't live in Carmel. Tourists think that Carmel is a magical, wonderful place. Regular people who live around here tend to think it's snooty, persnickety, and ridiculous. And I'm one of those regular people.

Anyway, Carmel is also known for being a very "pet-friendly" town. But maybe not. They are currently struggling with chickens. The Carmel Pine Cone is a small paper that I read sometimes just to laugh about what's going on in Carmel. It's usually just the same old arguments between neighbors about who can put in a new window and what type of material the window frame must be made out of, etc. But this week it's about chickens and how they may or may not be dangerous to the fancy-pants lives of some residents. Here's the scoop:

Anna Yateman "asked the city council in April to allow people to keep chickens, pointing out that they lay good eggs and eat pests while their waste makes good compost." She currently has 3 hens and didn't know they were illegal pets. Her neighbor (of course, 50% of the stories in this paper are about petty disputes between neighbors) doesn't want her or anybody else to have chickens. The neighbor, James Jungroth, "told the commission, he didn’t want his $1.5 million home to be anywhere near a chicken farm." He said he only agreed to the purchase after the realtor told him hens were against the law. "Think of 1,000 people each getting two chickens,” he said, speculating the runoff from their coops would create a nuisance or a hazard. And “the cages become larger and larger — they become McMansions for the chickens.” He then went on to complain about other neighbor issues with Yateman, which he said his attorney directed him to do, but commissioner Robin Wilson cut him off, saying that was not the purpose of the commission or the hearing. “I do not want my neighbor to have chickens,” Jungroth reiterated, before sitting down.

Just another reason I'm proud to live in the poor, blue-collar town of Seaside, where chickens can live happily in their "McMansions" :)

Bella's true idenity...we think...

Black Langshan!

Many thanks to Clare at Curbstone Valley Farm for doing so much research on behalf of my little Bella. She suspected Black Langshan as the correct breed for Bella, and she was right! As I said before, Bella was labeled "Brahma" at the Hacienda Hay and Feed, where I got her. But she never developed the Brahma patterned feathers. Instead, she's all black. "Bella Negra", my husband calls her.

So, I called the Hacienda to find out where they purchased the chicks from = Privett Hatchery in Arizona. Unfortunately, they do not have an online catalog, so I called them and asked for one to be mailed to me. And voila:


That's my Bella!

The catalog description is:

"Hen weight-approx. 6 lbs. Introduced from China in mid-19th Century. All black bird with greenish sheen. Lays medium to dark brown egg. Can be broody. Not an economical eater. Cold hardy. Docile, calm, and graceful."

Black Langshans are known for their height...they can grow quite tall for a chicken. They are described as being graceful and curious. Bella fits this description quite well. She's not so "crazy" like Lucy and doesn't whine for treats like her, either. At the same time, she's is interested in me and what I'm doing. And she loves her treats. She also has an elegant walk and a lovely shape.

BTW, Privett has a nice brochure with pictures of all of their breeds for sale.


I'm saving it as a reference chart. The only way to get one is to call them and request it. In case you would like your own copy, the number is 800.545.3368.

My reasons for the urban chickens

Well, I've told you lots about the chickens, but very little about why we decided to raise them...and that's important.

First, the MYTH:

I'm raising laying hens to save money.

This is ridiculous. I'll never save money on this project, and I've known it all along. For example, I spent $575 on their house, which is cuter than my own house. I'm buying them special organic laying feed that costs twice as much as what most chickens get. Obviously, I'll never save money this way :)

The REAL reasons:
1) I'm appalled at how factory farms treat their chickens. It's so bad that Californians had to pass a Proposition in support of farmed animals. Now, hens will have a little bit more room in their cages, at least in CA. I don't want to go into the details here, because it just bums me out. (Suffice it to say, that their lives are still very sad and not appropriate for one of God's creatures. I'm not providing links here because you can just google it.)

2) They are really pretty and funny and make great pets.

3) They create eggs.

4) They create high quality organic fertilizer for my vegetable garden.

The hens are easy to take care of; requiring very little time. But I will say this: They poop. A lot. And not in a box. So, if you are one of those people who is really bothered by poop, then you are most likely not reading this blog. But if you are, beware.

In reality, the poop really isn't that big of a deal for me. It only smells for a few minutes. Once it dries, in an hour or so, it doesn't smell. At my house, the poop is a good thing. It will make the flowers and vegetables grow.


Some thoughts for potential chicken owners:
Stefaneer, at Silician Sisters Grow Some Food, recently posted about an irresponsible chicken owner, who wants someone else to take care of her hens (but do not kill them) once they stop laying eggs. This is terrible. Chicken owners need to be responsible. If you buy an animal, you are committed to it.

If you are considering buying some chickens, I encourage you to:
1) Stop, put down the Organic Gardening magazine (or whatever has cute chicken pictures in it).


Yes, I know those unusual breeds of chickens are really pretty. I want one of each of them, too!

2) Read a book or attend a chicken workshop. Or thoroughly scour the interwebs (backyardchicken.org is a good site).
3) I suggest a waiting period before purchasing them. Yes, I'm serious. You really don't want to buy chickens on an "impulse". I waited at least 3 years, but that's unusually long :)
4) Visit some chickens. And ask questions of their owners.
5) Then if you still really want chickens, go for it! They are great.

Is Bella really a Brahma or not?

Curbstone Vally Farm recently posted a very in-depth discussion on the history of the Dark Brahma breed. It's complicated, to say the least.

One of my 2.5 month old pullets (Bella) was labeled as a Brahma when I brought her home. She was black and white when she was little:

Bella (the Brahma?) is the one at the bottom of the photo.

But now, she's completely black with only a dot of white on her wing tips. I love how the shiny black feathers look like iridescent green, blue and purple in the sunlight.

It's hard for me to take a good (representative) picture of Bella, since her feathers are so shiny.

Anyway, the Curbstone post has lots of historical pictures of Dark Brahmas, such as this one:

All of the Dark Brahmas were patterned black and white from what I can tell. But Bella doesn't look like that. Maybe she's not a Brahma? Maybe she's not old enough to show her "mature" pattern? (This is what Clare at Curbstone Valley Farm believes, and she's probably right.) I guess I'll just have to wait and see!

Growing girls

Some of the girls, namely, Savannah, Goldilocks, and Buffy are starting to make "hen-ish" noises from time-to-time. Lucy and Bella are still making chick-like chirps. At 2 months old, they are really starting to feather out. One of their favorite perches is the raised bed:

After harvesting the last of the spring Romanesco, I carefully searched the leaves for cabbage worms and ended up with a juicy handful. The pullets loved this treat so much. I made sure to give each girl a couple of caterpillars. If I hadn't, then Lucy would have eaten them all. Wow, that girl loves her treats! She is always the first one to run up to me when she sees me coming.

Along with the bright green cabbage worms, I tossed a medium-sized slug to them. They looked at it, but no go. Then I covered the slug with sunflower seeds to try to tempt them, but still they just ate the seeds that surrounded the slug, but stayed away from the slug. My guess is that since the slug looks suspiciously like the chicken poo, they are avoiding it. I've noticed that the pullets never eat poo...never. The cabbage worms are bright green, and so they are easily distinguished from poo. Smart girls. And people say they've got a "bird brain"...but how many times have you seen a dog eat poo? One more reason that chickens rule!

Zen Hen Pens

Graham, the man who made my chicken coop and run, was interviewed by Pacifica Currents recently. He and his daughter talk about the details of raising chickens in the backyard and demonstrate the use of the ZenHenPen. Here is the first of 3 segments on YouTube:



I hope my Buff Orpington will be that sweet when she's grown!

I no longer "rule the roost"

Well, for the last week or so, I've been letting the chicken roam about as they please in the backyard. They are (mostly) unsupervised during the day, though I check on them often. They are now 7 weeks old. I've decided that although I would be crushed if a predator attacked one of them, I'd be even more crushed if they weren't allowed to live their "chicken-lives to the fullest". Each day they wander further and further from their coop...and so does their poop :). But our backyard is fully enclosed in a 6-7 foot fence all the way around, so they can't get too far. At first I was trying to keep them out of the raised beds, but finally I gave up. Eventually, I'll probably buy some movable fencing and section them off in various places around the yard. But for now, they are ruling the roost and backyard for that matter.
They seem to like the partial shade and rolly pollies that are in the raised beds.
Here's (from left to right) Savannah (Welsummer), Buffy (Buff Orpington), and Lucy (Barred Rock). They enjoy eating carrot leaves.

A close up of Buffy (the Buff Orpington). She's the largest so far and is the least interested in me and what I'm doing.

Here is Goldilocks (Ameraucana). She and Savannah like to fly up onto the arm of my chair and hang out from time to time.

Here is Lucy (Barred Rock). She likes to always run up to me and see what I'm doing. She loves treats the most! Sometimes she will fly up onto my knee, but she's not a fan of being held.

This is Bella (Brahma). She the smallest of the flock and is almost solid black, except for a few white spots. She's a curious girl and often does her own thing. She will let me hold her most of the time without squawking.

Flock Dynamics

I never expected flock dynamics to be so important to my hens. It seems that the "flock" is elevated over the "individual" even though my hens are all different breeds and colors. They are also developing at different rates.

Hey, where my sistas at?

My little Brahma is kind of dreamy and often gets left behind the flock as they move about the yard. One day, while searching diligently for that perfect insect, she ended up separated from the flock. The other 4 chicks were on the opposite side of the compost bin. When the Brahma realized she was "lost" she started chirping loudly. After a few seconds, the Barred Rock ran around the compost bin, let out a few quick chirps, and lead the little Brahma back around the compost bin to the rest of the flock. It was a sweet gesture.

It's cute when one chick stops pecking around long enough to look up and realize she's too far from the flock. If she can see them, she always speeds over to join the group. You'll see it happen 3 times in this video:

It kinda makes me wish that humans were a little more "flock oriented".

Chicken bribery

Today, I'll tell a story of 2 bribes.

The first bribe involved two sisters, ages 7 and 9. While the girls' mom was in the hospital, I volunteered to babysit. The girls were very excited to be coming over to my house, especially because they knew about the chicks. They played with the chicks for the entire duration of their stay. Picking them up, naming them, and laughing at their antics. When it was time for me to take them home, they picked some plums off the tree on their way out to the car. A handful of little plums 'for the road'. The youngest girl ran out of plums very quickly and asked her older sister for "just one more...please". The wise older sister said, "I'll give you a plum IF you promise to do everything you can to help me get my own chickens...I mean everything you can think of!" The little one replied a definitive, "Yes!" I found out later that the girls' mom is strongly considering raising some hens, but dad is not on board at this point. After their girls were introduced to my chicks, I think it might be over for dad.

This is the prize that the youngest sister was after...they are sour, since they are not ripe yet, but the girls love them.

The second bribe involves me and the chicks. After seeing videos of other people with happy hens sitting in their laps and following them around, I started to feel left out. Most of the time, when I get near my chicks, they scurry away, just out of reach. In fact, it's getting harder to catch them in the evenings. They still need to spend nights indoors, but the time needed for chicken chasing in increasing everyday. So after a little bit of thought, I came up with a simple plan...bribery. So after work, I bought some chicken treats: mealworms, seed mix, and de-shelled sunflower seeds. I offered these treats to them while holding each one individually, just before bedtime. And guess what? It worked. They are starting to like me more. Ok, maybe they don't like me more, but they seem to be a little more happy about my presence. Ok, ok, they just like the treats that I represent. But that's good enough for me. I'll take it!

Do you like me or the treats? Nevermind. Don't answer that...

Power-napping chicks and a window of opportunity

So the chicks don't really want to hang out with me during the daytime. They don't really mind my presence, but they don't really want me picking them up at that time. I try not to take it personally. Instead, I imagine that it's just more fun for them to be running around outside looking for bugs and discovering all kinds of things. But I've noticed that there is a certain time frame, which I consider to be a window of opportunity, when they are ok with being picked up. And if you have human children, you might be able to guess what time of day I'm talking about. Just before bedtime. Which for chicks is somewhere between 7-9pm, although I hear them wake up at times during the night.

Anyway, when I pick them up in the evening they are usually pretty sweet. It's so cute to see them nod off...it happens so fast! That's what I captured in the video above.

Dustbathing

The chickens did a little dustbathing today. They are almost 3 weeks old now. I was nervous at first that something might be wrong. The barred rock started dragging her wings and flopping around for a couple of minutes. Then they all started to get the hang of it!



I think the Ameraucana is the prettiest right now:

She and the Buff Orpington and the Welsummer are growing the quickest these days. The Barred Rock and especially the Brahma are quite a bit smaller and less feathered out than the others.

I belive they can fly

I took the chicks to the greenhouse recently for a little roaming time. They are 2 and 1/2 weeks old now. It was raining so you can hear the sound of the rain in the video below:

"Look how smart we are now!"

Time for a taller box!

By the way, in case you were wondering, Jackie's Secret Garden is still a garden! But I have to admit that I've been spending a lot of time with the chicks. The garden is growing well with only minimal input from me...just sowing some seeds, transplanting, snapping off tomato suckers and tying them up periodically. We've had some nice warm weather the past few days and the summer crops are really starting to take off.

Will my chickens be safe in this coop?

Calling all chicken raisin' people! Please advise me on the safety of my chickens. They have quickly made the transition from 'livestock' to 'pet'. (Ok, so this happened before I even reached the checkout counter at the feed store :) But I need to know if they will be safe in this coop:

I've heard that raccoons and opossums can dig... Is this true? Will they dig underneath the pressure treated base? If so, what can I do to prevent this?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Up close and personal with the chicks

Well, one of my chicks got a bit of diarrhea. And I knew which one of the 5 it was because it landed on me right before I was about to leave for work. Bless her heart she couldn't help it and I also noticed dried poo on her rear.

Being the good mother that I am, I worried. Like all good mothers everywhere of many different species.

So I called the feed store where I purchased them and asked for advice. The owner said they had been vaccinated, so it was probably no big deal...especially since the chick was still running around, eating and drinking just like the others. He recommended wiping the dried poo off with a damp paper towel. Ok, so it's not too bad. I can do that.

But just to make sure the guy at the feed store was correct in his chicken diagnosis, I also read some on the interwebs, since that's what I do whenever I have any kind of question. And bless the internet chicken-raisin' people. There posts were very helpful. Even going so far as to post pictures of their chickens' poo to show the large range of "normal". (I'm glad I saw this because, WOW, some of these really do not look normal.)

Ok, now, it's time for chicken butt wiping. There's no 'putting if off til later'. Boy, I really didn't expect to be doing THIS a week ago...or ever, for that matter. It was slightly traumatizing for the both of us, because: guess what? Dried chicken poo attached to booty feathers is hard to get off. Even with professional tools like damp, warm paper towels and toothpicks. But we perservered and finally she was released back to the flock. Thankfully, they didn't pick at her, even though her booty feathers were a little damp and matted. And now, although I'm still keeping a check on chicken booties, I think we're both over it :)

Here she is snuggling with my hunny!