Chicken Update

Most of our girls are holding their own against the cold, but our poor easter-eggers seem to be having a little more trouble, or at least I think it's the cold.  They seem to be going bald.  Not in the shaggy, messy, moulting kind of way, in the patches that look like something you got at the butcher's counter kind of way.  

Brrrrr...

You know it's cold outside when you find this:

... in the chicken coop.  And to think I just told my mom we'd never had one freeze!  It's a shame the shell cracks and gets the good stuff inside dirty, or we could have eaten the thing :(.

Persimmon Paste?

Remember all those persimmons I picked before they were ripe?  Well, they never did ripen :(  But my neighbor Linda (who told me about the persimmons in the first place) picked more than she could deal with and she gave me the extras.  

She also lent me her food mill, which turned out to be a kinda bad idea.  The skins & seeds clogged it and it literally took a week for Nick to get it clean.  It turns out, the best way to extract the pulp is to put the fruit in a mesh laundry bag and twist 'till you can't twist anymore.  It took me a while to figure that one out tho and it made a mess in the mean time.  

American persimmons aren't edible when raw.  It won't kill you or anything, but the tanins will mess your tongue up pretty thoroughly.  Everything I've read (and my neighbor Linda) said that if you cook them, they'll be edible.  

I was really surprised when i put the gelatinous pulp in a pot and it quickly became the consistency of thick mashed potatoes or paste.  It smelled great though, so i took a nibble and, while it was better than raw, it still did a number on my tongue.  

Honestly, I'm not sure what will happen if I put the stuff in a recipe.  Linda's been on vacation, so I can't ask her yet.  In the mean time, I have a pile of freezer jars full of paste that'll make ur tongue feel crazy.  Guess everything can't work out like you hope.  

Oh, and have a cute pic of the chickens, courtesy of instagram and my new iPhone.  

Playing Catch-Up By Way of Bullets

•  Cacciatore has escaped 3x since last reported.  She's becoming quite the little escape artist.  

Cacciatore Triumphant

The chicken tractor has needed pooper-scooped for almost a month now.  Before you go and accuse me of being negligent with my girls, I must point out that I have in fact been out there with shovel and newspaper 3 times... and each time it has proceeded to pour on me.  Today we finally got our beautiful day and it was time for some homestead chores.  They would have gone perfectly smoothly, if it weren't for my little Cacciatore.

Cacciatore has always been one of our braver chickens.  Not rough and tough brave, like General Tso but rather busy body brave.  She has to know what's going on, and she'll forgo her chickeny skiddishness if she has to to  get that info.  

Moulting

I was chatting with a regular patron in the library yesterday afternoon.  She also keeps chickens and commented that she was stockpiling her eggs in anticipation of her girls moulting.

... I knew they did that, but I kinda forgot.  Oops.  Would I hafta start buying eggs again for a while?

*Research Time*

Apparently, Chickens stop laying and then loose all their feathers before resuming their egg laying again.  This happens every year. Usually in the fall, but it is technically a response to extended egg laying or other stress on the chickens nutritional needs.  As such, young hens who just started laying usually don't moult their first fall (whew!) because the egg laying has yet to take its toll on their bodies and because chicks moult 3x in their first 6 months.

So, I'm in the clear this fall.  I've learned something new, and HOPEFULLY, I'll remember in time to do some stockpiling of my own come next fall.

Eggzilla

We got our first green egg on Monday.  We didn't really expect a second on Tuesday or Even Wednesday.  There's no use rushing a new layer.  But when there was no egg on Thursday or Friday, I was starting to get concerned.  Chickens can get "egg constipated" and it's something I was hoping to never have to deal with.  Then on Saturday, she brought forth EGGZILLA!!!!

Run for your lives!!!

Green Eggs!

I'm starting to notice that there's a pattern to first eggs.  They're small, thin shelled, a little funny shaped...and NOT LAID IN THE NESTING BOXES...aka: covered in poo.  The good news is that can be wiped off.  

I'm excited to report that, while we still have 5 girls who aren't laying yet, we now have 3 hens laying... AND I'm pretty sure it's one of each breed.  Today we got out first green egg!

It really is green, the colors just hard to capture. 

This'n'at

Our tomatoes are having the best year they've ever had despite a little more neglect than i'd personally like to own up to.  We never got around to buying cages and they were in some serious need of both weeding and staking.  Nick fed the weeds to the chickens, he called it a salad.  They loved them tho!

Aren't they gonna be tasty when they ripen?

Julia was Right

...when she said fresh eggs poach much more easily.

Of course, I first broke them into separate dishes to investigate and check for blood spots.  Apparently thin shells, no yolks and blood spots are all more common in the small first eggs.  Our chickens have been on layer feed probably a little longer than they should have been, so the shell was anything but thin.  Thankfully both of our tiny eggs had tiny little yolks to match and were blood-spot free.

Aren't those yolks yellow?

EGGS!!!

I'm just speechlessly ecstatic.  I'm so proud of my girls.  I don't know which laid today, so im just gonna be proud of all of them!

The State of the Garden Address

It's been a rough couple weeks and I haven't posted in a while, but it's high time I did.  I promise that, unlike it's distant cousin (The State of the Union Address), this address will be quite positive and minimally frustrating.

Evolution of a Chicken Tractor

Nick and I have been dawdling on making our chicken tractor for two reasons; 1. I've been growin a person and he's been finishing our lovely living room  2. as good of a team as we usually make when it comes to drafting, we've been getting too fancy and overwhelming ourselves every time we sit down to design the chicken tractor.  This past weekend, however, having finished the bulk of the living room and entertained out easter guests we had a beautiful weekend ahead of us and we had to face the facts.  Our little fuzz balls were no longer fuzz balls and had officially outgrown their brooder.

What a Difference a Week Makes

Last Week's Peeping Fuzzballs

Are quickly growing to look like little chickens with tail feathers and wing feathers and a more upright gait.  

What a difference a week makes!

Cheep! Cheep!

The chicks arrived yesterday morning, and everyone made it safely!

At about 7:30am, I was called by the post office to pick up my peeping package.

Inside were 8 little peepers huddled with bedding and a heating pack.  (they don't like to pose for pictures)

As I transferred each of them to the brooder, I checked each of them for "pasting up", a common condition among shipped chicks that can be fatal.  Thankfully, none of my chicks were constipated though I did notice a number of them still had their umbilical cords intact.  They just look like little black strings dangling from their behind, but don't tug it can hurt them.  Sorry no pics, but getting one of those fluffy little behinds to sit still long enough is quite the chore.  

I kept an eye on them for the first hour or so to make sure they found their water and food and to adjust the heating lamp to make them comfy.  Once they figured out where the food was, it was funny to watch them fighting over the feeder even though there are plenty of holes for each of them.  

I've Been a Real Bum

Really and truly I have, but now is not the time for explanations.

Yesterday, I realized that a week from tomorrow AT THE LATEST, my chicks would be here.  Yes, sometime next week my post office will call at o'dark thirty for me to pick up my chicks and not only have we not started a coop (which they probably wouldn't be able to use for a few months) but I haven't even started on the brooder.  Oops.

This afternoon, I gathered the heat lamp & feeder bases I bought a while ago and set to work.  I took the tub we used to store our inflatable kayak (which I donated to our neighbors, it's not a purchase I recommend) and cut the lid in half.  That's it.  Can you believe people pay for these?  I need to buy some non-cedar hamster bedding (as a kid we always got some  made from recycled paper, ill prolly use that) for mess absorbency and I've already got organic chick feed hanging out in the basement.

The big thing when it comes to brooders is keeping the chicks warm, but not too warm.  Ideally, the temperature should not be consistent throughout so they can find where they like best.  If the chicks are too cold, they'll be noisy and huddled under the lamp.  If they're warm they'll be far from the lamp and each other.  Too warm is actually more of a concern than too cold.

Oh, and just to catch you up on what has been up elsewhere around here, the wainscoting & shoe moulding are about done in the livingroom and we're nearing paint time.  Also, Nick has been turning up sod for the garden expansion.  More to come on both of those projects another day.

Gettin' Excited About Chickens

I got paid this week, and unlike the last few, i didn't already have this paycheck pre-spent on construction (don't worry, we're still constructing!) so I decided to do a little shopping ahead for my chicks.  I KNOW they won't be here 'til April, but it never hurts to be prepared and I'm excited.

First I went to Tractor Supply Co. and bought some chick feeders and a heat lamp.  *tangent* When we bought Sadie as a puppy, we bought her a set of dog bowls that were big enough that she could use them her entire life, despite the fact that she could sit in them.

That strategy, however, doesn't work for chicks because they're so tiny when we get them that they're too short to reach.  Also, the bulb I got for the heat lamp is red because I read that the white lamp can make it hard for them to sleep.  The heat lamp will actually do double duty and keep the chickens warm in the winter months.

Chick Update

I just ordered 8 chicks!

Chick or Pullet?

My Pet Chicken, the best hobby site I could find for chicks, posted their 2011 chicks for pre-order.  It's decision time folks.  When we started this venture, I was sure I wanted started pullets.  Now i'm not so sure.

"Started Pullets", or hens that are about set to start laying, were my initial preference for a number of reasons.  Mostly because chicks seem so frail and we're new at this.  Also, I can buy exactly as many hens as i'd like and, barring dog attacks or the like, thats how many I should continue to have.  Unfortunately, when I started looking into things I found no poultry farms in the area (at least that advertise well).  This leaves my only local source for hens as craigslist, but who knows what my selection will look like and if they'll be authentic?  I have a few breeds in mind, but I know that (aside from an easter egger or two) I want heritage breeds.

The chicks at agway in the spring are probably cheaper than started pullets, but for healthy chicks of a specific breed, one must order them online and shipping is costly.  Because we live so far from the city, we have to order a few more than we actually need.  On one hand, they all may well not make it (but we pay for them regardless!) but what if they all do?  and chicks need a lot of attention.  On the upside though, we can choose our breeds and know we're getting what we pay for and we know from birth how they've been handled and fed.

What would you do? I'd love to hear your feedback,

Concerning Poultry

One of the most expensive changes we've made around here int he last 6 months or so is eggs.  A dozen eggs at Aldi costs $.89.  A dozen cage-free, organic eggs costs $3.50.  A dozen from a local farmer (when available) $2.50.  Thats a 3 or 4x increase!  Seeing as we go through at least a dozen if not more every week, thats a lot of extra money on eggs.

Nick suggested it first.  "Why don't we get chickens?"  My first reaction? "Absolutely Not!  Birds are dirty and carry diseases!  Do you know how much work that'd be?"  Nick is even more of a schemer and dreamer than I am and I figured that, like so many of his ridiculous ideas, it would go away.  Discourage the truly crazy or expensive ones and humor his attempts at the less expensive ones, right?

Well, it didn't go away and to be honest it started to grow on me.  I like having control over what I eat and doing it as economically as possible.  Honestly, keeping chickens (after the start up costs) would probably mean breaking even, but there will probably be the opportunity to sell the extras.  What really sold me was the chicken tractor.  I'm not so fond of finding chicken poop on my walkways or searching for eggs all over the yard, but i kinda felt like it wasn't worth doing if I was planning on keeping them in a coop with a static run for their whole lives.  A chicken tractor is basically a movable coop/run combo with no floor.  Every day or so, you move it to a new spot in your yard.  The chickens have new weeds & bugs to pick at regularly so they don't ruin any one spot in your yard (but rather, fertilize the whole thing).  They're also protected from predators (and puppy dogs).  They'll still need to be provided with feed, but it should be much less than strictly coop-raised birds.

Once I had found a way of doing things that seemed more livable to me, we had some things to work out:

How many chickens? A Prolific laying breed hen can produce from 250-300 eggs per year.  That means 2 chickens for every dozen you would like to get each week.  Also consider that in the absence of a rooster, one hen may cease to lay and take on some rooster-like qualities and that now and again one of your hens in bound to get clucky (aka: quit laying and sit on some eggs) for a time.  We decided we want 6.  4 would meet our needs, but we wanted cushion.  Worse come to worse i'm sure we could give the eggs away.

What Breed? Where and how will we get them?  There are about a million breeds of chickens, not to mention hybrids and mutts.  To narrow it down, I set down some preferences.  Mostly, I wanted heritage breeds that were prolific brown egg layers, extremely cold hardy and fairly docile.  Other less important preferences were year-round laying, not prone to getting clucky and i kinda wanted one or two more colorful layers, something blue or green or something.  Thus far I have narrowed it down to Australorps, Rhode Island Reds and either Ameracunas or Easter Eggers.  Australorps are both prolific brown egg layers that are cold weather hardy and, being dual-purpose breeds, are also good eating.  Australorps are more docile, but prone to cluckiness.  RIRs are less prone to cluckiness, but i've found the full gambit of comments as it pertains to their temperament.  Neither Ameracunas or Easter eggers lay quite as much, but they are blue egg layers.  Ameracunas are a heritage breed but very rare, Easter Eggers are mutts and their eggs can be any number of colors, but they're fun and easy to come by and everyone raves about their personality.  I'm still up in the air about where to get them.  My first instinct was to try to purchase started pullets (about ready to lay) for our first time around, but I haven't found local poultry farms online where I could get some.  There are sometimes chickens on craigslist though, though i'll have to wait til spring to see that much.  You can order day old chicks online.  Most places require that you order at least 25 chicks, but My Pet Chicken lets you order 8.  We could deal with that many, and cook one or two if its too much.  They also carry 3 of the 4 breeds that I like.

What type of Tractor?  Below is a pic of my favorite design.  We'll settle on dimensions when we figure out how many birds we're gonna have.  

I can't wait until spring when we can put this all into action!

PS don't forget that you have to check with your municipality to make sure chickens are allowed!