May 31, 2013: Summer Is Here: Our Chickens are Way Cool

While chickens tolerate the cold pretty well, they don't do so well in very hot weather.  We live in the hottest dang part of the Sacramento Valley and will be hitting 100 degrees F on Sunday. 

Our girls already have a covered chicken yard, on the shady side of our house, enclosed with chicken wire to ensure good ventilation, and they have plenty of water, but.... will that be enough?  When we are at home, they are free to run around our shady yard, but when we aren't here they are locked in the chicken yard.   Their coop is in the chicken yard.  What to do?

Our neighbor, who also has chickens uses a" mister" that sends a fine spray of water over the top of his chicken yard, but I'm not keen on all that moisture in the chicken yard, messy and maybe giving them foot rot.  Plus that means turning water off and on, and using lots of water, plus how do you do that when you are away?

I came up with a clever and I think very functional and easy answer.  We bought a cheap standing fan, put it in the corner of the chicken yard facing the coop for maximum ventilation and cooling.  We use a timer, and an outdoor extension cord and programed it to come on at 11:00am when it starts to get hot, and off at 11:00pm when it generally starts to cool off.   So far it is working great!  We can leave for the day or several days and know that the girls will be cool enough. ( we always have someone check on them if we are gone over 3 days and have a big feeder and two waterers).

Meanwhile the girls are doing great, still giving us two eggs a day like clock work.   We had a dish tonight using their eggs.  It's an Italian version of poached eggs.  Put 1 tbs. of olive oil in a non stick frying pan, set on medium heat, add garlic and 1/2 cup sliced onion, and saute' onions until transparent.  Add a pinch each of oregano, basil and herb de Provence.  Add one can of diced tomatoes and 1/2 cup of chicken broth and one tsp of sugar.  Bring to a simmer letting it reduce just a little bit.  Break 4 eggs into the tomato mixture, cover pan and simmer until eggs are like you like them.  Sprinkle with fresh grated parmesano reggiano.  Serve in two bowls, with a slice or two of grilled Italian bread rubbed with garlic, and a small green salad.  Thank you Barbara and Mabel for
a healthy delicious and easy Friday night meal.  Ciao Amici.

May 15, 2013: More than just eggs:The Benefits of Having Back Yard Chickens

Some folks keep back yard chickens strictly for the eggs.  Nothing wrong with that.  Eventually you will get a return on your original investment, 7-10 years down the line, depending on whether the chickens become pets and live like little queens in palatial coops with air conditioning and heating, or, you see them as simple egg laying machines who live in a drafty box under the house ( in which case you should not have backyard chickens).

The eggs are delicious, unadulterated by whatever egg factories feed their chickens.  Just natural delicious protein.  But there is so much more to having back yard chickens.  Those of you who do not have backyard chickens will perhaps have a hard time relating to this, but trust me, they bring so much to the table, in addition to the eggs.

Here is an example:  On Mother''s Day I made dinner for my Mom, her boyfriend, my sister Karen and her husband.  After dinner Karen's Stepson John dropped by with a lovely plant for her.  John is a hard working business man, who like his Dad is a "hard room" when you tell a joke.  That means they are largely stoic.  They are both funny guys, but it takes alot to make them laugh.  Cal and I had to do the Harlem Shake, complete with masks and music just to get a chuckle out of our brother in law.  Anyway I digress.

I asked John if he would like to see our chickens, thinking he would not be interested.  After a bit he said," let's see those chickens".  So out we went into the backyard.  I corralled the girls who were kicking rocks in the corner of the yard, and herded them around the hedge.  Here they came in all their feathered glory, trotting along side by side, making their sweet little chicken sounds.  John asked me what kind they were, etc. Then just stood as if transfixed watching them cruise around the yard.  The sun was shining, the grass was so green, the trees kept the yard shady and cool, and the hens just were  being hens.  After a minute or so he said, " they are so peaceful to watch".  It was such a bucolic scene.  Right in the middle of the city.

I told him how the chickens bring a sense of peace, quiet, and tranquility to our yard.  How we often sit outside and watch them hang out. 

I asked Cal to bring out some raisins, and he showed John how they love raisins and jump up for them.  He wanted to feed some to them, and did, letting Barbara and Mabel eat raisins out of his hand.   I could not have been more surprised if he had sprouted wings and flown over the fence.

See what I mean.
These two little Chickens give us eggs, and tranquility.  I highly recommend it, but only if you discover that you love chickens, otherwise buy your eggs from the market and call it good.

May 10, 2013: When is a chicken like a pigeon?

 

Pigeons are known to have certain annoying behaviors.  Typically chickens do not share these behaviors, but.......yesterday I glimpsed Cal our back holding Mabel.  I wanted to hold her too, so quickly ran outside to take a turn. 

Placing my arm along side Cal's Mabel quickly hopped over onto my arm.

That was when I learned how chickens are like pigeons,

If you take a close look at the picture above you will see a picture of a bird perched on a my arm, like a statue.

Now, think about what pigeons do while sitting on statues.

Yes that is right. 

A small amount of chicken poop somehow landed on my arm.

 

Oh yeah, her she is on Cal's arm.  She did not poop on him.

I still love her.

 

May 2nd, 2013: Toys for Chickens



 



My dear Brother in Law, Carl,  sent me an e-mail with accompanying video of his chickens enjoying the chicken version of basketball.  Several of his hens were jumping, and vying for the key position, and seemed to be having a great time, plus getting exercise, and a healthy snack. 

So not wanting to deprive my girls from the same fun opportunity I made my way to the produce section of the local market and purchased a small head of cabbage.   Cal put a hole through it and threaded a string so we could hang it at chicken height from a tree in the back yard so our girls could play chicken basketball too. 

First Cal hung it from a tree we could not see from our patio.   That would not due as I wanted to see my girls frolicking ad having a good time.  So he moved it to another tree closer to the patio, but it was on the far side of the tree.  No.

Finally he got it hung just right, and we set the girls free and stood back to watch them play.  They walked right past it, never even giving it a glance.  So we gave it a push so it swung a bit, you know, trying to get their attention.  No. 

So Cal said, maybe they don't realize it is food, so he tore off a leaf and gave some to the girls.  They turned up their noses, still no basketball game ensued.  I pondered what could be the problem.  I e-mailed Carl to get his opinion.  He said they  needed a chance to discover that it was food. 

It has now been three days and the cabbage is looking like the most unusual wind chime, just swinging in the breeze.  WTH.

I finally came to the realization that Carl's chickens are numerous and free range, foraging for food, so to them a hanging cabbage is like low hanging fruit.  Our girls are only two, and have an abundance of food in their feeder, plus scratch, raisins and mandarins oranges.  A wilting cabbage is not match for any of that.  Besides they would have to work for it by jumping slightly, which I am sure they consider "beneath" them.

I short, we have two spoiled city chickens, and one butt ugly wind chime.