Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Keeping Backyard Chickens


I was poking around in my 43 Things list this morning and came across a write up I made on keeping chickens so thought I would share it here:

Raising Backyard Chickens

How I did it: First I read up on backyard chickens care/feeding/raising and then joined backyardchickens.com

When we relocated to Northern Illinois, we bought a house with a red barn/garden shed that had electricity wired in and a hatch flap that would allow them to get outside. We dug post holes and cemented in some 4x4x8 posts and stapled wire penning to them. We put shavings on the floor using the deep litter method, a nesting box, and some hay bales to make them little igloo garages for cold weather.

We put a roof over the pen because they loooove to fly over the wall and peck in the garden or examine the neighbor's shrubbery. They can definitely fly and I've seen ours get up to 7-8 feet off the ground.

Regular or organic feed is $10-20 for a big bag and they get fresh water every day. For them, I planted seed packets of mustard greens, kale, leaf lettuce; lots of extra rows of green in the garden last summer and just picked it and threw it into their pen. Very happy chickens and we got the nutrition value back in their eggs.

We started with 4 three month old pullets in October 2007. You can order chicks from Murray McMurray but I didn't want the added expense and equipment of hatching eggs or raising tiny chicks without a mother hen. I joined the forum on backyard chickens and looked for someone local who was parting with a small flock that had grown up together. Once we got them home initially, I just added a regular metal clip utility light overhead on a timer so they get 12 hrs of light per day (or else they don't lay eggs).



Recently, last August 2008 we received an email from the farmer saying he had new flocks. I wanted one or two new chicks but brought hubby and little one so we ended up with 4 more two week old chicks and they are just now 4 months and starting to lay. They have chick feed from birth to 3 months and then layer feed until they stop laying. Our remaining Buff Orpington is very broody and sits on her nest of laid eggs most of the time so we thought we'd give her some little girls to love. Didn't work out that way, she was aggressve towards them. So best laid plans and all that. However, the advantage to little chicks is that you can handle them excessively and make them tame to humans.

I was a bit worried about the little ones when cold weather set in but they are doing just fine. At 3-4 months old they are not so little any more, they are full grown now. In sub-zero weather we turn on two overhead heat lamps so they can warm up. On the coldest of cold below zero days I make them scrambled eggs. Without a rooster to fertilize them, their eggs are simply full of vitamins and a hot breakfast warms up their bellies.

The Auracana is currently the only little one laying but she produces the most beautiful tiny green eggs.



We lost one of the original Orpingtons to a respiratory wheeze and one of the new baby chicks went stir crazy when the snow arrived and forced her way outside in a snowstorm (poor thing-through the latched side flap).

These are pets and we don't intend to eat them. Hens lay eggs for about 1-2 years or more but they live for about 10 years.

We have 3 black sex links, 1 Buff Orpington, 1 Auracauna - sometimes called the Easter Egger or EE (lays blue/green eggs!), and one Rhode Island Red

Lessons/tips:
Let them acclimate to cold weather, don't use the heat lamps too much. They don't like to be too warm and if you have a power outtage then you'll quickly have hensicles.

Alternately, they will cool off in the summer by flapping in the pine shavings or you can give them a wading pool of sand to "splash" in.

Compost the shavings for a great garden fertilizer. Once per year shovel out all of their shavings and replace it with new. Pine shavings preferably, not cedar as it can be damaging to them.



These eggs are more nutritional and have half of the cholesterol of store bought eggs. Backyard eggs have approximately twenty-five percent more vitamin E, seventy-five percent more beta carotene, and as much as twenty times the amount of Omega-3 fatty acids as do factory farmed eggs. Even the yolks are a super bright yellow. Store eggs can be 2 months old or worse.

Be careful of your zoning, most suburban areas do not allow roosters. Get sexed chicks or 3 month old pullets so you know that you are getting females. If you want to hatch your own eggs then have a plan for getting rid of the roos. We live in a rural area zoned agricultural but we still have lots of neighbors and the roo noise would have been pretty annoying.

The hardest thing about them is the infighting to determine the pecking order. Our littlest hen gets her butt pecked so much by the others that she has a permanently bare red posterior. And chickens are compelled to peck the color red so it's a vicious circle. Hubby calls her Red Butt. They can be brutal to each other; scratches, cuts, bullying, fighting. Just keep an eye on them but don't interfere too much. If you are introducing new birds to an established flock, please do some research because it's a difficult thing to do.

The best thing about them is I never again have to waste any sort of vegetable, fruit, or piece of bread. They are my little clucky garbage disposals. Great if we don't eat the bananas soon enough or if the lettuce goes a bit yellow in the vegetable bin.

I do resist showing them at fairs or picking up new cuties from the local poultry show because you just don't know if they're going to pick up a nasty virus or bacteria and bring it home. Plus the whole re-introduction to the flock for the one who got out for a field trip is something else to be avoided.



"Don't use fresh eggs for baking, use last week's or the week before." I don't know why but my elderly neighbor used to farm chickens and that's what she told me and I do what I'm told when it comes to people with more wisdom.

Recommended Reading: Still Life With Chickens (Starting Over In A House By The Sea) by Catherine Goldhammer
Non-fiction 2006: Catherine, freshly divorced and with a young daughter, decided to have a simpler life and built a pen and got a flock of backyard chickens. Her trials and tribulations with them. This is the book that stopped me just thinking about doing it and going out and making it happen.


http://backyardchickens.com
http://murraymcmurray.com
http://MyPetChicken.com

Friday, January 23, 2009

This Blog Invests in the Riches of Proximity


The wonderful tagmaker extraordinaire Steph of Sunshine and Ravioli was kind enough to award me this Proximidade award. You've simply got to go visit her, if you haven't already, and check out her gorgeous blog.

I copy/pasted this explanation from it:

This blog invests in the riches of proximity! (rough translation). Proximidade, translated from Portuguese to English, means vicinity or neighborhood.

This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships. (blogging makes us close by proxy; friendly neighborhoods linked around the world). Blogs that receive this award are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. (effort is made to maintain a quality blog in terms of blog etiquette, response, and audience - just because) *Note to reader: It does not escape my attention that the mere posting of the award is, in itself, a small measure of self-aggrandizement. I never said I was perfect ;-).

Our hope is that when the ribbons of these awards are cut, even more friendships are propagated. (post the award, and grow more friendship by passing it on) Please give more attention to these writers! (be an active friend of their neighborhoods) Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award. "Following are my eight blog choices (though there are many more that are also deserving), in no particular order (seriously random as they came up on the blogroll by update status), that consistently embody the spirit of kindness, friendship, neighborhood, and warmth for which this award is given:

1. The Vintage Moth
2."I Can Make That" Made By Laura
3. It's A Miniature Life
4. NJD Miniatures
4. Middle of Nowhere
5. Tiny Treasures
6. Four Dog Day
7. Angela Michelle Dolls
8. Sugarskull7's Artblog

Please go visit these lovely bloggers if you get a chance and say "Hi!"

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Friday, January 16, 2009

Angry Baby Judges You


This picture is making me laugh (no it's not Olly). Found it online, someone posted it to ONTD.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Shabby Cottage Valentines for Her



Hi everyone, have a lovely day. These are in the Etsy shop.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Friday, January 9, 2009

Making 1/12 Miniature Potato Chips


A mini post! You knew I would get to one eventually. This couldn't be easier and really only has one step. You can make scale miniature potato chips from dried green pepper seeds. Scoop them out, leave to dry, voila!


Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Miniatures: Facts and Fancies


Miniatures: Facts and Fancies
a wonderful Etsy Storque blog article written by the Etsy MIDS Team (Miniatures in Dollhouse Scale) BlueKittyMiniatures, GoldenUnicornMinis, and wanderinon. With pictures and minis by NJDMiniatures.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

New Sugar Shack


The wonderful Julie at Pieceful Bits was kind enough to create a little blue sugar shack to match the pink one I bought at Christmas. Thank you!
Sadie Lou christened these little guys "Sugar Shacks" on the LolliShops blog and it's the perfect name for them.

Just between you and me, I'm not putting these away with the Christmas things. The cuteness cannot be contained.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Back to Work & Bookathon


Monday!! Okay, I'm not usually a Monday person but this one saw the kids back to school after their holidays. A break is nice and likewise so is getting back to routine. And back to business for me creating and selling on Etsy. This morning I'm painting an order and packing up another to go out. I have Valentine's Day supplies at the ready - always one holiday ahead (at least) is part of this deal. And also some cottage style supplies to make things for my LolliShop.

Still figuring out the new schedule for baby Oliver who is 3 weeks old. Cranky baby was just cranky for the day so he's back to being a happy little guy. I managed to eat breakfast by 10:00 a.m. today and he's quietly snoring in his swing at the moment. Maybe tomorrow I can beat that time and actually get dressed too :o/

So stop yammering on and what is this Bookathon you speak of, is that what you're thinking. While browsing through the Etsy forums last night I came across a thread by PoshMommaStore who has decided to read 100 books by December 31, 2009 and she was looking for reading buddies. No re-reading books and at least 25 of the 100 to be non-fiction. A resolution that's actually fun! Sign me up. Anyone else interested? Her blog post is here Resolution Amendment: Bookathon

I've always been a big reader but 2008 was a busy one for us with a little stress and reading sort of fell by the wayside for me so I figure this is a great way to get back into it. Guess I'm a sucker for deadlines and accountability-and I'll get to use the heck out of my brand new library card. I'm currently reading an impulse buy paperback from the grocery store; She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb.

A gadget called "100 Books" has been added to the right at the very bottom of this blog under the playlist to keep track.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Saturday, January 3, 2009

New Year, Lazy Saturday

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Steak & Shake; it's what's for dinner. Except mine just had one burger with cheese, ketchup, and mustard and came with a lovely sparkly Sprite.

A very slow Saturday spent gently patting a cranky baby with a cold perched on my shoulder. Puttering around on the laptop was about all that could be managed. A bit of laundry, bathing said cranky baby, boxing up one train set too many that little one had assembled in the dining room, and poking around various interweb sites.

Today I mostly tarted up the blog, adding pictures, adding blogs to follow (how I wish people would use the "Follow This Blog" feature more), and found more music. Playlist says I have room for 171 more songs but the line must be drawn somewhere. No doubt people don't even enjoy autoplay music when perusing blogs so it may very well be just for my enjoyment as I tinker around in here.