Community Cluckers

Moving the Coop, 40 Chickens, 40 Miles West

2012-01-31T13:04:00.002-06:00

by Jennifer Sartell

My husband Zach and I recently moved from my parent's house in the woods to a 14 acre farm. Some people move in a weekend, some over a week or so, our move was a 2 month undertaking, where we hauled 4 goats, 3 rabbits, 40 chickens, a small barn, two chicken coops and all our stuff 40 miles west.

When we found our new farm it already had an existing barn built in 1917. It's a big classic red barn with a black roof and an upper floor. It has almost a hundred years of aging, and while it has been fixed up here and there, it's not what I would call "air tight"

The Red Barn is secure enough to keep out large prey animals like coyotes or dogs, but not secure enough to keep out animals that can climb like raccoons or stray cats. For the goats there is a nice solid corner that we re-enforced with plywood, laid cement pads and built strong pens with heavy gauge wire fencing and metal gates, but for the chickens, I just didn't feel secure keeping them in there, especially at night.

At my parents, our chickens and goats were kept in a small two story barn. My family built the barn from scratch 15 years ago with my dad, an amazing artist and carpenter, leading the way. Zach and I were newly dating at the time and he was lovestruck into manual labor to help his sweetheart fulfill a Laura Ingalls-ish romantic escapade with chickens. Thinking back now, it's amazing how long Zach and I have known each other, and how all of this was somehow meant to be. Some years later, Zach and I attached the coop wing off the left side.

With the move at hand, and the Red Barn being what it was, we talked it over and decided we would attempt to move the barn at my moms. My dad passed away in the midst of all this moving, so it even meant more to me to have it on our new land.

I put a message on Facebook that we were having an "Old Fashioned Barn Raising Party. Trucks and trailers welcome, you will be fed!" With little hope I clicked the "enter" button and watched as the message appeared for the social networking site to do it's magic. Doubt filled my heart. Who was I fooling? Who was going to give up their entire Saturday (and maybe Sunday) to come do manual labor in exchange for a pot of Sloppy Joe's, some lunch meat, and a few side dishes? What if it couldn't be moved? Or what if it would take so long that we would have to giveaway our chickens?

Well, as it turned out our friends and family are an incredibly generous lot, and we had so much help that we took the barn down in one day, moved it to the new land and began re-raising it that evening. Those who couldn't help the day of, brought over dog crates, rabbit cages and other portable carriers to put the chickens in while we moved their home.

People I hadn't talked to in years, came with willing hands and a smile. Each board, each trim piece was labeled and stacked onto trailers, then we hauled it all over and it was stacked again in corresponding piles.

Zach and I had prepared the site the weekend before and leveled it with Alice, our tractor. The cement forms that act as the foundation were in place and ready.

Once again, our friends and family came to help re-erect the barn. Board by board the structure took shape, and I was overwhelmed with emotion. This little white barn became more than just a chicken coop, it was a symbol of friendship and love.

First, the love of a father to a persistent teenage daughter that brought Murray McMurray catalogs to the dinner table each night.

Then there was young love, and what a teenage boy will do to impress a young girl who loves animals. Mainly, trading his summer weekends of dirt bike riding, for a hammer and nails, and a box full of chicks that delicately peeped ironically in his large mechanic-like hands.

Then there was the love that grew over the years, as we were married and the little white barn was kissed with the weather of a dozen Michigan winters. It housed our goats and rabbits too, and gave us a small taste of farming life, so addicting that we haven't looked back since.

And finally the love of friends. The old ones that are always there, no matter how long it's been. The new ones who create fresh bonds with similar interests and things in common. Even our new neighbor who brought us a section of aluminum egg boxes, as our old system didn't make the move.

Often I've wondered what people thought of Zach and I. Many times we get a few raised eyebrows, and a chuckle or two when we share the fact that we breed rare chickens.

But the support for our ventures was without compromise. It was serious and genuine, and gave me a new respect for not only the people who were helping, but for the nature of the human spirit.

With the world in it's crazy state, a whirling, dizzy society of hurried strangers, it's easy to become cynical. But it is still in us, it's in all of us, the love for a neighbor, generosity, the gift of time and effort. It's still out there, and it's not all that hard to find. All it took for me to see, was a few dozen chickens and a little white barn.

To see more of what Iron Oak Farm is doing please visit our website at www.ironoakfarm.blogspot.com, or our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/IronOakFarm2?ref=tn_tnmn

Gardening with Chickens - Part 2 - The Set-up

2012-01-24T17:38:00.027-06:00

by Rebecca Nickols

This spring the Master Gardener chapter that I'm a member of is doing a series of gardening classes and I'm excited that I that I will be doing a presentation entitled "Gardening with Chickens!" Before I start proclaiming the joys and benefits a gardener can expect from having a few backyard chickens, I thought I would go over the whys and hows of basic chicken keeping.

In my last article for Community Chickens I shared the first portion of my presentation: Why Chickens? Now, I'm moving on to the next subject: The Set-up

Gardening with Chickens

Why Chickens?

Eggs
Self-Sufficiency and Sustainable Living
Free fertilizer
Entertainment-Easy-Enjoyable-Rewarding

The Set Up

Coop-Run
Chicks
Heritage Chickens
Ordinance Requirements

Gardening with Chickens

Advantages
Disadvantages
Solutions

Conclusion

Resources: online, books, local sites

The Set-up

Before you purchase chicks or hens, the set-up has to be in place (plus a little basic knowledge in chicken keeping)...

Coop-Run: This is probably the biggest initial expense you'll have when you decide to undertake a flock of hens. The coop can be an elaborate and attractive feature to your landscape, but here's the basic requirements a chicken needs in their housing set-up:

The coop... Basically, as far as a chicken is concerned, the coop is a place to find shelter, lay an egg and roost at night. A typical minimal requirement in size is 3 to 5 square feet per bird inside the coop. As for nesting boxes, one per 4-5 birds is all that's required (they seem to like having all their eggs in one box).

The roosting bar needs to allow 12 inches of space per bird. Adequate ventilation is also essential to the health of the birds, either in the way of a ventilation fan system, or an adequate amount of windows that can be opened or closed depending on the outside temperature. I don't heat the coop for two reasons, one is that I specifically chose winter-hardy heritage chickens that can withstand our Missouri winters and secondly, the Ozarks are famous for crazy ice storms that can take out the electric power for long stretches... If the hens aren't acclimated to the cold, the sudden lack of heat could prove fatal to the flock. The last requirement of the coop is safety. If you allow the chickens to free range during the day, they will need to be enclosed each evening in a secure predator proof coop to protect them from our sly and cunning raccoon, foxes and such...

The Run... Chickens are constantly busy--foraging and scratching. If you choose not to let the birds free-range on your property, then they need a secure outside run with a minimal size requirement of 10 square feet per bird. This run also needs to be secure from predators reaching into the run, digging under or attacks from above. I added a 3 foot skirt of chicken wire on the ground around the outside perimeter of the run. The top and sides of my run are covered with 1/2 mesh hardware cloth.

Chicks: Expect to devote quite a bit of time caring for your new chicks for the first 4-8 weeks, but after a couple of months they're pretty much care-free! They need a warm environment during these first few weeks, so plan on having them in a heated garage or laundry room. Before you purchase the chicks have on hand a container to house them in (I used a plastic storage box). You will also want to cover the top of their housing to keep them contained and to keep predators (such as curious cats) from getting to the young birds.

For the first week, the air temperature needs to be at a constant 95 degrees, then each week decrease the temperature by 5 degrees. Most sources recommend suspending a 250-watt infrared heat lamp above the container, the correct temperature is achieved by raising or lower the light. What worked for me was purchasing the chicks in the heat of summer. I was able to keep them in the (unheated) mud room and achieve the correct temperature by simply using a 100 watt light bulb. Purchasing the chicks in the summer (when the night temps are over 80 degrees) also meant that I could move them out to coop/run earlier.

The young chicks are susceptible to a few illnesses at this young age, but keeping their water, food and bedding as clean as possible will prevent most problems. I used a thick layer of pine shavings for their bedding and elevated their waterer and feeder on bricks, but hey still managed to knock over the water and poop in their food... Be prepared to be a mother hen! Fortunately, once they do move out to the coop, checking on them a couple times a day is usually sufficient...

Heritage Chickens: Once the decision has been made to purchase chicks or chickens, there are a lot of options: breed, color, temperament, size, egg color,dual purpose, winter hardiness--even fluffiness! I wanted a family friendly, winter hardy breed that was also a good egg-layer. There are several on-line sites that will help you determine the best chicken based on your needs--there's even a cool app from Mother Earth News, "Pickin' Chicken"

Heritage Chickens by definition are breeds that were recognized by the American Poultry Association prior to the mid-20th century. They are naturally mating and have a long productive outdoor lifespan. They are also slower to reach maturity than industrial chickens; 16 weeks vs 6 weeks. This slow growth rate allows for a stronger skeletal structure as compared to commercialized chickens bred for fast growth and market weight.

This seems like the perfect opportunity to show off my attractive breeds...

Buff Orpington

Classified as a heavy (7-8 pounds), dual-purpose bird, Buffs are winter hardy with a calm, docile temperament. They lay large, light-brown eggs. They're a popular breed not only because of their friendly personalities, but also because they are also good brooders and mothers.

(Meets the ALBC's Heritage Chicken definition.)

Barred Plymouth Rock

Also a large breed (7-8 pounds), "Barred Rocks" are one of the most popular backyard chicken breeds. They have a great disposition, make good mothers, are tolerant of cold climates and lay large brown eggs.

(Meets the ALBC's Heritage Chicken definition.)

Cinnamon Queen

A medium-sized bird (5-6 pounds), tolerant of the cold and an excellent layer of large brown eggs. Cinnamon Queens are a sex-linked cross breed created from a Silver Laced Wyandotte hen and a New Hampshire rooster. This breed has not been given recognition by the American Poultry Association. Cinnamon Queens will start to lay eggs at a younger age than most standard breeds. They are also color sexable as chicks: Cockerels are white, and the pullets are more brownish red in color.

(Meets the ALBC's Heritage Chicken definition.)

Ordnance Requirements: Springfield Missouri, similar to other cities, recently passed a city ordinance allowing residents living within the city to have backyard chickens, but there are a few rules:

•You can have up to six hens, no rooster.
•You cannot breed the chickens or produce fertilizer for commercial purposes.
•You can slaughter your chickens, but it must be sanitary and not seen or heard by nearby properties.
•Coops must be kept clean, neat, sanitary and odor-free.
•Coops need to have adequate ventilation and light, as well as be a safe place from predators and the elements.
•Up to three cubic feet of manure can be stored at a time in a fully enclosed structure.

That's the basic "hows" of chicken keeping in a nutshell. In two weeks, I'll cover the next topic in my outline: Gardening with Chickens

To see what else is happening on our Southwest Missouri property, visit ...the garden-roof coop.

Hello, My Name is...

2012-01-23T23:42:00.002-06:00

by Jennifer Burcke

I hold a wide array of positions here at 1840 Farm. In fact, it's not uncommon for me to fill the role of teacher, mother, cook, handyman, gardener, and farmer all in one day without ever leaving the driveway. Lately, I've also been the resident ice queen.

No, I am not referring to my mood . Although, the last few weeks of extremely frigid temperatures and my continued harrumphing as I reenter the farmhouse after completing my farm chores could be confusing to a casual bystander. It's actually much more literal than that.

I have identified myself as the ice queen because I have spent the better part of the last month hauling buckets of warm water outside to replace water containers that are frozen into solid blocks of ice. I've taken more trips to ferry water to our animals than food during the last four weeks. Most days, I find myself making multiple trips to deliver liquid refreshment to our seven heritage hens and herd of dairy goats.

In fact, I made five trips to replace icy water containers in one day during the last week. By the time I made the last delivery, I was convinced that the water was likely frozen before I had returned to the farmhouse door. It was then, as I was removing my hat, scarf, gloves, coat, and boots that I wondered aloud why on earth my great-grandfather had chosen to farm in New England when he could have certainly moved south to a warmer, more hospitable location. As soon as the words left my mouth, I went on to wonder silently why I was following suit.

I know what you're thinking. Why don't I use heated waterers in our coop and barn? If I did, then I could simply take fresh water to our animals once a day and spend the rest of my time in front of the fire fighting off winter's chill. Yes, I could, in fact, begin using a heated waterer in our coop.

Well, I could if I didn't mind turning off the fixture that supplies our hens with supplemental lighting. I am acutely aware of the importance of the light provided by this single bulb. In my last post, I shared with you the incredible difference that a compact fluorescent light bulb has made in the laying ability of our hens this winter.

I could trade the all-important light for a heated waterer if I didn't mind a return to days on end of finding empty nest boxes every morning. That is a choice I simply cannot make. If I can only supply power to one electrical device in our coop, then the light wins every day of the week.

Since moving to our farm six years ago, we have gone to great lengths to bring our circa 1840 barn into the current century. We've made many improvements, but it is still, at its heart, a 170 year old member of our farming family. It has its faults. We love it in spite of every one of them.

One of the barn's limitations is the absence of running water and an electrical capacity that is somewhat lacking. We're grateful for the power that she provides us in the form of barn aisle lighting and powering our electrical tools during the summer months. We're left to make a choice in the winter of how to safely dispatch enough electricity to the chicken coop to power one lone device.

Choosing between powering the supplemental light in the coop over a heated waterer should have been more difficult. Instead, it didn't take long to determine that while I could trudge to the coop when necessary with fresh flowing water, I could not stand inside the coop and mimic the much-needed sunlight. I mentioned that I hold a lot of positions here at 1840 Farm, but I can honestly say that no one has ever expected me to pretend to be the sun. Even I have my limits.

Then Mother Nature dared me to rethink those limits. On a Sunday morning, I went out to the coop bright and early with warm oatmeal and water for our hens. They greeted me eagerly and began their morning meal. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted two fresh eggs resting in a single nest box. I took a deep breath, thanked the girls for their hard work on such a cold morning, and went to retrieve the eggs for my family's breakfast.

It was a nice moment. Suddenly, all of my hard, bitterly cold work was worth it. Yes, it was cold and I would have rather been inside drinking my first hot cup of coffee of the morning. But here I was, ready to triumph over the cold January morning. I was going to collect two beautifully fresh eggs and serve them to my family for breakfast.

I reached over and gingerly picked up the first egg. Even with my fleece gloves on, I noticed that it felt different. Then I picked up the second egg and noticed the unthinkable. It had frozen solid to the point of breaking its shell. Upon examining the first egg, I found that it had suffered the same damage.

I made my snowy retreat to the farmhouse feeling totally dejected. I was freezing, my fingers were numb, and I had two eggs that had fallen prey to the cold temperatures in spite of my best efforts. Did I mention that I was dealing with all of this before having my first cup of coffee? I don't deal with anything very well before I have a little caffeine. This situation was definitely too much to bear without the assistance of a cup of home roasted coffee.

These were the first cracked eggs I had seen in months. True, I had seen my share of cracked eggs from the coop since we became chicken keepers. All through the spring, we had struggled with thin eggshells before we discovered how to boost our flock's calcium intake. I had foolishly hoped that our days of cracked eggshells were behind us now that we had found a way to incorporate more calcium into our flock's diet.

I wasn't sure what to do with these eggs. The shells of both eggs were cracked from end to end. I could see the frozen membrane was still intact and doing its very best to protect the underlying egg. I knew that I had to free the eggs from their shells while they were still frozen. I was willing to bet that the membrane would be compromised after being frozen and might rupture during the thawing process exposing the egg to harmful bacteria. I worried that the thawed egg would then emerge from the cracked shell leaving me with two eggs that I would be unable to salvage.

Drastic times call for equally drastic measures. I started to remove the shell from the first egg and found that it was a process akin to peeling a hard boiled egg after it has been refrigerated. The shell broke into small pieces and fell away from the membrane encased egg. The second egg followed suit and in a matter of minutes I had two perfectly frozen eggs.

I placed both frozen eggs in a small bowl, covered the bowl tightly and placed it in the refrigerator to thaw. It took a full day, but the eggs did thaw completely. By the end of the evening, I had whisked them together and used them to bake a batch of chocolate chip cookie bars. The bars came out perfectly and were a delicious, warm treat for my family.

It had taken nearly twelve hours for me to prepare these two eggs for use in our farmhouse kitchen. True, it wasn't how I had intended to use them, but at the end of the day, they had served their original purpose. They had helped to nourish my family while reminding me that the difficult work of farming through the winter was a small price to pay for the reward it brings.

I will admit to allowing myself a moment later that evening to enjoy that sense of pride I had held upon first spotting those two eggs in the coop earlier in the day. Through bone chilling temperatures and winter's harsh conditions, I had tended to our flock and they had rewarded me with farm fresh food for my family. Deep down, I knew that this was the reason that my great-grandfather and I had both persevered in our quest to farm in New England's harsh winter environment. The reward so far outweighed the toil involved, that the location became irrelevant.

Then, rather abruptly, the moment of reflection was over. It had been three hours since I last delivered fresh water to the coop and barn and it was time for my last icy trip of the day. Hello, my name is the ice queen and there is still plenty of work to be done before the day is through.

This spring, we'll be making a few additions to our flock and sharing the experience with you. I will be chronicling the life of our new chickens from day old chicks into laying hens through a recurring series of posts about life in the coop at 1840 Farm. Stay tuned!

You're always welcome at 1840 Farm. Visit our blog at www.1840farm.wordpress.com.

For daily updates about the happenings at 1840 Farm, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

My Chicken RV!

2012-01-23T11:20:00.003-06:00

by Julie Miles

My chicken coop is on wheels! I have a friend who is a woodworker and a jack-of-all-trades, so I commissioned him to build my chicken RV (a large chicken tractor!).

Most of the RV was built from scraps that we had lying around. I had a lot of leftover wood, a roll of chicken wire from up in our attic, some scrap metal roofing and a small window that I wanted to use. He had some very old wood, some old windows, and a pair of vented doors that he wanted to get rid of. I bought four tires and told him what I was looking for in a coop. He had raised chickens when he was younger, and had great ideas.

It is the perfect size for four to six chickens.

In the morning before I let them out, I roll the RV about 3 feet to provide fresh grass for them to forage around on. I open the doors and they jump down onto the grass and peck around for worms and vegetation.

To give them the most grass space I can, I have hung the waterer from the ceiling with a bungee cord. This way the chickens can walk underneath and sip water at beak level and it prevents dirt and seed from fouling the water too quickly. The bottom sides flip up so that I can let them out to free range, weather permitting.

The crank-out window in the back is right by the nest, so I can open it and conveniently reach in for the eggs. This also makes it easy to add pine shavings to their nesting boxes.

I close the chickens in the coop at night by latching the vented doors at the bottom. This provides safety for the chickens and prevents predators from attacking at night. The vented doors provide fresh air in the coop.

We had 114-degree temperatures this summer in Oklahoma, and when I closed them in, I hung a fan over the doors so it would move the air inside. In the winter I hang up a small heat lamp and it provides enough warmth for the chickens in freezing temperatures.

The one thing I would like to add to the RV is a few more roosts around the cage for the chickens.

The urban chicken experience is very rewarding. I originally started this venture for the eggs, but I have found that I love just watching the chickens and think of them as pets. The only drawback that I have found in this whole experience, is finding someone to watch the chickens when I travel!

Dusting Chickens for Mites: Taking Care of Business

2012-01-23T11:11:00.004-06:00

by Suzanne Roark

Other than a fluke blizzard-like snowstorm way back in October, we haven’t had a stitch of snow here in southern New Hampshire. With temperatures hitting the near-50° mark, it’s the perfect time to take care of some business out in the coops.

Maybe it’s because the coop is kept closed more often, or maybe the hens go into the coop earlier everyday, but whatever the reason, I end up cleaning the coops more in the winter than any other time of the year. This stretch of unseasonably warm, dry weather is just the time to get coop cleaning chores done.

(Pictured: Catalog ad from 1921, showing a bird being applied with Pratts Poultry Disinfectant. The ad claims: “It has a 'clean smell,' is inexpensive, but wonderfully efficient.” Being from 1921, no ingredients for the powder are given.)

In anticipation of having a slew of big, giant Jersey Giants in our midst, some years ago we built a two-level roost in our main coop. The bottom rungs were lower so the big hens wouldn’t be as susceptible to bumblefoot and injured legs when they jumped off in the mornings. Unfortunately, our group of Giants all died before they reached a year old and we’ve since chosen other breeds to occupy our coop. But the double roosts remain, allowing our current flock of 21 to spread out on the roosts if they feel the need.

Coop cleaning starts with removing the wire mesh-covered boards under the roosts and scraping them off before putting them back under the roosting boards. I also use a paint scraper to scrape down the roosts to bare wood.

This winter I chose to use leaves as the floor bedding instead of the more expensive wood shavings. We raked the leaves back in the fall and saved them in enormous bags to keep them dry. I dumped and spread out a good layer of leaves and pine needles about 8-10 inches thick onto the coop floor. Using this homegrown litter, I save a bit of money on bagged shavings.

I try hard to keep the nesting boxes clean and dry so our eggs will be as clean as possible everyday. Occasionally, a hen or two will try to sleep in the nests, which means they end up soiling the shavings. It is easy enough to scoop out the mess daily when we gather eggs, but every so often it’s good to just completely clean out the nests and start over. This time I just put the shavings on the floor to mix in with leaves and needles that make up the litter. I added new shavings and mixed in a handful of diatomaceous earth into each nest.

Organic insect dust, Blue Ribbon oil, old nylon sock—ingredients for a warm winter day dusting chickens.

I also decided that this was a good time to dust the birds for mites. I’d never actually done it before. I guess I felt that I didn’t have a big enough flock to worry about mites. Pretty ignorant on my part, I know. Anyway, my kids and I dragged out the picnic table, a bag of organic diatomaceous earth and an old nylon sock. We put the table right next to the coop so we could easily catch each bird to do our duty and return them to the pen quickly.

The kids held the birds and I did the dusting. It was a very messy job. I filled a nylon sock with a handful or two of the diatomaceous earth. Holding the small pouch of dust, the kids held each wing open for me to gently pat the dust into the wing area. Next came the vent area, and a quick flip over on their backs for belly dusting before each birds was released back into the pen. Of course, it would have gone much smoother had we closed the birds up in the coop and plucked them out one at a time, but since we didn’t get started until the heat of the day in the afternoon, the birds were already roaming the outside pens. Although catching them did get us some exercise! It was pretty easy to tell who had already been dusted, as their usually glistening feathers were dull and overcast with a slight white haze!

Applying dust with a nylon pouch: Not too traumatic for the chicken, but Paige wasn’t too happy holding onto squawking chickens.

Oh, and before departing for the pens I applied some oil to their shanks and toes to help keep leg mites at bay. It’s a eucalyptus oil blend that I got online from McMurray. But I guess you can use cooking oil too. I’m a bit too nervous to use cooking oil (to me it seems too slippery), and I really worry about my large Orpingtons and the other breeds hopping down from the tall roosts with slippery, oily feet.

I’ll probably try to squeeze in dusting of the birds once a month or so. Having a covered pen area and lots of leaves in the pens means my birds can dust bathe all year long, which goes a long way toward keeping lice and mites away. The covering over the pen keeps out the rain and snow and the leaves keep the dirt underneath from completely freezing. On any given sunny day, warm or not, I find my whole crew out there squished into deep holes. Except for the occasional flip of a wing full of dirt, it sometimes looks like the whole flock is lying out there dead!

It’s a good thing I picked that day to clean and preen, because as I write this, snow is coming down to beat the band!

Fluffy Sponge Cake

2012-01-13T12:52:00.007-06:00

by Meredith Chilson

It’s a blustery day here in Western New York, one of the first for this year, really. It’s just the sort of day that I like to dig out my very old Betty Crocker’s Cook Book and whip up some magic in my kitchen. My chicken girls are finally beginning to lay eggs again—not enough to share with my neighbors and friends just yet, but a few more than my family needs. So, I have a pot of soup on the back burner, a thought of cornbread to go with it, and the recipe for “Fluffy Sponge Cake” in front of me.

Sponge cake is a yummy way to make use of a few extra eggs. It’s been a while since I made one, and I’m not sure how easy it’s going to be to take photos as I go along, but … here we go.

The ingredients:

1 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
6 egg yolks
6 egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
1/3 cup cold water

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon lemon flavoring
½ teaspoon cream of tartar

Betty’s recipe also calls for 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind, if desired, but I didn’t add it.

First, heat your oven to 325 degrees. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

Separate the egg yolks and whites. (Have you noticed that with very fresh eggs, this is sometimes difficult?)

Beat the egg yolks in a small mixer bowl until they are very thick and lemon-colored.

Pour the beaten yolks into a large bowl and beat in the sugar gradually.

Beat the dry ingredients in slowly, on low speed, alternately with the water and flavorings.

In another large bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff. Gradually and gently fold the egg yolk mixture into the beaten whites.

Pour all this carefully into an ungreased tube pan, and bake about an hour.

Turn the pan upside down with the tube over the neck of a funnel or bottle, cool. Remove from the pan and be ready for appreciative murmurs.

My family likes this sponge cake just plain, with maybe a glass of milk ... but it's also great with a fruit sauce, using berries frozen last summer!

Cue the Sun (or a Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb)

2012-01-09T10:58:00.006-06:00

by Jennifer Burcke

Eggs are a very precious commodity here at 1840 Farm. It has been almost a full year since our flock of heritage hens began laying eggs, yet the excitement of discovering an egg in the nest box hasn’t diminished at all. In fact, we still bring each egg into the farmhouse to weigh them individually and log the information into our daily farm journal. Each egg is a small farming victory, a reminder that we have produced fresh food for our family table.

As a family of farmers who raise chickens but don't eat chicken, the eggs produced in our coop have an even greater value. We don't raise birds to grace our farmhouse table although I greatly respect those who do. Instead, we raise birds to produce the fresh eggs that take center stage on our breakfast, lunch, and dinner plates.

So, there we were in November, preparing to enter the holiday season with fresh eggs at hand. Suddenly, we started to notice an abundance of feathers floating around the coop. Every day there were more and more of them. By the time a few days had passed, the run underneath the coop looked like the aftermath of a full-fledged slumber party pillow fight.

I knew what these piles of feathers meant, but I wanted to go on being blissfully unaware of the transformation that was taking place. We had noticed a decrease in egg production before the feathers began to cover the floor of the coop. We had remarked to each other that the hens were looking a bit haggard. I had even allowed the word “molt” to cross my reluctant lips. Deep down, I was hoping that the decrease in egg production was simply a response to the change in season and the decrease in daylight hours. Deeper down, I was afraid that our second winter as chicken keepers might be another winter of my discontent.

No matter my lingering suspicions, I was still shocked when we had our first day of production that didn’t actually include any production. There were no eggs in the coop in the morning. Around noon, I confidently marched out to the coop hoping that at least one egg would be waiting for me. No such luck. Several hours later when I went out to secure the coop for the evening, the nest boxes were still bare.

I told the hens good night and went back into the house. My family, as usual, asked how many eggs I had retrieved from the coop. After shedding my winter coat, I relayed the sad information that there were absolutely none. We talked about the fact that we hadn't had a full day without a fresh egg since that glorious day back in February when we discovered the very first egg produced at 1840 Farm.

Suddenly, the whole family was posing questions regarding molting. Unfortunately, those questions were all headed in my direction. As a chicken keeper who had just plunged unwillingly into our first molting period, I was having difficulty fielding their inquiries. I didn't know how long the molting would go on. I didn't know what we could do to help our hens stay healthy and warm during this transition. All I knew for sure was that our steady supply of deliciously fresh eggs had come to an abrupt, screeching halt.

I went straight to the computer to learn all that I could about molting. Luckily, there were several great articles on this very forum about the subject. I learned about the molting process from reading Meredith Chilson's article. I read on to find that a fellow contributor, Rebecca Nickols, was also experiencing molting in her flock.

I felt comforted to know that I wasn't alone. At the same time, I felt powerless. What could I possibly do to help our birds emerge from this transition that Mother Nature had so cruelly imposed on them just as the weather turned perpetually cold?

I continued to read all that I could about molting. Finally, I felt prepared when my family looked to me to solve our latest farming challenge. My children worried that the hens wouldn't be able to stay warm with their compromised feathers. My husband worried that he might never know the culinary pleasure of having fresh eggs for Sunday breakfast again.

I did my best to reassure them that this too would pass. I did my best to believe the words as I heard them coming out of my own mouth. While I now understood the biological necessity of the molting process, I still had my doubts that we would leave it behind without the loss of at least one of our beloved hens. Winter in New England can be bitterly cold and I worried that it would be far from kind to a chicken with little protection in the way of feathers.

So began the daily march of molting season. Out to the coop I went with fresh, warm bowls of oatmeal every morning. I added extra yogurt and kefir to the mix, hoping to supplement the protein content of their morning meal. While I knew better than to expect to find any eggs waiting for me in the nest box, I felt like I was at least helping our hens to keep warm and boost their protein levels every time a steaming bowl of oatmeal was placed in the coop.

It was obvious that molting was taking its toll on them. They looked ragged and their personalities had suffered as much as their plumage. They were reluctant to eat their morning oatmeal, which usually caused a stampede to the feed bowl. They no longer rushed to greet me at the door when I came to check on them.

Sometimes, I found their evening cereal still resting in its bowl the following morning. I knew for certain that they were as unhappy with their molting feathers as we were. It was obvious that the farmers living at 1840 Farm weren't the only ones eagerly awaiting the regrowth of the last feather to complete this cycle and get back to the business of every day life.

Each day our hens seemed to leave fewer feathers behind in their coop and run. After two weeks had passed, they began to look more like their former selves. We hoped with each small improvement in their feather condition that we were one step closer to reaching the end of molting. When they started to greet me at the coop door and race to gobble up their warm oatmeal I knew that we were within striking distance.

I wasn't taking any chances. I had spent enough time reading about molting to know that there was something else we could do to literally brighten our flock's days and get them back to the business of providing our family with fresh eggs. It was time to start providing light for our hens during the months that Mother Nature did not.

Last winter, we had employed the use of a heat lamp in our coop. Our chicks were young and we worried that they would be unable to keep sufficiently warm during the long New England winter. We purposely chose to use a red spectrum heat lamp in order to allow them to sleep at night. It seemed to work well. The coop was slightly warmer yet they were unaffected by the red light and continued with their normal evening sleeping and roosting pattern.

This year was different. We no longer needed to help heat the coop. Our birds were adults and unfazed by cold temperatures. We had specifically chosen breeds that were cold hardy and so far, those choices had proven to be successful. On even the coldest days, they rushed to go outside as soon as their ramp was opened. When given the choice, they chose fresh air over a warmer coop every time.

Now our goal was not to add heat to the coop, but to provide pure light. We needed to make sure that they would recognize the light as a supplement to winter's diminished sunshine intensity. We thought that we had the perfect answer: solar lights. We eagerly purchased two lights and began to charge them outside the coop.

Every night, we placed the lit solar lights inside the coop. Every morning, we returned the lights to their outside location to fully charge for use the next evening. We were happy to be lighting the coop with renewable energy. It seemed like the perfect solution. That was, until we noticed how our chickens were reacting to the illumination provided by the solar lights.

The sad realization was that they weren't reacting at all. In fact, it was as if they didn't even recognize that there was additional light within the coop. As soon as darkness enveloped our farm, they went to their roost and settled in for the night. It didn't seem to matter to them that the solar lights were shining brightly and that we were doing our best to extend the daylight hours within the confines of the coop. They were not impressed.

I was puzzled by this behavior. I decided to bring in the big guns. I enlisted the help of my family to run an outdoor heavy duty electrical cord from the barn to the coop by burying it in a length of PVC pipe underground. Then we reinstalled the old assembly for the heat lamp we had used when our hens were young chicks. We connected the cord to a timer and set it to illuminate the coop for seven hours each day from noon to 7:00pm. I installed a 9 watt compact florescent bulb and waited to see if our hens would appreciate the light that this setup would give them.

That evening, I went out to the coop for my nightly visit. Hedwig, our Black Australorp met me at the door. She couldn't wait for me to come inside and scratch her on the head. I was happy to see that she was enjoying the new lighting. She is by far our most prolific egg layer and if I was only going to make one hen happy, she was the one I was aiming for.

I wasn't prepared for the rest of the hens to come running to meet me as well. They all gathered at my feet and allowed themselves to get caught up in the excitement that treat time brings. It was the first time in a month that they had reacted that way. I gave them the attention they wanted along with the cereal that makes me such a popular nightly visitor to their coop. I happily bid them goodnight and secured their door.

Three hours later, I went out to the barn for my evening milking shift with our dairy goats. As I passed the coop, I peeked inside wondering what I might find. As I got closer, I noticed that the chain supporting their hanging feeder was moving rapidly. Sure enough, our seven hens were up and active in their new lamp-lit coop. Five of them were gathered around the feeder happily picking through their feed. One was scratching around in the hay on the coop floor.

From the window, I couldn't locate the seventh hen. I put down my milking supplies and opened the coop door. As I peered inside, the hens looked up from the feeder at me, wondering if I might have more cereal. They returned to the food at hand and the feeder was soon rocking back and forth between them. I scanned the coop. The remaining hen was not to be found on the perch, near the feeder, or at the waterer.

She was in a nest box. She looked at me but refused to greet me. She was busy. She was laying an egg. I was all too happy to smile at her, thank her for her hard work, and close the coop door. As I walked to the barn, I could hear the happy sounds of the coop. Birds scratching the floor's surface, birds eating, and best of all, a hen doing what hens do best, clucking while laying a fresh egg.

When I returned to the farmhouse, milk in hand, I enjoyed the happy sounds of a chicken-keeping family. I was asked the usual questions regarding the status of our little flock. For the first time in weeks, I could happily report that they were back to being fully feathered and content in their coop. I put everyone on notice that there was a hen hard at work to bring us the first fresh egg we had seen in weeks. Excitement filled the air. Would there be eggs for breakfast?

The next morning I went out to do my morning chores to find a glorious surprise. Seven fresh eggs were waiting for me in one nest box! Each hen had returned to laying. Each hen had made it through the molting process. That morning, each farmer had fresh eggs for breakfast. We were finally back to the business of family farm life. At least until next year.

You're always welcome at 1840 Farm. Visit our blog at www.1840farm.wordpress.com.

For daily updates about the happenings at 1840 Farm, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Happiness is Being a Chicken Keeper

2012-01-09T05:59:00.005-06:00

I remember leafing through books at our local Barnes & Noble. Staring for what seemed like hours at photos of chickens, coops, farms, and what looked like the happiest people on the planet: chicken keepers. I'd show the pictures to my daughter, Brie.

"Look," I'd remark. "Doesn't this look like fun?" And I'd point to a perky hen plucking away at blades of grass while a proud hen keeper gazed on, adoringly.

"Can we have a chicken of our own?" my daughter inquired.

Sold. Now, I was on a mission. Where to get chickens? And what the heck do you do with them once you bring them home?

After Googling a few local sources, I found a lovely lady, Judy Morris, who started a business building coops and selling brooding kits, with the support of My Pet Chicken. I met her at our local Westport Farmers' Market one fine spring day.

"I just received a beautiful batch of mixed breed chicks. ... Here they are!" And Judy proudly displayed a box full of wiggling, chirping puff balls.

"Oooohhh," I cooed. Brie cooed in unison.

The rest is history. We met Judy out at her farm in Weston, scooped up six of the adorable chicks, along with a brooder kit and chick food, and rushed home with our bundles of joy.

Fast forward two years, and we are now the proud "mamas" of 14 gorgeous hens, and chronicle our adventures in backyard farming through blogging. Simply Chicks is our way of sharing these stories with friends and family who live in other towns, and sustainable backyard farming has become a way of life.

The girls' home was exponentially expanded, and a garden was built... completely chicken proofed, to round out our local, organic food source endeavors.

We amuse ourselves with the chickens' antics, chasing them around the back yard when free range time is over, giving them cabbage heads and pumpkins to munch on for snacks, and posing them on tree branches for photo opportunities.

We find ourselves, even in the early stages of this hobby, being asked to speak on behalf of chicken keeping at local events, and have been invited to Ecofest, Earthplace's Green Earth Fair, Wakeman Town Farm, and Temple Israel. It's an honor to be thought of as an expert ... though we defer to far more seasoned poultry enthusiasts when it comes to health and animal husbandry matters.

Every day, Brie and I are entertained by our girls, and learn new lessons about caring for our feathered friends. Building a sturdy coop with all the comforts of a hen home, feeding them organic fare and nutritious table scraps, letting them have free range time each day, and, yes, snuggling with them, we believe, helps the birds maintain optimal health.

It's the least we can do for those delicious, fresh eggs, which quite literally go from nesting box to the frying pan within a day ... We gobble them up as quickly as the girls make them, and are grateful for these edible treasures.

"Thank you," we say to our hens, each time we reach for an egg to place in our basket for breakfast.

It's a good life, and we are happier for it, indeed.

Gardening with Chickens - Part 1 - Why Chickens?

2012-01-09T00:11:00.026-06:00

by Rebecca Nickols

The Master Gardener chapter that I am a member of is doing a series of gardening classes this spring and the speakers bureau asked if I would do a PowerPoint presentation on chickens ... Of course I accepted! What a great opportunity to spread the news on how easy and enjoyable it is to have a flock of backyard chickens! As this is a gardening series and I'm more of a gardener than a farmer, I thought I would not only share the whys and hows of basic chicken keeping, but also how a gardener can benefit from having a few hens, as well as strategies to protect your garden from the ever hungry foraging birds ...

Over the next couple of months, I thought I'd share my presentation. Here's the basic outline:

Gardening with Chickens

Why Chickens?

Eggs
Self-Sufficiency and Sustainable Living
Free fertilizer
Entertainment-Easy-Enjoyable-Rewarding

The Set Up

Coop-Run
Chicks
Heritage Chickens
Ordinance Requirements

Gardening with Chickens

Advantages
Disadvantages
Solutions

Conclusion

Resources: online, books, local sites

Why Chickens?

Eggs (of course!): They supply you with beautiful, fresh eggs daily. Great tasting and proven to be more nutritious than store bought. According to research conducted by Mother Earth News, chickens allowed to roam freely and eat grass lay eggs that are higher in Omega-3 fatty acids and Vitamin E and at the same time lower in cholesterol than store-bought eggs.

Your leftovers and surplus vegetables will never go in the trash again (reduces waste).

They provide you with an excellent fertilizer base (world's best)...

One simple step to make you closer to self-sufficiency and sustainable living: Your leftovers (and garden extras) are fed to the chickens; their "fertilizer" is added into the compost bin (along with egg shells and coop bedding); this compost is worked into the garden soil; crops are planted and harvested, then the cycle starts over ...

Grow your own food plus less waste and reliance--that's a good feeling!...

They reduce insect numbers (chemical-free bug and weed control)!

They love Japanese beetle soup...

Easy and inexpensive (when compared to most other pets) and as pets go they're fun, friendly and they'll provide you with endless live entertainment! You'll soon learn that each chicken has their own unique behaviors and attitudes. Some will come when you call them and will want to be by your side at all times, while another member of the flock will be scared of its shadow and is sure the sky is falling! If you're not familiar with backyard chickens, they're not the commercialized chicken that many people think of ... These are the chickens our grandparents (or great-grandparents) had, they're intelligent, beautiful birds with gorgeous feather patterns and colors. Their antics and unique personalities are endearing, and if you're not careful, they'll become less like a farm animal and more of a pet. A dog might be a man's best friend, but a chicken is definitely a gardener's friend, companion and ally!

In two weeks, I'll cover the next topic in my outline: The Set Up

To see what else is happening on our Southwest Missouri property, visit ...the garden-roof coop.

Thinking about Raising Turkeys?

2012-01-08T19:44:00.006-06:00

by Suzanne Roark

Thinking of raising up a turkey for Thanksgiving or any other holiday or for any day really? Here are a few bits of advice and knowledge I've picked up in my experiences with turkeys.

Just a few short years ago the choices for the average person to have a fresh turkey were as follows: supermarket meat case or local commercial turkey grower.

Our options have thankfully expanded a bit in the last few years. More and more farmers' markets are popping up with smaller local growers offering fresh turkeys, even grown to order! And more and more backyarders are growing their own turkeys as well.

Price can be a big factor in turkey selection. A turkey at a farmers' market might garner upwards of $6 per pound. Fresh turkeys in a supermarket case, “fresh” being a relative term here, can be around the $2-3 per pound range. With many supermarkets advertising low cost per pound frozen birds at just 59 cents per pound and even some freebies thrown in there, how could a fresh turkey compete?

Let’s face it, when accompanied by hundreds of calories on the typical holiday meal plate, the turkey isn’t quite as center stage as our reverent tradition holds. Historically, the turkey was only a portion of the festive meal anyway, with other meats such as fish, chicken pies and beef roasts also gracing the table. In our minds I guess, a cheap turkey allows us to have more on the table. Bland, stringy, pumped with filler juices and water added—you get what you pay for.

Raising a turkey of your own won’t be cheap: We backyarders can in no way compete with the conglomerate turkey farm at 59¢ per pound. A homegrown bird will more likely be in the $1.75-2.50 per pound range, but will have unsurpassed flavor and quality of meat.

A decade ago a backyard grower would be hard pressed to find a turkey poult available other than the Broad Breasted White. Again, thankfully, there are at a least a few other options with more availability of heritage breed turkeys.

Castaway trampoline with wire sides and plastic roofing. Our first attempt at holding in flighty Narragansetts. Losses took its toll on our flock of heritage turkeys since, with only a trio remaining, they have been moved into permanent quarters.

The topic of raising your own feast begins with commercial breed vs. heritage breed. I have raised both. I’ve eaten both. Both are delicious. Both have their own quirks on raising. Backyard growers would do well to research both.

Some facts about both “kinds” of turkeys is that there isn’t a whole lot of information out there on the raising of just one or two birds. Most information I have gleaned is from large commercial operations. Good for us though, most poultry are very easy to raise.

Be advised that hatcheries tend to sell out quite fast of the heritage breeds. Both commercial and heritage birds are sold in minimum quantities. Here in New Hampshire, state law requires feed stores and other poultry sources to sell turkeys in minimum lots of 12. That’s a lot of turkey. If you are thinking of raising only a few consider going in on a lot with a group of like-minded turkey raisers.

Heritage breeds normally take much longer to raise. You’ve heard that before I’m sure. But you can raise a heritage turkey from spring to fall. It won’t be huge. Not like the BB Whites. Most likely 15-18 pounds for a tom purchased as a poult in May or June. But don’t worry, the meat is much denser and tends to feed more on less pounds per person. The flavor is more turkey, but not gamey in any way. The meat on the breast is a bit darker as you’ve heard. But NOT like the dark meat on the leg. Breast meat is more of a creamy color than the stark white of a supermarket bird. The dark meat on a heritage bird is very dark indeed, but is all the more flavorful. There tends to be more leg meat than breast on heritage breeds in general. I found the leg meat to be meatier and not stringy like the supermarket kind.

Young Narragansett sits atop a large dog crate. Those turkeys never did go inside even in the snow and rain!

A heritage bird of larger size can certainly be obtained, but you’ve got to grow that bird usually into the next year. Which is OK, because they are beautiful birds. It’s often more difficult to cull that beauty for a meal, so a heritage bird may squeak by another year of growth. Heritage birds don’t eat as voraciously as the commercial breeds. You’ll still spend money on feed over the long run though. I haven’t calculated the difference between the two, but it certainly seems that they eat less than their commercial counterparts.

Heritage turkeys are more spunky than the BB Whites for sure. They figure any way out of their pen, up, under, through, between… You’ll be amazed as well as aggravated by their attempts at escape. Be vigilant and they will settle down as they grow bigger than the holes they attempt to squeeze through! Heritage breeds are less prodigious in the poo category. They do forage although a high protein grain mix is required to pack on the pounds.

Heritage birds dress out about the same as the commercial kind. But they will have more feathers and will leave some darker pinfeathers behind on the carcass after processing. Small or hard to get feathers can be plucked off individually before roasting and the tiniest will cook off in the oven. I’ve cooked them the same way as the supermarket kind, being careful not to over cook. (I like to pull my roast at 160° degrees.)

The commercial side will find you deciding between Broad Breasted White and Broad Breasted Bronze. Here again, you’ll need to do your research. I found the meat to be exactly the same between the two. I did like how the BB Bronze grew out, as they looked more like a “real” turkey clucking around the yard. I did not like how they processed. I have been a supermarket bird gal for too many years and just don’t care for the black pinfeathers in the skin. My personal choice here only, folks.

Better pen area for our 11 Broad Breasted White flock. They quickly trampled all the grass. This group was pretty smart and headed for the security of the metal shed in the background in early evening. They even had enough sense to get in out of the rain. I do not believe turkeys are as stupid as everyone makes them out to be, perhaps more childlike and inquisitive but not stupid. If there is something in their pen area that can be broken or destroyed in anyway—they’ll do it.

Our choice after trial and error is the BB White, abundant at feed stores in July and August. A July tom will yield 30+ pounds by November. We opt for a later start in the beginning weeks of August, which yield smaller birds overall, with toms averaging 20-22 pounds. The BB Whites are voracious eaters. Just like their commercial cousins the Cornish X meat bird, they eat and they poo. Lots and lots of feed. Lots and lots of poo. The BB whites are much lazier than the heritage breeds, while they will eat grass, they prefer the trough. You have to range them strategically in order to have enough green grass for them because they poo so much, they soil their soil much too quickly. It’s best to raise them on commercial grain. They drink enormous amounts of water so make sure you can supply it even when the fall weather turns cold enough to make turn it into ice!

BB White poults will find curious ways to escape as well, but since they grow at such a rate, they quickly get too big for those shenanigans. They won’t fly up and out like the heritage breeds will. Keeping them in lower open pens is easier than the covered pens needed for the heritage varieties. Of course, you can free range both. But be prepared for losses. BB Whites are slow easy targets for predators and heritage breeds will wander away to become a wild turkey.

You should be prepared for losses, though, in both categories. Turkey poults, while easy to raise, are a bit more finicky than raising chicks. They seem not to like the heat lamps as much as chicks and prefer to be outside rather in a coop in general. Day olds are extremely fragile, it seems to me; more so than chicks.

Broad Breasted White turkey hen, from day-old poults acquired the first week of August. Hens from this group weighed in at 13-15 pounds by Thanksgiving, toms ranged from 18-22 pounds. Add 10 pounds for an additional month if acquired in July.

Both varieties of turkeys have personality. Which can often be a determinant to the home processor! I was just on the verge of falling for my BB Whites about a week before D-Day. I was careful to appreciate their humor without getting overly attached. Turkeys seem very loyal and will follow you around like a little puppy—beware!

I don’t let myself get attached to the turkeys we intend to process, but darn, I’ve fallen in love with my Narragansetts. I was forewarned of this very thing happening by a dear friend. We’ve decided to keep them as breeders—for now.

Processing turkey is much the same as for chickens although the size can make hefting up into the scalder, plucker and onto tables quite tiring. A group of friends gathered at our place to process 22 turkeys this year. I was fine and dandy with all of it, until the very last bird at 37.5 pounds. I thought I was going to drop from exhaustion after that monster.

As with meat chickens, meat turkeys are worth giving it a try at least. The meat is naturally moist and flavorful, and then there is that satisfaction of knowing what went into the entire ordeal.

Hen Inn

2012-01-02T15:03:00.003-06:00

by Sarah Richards

My source for fresh farm eggs ended, but the farmer asked if I wanted a momma hen and her two hatched chicks.

I live in an eco-development named Serenbe. Even though my neighbors are very close, we are surrounded by 900 acres of woods...cluster development it is called. So, I wasn't sure if I could have chickens or not, but you know what they say, it's easier to apologize than to ask for permission. Having said that, I began building the Hen Inn.

Turns out one of the chicks the momma hen, Black Betty, hatched is a rooster and he may prove to be a problem. I named him Nuggett.

I have had birds before on a 180 acre farm in New York, but now I live on .11 acre. I know the way to a happy chicken family would be a coop that is easy to keep clean. So I bought plans for a simple coop and made many changes.

My kids (wink) are happy and so far have stayed in their own yard. I hope Nuggett doesn't prove to be a problem. I like him.

Processing Day

2012-01-02T14:54:00.004-06:00

by Suzanne Roark

Processing day actually starts the day we bring home our day-old meat chicks from the feed store. Being Cornish Cross or Jumbo Cornish Cross means we only have a scant eight weeks to prepare.

The very first thing we do after the little chicks are under the heat lamp and fed is to mark the calendar eight weeks out. The first time we did our own processing we didn’t look ahead and we ended up scrambling for a plucker on Memorial Day weekend! Since our first time out, we’ve gotten our own plucker, but if we need to have another one on hand, now is the time I would start scouting around for a rental and put money down on the date.

Giant aluminum scalding pot with heavy duty propane burner.

It’s a good idea to have everything one needs for processing ahead of time ... once you start you can’t stop. I take those eight short weeks for grow out to gather all the items. I think ahead not only about the plucker, but about the water source, sinks, scalding and burners, clean tables, cooling, packing, and disposal of the offal, along with good sharp knives and aprons. I think the process through step by step, from the moment we take the bird from the coop until the moment we pop it into the freezer. Don’t want to be running to the store for ice in a bloody apron!

Set up with coolers, freezer, stainless steel tables, outdoor sink in background. Foreground is double scalding pots.

Because processing is quite a bit of work, we usually plan to hold it on a Saturday, giving us Sunday to recuperate. We also enlist anyone who might be interested in seeing the process, and we typically have one to two other families who are raising their own birds for meat, as well. Many hands make light work! We give everyone notice that first day when I mark the calendar. Weekends are precious time, and we can’t catch anyone off guard with "Hey, wanna come kill some chickens?”

The Friday before the big day, food is withheld from the meat birds. It’s a hard thing, as the Cornish X meat birds are endlessly hungry.

Hubby doing the "deed."

Also on Friday evening we set up one or two EZ-up canopies out in the way back of the yard. We drag out the stainless steel counters we fashioned from scrap and added wooden legs. Next comes the old-fashioned farmers sink, you know the kind: heavy porcelain-coated cast iron with a drain board built in on one side. Hubby added a wooden base to that as well and also installed a faucet and drain pipes. It’s mighty heavy to move around, but its smooth porcelain surface is a breeze to clean up and disinfect.

While hubby is setting up the cones and getting the plucker in place, my job is to clean and disinfect all the surfaces. I use a solution of bleach and water with a touch of dish soap in a spray bottle to scrub up the stainless steel tables, holding tubs, sinks, knives, etc. We keep it on hand to periodically clean up as we go, and we’ll use it again at the end.

We have learned over several processing events that we are each suited to particular jobs. I, for one, cannot do the following: slaughter, scald, plucking. But read on, my time will come.

Hubby does the slaughter. He’s got a small shelf attached to a back shed that holds three cones with buckets under each one to catch the blood. We also have a tarp on the side of the shed that reaches to the ground, so we can use the hose or pressure washer to clean up more easily.

Once he’s done, the bird moves to the scalder, which is usually the job of my son. After trial and error, he’s got it down to a science! We actually get two pots going, one to use for scalding and one to be heating up so that when the first one gets dirty we can switch. We also have an instant-read thermometer to keep a check on the water temp and a hose nearby to cool it off if it gets too warm. The only real way to tell if you’ve got the temp correct is to pluck a few. If the skin tears too easily, the water is too hot. If the feathers aren’t coming out, the water is too cold.

Scalding pot ready to switch with the clean water one.

Our ancient rotary drum style plucker with tarp to catch the flying feathers.

I gather up my courage and remove the feet. Using kitchen shears to remove the neck saves time and effort over a knife.

After scald, the next station in the line is the plucker. Our good friend has taken a shine to running the plucker. He’s become a plucker master. Of course, our plucker is as old as the hills. A rusty pile of metal with a rotating drum ... on the outside. We got it for a steal at $50, but of course, we’ve had to add all new fingers. It takes a whopping 400 fingers! At a buck a finger, you can see how that adds up.

My job is finally here. After the plucking, the bird is held over in a large plastic tub filled with ice and water. I take the birds from their cold water bath to begin eviscerating. Oh, and I’m squeamish about taking off the neck and legs, too. But, after a few hundred chickens, I can manage the task. We have an electric knife sharpener on hand, and buckets under the stainless steel table to catch the offal.

The final rinsing and scrubbing in the old farmer’s sink.

We keep several stainless steel bowls on the table, one each for innards that are being saved. Our family does not like any of the organ meats, so they are saved for friends who request them. Chicken feet go to our local Chinese food restaurant. They don’t serve them to their customers, but it’s a great delicacy for themselves.

The offal is either given to a local hunter or double bagged and sent with the trash. Cleanliness and disposal of the offal, blood and feathers is very important. Any speck leftover for the next day brings flies. Thousands, and thousands of flies. That first time processing, we were so tired, we forgot to wash out the slaughter buckets. BIG, BIG, MISTAKE ... FLIES EVERYWHERE.

Ahhhh, such a beauty ... I mean the chicken.

The bird moves from the eviscerating table to the sink. It’s washed thoroughly and any unwanted fat and bits are removed. The birds are then put into coolers filled with ice until all the birds are done.

Hubby is the first one done with his station and by then there is usually a backlog at the eviscerating table. His job moves from slaughter to hose. He cleans up his area before blood starts to coagulate and adhere to surfaces. My son, the scalder, is next to be done, and he moves into clean up mode as well. He dumps out the pots and washes them down.

Next up for cleaning is the plucker. We fashioned a tarp behind it to catch all the feathers (remember, it’s the drum style). The tarps are hosed down and feathers raked up and bagged. A tub plucker shoots them out the side, which can be easily raked and bagged.

Daughter Paige, weighing up the birds. The baby gates in the background are where the chickens spent their eight weeks.

Meanwhile, I am still trying to catch up with eviscerating. By now, all the other stations are helping me. This is the most time-consuming part, particularly washing the birds.

Once all the birds are in the cooler, it’s my turn to clean up the knives, tables, sink and buckets. When it’s all clean, the birds are taken out of the cooler and bagged. We like to weigh our birds to check on feed conversions and wow over how much bigger our good friend’s birds are ... eergh. We clean out the coolers and change over to new ice. They can remain in the ice coolers until the next day, which is good, because we are all pooped!

The next day, besides being incredibly stiff and tired, we take down the canopies and tarps, drag back the table and sink, and hang up the scalding pots.

I like to part out the birds, so that I don’t just have a freezer full of whole roasts. I divvy up the carcasses into breasts, legs, thighs and wings. I even bag up the carcasses to make stock. The bags are marked and put into the freezer. Done. Good thing we took Sunday to rest, eh?

Getting ready for the final push. Bagging and weighing.

For some reason, hubby was thrilled with the feet.

Our birds finished and ready for the freezer.

Don't Bag Those Leaves!

2012-01-02T14:08:00.005-06:00

by Suzanne Roark

Every year it seems like we are behind the eight ball when it comes to getting ready for the winter. It’s not like we don’t know winter is coming and what we’re in for, we just always seem to get caught up in other things.

So you can image my pride and joy when I found myself with all the heat pans wired, in place, and ready to go for my chicken and turkey waterers way before Halloween! Wow, I’m good.

But who would have known we’d get dumped with 12 inches of snow on October 30? I mean, it was forecast. But, usually early snow just melts as it hits the ground. Whatever is left over melts in the warm afternoon sun that same day.

Not this year. This freakish storm not only dumped heavy wet snow on the region, it actually turned cold enough to make it stick! Many parts of the New England area still had green foliage on the trees. Which was one of the main problems. So many trees snapped and fell because they just couldn’t carry the load of heavy snow plus all that green foliage. Leaf turning is extremely late this year. A week after the storm, and my trees had just begun to turn and fall.

The worst thing was that our covered chicken pen partially collapsed. We can’t have our flock free range; we live in a town that likes to think it’s a city (being within any proximity to Boston does that, you know). The chicken pens are made of dog kennels with wire tops. Well, wire tops can only hold out for so long.

After a good cry, and three days of cutting and moving branches out to a large pile at the back of the yard we call “the way back,” we surveyed the damage of the coop. Not so bad after all—whew! Hubby was able to push up the top of the pen and secure it without too much effort. My chickens are happy again, clucking around without fear the sky is falling.

Up until this point I didn’t have any leaves to rake up and put into their pens. Usually I have tons of leaves on the ground way before Halloween, but fall is late this year and left me without my any leaves for my pens. The storm helped speed up fall, so to speak, and now I have lots of leaves on the ground. I never used to be so excited about raking up leaves, but since we got chickens I very much look forward to them.

Leaves under foot in the Narragansett’s pen.

The pens were built atop old sand piles that the kids weren’t playing in any more. That first year with chickens I found myself constantly raking out the pens because the droppings just seemed to sit on top and make a huge mess. After some serious thought on the subject—mostly that I didn’t want to do so much cleaning—I came up with using leaves as a flooring. It didn’t make much sense economically to use shavings, and I couldn’t keep up with raking the pen clean every day. But dumping huge piles of leaves in their pens did the trick. The chickens simply love to jump in the leaves, almost as much as the kids! I never worry about spreading them out, just leave it in a huge pile. Before long, the scratching and digging of the hens has the pile completely flat and spread out.

Using the leaves does more than cover up the poo. The constant scratching actually works the poo into the pile of decaying leaves, keeping their little chicken feet nice and clean. In fact, I so love having the leaves as a floor to keep their feet clean, I found other seasons of the year offer flooring options as well. I use grass clipping, pulled weeds, spent garden stalks or whatever I can find to dump in a pile for them to scratch through.

Best way to sop up the poo in the meat bird pen. Thank heaven for leaves!

Recently, I discovered the most excellent reason to keep up the piles—compost. When I was a kid, my father spent a lot of time fussing over his pile of compost. All that layering and turning, and more turning, seemed too complicated and too much effort in my hectic world. So, I never really took a shine to keeping a compost pile. I have instead used leaves in a variety of ways. One way is to use the leaves as mulch for my blueberry bushes. I also have never bagged a leaf, preferring to rake them into the “way back” and leave them in a heap to decay on their own. I never, ever, used that pile for compost though, because we had always added tree limbs and branches to the pile too.

But as it turns out, using all that garden refuse and fall leaves as flooring, my chickens have been living on a huge pile of compost. When we first built the pens we needed to step down into them, because that part of the yard sloped down. As fall approached I noticed that I was stepping up into the pens. I decided it was time to dig up some of that flooring to make the pen gates easier to close.

We took huge loads of composted leaves and garden waste out of the pens and dumped them straight into the garden. I was plenty shocked to find no sand. Instead we were digging up rich, black earth. Hens clucking around and scratching and playing in the piles had accomplished what I was too lazy to do myself. Voilà! Compost with no real effort on my part—what could be better than that?

Hard to tell from this photo, but really, it’s rich and dark … ahh … garden dreaming already.

I still like to use the leaves to keep their feet clean and I love to watch them dig, but that compost is surely the best payoff. Even though my garden just went to bed a few weeks ago, I’m already dreaming of waking it up to start the another season and see how that rich, black compost will make my garden grow.

Open Faced Egg Salad Sandwich with Dill and Avocado

2012-01-01T12:18:00.002-06:00

by Jennifer Sartell

It's so great to be back and blogging again! Just before Thanksgiving, my computer took a nose dive and I couldn't access any of my image files, I couldn't download my camera, and worst of all, I couldn't share all the exciting things that happened at our first Christmas on the new farm. I had "first snow" farm photos all ready to be sent out in Christmas cards, but they never made it off the camera until now. But it's a new year, and I have a new hard drive, and it's great to be talking chicken again.

Over the holidays, I felt as though my taste for food was being bogged down with the heavy traditional foods of the season. In my house it's gravy, everything has gravy. And don't get me wrong, I love gravy, but too much of a good thing can weigh a palette down.

Usually around this time, as winter settles in and nestles it's long dreary stretch across the coming months, I start craving the fresh green flavors of summer. And while this recipe isn't exactly flocked with something like fresh asparagus, or spring lettuce, the dill and the buttery green avocado give the traditional egg salad a bright new taste.

Ingredients:
6 farm fresh hard boiled eggs. Chilled, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 red bell pepper, finely chopped
2 green onions, finely chopped
small bunch of dill, finely chopped, about 1 Tbsp.
sour dough English muffins
Swiss, Gruyere or your favorite sliced cheese
avocado slices
salt and pepper

To make hard boiled eggs perfect every time, set eggs in a pot and cover with water. Once the water starts to boil, set the timer for 6 minutes. To ease peeling, cool the eggs as fast as possible after boiling. I do this by straining out the hot water and running cold water over the eggs until they're comfortable to handle. Peel immediately under cold running water. The shock of the cold seems to shrink the egg slightly and allows the shell to come off without damaging the egg white. The water also acts as a lubricant between the shell and the egg. Boil your eggs several hours before and refrigerate. There's nothing worse than luke warm egg salad.

Add 1/2 cup mayonnaise. (Want to add even more homemade fun to this recipe, check out one of Grit's latest recipes by Laura Marie, a super easy how-to in making your own mayonnaise.)

Add the chopped red bell pepper, green onions, dill, salt and pepper. Give it a good stir.

Lay slices of cheese over two halves of an English muffin and toast in the oven until the cheese melts and slightly browns. I used a delicious smoked Gruyere.

To assemble the sandwich, scoop a generous portion of the salad onto the toasted cheese capped muffin, top with slices of avocado and give it a good sprinkle of salt and pepper. I find that salt always brings out the delicate buttery flavor of avocados. Enjoy!

Visit our farm blog at www.ironoakfarm.blogspot.com

All I Want for Christmas is a Chicken?

2011-12-15T15:35:00.007-06:00

by Margaret E. Kellogg

I'm sure that many of you have heard the various things children want for Christmas. But, have you ever heard a child tell Santa, "I want a chicken for Christmas?" Usually, it's the latest hand-held game, doll, puppy or kitten, but not a chicken.

I'm so happy that I'm a crazy chicken lady who just decided to hatch some chicks after the main hatching season was over. I had lost most of my Polish hens to either a fox or creatures that fly, so I wanted to hatch some. I also wanted a few more white Silkies, so I incubated a few of them. There were some bluish and smaller eggs, and I was curious to see who was laying those. So, I also incubated them. I had beautiful white Silkies, Self blue d'uccles mixed with cochin, hatch in October. I also incubated Polish and a few miscellaneous eggs that I knew would be banty, but I wasn't sure what kind. This batch hatched right before Thanksgiving.

Born October 27th, 2011

Yesterday when I got home from work, I found a message on my phone left by someone who had obtained a few chicks from me earlier in the year. When I returned the call, I started to tell the woman about the variety of chicks I had. She was pleasantly surprised that I had any ... and was especially delighted when I said I had white Silkies.

"Oh, white Silkies!" she said. "That's just what my son wants. He even brought out a book and showed us a picture of one."

About 1 month old

I told her they were about 2-months-old and nicely fluffing out. The white Silkie hen was also sitting on a few eggs at this point, which I expected to hatch around Christmas. So I told her I would be fine with parting with a couple of the older ones.

I also added that I had some red ribbon, which I could make into a big bow for the chick or chicks. She asked how late she could pick it up, and I told her she could come on Christmas Eve if she wanted, so it would be a lovely surprise for her son.

Now, I think I'm as excited as the parents about giving the little boy this special gift. I have been very pleased with how lovely the Silkies look.


Currently, they are with the Polish and the mix.

I would love to see the look on the little boy's face when he receives this chick or chicks. The parents haven't decided if they want to get one or two. What a delightful and special gift. I'm so happy I was crazy enough to hatch out a few chicks for myself ... or I wouldn't have this opportunity.

Happy Hatching and Happy Holidays. Chickens are a joy year round.

Raising Cornish X Meat Birds for Processing

2011-12-12T13:29:00.001-06:00

by Suzanne Roark

When we first began raising chickens it was strictly eggs we were interested in. Somehow after a few years of raising the egg-laying kind, we started to think about raising the meat kind.

I searched the internet for answers on how to raise them. I knew vaguely that the “meat” kind was an all-white feathered breed but not much else. I did find information on meat conversions, weeks to slaughter, and how incredibly weak and ill they could become with their fast growth rate.

I had questions like how the meat would taste and whether cooking the meat would be different from the store bought kind. However, I couldn’t find much information on that aspect of raising meat birds. I did find a lot of documents about giant commercial chicken raising operations and even quite a bit about free ranging the birds. I could do neither of those options and couldn’t seem to get any concrete answers about the flavor and cooking of home raised meat chickens.

Cornish X youngsters with baby gate fencing. Grass will be totally gone in a week or two. They’ll eat some, but mostly just poop on it and stomp on it.

But we took the plunge anyway. Day old chicks of Cornish X meat birds didn’t seem to be very much different than day old layer chicks. We didn’t hold and cuddle them like we do our laying hens and absolutely NO naming them!

It didn’t take very long to discover some major differences between egg layers and meat chickens—mainly that these commercially bred birds are eating; water drinking; pooping machines. They have no normal chicken behavior, no scratching and clucking around. No normal chicken personality. I was disgusted, and still am disgusted after raising several batches of the little beasts, that we as humans have somehow managed to breed this monster of a bird. We’ve mangled and twisted the genetic makeup so that these creatures no longer have any discernable “chicken” traits, so sad.

Cornish X crowding into the shed. Notice the sparse feather on the behinds and very low, heavy, wide, bodies. Roosters don’t crow, they are just a bit bigger than the hens.

Since they do grow so quickly and don’t do any scratching around, poop tends to build up rather quickly. I am still trying to come to grips with a best way to deal with this whole poop thing. I use shavings, but man, even a small batch of 10 birds can completely soak through a full bale of shavings in just a day or too. That’s a bit of money and a whole lot of work shoveling and replacing. Why so much replacing of bedding? Because the Cornish X don’t scratch through the litter. They just sit atop the pile and poop. They drink so much water that the shavings become a wet matted mess almost instantly.

You see it quickly becomes apparent that the coop must be kept dry to keep the overwhelming smell of ammonia at bay. I had read about, but never really experienced the ammonia smell with my laying coop. Meat birds have an incredible ammonia problem which I think comes from the fact that they respire so quickly from all that fast growth and the tons and tons of wet poo. I find myself churning the poo with a rake and hoe since the chickens can’t do it themselves.

Other than dealing with the ammonia-pooh issue, raising meat birds is fairly easy. You just feed them. Constantly. The amount of water they consume is about double the amount of feed so don’t be surprised to find yourself filling up the waterers more than once per day. It is true that the easily found breed of Cornish X is ready for the butcher at 8-10 weeks. I suppose we could push them a little more, but trust me, by the 8th week you want to be rid of them. At 8 weeks, their bodies are so fat and low to the ground they barely move. At feeding time they crowd around and push and shove, their big awkward feet tripping you while your pouring in the grain…once the feed hits the trough, they do indeed sound like pigs slopping it up. Processing them is almost a relief.

Cornish X crowding the feed trough. You could scatter fresh corn and wiggly worms on the ground and they wouldn’t touch it. I don’t know how we humans managed to engineer them this way, but they only eat from the trough!

We did search around for alternatives to the Cornish X. We don’t have the room to free-range so the Freedom Ranger breed is not really an option. Plus, they poop and eat nearly exactly the same as the Cornish X, without as much breast meat. When you’ve spent a full back breaking day processing these guys, you really appreciate getting the most meat as possible. We’ve processed a few roosters and old laying hens, but there is so many feathers and there isn’t hardly any meat—it’s just not worth it. So Cornish X it is—for now.

I was concerned that the meat would be “different” than store bought and that we wouldn’t really like it—you know, too strong of a taste or perhaps the meat would be tough. No worries though. The meat has incredible texture. Just like a store bought egg is watery, so is store bought chicken meat. Home grown is denser and consequently it seems to take much less of a portion size to fill us up. The flavor is more “chicken-y” than any store bought meat. In fact, after a year or so of eating only home grown chicken, a taste of the store bought kind revealed an odd chemical-like after taste.

Cooking of chicken you raise yourself does not really change that much either. I used to rely on pop up timers that come already neatly inserted into the meat. I now use a good meat thermometer. But smell, look and feel are a much better indicator of correct doneness than the government required 185° pop up timer. Is it that the manufactured chicken is pumped so full of water and “natural juices” that it seems to take so long to cook, or the incredibly high temp of the required 185°, or perhaps the big guys have manufactured them that way so that no matter how much you overcook their product, it always tastes the same?

In any case, after raising a few batches of birds I now notice that the compact shrink-wrapped chicken at the store is so much smaller per pound than my own birds. For instance, I recently noticed one of those membership clubs offering two whole chickens packaged together, I could fit the pack in my two hands. The weight on the package read 9lbs—meaning each chicken weighed 4.5lbs, how could that be? When just one 4lb chicken of my own is so big it takes two hands to carry it alone. The bones seem more rigid on my home grown kind. The legs do stick up and you can actually feel the body has bones. But the packaged version was very mushy, with nary a sign that there were even any bones at all. The legs were soft and bent over neatly along the breast meat. Makes me wonder just how they got those two tiny carcasses to weigh 4.5lbs each.

Top and bottom of a buckeye rooster who met his demise the first weekend of loud crowing. About 10 months old. Excellent yellow skin color, very tasty meat. But note the high keel bone in relation to breast meat. Much more leg meat than breast. Smallish amounts of meat make the processing hassle seem not worthwhile.

Same buckeye roasted. See what I mean about the legs, keel bone and wings? Store bought birds look flattened down. To me both home grown roo or Cornish X have a bit tougher skin. That's good, it holds in all the juices during cooking.

I also take note of the fact that there is no slime in my home raised meat chickens, whether fresh, or frozen and thawed. So what exactly is that slime on store bought chicken? Where does that come from? Forget it, I don’t think I really want to know.

After investing all that time and effort feeding and caring for them, and then the hard work of processing them, I feel an awareness that the effort must not go to waste. I never ever made my own chicken stock before I started raising my own birds. Now, I can’t throw away the carcass (I freeze the carcasses for when I have the time to make the stock). It’s just too wasteful. That chicken gave its life for me I must use every bit out of respect for its sacrifice.

Making chicken stock and stacking it in the freezer like books!

We’ll continue to raise meat birds, I’ll continue to search for better ways to deal with the poo and I’ll be searching for a less intensive meat breed to raise. If you’ve got a great way to deal with the upkeep of fast growing Cornish X, or have a better breed that yields a decent amount of meat, I’d love to know the details!

Fried pieces from culled cockerels, processed too young and much too skimpy! Need to hold onto cockerels longer to have any real meat.

Multi-Task Renewable Resources Coop

2011-12-12T02:23:00.002-06:00

by Joy Mazeikas

This coop was built around two sides of a six foot fence. It's not your eyes.., the coop does lean a bit one way because we had to build around the very large roots of the fir tree to the left. Our town was in the process of revising a local City Chicken ordinance, so we started with a smaller sleeping house for The Girls, and when the process was completed, we made a more permanent structure. The orginal "sleeping house" sits inside this more-secure frame. The front of the frame was repurposed from pieces of the original chicken run.

This original house set to the left of the Fir Tree with a 4 x 8 run.

The new and permanent Hen House is to the right of the Fir Tree and is built with the old house inside

I am a Master Gardener, so when I set out with my "plan', I covered the roof with fiberglass so we could use the top of the sleeping house to start seedlings in the Spring.

Wintering–over garden plants.

The roof also allows protection from the elements and additional light--and facilitates ripening of those last Fall tomatoes!

One of our Girls badly injured her hip jumping down from the perch, then another. We realized they were getting older and having more difficulty with the suggested height, So we lowered the perch to 10 inches. The Girls loved it and spent most of a day jumping up and down off of it. I told my husband we probably had the only handicapped-accessible coop in the U.S. So I enlarged my own Placard, laminated it with plastic and posted it on the outside of the Hen House!

Because my Girls have the run of my back yard, I found that I needed to “rethink” the design of my garden areas to make them “chicken-friendly.” In short this means removing plants they love to eat and replacing the garden areas with plants they won’t bother as well as placing barriers such as cinderblocks, around some plants as whose roots they'd try to dig.

Our Hen House was featured as an example of “green/reusable” coop, in our town’s first ever Capital City Chicken Coup and Garden Tour this last spring.

About me: I am retired, a Master Gardener and also a new great-grandparent. I believe that deciding to have chickens has been one of my best life choices!

Due to my love and interest in our Girls, I just completed my first little children’s book called Egg~Song. It has a bit of interesting-but-true information about Backyard Hens, which is a bit of real-life combined with a bit of comedy. Watching our Girls “perform their daily duties” is like watching a backyard full of comedians. Egg~Song can be purchased on-line at Smashwords.com and Barnes & Noble Nook for only 99 cents per download.

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A very crafty coop; thanks, Joy! We know there are other dedicated coop-extraordinaires out there, and we'd love to hear from them.

Click here to share your story with the Community! ...

Molting Observations and End-of-Year Thoughts...

2011-12-06T11:03:00.006-06:00

by Rebecca Nickols

I'm going into my second winter of chicken-keeping, but this is the first molt I (or my chickens) have experienced. What I have observed is a splotchy, tousled appearance, and it may be my imagination but it seems that they're more nervous, panicky and fearful of everything. However, the most apparent observation is that the egg laying has halted ...

My beautiful Buff Orpington has gone from this ...

... to this.

Henrietta, my Buff Orpington, is over a year old and her molting was expected, but what's weird is that my 8-month-old Plymouth Barred Rock is also loosing feathers. Her molt is not nearly as impressive as my older hen, but she's losing her share of feathers also. At first I thought my Buff might be plucking out the young pullet's feathers in some sort of a stressed reaction to her own molt, but that wasn't the case. After searching the Internet and chicken forums to see if she could possibly have some sort of ailment that was causing her feather loss, I came to the conclusion that, although it's not common, an early molt can happen.

An increase of protein in the diet is recommended for new feather growth, so I'm giving the molting girls more than their share of mealworm treats and I'm also trying to be patient with their nervous dispositions and lack of egg laying. I do wish this feather losing process could happen in the warmer months instead of the fall and winter, but hopefully by spring their beautiful feathers will have regrown and they'll be back into their normal egg laying schedule.

Here's some odd end-of-the-year thoughts I've been pondering ... I started out the spring of 2010 with four Buff Orpington chicks. Everything went well for the first six months, then I lost two girls expectantly. Recently, another Buff died, leaving me with only one of the original four. The remaining (surviving) Buff, Henrietta, became ill close to the time I lost the first two, but a quick trip to the vet spared her from her sisters' fate. I wonder if they were exposed to something before I purchased them that weakened their immune system or did I just have a run of bad luck with my first flock? Their symptoms (if any) were vague and didn't signaled any obvious disease and I suppose that since I didn't have some sort of post-mortem autopsy performed, I'll never know the cause of their deaths. I hope my luck has changed, as I've grown rather attached to my new flock and would hate to have a repeat of last year... Anyone else out there in the chicken-keeping world have any thoughts or a similar experience?

To view what else is happening at our southwest Missouri property, visit the garden-roof coop.

No Eggs Yet

2011-11-30T21:35:00.005-06:00

by Meredith Chilson

I’m frustrated, irritated, discouraged, and a bit concerned. I have 18 laying hens. No, I have 18 hens. ONE of them is laying. The others, the Buff Orpingtons and Rhodies – the ones that have faithfully given me enough eggs for my family, and the neighbors, and the neighbors’ families — those girls began to molt about two months ago, and haven’t yet begun to lay again. I don’t think they’re interested in that job any more. The nest boxes – all but one — haven’t even had a visitor. The straw that makes such nice, sweet-smelling nests hasn’t been inspected or disturbed.

The only hen that’s giving me eggs is my little black Silkie, Le-A (that’s pronounced luh-DASH-uh — the naming process for this girl is a story for another time). Le-A is a special chicken. I bought her as a day-old chick, along with five others, from a lady who lives farther out in the country than I do. Le-A and Missy, an angry spotted hen, are the only two left; the others had medical (cross bills and weak knees) and mental (more anger issues) problems and ended up … well, where well-fed problem chickens end up around here — in a “cooler climate.”

Le-A is a friendly little hen. She talks a LOT. If I’m cleaning the floor of the coop, she’s perched on a water jug near my ear clucking about something. Chicken gossip? I’m not sure. Many evenings when I’m headed in to shut the coop door, I can hear her “buhk, buhk, buhk” as I come near the coop. She hums and purrs and compliments me on every treat I bring to the coop, too.

She’s near the bottom of the pecking order. She’s much smaller than the rest of the hens, and one of the last to come to the flock, so she must wait when I toss grain or greens out to them. Sometimes she’ll dart in to grab something, and then run to hide behind me until she’s swallowed it.

Perhaps because she has to take what’s left over, or maybe just because she’s a chicken, Le-A isn’t careful about what she eats. One day this past summer, I noticed that her crop was extremely engorged. She had trouble getting onto the roost at night, and was obviously uncomfortable. To be honest, I thought she was going to explode. I read chicken advice books, checked the Internet, and talked to my local farmer to see what to do. I had traced the cause to a pile of hay that had gotten mixed in with the straw bedding. A chicken’s crop often cannot handle long grasses — they wad up and sort of ferment rather than digest. My resources suggested a few things: massage, surgery, and my farmer’s advice: “She’ll either get over it or she won’t.”

For three days — several times each day — I massaged Le-A’s crop. She loved the attention, but it didn’t seem to do much good. (According to the books, I had to be very careful while massaging her so that she wouldn’t vomit and aspirate.) I couldn’t even imagine how to tackle the surgery suggestion: “Carefully open the chicken’s crop, remove the impacted fibers, open out the crop and rinse it with salt water, stitch back together.” How in the world would I be able to get a chicken to hold still while I did something like that? I was much more certain that it would cause ME to vomit and possibly aspirate. So I continued to massage (gently) and wait.

One evening I noticed that Le-A was sitting on the roost again. The next morning, she ran out of the coop with barely a “good morning.” Her crop was soft and much smaller. My farmer friend was right, as usual.

Le-A still loves a nice rub-down. And, as I mentioned before, Le-A is the only hen in my flock that’s laying eggs. They’re not very big (my neighbor calls them “sparrow eggs”), but they’re keeping me from having to do something that I haven’t had to do in three years: buy eggs.

What do you think? Should I try giving the other girls a massage and see if that convinces them to produce?

Small Flock Hen House

2011-11-28T13:14:00.004-06:00

by Kelli Simpson

We had this coop made by an out-of-work cabinet maker. Fortunately, he had chickens too and knew something of their needs.

The "custom" part of the coop is the living roof, which we planted with a seed mix called chicken salad!

Although the coop is more than adequate for our flock of four, there are a few things I would do differently next time. I hope you can learn from my mistakes! Here they are:

1. The interior roof is too low as a result of making a planter in the top. I would pay more attention to the inside dimensions.

2. As soon as they could fly, the chickens got on top of the coop and ate the seedlings out of the planter, decimating the first crop. We had to fashion a fence to keep them out until the plants were big enough to tolerate the feeding.

3. The chicken access door slides up and down in channels on either side. In wet or warm weather, the wood expands and makes the door very difficult to open. This has resulted in the handle recently falling off from the stress. I would recommend a hinged door.

4. The nest box is part of a swing-out door that gives access to the coop for cleaning. I also have to open it to fill the feeder and change the water. More times than I care to admit, one of the hens has been in the nest box when I swing that door open. It interrupts their laying, making them less likely to lay in the nest box, and more likely to hide eggs in the yard. If I could do it again, I would build the nest box with the opening lid only and put the big door on the other side.

5. After a visiting dog clawed some of the siding off of the coop (see below) and gained entrance through the nest box, I realized that the coop is not as secure as I would like it to be. If you have any worries about predators, build with solid surfaces, not siding-type wood like we have. Any determined predator WILL be able to get in.

6. Last, the ramp into the coop should be solid with "steps" for them to grip. What I have amounts to a ladder and it took the girls a while to get used to it. Even now, they usually just fly to the top instead of walking up.

Other than these improvements, the girls and I are perfectly happy with our lovely little house!

About me: I'm a newly wed who recently moved to a new state. I am a nurse by profession and have found plenty of time for many hobbies. My husband and I became very interested in the local food scene and decided to take some steps toward supplying as much of our own food as we can. Part of that project involved keeping a small flock of laying hens. After much research we decided on cold-hardy heritage breeds, and they seem to be doing very well in our cold climate. We spent much of the spring and summer planting our first garden and growing our own vegetables. Somehow we also acquired some ducks and rabbits, too! Start with a few chickens and watch out, your menagerie will grow!!

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What a remarkable coop; thanks, Kelli! We know there are other dedicated coop-extraordinaires out there, and we'd love to hear from them.

Click here to share your story with the Community! ...

A Dollhouse of a Coop!

2011-11-28T12:25:00.007-06:00

by Jennifer Durbin

Last summer my boyfriend built my beautiful, beautiful coop using only the plans I had drawn on a piece of printer paper, with these simple instructions: "It's gotta be cute ... and safe ... and warm."

And it is. There is 6 inches of foam insulation in the floor and ceiling -- 3 inches in the walls -- including the nest box, hatch and doors.

The roost and vinyl-covered poop board are at one end ...

The nest box is at the other ...

It has sufficient ventilation via operable vents and two functional windows -- all double screened with 1/4 inch hardware cloth. In the large clean-out door is fitted a secure screen frame for summer and well into fall. Suspended from the peak is an interchangeable fan or heater.

The outside measures 4' x 8'; the inside slightly less due to the insulation. Because of the small size, in the building of this coop, it was immediately clear that after framing, the interior walls should be installed first followed by the insulation and then the exterior sheeting.

Although this coop currently houses 4 bantam cochins, I can comfortably keep eight standard hens or 10 bantams.

Behind and under the coop is a secure run area surrounded by 1/2 inch hardware cloth. The wire screening is bent to extend a foot all the way around the run perimeter to prevent digging under. Inside the run is filled with 6" of rounded pea gravel to provide a well-drained comfortable walking surface for the chickens.

What my run now needs are suspended roosts for daytime entertainment. I did have a few bales of straw for them to hop on, but in the elements, these deteriorate and grow mold and mushrooms, which I feel makes them hazardous to my girls.

I have four bantam mille fleur cochin -- the goal is to add two more ... or three. Thanks for snooping!

-----------

This is a gorgeous coop, Jennifer. I'd be willing to bet that a few of our readers would love to borrow your boyfriend!

We know there are other dedicated coop-extraordinaires out there, and we'd love to hear from them.

Click here to share your story with the Community! ...

And The Winner Is...

2011-11-28T08:24:00.003-06:00

by Jennifer Burcke

When I wrote my last post regarding the Purina 60 Day See the Difference Challenge FLIP Camera Giveaway, I had no idea just how many of you would enter for a chance to win! Over 90 readers entered for a chance to win a FLIP camera.

Last Monday, we assigned each entry a random number and placed them into our egg collecting basket. I would have preferred to fill the basket with eggs collected fresh from our coop, but our hens seem to be in a never ending period of molt, so it has been empty far too often. It seemed cathartic to fill it with something so positive, and the entries seemed like just the thing. For a few moments, the basket was happily filled to the brim instead of sitting empty as a constant reminder of our decreased egg production.

After shuffling the entries sufficiently, my two favorite young farmers dug deep into the basket and chose our random winner, number 25. We scanned through our list of entrants and found that our lucky winner was Deborah from Mendocino, California.

Before the night was through, Deborah had been announced as our winner on our Facebook page and on Twitter. Posting our daily update was nothing new as I do it every evening to share our farm harvest for the day. I will admit that it was a welcome relief to be able to post something other than our continuing tale of molting woe and empty egg baskets that evening.

By now, the Purina 60 Day See the Difference Challenge FLIP Camera is on its way to Mendocino. I have found myself using our FLIP camera to document all of the animals living here at 1840 Farm. It has proven to be an incredible tool for sharing videos of our first goat kids as they grow bigger and stronger every day. I hope that Deborah will be able to use it to share videos of her hens with the rest of us.

Congratulations again to Deborah for being selected as our winner. Thank you to all who entered and to Purina for providing such a wonderful FLIP camera to share with our winner. A special thanks to all who left me such incredibly kind comments. I felt like a lucky winner each time I read your words and learned more about you and your chicken keeping experiences.

This morning, I'm off to tend to our hens. It's time for their morning oatmeal dressed with kefir to add a little extra protein. While I know that molting will have to run its course, I'm doing all I can to help them get back to providing our farm with fresh eggs. I'll happily let you know when the day comes that our egg collecting basket is full of eggs again.

In the meantime, I have another opportunity for a lucky reader to win a tool for their chicken keeping toolbox. All who enter will have a chance to win a Boredom Buster as I described in an earlier post to the Community Cluckers Forum. To enter, visit 1840 Farm and subscribe to our blog or follow us on Facebook or Twitter. All subscribers and followers (existing and new) will be entered in the drawing. I will accept entries until Friday, December 16, 2011 at midnight.

One winner will be randomly selected and announced on Facebook, Twitter, and in a future Community Cluckers post. Good luck to all who enter. I hope that your flock will soon be enjoying a boredom buster to help pass the time during the long winter months ahead!

You're always welcome at 1840 Farm. Visit our blog at www.1840farm.wordpress.com.

For daily updates about the happenings at 1840 Farm, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Meyer Hatchery Catalog Came Today!

2011-11-14T16:23:00.007-06:00

by Karla T.

I'm excited to have received my 2012 Meyer catalog today! I pore over it for hours, putting little stars next to types of chickens, ducks, turkeys and more that I would like to have strutting around my farm yard. I'm not yet sure what I'll be getting, but I'll have fun dreaming.

They have some exotic birds that I know I won't be getting. A sebastopol goose is a white bird with long curly feathers. They're lovely, but fairly expensive. And they aren't cold hardy, so they wouldn't enjoy our freezing winters. I also won't be getting a pair of White Mute Swans. At $780 for the pair, plus $320 shipping and handling, they're outside of my price range! They also have pheasants, partridges and peacocks.

There are also dozens of chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese to peruse. The price for chicks varies, but in general it's in the neighborhood of $2 to $4 each plus shipping.

Well, I'm off to dream of my colorful flock additions. In the meantime, I'll leave you with a few pictures of my current chickens. Here, you'll see them in their favorite hangout. There's about 4 feet of weeds growing between our garden and our yard. The chickens LOVE to hang out in this little jungle.

A Homemade, Handmade, Do-It-Yourself Thanksgiving

2011-11-14T14:07:00.015-06:00

by Suzanne Roark

Fall and winter are my favorite seasons. Something about the days growing darker and colder, the sweet smell of decaying leaves and finally the quiet awe of the first snowfall. Thanksgiving is not far away when the trees grow bare. Fall is the perfect time for reflection and family time, gathering together and growing closer. Nothing brings us closer than a common goal.

To my husband and me, Thanksgiving has become a tradition of work with reward. The big dinner was handed down from my aging parents, just as many families pass on the work to the younger set. Making a meal for the masses takes a lot of time and work.

It really isn’t Thanksgiving, in my mind, if I just go to the store to fill a shopping cart with food and paper plates and plastic forks. The real fun in the holiday is the work. Divvied up and shared by each one of us, we all work together for one common goal. Older kids set up the extra tables and chairs. Younger kids like to chop, peel, grate and stir. Hubby grunts through the hard work of turkey processing. I am there, guiding the group, planning, preparing and cooking. In the end we all reap the reward of a job well done.

The first Thanksgiving I hosted, I started out with making nearly everything by hand, including the pies and crusts. I wasn’t as gung-ho about having everything totally from our own hands as I am now. Gradually, we’ve added more items from the menu that we can make or grow ourselves.

A good garden year will provide nearly all the vegetables for turkey day from our own backyard. Potatoes, carrots, corn and peas are the traditional feast items on my menu and all grown here in the yard. If I don’t have a good year for any particular item, I try to find it locally at a nearby farm stand.

Last year, we added to our do-it-yourself menu with our own homegrown turkey, processed at home too. The broad-breasted white breed is the same breed supermarkets sell and it’s the standard breed from a hatchery as well. That’s OK with me, as it grows fast, and has the kind of large white breast meat that we are used to. Being that this country has grown them as the standard for about 50 years now, we just don’t know any other kind.

Narragansetts just a few weeks old in 2010

Narragansetts in there portable pen made out of an old trampoline and scrounged plastic fencing.

Cranberry sauce is another item from the store that I have experimented with doing myself. You see, our family is used to the canned jellied kind. No hard bits for us, it MUST be the jellied kind. So in my never-ending efforts to find more ways to make it myself, I worked for weeks ahead of time to get my straining of homemade jellied-style cranberry sauce down pat. On the “big day,” I wanted be sure it would come out right. This year, I was ahead of the game and not only made the sauce, but also preserved it by canning. I can tell you it’s worth every BIT of work to strain and strain again. In comparison, store-bought kinds are very nearly black in color compared to the bright magenta of homemade cranberry sauce. The flavor of homemade is more complex and brighter too.

Straining the cranberries.

Straining cranberry sauce, and more straining and more straining…

Finally, the finished product, canned and ready to go! Notice the color. Sometime, open a can of supermarket cranberry sauce and take note of the color. It’s amazing.

A dessert tradition in this part of New England is chocolate cream pie. I used to use a box mix for my crusts (the shame of it). I’ve even experimented with those prepared kind at the supermarket. To me they have a funny, off flavor. I’ve since taken the plunge and have mastered making the crusts completely from scratch. I have to admit though, I have not yet perfected the homemade version of the chocolate pudding—I am still using the store boxed kind—but it is the cooked one and not the instant!

To make pie crust I use butter from the store, but I’ve taken out the store-bought lard and substituted my own rendered lard. (If I had a cow, I’d be making my own butter.) Each year, we purchase a local whole hog and always take as much from the cut sheet as possible. Which, of course, leaves me with some weird cuts ... like back fat, pig ears and even pig feet! I slowly rendered about 6 pounds of pork back fat, which was a big chunk that I was glad to get out of my freezer. I didn’t realize it would take quite so long, just about 12 hours, in a large stockpot on very low heat. When it was done totally melting, I strained out the bits called cracklings, and poured the finished lard into a Mason jar. It did come out very well, with a pure white color and no pork flavor or odor. Amazing. Who knew this stuff doesn’t have to come from the store? I swear pure lard and pure butter make the most crispy, tender, flaky pie crusts.

Chiefy, one of my Narragansetts, as a young stud!

A few days before the big day I also make a trip to our local dairy, which happens to be down in Massachusetts, about 10 miles from us. I get as many glass bottles of fresh, heavy cream as I can afford. (It's expensive.) A chocolate cream pie is nothing without real fluffy whipped cream on top! And real, fresh dairy cream is ultra-delicious.

To get my peas and corn through to Thanksgiving, I freeze both in zippered freezer bags. After blanching, I spread peas on a cookie sheet and pop the sheet into the freezer. That way, when the peas are frozen and bagged they don’t all stick together and I can just pour out whatever quantity I need for that meal.

I freeze corn in a similar way: blanching first, then cutting the kernels off the cob. I use a glass measuring cup to portion about two cups into each bag ... about what I would use for a single meal. Laying the bags flat in the freezer means they will freeze into a compact size for easy freezer storage, like frozen corn books! Potatoes and carrots are harvested so much later, and store easily till the big day without special attention.

We also press our own apple cider from our apples (usually purchased from our local orchard). This year with such an abundant crop all over, and the appropriate permission granted, we scavenged apples from neighborhood trees, trees at parks and schools. Using an antique press I have pressed 25 gallons of cider thus far in the season. I use gallon plastic beverage containers and put them in the freezer as well. I should have enough cider to last at least through to January. The cider containers take about three days to defrost, so I’ll need to remember to take them out in time for the Thanksgiving feast.

Cider pressing, moved indoors to the dining room. See the cider dripping into the white cloth cover pot?

There is something about setting a beautiful table that makes Thanksgiving warm and inviting. I use dishes of my grandmother's. I have scoured the Internet, flea markets and antiques shops to add pieces ... so much so that I now have a complete service for 25, and it cost me next to nothing. I think it would have cost more to use disposable dishware over the years. I have old mismatched silverware and a very cheap set of antique Hocking glassware (so abundant at yard sales and flea markets that I think everyone has had a set at one time or another). It’s also a tradition every year for my children to make homemade place cards out of things we have already (usually this is a paper craft, or they use items found in the yard, such as pine cones or acorns).

My husband is a yard sale expert. He manages to find the most interesting antiques. He’s brought home many a chicken-themed antique, but he truly shines in hunting down the turkey. Fake turkey that is! I’ve got antique paper turkeys, glass turkeys, pottery turkeys, turkey-shaped bottles, turkey tureens, turkey salt and pepper shakers, even an antique turkey puzzle—all on the cheap! They all get to strut their stuff on the tables and hutches of every room I can get them into.

Some of my hubby's finds!

So we’ve got the antique decorations and table settings, fresh food from the garden, homemade sauces and desserts, fresh local dairy products, and the crowning glory of the meal—the fresh turkey, grown and processed right in my own backyard. Lots of hard work along with satisfaction that hard work brings has brought us pretty close to what I think of as Thanksgiving. What else could get me closer to that “colonial” feel that I strive for with all these homemade, handmade, do-it-yourself items?

Chiefy, fanning out because I came close to “his” hens.

Well, a real turkey, of course. Not the usual white Broad Breasted White kind, but a “real” turkey. Only a true Narragansett would satisfy that itch. Purchased over a year ago with, yes, a meal in mind. But as the group of tiny poults slowly grew into edible size, I found myself unable to part with them. I just fell in love with Chiefy’s deep, resounding gobble and his quirky way of fanning out and swaying his butt to and fro to hide his hens from my view, the hens all sleek and slow-moving with their long, slender necks gawking up at me, happy to chirp and flutter behind Chiefy’s protective fanned tail.

So appropriate, to have these magnificent Narragansett turkeys! How much more “colonial” can you get?

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Challenge Remains

2011-11-14T11:30:00.004-06:00

by Jennifer Burcke

It's official: The Purina 60 Day See the Difference Challenge has come to an end at 1840 Farm. At least the 60 day part. Farming and raising food for my family is a journey of the never-ending variety. Sixty days may come and go, but the challenge remains.

During the 60 days, so much happened here on our farm. Hurricane Irene came for a visit and left us in the dark for almost a full week. She reminded us that we really do depend on electricity to carry on the business of our daily life. She also taught us that fresh eggs cooked on the grill were a delicious way to end another day without power, telephone service, or access to the Internet. Each dinner of fresh eggs served as a reminder that chickens didn't care about electricity and that we had to be sure to add chicken feed to the top of our storm preparedness list.

While we participated in the challenge, we also passed a chicken keeping milestone of epic proportions here at 1840 Farm. Our heritage breed hens turned one year old. It is hard to believe that we have been lucky enough to have our own flock for an entire year. In so many ways, it seems as though they have always been here. It's difficult to imagine a time when they didn't call our farm their home.

From the coop construction to the arrival of the day-old chicks, the last 12 months were definitively the Year of the Chicken here at 1840 Farm. We spent the entire summer of 2010 talking about and working towards having our own flock of chickens. While it seemed simple enough, it proved to be anything but.

As I sit here typing, I am reminded just how arduous a process it was by simply looking down at the scar on my finger. I'm wondering if the emergency room nurses are still talking about my explanation that my continuously bleeding finger was the result of a day's work on our chicken coop. Of course, they couldn't stop asking me about our chickens as they tended to my wound with the hospital version of super glue. By the time I left the emergency room with my glued and bandaged finger in a splint, they had all taken a turn asking me for chicken keeping advice.

It was all worth it. Since our seven hens started laying eggs at the end of February, we have harvested an amazing 949 eggs from our chicken coop. For over nine months, they have provided a steady supply of fresh eggs for our whole family. We have marveled at the perfection of each and every one of them as we log them into our 2011 farm journal. Our hens have given us the remarkable ability to be more closely connected to our food supply.

More than that, they have given me the opportunity to watch my children become farmers. It has happened right before my eyes. In this first year of our family farm experiment, they have evolved from casually interested children living on a farm to children that remind me every night at bedtime to wake them up early in the morning to help me do the farm chores. They have both embraced what it means to be a farmer and take great pride in the bounty that their hard work makes possible. I take great pride in watching them become people who understand just how much hard work is required to produce a meal on the family table. Who knew that seven hens could teach two children a lesson that will last them a lifetime?

Truth be told, I have been learning right along with my children. I see the world differently than I did before we began producing our own food on the ground that we call home. I judge the success of my summer season by the pounds of heirloom tomatoes grown on our farm instead of the days spent at the beach. I tally the fresh eggs found in the coop every day without fail and look for every possible way to increase the health and productivity of our hens. I've become a person who buys Popsicles to keep the flock from overheating in the summer sun. I guess that our hens have taught me a thing or two as well.

Barely more than a year ago, I couldn't have imagined that I would be keeping chickens and sharing my experiences with members of the Mother Earth News and Grit Magazine online community. Yet here I am, wrapping up my twentieth post for this forum. While the Purina 60 Day See The Difference Challenge has passed, I have no intention of bringing my greater challenge to an end. I'll keep sharing my experience and the stories, photos and videos that accompany our everyday life here at 1840 Farm.

I hope that you will continue to share your advice and experiences with me. Your comments have taught me so much during my first year as a chicken keeper. Each comment affords me the opportunity to feel as though I am standing at a proverbial fence row speaking to a trusted neighbor, learning from them about this art of tending chickens. While I know that there may be countless miles between us and no fence row in sight, I feel extremely fortunate to be a part of this community.

To celebrate the end of the Purina 60 Day See the Difference Challenge, I would like to offer a little encouragement to those of you who have shared so much with me. I will be randomly selecting a reader to win a Purina FLIP video camera. This is the same camera that I use to share videos on this forum and on my own blog. It is my hope that it will encourage you to share your chicken keeping experiences with our community.

To enter the drawing, visit the 1840 Farm blog and read the details regarding the giveaway. The winner will be chosen at random on Monday, November 21, 2011. I will notify the winner by email and announce them in my next post for Community Chickens.

Until then, I'll be busy tending to our chickens and trying to prepare them for the upcoming winter as laying hens. They have entered their first molting period, so we sadly have more feathers in the coop than fresh eggs. We're trying to be patient as they molt, but it is difficult to accept that as farmers, we must simply wait for the days to pass and the feathers to be replenished.

We'll endure molting and the winter that follows knowing full well that spring will bring warmer temperatures and a steady supply of fresh eggs back to our farm. It will be another challenge for all of us, but we'll persevere. We're farmers and the daily challenge simply goes with the territory. It's part of the process of producing your own food. I wouldn't have it any other way.

You're always welcome at 1840 Farm. Visit our blog at www.1840farm.wordpress.com.

For daily updates about the happenings at 1840 Farm, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

The Chicken Tractor

2011-11-13T22:10:00.012-06:00

by Rebecca Nickols

My husband and I had both been dreaming of tractors ...

His dream was of a tractor that he could attach things to (front loaders, back hoes, augers, brush hogs). My idea of a tractor, however, was a movable coop that I could strategically place in my yard or garden. My dream was that while I was at work or away from the house, the chickens could still have a place to safely "free range" on bugs and weeds and at the same time, scratch up the soil in my garden and deposit their "fertilizer."

The purpose of a chicken tractor is simple: It's movable, it lacks a floor (which allows the chickens to forage and scratch), it provides shelter and protection from the weather and predators, and it has a separate nesting area. Jeff chose to build an A-frame design, which he originally intended to be more of a chicken "sled." The plan was that I could easily pull or slide the tractor, but when he had completed the frame it took both of us pulling, pushing and lifting to move it even a short distance. The "sled" then became a "tractor" when he added wheels to the front and back of the portable coop. It's still a little hard for me to maneuver over our rocky/hilly soil, but it's doable and I've put the tractor to use in a variety of ways.

When he first completed the tractor in the spring I used it as a nursery for my new chicks. This was the perfect setup for introducing the younger birds to the older hens. They could see each other (and get to know each other), but the little pullets were separated and protected from the older birds chasing and pecking them.

This fall I finally started using the chicken tractor for what I originally dreamed of and it couldn't have come at a better time. Not only is the tractor a great way to weed and fertilize the garden beds, it's also given me some peace of mind knowing that my chickens aren't roaming too far. Since I started letting my flock free-range earlier in the summer, they have became braver and more adventurous in their foraging. Last week I found them acres away from the coop--exploring the neighbor's garden! I'm afraid that in addition to the common chicken predators (foxes, raccoons, hawks), I now need to add the neighborhood dogs, cats and maybe even the neighbors (if they destroy their gardens)!

I did run into a few obstacles, however, when I first started using the tractor. The first was actually getting the chickens into the tractor and next, how to get them to lay an egg in the tractor ...

I think that I'm the perfect picture of a chicken-keeper who loves her chickens. I've handled them since they were a day old, I feed them treats routinely, they're overly protected from predators, and they have 5-star accommodations. You would think that they would have the utmost trust in me and allow me to handle or hold them, but that's not the case.

Athena, my Golden-Laced Wyandotte, is convinced that I want to eat her and she has somewhat of an influence over the rest of the flock. I think she must have told them that chicken tractor was a dangerous, evil place, because they all became terrified of going anywhere near my portable coop. When I did get a few chickens in the tractor, they freaked out--perhaps because they were separated or maybe because they were confined in this scary place. I gave up on forcing them (because it wasn't working) and started leaving the tractor door open and sprinkling the ground with their favorite treat--meal worms. It only took a few days before they realized that the tractor wasn't the doomsday coop they had envisioned. Now it only takes me a few minutes to transport the chickens from their run to the tractor!

The inside of the tractor is pretty simple: There's a ramp that leads to the "loft" area that includes one wooden nesting box. I also include a small container of chicken feed and water. It's not set up as a predator-proof chicken tractor, and once the sun starts to set I transport them back into their secure coop.

I had noticed when I first started keeping them in the tractor that the moment I let them out a couple of girls would quickly run back into their home-coop and lay an egg in record time. I think they had been holding it in for hours! I guess they didn't think the nesting area in the tractor was an acceptable place to lay an egg. I solved this dilemma by simply placing a couple of eggs in the nesting box and they eventually figured it out.

One thing that I love about using the tractor is the fact that I can control where and what the chickens eat. When they are truly free-ranging, they are on the move constantly. They would never dream of eating the weeds out of my vegetable garden when they can hunt down worms, bugs or grubs, but when weeds are all that's available--they'll eat them!

The "fertilizer" they deposit needs to have a few months to age before I plant my spring crops, so I plan on moving the tractor out of the vegetable garden sometime around January. Then I'll just move it in different spots around the yard.

I still let the flock free-range around our property (if I'm outside and can periodically check on them), but the chicken tractor has proven to be everything I dreamed it would be!

Share photos of your chicken tractor on our Facebook page!

To view what else is happening at our southwest Missouri property, visit the garden-roof coop.

No Tricks, Just Treats!

2011-11-01T11:13:00.004-05:00

by Jennifer Sartell

I hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween! Ours was rather low-key. Bought tons of Halloween candy to give away, but no trick-or-treaters at the new house. I had my doubts to begin with (we're pretty rural out here), but better to be safe than sorry. I don't feel too bad, however, because this year I get to give away more than candy: I have a Flip Video Camera to put in someone's goodie bag!

Congratulations to Lacey Wilhelm of Garrison, N.D.! She is the winner of the Purina 60 Day See The Difference Flip Camera Sweepstakes! Lacey won with her great photo and testimony of how Purina Feed improved her Nigerian Dwarf Goat KKK-Katy.

"I was excited to hear about the Purina 60 day challenge and quickly signed up for a chance to achieve quality improvement in our animals. I am on week 3 of the challenge and have seen amazing results with the Purina Goat Noble and Purina Goat Chow with my Nigerian Dwarf Goats! One little goat in particular, KKK-Katy, has shown amazing improvements with her sparkling bright blue eyes, increased energy level, and healthy growth rate. I am extremely happy with the Purina Difference and so are my goats!"

Thanks for entering, Lacey! Feel free to send in some videos of your beautiful animals once you receive the camera!

Are you still feeding Purina? I'd love to hear from you. Send photos and a short story of how Purina has made a difference in your animals, and I'll feature you here on Community Chickens and on my farm blog Iron Oak Farm.

Thanks to everyone who entered!

My Chicken Farmhouse

2011-10-31T14:47:00.002-05:00

by Mindy Rivera

I live in Mansfield, Texas, just outside of Fort Worth. I am a full-time realtor and part-time hobby farmer. Two years ago, I found my dream home on 5 acres. When I designed my coop, I knew I wanted it to tie in with my home ... So, it had to be functional, and it had to look good!

With the help of my friend Sergio Marin, we succeeded in getting both. Because I live on open land with not much to block the wind, we knew we had to place most of our vertical 4x4's in concrete. All of the wood used in the run is made of treated lumber; the rafters and the center beam are constructed of 2x6's, and the exterior of the coop is fiber cement siding.

The wire mesh surrounding the run, screen door and windows is strong enough to withstand most predators that might try to tear through it. An electrical GFCI outlet was installed just outside the enclosed coop in the run, so that a powerful electric fence energizer could be plugged in and an electric wire could run along the bottom outer edge of the entire run.

The unit is livestock-strength, discouraging any predator from ever returning if they get zapped even once. The outlet is also used for an electric heated water feeder during the winter. A small coop was placed in the run for those extremely hot summer Texas nights when the hens prefer to sleep outside and enjoy the night breeze.

The ground in the run consists of a mixture of play sand and very small gravel. This makes for very easy cleanup by just raking and sifting through the poop, much like a cat litter box. The sand keeps the run from turning into a muddy mess when it rains, and I am able to wet it down so that the hens are able to cool off in the hot summer.

A nice house door with glass and two windows were strategically installed to allow the morning sun and the evening sun to shine through for longer daylight hours to encourage egg laying. These windows also help keep the coop warm during the cold winter months, but a solar screen is installed on the east side window to help reduce the heat and can be opened to help with ventilation.

The roof is a 30-year composition roof in a green tri-color that ties in with the back barn roof when viewed from the road. A convenient exterior hatch was installed to enable egg collection without having to enter the coop. In the interior of the coop there is a 2-level roosting bar where the hens sleep at night. Several electrical plugs were installed throughout the coop for many uses.

One of the most important uses of the plugs is for a timer that slides open and closes a plexiglass panel on the chicken door, which is set to open 30 minutes before sun up and closes 45 minutes after the sun goes down. A battery backup is essential for those power outages during spring storms.

A full-size fan remains on through most of the summer months. A corner shelf was installed to set and secure an air heater during the coldest days and nights of the winter. The flooring is a thick, solid piece of plywood covered with linoleum and a thick layer of pine bedding material for easy clean up, mainly under the roosting bars.

To make the coop feel more like a real home, pictures of different breeds of chickens and roosters are hung on the walls and an actual house light fixture hangs from the ceiling. There's also a porch light outside the door, a chicken door knocker and chicken wind chimes that blow in the wind. Seasonal flowers are always blooming in the pots outside the coop.

Next, I would like to have insulation installed, covered by solid sheets of plywood and gutters with downspouts leading into rain barrels (to be used for watering the garden boxes nearby).

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Wow, Mindy, that is an impressive coop! We know there are other dedicated coop-extraordinaires out there, and we'd love to hear from them.

Click here to share your story with the Community! ...

Chicken Breeds and (5-egg) Melt-in-Your-Mouth Pumpkin Bread

2011-10-29T22:52:00.013-05:00

by Rebecca Nickols

Earlier this spring, I added three new chicks to my flock, making a total of five chickens residing in my coop. The new pullets started laying in late summer and now (in the fall) I'm getting about five wonderful, delicious eggs a day! The new breeds that I added have made my flock a colorful collection of chickens, and I love watching them forage in the fallen maple leaves. Their beautiful feathers seem to blend in perfectly with the autumn landscape. I thought I'd share my best photos of my flock and a little info on each breed ...

Buff Orpington
Classified as a heavy (7-8 pounds), dual-purpose bird, Buffs are winter hardy with a calm, docile temperament. They lay large, light-brown eggs. They're a popular breed not only because of their friendly personalities, but also because they are also good brooders and mothers.
(Meets the ALBC's Heritage Chicken definition.)

When I first decided to have backyard chickens, I actually "Googled" what the most family-friendly, winter-hardy chicken breed was ... and a Buff Orpington was at the top of the list. "Henrietta" has certainly proven to be a wonderful addition to my little flock. She's easy-going, calm and was extremely polite and welcoming when I introduced her to the younger birds! "Edison," my other Buff, is a different story ... She relentlessly pecks and chases the younger chickens in an attempt to maintain her position on the roost. She is calm and docile when I try to hold her. She just doesn't play well with others.

Barred Plymouth Rock
Also a large breed (7-8 pounds), "Barred Rocks" are one of the most popular backyard chicken breeds. They have a great disposition, make good mothers, are tolerant of cold climates and lay large brown eggs.
(Meets the ALBC's Heritage Chicken definition.)

"Cleopatra" is such a beautiful bird and it seems that when I have visitors to my coop, she is always picked as their favorite. She does have a very laid-back personality and behaves nicely with the rest of the flock.

Golden Laced Wyandotte
Wyandottes are large (7-8 pounds) birds that include several varieties (in addition to the Golden Laced): Silver Laced, White, Black, Buff, Partridge, Silver Penciled, Columbian, Blue. They're winter hardy, easy-going (calm and docile) and lay large brown eggs.
(Meets the ALBC's Heritage Chicken definition.)

"Athena" is a gorgeous bird, but she's not at all like the description above. Her temperament is more like "Henny Penny": She's convinced that the "sky is falling." She's afraid of everything and everyone (including her own shadow). I find it odd though, that even with her scared-of-everything personality, she's the one that leads the flock on their foraging adventures ... much too far away from the coop.

Cinnamon Queen
A medium-sized bird (5-6 pounds), tolerant of the cold and an excellent layer of large brown eggs. Cinnamon Queens are a sex-linked cross breed created from a Silver Laced Wyandotte hen and a New Hampshire rooster.

This breed has not been given recognition by the American Poultry Association. Cinnamon Queens will start to lay eggs at a younger age than most standard breeds. They are also color sexable as chicks: Cockerels are white, and the pullets are more brownish red in color.

"Esther" is my smallest pullet, but she's a spit-fire and full of energy ... She's always the first one to greet me, the first to grab a treat, and she can run the fastest and jump the highest! I had originally wanted a Rhode Island Red, but when I purchased my chicks a pullet (female) couldn't be guaranteed. I didn't want a rooster and the "chicken-seller" assured me a Cinnamon Queen was the next best thing. Plus, he gave me his word it was a "she" and not a "he." We're all glad Esther is part of the flock ... She's the life of the party!

When I chose the breeds of my flock, I had a few specific characteristics in a chicken that I was looking for. I wanted a good egg layer with a gentle personality, but it also needed to withstand our Missouri winters without having to heat the coop.

Several online sites have listings of different breeds that include detailed descriptions, and if you have an iPhone, iPad or iPod you can download a cool app from Mother Earth News called Pickin' Chicken. You enter why you want chickens (eggs, meat, dual) then choose the egg color/size and rate of egg laying you prefer. Then the app picks the best breeds based on your needs. Pickin' Chicken also features an illustrated guide to 82 chicken breeds and more than 100 varieties, with 250-plus photos. You'll also find a browsable alphabetical listing of chicken types, a glossary of terms, educational resources, tips on chicken care, and a link to upload your own chicken photos. All of that for $2.99 ... That's a lot cheaper than any book that includes that much info. Here's a link to a video demo of the iPhone app: Pickin' Chicken Breed Selector.

So, what am I doing with five eggs a day from my colorful little flock? I'm trying to experiment with new recipes that have eggs as a main ingredient (or at least call for a lot of eggs). I also enjoy sharing my surplus with friends, family and co-workers. Here's a recipe that calls for a day's worth of eggs from my backyard coop. You could certainly find a healthier version of pumpkin bread that has less oil and sugar, but I guarantee you won't find one tastier than this!

Melt-in-Your-Mouth Pumpkin Bread

1 1/4 cups oil
5 eggs
2 cups pumpkin
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 pkg. cook-and-serve vanilla pudding (small boxes)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
1 tsp cinnamon
Blend oil, eggs and pumpkin. Combine other ingredients and add to pumpkin mixture. Sprinkle and lightly pat on the crumb topping (see recipe below). Bake in 2 greased/floured loaf pans at 325° for 1 hour. Lightly dust with powder sugar after bread has cooled.

Crumb Topping: 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, pinch of salt. With a pastry blender, cut 3 Tbsp butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.

To view what else is happening at our southwest Missouri property, visit the garden-roof coop.

Our Silkies Hatched and a Spraddle (Splay) Legged Chick

2011-10-18T15:57:00.011-05:00

by Kimberly Furry

We only hatched one, lone Delaware chick from our first round of incubation a couple of months ago. Of the 12 eggs, only two fertilized and the one little guy never made it out of the egg. I figured it would be a good time to hunt for some Silkies, so our chick would have some company for the long winter that's approaching quicker than I'd like.

Silkies are referred to as the lap dogs of the chicken breeds and are exceptionally good with kids. Searching on the Internet, I found a lovely lady who runs CJ's Silkies and sells eggs about a 45-minute drive from our house. I e-mailed her and we made plans to meet so I could pick up the eggs (rather than have her mail them). She was so sweet and generous. We came home with a dozen Silkie eggs to incubate. I checked the eggs with the OvaScope egg candler after a week and seven of the twelve were fertilized! Three beauties successfully hatched out of this batch.

We have our older Delaware chick named "Sunshine," who has moved out to the new coop that's in our backyard. We really wanted to build a coop from scratch, but I've been pretty sick lately and unable to help Derek out. Instead, we bought a coop kit off eBay for $300. It was pretty pricey, as we had only budgeted for $150 in materials to build our own, but it was out of our control ... so we gave in and bought it.

Surprisingly, it was simple for Derek to put together and seems to be well-constructed for being an import. It took only a couple hours and the instructions were straightforward. The coop looks nice and should accommodate about three to four full-grown hens. I hope we'll build a larger coop with a bigger run ourselves in the spring. We have our plans for that coop still and some of the supplies ready. It's something we both want to take on when I'm feeling up to it! Derek had a great idea to add handles to the coop and retrofit wheels from our defunct jogging stroller so we can move it around the yard. I hope we'll be able to do this before the snow flies. Otherwise, it will be a springtime to-do!

A word of caution: Be very careful buying anything online! Do your research and make sure to carefully read the feedback for a seller and know their policy if the item arrives damaged or there are missing/broken pieces. Some sellers only give you a matter of days to let them know if there is a part missing or broken. There are a lot of shysters out there, so exercise caution and do not rush to buy anything. Take your time to carefully consider your purchase and read everything about the product listing very carefully. Simply put, buyer beware!

Our third Silkie to hatch had some difficulty with spraddle legs. Luckily, I ran into information online about this when I was reading up for our first chick. The poor little thing could only do splits and just couldn't get its footing to walk around. Scooby-Doo Band-Aids to the rescue! I liked the pictures from this site that illustrate how to fix a chick's spraddle legs.

It's essential you remedy this problem in the first few days so the chick can get a good start and train its legs to stay together. This process would have gone flawlessly except for the fact that Silkies have hairy legs! Derek held the poor little thing while I attempted to affix the bandage around each leg. We were successful after a few minutes of careful maneuvering. Afterward, the chick took a long and well-deserved nap. Two days later, the bandage started to come loose and he or she is doing well on their legs ... and no more splits! If the problem continues when the bandage starts to fall off, you have to apply another bandage.

I've also noticed that this same chick appears to have a slightly herniated belly button. I am just careful to not bother it while it heals. I had to pay careful attention cleaning its back end when its feces became stuck to its feathers. I didn't want things to get infected, but I also didn't want to get that spot wet when I was loosening the feces. It's really important to check on your chicks every day. They may need cleaning, as their feces can get stuck to their feathers. I just used a warm, wet paper towel and held it to the feces if it was stuck to their feathers. It hasn't happened often, but it's not something you want to let go and hope it resolves itself.

The temperaments of the Silkie chicks are incredible! Nora was holding one and it nuzzled up under her neck, closed its eyes and started to take a nap. It was one of the moments that simply melt your heart!

With three chicks in the brooder, we are able to observe the pecking order play out. The two oldest are vying for head honcho. They are like the three stooges trying to poke each other in the eye or nip at each others' legs. The other strange thing that you don't find in the books is the way these crazy chicks sleep. The two darker ones love to sleep on their sides and stick their feet in the air. I glanced at the brooder and it took my breath away. I figured, "Oh no! It's dead!" After closer inspection, I saw it was happily snoozing away and its little legs were twitching in some slumber-induced dream. Phew! They have since stopped napping like this and it's put me at ease.

Sadly, our white Silkie passed a couple weeks later. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but I tried desperately to do whatever I could to save her. She just all of the sudden ran out of steam and was listless. I called my neighbor friend and the local Agway to see if they could give any advice. There really wasn't much else I could do. I was told it just happens sometimes all of the sudden. Nevertheless, it was a sad day for us all. It's just really hard to accept that I couldn't make the poor girl better.

In the coming weeks, Derek will have a blog about dressing chicken. We had the awesome opportunity to learn to safely and humanely butcher a chicken (thanks to our friends at Spring Meadows Farms, who hosted a recent field day).

The Birth of a New Season

2011-10-18T10:01:00.002-05:00

by Jennifer Burcke

Autumn is here. I've been trying to ignore its arrival, but I can no longer pretend that summer will go on forever. The nights are cooler, the days are shorter. It's time to face facts and admit that the progression of the seasons is marching on with or without my blessing.

I can't help that summer is more dear to me than its subsequent season. Summer brings with it long days spent outside, fresh produce from the garden, and more importantly: tomato season. Fall and its crisp days with leaves crunching underfoot just can't compete in my book.

Apparently, our hens are of the same opinion. As much as I like to feel that I have an opinion worth agreeing with, I would be much happier if our flock didn't agree so vociferously. In fact, I'd be thrilled to share with you that they were happily greeting fall's arrival. I'd be happy to tell you that they were still laying eggs as if summer would never end. In fact, you have no idea how happy I would be.

Instead, I seem to have a flock of heritage hens who love summer as much as I do. They are approaching their first fall as laying hens here at 1840 Farm with much disdain. They have made it very clear that they are not enjoying the cooler evenings or the first signs of the foliage that has made New England famous from Cape Cod to Bar Harbor. It's fair for you to inquire just how I assume to understand the thoughts of our chickens. Well, it's fair as long as you allow me the return favor and answer by showing you the state of my egg carton.

For the first time in many months, I am unhappy with the collection of farm-fresh eggs in my refrigerator. No, it's not because I no longer appreciate the beauty of a freshly laid egg. Actually, it is quite the opposite. I love our homegrown eggs so much that I am truly sad to report that our hens are not laying enough of them.

We've spent an entire spring and summer with a happy surplus of eggs. We ate them fried for breakfast. We ate them boiled for lunch. We had Bistro Night at 1840 Farm at least once a week and ate them in omelets with locally made cheddar for dinner along with potatoes freshly dug from the garden.

I baked with them and actually looked for ways to use as many fresh eggs as possible. We even used the eggs to our advantage during the reign of Hurricane Irene. Eggs are a very respected commodity here at 1840 Farm. Maybe that's why I am taking it so personally that we suddenly don't seem to have enough of them.

Last year at this time, we had yet to see our first egg laid by our young hens. In fact, they were still living in their brooding pen awaiting the finishing touches to be added to their coop. But that was last year. I didn't expect month-old chicks to lay any eggs. I assumed that I would have to visit the local farmer's market if I wanted fresh eggs in my refrigerator. That all changed in February when we discovered that first fantastic egg waiting for us in the nest box. Now I can't imagine having an egg that didn't come straight from our coop.

I've had a taste of the joy brought to my day by the simple act of retrieving a group of perfectly beautiful eggs from our coop and walking them directly into our farmhouse. I weigh each individual egg and add it to our farm journal. Occasionally, I allow myself a moment to marvel at the number of eggs our seven hens have provided our family this year. If my children happen to walk through the kitchen, the chore turns into a contest as they attempt to guess how high the annual egg tally has risen.

The tally does continue to rise. The eggs are still beautiful with golden yellow yolks and strong shells. As I mentioned in my last post about the Purina 60 Day See the Difference Challenge, we have yet to have any more cracked eggs in the coop since making the switch to Purina Layena Sunshine feed. The hens still love the taste, and we're still thrilled that we no longer discover eggs with thin shells in the nest boxes.

I know that autumn's arrival is Mother Nature's way of reminding us that winter is on its way. I am a New Englander, so I really don't need her to remind me. Yet, I understand that it is the natural progression of the year. It's simply the way of the farm. As a farmer, I will have to accept that each season brings its own reward and challenge.

Spring brings renewal with planting in the garden and the animals and farmers both taking advantage of longer days and warmer temperatures. Each summer is filled with chores and the hope that the season will be bountiful. Fall has the unfortunate task of bringing with it falling leaves, colder temperatures, and the reminder that the season of hibernation is upon us. I know from experience that after a month or two of hibernating, even winter will allow my mind to focus on the promise that spring will arrive again and that there will soon be such good work to be done on the farm.

Until then, I will have to accept that summer, like all good things, must come to an end. The garden will have to be put to bed for a long winter's nap. The chickens will have to focus on surviving another long and bitterly cold New England winter. As the farmer, I'll have to be content with every single egg that finds its way from the coop to the refrigerator. I'll cherish every last Julia Child heirloom tomato ripening under the warmth of the hoophouse until it can be harvested and take center stage on our dinner plates.

As I ready 1840 Farm for hibernating season, I will do my best to temper my inner Grinch. If I need inspiration, I'll only need to look as far as the chicken coop. Our flock may be less than thrilled by the arrival of fall's shorter days, but they are going about the work of life. Yes, they are laying fewer eggs each week, but they are greeting each day as they always have. Morning comes, the day begins, and they make the most of every moment until dusk has settled upon them. Then they cozy up in the coop and wait for the next morning's arrival. As it turns out, I could learn a lot from them.

Just as I had grudgingly decided to do my best to accept Mother Nature's transition, something amazing happened here at our farm. We went out to our barn on Saturday morning a week ago to discover 3-hour-old baby goats waiting to meet us. These three Nigerian Dwarf goat kids are the first animals to be born at our farm. It was a special moment for my entire family and one that none of us will soon forget.

Fall of 2010 was memorable for our evolution into chicken keepers. The day-old chicks weren't hatched here, but they became a part of our daily lives from the moment they arrived in their tiny box from the post office. Now the fall of 2011 will be remembered for the incredible birth of three goat kids and our transition into dairy farmers. Suddenly, fall holds as much renewal for me as spring ever had.

In the days since the arrival of our goat kids, I've spent a lot of time outside tending to their needs and preparing our farm for hibernation. As I work, I listen to the cacophony of sound provided by seven healthy heritage breed hens and our five-member goat herd. No matter the season, our animals are taking each day as it comes and celebrating the moment.

I can promise that I will take the cue that Mother Nature and our animals are trying so hard to give me. I'll embrace fall and all that it brings with it. It truly is the birth of a new season, and I'm happy that I get to be a part of it.

This fall, I'll embrace hibernating season and spend my time preparing for another full year of seasonal transitions on the farm. I'll do my best to see the beauty of the season instead of its limitations. I will admit, it doesn't hurt that spring is only 154 days away.

You're always welcome at 1840 Farm. Visit our blog at www.1840farm.wordpress.com.
For daily updates about the happenings at 1840 Farm and our participation in the Purina 60 Day See the Difference Challenge, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Introducing COOP SNOOP

2011-10-17T19:32:00.007-05:00

Every week, we are asked for more and more content on building, designing and managing coops. And there never seems to be enough material around to give our readers. So we decided to do what we do best … Contact the Community!

We are now seeking submissions from our readers for a new installment to the Community Chickens eNewsletter: COOP SNOOP.

We plan to regularly feature readers’ coops, including photos outside and inside the structures, as well as how the reader built them; what they like about their coops; and what they would like to improve. It's a chance to see how our readers house their chickens from the unique:

to the extraordinary:

and everything in between!

If you are interested in participating in the Coop Snoop, please participate by filling out this form, or by simply emailing us at communitychickens@gmail.com. Please include a few photos of your coop, as well as your story. There is no maximum length, though we'd like to see at least 800 words … so be detailed! The more than 60,000 readers of Community Chickens have never seen your coop before, so show it off! Or use your post to ask for help, ideas or suggestions from the Community.

If you would also like to include your name in your post, please attach a photo as well as a short biography. Happy snooping!

Hens on Strike! What I Know About Molting

2011-10-14T11:33:00.003-05:00

by Meredith Chilson

Most of the girls in my flock were 3 years old in May. The Buff Orpingtons and the Rhode Island Reds started laying eggs in September 2008. In 2010, I added three more birds … a Silkie and a couple of mixed breed ladies. They are healthy birds, good winter layers, curious and friendly, too.

Several weeks ago, I noticed piles and piles of feathers in the yard and the coop. The egg production was down, too, and often I would find a very small egg or even a soft-shelled egg in the nest box. The hens were looking pretty scruffy, too; their heads had very few feathers, some of their wings looked like the girls had scrubbed them up against a wall, and often the birds would only have one tail feather, sticking straight up!

Now, I’m not new at chicken farming. I absolutely recognize the signs of molting. This is an annual chicken coop event. I was prepared for only a few eggs to be gathered a day. What I was not prepared for this year was the total lack of egg production. Three days now, and nothing. Not one egg. Zilch.

I have been trying to remember what it is I know about the molt in laying hens. I thought that the molt occurred in laying hens in response to fewer hours of day light. I am certain that molting can also happen in response to stress—a predator attack or a chase by children, a change in housing or even in feed. But…what do I really know? Not enough, it seems.

First, I turned to the Internet for answers. According to Cornell University (www.birds.cornell.edu), all birds lose their old feathers and build new ones. The building of new feathers, which are primarily formed from the protein keratin, takes a lot of energy. In wild birds, molting coincides with periods of “less strenuous demands, such as after nesting or before migration.” In laying hens, it does appear that the shorter daylight hours of autumn will stimulate a molt.

The age of the bird doesn’t make much difference as far as molting, but it can effect egg production. Most birds will taper off egg-laying after 3 or 4 years, but may still lay an egg or two a month even after 8 or more years.

Birds lose their feathers in a predictable manner, beginning with their heads and necks, following through to their tails. Even the feathers on their wings are lost in a predictable order. New feathers should begin to grow very soon after the old feathers are lost.

I also learned that there are “early” molters and “late” molters. Late molters are the hens that are good layers and will usually not have a molt until they have been laying eggs for almost a year. When they do begin to lose their feathers, they tend to do so rapidly, and new feathers will be growing in at the same time and same rate. These birds often return to full egg production within two to three months. Early molters do the opposite. They may only lay for a few months before they begin to lose a feather or two, and may take six months or more to complete a molt. My resources (and my instincts) say these are the birds to cull!

Three new wing feathers the same length!!

My “go-to” book, Jay Rossiter’s Living With Chickens, adds a bit more information. In addition to explaining how molts are often forced in commercial egg-laying operations where hens are managed intensively, he also tells more about the regrowth of feathers, especially wing feathers. “The ten primary flight feathers that every chicken has at the end of each wing are particularly predictable … a slow molter loses just one primary at a time. Each of these feathers takes 6 weeks to grow back. … A quick molting bird will shed the feathers in groups of two or three.” If you can see two or three new wing feathers that are the same length, you have a faster (“late”) molting chicken.

It’s interesting to me that the chapter in this book, on molting, is followed directly by the chapter on butchering your birds. I’m not sure I’m ready to do this, although I will admit I did give them a stern talking-to yesterday (“…if I have to buy eggs somewhere else, I’m not going to be happy about buying chicken feed, too…”). I kept searching for suggestions on moving the molt along …

I can’t add more light to the coop. My girls work with natural light; there’s no power to their coop. I already make sure they have plenty of fresh water and feed. I think maybe I might add more protein to their diet, since it sounds reasonable to me that they would need more amino acids to make feathers. I have a huge patch of comfrey; an armful of this everyday would help. If I had an earthworm garden, this would be great, too. I don’t, but I have a source for goats’ milk. I’ve heard that some people add alfalfa tablets to their feed, too.

Hens on Strike?

I think if I’m patient, keep the chicken coop clean, and listen carefully to the hens’ demands (More Protein! More Light!), and compromise a bit, I should be able to put down the strike before long. I hope so. I have baking to do!

Cats and Chickens ...

2011-10-13T22:10:00.011-05:00

by Rebecca Nickols

Can cats and chickens coexist?

I have five cats of my own and until recently, this hasn't been an issue of concern. Years ago my border collies and cats developed some sort of agreement on the boundaries on our property. The dogs rule the front yard and the cats reside in the back. If the cats pass this imaginary line, the dogs quickly herd them back into their agreed upon location (the back yard).

Then entered my free-ranging chickens and everything changed. At first I was sure that if I let my chickens loose, the border collies would relentlessly herd the girls back into the coop ... and perhaps harm them in the process. Surprisingly though, the dogs are for some reason intimidated by the chickens. Their fear is probably due to my one Buff Orpington who will charge and peck anyone (cat, dog or chicken) who gets in her way! As the dogs accepted my new flock, they also seemed to ease up on the cats. The set boundary lines are blurring and the cats are showing up in the front yard more often, with nothing more than a stern look from the dogs.

The problem is that the chicken coop is in the middle of our property and one cat in particular (aka "Little Kitty") is getting braver about approaching the chickens. At first I found him spending much of his day staring at the chickens, then sleeping under the coop and today (when the chickens were out foraging) I found him taking a catnap ... in a nesting box!

I know this cat has killed mice, small birds and such, but is a cat even capable of killing a large chicken? I looked through the forums on BackYardChickens.com and sure enough there are a load of chicken keepers who can attest to the fact that a cat (feral or domestic) can hunt down a large chicken and kill or at the least seriously harm the bird. In the same forums, however, there were a lot of comments indicating that the family cat and flock tolerated each other without any problems.

So just what is Little Kitty contemplating? Does he want to eat a chicken or just hatch an egg? Perhaps he's just jealous of their accommodations ... Whatever the reason, we've concluded that the chickens need a fenced-in area to free-range during the day. At first when I let them out of the run, they would stay within an eye's view of the coop. Then they started venturing further away. Today, I found them about 5 acres from our house!

Soon Little Kitty won't have access to the coop and he'll just have to be content dreaming of chickens. Does he want to live with the chickens or dine on them? I hope I'll never have the opportunity to solve the mystery!

To view what else is happening at our southwest Missouri property, visit the garden-roof coop.

Celebrate! World Egg Day!

2011-10-12T13:12:00.004-05:00

by Meredith Chilson

I have an artist friend who makes nifty, hand-drawn calendars. Nearly every day has a birthday recorded and an observation of some sort marked. In today’s square, for example, it’s marked for Pavarotti’s birthday and the full Blackberry Moon (Choctaw). Tomorrow is Navy Day (1775) as well as Lenny Bruce’s birthday. So, I was looking at this calendar, which hangs on the wall over my computer desk, when Friday’s notice jumped out at me: WORLD EGG DAY!

What? Did you know this? There’s an Egg Day? A WORLD Egg Day? I needed to know more. … So, I “googled” it … and found some really interesting things. OK, interesting to me, but I’m hoping you’ll have some fun reading about what I’ve learned, too. In truth, I’ve spent the entire morning following links about this.

So … according to the International Egg Commission (more on this later), World Egg Day is “the international event that celebrates the egg all around the world.” Think of that: an EVENT! The website (www.internationalegg.com) goes on to say that “World Egg Day is a unique opportunity to help raise awareness of the benefits of eggs and is celebrated in countries all around the world.”

I’m hooked. Not only is this an event, it’s unique (!), it’s celebrated around the world, and it’s going to help raise awareness. These are all things that I can become excited about. But … how is it celebrated and in what ways can the celebrations raise egg-awareness?

Oh, wait … there’s more! “The International Egg Commission has proclaimed the second Friday in October as World Egg Day.” This is an annual event! Did you know this? Have you been celebrating this right along, and I didn’t know? (And, how are you celebrating, if that’s the case?) And what is this International Egg Commission anyhow?

Well, that’s where we’ll start. “The International Egg Commission (IEC) is the Global Network for the egg industry.” There are members in more than 55 countries, and “it was established at the second International Egg Conference held in Bologna, Italy in 1964.” Thirty-eight years of Egg Conferences! Why, they even give an annual award for “International Egg Person of the Year.” The Commission includes committees on production, trade, egg processing and marketing.

It appears to me that this “holiday” was set to encourage egg farmers to join together to promote and provide high-quality food. According to a United Business Media news release titled, “Celebrate World Egg Day by Eating Good and Doing Good” (9/22/11), members of the IEC have “donated the equivalent of more than $7 million, and more than 22 million eggs to help … fight hunger around the world.” In addition, this same article tells how American egg farmers have donated eggs to the hungry and served free egg breakfasts as part of the Good Egg Project, “which was started in 2009 to help educate people about where eggs come from and encourage Americans to take up the fight against hunger.” (www.GoodEggProject.org)

How to celebrate this event? I think I will begin by having eggs for breakfast on October 14. There are songs and movies available for listening and watching on YouTube. Check out Hartman’s World-Egg-Day Movie 2009, for example. One website (www.holidayinsights.com) suggests an egg hunt (not just for Easter!), or a “debate with the question: 'Which came first, the chicken or the egg?’”, or perhaps an “egg throwing contest” (supposedly popular in Great Britain), or reading an “eggy story” like “The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg.”

I was thinking maybe even learning how to decorate eggs using the traditional Ukrainian method, or investigating those fabulous Fabergé eggs. Odd as it may sound, a search through some old cookbooks might give some insight into more culinary uses for eggs, too. Or, why not offer a tour of the hen house for some local pre-schoolers? Children of all sizes like to gather eggs, and I usually let them take the eggs they’ve gathered home with them.

How about taking a good look at an egg as you bring it in from the coop today? It’s a perfect package, totally natural and completely recyclable. Feel how smooth it is; when you crack it into a bowl look closely at the “lining” of the shell, at the golden yolk, at all parts of the egg. When you’ve scrambled it, or poached it, or added it to other ingredients to make some yummy treat, think of the nutrition that’s added to your diet. And then—why not do a little celebrating?

Let's Grow Something Beautiful!

2011-10-10T12:41:00.003-05:00

by Jennifer Sartell

We are three-quarters of the way through the Purina See the Difference 60 Day Challenge and I thought I would share some of the things I've been noticing around the farm.

We are growing some really beautiful animals this year at Iron Oak Farm. The biggest difference I've seen with our chickens is the size, plumage and overall feel of our birds. They are heavier, their combs are large, red and full, and their feathers are beautifully dense and compact. All of our offspring this year have surpassed their parents, who were raised on a different brand of food. I am particularly pleased with our Blue, Blue Laced Red Wyandottes! This is the first year where they've been as nice as our Splash variety and the only thing I've done differently is the feed.

Another way that Purina has proved itself a quality feed for us is in the fact that we moved this year, adding stress and change to our chickens' lives. I was afraid that our flock would react poorly to being hauled 40 miles in the back of a truck and having to adjust to new surroundings. I was afraid that they would start molting, stop laying and that we might even loose a chicken or two. But they came through beautifully! They did stop laying for a short period after we moved, but soon after we were settled, we switched to the Purina brand, and they began laying again.

One of the most exciting and obvious differences I've seen since making the switch has been with our Angora Goats. One of our goats, Knit, has had a skin irritation since she was about a year old. It was a type of goat-like eczema where her skin would redden in large patches and sort of scab over. We shear our angoras every six months and I would have to take special care with her not to irritate her skin further in the process.

This year at shearing, her skin was beautiful! Pink and clear and smooth.

Angora goats are the fastest producing fiber animals in the world, so you can see changes in their fleece, like the rings on a tree. Their fiber grows at a rate of approximately an inch per month. When examining the mohair that came off of her, I can definitely see an improvement in the quality of fiber since we started with Purina. I also feel like their digestion of the food has been a bit easier.

I'm not the only one who is seeing differences with my animals. In my last post I encouraged readers of both the Community Chickens blog and my own Iron Oak Farm blog to send photos and testimonies of their experience with the Purina Challenge. Here's what some of you had to say.

Lacey Wilhelm from North Dakota writes,
"I was excited to hear about the Purina 60 day challenge and quickly signed up for a chance to achieve quality improvement in our animals. I am on week 3 of the challenge and have saw amazing results with the Purina Goat Noble and Purina Goat Chow with my Nigerian Dwarf Goats! One little goat in particular, KKK-Katy, has shown amazing improvements with her sparkling bright blue eyes, increased energy level, and healthy growth rate. I am extremely happy with the Purina Difference and so are my goats!"

Jodie Westwood, shown here with her turkey Tina, writes,

"Tina was raised from day 2 with Purina and I can tell the difference!"

If you've made the switch to Purina, let me know! Send in your photos and a short story of how Purina has made a difference with your animals and you will be entered to win this Flip Video Camera! Contest ends October 31st. Visit Iron Oak Farm for further details on how to submit and sign up.

Special thanks to Maher Feed & Pet Supply in Holly, Mich., for their excellent customer service, full line of Purina products, and their support of everything poultry!

Constructing a Dust Bath

2011-10-05T23:18:00.008-05:00

by Rebecca Nickols

I'm sure that I'm not that much different from most chicken-keepers in the fact that I find a lot of the behaviors of my chickens interesting and sometimes entertaining. Take the dust bath, for example. For some reason, it's just enjoyable to watch! They stop focusing on the world around them and concentrate solely on coating every feather with dust and dirt, they scratch and ruffle their feathers in the earth (dirt flying everywhere) and peck (or eat?) the rocks and dirt around them. Actually, the dust bath is more than just for show. It's essential to the health of the bird; it's their way of removing lice, parasites, scales and dirt from the skin.

I'm fortunate that our coop attaches to an outside run which is free of grass, and my first young flock of chickens were able to create their "bath" by scratching up a shallow hole in the corner of the pen.

I shot the following video when the girls were probably 12 weeks old. It's not too interesting to watch if you have your own flock, but if you're contemplating backyard chickens (and have never witnessed a dust bath), it's only 24 seconds ...

Now that I allow my hens to free range, they have managed to construct their bathing areas throughout the yard and in my gardens. I'm not particularly fond of finding a hollowed-out area where they deemed fit for a dust bath, but that's part of the charm (or consequences) of having free-range chickens.

If your chickens don't have access to the outdoors, or your coop/run area is not suitable for them to make their own dust bath, you can easily assemble one for them. It basically consists of a container filled with soil, compost, fireplace ashes, diatomaceous earth, sand ... or a combination of the above. You can either construct a "bath" by using concrete blocks or bricks, or reuse something you already have, such as an old tire, a plastic swimming pool or a storage container. It needs to be in the sun and away from their food and water source. It's also important to keep their bathing area clean by removing droppings, etc. ... and adding more soil as needed.

This fall, my husband reseeded the lawn and declared that the chickens had to stay "cooped up" until the new grass was established. The dirt floor in the run had become so compacted from our summer heat and drought that it was impossible for the girls to "scratch up" a bath. I decided to use some old landscaping bricks and construct a bathing area for the flock.

Actually my decision was twofold; not only is a dust bath essential to the heath of the flock, but recently I've been reading about the advantages of Diatomaceous Earth (DE). It's a natural product consisting of the fossilized remains of diatoms (a type of hard-shelled algae). According to some sites, DE can be used as a treatment and preventative measure against intestinal worms, mites and lice. It's a safe product that can be added to the chicken's feed, sprinkled around the coop and included in the dust bath. I haven't had a problem with mites, worms, etc., but I'm all for avoiding a problem before it starts! I decided on a mixture of an equal amount of DE, peat and sand to add to my constructed bath.

Update: For some reason the chickens were terrified of the brick "bath tub" I created. Maybe the bricks were too unstable or wobbly, but for whatever reason they wouldn't get inside. Also, even though I covered the tub when it rained, water still managed to get into the soil mixture. The DE turned into a hard cement like texture that took forever to dry out. So ... I nixed the cute brick dust bath idea and opted for a simple plastic storage container with a seal-tight lid. I leave it open on the days that they're caged in the run and close it up if rain's in the forecast. It's also easy to dump out and replace the contents if the soil mixture does get wet or soiled. I can also relocate this container easily. I remember last winter when it was so cold that the girls wouldn't leave the coop, they ended up trying to take a dust bath in their straw bedding. This coming winter they'll have my not-so-fancy portable tub to bathe in!

Got any unique ideas for creating a dust bath? Comment below or share photos on our Facebook page!

To view what else is happening at our southwest Missouri property, visit the garden-roof coop.

I Didn't Know This, Did You?

2011-09-19T19:57:00.003-05:00

by Margaret E. Kellogg

They say you learn something new every day, and I find this to be so true. I didn't know that it takes about five months for a mallard drake to look like a drake. Did you?

My son, Stephen, is infatuated with mallard ducks. I just couldn't understand why he thought he needed mallard ducks specifically, because they are the most popular breed in North America, but I couldn't talk him out them. Just to give you a little background, he is 25 and loves the critters as much as I do. He was the one who got us into ducks to begin with. Last year, he brought home ducks, geese and turkeys. My plan was to have some chickens and fresh eggs. Well, now we have a myriad of ducks, geese, turkeys and chickens.

Because he wanted mallard ducks so badly this year, I went to our Alaska feed company as soon as the mallards arrived and purchased four. Just in time for Easter, so he was totally delighted. Well, when they are cute little fuzzballs, they all look the same. As they grew, they all looked the same. The goal, of course, was to have a hen and a drake out of the four. Needless to say, Stephen was quite disappointed because at 4 months old, it appeared that we had obtained four hens. I told him that I thought one was a male because it did have a little green to its head and the others had only black ... but it sure still looked like a hen. I was about ready to sell a couple of the hens because we really didn't need that many without a drake.

Interestingly enough, there started to be a change in one. Its chest started turning a lighter gray. It took 5 months for this hen to reveal itself as a drake.

You can see the light gray starting to appear, and his chest was getting a much darker brown than the others. Of course, there was still the green coming in on his head. We had gotten the ducklings at the end of March, and it was mid-July before this one started changing his colors. Fascinating to me; I had to try to find out whether this happened or not, because I had read that when they molt, they looked a lot like a hen instead of a drake.

Well, who knew. Probably more people that are familiar with ducks on a higher level. I'm still learning more about ducks and geese.

The important thing that I have learned over the last couple of years is that females quack much louder than drakes ... probably to make sure the males are paying attention. Also, people that are allergic to chicken eggs can eat duck eggs. Duck eggs are better for baking.

Last but not least, it takes at least five months for a drake mallard to show his true colors, but when they do, they are stunning. Below, Stephen stands proud as punch with his mallard drake, Buddy.

What Would You Do?

2011-09-19T18:23:00.005-05:00

by Taylor Miller

Every week at Community Chickens, we get dozens of questions from people across the world, hoping to find someone who has shared a similar experience. We try to answer them all, and forward them on to experts where we can. But many of the questions are unique, and because of this, we realize that sometimes the best people to answer the questions are precisely the people who are or have been in your shoes. This is why we often ask our guest bloggers to tackle questions - and they do such a great job!

So here's what we're asking, "What would you do ..." if you were in some of the following situations? What would you tell our readers? What is your best advice?

YOU might be the best person in the world to answer someone's question ... and we want to provide you with that ability. So, go for it!

If you'd like to respond to a question, leave a comment, and be sure to indicate to which question you're responding: (e.g., Q1: This is what you should do ...)

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Q1: Harvey writes: My chickens stop laying eggs in the winter. I heard that it is because of the shortened daylight hours. Will they continue to lay eggs in the winter if I kept a light on in the coop throughout the night?

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Q2: Darlene writes: I have a hen that is brooding again, after 2 months, is

there anything I can do to stop her from this behavior? I don't

want anymore chicks at this point; she just loves to just sit on that

nest. What can I do with her?

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Q3: Jodie Westwood writes: Our chicken house has an indoor/outdoor playground. With so much rain, the outdoor part is beginning to stink. I put down fresh straw

and hay, which the chickens love. I was told to sprinkle some lime

powder on the ground. Will this hurt the chickens? Does that work to

help with the odor?

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Q4: Susan Smith writes: I have been given a blackish/green--rooster? with a white dredlock looking mop on top. he loves me , he sort of coos and crows like a

rooster sometimes. It kicks and struts around and seems very

curious. It lets me pet it. What is it, a male or female? And how on

earth do I take care of it. I went to the feed store and was told to

buy some chopped rough corn, will it need grit like other birds? Can

I feed it scraps of fruits and vegs, like I feed my cockatiels?

HELP!!!!! Thank you; a new fowl mom.

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Q5: Joyce Poelsma writes: I have three hens, approximately nine months, and a rooster of an unknown age. My coop is 3' x 4' x 8' surrounded by a 20' circle fence. I let them out on the acreage every day. I am getting a new hen, approximately 10 months old. What is the best way to introduce her?

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Q6: Sally Thie writes: I am about to inherit 4 lay hens. I have never had

chickens before and I'm told that one of the hens picks the feathers

off the other three's hineys. What if anything can I do to get her to

leave the other three alone???

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Q7: Judy B. Jacobs writes: How do I prevent new chicks from eating layer ration (offered

free-choice to the flock) and adults from getting into the

starter/grower high protein feed that's for the chicks? Chicks in

brooders do not have this issue, obviously, but I have broody hens that

are being permitted to set clutches for the first time.

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Q8: Michael Stephens writes: Will Rhode Island Reds get along with a sex link in a chicken tractor?

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Q9: Jennifer A. Shepherd writes: I would love to hear suggestions on how to deal with free-range chickens and perennial beds. I have most of my beds fenced off from

the girls, however I don’t like the look of it. Does anyone have tips

on how to make the plants seem less appealing? Maybe powdered garlic?

Some kind of organic method?

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Q10: Cindy Robinson writes: I have a chicken that has a large growth on the front of

her. It is very moveable, and it has a spot that is pink where it looks

like she has rubbed it raw. I was told it could be a spider bite and to

try to drain the fluid off. Has anyone else ever experienced this

problem before?

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Q11: Pacia A. writes: My friends dog killed 27 of his chickens the other day. It was

horrible. It was also the first time he has done such a thing. Any

suggestions on how to break a dog of chicken killing would be

appreciated. I don't believe he wants to close-in the birds. It needs

to be a dog-based remedy. To my knowledge the choices are: 1. close in

the chickens, 2. tie up the dog (this is a farm dog), 3. get rid of

the dog. Any insights?

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Q12: Judith writes: I have a leg horn with a blocked egg duct. She poops, but no eggs. Any thing I can do to free her up? Thank you.

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Q13: Spence Ralston writes: 1. I have 6 hens and a rooster and have food and water both in the coop and outside in the run. Is it best to only have food and water outside? Is there a difference in the winter?

2. At least some of my hens poop in the nesting boxes. Is there any way to discourage that?

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Q14: Kristin writes: How should I build a chicken coop for Minnesota Winters? I don't like the idea of using a heat lamp 24/7 because that sounds like an expensive electric bill to me! We're talking about insulating the walls. What else?

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Q15: Colleen writes: I have a chicken whose eyes have gone slightly milky/cloudy and she seems to not see the best. The other chickens were picking on her and made her bleed quite a bit and kept her from the food and water. She would try to run away from the other chickens and would run into the walls and feeder and waterer. I seperated her from the rest of the flock treated her wounds and gave her access to her own food and water. Her wounds have healed, she put on weight and lays an egg a day. She was hatched in March of this year and at this point seems to be quite healthy except for the fact that her eyes are a little cloudy. I can tell that she is lonely in the pen by herself and seems to cry for the other chickens. I'm unsure if I should try to re-introduce her to the flock though as I think that the other chickens will just attack her again. Is there is anything that can be done about her eyes? Any advice for what to do with my "visually impaired" chicken?

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Have a question of your own? Post it in our forum - or shoot it over to editor@communitychickens.com