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Moms Aren’t Chicken

16 Friday Jun 2017

Posted by in chickens, children in the garden, summer!

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Facing the world alone…

My friend and I went out to lunch yesterday and compared experiences with our young not-quite-adult children. Our youngest sons are both high school graduates this year. We mourned children who were communicative as young ones, and now necessarily shutting mom out in their effort to become independent. We held hands across the table and almost cried over our sense of loss — almost, but we didn’t. Because this process is entirely as it should be. If the kids didn’t do it,  we know we would be worried. Still, having kids home from school for the summer can be enough to drive any loving mom crazy. It could be worse though, I said to my son at supper. You could have a chicken for a mom.

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A little puff on the celebratory graduation cigar

 

Yesterday mama hen must have woke up and decided she WASN’T a mom any more. All day long we watched as the little flock of five juniors straggled around the back yard without her. And to make the new status really clear, (to them? to herself perhaps?), by the end of the day she began pecking their heads when they were trying to eat. I couldn’t take it – I shooed her away. I imagined pecking my recent high school graduate’s head to clarify our new relationship. The mama hen looked a bit confused, as well. She shook her feathers when I told her to shoo, and she didn’t come into the run again until very late. After weeks of worrying and foraging for six, her job was done, and she was a solo bird again.

I am fascinated to see what today brings, since phase two will have to be that each hen figures out where she comes in the flock pecking order. (Where did they all sleep last night? I forgot to check.) One of the bolder little pullets (a young not-yet-laying hen) already forages with the big girls. But the tail-ender of the group doesn’t seem ready for this new stage of things, and was too scared yesterday to even come out from under the coop and into the back yard with her nest-mates. She kept running up to the gate in the fence, and then back under, “panic peeping,” trying to work up the courage to face the world without mom to hide under. Life, as Glennon Doyle Merton writes, is brutiful. (That’s brutal and beautiful.) True enough.

Meanwhile, having two of my human fledglings home is working out great so far  – lots of yard work and house projects are getting done. I am enjoying the extra bodies around the house and the conversations at dinner. My daughter has us watching Game of Thrones. No writing is getting done, but that seems to be my way. When the sun is out, I want to be out there too.

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Bronwyn cuts fire blight from a pear tree with Clorox dipped shears

It’s true that we are paying them for this work (Susan says that’s cheating) but family rates! I told her that I realized I could do this since I saw my neighbor doing it. Since we are still supporting them it all makes a cycle anyway – if they work and we pay them rather than hiring other help, and then have them buy more of their own stuff. (Does that count as pecking heads?) Win-win.

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Oskar pruning the crape myrtles – more light for the vegetable garden

Maybe the mother hen is wiser than I. She knows how to let go, while I cling. In fact, I am a bit more like that tail-ender chick, running back under the coop, peeping for the past rather than run through that gate into the wider world. But the chick can’t go back into the egg. I have only to try advising my young adults to realize that a doink on their heads would be about as effective as any maternal advice on money or jobs – or probably any other subject. They just have to get out here and scratch for themselves.

 

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Lavender and sage

This morning the black raspberry harvest starts. As I head out into the yard to pick before today’s rain threatens mold to destroy the berries, I am grateful for cycles of life and transitions — and I find I am admiring the bravery of chickens.

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Berries and Broodies!

09 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in chickens, spring

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First Strawberries

Pre-script: I didn’t do yoga as scheduled this morning. I also didn’t clean the house as needed. Instead I got my zen squatting in a corner of the chicken run, watching a mama hen teaching 5 chicks how to scratch down to the dirt, hunting out tiny bugs. If I hold very still then she knows I am not dangerous, and they all carry on as usual. Usual, but amazing at the same time. This is a prequel because when I wrote Spring Broodies, just weeks ago,  I could not know how it would all unfold…

So spring is finally really here in Maryland. Uh, isn’t it? That 80 degree weather in April sealed the deal didn’t it? I don’t think cold weather can zap us again with a near freeze…in May…well, merely 40s. Yikes. What a strange year we have been having.

Looks like the cherry blossoms escaped that last frost (at least in our yard), and see!

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Fruits are coming where blossoms just were. The winter garlic looked good but now it needs to be pulled before it rots in the ground. The asparagus finally came up in that blast of early hot April weather, and finished too soon. No manure on that bed last fall equals skinny stalks this spring. In 2016 the stalks were fat like I had never seen before! For 2017 we got lots of skinny little guys. Lesson: ALWAYS put manure on your asparagus in fall! Especially if its sharing space with strawberries…

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Look at those skinny stalks! Lesson learned. The strawberries love the asparagus bed, enthusiastically expanding, growing huge green leaves. If we feed the bed in fall, maybe the asparagus will get some of the food too…

Here is the re-planted and recovering greens collection, is now nicely fenced to protect from other ransacking greens appreciators —

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HOORAY for this greenhouse structure Edward put up (with help from Oskar)!  Right now it holds agricultural fleece above the lettuce and greens to protect them from that hot weather we had…(can you remember?) It will  stay up year round, covered in plastic sheeting during cold months to extend out lettuce and greens production as far into the winter as we can.  So many of my ideas never achieve reality (I know. I have too many.) It is pretty satisfying to see one up and working.

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But most exciting to my readers will be the Chicken news! Starting late April we seemed to have two broody hens. Two of my hens began staying in two nesting boxes day and night, making those intense little noises that I recognize. When a hen goes broody all her instincts tell her “Stay put and keep those eggs warm and you will be a mother!” A true broody hen plucks feathers off her breast to get skin to egg contact and the 90 plus degrees needed. A good broody will go out only to relieve herself, grab a bite or a sip, and then get back on the nest. Less informed broody hens poop right in the nest. (Read more about broody hens here: The Modern Homestead)

What this means to the suburban grower though is a chance for an adoptive mother to raise a couple new chicks. I did it once before with success. But I don’t have the space for two mamas to raise chicks in the privacy needed — in nature they like to go off alone into the brush or a corner of a big farmyard.  So I discouraged the Golden Maran, and encouraged the Buff Orpington. This wasn’t easy. I moved her three times trying to convince her that the broody box in the little coop was a better place than the nesting boxes with all the other hens. There is no way that a hen can raise chicks safely with the other hens around – they would be attacked by the other hens as interlopers. But most broody hens have about half the required instincts – they don’t isolate themselves. So I did my best. Finally, after some more research online, I moved the warm eggs first to the new location, and then took her, struggling and resisting, to sit on her eggs in the new spot. This time I remembered to close the door, so the other hens couldn’t bother her. And there she stayed.

Three days later, I picked up 5 one day old chicks from a local feed store – and Edward (who kindly accommodated this errand while on his way back from a medical procedure) agreeably held the box in his nice warm hands.

Once home (and my ailing husband settled) I threw the chicks into a warm oven and scurried around setting up a temporary box – we had to wait for night to make the switch.

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Trum would like to play with the chicks…

It was hard not to worry. This night would be the night that the previously warm weather turned cold again!  Fifty degrees — and baby chicks like 90.  That night I carried the box of them out, and by cover of darkness I slid the hot eggs out from under the broody Orpie and slid the panicked, peeping chicks underneath. I had to shove one little guy under twice – she seemed frozen. All the next cold day I didn’t see or hear a peep. But the hen was all puffed up though over top of them. That was hopeful. She looked…surprised.

Next morning I pushed a flat dish of food and then water up close to her chest, and she ate and drank avidly. Prior to the cold snap, the weather had been very hot and she had been brooding for weeks, hardly leaving her nest for food or water.

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Then she pulled away. She wanted me gone. So I went away, hoping that young and inexperienced as she is, her instincts would tell her that those babies need to eat and drink too, somehow, despite the cold.

I shouldn’t have worried.

I have doubted this broody hen every step of the way – doubting whether she could sit a nest, whether she would reject these adopted babies, whether she would know to feed them on a cold day! I have been distressed to find that she wants to sleep on the ground under the structure I built for her, instead of inside it. Even after I made a new ramps for the little chicks yesterday to get up into it, they showed no interest. We tried moving her once, which caused extreme distress to her and her chicks and she hid them in a corner.  But she is proving herself to be a good mother – and she knows better than I do about the whole process. Last night it went down to the 40s again — but I gave up on the idea of moving her into that nice little coop, and just piled pine shavings around her to help her hold her heat. She did not object.

This morning I opened the top of that little coop to get something out, and noticed that the temperature in there was a lot colder than the air temperature in the run outside it. Ahh. I see. That little house was colder than the ground. Being wood, and drafty, it holds heat more poorly.  Yep – I guess she knows.

I have no idea what this upbringing will do for these babies. They are having a pretty au naturel experience compared to most American suburban chicks: enduring cold, sleeping in the dirt under mom, scratching in the straw and mud for breakfast. I threw them some of the strawberry tops this morning, and they were all excited, mama too. I notice that two have paste butt, which isn’t common for chicks raised by a mother – maybe it’s the switch from 24 hours of heat lamp life to Real World cold spring. I am waiting to see if the mama hen will do something about it, or if  I have to intervene causing great panic and distress. These little ones are eating just the right stuff to be healthy. They have very little interest in the Organic Chick Starter feed I put out. (It doesn’t smell good to me either.) Ah well – on to the next adventure!—-

 

 

Publish or Perish?

22 Wednesday Feb 2017

Posted by in chickens, sick chickens

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Did someone get the memo?

Somehow between the traveling to wrestling tournaments, and extended bouts of ill health, February garden prep at the Simons Gardens crawls on. No, I don’t have my lettuce started. I wish I had a cool photo of an emerging green house to show you, but all I have is stakes in the ground so far – beeeautifully painted stakes though. Edward likes to do things right. Maybe THIS weekend we’ll assemble the roof and sides..

Meanwhile, the chickens. WHAT is up with these chickens? I have never had so much trouble, or truly I wouldn’t still be doing keeping chickens for  eggs. Although at this point I can’t imagine going back. Eggs from our own yard are so fabulous – it’s hardly worth eating any others, “organic” or not. Still — if we aren’t getting eggs…

Out of ten hens, all winter I averaged 3 eggs a day. Terrible. Seven eggs out of ten hens would be normal.  Laying is improved by plugging in the string of chili pepper lights we have strung up in the coop, providing extended light from 5:30 – 7:30 or so. A couple days now we got 5 eggs!  ONE day last week we got 7 eggs out of ten, now a photo-worthy event. (I wondered if the girls heard Edward plotting their demise…!)  Ours are working girls, not pets, more a farm than a zoo. Animals that are sick or unproductive must be culled. Our gardens in general, our whole effort in growing, is to  learn and to show how much food a family can grow for itself on a half acre in suburbia. It’s a continuing education.

Let me digress for a moment on the uncomfortable subject of keeping of animals for food: I am not opposed to being mostly vegetarian, if I could digest grains and dairy healthfully, that would be possible. Many people cannot be healthy eating the carbohydrates that form the backbone of the American diet, and I, and my husband, and our children are some of them. Then, if you buy food cheap, you have to be ok with inferior food, and an inferior life for the animals that make up part of what’s on your plate. So, we dedicate more of our income to groceries than most Americans do. We want the animals who form part of our diet to have a decent life, for their own sakes and for ours, so we try to buy meat from smaller organic grower operations, close to home.  Smaller farms have more control over the lives of their animals. The less distance it travels, the fresher food is, and the less fuel it takes to get it into our kitchen. If we had the space we might raise more animal food ourselves. Then you really have control over what they get to eat, and how often they pasture.

Having said all that, it isn’t easy to do it right. Raising good food takes education, and patience – and in our country too few buyers seem willing to reward our farmers for the terribly important work they do by paying well for quality edibles.

To prove the difficulty, I look at my chicken flock. I think about what kind of care they re getting. I wonder what I am missing. Could it be that the wild birds who keep getting into the run are dropping diseases? Despite all my research, and yogurt feedings, apple cider vinegar in their drinking water, the poopy backsides continue on most of the flock. (Called Vent gleet)  I dusted them all for lice in the fall. The test for parasites came up negative. I cleaned out the coop, put down new straw everywhere in the run. The girls rotate on four paddocks, two of them grassy. They get daily kale and extra seeds. They seem very happy. But they don’t lay.

Lately the girls have been getting extra snacks helping out in the garden beds in their messy way – scratching out bugs and larva (who knows what they’re getting – amazing eyesight!) Although they kick the dirt around, the long term benefits are real.  I come around after them and put the top soil back where it goes, covering the roots of the perennial plants again.  Last Sunday I called them over to the asparagus bed, hoping to wipe out the beetle larva that are certainly over-wintering there. I weeded in the sunshine, and they scratched alongside.

Before we cull, I have one more idea. I have a friend whose husband …looks at poop for a living. (Hey, somebody has to do it.)  He’s a professor of poop actually, at George Washington University. Maybe I can barter some scientific examination for some salad dressing.  John is a big fan of Edward’s Honey Mustard Vinaigrette.  

But as Harvey Ussery says in his helpful book about gaining food independence, The Small-Scale Poultry Flock, “The recuperative powers of a chicken following even quite serious injury are astounding…On the other hand, where illness is concerned chickens pretty much have two settings: “On” and “Off.” Once a chicken has become ill, the chances of recovery – while not impossible – are so low it makes sense to cull immediately.” (p 218) (Note that Ussery hardly ever has any illness with his flocks though, because his careful management of the flock imitates nature in every way.)

Forgetting this advice, last fall I spent $100+ to find a cure for White Chicken, only to learn she was far more ill than I knew. Until then I had been far too practical to ever take a chicken to the vet — and I’ll be far too practical to ever do it again. The clock is ticking, chickies. For both of us.

Supergirls

11 Wednesday Jan 2017

Posted by in chickens, Winter Garden

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Yogurt snacks for my Barred Rock

Good January Morning! Garden Update: The parsley is all that’s left, but it’s still going!  Through snow, thru ice, thru frigid nights!  Tough stuff.

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Our parsley – January 11, 2017

What a great symbol for human growth and survival, right? OR for a relationship! And speaking of relationships, gardens, and chickens, today I am re-posting something irresistible – from another chicken lover and writer Lori Odhner.  She always has funny and warm things to say about relationships, marriages, families – and chickens! In this case, all together. Find Lori’s daily postings at her facebook address for Caring for Marriage.

So — Can Chickens Save Your Relationship?

Araucana Chicken, 8 days old, in front of a white background, studio shot

Photo of Super Girl borrowed from Google Images

More than Eggs
There was a popular post on a chicken page that I added to. Someone asked what we had learned by having flocks. Most of the comments had to do with how much we enjoy them, and their endearing personalities. But one woman changed the tone when she said that chickens saved her marriage.

“Before I had chickens I didn’t know how blessed my life really was. My husband and I were on the verge of divorce. We had nothing in common. We didn’t do anything together. We fought over everything. There was no connection. We realized we needed something to do together. A hobby. A reason to connect. With our love of animals we chose to start a small chicken farm. Instead of wasting energy fighting with each other we spend our energy on taking care of our birds. We laugh over the silly things they do. We have learned so much about them. We work hard sun up to sun down together. We do the chores together. We sit and talk for hours on what we can change to make them happy. We talk. We talk to each other again. We have connected all over again. It has truly been a miracle. We cry when one dies we laugh when one does something funny. He laughs. I laugh again. Before chickens he was my room mate. Now we are husband and wife again. My birds saved my marriage.”

I sent her a private message. asking if I could tell her story, and she went on to tell me about her husband’s relationship with their birds.

“They like to roost on his lawn mower and four wheeler haha poor guy! I’m pretty sure they do it because they know it irritates him !! But if you ever get the chance to see a grown man stand there and lecture a bird it’s a sight ! Then the bird jumps on his shoulder and they walk around the yard together buddies once again. Makes the most aggregating days worth it.”

I was moved to hear her story. Then I reread it, and noticed that she had learned that her life was blessed before having birds. But she didn’t realize it. Many of us welcome a fresh day with a couple of eggs. It sounds like chickens gave her and her husband a fresh start to their relationship.
Love,

Lori
Lori Odhner
Caring for Marriage
photo by Joy A Feerrarimg_5678

Tribute to White Chicken

05 Saturday Nov 2016

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Yesterday White Chicken was diagnosed. The real cause of her ill health was “internal egg laying.” There is no certain cause of internal laying, and no real cure. It means that a chicken’s yolks (ovum) begin to be deposited in her internal body cavity, rather than traveling down the oviduct, getting clothed in egg white and shell, and laid.

After a week of nursing her on the dining room, thinking she looked better, it felt bad not to get to say goodbye and thank you.

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Thank you, White Chicken, for two solid years of laying an egg just about every day. I always admired your ability to escape whatever fence I created, so you could go out and forage, but even more I admired that you could always find your way back in! White Chicken, you were unusually smart, and very independent. You got out where you wanted to go, but the fox never got you. You also perpetually thought I was about to kill you, and rushed around in near panic every time I came in with food and water.

Which is why, until she took up residence on our dining room table, there were no up close photos of White Chicken –  except this one, of her with her adoptive mother, the crazy broody Wellsummer Mama:

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White Chicken as a chick

Last night it was comforting to read in my online search that the most likely cause of internal laying is genetics, or how the baby chick was raised or maybe handled. In any case, it wasn’t me.

But still I felt sad all evening.

White Chicken was a really memorable, hard-working, nutcase hen. There is so much to know about animals — so much to learn about any living being you are trying to care for or love! Study is required to do it right. And paying attention. Listening. This October has been a month full of learning for me, in so many ways.

Last night I de-loused the flock. (The vet found lice on White Chicken.) I held each hen on my lap and massaged the powder gently into their skin. At first they panciked, then I hope they enjoyed the attention. At least they should feel better free of parasites. Today I will clear and dust the whole coop. I generally think of myself as providing a good home to my chickens and dogs – but I guess the lesson is that one can always do better. There are always things to learn.  Listen.

 

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ADDENDUM:

Yesterday I learned that my niece had a beautiful baby girl the night after White Chicken’s passing. This is such a comfort. I do not equate a chicken with a human life, still, there a beauty is the thought of a beginning of a life at the time of another life’s ending. I think, once I get to know my grandniece and see if she deserves the honor, I will add to her other beautiful names Liesel Eden the title Little Chick.

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Inspiration and ReBirth

27 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by in chickens, starting a garden, turn lawnscapes to gardens

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Six baby chicks join the Simons household  October 2015

For so many months this blog has lain dormant.  Those who follow my writing know that my other blog has taken the bulk of my attention during the past year (embracing chaos.net, stories about life with our special needs young adult son Owen).  If there is a “bulk” of anything so stretched and scattered as my attention.  I am a writer, when I am not a landlord, cook, mom, builder, or gardener.

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Trum the bulldog meets the chix…

But while suburbangrowing.com  has lain fallow, the soil of the blog has rested.  Time to seed it, and bring you a harvest of new ideas to use in your own gardens.

This year, in addition to writing about what Edward and I are growing around our property, how we struggle for maximum yield in suburban spaces, how we address the chickens-in-suburbia challenge (that constant tension between green scratch for them and unmolested gardens for us), I want to make a greater effort to learn how to bring garden spaces to un-gardened new places.  And I want to take you along on that ride.

Gardens in my local school?  Gardens for the DC soup kitchen we support?  How about a community garden for homeless folks who panhandle along MLK Blvd  in Baltimore?  What about gardens for Owen’s Adult Day Care Program?  What about being the connection between Owen’s day care program New Horizons Supported Services Inc, and Forested, the teaching garden up the road from me?  Learning a skill like how to grow food could be life-changing.  Being outside in sunshine is healing.  Working the soil is satisfying.  Eating quality food when you know how it grew and how to grow it, is the foundation of health.  As you can see, my brain is teaming like a box of red wiggler worms.

Just some of the ideas percolating in my mind for 2016.  You may say I’m a dreamer – but no one goes to jail for dreaming.  Let’s see what we can get done.

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The chicken-loved lawn…

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…and recovery, thanks to a warm fall/winter 2015

I am passionate about eating good food, and growing good food, sustainably.  I long for this to be something for as many people as possible – not just the few.  By good food I mean fresh (locally sourced), non-chemically-contaminated-hence-organically-grown/or/raised-food.  I want to see it affordable.  I want to see it accessible.  More suburban and urban people.

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Chicken paddocks –> new forage areas every day – or protection for the growing babies from the big girls…

Fact is, toxic chemicals build up in soil, air and water, and so on our foods.  This will affect our body function.  Eventually it will cause illnesses.  Good food grows a better brain.  The brain you grow as a baby and child is the brain you get  – how well kids are nourished could affect them for a very long time.  So much hype about “healthy” foods – and SO little access to simple, fresh, organically grown veggie stuff.  So little exposure to cooking it!

Enter Steve Ritz, my inspiration for the week!

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Steve Ritz is really the reason I am sitting down typing to you now, waking up this blog.  I heard Steve interviewed on NPR last week.  As soon as I got home, I ran for the computer to Google him.  Steve is a remarkable teacher who went from knowing nothing about gardening to energetically growing gardens in city classrooms – teaching kids how to grow, how to love veggies, and how to make city gardens as a job.  You will love this guy —

And here he is –  https://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_ritz_a_teacher_growing_green_in_the_south_bronx?language=en

This led me to another inspiring, thoughtful, and balanced person – Majora Carter, who is also greening the South Bronx —

Majora Carter Get inspired people!

https://www.ted.com/talks/majora_carter_s_tale_of_urban_renewal

I am glad to be back!

 

Chicken Tunnels!!

08 Friday May 2015

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I find something to post about nearly every day now, as spring is springing!

In my ongoing search for a way to combine suburban life and with chickens, I stumbled on Chicken Tunnels – chicken tunnels are hot!! Everyone’s posting about Chicken Tunnels! Or maybe that was last year, and I’m behind the curve.  Here is a photo from Backyard Farming Connection.com last spring–

chicken tunnels backyard farms Backyard Farming Connection – read more about their operation here:  http://www.backyardfarmingconnection.com/2014/05/garden-update-chicken-tunnels.html

But my favorite source on this subject was the Chicken Tunnel Man, Bruce Morgan’s YouTube VIDEO.  Bruce directs his “chooks” into one garden bed at a time via portable wire tunnels that he stores on top of his shed – a very inspirational guy from Down Under.  https://youtu.be/GlyV8fA6R_Q

So far I haven’t built any chicken tunnels – but I ‘ve been thinking about something like them for a long time. I first heard about chicken tunnels when someone sent me photos last month.  But I suspect for now paddocks are still the easiest for us on this cozy suburban 1/2 acre, since you rotate the chickens simply by closing one door and opening another, and have no tunnels to store.

IMG_0267Lately we are bringing all our piles of weed to the chickens in their run, as we try to get our gardens planted and can’t risk an escapee scratching her way through the baby plants.  I have a lot of garden beds to secure. Dealing with wire is NOT my favorite job either.

It’s tempting though – if I can think of a way to store all that tunnel when not in use…

 

 

 

Flowers for Chickens and Living Forage

24 Friday Apr 2015

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Take a Course at Forested! First of all, I must let you know about my friend LincolnSmith’s workshops series at his forest teaching garden, Forested, this spring – here’s the link!  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#inbox/14cd4a6cf3709800

Flowers for Chickens? Why? This idea is totally stolen from an inspiring website I looked at and have not been able to relocate.  But search “chicken garden” and you find this subject is on flockster’s minds.  Because chickens benefit enormously from grass, yet this is what lawn looks like after a winter under the tender mercies of my 13 chickens:

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(It took them about 2 weeks FYI.)

The lady whose great website I cannot find plants her chicken run with living forage, grass, but things beautiful as well as tasty to peck.  What an inspiration! A run could be something other than a wasteland? She is constantly on the lookout for plants which co-exist happily such as ROSES(!) – given how prone to being buggy roses are, this could be a real source of nourishment.  She sets large rocks or pavers to protect roots from scratching claws. Beware the long list of chicken toxic plants – http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/627282/comprehensive-list-of-poisonous-plants-and-trees – Also listed below).   So, thank you lady!! wherever you exist in the blogospere. You have changed the way I am going to manage my chickens this summer.

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Oh-Oh!

Edward and I had already planned to add living forage into and around the run this year – and here’s what we have so far:

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A Mulberry sapling – we are growing a mulberry bush into the run. The first step was to a convince Edward not to kill it, since he considers mulberries invasive, water-stealing, horrible plants.  MULBERRIES are a very nutritious food, easy to grow and tough (yes dear) and voila! free food that our chickens can feed themselves.  You can see that despite Edward’s dislike, this plant is very happy.  Sadly, he says, it probably will thrive.  I have the roots outside the run wire, so it’s roots are protected most of the time,  and leaves outside the run roof get tons of sun.

Berries – one of the areas the chickens will be guided toward is under the brambles, to clean up the fallen fruit.  IMG_0240_crop

 

 

I have JUST hatched an idea to grow Black Raspberries (black caps), a plant that loves us, ACROSS a small wire paddock, so the chicks get fruit from under it and we can harvest from the top.  I will post photos soon.

 

 

Less impressive at the moment is the beginning of our Vegetable Garden Tower beside the mulberry (yes, you unbelievers, I will prune the mulberry heavily! so that the tower is not shaded!).  This is an idea I got from Ben Friton of Can Ya Love.

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The fabric cloth will hold dirt in, and plants can be inserted to grow and hang out all the way up. Chickens can harvest their side, plus the lower regions of front when they are in Paddock 1. We can harvest the upper section.  I’m going to try cukes up there.  I threw this together using some old fencing and row covers from last summer.  Learn more about Ben’s work from his website at  www.canyalove.org.  A grower friend of mine, Lincoln Smith of the teaching garden Forested (http://forested.us/), introduced me to Ben and his book Can Ya Love? which describes the creation of his vertical garden concept, and shows how he has used it to help hungry communities around the world grow their own greens.

Swiped from his website, Ben’s vegetable pillars:

Have fun in your gardens this weekend!!

HERE’s the Evil For Chickens List:

Backyard Chicken’s Comprehensive List of Plants Toxic to Chickens:

ARUM LILY

AMARYLLIS

ARALIA

ARROWHEAD VINE

AUTUMN CROCUS

AUSTRALIAN FLAMETREE

AUSTRALIAN UMBRELLA TREE

AVOCADO

AZALEA

BANEBERRY

BEANS: (CASTOR, HORSE, FAVA, BROAD, GLORY, SCARLET RUNNER,

MESCAL, NAVY, PREGATORY)

BIRD OF PARADISE

BISHOP’S WEED

BLACK LAUREL

BLACK LOCUST

BLEEDING HEART OR DUTCHMAN’S BREECHES

BLOODROOT

BLUEBONNET

BLUEGREEN ALGAE

BOXWOOD

BRACKEN FERN

BUCKTHORN

BULB FLOWERS: (AMARYLLIS, DAFFODIL, NARCISSUS, HYACINTH & IRIS)

BURDOCK

BUTTERCUP

CACAO

CAMEL BUSH

CASTOR BEAN

CALADIUM

CANA LILY

CARDINAL FLOWER

CHALICE (TRUMPET VINE)

CHERRY TREE

CHINA BERRY TREE

CHRISTMAS CANDLE

CLEMATIS (VIRGINIA BOWER)

CLIVIA

COCKLEBUR

COFFEE (SENNA)

COFFEE BEAN (RATTLEBUSH, RATTLE BOX & COFFEEWEED)

CORAL PLANT

CORIANDER

CORNCOCKLE

COYOTILLO

COWSLIP

CUTLEAF PHILODENDRON

DAFFODIL

DAPHNE

DATURA STRAMONIUM (ANGEL’S TRUMPET)

DEATH CAMUS

DELPHINIUM

DEVIL’S IVY

DIEFFENBACHIA (DUMB CANE)

ELDERBERRY

ELEPHANT EAR (TARO)

ENGLISH IVY

ERGOT

EUCALYPTUS (DRIED, DYED OR TREATED IN FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS)

EUONYMUS (SPINDLE TREE)

EUPHORBIA CACTUS

FALSE HELLEBORE

FLAME TREE

FELT PLANT (MATERNITY, AIR & PANDA PLANTS)

FIG (WEEPING)

FIRE THORN

FLAMINGO FLOWER

FOUR O’CLOCK

FOXGLOVE

GLOTTIDIUM

GOLDEN CHAIN

GRASS: (JOHNSON, SORGHUM, SUDAN & BROOM CORN)

GROUND CHERRY

HEATHS: (KALMIA, LEUCOTHO, PEIRES, RHODODENDRON, MTN. LAUREL,

BLACK LAUREL, ANDROMEDA & AZALEA)

HELIOTROPE

HEMLOCK: (POISON & WATER)

HENBANE

HOLLY

HONEYSUCKLE

HORSE CHESTNUT

HORSE TAIL

HOYA

HYACINTH

HYDRANGEA

IRIS IVY: (ENGLISH & OTHERS)

JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT

JASMINE (JESSAMINE)

JERUSALEM CHERRY

JIMSONWEED

JUNIPER

KY. COFFEE TREE

LANTANA (RED SAGE)

LARKSPUR

LILY OF THE VALLEY

LILY, ARUM

LOBELIA

LOCOWEED (MILK VETCH)

LOCUSTS, BLACK / HONEY

LORDS & LADIES (CUCKOOPINT)

LUPINE

MALANGA

MARIJUANA (HEMP)

MAYAPPLE (MANDRAKE)

MEXICAN BREADFRUIT

MEXICAN POPPY

MILKWEED, COTTON BUSH

MISTLETOE

MOCK ORANGE

MONKSHOOD

MOONSEED

MORNING GLORY

MTN. LAUREL

MUSHROOMS, AMANITA

MYRTLE

NARCISSUS

NETTLES

NIGHTSHADES: (DEADLY, BLACK, GARDEN, WOODY, BITTERSWEET,

EGGPLANT, JERUSALEM CHERRY)

OAK

OLEANDER

OXALIS

PARSLEY

PEACE LILY

PERIWINKLE

PHILODENDRONS: (SPLIT LEAF, SWISS CHEESE, HEART-LEAF)

PIGWEED

POINCIANA

POINSETTIA

POISON IVY

POISON HEMLOCK

POISON OAK: (WESTERN & EASTERN)

POKEWEED

POTATO SHOOTS

POTHOS

PRIVET

PYRACANTHA

RAIN TREE

RANUNCULUS, BUTTERCUP

RAPE

RATTLEBOX, CROTALARIA

RED MAPLE

RED SAGE (LANTANA)

RHUBARB LEAVES

RHODODENDRONS

ROSARY PEA SEEDS

SAND BOX TREE

SKUNK CABBAGE

SORREL (DOCK)

SNOW DROP

SPURGES: (PENCIL TREE, SNOW-ON-MTN, CANDELABRA, CROWN OF THORNS)

STAR OF BETHLEHEM

SWEET PEA

SWISS CHEESE PLANT (MONSTERA)

TANSY RAGWORT

TOBACCO

UMBRELLA PLANT

VETCH: HAIRY/COMMON

VIRGINIA CREEPER

WATTLE

WEEPING FIG

WHITE CEDAR, CHINA BERRY

WISTERIA

YEWS

YELLOW JASMINE

 

…I hope you’re still here and read through the list.

 

I know that as I typed it, I was reminded of many very common

plants that I had forgotten were unsafe for my flock.

Cranky Chickens Love Cabbage

18 Wednesday Feb 2015

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20150125_083501 Remember that back in November I added 5 young hens at the point of lay to my flock of 8 older girls.  It wasn’t too pretty for a while, as the older hens came to accept the new ones.  We had some injuries.  By late January I am pleased to report that everyone was getting along, one group not two, with the hierarchies that chicken social life requires.  Many thanks to my vet Dr. Sarah Chapman, who suggested making visual barriers across the run.  I used cardboard panels and put feed and water in several locations.  Now every bird can eat and drink in peace.

While out at coffee not long ago my friend – call her Sheila – suggested hanging a cabbage by a string for my chickens, to give them something to peck at instead of each other.  She had saved the idea for me on her Pintrest page.  See for yourself — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0DQyRrjewU

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Thank you Sheila for a great reminder – eating gets pretty boring for chickens during the winter, with no grass and few bugs to vary the diet of processed food…

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I happened to have part of a Chinese cabbage in the kitchen.  I tied a stick across the bottom to keep it attached while being pecked…

20150125_084242…and tried hanging it up in various places, looking for the right location and height.

!

Hanging the cabbage in a bush didn’t work too well.  I got only quizzical looks “Huh?”

Hanging the cabbage on the fence was the trick.  At first the hens didn’t recognize this pale green blob as food at all.

They ran over to peck at the leaves I stripped off, but walked away from the pinata feast.   And then the AHA moment—

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“Hey! – that’s FOOOD!”  

Since I tried this twice with success, I have come across debate online about cabbage being toxic to chickens.  It is my impression that chickens like most animals will not eat something that isn’t good for them (sheep may be an exception to this rule), unless they are desperate.  Do not allow them to be desperate, and don’t offer any one food to excess.  Offer a wide range of veggie scraps, seeds, and PLENTY of mulchy stuff for them to dig through for entertainment.  Chickens aren’t bright, but if they aren’t bored to death in confinement or hunger for something that isn’t pellet, they should know what’s for dinner.

Christmas Lights For Chickens

23 Friday Jan 2015

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We were at December 12th.  Almost the darkest of the year.  Although we had 13 chickens, we were getting only 5 eggs a day.  Shucks.

Then one morning I plugged in the old heat lamp I keep out in the coop, just before getting out there to feed and water the girls.  That night, what do you know, 7 eggs!  But a heat lamp is 250 watts.  That’s a lot of energy to run, especially if you are prone to forgetting to unplug it after an hour as I am. (I keep it in the coop for really cold nights, and for when we have baby chicks.)

I hooked up some chili lights – a string of white Christmas tree lights with the occasional re plastic chili pepper popped over the bulb, looped over a stick inside the top of the house. I plugged it in before releasing the girls into their run and their grub.  And then plugged it in again at dusk, as they were coming in to settle on their roosts.

Wow.  That night 9 eggs!  Now we’re in business!

Now we have eggs to eat and some to sell too, which pays for chicken maintenance.  And if I forget to unplug, it isn’t so bad to run a short string of little lights for too many hours.  Do the girls enjoy the cozy warm glow of festive lights in their coop?  I only know they seem content.

Just don’t leave those lights on all night – chickens, like humans, need their dark time.