Chickens discover gooseberries

This weekend I harvested gooseberries and learned several things.

1. One variety has thorns, one has less. The thorny bush is scheduled for departure this autumn. I have visions of using layering to propagate a living edible hedge around my community garden that may have holes big enough for ground squirrels and rabbits, but may deter deer!
   This variety seemed to produce slightly smaller berries, many more berries and ripened before variety #2.
2. The other variety is not quite thornless but awfully close, had larger, fewer berries and ripened later than it's thorny cousin. I hope to again use layering to propagate a few more of these and add them to the front yard. It wasn't nearly as painful harvesting this variety.

Gooseberries ripen and then fall off the bush as easily as mulberries do. This means there were a lot on the ground. I scooped up many of them and fed them to the chickens. The girls seemed to love them!

A third egg!

While it may not seem like that big of a deal to find a third egg in the nest box, I'm guessing it WAS a big deal for the chicken that laid it for the first time. This weekend I put up a new toy for the girls that I received from my brother for Christmas (think of a wire sphere the size of a softball, that you stuff greens into for the chickens to peck at). I noticed one of the chickens wasn't milling around me, and looked in the nest box to find our black chicken, Mifflin sitting in there. Later in the afternoon I found a second brown egg. This was her first egg, leaving just Olive to produce one for the first time.

I'm also figuring out how to manage the eggs in our fridge. This is my solution so far.

Mifflin is the third bird to start laying.

Um, really? You laid it there?

Our birds are young, so I give them a bit of leeway when it comes do trying out new things. Take laying eggs. After installing our next box, we added some golf balls to show them where they are supposed to lay similarly shaped items should they have the urge to lay an egg.

Betsy Ross lays greenish eggs

 

So far, two of our birds have laid eggs. We know one of them thanks to the lovely greenish eggs laid by Betsy Ross, the Americana, also known as as an "Easter egger."

We have found an egg in the middle of the chicken coop on the floor. This one, for example, is not in proximity to any golf balls. Ok, oops, and it hasn't happened again.

HOWEVER

Look where I found an egg recently!

We know who laid this egg due to it's color, Prissy is the only brown egger who is currently laying. So, why on the ramp? Our current speculation is that she was laying in the next box when something disturbed here and she scurried out. On her way down the ramp it kinda fell out.

A little evidence to our far-fetched guess as to why this egg was laid on the ramp is that it was broken when I picked it up. The laying process doesn't tend to break eggs, my thought is that she "dropped" the egg on the run and cracked it. 

Prissy, the ramp layer.

When chickens molt

Our chickens are too young to molt - a period of time when they lose their feather and grow in a shiny new coat. When they molt, their bodies put all its work into creating new feathers so the bird stop laying eggs. A friend of mine at work recently stopped by my desk to share something. She buys eggs from a neighbor's daughter. Peg recently received the following explanation of why she won't be getting eggs for a while longer.

Our first egg!

One of our girls finally delivered an egg! And due to it's greenish tint, we know exactly who's responsible. Betsy Ross, the American,  (also known as an "Easter Egger") is our only chicken who does not lay brown eggs. So Betsy wins the prize for laying the first egg in the flock.

Poultry word of the day: Nest egg: savings (well, not in our case, at least not for awhile!)

It's greenish, so it must be Betsy's!

Betsy is the colorful bird on the right.

Coop building weekend #1

Jay, neighbors and co-coop owners Matt and Marissa, and my brother Matt (AKA Matty to eliminate weekend name confusion) and I worked all Saturday and Sunday on our chicken coop. We're very happy with all we got accomplished. It's not done, but my carpenter brother got us to a place where Jay, Matt, Marissa and I can finish the job.

Friday night, Matt, Jay and I went to Home Depot and Farm and Fleet to get supplies. 

Our plan is to put the coop next to our house on Matt and Marissa's side so we all have easy access to the chickens.

The original site. So far, all that has been done to prepare is removing a pile of rocks and moving a few plants. 

My brother arrived Saturday morning and we went to work preparing the foundation. Our sand and gravel delivery was scheduled for 10 a.m., but didn't get there until after lunch. This is me on the phone with the delivery driver. My concerned look is that they were telling me as this photo was being taken that they were late because one of their trucks had broken down, and they were going to bring our gravel in a 4-axel dump truck, which would not fit in the driveway and they would dump five TONS of gravel at the bottom of the driveway. 

Fortunately, the delivery came on a smaller truck and the sand and gravel were dumped very near our work site. As soon as it arrived, we set our concrete blocks and started to build. We dug eight inches out for the foundation and leveled 8" blocks on a bed of sand. We had both the blocks and sand delivered. So worth it!

Meanwhile, Matt and Marissa did a bang-up job painting every stick of wood we had. Pre-painting is SO MUCH EASIER than painting in place. Thanks to the beautiful weather, they were able to apply two coats to everything.

About that color. It's purple! We've decided to call our chicken coop "The Egg Plant." Groan....

My brother, Matt (Matty for the weekend), visiting the chickens he helped build a coop for. Pictured are Prissy on his shoulder, and Mifflin on his arm.

Matt and Matty assembled panels of the coop on our driveway and then carried them to the foundation.

This is what our foundation looks like. 8x8x16" cement blocks laid on a bed of sand, topped with 2x8 treated lumber. It's the only treated lumber in the coop, but being so close to the ground and being the "foundation," we didn't want to mess with untreated lumber. This is the "run," where the chickens will be in a wire mesh box. It is dug out because it will be filled with 3" of gravel, and 3" of sand, which will help drain.

Marissa did much of the chop sawing.

Jay took a moment Sunday afternoon to sit in the structure just after my brother departed.

The structure with the purple posts is the "run," the outdoor area that will be covered by wire mesh. It will be predator proof but let in sun and air for the chickens. You can also see that the run is now filled in, first with three inches of gravel and topped with three inches of sand.

Chick Update, Day 4

Here's a guest post, while Josh is out of town on business. I had fun on Facebook Monday, posting, "I never thought I'd hear myself say, 'my husband just left town to go pick up some chicks!'"

The girls are growing quickly! A couple of them already have feathers on their wings. We have two blond and three darker chicks. I assumed the larger blond was Prissy (Lady Priscilla d'Ova), my Buff Orpington. However, the other evening Matt stated that the Silky has five toes while the Buff only has four. Indeed, the largest of all the chicks in the Silky! Confusing, since it was supposed to be the smallest of them all. I wonder whether they hatch them early so they get a head start.

Marisa and I cleaned out the bin this morning, and I put the paper, poop and food in our compost. We checked for "pasty butt" and they're all ok. So far they're very nervous about being picked up by us. With some hand feeding and repetition, I expect they'll bond with us.

So far, three of Josh's and my Facebook friends have posted this video from YouTube and tagged us, suggesting that this will be us. Indeed, I'd love it if that were the case! This is one of the sweetest things I've seen in a while.

One of the booklets I have states the bin should be cleaned out twice a day. Marisa and I have decided that they will do evenings, and we will do mornings.

The co-parenting project is an interesting one. Coordinating with just one person (Josh) requires little effort. It will take more communication and consensus to do this with another couple. And doing this in community is just what we wanted.

Sorry no pictures this morning—more to come soon!

Guest correspondent over and out.

Dust bath

I can't explain why, but I find watching the chickens take a dust bath highly amusing.

They make a little bowl in the ground, roll around in it, kick it up onto themselves (and sometimes onto their sisters) and generally look like they are having a very good time.

The practical thing is the dust get rid of or prevent mites and other external parasites.

And - it's just so "happy chicken time."

"Where do you find them local chicks?"

As we started doing our research on getting chicks, we were surprised to find that you can mail order them! One of the reasons is because within 72 hours of hatching, chicks do not need to eat or drink. Shipping by priority mail is conveniently within that threshold.

However, after talking with Susan at Cluck the Chicken Store and reading some advice on backyardchicken.com (oh my I could spend a lot of time on that site!) we found both were emphatic about "Do not let your children open the box!" due to occasional shipping mortality. We wondered what our local options were.

Susan recommended we get our first batch at Abendroth's Hatchery in Waterloo, Wis. - just  35 minutes from Madison. They may not have the world's largest selection of chickens, but they certainly have plenty for newbies like us. And we don't have to worry about our first experience with chicks arriving with a few casualties.

At this hatchery, chicks hatch on Sunday nights, and are available on Mondays. When I spoke with someone at the hatchery, he was pretty insistent on picking up on Monday so the birds were fresh and healthy.

So Jay and I and our neighbors did some math with a calendar, and after learning that our chicks would need to be in their brooder for 6 to 8 weeks before moving into the chicken coop, we realize that we could easily order them now to be picked up on April 14 and they would be ready to move into our coop sometime after Memorial Day.

I ordered our five pullet chicks (females) to pick up in a week. Anyone want to guess how much a baby chick costs?

• Pullets are females. You do not need a rooster for a hen to lay eggs, just to lay fertile eggs.
• Straight run is you get what you get (they haven't been separated by gender).
• Cockerels are makes - they'll become rosters.

Chicks ordered - time to prepare the nursery

We did it. We ordered five chicks. If all goes well, we pick them up Monday, April 14.

Following our field trip to Paoli, Matt, Marissa, Jay and I were excited about ordering our chicks. I started reading my new book, Gardening with Chickens by Jessi Bloom; Jay paged through his first aid guide; and Matt and Marissa read through the book they bought at Cluck the Chicken Store. We exchanged a few emails over the week, and settled on getting five chicks. 

Five? The city of Madison only allows four. Even though we're getting them from a local hatchery which will dramatically reduce mortality, just in case one of the chicks doesn't make it, we want to have four the same age in our flock. And as I said to Matt, “Five is okay as long as our neighbor doesn't complain” :-)

We decided that each couple would pick out a pair of birds, and of course I decided to throw in that third. Unlike going to the pet store, we simply called an order into the hatchery. The following images are what they will look like when mature; photos and descriptions are from the hatchery.

Matt and Marissa chose to get an Americana, also known as an Easter Egger, known for their bluish and greenish eggs. 

They also chose a Silkie, a smallish hen that has five toes, lays smallish eggs but are the cutest thing you ever did see.

Jay chose to get a Buff Orpington. It's a largish bird, but is quiet and is supposed to have a friendly disposition.

Actually, what we've learned is that if handled gently and with love, most chickens will become friendly.

I decided on a Silver-Laced Wyandotte. It has beautifully-tipped feathers, lays large brown eggs and will get to about five pounds.

Our fifth chicken, which I'm going to say doesn't belong to anyone in particular, is a Black Australorp, which has glossy black plumage with a greenish purple sheen, and weighs about 5 to 7 pounds.

While we read that indeed, birds of a feather flock together, we also learned that in a flock where no one looks the same, no one in particular gets picked on because everybody is different. We're hoping these birds look sufficiently different from each other that they all end up getting along.

I will write a little more about the hatchery in a future post. For now, were very excited that we made the phone call to order them.

Rubber boots make Madison debut

Rubber boots purchased
in Tena, Ecuador, 8/2005.
My new boots look almost the same.

While I probably had rubber boots when I was a kid, I don't really remember them. I do remember what we called "buckle boots," these large over-the-shoe boots that had these metal buckles that my little fingers always found difficult to open and close. 

In 2005, just before arriving for a month of volunteering on a jungle farm in Ecuador, I purchased a pair of rubber boots. The farmer suggested rubber boots would be a good idea.

I practically lived in those boots. A day didn't go by when I slipped them on to do some gardening, harvest food or simply walk around the farm.

Before I arrived at the farm, I went for a hike to a waterfall.
The rubber boots were fine footwear.

About the only time I didn't wear my rubber boots was when I went into town, and that's because we had to do a lot of walking on a gravel road to get to the bus, and walking on hard surfaces was a little uncomfortable in rubber boots. But walking on the soft jungle floor or in the mud was quite comfy in rubber boots.

While working in a river, we wore our boots even though
the river was deeper than the boots were tall.
Occasionally I "emptied" them. 

Having no need or room for rubber boots at the end of my journey in South America, and left them on the farm, right next to a dozen other pair of rubber boots left by volunteers in the same situation.

Seriously, I lived in those boots for a month.

Fast-forward to 2014, and this whole chicken business has suddenly got me thinking about rubber boots again. One aspect of bio security, and we're not talking about some kind of weird chemical warfare, is to have one set of shoes that stays in the yard and goes nowhere off the property. This prevents tracking disease into our animal environment. Rubber boots are also terribly practical. No laces, pants tuck in so they don't get dirty or wet and easy to rinse off.

And they are kinda sexy.

Planting trees in Ecuador, in my boots!

So off to Farm and Fleet where Jay and I each bought a pair of rubber boots. Fortunately, we are the same foot size, so it doesn't matter who puts on which pair :-)

What's your favorite footwear in the garden?

At left is a photo of Jay with our new boots. Just for perspective, we spent more on those boots than I spent in the entire month I lived volunteering on the jungle farm. I don't recall exactly what I spent on the South American boots there, but $8 comes to mind. These were $20/pair.

Field trip to Cluck the Chicken

On Saturday morning, Jay, Matt, Marissa and I drove south of Madison to Paoli, where we visited the specialty shop Cluck the Chicken Store. We were immediately greeted by the owner, Susan Troller.  I felt immediately at home, and Susan's enthusiasm for our project was contagious.

When she learned that the four of us were doing a next door neighbor chicken co-parenting thing, she got particularly jazzed up about our project. "I think one of the best things to build community in a neighborhood is people sharing chickens like you are," she said to us.

The front half of the store is a wonderful collection of all things chicken – if you can think it, she's got it with a chicken printed on it. Plates, napkins, stuffed animals, candles, silly magnets – you get the picture. She also had some wonderful books, Jay and I bought two, and Matt and Marissa bought one. I imagine there will be a lot of sharing across our driveway :-) I'll write more about the books as I read them.

Jay, Marissa and Matt at Cluck the Chicken Store

The back half of the store is where it gets a bit more practical – large and small bags of feed, watering systems, vet supplies, etc. But one of our big reasons to take this field trip, was to see their chicken coops outside next to the store. Susan was very happy to show us around, and was particularly excited because today was the first day the outdoor  displays were open to visit.

Almost immediately after she started showing us around, she was needed in the store, and her husband (whose name I simply cannot remember, I'm sorry about that) stepped outside to show us his latest coop designs. In the 20 minutes we spent talking with him, I learned a great deal about what to do, and what not to do as we design our chicken coop.

 This coop has it all. Easy access to remove eggs and manure, very safe and predator proof, lots of ventilation and even a cubby for electrical connections so they're protected from the weather and curious chickens.

Finally, Paoli itself is a real treat.  In the span of two blocks, there is a lovely antique store and an art gallery in an old grist mill, which in itself is a spectacular sight. There's a teeny cheese shop and the smallest café with a chef with the biggest heart. You really have to check out the Paoli Bread and Brat Haus.

It's true, I'm turning into a "crazy chicken person." To that I can only reply, "Why haven't I known about how fun chickens are before?"

Two chickens declare - it's spring

When I started chicken sitting four weeks ago, only one chicken was laying, and sporadically at best.  Today, I found a site worthy of a bit of excitement! Not only was I delighted to find two eggs, I've decided with no scientific backing whatsoever that the chickens have decided it's spring and that's why another one has decided to start to lay.

Lumpy egg?

When I was little we raised chickens on our family farm. I remember the large coop that was already on the property when my folks bought the farm. It was leaning a bit to one side and drafty, but it wasn't far from the house so it was easy for my brothers and I to feed and water the birds, and gather eggs. The actual animal health care, diagnosis and treatment of illness was left to my parents. And I suspect that for a sick chicken, the likely cure was euthanasia. It's hard to justify an expensive vet bill for a $5 animal.

But back to the joys of taking on a new project (like raising chickens), I like the challenge of learning all about a new subject. I took three 1-hour classes on chickens at this year's Wisconsin Garden Expo, but none of them prepared me for what I found in the nesting box this weekend.

I found this large, misshapen egg in the nesting box this weekend.

I found a large, misshapen egg. It was lumpy, the shell was thick and thin and looked nothing like what the hen has been laying for the last three weeks. I checked out backyardchickens.com and found one article with photos of a very similar condition, but not much info. The concluding advice in the threaded discussion was "Was probably just a glitch in the hen's system. Nothing to worry about!"

So, I broke the lumpy egg open and it smelled fine. So I cooked it up. What more mysteries to chickens have to offer, and how much more do I get to learn as I care for a new species of animal?

The possibilities are endless.

Co-parenting chickens

Jay and I had lunch with our next door neighbors last weekend. I mentioned our upcoming lunch a few weeks back. I planned to serve an arborio rice and butternut squash soup. Jay said we had to serve something with eggs, so I made two quiches, one with mushrooms and one with spinach. OMG they were good. And I was reminded of exactly why we're doing this chicken thing. Just look at the difference in these eggs!

Our gathering went exactly the way I'd hoped it would. We got to know one another, talked about what we each wanted from having a backyard flock of gallus gallus domesticus and enjoyed a meal made possible in part by the three hens we are currently chicken sitting.

I could sense both Matt and Marisa's excitement building throughout lunch, and by the end, we planned a field trip together to Cluck the Chicken Store in Paoli, Wis. to learn more about having a flock and to get some coop ideas. 

After lunch we went to visit the girls in the back yard. I popped open the door and was delighted to find someone had left us an egg. I gave it to Marisa (even after today's quiche, we've got lots of eggs in the fridge). 

I am pretty darn excited about this upcoming adventure - that has already begun!

Building community one chicken at a time

Jay and I are relatively new on our block. We just achieved one year of moving into our home on Mifflin Street. I'm pleased that within the year we have gotten to know some of our neighbors well enough to borrow a cup of sugar (literally), and others who we wave at as they drive by (and they wave back) or who stop as they are walking their dog for a bit of small talk.

These casual friendships are wonderful, and I would like to deepen our friendships and relationships with a few people on the block. This reminds me of a story my dad once told me. Early on when we were on our farm, he met some people who were even newer to the area than my family. This fellow asked my dad, "How do you get to know your neighbors?" My dad replied, "Your borrow something and return it better than when you got it." They then parted company. The next day, that same fellow came up the hill and asked to borrow a tool from my dad - and that family has been life-long friends since.

I love that story - it says so much about neighborliness, and taking risks to ask for what we need, and taking risks to trust people.

A great example of building community is the growing "Little Free Library" movement. Here is one across the street from our hours that the creator and owner incorporated photos of children and pets from our block.

So with that favorite story in mind and after discussing it with Jay, one afternoon last autumn I crossed the driveway to our next-door neighbor's house, knocked on the door and said "Hi there, have you two ever thought of raising chickens?" No sooner had the word "chickens" left my mouth when Matt called to his wife in the house and said, "Come here, you're going to want to listen to this."

It turns out they were interested in raising chickens, but were concerned that their two dogs wouldn't get along with them. My proposal was to build a coop together on our land (away from their dogs but really close to their house) and co-parent a small flock together. They were in.

This winter we are going to plan our coop, work out the co-parenting details and figure out how to do this together. 

This is exactly the kind of thing I want to do with my neighbors, and it feels very much like building community up around me. It's also good to remind myself that community building happens in small increments, and before we know it, we've got something we can all love and appreciate.

What I learned by Day 2 of chicken sitting

A few thoughts 48 hours after taking my chicken sitting job:

• My light-bulb/brick/water warming system works, but leaks light. I wonder if this will affect these very light sensitive birds?
• 
  
• A 60-watt bulb will keep water from freezing in above 0 degrees F temperatures.
• A 100-watt bulb will do the job down to (at least) -17 F.
• Eggs will freeze in this weather. The coop we design will somehow keep eggs from freezing. THOUGHTS?
• Bending down to work at ground level is for the birds. I want whatever we create to be waist high and easy to access.
• Three chickens in a rather small space seem to be able to keep one another warm at just about any temperature!
• When I go in the yard, the chickens hear or see me and come out into the run to greet me (ok, let's be honest, I was carrying food too!) Getting them back into the coop for the nightly lockup was impossible in the current set up. I want a coop that doesn't require a door to shut them in at night but access that provides predator safety and a wind break.
• When we go away for one or two nights, I want to be able to let the chickens be without a sitter. This means automatic water and food. I'm thinking about the Le Bistro cat feeder we have as a viable food option.

My friend Betsy send me a bunch of suggestions based on the coop she has. If you have suggestion about what you would have done different, please share them! We'd all like to hear.

Mifflin Street chicken parade ends in my back yard

Meet Headband, Capt. Hastings and Goose (I don't know which is which). Here they are in Chris and Geoff's yard awaiting relocation.

These are the three chickens I will be taking care of for the next six weeks while my neighbors across and down the street a few houses are away in their native Australia. Chris and Geoff spent many hours yesterday melting and chipping ice to free the wire chicken run so we could move it into our backyard. Then Sunday afternoon the three of us paraded down the sidewalk and across the street with the coop, run and wagons of food. I wonder what the block thinks now?

Following three educational and amusing hours with Twain Lockhart from Nutrena Feeds, I was both very excited and a little nervous about taking on the responsibility for three lifeforms. Yes, we have cats, but they live indoors, have a cat fountain with a large reservoir and a automatic feeder that delivers cable three times a day. What I'm saying, is I don't really have to think about it more than once a week.

This chicken routine is entirely different. Because of the cage design, it's important to let the chickens out during the day that lock them up in the coop at night. That's not such a big deal except if we want to be away, which at the moment only looks like it may happen once. I have to figure something out to lock them up at night.  So our first experiment with chicken sitting will be an exercise in figuring out if we really want to do this, and how to make it easy :)

I had to clear out some snow for the coop and chicken run.

The snowblower wasn't able to get down along the bumpy grass, so I shoveled out as much as I could.

There is a plastic "igloo" at the far end of the wire run where they chickens sleep and nest to lay eggs. There is a clear plastic cover over the run to keep out snow and rain.

My first experiment in keeping the water from freezing; a square of bricks around a 100-watt lightbulb.

Put a metal bowl over the bulb. If this doesn't work, I'll use Chris' method of watering them twice a day.

The three chickens in their new location. I can see that photographing similarly colored birds isn't very easy when they are near one another.