A Slight Digression...

I am sorry, but last night we got to see something not normally seen. This author lives in the San Francisco Bay Area... and instead of losing brain cells to TV, we opted to go for a drive. What we got to see was unprecedented for us.

First it was raining - It never rains in the summer - ever.

Second we saw a double rainbow...

This picture is looking southeast which would be overlooking Oakland Hills and the picture below this is looking towards San Francisco and the Bay Bridge.

More chicken fun later today... they are all out in the garden at present and I need to get back there and start digging my pond.

Sorry a little over exposed, but here is Hoot and Kapi in the garden. They love hanging out in the corn. Duh!!! I am noticing a very cool by-product of the their free-ranging lifestyle, they are keeping the weeds in control and soil scraped up. Oh yeah and they do their business there too. All in all a pretty symbiotic relationship.

I will get back at blogging tomorrow morning.

Sent from my Windows Mobile® phone.

England And Flight

It is fairly well known the British were not the most innovative, adventerous, poineering air-travellers. Don't get me wrong, they had some minor victories, but for the sake of this blog... they were WAY OFF THE BACK... compared to the United States, France, Germany and even Australia. I think the Hondurans were flying before the English.

This leads me to their chicken breeds - The Orpington

William Cook of Orpington County Kent in England is credited with the development of the 'Orpington' variety of chicken. In 1886 he introduced a fast growing, dual purpose (good for both eggs and meat) chicken that was black in color, had white flesh, and slate (grey) legs. He developed the breed by crossing Langshan, Minorca and Plymouth Rock chickens. Continued development eventually resulted in a Buff color varierty, introduced in 1894. Over time, a number of other color variations have been produced, such as the Spangled, Cuckoo and Blue, but none of these has achieved the popularity of the Buff Orpington. The hens can be good layers, laying some 200 eggs a year, and lay well into the cold weather. 200 eggs!!! I have two of them. This means I am going to 400 eggs a year!?

What is not mentioned here is they are tenative fliers, like to sit, eat, talk about victories in WWII, debate how awful French chickens are. How they smoke, rarely take dirt baths and think all chickens should cluck like them and how Princess Di's untimely death was a national tradegy.

Which makes this news all the more fun - Our Orps (Sunny and Scat)... took flight and made it to the roosting rod last night. It was quite the celebration - all the other chickens golf clapped for them and threw back some tea in honor of it.

Raising Chickens - Trend or Stupidity?

Here is an article I read on Reuters today -

Despite Jack Shafer's recent complaints, newspapers continue to report on the "trend" of people raising chickens in their back yards.

The latest: The Dubuque, Iowa, Telegraph-Herald, which has taken it even further than a trend—according to that newspaper (whose article was picked up by the Chicago Tribune), it's a "movement": "Whether they are owned as pets or food sources, chickens have become the animals du jour, the darlings of the growing 'backyard flock' movement," the paper reports.
Of course, there is nothing to support the idea that such a "movement" actually exists; the article is built on nothing but anecdotes. The only trend here is of newspaper reporters insisting that there is a trend.

It may well be true that more people are raising their own chickens. But these stories offer no real data to indicate that it is so.

The Telegraph Herald attributes the "trend" to "a recession and rising food costs or ... food safety and animal welfare concerns." But as Shafer, Slate's media critic, noted a couple of weeks ago when he recounted several similarly flimsy articles, "keeping chickens is a filthy, time-consuming, and expensive way to keep the pantry filled with eggs."If the recession or safety are the primary motivations for raising chickens, the chicken-raisers aren't very smart. A part-time job at Popeye's would be a far more effective way to offset the effects of the recession than would building and maintaining a backyard coop."

Seriously, this person doesn't know the first thing about raising chickens. It is painfully obvious this person enjoys the confines of a second-rate fast food restaurant, e-coli and endless teasing to raising chickens, working the land, producing food, controling pests and having a constant supply of humor and entertainment.

Week Two: June 8, 2009

They made it through the weekend, without us. Like they wouldn't have... they are in a protected area, have water, food, warmth, other curious birds, sun, each other, hay, stuff to scratch and pick at and bugs! If life could be so simple. Can you imagine if they had more responsibilty? Wait... where did the term "Hen-Pecked" come from? Maybe there is tremendous stress in this coop, maybe I need music, a counselor - maybe there are other bird types they can "serve" them... quail? duck? goose....? If there are "Horse Whisperers" are there Chicken Cluckerers...? This is going to cost me a lot!!!!

Chicken Breeds

Here is a great link to chicken breeds. Makes me second-guess my choices, but this is a learning process.

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/dual.html

Week One: June 1, 2009

WEEK ONE:

This is a blog about the Le Coop du Jour.. or The Chicken Coop this Dad got coerced into installing. While I could tell you I built this... I didn't have to, Thank God. My neighbor had this coop in his backyard for 5 years and after determining a boat would be more fun, they gave this to us. For soon to be chicken parents, this is a 4x8 coop with a roosting platform and the egg box on the right ( you can see it just to the left of the coop ). Before I dive into the details and travails of chickening... a little background is in order. Ahhh forget it, no one wants to read about other peoples lives...at least not any more. This is going to be more about the day-to-day raising of chickens. From all accounts, it is suppose to be fun, rewarding and poopy, but the jury is still out.

So, the coop began with my daughter's class incubating 24 eggs. As the story goes - "Dad, can I bring a chick home" argh.... "OK honey"...... DOH!!!! What have I done?

Well, after moving the coop down the street on a furniture dolly and a Razor scooter, we have chickens.

The Coop is now inhabited by;

1 - Rhode Island Red named Millie

3 - Arcuanas "Easter Egg" layers named Kapalua (hatched and probably 2 weeks older than the others), Loa and Hoot

2 - Buff Orpingtons named Scat and Sunny.

The chicks were purchased at Alamo Hay and Grain in Alamo, California. By the way, what a cool place - kind of a time capsule of a farm store.

The coop has a base of brick, with DE and hay.

In the coop we have a waterer, feeder, 250W heat lamp which goes on at night and shuts off around sunrise.

Pictured above is "Hoot" an Arcuana and very friendly.

More to come... in the meantime, http://www.backyardchickens.com/ is a great site to get any and all information on raising chickens.