Chick Flick II

Great little movie with Loa the Arcauna trying to figure out what I am doing. Loa has great markings, I am just unsure on what carry's through to adulthood. If her markings come through she is going to be a beauty. The two Buff's are hilarious. As all the chickens rest on the rod, the Buff's sit on the ramp and look longingly at them.

Flax and Chickens

So we surpassed 1000 today, which is very cool thanks.

Something I wanted to share today is something I picked up from an organic egg producer. This producer sells two types of eggs; 1. Organic eggs and 2. Omega-3 eggs. It is classed as an Omega-3 egg for one reason, they feed the chickens flax seed. Purportedly, when chickens are fed flax seed the conversion process within the chicken is the equivalent of putting a putting a dish in the dishwasher and pulling out a Wedgewood china vase. So, pictured to the left is flax. A super easy plant to grow, propogates like bamboo and produces beautiful flowers that when finished blooming turns into these little tan balls of 6-10 seeds in each. These balls become completely dry and once crushed in the fingers, simply blow away the chaff , collect the seed and add to the chickens food. You see my daughter holding the remnants of two bulbs. We simply add this daily to the chickens food. Viola' the chickens dawn capes and begin flying from one end of the coop to the other shooting Omega-3 eggs out like a machine gun. Their mental acuity becomes so good, they actually place their eggs in their own cartons and sign the package.

So, here is the challenge... plant some flax, feed it to the chickens. WOW not an Olympic moment here, but a challenge nonetheless.

By the way, eat these yourself too. They taste very wheat-like, but - as my daughter thought, watermelony. Which, in retrospect is very accurate. Enjoy!

Nearing 1000 Visits

WOW, this blog has been open for 10 days and it is almost at 1000 visits.

Chicken, Gardens and Agrarianism

While deciding to become and egg harvester and chicken babysitter, I decided to get back into gardening. I have taken a 10 year hiatus while I turned my house into the Winchester Mystery House. I really can't help myself as I love gardening, am enjoying this chicken craze and will soon be hand-augering a well in my backyard so I can irrigate everything. I have a small piece of property it is 100 x 100 and 35% is house another 20% is driveway and lawn. So I am not a land-barron and don't want anyone feeling inhibited by a perception of money... negative tower.... no money here. Which leads me to my next point.

My desire is to get off the grid; solar on the house, eggs in the coop, veggies in the garden and water in the well. In as much as I can tell this is neo-agrarianism. Since we don't live in villages where someone is stomping out wine or kneeding bread or pressing olives or making some shoes. The best we can do is; water, sun, wind, dirt, seeds and chickens, unless you have land and ordinances that let you slaughter - then meat..I don't and wouldn't anyway, unless I had to.

I have read enough to know, our economy will never be the bloated self it was from 2002-2006. That was 4 years of Fantasy Island. I also know from my years studying and applying economics in business, that we are in for lean times. As the government turns on the printing presses, our money will buy less. This begs the need to keep it in your pocket and food being one of our larger monthly expenses, why not provide it for yourself - no matter the size of lot you have.

Above are kaliedescope carrots. These are offered by Cook Gardens. I have bought many seeds from Cook over the past 20 years and they have been the best - by far. They are awesome to eat, beautiful to look at, kids like them and they "sell". Many local gardeners can make money selling to neighbors or at Farmers Markets, but more importantly you can provide for yourself.

So, while I am tending to my chickens, I will be harvesting some veggies too. If your not doing it, give it a try. Neo-Agrarianism is coming to a street near you.

Le Coop du Jour T-Shirts coming soon.

COOP Maintenance

OK... sorry for the late post.... I spent some time at Concord Feed and picked up the following;

CornCob by Green Pet Incorporated. This really neat stuff, super absorbent, natural, edible, biodegradible, compostable and the chickens love it. It is like they are on crack right now - ok bad reference... coffee!!! Yeah... too much caffeine. I spread it out with the pine shavings and some hay for a nice all-in-one bedding.

Very cool stuff. I will keep you posted on the success and the ability... for it to keep the ammonia smell down and the COOP fresh as my socks. Also in the shopping basket was;

Garden and Poultry Dust which is designed to take care of the poultry mites among other pesky pests. I sprinkled this in the bedding.

The chickens are now resting since I spent 10 minutes in the coop cleaning and prepping, they were freaking!!!

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 12, 2009

Hoot on the rod....!

This chicken is a hoot. She is the friendliest bird I have ever seen, my experience being the other five! So, this bird is really something. It is as though the bird wants to come with you every where you go. As I took this picture, I think she wanted to make a call. Cool looking beek and really pretty markings on her head... the rest of her looks like she spent the night in a gutter.

And then there are three on the rod! Hoot encouraged a couple others... Millie (RIR) and Kapalua (Arcauna) to join her. Then Hoot jumped on Kapalua and knocked them both off the rod... A big crash was heard as Kapalua landed on her back on the ramp.
Fun stuff.

Then we have the two foreigners... Scat and Sunny...

These two are unbelievable... always following, always talking. They are still the prettiest, currently and seem to stunted in growth. They still look chick-ish. I am changing their names to Yanna and Ulrika.

More to come...

Chicken Panic?

I am not sure I like this.... This is a new game from Techno Bubble Entertainment in Sweden (yeppo the Swede's again). It is designed for the iPhone. The object is to not let the colored chickens drop to the bottom of the screen or they escape from the coop. Whew! With the little guys eyes popping out, I thought for sure he was cooked.

Here are some screen grabs. The guy looks like a poorly dressed hick drunk coming out of the back entrance to some dive bar. Oh, where chickens happen to be meandering amongst the spent wine barrels. OK, there is some fencing, but I am not buying the whole setting. A stupid hat, skinny arms made for fighting, a shirt that harkens any women to him and tight pants. As you can tell also the syntax in the second picture is perfect English. They might as well write it like a ranson note... " oH NO, mY colOr cHiCKenS eSkapE AgAin." UGH... nice try. The fur-ball chickens are miserable as well.

At least chickens have made it to the iPhone.

Feed Stores, Stables and The Internet

Sorry... but I realized why I like chickens, feedstores and stables.

Time stands still.

No amount of technology is going to change the chicken, their needs, their habitats, their care and the egg.

No amount of technology is going to change the stable, the horse, the experience of riding one.

No amount of technology is going to change the feedstore, the trough, the food, the equipment. And while computers may control the inventory, they do not change the basic essence of the need as to why people are coming there. Whether for bedding, hay, feed, tack etc walking into a feedstore evokes days gone by - maybe safer, maybe calmer, maybe simpler days.

I need to walk away from the computer and weep. (tissue please)

Chickens and Dinosaurs

(pictured are Hoot (Easter Egger), Millie (RIR) and Scat (Buff Orpington) on the ramp)

Good grief, I am not trying to be cruel, but these things are the strangest two legged winged creatures I have ever seen. I was told they go through a "questionable" appearance stage but this is ridiculous. They have bed head, they are disproportionate, their feet are the size of a pterodactyl and their heads look like a mish-mash of hair, feathers and a raisin. Now to pick on one breed.. the Arcauna is really the oddest. The Buff and the Rhode Island's are actually aging gracefully.
Now on to more kind observations - they not only have found the ramp and the second floor.. they are now flying up and sitting on the wood clothes rod. Well not all of them... the Arcauna's and the RIR are there but Buff's are still like foreigners.

"Oh luuk Sven....the others are sitting up dere, shall vee join demm?" "No, jus snap unz picture and send zem baak to Sveeden" - ( Oh my lord I cannot believe I just tried to mimic a Swede forgive me if you are Swedish). Since the Buff's originate in England read it with an English accent. "A look Clare... they've popped up to the rod... shall we join them?" "Oh Imogen you're so impetuous, let's just relax and sip some water..." (ahh that's better)