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.

Chicken's On The Lamb

I get home tonight and run over to the chickens like it was Christmas morning only to see the waterer looking like a commode. I quickly open the door to the coop and Kapalua the Arcauna decides to make a run for it. They have gotten very use to us coming in the coop. They know when we are there = food and actually don't run off like it is a bomb scare. I also left the gate open to the backyard which opens her world like an Amish boy at a toy store - she decides its movie night and she's off to downtown. Fortunately the nickname "chicken" was accurate. She walked 10 steps out the gate and looked around like she just walked into the Lion's Den and runs back into the backyard as fast as possible. The grass is always greener theory is bunk... and this chicken realized it quickly. She tried everything to get back in the coop with the others... of course the others look at her like she was a convict. "Weirdo!!!! You always were the unstable one". Of course the two Buff's, sat back and mumbled something about "Americans always running off to better places! It took some chasing to get back in because as we got close to her, she decided to try her martial arts skills on us. We managed to get her herded back in where she promptly laid down.

More tomorrow on the waterer... Ebay'ing it.

BINGO WAS HIS NAME-O!!!

Use the Ebay tool to the right and viola' - $18.95 for the Auto Wata Waterer... Wata Deal!

Waterer Extrordinaire - Found!!!

OK.. expensive, but honestly traipsing out to the coop twice a day to make sure they have water is tough. We all live busy lives, mine as a super-model and my kids professional athletes...my wife managing our careers.. who needs to be watering the chickens? I know it builds character but so does sleeping.

Actually I like tending to the chickens it makes me feel like Laura Engels or Opie Taylor (I don't think he had chickens) but he should have. It keeps me humble too.. there is something to cleaning out a coop and watering the chickens... eventually collecting the eggs and then eating, sharing and maybe selling them. Lord knows,

in this economy we could all use some extra scratch! Get it!... scratch and money, looking for money, chickens scratch.... eh.

So, I will buy this Auto-Wata system and hook it up. Funny it is made by the same company who makes the gas cans... Blitz.. OK.. but really, who is the marketing genius who came up with Auto-Wata? I don't get the play on words if there is one. How about Auto-Wat"er"? Or The Infini Water System, Never Foul Waterer? or Never Auto Wata? Just "Auto-Wata?" Exactly! Wata? Wata did you name this? Anyway, it appears it simply hooks to standard hose bib and allows water in on a float system. PetMart has this for $52 UGH! I will find it cheaper, if someone has a link to a cheaper spot let's post it. BTW, this will need to be lifted off the ground a little, chickens are not careful about where they make dirties....

Coop Improvements and Garden

A. painting the coop, red with white trim, building a gardening and staging shelf on the side and adding cedar shakes to the roof. B. Garden is in process... with bush beans, peppers, arugula, carrots and more corn coming up in the foreground. C. New decomposed granite path will be put in to the left with control valves in 4 locations. D. Fence to be prettied up E. Small fence surrounding the garden so the chickens do not lay waste to it.

If you'll remember a neighbor gave this coop to me...and while I love building things, taking time away from landscaping my backyard and finishing up the remodel on the house to build a coop would have propelled me to making the coop liveable for me, therefore electricity, AC, heat, HDTV and the internet. Tough in a 4x8 space and chickens. My wife would have thought it was "cute". Me? No so cute.

I am looking into an automatic waterer and I not talking about the kind you fill-up.. I want something based on a float mechanism.. gets low, it fills...without me being there. I know me... me can be forgetful, me can be A.D.D. "Oh look a squirrel"... and off I run. Just ask my family. Ultimately I am going to need Jetson's like egg collector...something that the egg drops into a hole which triggers a conveyor belt which then delivers them into a soft little blankie in our kitchen...

Avian Virus

OK... I did not get hit with it nor my chickens, but my computer got smoked by some virus which took me off-line for most of the day...

Sorry... back up now and "Clucking"

The New "Le Coop Du Jour" Logo

The unveiling of the new logo... coming to a computer screen soon! Logo'd waterers, Chicken Compostable Diapers, Egg Date Stampers, Chicken Vests (for nice ocassions), Logo's pellets for beddings, faux feathered caps and belts, feathered tassels and ear-rings... Oh when will it stop? OK, now!

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.