The First Time 'Round

As we are preparing to raise chickens again, I would like to explain 4 things we did wrong that first year and the consequences thereof:

#1. We built a hefty coop: The "moveable" coop was upwards of 200lbs - my husband and I could barely move it. It was very pretty to look at, though. It did not work for our raised beds and the chickens did not get fresh pasture daily. In the 7th to 8th month their designated area (200'sq) became compacted, void of vegetative growth, and quite rank on rainy days. Here is our old coop at the back of the veggie garden (picture taken 2 years ago in early spring). #2. We started with old birds: The first three hens had health issues already. If I had been more experienced I would have seen this before purchasing. We had to cull two of them. When we added 3 younger hens they eventually became infected (You can read about the health issues in my earlier posts). We were given 2 more lovely looking, older, white and grey hens by a friend. These two were dependable layers, but they were very wild and escaped the coop often to dig up my perennial beds. Henrietta (shown below) was particularly intelligent. She would easily clear the 4' fence, clipped wing and all - which chickens are not supposed to be able to do. Henrietta and her counterpart, Pearl, made me nervous about possible escapes onto the road and they were near impossible to catch for clipping or moving. They were not meant to be urban hens. Henrietta is still alive today in the hills of our friend's farm, and has survived numerous coyote attacks by hopping into tall trees. Pearl did not survive the attacks, sadly.

#3. Dirty water: I got lazy about changing the water - particularly in winter and in my late pregnancy. This, I am sure, elevated disease in the flock and led to the sudden death of two hens. I used a large galvanized steel bucket that I would usually rinse out daily, but it became dusty and full of dirt and layer mash from the hens beaks so quickly. Fresh, clean water is essential, but I just got lazy about it. I have a great remedy for this though which I will cover in my next post. This is Gimpy (below) who was injured when my neighbors dog got a hold of her. She hobbled on one leg for three months until one day, not finding her underneath the coop in her usual spot, I checked the laying box (which she had not been able to get to) and opened it just in time to witness her lay an egg. Immediately after this she regained the use of her leg and soon had the most luxurious new feathers. I was astonished! #4. Lacking Diet: I did not provide supplements like kelp, comfrey, sea salt and grit. This may have led to poor absorption of important nutrients and minerals leading to deficiencies, which leads to poor immunity and disease. All this being said, our chickens were happy and provided us with beautiful eggs with rich yolks to the very end. I used to take them fresh picked weeds and greens from the vegetable garden first thing in the morning and feed it to them by hand. They knew my call and followed me around and helped me in the garden when it came time to clean out the beds in the fall. I can't wait to give it another go! Photos by www.a.holliday.com

New Beginnings!

I have not posted anything for a couple of years and it is high time for some updates. Here is a quick summation of what has happened since my last post: I had my chickens for an entire year. During that year I became pregnant. In my 3rd trimester it became too much for me to look after the chickens, take care of the garden and prepare for my first child who was due in the middle of harvest time. I gave the chickens away in July, 2010. Present Day: 25 chicks are due to arrive on April 3rd 2012. We are building a greenhouse, a brooder and a super light-weight chicken tractor designed specifically for our raised bed gardens. I will follow this post soon with details about what didn't work the first time and what I plan to do different this time. I am so excited to teach our 18 month old daughter about raising poultry! Photo courtesy of www.aholliday.com

The Coop

Poultry Gospel

It has been 6 weeks since we acquired our flock of 5 hens (yes we have 5 now). It's been a crash course in hen husbandry. I have had some sleepless nights and some stressful days, but all in all I am loving it!

Here are some truths I have learned so far:

Lesson #1: Chickens are sloppy, wasteful eaters. I have remedied this by using a feeder that doesn't allow them to fling the feed about, or scratch at it and knock it over. My 5 chickens go through a bag of "Organic Layer Mash" ($22.00) in 5-6 weeks. They eat less mash when I feed them tender weeds chopped up in the morning + whatever table scraps I or my neighbors give them. My contented hens are consistently laying 5 eggs a day! That's about 16 doz eggs per bag of feed... which works out to just under $1.37/doz. For us, that's a savings of about $4 per dozen as we pay about $5.50 for local, free-range, organic eggs.

Lesson#2: Chickens sometimes get creepy crawlies on them (poultry lice and mites - to be specific).

I spent a sleepless night in a state of hypocondria when I spotted them on one of the hens.

After frantic phone calls to the few chicken farmers I know and searching the web, I came to decide that Diatomaceous Earth was my organic answer. However, I was warned to buy only high quality, food grade DE, as the cheap stuff was totally useless. I expedited "100% amorphus silicate, food grade DE" from an organic animal farm in Nova Scotia (Believe me, I tried very hard to find it locally first!) Check out my DE web-link for the best info. *Poultry lice cannot live on humans or on animals that are not poultry...thank goodness!

It is working and the bugs are quickly disappearing!

Lesson#3: Chickens like to announce their successful nest deposits: Ummm....my chickens tend to be noisy layers. So much for my quiet argument. But I have three things working in my favor; 1.) That we live on a busy street. 2.) That my neighbors like me and my chickens. 3.) That my hens don't start laying until 8:30 am.

They are quiet the rest of the day and silent throughout the night.

I might trade my hens with a local chicken breeder near Knouff lake for some calmer breeds such as the Red Sussex Cross, so that I may prove that there really are quiet chickens.

Lesson#4: Where is the mass amounts of poop and stench councilor Pat Wallace was babbling about? With such a small flock there really isn't much manure to clean up and Kamloops is so dry that the poop dehydrates quickly and becomes odourless. I cleaned out the coop yesterday, after 6 weeks, and had just enough droppings to fill an ice-cream bucket.

Lesson#5: Turning down our proposed Pilot Project was the dumbest thing since Cheese Wiz.

With our project, we would have had a large, local support group, husbandry lessons, and a wealth of knowledge to draw from. Instead, I have felt isolated, bullied by the large agri-business suppliers where I have to get our hen supplies, helpless to know what to do, and afraid that any day by-law officers might show up and make me feel like a criminal, fine me $100, and take away my girls. I have had a rough start, but I feel the worst is over. I am now a wealth of organic backyard chicken knowledge with useful information and resources at my fingertips.

If you want to raise back yard hens, I'll hook you up. I've got the answers.

Building Community Against the Odds

My neighbor, Jo, who just turned 8, met our hens yesterday and informed me that he would come the next day to see the eggs (the hens have been laying their eggs between 8 and 9am consistently). Sure enough, Jo appeared this morning, apologizing for being early. There were no eggs at first so he helped me water my garden, check the temperature of my compost (110 degrees), and take apart our coop prototype. He was amazed at how hot the first egg was and I told him he should take it home, break it onto a plate along with a store bought egg and compare the color of yolks, then eat them, of course. Jo is very inquisitive, helpful and caring and I am glad to have him around.

It has been a pleasure to get to know our neighbors since we moved here 2yrs ago. Whenever I am out in the yard gardening, neighbors passing by stop and talk to me and sometimes come into the yard. I give them flowers or produce from my yard and they usually return the favor. I can spend more than an hour each day conversing with neighbors, which means I get less work done. It is a slower, rewarding pace of life. My plants, dishes and laundry...etc., will forgive me if I don't get to them right away. That is how you build community - exchanging kindnesses, food, advice, a smile and a wave, time sacrifice, and "would you like to see my chickens?". The nay-sayers against the Urban Hen movement argue that chickens in the city will threaten our community, pitting neighbor against neighbor. Well, you know what I have to say about that.

Civil Un-coop-eration

We have now entered the realm of urban agriculture. Not only am I growing edibles in all my flower beds and exchanging our front lawn for vegetable production, but we now have 3 feathered ladies in our backyard.

It looks like it will be some time indeed before our council allows Urban Hens, so a lot of us have chosen to just go ahead with it, by-laws be... well, you know. 

Bonnie Klohn came with me to pick up our "Miller Browns" on Saturday morning in a cardboard box (It turned out it's harder to find a cardboard box on a Saturday morning than it is to catch a chicken), while my husband put the finishing touches on the coop at home. We put the rustling box in the coop and gently turned it on it's side. Slowly the hens ventured out and waggled their heads at the new surroundings. Our dog Timmy took to them quite easily - that is until he got his nose pecked.  My husband has dubbed them "The Golden Girls" and their characters are already very evident. We have had 4 eggs in 2 days which is very good considering they just moved in. 

Our neighbors on either side of us approve of our chickens, but I am still a little concerned about strangers walking by and seeing them. But soon the coop will be moved to the side of the house where no one can see them.

I am letting them rummage in my veggie garden for cut worms before I turn over the soil, as I have already lost a few transplants to the horrible little caterpillars.

I will include detailed pictures of our chicken tractor in a few days.

Here are some pictures I took today:  

 A store bought "free range" egg (left) and our 4th egg, laid just this morning (right).

The Golden Girls have been eating my fall rye grass, dandelions, kitchen scraps, a little store bought feed, organic spelt(whole grain), bugs and grubs.

This one is my favorite, she is gentle and very pretty.

The Golden Girls feasting on my kitchen scraps.

Our Urban Hen Booth

 My husband and I built this booth for Kamloops Urban Hens to take to public functions/farmer's markets. We have had so many people come up to the booth and say why they think Urban Hens is a great idea and want to know why the city won't let us have them. They are also eager to sign a petition, although we don't have one going at the moment. 

We are collecting stories of citizens who are either neighbors of backyard chickens, have backyard chickens, or had a small backyard flock at some time. We hope to make a video about Kamloops Urban Hens featuring interviews with people who have stories to share. If you have a story, please share it with us.

The above picture was taken at the May 2 Kamloops Farmer's Market and it features the lovely Bonnie Klohn.