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 am so excited to teach our 18 month old daughter about raising poultry! Photo courtesy of www.aholliday.com

The Coop

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.

 

Cities that Grow

The Kamloops Urban Hens have organized an Urban Agriculture Week here in Kamloops. It starts today.  April 27 to April 30th there will be food/agriculture related documentaries being screened at the TRU clocktower starting @ 7pm. Friday, Saturday and Sunday there will be workshops, debates, speakers. My husband is doing a coop building workshop on the Sunday.

See the link "omelettes for everyone" for the official Urban Hens website and the detailed schedule for the week. Hope to see you there!

Public Eggducation

Bonnie and I were at the "Kamloops' Seedy Saturday" community event (a seed exchange and garden seminar) last weekend with the new Chicken Booth which my husband and I made. We were overwhelmed by the interest and enthusiasm for the Urban Hens Movement! Bonnie had printed up a bunch of post cards for people to sign and send in to our City Council - we ran out in less than an hour. We had oodles of people give their names and info so that we could keep them updated with our progress. 

Since the rejection of our pilot project in January, we have decided to switch gears a bit and focus on educating the public about how chickens in the city can work and what it looks like. The major concerns that I hear from people are still about smell and noise. Interestingly, these concerns come from middle aged citizens who at one point lived with, or near chickens. When I ask them "how many chickens?" the answer is always "a lot!". 

Part of the effort to educate our city is to introduce the idea of small scale poultry farming, involving movable chicken coops for 2 - 4  hens (NO ROOSTERS) called chicken tractors - which I have mentioned before. These coops are easy to clean, mobile, small-predator proof, and allow the hens to be "free range" but not on the loose. It is completely unlike the farmhouse flocks of yesteryear. There is a family in town that have 2 chickens in their back yard and their neighbors didn't notice for almost two years! See: clean and quiet. 

Urban Hens will be at the downtown Farmer's Markets on Saturdays (starting April 18th) and at other community events as they pop up. Keep an eye out for our booth and keep checking "Omelette's for Everyone"(see link to Bonnie's new website) to stay up to date with our events and opportunities for activism. 

Ps, the hen related Kamloops newspaper letters and articles now number over 25. I ran out of fridge magnets!