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Chickens 
Mon Oct 31, 2011 at 14:43:06 PM PDT
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The Small-Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery is an excellent read, with one caveat. "Small-scale" is intended to mean anywhere from 25 to a few hundred chickens. For me and many other urban chicken keepers, "small scale" means about four chickens. If you have a small farm or larger homestead, you'll find this book to be incredibly useful. If you live in the city and keep a few chickens, you'll find a lot of useful information in this book, but it shouldn't be your initial basic guide to keeping chickens.
What I LOVED about this book is that it goes beyond simply the basics like housing, feed, and chicken behavior. It is about how to use your chickens as an integral part of pest control and soil fertility. Chickens' contribution to a garden, homestead, or farm is far more than just eggs and/or meat. They provide pest control and free high-quality fertilizer as well. As Ussery points out, keeping several species can be to one's advantage, as geese are valuable for weeding and ducks will eat slugs whereas chickens might not.
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Tue Apr 26, 2011 at 18:02:10 PM PDT
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Now that I've had all of my girls for a while, their personalities have started to come out. I thought I'd share a little bit (with pictures). I've also got some recent news about a scary incident when I thought my girls were sick. Thank goodness that, if it was anything, it's gone now. But I did learn a lot about chicken health in that time.
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Thu Apr 14, 2011 at 17:30:26 PM PDT
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I received a letter from the city's Code Compliance Officer today. He requests I get rid of my chickens prior to May 4. I have no plans of doing so.
My impression, up til now, was that the city tolerated chickens so long as your neighbors don't complain. I don't think our neighbors complained because we talk to them and we know they don't mind the chickens. I've even checked with the mailman, to make sure he doesn't mind them. He replied that dogs on his route might bite him but our chickens never will.
I like our neighbors, and I appreciate their tolerance of our chickens, so I won't complain about their dogs. But it strikes me as absurd that their chihuahuas, which bark 24/7, are okay while my quiet chickens are a problem.
Chicken pics below... the babies are getting bigger!
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Sat Apr 02, 2011 at 16:01:26 PM PDT
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Victoria laid an egg!
Story and more pics are below.
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Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 18:35:15 PM PDT
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Welcome to the four newest members of our coop!
I got four unsexed chicks from a local breeder today: Black, blue, and lavender Ameraucanas (one of each color) and a Silver-Laced Wyandotte. They are all nameless thus far, particularly because my roommate is talking more about eating any that turn out to be roosters.
The new girls (well, we hope)
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Tue Feb 15, 2011 at 06:00:00 AM PST
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William crowed. Yesterday. I wasn't around to hear it, but my roommate was. Today, he's going to his new home, a nearby organic nursery. I plan to drop him off with instructions that he be pampered like the little prince that he is. It would be very sad for William to live out his life among people who think he's just some ordinary chicken.
William, with Diana
As I've said before, I thought I was prepared to give up my roosters when I got into raising backyard chickens. I didn't expect that my favorite chicken would turn out to be a boy.
I am guessing that the remaining three chickens are about four months old, and that Diana may be a little younger than that. William's probably about six months old. It's fully possible that my other "girls" are roosters as well, although so far nobody is growing any combs or wattles. Here's a recent picture of William with either Elizabeth or Victoria... there's no real way to tell those two apart.
Diana. If she's a rooster, I'll be really crushed.
Now that we're down to three chickens, that means we can get some more chickens. I'd like to get two more, at least one of which is a Rhode Island Red. It depends on which breeds are available, but also on whether I opt for more eggs or more cuteness and docility. I've asked my roommate's older daughter if we should get hens or chicks, and she's asked for chicks. So chicks it is!
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Sat Feb 05, 2011 at 11:13:12 AM PST
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I've now had my small flock of backyard chickens for 2 full months, and I am no closer to having any clue whether I've got hens or roosters. Or, more accurately, pullets or cockerels, since none of them are mature yet.
A few weeks ago, I could have sworn I heard a cock-a-doodle-doo. I dismissed it, as if it was a normal noise to hear around here, and then I heard it again. And... it hit me. If a rooster is crowing around here, my little flock of "hens" is the only possible source. As much as I wanted to delude myself that maybe it was some other rooster, I don't think that's likely.
The next day, my whole family heard a rooster crow. I warned the kids that we might need to find a new home for the culprit, but resolved that I would not get rid of any of my chickens until I caught them in the act of crowing. This is probably a little crazy, because if you look at a picture of our chickens, well... who do you think is most likely a rooster?
Uh, yeah. Exactly. My favorite chicken - then one we're now calling "Kate." (She'll be "William" if she's a boy.) I don't care if Elizabeth and Victoria wind up in someone's stew pot, but Kate and Diana are my little pets and I'm determined that they will both live long, pampered lives. Even if they turn out to be roosters.
When getting into raising chickens, I told myself I wouldn't be sentimental. I'll be like a real farmer. If we have a problematic chicken, or we end up with a rooster, they're dinner. Maybe not my dinner, since I don't really like chicken, but it would be ridiculous if every person in the whole city who accidentally got a rooster went about looking for happy homes for the roosters to live out long, happy lives. Unless someone's running a cock-fighting operation, what would they do with all of those roosters? You only need so many for breeding. About one rooster per 8 to 10 hens, if I'm not mistaken.
Fortunately, I haven't heard anyone crow for a few weeks now. Kate is still safe, thank goodness. I do have a good home where we can visit her lined up, just in case.
Chicken closeup. Here's "Kate" in a photo taken today. Our pampered ladies spent their morning eating pancakes out of my hands.
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Tue Jan 11, 2011 at 11:57:19 AM PST
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There's a little bit to report about my chickens this week. First off, I think my girls are in the process of establishing their pecking order. Kate, the oldest, has been quite aggressive to the others, although I haven't seen her actually hurt any of them or draw blood. A week or two after she started acting like that, a few of the others caught on and joined her. I think the birds are probably going through a rather normal phase of establishing their pecking order. Kate also went after my poor cat, who was out in the yard prowling around. I can't believe I was worried that the cat would attack the chickens and not the other way around!
Second, it seems that my girls are molting - particularly Kate. She looks like some of her feathers are about to fall off, and I've been finding feathers all over the place in our yard and in the coop. I looked it up and it seems that pullets go through several partial molts before they are mature enough to lay eggs. I don't know how old Kate is but I hope she's close to laying eggs!
Also, I've heard from a friend that he put some golf balls and easter eggs in his hens' nests and all of a sudden they went from not laying to giving him 3 dozen eggs in a week. So I got a wooden egg and stuck it in my girls' nest. If nothing else, it'll teach anyone who tries to taste it that eggs aren't good eatin'. And, when they are ready to lay, it'll show them that they should do so in the nesting box.
And last, I've come up with an idea to solve one of my problems. When I let my chickens out, they eat my crops and poop in places that they shouldn't (and then the dog eats it). Keeping the coop door open for the chickens to go in and out also allows the dog to get into the coop, where he tries to eat the chickens' food and poop and makes a stinky mess of himself (today I'm giving him his second bath this week). But when I keep the chickens in, they don't get to eat grass and bugs!
This week, I used scrap wood leftover from the coop to make a few small trays that I filled with potting soil and planted with grass seed. This way, I'll be able to keep the chickens in their coop and still let them eat grass. I expect I'll still have to let them out some, but this might buy me a bit of time while I try to figure out how to keep the chickens out of the crops. They've already wrecked the pea vines, and I'm not willing to let them take out the strawberries I just planted.
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Sun Jan 02, 2011 at 15:50:44 PM PST
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After my last post, a friend emailed me a picture of her friend's Buff Orpington hen... and she (the hen) looked JUST LIKE my "William." Hmm. Could it be? Since William is perhaps my favorite, it would be great news if "he" was a girl. So I looked at some pictures of Buff Orp hens and roosters on MyPetChicken.com and sure enough... all the hens look just like "William." Or, I should say, just like Kate (as we now call her).
"William"/Kate
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Tue Dec 28, 2010 at 20:58:32 PM PST
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A few weeks ago, a friend told me the San Diego Reader printed a nasty article about backyard chickens that named me by name. Really? This was quite shocking since I haven't been doing much lately to call attention to the issue. And why would they wish to call out a private citizen by name as the face of an issue like this?
UPDATE: Turns out it was a spoof! OK, in that case it's funny!
Tonight I met up with my friend, and he gave me the article, which he had cut out and saved for me:
San Diego Reader article, from Dec 9, p. 11:
Choking the Chicken Ordinance
Following [my city] crazy person Jill Richardson's attempt to get the city council to reconsider its extremely prudent ban on backyard chickens, Mayor [our mayor] has called for the implementation of Operation Clustercluck, a countywide crackdown on illegal backyard egg production. "You know what else is produced in East County backyards?" asked Madrid at a recent press conference. "Methamphetamine." The San Diego Union Tribune, which came out in a December 2009 editorial, applauded the move, noting that "Ew, chickens poop!" However, results have been somewhat limited, possibly due to the fact that, of all San Diego County governments, only Coronado shares in [my city]'s comprehensive ban on the fetid fowls.
There is a photo with the article showing a dozen eggs of various shades of brown and a few green eggs, with the caption: Contraband seized during Operation Clustercluck. Note the presence of infamous "green eggs."
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Sat Dec 25, 2010 at 13:08:18 PM PST
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My chickens have now totally moved into their new digs. I've got details on building the coop below.
William, scoping out our house for chicken food.
A very muddy rooster
Dust bath, guys, NOT mud bath!
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Sun Dec 19, 2010 at 12:36:45 PM PST
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It's been an eventful week for our little chickees. This weekend, a friend helped me build a coop. I had never built anything before so it was an interesting experience, to say the least. It's not done yet, but it's done enough that the chickens can go in it. I'm very proud of myself :)
Also, I took Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sue Lowden's advice and took a chicken to the doctor. He checked her out, prescribed an antibiotic, and charged me $70.
More below, with pictures.
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Sun Dec 12, 2010 at 23:04:37 PM PST
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We've now had our girls(?) for a full week. They are very happy, spoiled chickens, and I just love them. However, I've learned quite a bit about chicken-keeping in the past week that I figured I'd share. Although most of my experiences have just been confirmations of every single thing I've ever heard about chickens.
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Tue Dec 07, 2010 at 16:13:54 PM PST
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We did it. We got our chickens. Four buff orpington "pullets" (i.e. birds that we hope are female but are too young to lay eggs yet). I went to a local farm to get them this Sunday. And no, they aren't legal. The city has known for a year that I want to have a small number of hens for eggs and that I don't want to break the law. They have not changed the law. And I'm not waiting any longer.
Chickens, one of whom has a dirty beak
Time to look for bugs!
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Mon Jul 05, 2010 at 11:58:40 AM PDT
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In Utah, a family is suffering horrible consequences of our society's willingness to irresponsibly drug food-producing animals. Roxarsone, an arsenical, is commonly added to chicken feed. For a family in Utah with a backyard flock, the arsenic went into the chickens - then into the eggs - then into the family's kids.
This is an issue I've been trying to research lately. I've added compost made with chicken manure to my own soil. Is it laced with arsenic? I've got samples of both the compost and chicken manure sold at my local nursery and I'm trying to have them each tested for arsenic. I've found one lab to test them for $31 (the manure) and $51 (the compost), prices I can hardly afford, but they can only test down to 12ppm. Arsenic is not allowed in drinking water over 0.010ppm.
UPDATE: I've been informed in the comments that roxarsone is not used in layer feed, only broiler feed. That means that a) this family screwed up by giving their chickens the wrong feed (which is a risk you take if you put roxarsone in ANY chicken feed) and b) manure from broilers will have arsenic in it, so don't use that in your garden. Of course, whaddya think they sell in garden stores? All of that broiler poop's gotta go somewhere...
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