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eggs 
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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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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Fri Sep 03, 2010 at 14:07:00 PM PDT
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Recall the crazy regulatory scheme for eggs. At the USDA, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), grades shell eggs based on size and appearance; the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) regulates the health of the hens (but not the eggs); and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), regulates the safety of liquid, dried and frozen egg products. The FDA, on the other hand, regulates the safety of shell eggs.
So you've already got USDA inspectors in the egg operation that sold the tainted eggs, only they aren't looking for salmonella.
According to the AP article "Former egg farm workers say complaints ignored by USDA employees working at the site:
The USDA employees worked next to areas where roughly 7.7 million caged hens laid eggs at the two operations, but agency spokesman Caleb Weaver said their main duties are "grading" the eggs and they aren't primarily responsible for looking for health problems.
While they were busy grading the eggs, did they notice or (no pun intended) give a shit about the 8 foot piles of manure and rodents? Nope.
Two former workers at Wright County Egg facilities, Robert and Deanna Arnold, said they reported problems such as leaking manure and dead chickens to USDA employees, but nothing was done.
The USDA "graders" worked in buildings adjacent to where hens laid eggs, focusing on weighing, measuring and inspecting eggs before they were packaged. They are the people who determine if an egg is A or AA, for instance.
"It didn't matter which USDA officer was working, if we reported something they would just turn their heads," Deanna Arnold said. "They didn't care."
Any else in favor of one single food safety agency instead of the regulatory mess we've got?
See also: Deep Harm's diary on this subject.
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Fri Sep 03, 2010 at 10:20:09 AM PDT
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( - promoted by Jill Richardson)
On the heels of FDA revelations of filthy conditions at large production facilities, the Associated Press reports that USDA ignored whistleblowers who called attention to the problems.
Two former workers at Wright County Egg facilities, Robert and Deanna Arnold, said they reported problems such as leaking manure and dead chickens to USDA employees, but nothing was done. (AP)
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Mon Aug 30, 2010 at 22:25:37 PM PDT
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THIS is what I've been waiting for. The dirty details on the egg operations that sold the tainted eggs. Bill Marler got to it first, in case you want to check out what he had to say. I've got excepts below on what - exactly - the feds found when they checked out the egg factories that sold the tainted eggs.
In short, at Wright County Egg, they found holes in the buildings where other animals could get in, wild birds, standing water, rodents (a MAJOR risk factor for salmonella), escaped chickens, live and dead flies, live and dead maggots, and lots of poop (piles of manure 8 feet high!).
There were also some problems in the feed mill, which makes sense if the salmonella came from the feed. Birds were all over the place in there, and there were holes in several food containers. Plus some "avian like feces." No surprise, the FDA tested for salmonella and found plenty of it in there.
The report for the Hillandale, the other farm (the one not owned by DeCoster), was much less exciting. There's still a bit of manure, rodents, open holes in the structures, standing water, and lack of record keeping, but it's clearly not as bad as the DeCoster operation.
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