yearofplenty

How to Get Started Raising Chickens In Your Backyard - Choosing Your Chickens

This is the third post in a series on getting started with a small flock of chickens in your back yard. Scroll down to see the previous two posts.

I'm no expert on chicken breeds but I can share some of the things I've learned when it comes to choosing breeds of chickens. We've really enjoyed having a variety of chickens, as opposed to picking just one breed. A couple of web sites were key for learning about the different breeds:

McMurray's is a hatchery that will mail you your chickens, but they also have a lot of great information on the different breeds. Go here for their selection of standard breed chickens. Backyard Chickens also has a good chart of different breeds.

We've had great luck with one Buff Orpington, two Silver Laced Wyandottes, a Golden Laced Wyandotte and an Ameracauna that lays green eggs. Our girls picked them out so our selection process wasn't too scientific.

For some more experienced information I contacted Gary Angel from Rocky Ridge Ranch. Gary raises chickens both for eggs and meat. He and his wife supply eggs to the Rocket Market, and meat birds to Sante' restaurant along with doing a CSA and selling at Farmers' Markets.

Gary's favorite bird for the home garden is the Buff Orpington. It's a large bird, that is hardy, will continue laying through the winter, and is gentle with a good disposition for kids. I would agree based on our experience. My one caveat would be that the large comb of the Orpington can have issues with frostbite unless you heat the coop or insulate and fully enclose it. Our Buff got nipped a little by the severe cold weather last fall. We made some adjustments to the coop and no problems now.

Gary's next recommendation is the Australorp because it's a big hearty bird that matures faster than other birds and has larger eggs than most. 

The other breeds he spoke highly of is the Barred Rock and the New Hampshire Red.

The Wyandottes that we have are generally smaller birds and smaller eggs but they are beautiful and have a good disposition, although more flighty than the Buff.

Other tidbits of wisdom from Gary;

- Don't get the sexlinks. You have to be careful because when you order the australorp or buff, sometimes the hatcheries will send black or golden sexlinks. He didn't elaborate on what's so wrong with the sexlinks.

- Road Island reds are "hornery" and will peck and bully other breeds of birds.

- Make sure the birds are sexed, otherwise you're likely to get half roosters and half hens.

- There is a big problem with Merrick's disease and he advises requesting the birds get vaccinated when they are one day old. This may be less a problem with backyard farmers.

- If you want to raise a turkey, put the little turkey in with the chicks and it will actually be good for the turkey. The chicks are smarter than the turkey and will help the turkey navigate the early days. You can separate them later.

- Most of these breeds have been bred for eggs and make scrawny meat birds even if they say they are good for meat.

- The cornish variety are literally the only kinds of real meat birds available to people in the US. They have the large breast and legs that we're used to. Gary says they are "brain dead" birds who are bred to be raised in large meat bird operations. They won't do much free ranging even if given the opportunity. He laments that unlike other countries, we don't have other varieties of meat birds available.

Good luck with picking out your birds.

Chickens are currently available at Aslin Finch, Big R, and probably Northwest Seed and Pet. Call ahead for the schedule of when the chicks come in. They go quickly.

How to Get Started Raising Chickens In Your Backyard - Building a Chicken Coop

Following up on my post yesterday on getting started with chickens, after you've decided to take the plunge, and in our case after you take the plunge, you need to sort out the housing for your chickens. Before you get too far make sure to check with your local zoning ordinances and neighborhood association rules. Some nearby neighbors recently built their coop only to get turned in to their neighborhood association by someone who wasn't keen on the idea. Based on Spokane County's zoning ordinances they aren't allowed to have chickens, and had to give their newly minted coop to a friend. (Boo, Hiss Spokane County. How is it that the more rural less regulated parts of Spokane don't allow chickens in residential areas while Spokane, Millwood and Spokane Valley all have specific ordinances allowing chickens. I'm working on how to help the County update their ordinances. Anyone want to help with that?)

When I went about the task of designing our coop I found some great resources like www.backyardchickens.com that had an abundance of different ideas about how to put a coop together. The problem for me is that I don't have a lot of experience with construction and I couldn't find step by step instructions for a design that met our needs. I checked out several books from the library that had chicken coop designs, but again, none of them quite fit the bill. For awhile we scanned Craigslist for used chicken coops, but thought better of it because of concerns about transferring disease to the new chicks.

In the end we decided to create our own design and despite a lack of construction experience managed to put it together and a year later it's still standing. A key was partnering with our neighbor who had some construction experience. (We share the coop with them which has been lots of fun.) I have to say it's very gratifying to see that people are finding their way to this blog by searching Google images for chicken coops, which is exactly what I was doing a year ago in trying to sort out a design. The key rule of thumb is that you want 4 sq feet per bird in the enclosed coop part and 10 sq feet per bird for the "run." I highly recommend a dirt/sand floor to the run, with a roof of some kind over the run. The only time odor is a problem is when you get damp, wet chicken poop. Our covered run keeps the floor dry and the poop pretty much turns to dust and is filtered into the dirt.

Based on our experience, the chickens like to free range beyond the run and you're birds will be much happier if you create a way for them to roam beyond their allotted 10 sq feet. Somehow we've managed to train our birds to stay in our yard and when we're home, most of the time, we open the door to the run and allow them to roam the yard, bathe in the sun, eat worms, take dust baths and in general wander as they please. There were only a couple of times where they wandered across the street or ended up over the fence in the neighbor's yard. You'll want to invest in a pair of "muck" boots of some kind that you can slip on and off when you venture to the coop.

Go here for the whole scoop on how we designed and built our coop. 

If you're in the Spokane area you might want to consider attending the the Basic Chicken Keeping 2010 seminar on April 19 from 6-9 pm. Cost is $25/family. Contact Pat Munts at 477-2173 pmunts (at) spokanecounty (dot) org if you're interested.

Tomorrow I'll post about choosing breeds of chickens and other things to consider.

How Federal Food Subsidies Turn the Food Pyramid Upside Down

The chart above is careening around the internet today. I think it originated here where they describe the Farm Bill in the following terms;

The bill provides billions of dollars in subsidies, much of which goes to huge agribusinesses producing feed crops, such as corn and soy, which are then fed to animals. By funding these crops, the government supports the production of meat and dairy products—the same products that contribute to our growing rates of obesity and chronic disease. Fruit and vegetable farmers, on the other hand, receive less than 1 percent of government subsidies.

As the chart highlights, no wonder a big mac is cheaper than a salad and no wonder the rate of obesity is skyrocketing.

Things You See While Walking - Ducks

I walked the girls to school today and walked to work from there. Beautiful morning and it reminded me why I love walking so much as opposed to driving. During our year with one car, we discovered the joy of walking to school and work. It makes available the world of beauty that is all around but mostly missed in the hurry of noise of car travel. I started this series awhile back, "Things You See While Walking" and I'll add this beautiful Spokane River duck from this morning's walk to the list.

How to Get Started Raising Chickens in Your Backyard - Rule 1 Spousal Diplomacy

(picture - our makeshift laundry room coop)

Michelle, who is enjoying the process of learning to garden, made the following comment;

I'd love a post on adding chickens into the mix. We have cats. I'm not going to get rid of them. Is there a way to have chickens & cats coexist? Was your wife on board with the chickens? What are the benefits? Thanks~ :)

I'll write a series of posts in response and start with your question, "Was your wife on board with the chickens?"

I remember two years ago when I was really getting into gardening my wife caught me looking at backyard chicken books at the book store. She gasped and said, "Oh no! We are not getting chickens. I'm just getting used the compost pile." If I recall she sent email updates to our friends suggesting that I was going off the deep end, and this was just for looking at the books.

It took a while but she warmed up to the idea enough to accept the possibility that we might get some chicks last Spring. The only problem was that while I had been researching and designing our chicken coop, I wasn't even close to building it. So without knowing exactly what to do with them when we got them home, the girls and I took the leap and got the chicks. We managed to put together a makeshift cardboard coop in the laundry room upstairs. The garage was too cold. So for a month we washed our clothes, ironed our shirts and cleaned up the chicken poop, all in one convenient location.

The chickens grew quickly and started hopping out of the box. We'd find them roaming the laundry room floor. Occasionally one would go missing and we'd have to search around, finding them in some crevice or corner. The coop came together slowly and the smell of the laundry room coop grew funky. Honestly our house smelled like a barnyard and to make matters worse, both sets of parents were coming into town within a week of each other. Nancy put down her foot and said the chickens had to be out of the house before her parents got here. Once again, necessity was the mother of invention and in an act of desperation I transformed our compost box into a temporary outdoor coop.

Having navigated these early spousal challenges I think we're both united in our joy of having chickens. We had guests over the other night and the chickens came to greet our guests at the back door, peering in the window to see what was going on. Nancy and I thought it was really cute, but it was apparent that for several of our guests it was like being greeted by skunks or rats. Oh well, what can we say, we're chicken people now. Some people adore cats, others adore dogs, and some of us adore chickens. And we can say with pride that our pets make us breakfast.

Food On the Table Conference in Moscow, ID | March 26-27, 2010

This conference looks great. It's sponsored by Rural Roots, a Moscow, ID based organization that promotes sustainable food and farming. Here's the scoop.

Join local growers, educators, sustainable food advocates, and community members as we collectively address our regional food system priorities in this unique "working" conference.

Friday Community Dinner at the 1912 Center (5:30 pm - 9 pm) | "Shepherding Change:  How Localizing Food can Transform the Landscape and our Communities"

Saturday Conference Sessions at the UI Idaho Commons (8 am - 5:30 pm)

Farm to Institution:  Integrating local food into restaurants, schools, hospitals and universities

Processing on the Palouse:  Bringing local meat and value-added products to market

Farming as a Business and Lifestyle:  Starting your farm and selling to your community

Backyard Bounty:  Increasing community self-sufficiency

View Conference Flyer

Friday dinner $20 | Saturday conference $20 (lunch not incl.) | Saturday lunch $15

Registration deadline is March 18 (Space is limited so register early!)

Live Blogging My Fridge's Dairy Products Via New Web Site: Where's My Milk From?

Found this great new site (via GOOD) that allows you to type in the number on your milk jug and determine where the product came from.

I typed in the numbers on our gallon of milk from the fridge and sure enough - it's from Spokane. It even shows what other products are made at the Darigold plant in Spokane. I sure wish we had this available two year's ago when it took the skills of an investigative reporter to source our milk.

This doesn't guarantee that the milk is from a nearby cow. Milk flows like a commodity and Darigold is a huge company. If you want a guarantee go with Spokane's Family Farm.

Now let me try it with Albertson's butter...Darnit! It's from Tulare, CA. 

OK, this is getting interesting. What other dairy products do I have in the house?

Challenge Butter. Let's try this one. Foiled again! Greenwood Wisconsin. We have really fallen off the local wagon. Let's pause for a sentimental moment to remember that year where we made our own butter from local cow milk.

OK, what's next? Albertsons light yogurt, and the snazzy new web app saaaays - Fullerton, CA, right next to Disneyland. The carbon footprint of my fridge is really feeling self conscious at this point.

In case you're wondering, it's true, I am actually live blogging all of the dairy in my refrigerator. I know it's riveting stuff, so let's move on to the Darigold Sour Cream and Cottage Cheese. - Seattle. That's better.

Western Family Half & Half, - Portland Oregon. I can live with that.

Mountain High Yogurt - Engelwood, CO. They don't call it Mountain High for nothing.

Doesn't appear to work with ice cream, cheese or other dairy products.

It's a fair question at this point to ask if maybe I don't have better things to do on a Monday night; like say finishing a dissertation or writing a book. I hear that and I promise, I'm about to get productive, but let me conclude by highly recommending this "Where's My Milk From?" site for those looking for ways to avoid doing things like finishing a dissertation or writing a book.

Wendell Berry: A Cows Contentment Flavors the Steak

Berry's comments from the Art of the Commonplace, are helpful in describing the benefits of growing your own vegetables and knowing the origins of the meat we eat.

The pleasure of eating should be an extensive pleasure, not that of the mere gourmet. People who know the garden in which their vegetables have grown and known that the garden is healthy will remember the beauty of the growing plants, perhaps in the dewy first light of morning when gardens are at their best. Such a memory involves itself with the food and is one of the pleasures of eating. The knowledge of good health of the garden relieves and frees and comforts the eater.

The same goes for eating meat. The thought of the good pasture and of the calf contentedly grazing flavors the steak. Some, I know, will think this bloodthirsty or worse to eat a fellow creature you have known all its life. On the contrary, I think it means that you eat with understanding and with gratitude. A significant part of the pleasure of eating is in one's accurate consciousness of the lives and the world from which food comes.

I hear people getting into debates about whether organic vegetables are, from the perspective of chemistry, more nutritious. Others debate the financial advantage of growing your own vegetables. Some take a pragmatic view of the politics and say things like, "the corporate agriculture industry would like nothing better than to see us spend all of our free time in our gardens and not in political dissent." And of course we love to debate the mathematics of carbon footprints.

While these perspectives are all important and need to be debated and discussed, none are quite as compelling to me as the one Berry makes in the quote above. Instead of breaking things down to their component parts, which is what our scientific approaches do, Berry is putting the food we eat in context, using words like beauty, memory and contentment. He says that simply knowing the source and conditions of the land and animals that provide our food makes the food taste better (and I would add, in many cases worse.) I can't prove it with a scientific study but I know it to be true from my experience.

Why You Shouldn't Rototill Your Garden

When I started gardening I always got stuck at the beginning of every gardening season waiting for my friend to get out his rototiller and let me borrow it. In my mind, you couldn't and shouldn't start planting stuff until the soil had a good mechanical thrashing.

I resolved this partially by adopting a no-till method of gardening with permanent semi-raised beds (no wood sides) with permanent pathways. The theory is that you never step on the garden beds and stay on the path. The path get's packed down and the soil beds don't. I learned this from the Vegetable Gardener's Bible where he also explains that regular rototilling of the soil creates a hard pan under the six inches of tilled soil from all the mechanical vibrations. Over time this hard pan get's harder and harder and the roots of your veggies can't penetrate it, no matter how smooth and soft the upper layer is.

I still had the problem of having to essentially dig up the soil in the beds every year with a shovel to prep them for the new planting, and mix in compost. Despite our best efforts we do walk on the beds a bit and gravity and water also pack the soil down over time.

Last year Bob & Bonnie Gregson, veteran organic gardeners, Spokane Valley residents and authors of the book, Rebirth of the Small Family Farm, helped complete my education on the art of no-till gardening. They recommend the technique of using a pitchfork.

Here's how it works; To prepare your garden beds for a new season you cover your them with compost, and then you poke the soil with the pitchfork with a straight up and down motion. The new compost falls into the holes, helping the compost get into the soil, it aerates the soil which is important, and it does all of this without destroying the delicate eco-system of worms and worm holes in the soil. The worms have been working all winter and it's a shame to ruin all their hard work.

The one time a rototiller is probably necessary is the first year you are breaking up hard pack soil and establishing your garden beds. After that the pitchfork should do the trick.

Another garden tip for this time of year is to pull the weeds now before they get big and nasty, especially the little tufts of grass that love to settle into the bare garden soil.

Michael Pollan Caught Eating a Big Mac at McDonalds

This undercover video is a real surprise.

Kind of like getting Rick Rolled but different.