Salmon Cabin

primum ovum!

What a beautiful and surprising moment I had in the chicken coop this evening! As I've mentioned before, over the past few weeks I've had the sense that a couple of the pullets were getting ready to start laying. Especially "Monday" and "Tuesday" who are now 25 and 24 weeks old respectively and have recently started to seem more hen-like (I just stopped myself from writing "womanly"). Pullets can start laying any time after 21 weeks but with some breeds it can be much longer. So even though I've been eagerly awaiting our first egg, I haven't really gotten into the habit of checking for them yet.

I was out of town for a few days this week, so this morning when I returned I spent a little more time than usual checking on things in the coop. Without really thinking much about it I took a peak into the nesting boxes. To my surprise, I found the straw displaced in a nest-like way and could definitely tell that someone had been sitting in them. A first! I knew this was a sign that someone was getting laying urges but I still assumed it would be awhile before I'd see an actual egg.

Then this evening right before I started dinner I went out to make sure the chickens still had plenty of clean water. As I was leaving the coop I had the impulse to check the nesting boxes again, mostly to see if there had been any more signs of activity. And wow...there was a small but beautiful egg sitting there!

It's funny, but even after all the anticipation and effort that's gone into achieving precisely this result, it was still somehow a bit of a shock. For a brief moment, I honestly had the sensation of, "Wait, what's that doing there?" and the feeling that it was almost some kind of trick. I think part of that reaction is just my inner city-girl, but another part is my profound amazement and appreciation of the many miracles of nature. So beautiful!

Of course we fried it up immediately as a little pre-dinner snack. It was everything I imagined it would be--a vibrant orange yolk and full of flavor. Silly as it might be, I'm still feeling a little incredulous that our chickens are actually going to keep making these for us almost every day. It's hard for me to just take that for granted. Simple pleasures give me great delight!

chicken with basil

I'm posting this (deliberately misleading-ly titled!) photo solely because I haven't been giving the pullets much press as of late. There just hasn't been much to say since I've worked out the details of their diet (here and here) and they are not laying yet (though I suspect Tuesday, the Plymouth Rock is getting very close.)

This past weekend I made my first big batch of pesto from the garden (for the recipe, see my pesto post from last summer) and gave all the basil stalks (with the small leaves I couldn't bother to pull) to the girls. I was fantasizing about how wonderful their eggs would taste if I could get them eating basil all the time. Unfortunately it wasn't a big hit. They pecked at it a bit and did eat some, but not the way they do other greens. Maybe I need to add some Italian chicken breeds (like the Ancona) to the flock!

the purslane patch

Last February my friend Carla wrote a post on her blog Local Forage about the amazing nutritional benefits of purslane. I love to forage for wild edibles like this but I also like growing new things in the garden. So last spring I ordered purslane seeds online (I found them at Sand Mountain Herbs and Territorial Seed) and planted them in my lettuce beds. I ended up with a vigorous crop for most of the summer and was happy to share a big bag of it with Carla (which we ended up eating as an impromptu picnic salad during a show at the Greek Theater in Berkeley.)

Since then I've learned why this plant grows wild; it's really a very hardy weed. This year I didn't sow a single seed and it's now growing vigorously all over my yard. At this point I have so much I haven't quite known what to do with it all. Even though purslane is a tasty (and very nutritious) plant, there's only so much I can eat or share with friends. But today (in an incredibly delayed thought process) it finally dawned on me that I should feed it to the chickens. Doh!

A couple months ago I wrote about starting my "poultry garden" with several plants that would be beneficial for the chickens. I followed this up a few weeks later by also planting rue. I'm not sure why the purslane never crossed my mind. It will be a healthy treat for the pullets now but once they start laying it should be even more beneficial. It's not only the richest source of Omega-3 fatty acids of any green, leafy vegetable but it's also high in magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium, and iron. That's got to result in better tasting eggs! 

I tossed an armfull in the run this morning and the girls devoured it. They've been decimating my chard so this is good news all the way around. Hooray! Apparently purslane was Gandhi's favorite food, and now that it's performing so many useful functions in my garden I'm really starting to understand why.

hens in the henhouse

A few weeks ago I finally got the my chicken run and chicken coop ready so the pullets could move outside full-time. But then the weather turned unexpectedly cold and rainy--definitely not an ideal time to transition them from their cozy brooder. (Unless of course you are a normal farmer, not an over-sensitive, over-protective chicken momma!) Being the latter, I've been waiting patiently for the weather to warm up.

Yesterday we had a very warm day (77F) so I decided to let the girls brave their first night outside. Of course I had a host of neurotic worries--would they be too cold? (Nights have still been in the low 40s) Would the full moon bring out particularly aggressive/crafty behavior in nearby predators? (coyotes etc.) But I assured myself that the run was secure and that the pullets could always huddle together for warmth.

Needless to say, they were fine. More than fine actually, they seem to really be enjoying their new home. It's so great to see all their innate behaviors coming out. I could stand out there and watch them for hours--pecking, chasing each other, taking dirt baths. They are hilarious. I need to take some video soon.

(Note: I had the coop (not the run) made by Wes at Be Creative Wood Works. I think he did a great job for a reasonable price.)

new girls in the flock

It's been a busy few days around here. Yesterday we brought home the final two members of our flock--a Buff Orpington (now named "Thursday") and an Ameraucana (our girl "Friday"). The baby chicks are always very cute but the Ameraucana's markings really make me laugh. She has a wide brown stripe all the way down the center of her head and back, flanked on each side by a thin black stripe and then a thin white stripe. The overall effect, especially when seen from above, is that she looks very much like a chipmunk! I'm not sure I can think of anything much cuter than a chick crossed with a chipmunk.

chicken run

This past weekend was full of more beautiful sunny days--perfect for an outside construction project with the boys. So on Sunday we started the day with a trip to the hardware store and plans to make a portable chicken run.

As soon as the pullets (the technical term for a hen less than a year old) are old enough to move outdoors they'll have a proper coop and a run, and then free-range when I'm working in the garden. But for now (when they're young and just having daytime visits to the outdoors) we need to protect them from hawks and other predators. And later when they can free-range more safely I'll still occasionally want some way to contain them to certain parts of the yard (so they don't eat new seedlings etc.)

I had a vision of what I wanted the portable run to look like and was lucky enough to find a detailed how-to for building just what I had in mind on Mother Earth News. Even though it would have been fun to design on my own it was incredibly helpful to have the quantities and dimensions all worked out in advance. (Thank you Troy Griepentrog!) There were so many times during the building process when I imagined the trouble I would undoubtedly have gotten myself into without Troy's plan (like not basing the framing dimensions on a standard width of chicken wire.) The only real change I made to the original plan was substituting 2 x 2s for the 2 x 4s that were called for. Even though this compromised the structural integrity of the run, I really needed it to be light enough (it barely is even now) for me to lift and move around on my own.

The best part of having the step-by-step guide though was that it allowed me to relax and be able to focus on guiding the kids to do as much as they could. Having them involved was a lot of fun and a great learning opportunity on so many levels--visualization, design, use of materials, measuring, adding, spatial thinking, physics etc. Except for the sawing and drilling (which I did) they were really able to help with quite a lot of the building. Because they were so involved it really held their attention from start to finish. And when we were done they clearly felt a huge sense of accomplishment. An extra bonus to the whole project.

I'm very happy with how it turned out and its already getting a lot of use--not just by the chicks but also by the boys who like to play in it too!

where chicken meets garden

I really love the intersection and overlap between my various interests--like the connection between gardening and cooking or cooking and parenting or...(the list goes on.) But now with the introduction of chickens into my life, I've realized there's yet another hybrid zone of interest I can cultivate--the cross between gardening and chickens. Last week I started thinking, "I wonder what plants I should specifically grow that the chickens would like to eat."

Thanks to the joy of the Internet, a quick search resulted in a great article in Acres USA magazine about plants for poultry (download PDF version here). I learned a lot of interesting facts--like nasturtium (which I've grown for the edible flowers) also being an antiseptic, vermifuge (de-wormer) and insect repellent. But the most interesting discovery was about stinging nettles.

I've always been intrigued by nettles because there are so many delicious pasta recipes calling for them yet they are not exactly commmonplace in the produce section. And now to discover that they are excellent feed for poultry--not only because they are a preventative against worms, because moreso because they stimulate and increase egg production--wow. That's all I needed to read before I was immediately tracking down someplace to buy the seed.

Most of the organic seed companies I usually order from have a pretty diverse and wide-ranging selection but stinging nettle still isn't on the radar for most of them. I ended up tracking it down at Sand Mountain Herbs in Alabama. Yesterday when my order arrived I was delighted to find the seeds in plain brown envelopes with handwritten growing instructions from the owner, Larry Chandler. It was so refreshing to see the absence of "branding" and the evidence of someone actually having taken the time (and care) to personally write information out longhand. It really made my day.

Now I can't wait to plant all these new items for my "poultry garden." And of course I'm also thinking about all the future meals and recipes (for humans!) revolving around nettles. Though I realize the one area where it would be best if my interests didn't overlap is between the stinging nettles and my children. Ouch!

new chick on the block

At the risk of seeming like I've turned this blog into an "all chicken, all the time" format, I have to update on the latest (much happier) developments with our Gallus gallus domesticus. Yesterday we brought home the third chick for our flock, a little black Australorp. In keeping with the convention they established, the boys named her Wednesday. She is very cute and seems to be doing well healthwise. It's fun to watch her establishing her place with the two bigger chicks.

Tuesday is getting her white adult feathers now which makes her look like she is sporting angel wings.

Meanwhile Monday is going through an "awkward" (that's the kind word, the more apt description might better be "ugly") phase as her feathers are coming in in funny clumps and patches. But since today was unseasonably warm (80F!) I brought her outside for her very first stroll in the garden. She had a great time pecking around. (The same could not be said for Tuesday and Wednesday who were left inside peeping incessantly at alarming decibels for the return of their friend.) I can't wait until they will all be able to be my little free-range garden companions.

new tuesday

After yesterday's sad turn of events with the baby chicks, I started to really question my chicken-raising dreams. I tend to get swept up by the romance and beauty of ideas--in this case, the notion of enjoying these wonderful creatures who would also provide us with fresh eggs right in our backyard. While I also see the realism behind the romance (all the work involved etc.), I don't tend to focus on or prepare myself for the really dark possibilities--like baby chicks dying right in your hands.

Since I've been dealing with a lot of loss in my personal life, I started to think that maybe this wasn't such a good time to be inviting the potential for even more grieving. But as strong (and in many ways, reasonable) as this self-protective urge was, my larger belief system was ultimately stronger. Given the opportunity, I always have to say "yes" to the adventure of life. Even though being open and vulnerable to all of what life brings can at times be brutally painful, I wouldn't want to trade it for being closed down and shut off.

With that in mind, I forced myself to get back on up to the farm supply store and get a new chick. Unfortunately they had sold out of the Barred Rocks and wouldn't be getting any more this season. So my dream of having one in my flock (at least for now) died with "Tuesday." But they did have White Rocks, the next best thing.

When I brought her home, the boys wanted to name her Tuesday in honor of the hen we lost. So now we have a "new Tuesday." She is the quintessential little yellow "Easter" chick. While we all still feel very sad about the death of the original Tuesday, we are happy to have this new sweet addition to our family and to being open to everything yet to come.

feathered friends

I've wanted to raise chickens for a very long time. I've written about this before but since then I've been steadily researching and studying (breeds, coop designs, general care etc.) Besides my own personal interest in chickens, I've also been strongly motivated to have them for my kids. Not just as the usual "4-H" type learning experience but also because one of my sons has a really intense fear of birds. When he was two years old he was strapped in his stroller at the local county fair when a rooster went berserk right in his face. It traumatized him so profoundly that four years later he still is irrationally terrified by any winged creature. My hope was that by introducing him to tiny little chicks (which I knew he would love) and forming an attachment that way, then as the chicks grew he would also outgrow the fear. (Wouldn't it be nice if there were soft and cuddly versions of all the things that torment us, that we could love and grow through? Or maybe that's just what all of life is...)

So this Thursday I turned yet another dream into a reality. The boys and I drove up to a local feed store and brought home the first two chicks for our flock---a Rhode Island Red and a Barred Plymouth Rock. After we set up our brooder I told the boys they could decide what to name them. They surprised me with an interesting idea--they wanted to name one Monday and the other Tuesday (and continue on with the names of the week as we got more.) How could I disagree with such a cute idea?

The last two days were a non-stop a celebration of the chicks. Both boys were enchanted by them they actually asked if they could sleep with the chicks! I, on the other hand, was not sleeping at all because I was up all night checking on them, cleaning their water, adjusting and re-adjusting the heat lamp to make sure they weren't too hot or too cold. It was just like having infants all over again.

Then yesterday afternoon I noticed that Tuesday (the Barred Rock) was droopy, panting and didn't appear to be eating or drinking. My chicken mentor, Amy, came over and suggested dipping Tuesday's beak in the water to make sure she was drinking and not getting dehydrated. As the evening went on, the beak-dipping still wasn't making her drink and she was clearly getting worse. I spent most of the night on the internet reading everything about chick health I could find.

After reading and reading, I was still torn about whether I should leave her alone to rest or intervene. By midnight I decided I needed to force her to drink. So every few hours throughout the night I held her and gave her drops of water from an eye dropper. Each time I did this I hoped she would suddenly be revitalized and return to being the happy little chick that came home with us. But instead she just became more listless, barely able to stand up. Meanwhile Monday started to mercilessly peck at her (the way animals often choose to attack a sick or dying member--one of nature's cruelties that is very hard to watch.)

Finally at 7:30 this morning when I was giving Tuesday another dose of water from the dropper, she died in my hands. It's amazing how much sadness and loss one can feel about a creature that has only been in your life for less than two days. But there is something so deeply bonding about caring for another living thing. As the tears were streaming down my face, I couldn't help but also think about my hypocrisy in not crying every time I eat chicken for dinner. Another reason to be close to the food you consume.

Rest in Peace little Tuesday.