Backyard Chicken Update

Earlier in the summer our beloved Lucky, a very large Brahmin Chicken, passed away. Lucky was a very sweet chicken with people, a lap chicken, but she was very aggressive with her peers. Our other chicken, Pumpkin, and Lucky were good friends though. They had been together for quite a few years, through a few different homes and even a dog attack which they both survived but left Lucky blind in one eye.

Once Lucky died I swear Pumpkin was very sad. We’re not sure what happened to Lucky, we found her dead one morning. I think perhaps she had become egg bound. Pumpkin & Lucky are both older chickens and not regularly laying eggs anymore and are fond of hiding their eggs. After about 2 weeks of Pumpkin being alone and acting strange we finally got another chicken.

The new chicken is an older Bard Rock that does not seem to lay eggs anymore. She is quite lovely and quiet. She has also become Pumpkin’s best friend. They pal around a lot and are much more equally matched personality. Pumpkin has actually put on a lot of weight now that she is not competing for food as much.

Pepper Speckles

Best Friends, Pumpkin & Pepper Speckles

Now if we could get a few more chickens who are actually laying eggs still! At least they are eating all the grasshoppers and other bugs in our yard.

Book Review: Independence Days

This book changed my life. While it’s been about a year since I first read Independence Days: A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage & Preservation by Sharon Astyk it has given me much to contemplate and work towards. I feel like much of the information was so amazing that it has taken me quite a while to get to the point where I could actually start working on it.

The main premise of the book is that we should all have food stored whether for a cataclysmic event that affects the entire country or even a private emergency such as a loss of a job. This idea is not new or revolutionary but she takes it a step further and says that it is our democratic duty to ensure our own food security:

Even if you don’t grow your own [food], preserving what is seasonal and fresh can provide you with a great deal of economic and food security. If you go to the farmer’s market at the end of the day, you may be able to get bushels of produce for almost nothing. Then comes the work of dehydration, or canning, or pickling. The work is worth it, both because it enables you to eat a local diet and frees you from dangers in the food supply, but also it means you don’t depend on corporations to provision you.

This is just a short snippet of how she brings such a small, personal act into the public arena as our duty if we truly do not want to support corporations and a corrupt system.

In addition to very compelling arguments which serve as a food storing call to arms she also has a great sense of humor. For a book on food storage I found myself unable to put this book down and I found myself laughing out loud many times. She also makes this overwhelming subject much easier to approach. The book is filled with step by step instruction and questions to help you focus on your own goals. She also has an entire chapter devoted on how to build stores on a small budget. This book is the ultimate guide in how and why to ethically and sustainably build stores of food in a way that can save you money before you even “need” the stored food.

Since my diet looks much different than the average diet or the authors diet it does take some real thinking on my part to figure out what I want in storage. It also has me more seriously thinking about my garden and animals. This evening my husband and I are going to start planning our gardening activity more effectively. I’m also thinking about getting some ducks. As my own food storage plans flesh out I’ll definitely share my progress with you. I’ll also let you know whats working and not working so well.

More Chickens!

We recently got 2 new chickens! We’ve had our first 2 chickens for almost a year now. Recently a friend of ours had to relocate a large flock so I offered to take two of her hens off her hands. One of which was one of their original chickens appropriately named Princess.

Our original chickens, Lucky & Pumpkin, have had lives more like pets than farm animals. They follow us around our yard, will eat out of our hands, beg for food and jump on our lap when we sit outside. I think of our chickens as feathered dogs. The two new chickens, Princess & Brownie, are from a flock of 20+ birds and as a result they are way more like farm animals. I can’t get near them let alone pet them or feed them from my hand. After having such a friendly relationship with my first two birds its strange to have these two be so stand offish.

It is also funny to see Lucky & Pumpkin try to guard their territory and assert their dominance. They have been kind aggressive towards the new birds but are accepting them more each day.

It’s amazing from an egg prospective how much more we have now. With two birds we only got 1 or 2 eggs a day, not enough to really build up any extra. Now with four birds we have a much steadier supply. Ultimately I would really like two more hens. I think instead of hand-me-down hens next time though I would like to purchase specific breeds, like those crazy fluffy hens that look like they have an afro.

Brownie & Lucky

If You Have a Yard…

If you have a yard you should get chickens. Firstly, because I’ve found them to be wonderful pets. They are also excellent pest control. It is as if there is an invisible wall keeping all of the locusts out of my yard. They also eat a lot of the vegetable compost that overflows from my compost bin.

Why do I really think you should get chickens though?

I think you should get chickens because the eggs are out of sight. Its well known that chickens that roam freely and can eat insects and greenery as they roam about have higher levels of omega-3s and beneficial fats in their eggs. There is a better balance of fats and cholesterol in chickens raised this way as well. I also feed my chickens superfoods such as chia and goji berries. My chickens have the most surreal orange colored yolks. Every time I open one of their eggs I gasp when I see the color.

Even if raising my own chickens did not have the benefit of far superior eggs I would still have chickens. Why? The biggest reason is that my family eats eggs. I want to know that their eggs come from chickens that are more than “humanely raised” but also loved and cared for. Whenever we find an egg in our yard I feel like I’ve received a gift from friends, not some tortured animal locked up never to see the out doors.

That’s why I think if you have a yard you should get chickens. Chickens are a wonderful way for you to not just participate in the “production” of your food but to actually make a difference in the lives of livestock animals. Most families that do not live in an inner-city setting have space for enough chickens to meet most or all of their egg needs. Every egg you eat from your own backyard flock helps dismantle the factory-farmed egg industry one bolt at a time.

If you are interested in more information on raising chickens I’ve been looking a lot at all the amazing chicken coops on backyardchickens.com.