Another attack

This time the attacked chickens weren't ours, but another Bexley family's. The think the perpetrator was a cat. The chickens are convalescing on our breezeway while their family is out of town. One of them seems pretty beat up, but they're both hanging in there. If Peggy taught us anything it's not to count a chicken out too early.

Sprucing up the coop

We've been thinking that we should replace the shingles on the coop roof (actually, it's just one piece of asphalt shingle material).  But now I'm thinking we might as well just do this:

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/05/22/a-hedge-fund-highflier-comes-back-to-earth/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Why cheap-out, right?

Coup tour pics, several weeks later

I'd intended to take a bunch of pictures of all our visitors from the coup tour. It was such a lovely, perfect day, weather wise, that we had a ton of people come through. Of course I took zero photos, but I did get these of the driveway (above), and the coop complete with the poop on the roof that we forgot to rake off.

Wild goose chase? Searching for a way to test our eggs for lead. Is it important?

Miss L is 5 months old now.  Pretty soon she'll start eating solid food and we're hoping that Tami Taylor & Tyra's eggs will be on the menu.  A few years ago I read about lead contamination in backyard chicken eggs.  It makes sense that chickens in the backyard of an older house might have gotten their beaks on some lead paint chips, for example.  And we don't want to mess with lead and a developing brain.  BUT... Finding someone who can test our eggs for lead has been tough.  Well, impossible, actually.

I called the OSU Extension office who sent me to another extension office who sent me to the Ohio Department of Agriculture who sent me to Food Safety at ODA who sent me to Animal Health at ODA who sent me to the OSU Vet Clinic who tried to send me back to ODA but instead sent me to the Avian Health Clinic, a private practice vet in Columbus.

It seems nobody tests eggs for lead.  They can test a chicken (preferably dead) for lead poisoning, but not the eggs.  The very nice vet at the Avian Health Clinic said that a chicken who was passing lead in her eggs would be very sick -- sick enough that we'd notice.

So, should I drop it and just trust that everything is a-okay?

This is not our baby.  I don't even think she's eating eggs.  But she is cute, so...

Backyard Chickens in NYC

Many of you may already have seen this story, but here's a tale of backyard chickens running up against a homeowners' association. http://nyti.ms/1jgDhay

Next Saturday is the Spring Coop Tour!

Next Saturday, from 1-3, our coop will be open to visitors. There are 4 other stops in Bexley, so you can see a bunch of chickens without going far.

http://www.cityfolksfarmshop.com/chickens/spring-coop-tour/

Are you ready?

With spring supposedly on the way (so they say), you might be thinking about getting chicks. Here's a quick piece by livesimply.me about three questions you ought to ask yourself before taking the plunge.

http://livesimply.me/2014/03/19/three-questions-getting-chickens/

Chickens as garbage disposals

We throw pretty much all our kitchen scraps out to the chickens. Red stuff is their favorite so strawberry tops are a huge hit. But they also get random stuff like year-old matzah. Today I spread a slightly off jar of wheat germ in their run & they've been going to town!

Hi Edible Columbus Readers!

We're in the news!  Nancy McKibben visited us a few months ago in preparation for writing her article for Edible Columbus.  We were thrilled to have her over -- not just because we love the beautiful magazine, but also because we like pretty much any opportunity to talk chickens.  In the article they mention the next Coop Tour (organized twice a year by City Folk's Farm Shop) on APRIL 12th.  The Coop Tour last fall was really fun.  All sorts of people came out, including people who just wanted to see some chickens up close with their kids, to folks who already have chickens and wanted to see someone else's set up, to the chicken-curious who were considering getting some of their own.  We didn't have visitors at our house because we weren't sure we'd have any chickens (that was right after the raccoon attack).  But we're excited to be a part of things this spring. Come on by and meet our girls.

Soggy spring chickens

Springtime is a soggy time in the chicken coop. We just threw some fresh straw down and now it's raining again. The ladies don't see to mind too much.

Long time no post

It's been months since I posted on the blog but we have a good excuse. In November we were joined by baby Lolly. I'm so excited to share the chickens with her once she's old enough to care. I think chickens are a perfect project for kids.

Shortly after Lolly was born, we lost Peggy. She died in the coop of natural causes. Though we think that it was probably lingering trauma from the raccoon attack. Poor Peggy. Tyra and Tami Taylor were giving her a wide berth. I think they knew she wasn't well. I'm glad she could die at home, and hopefully she wasn't in too much pain.

The longer days mean we're finally getting eggs from Tyra and Tami Taylor. I am so looking forward to spring. I think they are too. They're not too excited about going out in the snow.

In other news, earlier this month we were interviewed by a woman who is writing for Edible Columbus. They're doing a story on urban chickens. I'm sure all of that like everything else in edible Columbus it will be a lovely story. We are looking forward to reading the spring edition.