Clematis "roof"

A clematis on the outside of the chicken run has taken off & grown across the sting-top on the chicken area. The string-top was Andrew's attempt to keep birds of prey out -- it's worked well! And now the clematis is providing shade, too. What a happy accident!

Spoiled chickens

"Leftover strawberries and arugula? Ho hum…"

We planted a tree!

We planted a dwarf Golden Delicious tree in the chicken run. For the next two years we'll have to pinch off the apples, but in 2017 we'll get to harvest! I'm sure the chickens will appreciate the shade (our motivating reason) and the fallen fruit!

Another kitchen experiment goes to the birds

This was my first try at injera - the Ethiopian staple flat bread. It's like sourdough crepes, kind of, but even more delicious. Unless I'm making it. My first try was not a success, but the chickens liked it :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHyzpgOWNQ0

The promise of spring

There's snow on the ground & the thermometer reads something so low it hurts. But the chickens must know that spring is around the corner -- they just layed their first eggs of the season!

Drunken Chicken

It seems the chickens really love fermented kasha (a kitchen experiment gone wrong). They've gone a little crazy for it! It's nice to give them something fun to do on such a cold, icy, dreary day.

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.

Welcome home Tami Taylor & Tyra!

It's a cruddy day outside, but we're happy over here at Bexley Chickens because we've finally brought home two new pals for Peggy!

Welcome Tami Taylor (a Welsummer) and Tyra (a Jersey Giant)!

This morning Andrew & I woke up early to drive to Marion & pick them up.  Cathy from Omelet Acres met us (apparently what counts as early for us softened city folk is practically mid-afternoon for Cathy & her husband, Mark!).  They have a lovely farm out there & a bunch of all kinds of breeds of chickens.  You can check out their hens' handy work at the Bexley Co-Op & the Greener Grocer in the North Market -- look for Omelet Acres.

Cathy picked our hens for us (they wisely don't allow strangers back near the coops because we have god-knows-what on our shoes!).  We bought some eggs, too, for good measure because Cathy reminded us that the hens might not lay for a while because of the stress of the move.

They both were very tame & not at all hand shy.  Much cuddlier than Peggy!  We packed them up in recycling bins for the trip home.  Thanks, Bexley Recycling.

I threw down some straw & scratch to make the yard a little more interesting/distracting (per Cathy's suggestion).  Tami Taylor (the pretty Welsummer) seemed like the feistier of the two so I put her in the chicken area first.  I didn't really have a rationale for this - it just seemed right.  Here's Peg & Tami, making their acquaintance:

Just after I snapped this photo there was a tiny, 15 second curfuffle, spurs up.  But Tami seems to have emerged as the top hen & they moved on quickly.  Peggy hid behind my legs for a second and is definitely keeping an eye out for where Tami is in relation to her and the scratch.  She's hugging the rails a little bit, but doesn't seem too stressed out.  She's eating and scratching, so what more can I hope for?  When I added Tyra (the Jersey Giant), it went even smoother.  She just slipped right in.

I'm relieved that this seems like no big deal!  It's certainly 100% easier than when we tried to add Sally to the established pecking order of Peggy & Joan.

Lesson learned: 1+2 is easier than 2+1!

And now, for your moment of zen:

Note @ 10:46pm: This post has been updated to reflect the fact that Tami Taylor is spelled Tami not Tammy.  I know you were all thinking "when will she discover she's made a horrible mistake?"  Someone could've just told me and spared poor Tami nearly 12 hours of embarrassment!

Two new chickens?

We found a woman on CraigsList who lives in Marion (about an hour from us) who has a small flock and about 50 years of experience with chickens! She's going to pick out two young hens to come join Peggy. I think it'll be perfect. We're driving up on Wednesday morning to pick them up: one Welsummer & one Jersey Giant. She said the Jersey has been getting a little too much attention from the rooster lately so I think she'll enjoy coming to live with us. I'm really glad that this is shaping up to be a happy ending for Peggy & hopefully the two new girls, too!


I'll be sure to take pictures to post! In the meantime, here's what the breeds look like:

 

Welsummers lay pretty, medium sized brown speckled eggs.  Jersey Giants lay big brown eggs.  Cathy in Marion says they might not lay for a while after the stress of the trip, but by springtime we'll definitely have eggs again!

Peggy Update: We're keeping her!

Peggy seems to be doing so much better.  Our rubric for "doing better" is "acting like a chicken."  She's scratching in the dirt, eating well, running away from loud noises but then coming up to investigate.  All very Peggy-like.  This is good news!
Her comb is still flopped over which in my limited chicken-vetting knowledge means nutrition deficiency or old.  She's still missing a lot of feathers.  She still seems not quite all there.

With all that in mind, Andrew & I have been talking about our responsibility toward this little lady.  We did have an offer to adopt her out to a bigger flock, but my sense is that, because this other flock is big, each individual chicken is less...valued.  I have a sense that the flock owner has a much more pragmatic approach to hen husbandry than we do.  If Peggy was picked on, I'm not sure she'd be coddled there.  As Andrew points out: it's not a rescue farm.  (Note: even at the rescue farm where I used to work, there wasn't too much time to worry about each individual chicken's emotional well-being, if you get my drift).

But we did commit to Peggy when we got her.  Maybe not in the same way that you commit to a dog or a cat, but in some way we promised to take care of her.  So now what?

We've decided to try to find a pal for Peggy that we can adopt so that she has company and body heat this winter.  Ideally, we'll find a 6 month old who can start laying in the spring as I'm pretty sure Pegster's laying days are through.  We'll get just one so Peggy won't have to defend herself against two.  We'll monitor things to see how they go.  We'll see...

Peggy's tiny addled brain can't understand this decision, but I know she'll be happier staying put!

Incidentally, if you know of a not-too-aggressive older pullet or young hen looking for a home, please let us know!