Singing sisters cd launch

Dear Friends,

     Please spread the word to any who might want to experience the beautiful music of Carolyn McDade, sung by The Singing Sisters and some of the Gaia Women of the Great Lakes Basin, with Carolyn here to play piano for us. It's about our legacy into the seventh generation. It's about trees and our places among all the beings. It's about "singing our way home." Use the pdf attached to spread the word. If you need a hard copy to post somewhere, let us know, or print one yourself if you are able. We have worked on this project for a year and are very excited to present it to the world.

Peggy Case, for the Singing Sisters

Chicken Coop News

Dear Friends (co-op members and Cindy),

As we prepare to be gone for 9 days, starting tomorrow morning, a few thoughts.

Cindy will be doing some of the garden watering, but others should feel free to lend a hand if you see dry things. Only pick green beans in the garden nearest to the coop side gate. All the rest of the beans are dry beans for later. Help yourself to any beans, tomatoes, and cucumbers you want. Please leave any broccoli ready to be picked in a plastic bag in the fridge. Also if any of the cantalope looks like it can't wait until we return, please put it also in the fridge. Do not overwater the squash please. Bare ground has new plantings, so please water.

Only one of the new hens is laying so far. The rest have days of pure sloth. We have been leaving them in the pens until about 1 or 2, so we get a few eggs. Then we let them out until the end of the day. those who want a treat will line up at about 6:30 and go in. the few new ones with attitude will have to stay out until it gets fairly dark, then they are willing to come in also. You have to be really alert in the morning, as they try really hard to break out early.

We are leaving both kinds of food in the big coop now, trying to finish up the baby food. We need scratch and another bag of pellets. they can all eat the pellets now.

We generally open up the side and back pens for their use early in the day, then let them go back in both at the end of the day and leave the little inside door open. We usually put some water outside near the rain barrel, in the shade for their day time use. They are very spoiled.

Please keep them out of the gardens if you can, particularly the vegetable garden. Some of the little ones get trapped in the garden by the side shed door. The only way to get them out is to guide them with the hose to the small opening near the solar panels. They can also fly quite well and at times go right out over the top.

When you walk the back meadows, there is some water there in case the garden is really dry. Water around on the dirt, not on the stems please.

Also there are tons of blackberries which need picking, all over the land. Help yourselves and enjoy. We do not need any more.

Sean will be here Tuesday cutting trees. Anyone who wants to can check to make sure he is not under one by himself. He gets here around 2. His phone number is by the phone if he is needed for anything.

The emergency number where we are is 780-719-8587. Use only for emergency. We return on the 29th. Sean can use email now and his address is at the top, as is Cindy's.

Thanks to all. Have fun with the feisty little girls. The Auracanas are particularly stupid, but cute.

Peggy

Chicken Coop News

     Our little girls were saying they were ready for the big digs today. Even though they are only 4 weeks old, and two of them only 3, they were outgrowing their box. So, since they predicted warm weather today, we finished cleaning out the little coop, which Matt and WEndy had mostly done, put wire fence around the bottom so they can't get under and drive us crazy trying to catch them, and moved them in.

     We left the side door open and have water and food inside and out. It didn't take long before an adventurous rhode island red went down the ramp. Actually I think she jumped off the side and then figured out how to walk up. Six or seven followed her by jumping off. Kind of like watching a bunch of teens jumping off the high rocks into a stone quarry, as we did when young. They are hanging out in the corner by the small gate, eating and scratching in the dirt. It is not cler yet if they know how to get back in the coop. The first one was seen jumping straight up onto the porch. No problem for her. Let's hope she isn't a rooster.

     We don't see a way of putting a light into the coop without burning it down, but for now it is just as warm as the garage was with the light and they seem happy. They are not bunching up to stay warm. Even the little ones have gone out to explore. They are rather frightened of humans however, and I think at least for a few days until they get used to us and the place we should leave them alone as much as possible.

     We will attempt to get them back in the coop before leaving this evening, and let them get used to it while there is still some light seeping under the door.

Peggy, teenage babysitter

Spring 2011 Chicks

The new chicks are here! Fourteen of the cutest little fuzz balls you've ever seen. Since their arrival coincided so nicely with the return of cold weather, they are currently living in the loft at Matt and Wendy's. You'd be amazed at just how much noise these little gals can make at 3:00 AM!

Chicken Coop News - 2010 summary

The girls have done a great job this year providing for the Coop and its friends.They are now settling into the winter routine. this group is a bit less adventuresome than last years gang, and they seldom want to put their feet in that nasty white stuff. Even the compost pile cannot lure them out when the snow is blowing around. Only a few make it over to the bird feeders to forage. Most stay in the coop or huddle in one corner of the pen. A few have found the overturned garden cart, and have made a dust bath area there, so we have to really check when putting them away. One is having trouble understanding the idea of going inside when it gets dark. She will sit out in the pen in the dark and wait to be placed in the coop by hand. We also have at least one egg eater. It might be Twitchy, who can't seem to get with the program most days. In general though, this is a peaceful bunch, engaged in only minor pecking order fusses. They do get bored easily however, so we try to get them interested in stepping out in the pathways a bit.

I am happy to report that there have been no losses to predators this year, and no unexplained deaths. Even Twitchy seems to be surviving, though she can't get up on the roosts and is often wandering around lost and confused. The others don't seem to pick on her.

The Coop as a whole has done well this year, in all aspects. We expanded beyond chickens to growing gardens together, sharing meals, and playing music. the work flow is fairly seamless and requires almost no real organizing. Everyone just does what needs to be done when they can do it and it seems to always fall into place around work and travel schedules. We have an increasing network of friends and neighbors who buy our eggs and appreciate them. We have begun to barter also, trading eggs for apples, squash, butchering services (and a Thanksgiving turkey which Jeanne & Peg will pay for with eggs and then pay the egg jar.) 

I'm sure Matt will turn this information into lovely graphs, but for now here is some data from 2010:

Total egg production: 5,234 eggs, or 436.2 dozen

     eggs used by coop members:  1884, or 157  dozen

     eggs sold:  2988 or 249 dozen

     eggs bartered: 13 dozen

If you look at the math on this, you will see that there are 206 eggs unaccounted for. 98 of those were either broken or had been eaten (by chickens, not by us). That leaves 108, or exactly 9 dozen, which is exactly the number of eggs we collected money for, but no one wrote it down, so we had extra money in the jar to account for. My guess is that more than one of us just threw money in and forgot to indicate where it came from. Better too much in there than not enough.

We began the year with $29.50 left over from 2009. Our income from egg sales was $715.26. Our expenses were $709.37, leaving us with $35.39 going into 2011. We actually only have $35.31, so I have misplaced 8 cents somewhere in this math, but do not feel a need to torture myself over it. The total accounting speaks well for our success. We are keeping  income and expenses fairly even. If anyone wants to see the month by month figures, they are in the notebook kept here by your friendly accountant. We are experimenting with new food sources, since the feed store we used has gone out of business. We have two different kinds right now, and will see which the girls like best. It may be time to take the plunge financially and move to organic food. That's what they get out in the yard, but we haven't used the feed yet, as it costs twice as much. The coop will need to decide if we want to move to it now that we are holding our own financially and there are no immediate construction needs.

We had talked about adding some Buckeyes to our flock in the spring, as an endangered heritage breed that just happens to eat tent worms. But we have just learned that the supplier of these is also going out of business and moving out of state. They have given up their flock and are no longer breeding. So we are now without a source for chicks on two fronts and will need to work on finding new ones in the spring. Some of our old girls are nearing the end of their production. We are still getting one blue egg, usually every other day, but she pecks a small hole in each one, so we have to eat that one ourselves. We are also thinking the New Hampshires may not be a real strong breed, and we will want to try something else next time. 23 seems to be a good number to hold over the winter. We could probably hold 25 comfortably. Some of us are starting to think about maybe adding some meat birds to our operation at some point, since we are learning how to process them and it would make us more resilient as a community. Just a thought for now. It would be easy to do in the summer with the existing coops, particularly once we build the chicken tractor we have talked about.

Happy New Year to all our fans,

Peggy, amateur chicken accountant

Co-op News

The Global Work Party sponsored by 350.org has an event here on Homestead Rd. Check it out. Our newest Co-op member, Sean Case, is digging a root cellar near the chicken coop. It will easily hold the storage food produced by members in our gardens, as well as anything we stock up on at the farmers markets. Sean is counting on other coop members to give him advice on the actual building once the hole is completed. Since we are meeting today for a potluck and discussion of our up-coming workshop at Bioneers, we can all take a look at th site and add our two cents.

Today, 10-10-10, also happens to be Sean's 35th birthday, so in addition to welcoming him into our community, we are celebrating that event this evening. Wendy is baking the cake. The girls are celebrating by tearing into the spent veggie garden. They are loving Frank & Jennie's left over corn. For a chicken, heaven is a pile of dirt to bathe in or a disturbed place where the bugs are hiding. Most of the new hens are laying now, still putting out pullet eggs. But some are getting bigger ones. We have had the occasional one with no shell. I falsely accused the girls of eating a few, then discovered one dropping a shell-less mess. With this fantastic weather, the girls are in bliss out in the yard.

Happy Birthday Sean, and welcome home. Of course you will all have to write to him by snail mail or call him, as he can't be on a computer yet.

From happy mother Peggy

Flock Reduction News

Well, today was the final day for eight of our old hens. It has been a long week, trying to decide which ones we need to say goodbye to, but we had to do it. At the Co-op potluck last Friday we agreed on a few that had to go, the egg eaters and slugs brooding in the nest boxes all day, old baldy who would not survive the winter without feathers and one araucana with a similar problem. We enjoyed our group meal, honoring the little rooster by consuming him, and left the decision up to me to finish the list of those to go.Matt and Wendy have gone off for a much deserved vacation to the northeast. It's not easy to transition from raising chickens who are treated like pets to being a real chicken farmer, but it really had to happen eventually. Chicken farmers butcher chickens and people eat them. Those are the facts. With luck the chicken has had a good life and is put to rest humanely. This was true for our birds. I had isolated 8 of them over the course of several days and put them in the little girls pen and coop, transferring the new ones into the big coop at last. Lots of adjustment problems and pecking order issues of course. But they are settling in finally. The young ones are still mostly keeping to themselves, generally in the back pen, but they all come in the main pen at night together and all are roosting together now. Frank and I got the cage from Matt and Wendy's place. Jeanne and Keith guarded the hens in the cage after we caught them, and Frank and I captured them one by one and took them to the car.

We took eight to the Emu ranch this morning. The white, two buffs, one barred rock, two rhode island reds, and two araucanas with few remaining feathers. The hardest decision involved Esmeralda. She has been such a survivor, but she is so nasty and anti-social that it began to seem she would not work well in the coop this winter with the rest. It is very likely she would have ended up attacked again, or she would continue to attack others. I decided to let her go, and Frank agreed. Then we tried to catch her. She was of course the last to be put in the travel pen, after scratching Frank in the head when she flew up in his face. She was determined to the end, which made it all the harder. We drove them to the farm, put on aprons (Jeanne and I went) and Patty and Irvin taught us what to do to assist them. They want to barter their services with us for our eggs, since they don't keep chickens anymore. So they will come get about $25-30 of eggs as they need them. They have a very clean and humane indoor operation there. But I had to stay outside while Esmeralda was being processed, I must admit. She really got to me. Four of them gave us one final egg each, and of course Esmeralda was one of them. I will honor her by eating her last egg myself. She bit everyone often, was scrappy and mean, but she won our respect and I feel terrible right now just writing about it. But if not now, in the spring, and we had to look to the communal needs of the whole flock over the winter. They had good chicken lives. We were told they looked healthy and well cared for.

We now have 23 left for winter, and will of course add more in the spring. All was peaceful this afternoon and they roamed the yard doing bug patrol. Total of 12 eggs today, but four of them were post-mortum deliveries. Only one little one laid, at least we only found one. Hopefully they will settle down now and get going. All went into the big coop together without hassle tonight and settled down to the usual bickering about roost space. Matt had put in an extra roost, but I took it out as they seemed to be more secure and quieted down better when closer together on just two. Plus with three it was hard to get to the nest boxes to check. We shall see what works. I've been turning off the red light at night the last few days to get them settled in faster, but left it on tonight as they seemed quiet earlier.

Peggy, chicken farmer

Goodbye to Little Pete

Last Friday, Little Pete travelled by box to The May Farm, where Paul May was kind enough to dress him out for us and explain to me the process as it unfolded. It was as merciful as we could expect. I was told he looked like he had been well fed and cared for, and he weighed 3 and a half pounds once dressed. He is currently in the freezer and we will honor him by sharing him with the coop members at our up-coming potluck and workshop planning session, tentatively scheduled for September 10. It was not an easy decision to make, taking him in. But the fact is that we have to face our food someday, and all of us eat chicken as well as their eggs. We are also faced with limited space for the winter months in the coop, must integrate the ten new layers, and some have to go. Little Pete was the obvious choice for the first, as he was beginning to attack all the hens and they were not happy. Although he was only being a regular rooster, we have decided we cannot have one here, for the health of the hens and safety of members. We will be saying goodbye to at least six more in a few weeks. They will be taken to the Emu farm where Patty has agreed to help assure it is as painless as possible. We just have to decide who goes as a group. We want to keep good layers, of course, since we aim to produce food with this operation. We also want those with friendly attitudes and a willingness to not eat eggs or peck at the eggs of others. There are a few with rather bad habits who will most likely be leaving us.

Now that the rooster is gone, we are mixing everyone up in the daytime, and they are sharing all three pens and eating the same food. The older hens tend to take over however. The young ones are a rather polite lot, and wander off by themselves rather than engage in turf wars. All the new ones are trained already to return to the coop when we bring the old ones in. At night they sort themselves out for the most part into the two coops they are used to, though now and then one ends up sleeping in unfamiliar territory. None of the new ones seem to be laying yet. A few are peaking into the big coop and showing an interest.  Hopefully they will get the idea and lay there rather than out in the woods.

Total egg production for August was 379 eggs, down from 387 in July. Only one hen is brooding now. The other two have gone back out with the rest and may be laying again. 20 dozen sold to our regular customers this month. They are grateful to have healthy eggs these days.

Peggy

Chicken TV, Episode 250

     It's 4 AM and I am awake enjoying the full moon and worrying about little Pete, who is spending his first night outside. The coyotes are barking somewhere. Have they noticed that he is not in his coop? I get up and wander outside in the moonlight to check on him. All is well and he is asleep on the new roost I installed this evening for the back pen. Little Pete has been sent to isolation and is not with his coop mates anymore. He has begun to feel the effects of the testosterone overload common in roosters and was pecking at the heads of his little flock mates. He was also finding the old hens too attractive suddenly and they were not happy at all to be jumped on once more. So Little Pete has new digs as of this morning. Matt helped get him confined to the back coop. He has food and water and will be leaving us as soon as we can arrange his departure. We must send at least five hens with him to get the flock down to a manageable size for the big coop in winter. We have lost none to predators this summer. This evening I was ready to send them all.

     It began with an attempt to give Little Pete some shelter in his new digs, in case there was rain. It was time for the girls to come in, so they were gathering up for their evening treat and we were headed to the coop, but we were dragging this plastic bin with us to prop up for Pete Jr. The girls freaked out at the sound of it dragging across the ground and began running in all directions hysterically. It got worse when we didn't stop moving the thing right away. Some went into the coop and jumped at the walls. Most fled into the woods in all directions. The ones in the coop were yelling and frantic. It was an amazing display of total melt down in the chicken brain. Even after the bin stopped making noise and we began to try to calm them down, they were still totally bonkers. Most had forgotten how to get to their own coop and would not come in. It was getting dark. The young ones managed to finally calm down enough to go in. The old ones were another story. With this little stress fracture in my foot I'm not in great shape to be chasing chickens, so I stood at the door to let them in as Jeanne tried to round them up. Even when  some came back they circled the coop and would not slip in the pen door as usual. It was like they were seeing it all for the first time. We finally herded all we could see in and were still missing two and it was getting dark. So I called Frank and he and little Keith came running to help. They circled out into the woods and located them, but they kept running past the coop and on into more trees. It took some time and careful strategy, along with more scratch, to finally get them corraled into their pen. Keith and Frank went home with a job well done. By this time it was dark enough that they went inside and all got on their roosts. But they still couldn't settle down and alot of squacking could be heard all the way to the house, so I went back. Jeanne had talked to them once and it had helped, but they still needed some reassurance. A little petting and a few words of gentle good night did the trick and they settled in for the night. Little Pete seems to be content without shelter for now. His pen is pretty secure and the moon is shining brightly on the sleeping coops.

Peggy, from the psych ward on Homestead Rd. 

Chicken Up-date

The new girls (plus little Pete) are adjusting well. They now roam the grounds with the big girls and there seem to be few issues. Their rooster does keep an eye on them and keeps them traveling together for group power. The old girls sneak into the little pen and eat the starter food when they can. Today for the first time I opened the gate between the two pens, and little Pete walked through the big coop. So they are really mingling now. We figure the kids are about 4 months old, so it is time to get them into the idea of where the eggs are to be laid. We don't have nest boxes in their coop and don't plan for them to stay in it this winter, so they are now in training for the big coop.

All the girls are pretty easy to get in now when we need to put them away. The big ones follow whoever has a treat in hand into their pen, then the little ones notice and run into theirs as well, waiting for their share. We don't have to do much actual herding any more. When they hear the hawk they put themselves away or hide under the spruce. There is a juvenile red-shouldered around, obviously being fed by someone, so they are on their toes these days and no one has gotten eaten.

Matt and Wendy are working a ridiculous number of hours these days, and though employment is a good thing, it means our tech expert has not posted numbers on the blog. Here is the production for the last three months. As you can see, it is going down. The girls are getting tired. We are still selling about 20 dozen a month however. But we don't have to search anywhere for customers. We have regulars we try to keep happy. Some of our eggs will be going to Dunegrass Festival next weekend. Keith B. is planning to cook breakfast for a bunch of folks. Remember, he was one of the original builders of the coop, and now regularly buys eggs from the Co-op. It's great to keep the eggs flowing in the neighborhood.

Egg production: May 447, June 400, July 387

Peggy, Substitute bean counter

Teenagers and nest slugs

It now seems that there may be three broody hens spending their days on nest boxes. The two old ones move around to different boxes to be on eggs recently laid by others. Another buff seems to want to join them. It is not clear yet if she has stopped laying her own eggs. Now and then we throw the brooders out and they spend a few minutes being grumpy outside or get picked on by the others and run back inside again. The rest roam around doing their work, which is eating bugs, taking dust baths and trying to stay cool under the trees. They also seem to enjoy raiding the teenage coop when the young ones are out in the woods. They eat what they can find and keep the little ones from returning for water and food. So we have to take it out to them under the trees or evict the big girls so they can return. They are almost big enough to assert themselves, but not quite. The rooster, who looks more like Pete every day, is not at all aggressive, and does not seem to know what he is yet. But the little ones do kind of stick with him anyway. They stay in their own little flock mostly under the trees and on the state land, sometimes in a clump under a spruce. They are learning how to be herded by us, and we can now get them back home much easier. Jeanne cut off some of the low branches on the spruce so we could get through to move them back home. They are very good about going in when it starts to get dark, better even than the big ones. But the big girls are so well trained now that we just have to call them and offer a simple cup of scratch to get them all running to the coop in an hysterical pile right in front of our feet. Egg production is getting later in the day now. Sometimes the first egg doesn't drop until nine in the AM, with the last coming at 5 or later. Average between 11 and 14 a day. The coops need to be cleaned more in this hot weather, so all help is welcome on that. Earwigs have found the small coop, but the girls do eat them as soon as the door is opened. Water has to be filled fairly often during the day now also, given the heat. They are going through it fairly fast. Some new beetles appeared in the last few days, swimming in the pails of rain water. They look much like Japanese beetles, only brown. since we suspect them of being evil, we have discovered that the girls really like them, so no problem. They liked the potato beetles too, but the fence kept them from doing the job needed to keep them under control. We had to hand pick and then carry them to the coop.

Some of the girls are still looking very raggedy as they are still plucking their own feathers. We really need to get the blue kote on them soon. Help needed for this too. Jeanne and I will be gone Friday night and return Saturday afternoon, so maybe some of us can find time after we get back to take care of this together. They aren't going to like it.

Peggy for the girls

Chicken Coop News

It has been busy lately. The young chicken with the neurological disorder had to be put down, as she could not stand up and was clearly suffering. We are told it might have been from a mosquito bite. Sometimes young ones can't take the toxin. We will never know. Anyway, thanks to Frank for taking care of it for the coop in a merciful way. The teenagers have tripled in size in just the last week it seems. Baby rooster is looking more and more suspicious, but he is friendly, and will probably play a protective role for awhile. We are now talking about letting him grow up and prove his gender before giving him up. We won't name him or get attached, as he/she might have to go to chicken retirement along with some of the bigger, problem hens in August. The two brooders get fatter and limper every day. They feel like jelly when picked up. But we have been carrying them outside everyday, several times a day, and putting them on the ground with the others. They will take a small dust bath, drink some water, act grumpy with the other hens, even run around a bit, and return shortly to their chosen nest boxes. The white one will move to different boxes to brood eggs laid there. It does not seem that either of them is laying anymore, just babysitting.

We have also been told that the feather picking and bald areas are a result of mites or lice, and that we need to dust the pens and chickens, then put on this blue stuff that tastes nasty so they will stop eating their own feathers. So we have purchased these things, and I am putting the dust in the pens and dust bathing areas. It will take two people to dust the rear areas of each hen (we are told around the vent is important) and then spray the blue-kote on the bare spots. I hate to use chemicals, but the girls are looking pretty ratty and some are quite raw. Anyone wanting the experience of playing vet this week is welcome. The stuff is on the counter. It isn't supposed to get in the nest boxes or the food and water, even though it is supposed to be relatively non-toxic stuff made from plant material.

We will be gone for four days. The girls will go nuts if they don't get outside for that long, so hopefully someone will come spent some time here in the late afternoon or evening and let them out. The big girls can take care of themselves for a few hours outside, if you put the outside water can in the shade for them, and leave the side door open so they can easily get food and water and dump their eggs inside. I did find one egg out by the compost bin today, because I had let them out too early. The rule has been ten eggs before release. They are getting good about putting themselves away when they hear the hawk or are warned by the crows and chickadees. If they are too far out, they will hide under the pine trees and spruces. When it is time to go in as far as you are concerned, it is possible to lure them with two plastic containers of scratch. Usually they will follow you in (most of them) and you can close the door while you are in the pen, but able to let in the stragglers as they arrive. We do sometimes have to chase one or two down. Boots on a leash works well also. I usually put them away just before I think Wendy & Matt might want to let Boots run when they get home from work, or at about 8 if they are working late. Then I let the little girls out about half hour before it starts to get dark. They don't go very far and will put themselves away. In fact they are easier to corral than the big ones sometimes. In both cases, do the count. Some do hide. Big ones: Buff-5, barred rock-4, black-2, white-1, Wyandotte-2, reds-3, red & white- 1, araucanas- 3. For the little ones: 3 reds, 3 barred rocks, 3 wyandottes. And don't try to let them all out at once yet. I tried that and a big one immediately attacked one of the little guys.

The gardens are really doing well and we hate to leave them. Everything is planted, some seeds just put in, so everything needs lots of water this week. Be generous with the water as everything is getting off to a good start or is brand new. Jennie's radishes are beautiful. We had to pull ours up as they were planted too deep. We started over. Wendy has some great looking chard. Frank & Jennie are going to have a three sisters garden that will be amazing. Ours was started later and the beans and squash just went in today. The whole thing will be an amazing jungle before long. Lots of inter-planting going on. We have put beets and carrots everywhere, determined to get a crop this year. The potato beetles are on all the potato plants, in all four places, so we are patroling regularly. The eggs are bright orange and can just be scraped off the underside of the leaf and crushed. The little beetles are kind of cute, orange and black with little spiked sides. The adults are yellow and black striped. All of these can be easily gathered in your hand in a bunch and carried right to the big hens. Throw them into the pen and they will gobble them right up.

We will not be feeding birds for awhile, as the bear visited Wendy & Matt and our house last night and tore up the feeders. A reminder to make sure that the garden gate is always closed. We have friends who found a bear sitting on their strawberry patch two days ago. The row cover over ours and the fence seem to be protecting them a bit and we have actually gotten a few strawberries. Feel free to peak under the cover for ripe berries this week. If they haven't been eaten by slugs, they can go in the fridge. The other two row covers can stay on the mellons and cucumbers, as finally no one is eating them as they emerge now. Water goes through the cover.

That's it from farmer Peggy

Another hen in the hospital

Tonight Jeanne and I decided to let the small girls out of the pen for the first time. They puttered around not too far from the coop and did very well, munching on weeds. One of them ran into the pen after awhile and stayed there. When we looked in on her, she was just sitting with her head tucked back over her back. We checked closer and it was clear that something was wrong. She cannot straighten out her neck, and goes in circles when trying to walk. It looks like her neck is broken or there is some spinal injury. One other girl came in and started pecking at her in a mean way, so it may be that she was attacked outside and we missed it. None appeared strange when they were first let out. I picked her up and she can just lay there with her neck turned around. She is probably the smaller of the New Hampshires, the one that has already been selected as the bottom of the pecking order. Chickens can be as mean as young teens can to each other. Anyway, it is not clear that she will make it, but we put her in Esmeralda's box in the garage with food and water for the night. The rest came back in while we were trying to figure out what was wrong, with a little herding from Jeanne.

When I first went to college I was planning to become a veterinarian. This was the old days, and the dean talked me out of it because I was a woman and didn't stand a chance of getting accepted without a 4 point, which I had no plans to get. Wasn't a serious student at the time. I am often sorry now I did not pursue it. We could use a vet in the neighborhood. Boots is still recovering from the porcupine attack to the eyes several weeks ago, and now we have another hospitalized hen. We also have one suspicious character we plan to return soon, who looks alot like Pete in his early days. May be down to 8 new ones soon.

Peggy, unlicensed and unskilled veterinarian substitute

Teenager News

The young girls have tripled in size in the last week and they are getting into some grown up ways. They are quite curious about the big girls. Hopefully they will not imitate their habit of eating their own feathers. The one Rhode island red is almost completely bald now, and she is doing it to herself. The young ones are now able to get into their coop for the night, with a little persuasion. That means moving their food inside. Chickens always follow food. A few of them have figured out how to get on the roosts, though they still seem to sleep in piles. Yesterday when it was raining, they were under the coop in two piles, one at each end. One pile had the black and whites, and the other had the reds. So they have established some age segregation it seems, which coincides with color also. One of the wyandottes is really looking like a rooster already, and the guy at the feed store says we can bring it back and maybe exchange it for another. Hard to see what we would bring home however. All the chicks at the store are only a day old or so. There are so many really cute ones. I almost came home with a few of the Polish chicks, which have an extra cap on their heads that looks like a beenie. They are really sweet looking. But I was disciplined and only returned with food and a big chick drinking can.

Since the resident squirrel in the garage had chewed through the plastic feed container, we have moved things around and acquired another big metal can. The food for the young ones is in a white bag in the same can as the big girl food for now, so pay attention. Scratch and the new developer food in the other can.

Our broody hen has changed little in the last week. She sits all day in the same box. Some of the hens lay on top of her and she broods the eggs until we get them. She can be carried outside and she might walk around for a few minutes. But she is rather grumpy about it, attacks any hen that gets near her, and soon returns to her box. It is not clear when she eats or drinks, but when she is kicked out for awhile she seems perfectly normal. Since she gets no exercise, she feels like a bag of jelly. She doesn't seem to like anyone, but is willing to watch out for eggs. Several others will sit on a few until we come to get them. We do have a few egg eaters who have been caught in the act, so it seems the others are being protective. So far we have caught a red, an auracana, and a barred rock eating eggs. Average egg production is now 13-14 a day.

The new coop needs cleaning. Who wants to be the first to try it with ten teenagers running around under foot?

Peggy, teenage guidance counselor

Chicken Construction News

It has been a busy month at the Homestead Coop, and we are sorry we have not communicated much to our readers. All of us are on overload this month. With the arrival of the ten little girls (we hope that's what they are) the pressure was on to get the summer juvenile coop annex built. They were outgrowing the box in the garage quickly. We also had to rebuild the back pen so the big girls would have some shade, and the little ones could temporarily get some air while we were building. They are so much fun to catch and put away at night. We had forgotten how much exercise we get with new chicks. The old ones are so used to the routine by now, that they just run into the coop when we offer them the appropriate bribe. Not the little ones. So it has been back and forth for a week or so, while Matt and Wendy worked out the details and built the new coop for them. The fact that both of them have gone back to work just made it more challenging. Jeanne and I built the new back pen, so we could give the new ones day care. Frank had dug the new trenches for the new side pen, which proved a real chore as there were massive tree roots to contend with. Then Wendy and Matt planned, built, planned some more, built something else, planned again, changed the plan several more times, and managed to get a rather unique and practical new house for the new ones to grow up in this summer. They used some recycled materials, and bought some new stuff. It was really fun to watch them work on it. They are both so relaxed and steady in their approach to a project like this. We tried to stay out of the way, as we knew we would be next to useless at the engineering involved. When the coop addition was done, Jeanne, Frank and I finished building the pen around it and put on the top part. This involved some gymnastic talent on our parts, particularly getting the wire over the top of the rather slippery roof of the coop. But it is all done now, except Matt plans to tweek a few things. The girls will need a small  window of some kind, in addition to the vents. They seem a bit freaked out going into it at night. Matt has had the chance to crawl under the coop twice now to capture them. Great fun. Tonight I managed to convince most of them to go into the coop to get food and water, with me standing in front of the door, and I got them to stay. Of course there is always one rebel. This might be our rooster, as "she" has been difficult from the start. Jeanne had to come out to do her chicken herding routine and help me get her captured. This is their third night in the new coop. They are getting good on the ramp and can fly off the front porch, or even fly right up onto the coop platform. One of them flew up onto the coop roof, then had to ski down the slant to get off. Luckily we had a top on the pen. The big girls, who are now right next to the new ones on two sides, seem only mildly interested. The little ones show some curiosity, but they are very busy trying to learn how to catch the large number of big flies we have right now, thanks to the tent worms, which they parasitize. No one will eat the tent worms, at least not after the first try. 

     There will be some new photos up soon. I have finally gone digital and have taken a number of pictures. However, I have only gotten to page three of the manual and now cannot find it. I have no clue how to get them into this computer, but Matt will get to it soon, when he has time to breathe, and teach me. I wished I had the camera with me tonight when Jeanne was herding four chickens at once. They were having such a great time digging up our flower beds tonight, that they balked at coming in and I had to call for help on four of them. There she was using her famous stick strategy to move them to the coop, where I waited with their bribe. Chickens do not herd well, but she is getting good at it. Be assured that she doesn't hit them, rather she corrals them by holding the sticks out to her sides low and moves them along in the right direction.

     We also have one hen, a buff, who has refused to leave her nest box for the last month. At first we thought she was sick. We hand fed her water and food and expected to find her dead every morning. She does not lay eggs anymore, but she will sit on those laid in the nest box she occupies. Several hens will climb on her and lay their eggs. We have decided that she is simply broody, and that's all she wants to be. When I take her outside and dump her with the others, she acts normal for a short time, joins the crowd digging at the compost or taking their sand bath, then she pops back inside as soon as I turn my back. She must eat and drink when we are not looking. If we put a cup of food in the box with her, she will eat it. Same with water. So we have stopped worrying about her. At least we always know where she is. 

     The Coop has also moved into working sort of as a community garden. Frank and Jennie have planted a large raised bed, and so have Matt and Wendy. These new beds are in our existing garden space, so all of us now have lots of sun to grow veggies. Jeanne and I have gotten carried away again also. With the early spring and all our hard work, we have a rather amazing community garden going now. The new fence we put around it earlier keeps the girls from tearing things up at the wrong times, but they can patrol the perimeter for grasshoppers and other unwanted bugs. they were allowed in before we planted and will clean up in the fall. Everything is popping up green. We all take responsibility for watering, particularly in the intense heat and dry spell we have just had. The tent worms are fading out finally, letting in more sunlight than we really wanted in the forest. Boots has not yet caught the squirrels or chipmunks, but has managed to get one moth. Perhaps when the gypsy moths hatch she will be on top of her game. All is well at the Homestead Coop. Still have plenty of eggs and visitors are always welcome.

Construction request from the hens

It seems that the girls want a few more nest boxes than the 8 they presently have. Today three laid their eggs in the far corner under the roosts in a new nest they have constructed. We have also had two eaten eggs this week and a lot of fighting over boxes. Sometimes three try to get into the same box all at once. Esmeralda still lays her egg on top of one of the Buffs in the same box each day. The Buff then protects the egg until we get it. I wish I had the camera with me when it looked like the Buff had two heads, one coming through in the middle of the Buff's body. Quite strange. The little ones are adjusting to their new digs, and though they come from two different batches and are not quite the same age, they get along very well. Their conversations in the garage seem to have scared off the squirrel that was living there. No sign of him since their arrival.

The vegetable gardens are becoming part of the Coop now, with the two new raised beds finished, and some planting done. Asparagus is starting to emerge, though still small. Carrots, peas, beets, onions, garlic, lettuce, strawberries, chard, all are showing their little selves. Jeanne has been harvesting lettuce for a month. We are eating some Kale that came up from last year. The new kale is emerging also, and finally there are some recipes to use it with. Wendy has some seeds in, Jeanne is adding flowers to the garden and has peas planted everywhere, Frank is waiting for Oryana plants to come in, and Jennie and Peg will work on a three sisters corner when it warms up a bit more. We have added two pear trees, three peaches (all decent sizes), and 15 rather small Black Walnuts to the land. The trillium is stunning this year and we are keeping the tent worms under control so far. First rhubarb harvested. Now if we could only find time to finish the juvenile coop and the other two pens. The girls are thrilled to be out roaming around in the woods so much lately, gobbling up bugs. They are behaving very well and come in like good kids just in time for Boots (the dog) to have a good run after a day at the office with Wendy.

Peggy, Happy Homesteader

New Pics of the New Chicks

Hi All

Well I wasn't able to make it over to the coop to take pictures today - This whole "working" thing is really starting to cramp my style! Fortunately Wendy was able to head over and get some pictures of the new chicks for us. At least she made a valiant effort to do so. Apparently having a camera lowered down into your enclosure is a fairly terrifying experience when you're a three week-old chick, so Wendy ended up getting lots of pictures of little chicken backsides as they were running away. The best picture she managed was the first and that is the one now gracing the top of this page. The rest look a lot like the photo that accompanies this post...

Matt

Famous Hens and New Additions

Just back from two weeks in Key West, and is it ever nice to be home. The trillium are in full bloom, completely blanketing the forest floor in places, and the gardens are coming along nicely as well. While Key West has it's own beauty and charm, as a little girl from Kansas once said, "There's no place like home."

Our girls are now famous, gracing the pages of the spring edition of Edible Grand Traverse (on newsstands everywhere and on the web at http://www.ediblegrandtraverse.com). Susan Ager gave a great write-up and her husband Larry took some fabulous pictures. As is often the case when a story goes to press, this one was edited down a bit and some important (important to us at any rate) details were lost. The biggest omission was any mention of some of the folks who were instrumental in getting the co-op up and running but have since had to step away from the group for personal reasons. I'm referring of course to the Moehle family and Keith Brucker. The Moehle's not only designed and helped to build the coop, but they also raised some of the chicks at their home. Keith was a great help during the construction of the coop and the pens. I was erroneously credited as being a "key player" in the construction of the coop when in reality illness and travel prevented me from participating at all. Just wanted to set the record straight and make sure that all parties received the recognition they deserve for their efforts.

In other news, our flock increased by 10 today. Peggy picked out the new additions from a group of three week-old chicks and came home with 3 Barred Rocks, 3 Wyandottes, and 4 New Hampshire Reds. The reds are a new breed for us and are known for being good layers of large, brown eggs. They are currently dwelling within the relative safety of the garage in a custom home designed and created by Peggy. They are cute little fluff balls at the moment, but won't stay that way for long so we're going to have to get busy with completing the "juvenile housing" and pen in the near future. We have a plan as well as most of the materials we'll need, but are lacking in free time right at the moment. I've just started a new job, Wendy's work is getting busier, Frank Jennie and Keith are booked solid, and Peggy and Jeanne have an impressive array of projects, obligations and activities. I'm sure it will all come together, but it's going to take a bit of juggling to make it all happen.

That's about all the news for now. I'm hoping have a photo session with the new chicks tomorrow (photographing children is so difficult!) so that you can all see them at their cutest and we can finally get a new picture up for the blog - I do believe it is time to replace the picture of Pete standing in the snow-covered yard...

Matt

Chickens on the alert

The girls got several shocks this week. First of all Matt left them for some out of state work for a few weeks. For the first few days they were just out of sorts, picking at each other, yeling alot, fighting over the smallest scraps, and taking their sweet old time laying those eggs. They are adjusting now, particularly since they realize they still have everyone else to pamper them. Also there are lots of grubs and really ugly bugs for them to eat these days, and we have been letting them roam alot. But then three guests arrived and they brought another dog with them. The girls freaked out when they saw Charlie for the first time, even though Charlie is old, basically deaf and ignored them. They tried to fly away, but they were in the pen, so that didn't work out too well. They were hysterical for quite some time. Poor Charlie just wandered back with his human to the house. On the other hand, they seem to ignore Boots now, even though she would love to play a bit rough with them if she could. The girls are not such good judges of intent sometimes. Yesterday they seemed upset about something , and put themselves back into the coop early. We never figured out what bothered them. Maybe they are getting smart about the hawks. There is a resident red-shouldered out in the woods.

The girls were glad to see Joan and Mary again, visiting from Canada. They haven't seen them since before they started laying eggs, so they were happy to get a taste of their fresh productions and hold the warm eggs at last. Pauline, who is Charlie's human, also likes the warmth of the newly laid eggs, and their appearance in Jeanne's good cooking.

The coop is gradually moving to expand its activities to include a community garden of sorts. Jeanne and Peg already grow their own veggies here and are constantly expanding the diversity in the gardens. Now Wendy & Matt have built their own large raised bed, and Frank, Jennie, and Keith have built one for their family. We have brought in a huge load of compost to start the new garden plots off, and use raised beds to smother out the knapweed and grass existing there now. This will give the other families a chance to get more sunlight on their veggies. And it is more fun when we can work together growing healthy food. We have added some fruit trees this week also. All of us are on tent worm patrol lately, as they have hatched out again. We are hoping this year is no where near as bad as last, and we expect the girls to help by eating every worm in sight, along with the grasshoppers. Right now they are working on the flies that hatched last week and doing a pretty good job. We finished the big fence around the vegetable garden so we can keep the girls out when things are sprouting, but let them in early in spring and for fall clean up. They have plenty to do running around in the woods and the rest of the yard. They are taking too much time growing back the feathers they lost during Pete's reign. We suspect they are now taking out their own feathers or each other's. They eat the feathers usually. It's not like they are starving. They are very well fed, with extra calcium supplied in the form of oyster shell. We might think they are molting, and maybe some are. But they still lay from 13 to 17 eggs a day. They take regular dust baths, and we don't see parasites on them, so we really don't know what is going on with some of them who remain too bald in spots. They all seem quite healthy. It seems it takes time to recover from roosters. We met some other chickens who had had the same experience recently and they were full of bald spots too.

Submitted by Peggy

Chicken Coop News

The girls were really unhappy about the snow today. They only gave us 11 eggs. They have been averaging about 14 this week. They are still eager to get out of the pen in the afternoon and run around a bit. But then they are just as happy to go back in when we want them to. If they are left alone outside for about an hour, they come running to us when we show up with scratch. They will then march right into the pen to get their treat. Sometimes one or two are not paying attention to the program and have to be picked up and hauled home. Generally they have been very cooperative. We have now fenced off most of the flower gardens they like to dig up, so they are concentrating on the compost piles, the vegetable gardens that are still open to them, and the nice litter under the trees. The posts are up for a large fence around the vegetable beds, so we will soon be able to keep them out after we plant, or selectively let them in one of the three gates to forage in particular beds as needed. We will be adding some more raised beds for the use of coop members. Work has begun on the back and side pens. Frank is working on the new trenches. Peggy is working on post holes. Jeanne has finished painting the back of the coop and Matt is busy designing the juvenile coop annex for the new chicks we plan to add soon. Wendy has gone back to work and the girls are having to adjust their schedule a bit, but are getting used to the slightly later timing of the opening of the coop. But they miss her. Boots is still on the morning route however, racing around the coop until Matt comes along to continue the morning run. We looked at the chick choices yesterday while picking up feed. Too many of course. I suggest we send a delegation so I don't come home with more than the ten we think we want. I found a large plastic bin for brooding today. We just need some big cardboard to put around the outside to keep them in and we are ready to brood again. We can get some that are already three weeks old if we want, or start again with the cute little ones.

It seems that the egg eating and pecking are focused more on the blue eggs than any others. Two of the Araucanas are now laying often under the ramp, perhaps to hide their eggs. They seem to get pecked more than the others. This week we have managed to avoid outright eating of eggs, but that is because we collect a dozen times a day. The buffs and a few others are willing to sit on several eggs until we get them out safely. Hopefully next week we can finish up the fixing of the back pen and get the side pen built. We should be ready to give the new ones their own quarters by the time they are big enough, and keep them safe from the big thugs until they can fend for themselves. With grass and bugs coming along now, the girls should be able to soon leave each other alone and maybe grow back some of those feathers they either lost to Pete's attentions, molting, or each others picking from boredom.

Peggy for the girls