Spring is in the air



Wow, a lean beginning to the year but now things are starting to look up. The chickens really did take a vacation and decided to molt in January. They wanted to make sure they looked their best for Easter I guess! Now they are laying like crazy and I think omelettes are on the menu for the next few Sunday mornings. Our orange harvest was dismal. We've never had so few oranges. Maybe the orange tree was molting too, because now it is covered in beautiful white blooms. If you've never smelled an orange tree in bloom, it is heavenly. Each morning when I go outside to play with my toddler in the dewy grass I just sit and inhale the fragrance. Then I run and grab the baby out of the strawberries and peas. He loves to pick his own snacks, which I don't mind, but he doesn't check as carefully for slugs as I do. He also doesn't care if the strawberries are ripe, which is good for avoiding slugs I guess, because they don't want the green strawberries! One of the happiest parts of my mornings are finding pea pods for him and watching his chubby fingers pry open the pods to find the cute little peas inside. He carefully sits down on his lawn chair in the sun and eats the peas one by one, then toddles across the lawn to get another pod.

Not fragrant like the citrus blossoms, our pomegranate (shown above,) pear, peaches, plums, blueberries, boysenberries, and avocado are also in full bloom. I added a cute little tangerine to our citrus collection and it is blooming too. Once again our apricot did not bloom.

We've been working very hard in our community garden plot. We cleared out all the weeds, covered the plot in compost, redesigned the irrigation system, and have been visiting diligently every week to plant, harvest, and keep the weeds under control.

After years of seed collecting (buying and saving seeds but never planting them,) I've finally had the patience to start growing them instead of going for the instant gratification of buying starts. Some of the seeds aren't germinating, but thats to be expected since some are over 10 years old. I especially look forward to the interesting tomato varieties someone gave me years ago with names like Mortgage Lifter and Cherokee Purple. It could be a great tomato year.

January harvest tally:
16 lbs. of fresh fruits and veggies
9 eggs

February harvest tally:
5 lbs. of fresh fruits and veggies
35 eggs

March harvest tally:
8 lbs. of fresh fruits and veggies
68 eggs

2014  total:
29 lbs. of fresh fruits and veggies
112 eggs

We live on a 1/10th acre lot and rent a 20x20 foot community garden plot.

Musical chickens

Another fun summer on my parent's hobby farm has come and gone. Being away for six weeks is an amazing experience for my kids and very relaxing for me, though I have to rely on others to tend my garden and chickens at home. I do have great support and this year thank Kim and Katelyn for keeping everything alive and well while we were gone.

I'd also like to thank (am I winning an award?) my mom for accepting my recycled chickens. This year I gave up the last of my very first city chickens, Hollyhock. The poor thing insisted on going broody two times a year, for nearly 4 months at a time. After moving to the country, Hollyhock quickly met a dashing young rooster and is currently sitting on a nest of tiny white eggs. Our Polish bantam, Poppy, who arrived at the farm a few months previous to Hollyhock, hatched 4 adorable chicks while we were visiting. That is one proud rooster. Petunia also retired to the farm this summer and is the only one of the city transplants to fit in with the flock. The silkie, Midnight, prefers to live with the goats and has become the roommate of a handsome buck named Milkman. My new pullets, Daisy (layer of the double yolk,) Sunflower, and Lemondrop are starting their egg laying careers.

August 2011 Harvest Tally:
47 lbs. of fresh fruits and veggies
18 eggs
 
September 2011 Harvest Tally:
40 lbs. of fresh fruits and veggies
28 eggs

Year to date:
451 lbs. of fresh fruits and veggies
324 eggs

We live on a 1/10th acre lot and rent a 20x20 foot community garden plot.

Putting all my eggs in one basket

Just because they are pretty.

We've had our city chickens for three years now! Occasionally they all lay on the same day. I considered it a birthday gift. We don't eat a large amount of eggs, but I haven't purchased eggs for about 2 years now. I love how the eggs are as unique as our hens, which are all different breeds. I know exactly who layed which egg, and who may be trying to hide her nest somewhere tricky. My favorite layer of them all is Juliet, a red star or red comet. Her egg is the big brown one and she lays almost every day. She is also very calm and quiet. I would definitely recommend her breed for a backyard flock.

Nearly everyone is aware of the relationship between healthy hens and healthy eggs, but misconceptions are still prevalent, especially among people who have never actually seen a chicken lay an egg. Or as I like to call them, city-slickers. Brown eggs are not any healthier than white eggs, that's just the color of the shell and certain breeds will lay certain colors. A hen cannot change the color of her eggshells, and the color of the chicken's feathers or earlobes is not a good indicator of the eggshell color. Just ask my black-feathered chicken with the dark blue skin who lays bright white eggs. Chickens are not vegetarians, and a vegetarian-fed chicken should not be assumed to be healthier than any other, except they may be avoiding yucky animal by-products in their feed. Hens do not need the presence of a rooster to lay eggs, and they are wonderful at putting themselves to bed at night. In my opinion and experience, chickens are much easier to care for than dogs and still make fun pets.

Do you have any city-slicker chicken questions?

This post is part of Food Renegade's Fight Back Fridays.

Hello ladies

And goodbye, Poppy, you annoying noisemaker. Poppy is the Polish on the upper rung. She has gotten it into her featherbrain that it would be fun to be loud in the mornings and pretend she can crow like a rooster. Sometimes a hen will do this, especially in the Bantam breeds (think little yappy dogs) if there is no rooster around. So Poppy is going to go visit the farm. Permanently. No, really, I'm taking her as a lovely present to my parent's place in the country, no need to worry about her pretty little neck. Hollyhock, Petunia, and the aptly named Midnight may miss her, but they'll be the only ones. More and more people are getting backyard chickens. They are fun, easy to care for, and usually fairly quiet. About five people in my area have expressed serious interest in getting their own little flock recently. Two have actually done it! Two of the most common questions people ask about our chickens are if we actually eat their eggs and if they need a rooster to lay eggs. The answers are yes, we eat their eggs. They are all natural, free-range, pastured, organic eggs from happy hens! Do you know how much those cost in the store?! And second, no, hens do not need a rooster to lay eggs. Contact me privately if you'd like a refresher lesson on the birds and the bees. Thinking about getting chickens? They are great fun- the pet that makes you breakfast. Do you or anyone you know have city chickens?

Gender discrimination is alive and well at my house.

Homemade chicken soup. And I do mean homemade.

U-G-L-Y

You ain't got no alibi... you ugly! Ah, the awkward teenage phase. I apologize that some of you have commented before I finished this post. I mostly just posted these pics so my mom could tell me if she agreed with me. She does. We think we have identified the roosters. Can you?

Too bad this last shot is blurry. I love the composition.

Lets start with the chickens

A few weeks ago I bought some baby chicks. Bantams. I have a cochin, a gold seabright, a silver seabright and 3 red Old English. After researching several online hatcheries and discovering that a minimum order of chicks is 25, we took a trip to Escondido Feed. My dh's cousin lives in Escondido and lives a life that some days I think I would like, but then realize I'm probably too lazy. She and her dh have several acres, seven children, milk goats, sheep and dozens of chickens. They have a huge garden plot and beautiful fruit trees. It made me nostalgic for my hometown. Minus the avocado trees. And being nostalgic is the reason I was buying chicks in the first place.

I grew up in a town of about 400 people. We had land. And animals. Now that I live in a town of about 4 million of my closest friends I get a little homesick now and then. Every once in a while I need a reminder of where I grew up. To get out of the city, to see open space, to understand where my food actually comes from. And to bring the best the country has to offer to my tiny little plot of earth.

So after being encouraged by sites like The City Chicken, My Pet Chicken , and Backyard Chickens , and remembering I did give a report about chickens in my Animal Science class in college, dh and I decided to take the plunge.

Now we have 6 peeping baby chicks in our garage under a light bulb to keep them warm. Our family sits on a blanket on the cement floor and watches the chicks like we were watching tv. I love it. Its too soon to tell which ones are pullets (hens) and which are cockerels (roosters). When the cockerels are big enough, we'll take them back to Escondido where they will make someone happy. And full. The pullets will start to lay eggs when they are about 6 months old. Bantams lay miniature eggs, but they'll taste the same. Dd is the omelet maker of the family and she can't say enough about really fresh eggs.

I hope to have at least 3 pullets to happily scratch around my yard, eating bugs and looking pretty. I won't let the kids name them because I already have a plan for their names. I'm as bad as an expecting parent with baby names.

The chicks are already celebrities in our neighborhood, and I've taken them into my ds's class at school. I love that I can share this interest with my children. I'm not ready to let them be city slicker sissies. A little chicken poop isn't going to hurt you. Just ask the 400 people in my home town. Go ahead, it won't take long.