Raising Chicks

No, I'm not talking about daughters.  I don't happen to have any of those.  The chicks I'm talking about grow up to be chickens (hopefully hens).  We recently raised our third batch of chicks, and I have to say this one has gone pretty smoothly so far.  This is partially due to the fact that we built a new brooder to help contain the chicks during their first month (pictured left).  We've used altered dog kennels and plastic bins in the past, but this made it easier to care for the chicks and less messy in the room.  Though the brooder was built to house chicks, I have to say after moving the chicks and a thorough cleaning, it makes a great place to let tomatoes ripen before usage/freezing.  No matter what's inside, it's great at keeping the cats out!

One thing we realized after moving the chicks into the brooder was that the temperature tended to get a little high.  We added extra ventilation by adding an optional screened area for the lid.  This helped us regulate temperatures perfectly.  In the picture above, the hinged flap on top is raised, making room for the ventilation screen.

When the chicks were between four and five weeks old, we set up their outdoor enclosure and used a cat carrier to move them to it.  Since they now have an outside run, we had to teach them to sleep in their house by locking them in the cat carrier at night for the first few nights.  When they are old enough to join the flock (young chickens can be killed by older flock members), they will be allowed to free range with the others and will share their coop at night.  Pictured right is the outdoor run for the chicks with Eagle (our rooster) and an Easter Egger in the background (new chicks are intimidated by their proximity and are inside their coop).  You can see how the chicks are being safely introduced to the old flock, by living with a fence between them for a few months.

Advice for Living with an Aggressive Rooster

1.  Don't!

Actually, that's not quite true.  There are many reasons why you might choose to live with an aggressive rooster.  Here are ours:

1.  We didn't know what we were doing when we raised him, and are now responsible for the way he turned out.

2.  He does a great job of taking care of our free-range hens.

3.  It's kind of sweet the way he calls the hens over when he finds special foods instead of eating them himself.

4.  There are ways to live with an aggressive rooster without getting hurt.  After four years with a rooster, here is my advice:

• Use a spray bottle to help control the rooster's behavior.  This is especially useful if he's gotten into a part of the yard you normally reserve for yourself.
• Use fencing to separate the rooster from the part of the yard you use the most.
• Use rope (or twine or wire -- whatever's handy) to open and close the coop door without having to come face to face with the rooster.
• You might also choose to block off a separate section of your yard with a flap.  For example, we can block the rooster in his coop, in the chicken yard (by putting a flap down on the tunnel between the chicken yard and the "free-range" yard (ie our acreage)), or we can block him out of the tunnel, so he has to stay in the free-range yard and we can pass through the chicken yard.  This is helpful since it is our main access for the garden.

Possibly this is all better off with pictures, so I will get some more taken and posted soon.

Let me just remind you that life with twenty animals can be amazing, but it certainly has its challenges.  Our rooster, Eagle (named at 3 days old when we still thought he was the hen we'd ordered but when we noticed a certain chill in his eyes!) has definitely been a source of challenge.  But, I also credit him with protecting our little flock from the predators around us ... stray dogs, coyotes, foxes, opossum, raccoons, hawks, owls, etc.  Knock on wood, but with him in charge, we have not lost any chickens to predators.

Your Brain on Nature

Wow!  I recently read Your Brain On Nature: the Science of Nature's Influence on your Health, Happiness, and Vitality by Eva Selhub and Alan Logan.

It's not so much that the book provides new information, because much of it my husband and I have discovered ourselves through trial and error and by being aware of how our bodies and minds react to our experiences.  What really impressed me with this book was how it presented the scientific studies that back up our intuitions about the health benefits of being in nature. 

I realized how normal our reactions are, when I thought they were more specific to us.  And I realized that many others aren't hearing (or at least responding to) what their bodies (and their minds) are telling them.  The cost of that oversight can be monumental.

I believe ever more strongly that nature is an essential ingredient in a balanced and healthy life.  I wish that I'd known about these studies while flirting with a psychology major in college.  I wish our society hadn't abandoned the successful trials it had with horticultural and animal therapies after World Wars I and II.  Imagine how many lives could have been positively impacted if they had been expanded rather than discontinued!

The only negative with this book is that the paperback version runs anywhere from $100 to $2,000!  It's out of print, but hey, that is steep.  If you don't have that much money to spend on a book (does anyone besides a Trump or a Lilly?), you can buy the e-text version for under $10. 

What are some of the other books about our connection to nature or the impact of nature on our health or happiness I should read?

Apology

Okay, I admit it.  Lots of shimmering moments have passed since I last wrote a blog post!  I had my reasons for the first few months of silence, but then it just got to be a habit and the reasons turned into excuses and I haven't posted in a very long time.  Forgive me!  Let's see if I can start afresh and follow through this time ...

Oh, and I'll include a picture of the most recent excuses below.

Oops, wait.  That's the wrong one.  Okay, here you go!

How can you possibly say anything else?

I mean, a big old "Awwwww" is just the right response, isn't it? Go ahead, it feels right.

We had originally planned to get two baby goats, but a series of tragedies on the source farm changed the game. We got a mom and her bouncing (literally) baby boy instead. Looks like we still won, doesn't it?

Teamwork!

This is not just a fancy picture of eggs ... this is teamwork! See how many eggs there are? I'll do the hard work for you ... there are seven (7) eggs ... this means that everybody except the rooster laid an egg today. A first!

Puppy with T-Shirt

D (3) introduced me to this guy the other day. "Look, Mommy," he said, "I made a puppy in a T-shirt."

Winter Wake Up

What a winter! Waking up to the gorgeous results of snow or freezing fog is wonderful when hitting the roads is optional. Am still looking forward to spring, though ...

Eating Animals

I'm in the middle of Jonathan Safran Foer's book, "Eating Animals," about the prevalence of factory farming. Very sad. I can't help but be especially affected by the information about the poultry farms, where the birds are given, on average, 67 square inches of space (that's smaller than a piece of typing paper). I've looked at our coop and wondered how many birds (or pages of my last unpublished novel) would fit inside with 67 square inches to each ... 50? 100? I'm sure there's a mathematical solution, but it's more interesting to just try to visualize them. Then to be glad there are, in reality, only eight feathered bodies wandering around.

I'm reminded of some of the reasons I chose to become vegetarian over twenty years ago, though I think it's gotten worse during that time. It's a good book, though. Well worth the read for anyone concerned about animal welfare or the quality of their food.

Meet Red

This is Candy (or Corn, I'm not sure which). We used to be able to tell them apart, but not anymore. Now I usually just call both of them Red. Candy/Corn is a Rhode Island Red hen. I figured since I was posting several egg pictures, I ought to feature some of the "ladies" who are responsible for them.

To do this girl justice, you really ought to click on her and view this picture full size. Look at that eye!

No, I'm not crazy ... just infatuated. Just wait until we get our baby goats!

Eeya begins to lay!

I couldn't resist adding this picture. I never thought I'd see so much beauty in eggs! But I promise I won't limit myself to posting pictures of eggs! This picture is special because it features one of the first "Eeya" eggs (our Easter Egger hen so named because that's the sound she used to make when we picked her up ...)

Leggo my eggo

J made this Lego chicken today. Think we'll get some lego eggs?

A Pile of Memories

I've been meaning to take a picture of these all winter long. Faded now, they're the fruit of many walks and explorations with my sons. All of these items were precious gifts clutched and delivered by sweet fingers. This is just the latest of the fall batch ... the ones I put in a pile because I began to realize that winter was on its way.

I kept them in this pile on the table of the sun porch all winter. Though the colors have faded somewhat, they've been a bright spot physically and emotionally. As spring approaches, they'll be replaced. Their time with us is coming to an end. But they have served me well, providing more pleasure than their bearers even intended.

Finding Phi in Life

When I was in college, I tried to figure out why we perceived beauty in so many of the ojects around us. What created or defined that beauty? Why did we see beauty in a path that curved through the woods but not a road in a city? Since then, I've come to believe that part of our perception of beauty lies in our recognition of phi, the golden ratio. Read more about phi here.

In this blog, I challenge myself to find phi in everyday life (note to scientists and other literal-minded individuals: this is an analogy!). What is the phi of living? Where is the beauty in our everyday existence? I believe it's all around us waiting to be recognized and discovered. Sometimes it's a flower or another visual scene: sometimes it exists within an exchange with a stranger or the touch of a child's hand. There are enough people pointing out what's wrong with this world. My task for myself is to point out what's right with it. I invite you to join me, to share your phi findings with me.

Daily Easter

It's Easter every day! After six months of raising chicks, we're receiving treasure in return.