Saturday, April 30, 2011

Bob's gone broody!

When Jeff and I headed out to the back 40 (i.e., out our back door), we did a chicken headcount and found that little Bob was missing. No big deal...clearly egg-laying time. Only she was still missing a half-hour later. And a half-hour after that. We cracked the nest box door to make sure she was there. She was.

I started to fret. Did she have an egg stuck? Was she just taking a long time to take care of business? Or had she gone broody?

We gave it a little more time before I sent Jeff back in (since he was working on the path around the chicken coop...I was up on the deck trying to wrangle our out-of-control wisteria). I heard this hideous high pitched shriek (from little Bob, not from Jeff). When he tried to touch her a second time, she growled at him and tried to peck him. This from the sweetest chicken on earth.

I went over and attempted to play chicken whisperer. She really looked like she was brooding, and not like she was in any discomfort (thank goodness). "You poor sweet chicken. I know you just want to be a mama, but you have to get up." She softly clucked at me, but made no move to unnest herself.

I fretted more, and did some research, and decided we had to get her off those eggs. I pleaded with Jeff to be the muscle while I made a grab for eggs. He did a great job...quick and purposeful, like pulling off a Band-Aid. Soon Bob was out in the run with the rest of the ladies, eating and drinking and having a good ol' dustbath with Coco and Marmalade (while Miss Buttons bonded with the feeder, as usual).

Shortly before dark, we noticed Bob was the only chicken missing again. And she is NEVER the first chicken to go to bed. Yep, on the nest again, even though there were no eggs to sit on. Looks like I'll have my work cut out for me to break her of this habit.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Rhymes with "corn"

As much as I wanted to use "Garden P--n" as a headline, I suspect that it would not be a good idea. This isn't that kind of blog, although this garden greens slide show from the Garden Design magazine website certainly qualifies. Not sure what kind of lettuces and other leafy green goodness to plant this year? You might get a few good ideas!

Do my feathers make my butt look fat?

It's no secret that a lot of people overfeed themselves and overfeed their pets. But overfeeding chickens can be bad news. An obese chicken is more likely to get an egg stuck on the way out, and who wants to have to strap on the latex glove and go rooting around in there? Besides, as strong as their legs seem when they're jumping on and off the roost and kicking up dirt, I don't like to think of them needing to hold up extra weight (like some of their poor industrially raised cousins).

A chicken & urban farming message group I subscribe to posted a link to this article today on how to tell if your chickens are a normal weight, and I thought it would be a good resource for any fellow backyard chicken farmers reading this!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Easter eggs

Lady Marmalade was QUITE put out that I invaded her privacy while she was attending to her egg-laying business on the nest yesterday. I rarely open the nest box door when I know a hen is inside (usually when it happens I simply wasn't paying attention that all the chickens were not accounted for in the coop run), but it is pretty cute.
Meanwhile, the rest of the ladies enjoyed their Easter treat of a head of lettuce and cut up carrot tops. Tasty, and good fun!
We got a lot done outside on Saturday, seeing that it was such a glorious sunny day. Jeff made huge progress on the path from the patio to the chicken coop, and even put down pavers in front of the coop. (The ladies went NUTS as he was loosening up the soil, because of all the worms it stirred up. Worms that they couldn't get to. Oh, the chickenmanity!)
Some of our garden beds are still to cold and wet to plant in, but I was able to plant three kinds of peas (shelling, snap and snow) and small patches of lettuce and spinach. I covered up a few beds with clear plastic to help them dry out and warm up. The Zoo Doo we got was really wet and clumpy this year (side effect of our cold, wet weather), so the beds are a little tricky to work with right now.
It is quite fun working in the garden with chickens nearby. It's entertaining, and even a little soothing, to here them going about their business, making their little chicken noises. I especially like how they turn their attention on you with laser-like focus every time you pull up something green. Chickens love weeds! They had a really nice dust bath too, after we were inside (we were peeping at them out a back window). Little Bob was really in chicken ecstasy, with Marmalade next to her until Coco flopped down right between them (how they don't accidentally kick each other in the eye, I do not know). Miss Buttons remained upright the whole time, eating. That's her usual MO. If you've never seen a chicken dust bath, check out YouTube. There are quite a few there, some of them pretty cute.
Front: Miss Buttons. Back (from left to right): Little Bob (aka Babette), Coco and Lady Marmalade.

Friday, April 22, 2011

She's got high hopes!


Happy Earth Day! It's supposed to be 65 degrees tomorrow. Oh please, let it be so!

Our spring has been so cold, and I am so far behind in my seed sowing! Last weekend we picked up a truck load of Zoo Doo from Woodland Park Zoo and spread it around the front and back gardens.

Our garlic is going strong...

...and our asparagus is pushing through the Doo!

We are fighting morning glory coming up in the former weed-infested strawberry patch, so we're going to forgo replanting berries this year. It's a good, sunny, spot, so I'll do either tomatoes, pole beans or summer squash there. It will be easier to nip out weed problems in the bud than it would be if they were obscured by strawberry foliage.

Speaking of weeds, our rhubarb is doing great...

...and so is my pot of lemon balm. Never mind that I had to dig up 10 times that much from beds and paths where it did not belong!

Lil' black pot herb garden.

This weekend we hope to plant our onion starts and sow seeds of peas, carrots, beets, lettuce and some other greens. We even have a packet of "chicken lettuce" to plant for the ladies!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Queen Bees and Wannabes


Hmmmmm...we may have a new pecking order in the lil' urban henhouse.

Jeff and I spent the cocktail hour yesterday (martini for him, San Pellegrino for me) being simultaneously entertained and grossed out by the ladies' worm-eating antics. Coco found a particularly good patch right at our feet and swallowed worm after worm whole. Ewwwwwww!

But wait! There's more! Lady Marmalade (our Buff Orpington) and Miss Buttons (our Barred Rock) got into several mini-scuffles, which more or less consisted of Buttons giving Marm a peck on her comb, after which Marm would stand stock still as if she was thinking "What is going ON here?" Then Marmalade would fluff up her feathers to look twice her size (for about five seconds until they deflated). Then they would go back to scratching around for choice nibbles until the next scuffle.

I assumed from early on that Marmalade was the Alpha Hen, and that Buttons was her burly Number One. (Meanwhile, Coco the Fastidious and Little Bob the Sweet Chicken operate in their own little clique.) Perhaps I was mistaken. Or maybe there's simply been a coup. It's like an episode of "Gossip Girl," only with eggs for breakfast.

Hipsta hens


Next, on "When Chickens Attack," a head of iceberg lettuce gets it!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Spring? Hello? Are you out there?

It's been a somewhat dismal spring thus far at our lil urban farm. How ironic that the year I finally accept that there is no point rushing seeds into my cold, wet soil is the same year that Mother Nature decided to dish out a spring that's colder and wetter than usual.

Oh well. Can't fight the weather. We did get a good start during spring break (although we haven't been able to do diddly squat since then).


Jeff started putting in a proper path that, when finished, will extend from the patio to the vegetable garden (and past the chicken coop). Right now, it's a hazardous mud slick in the rainy season.


I cleared out the strawberry patch that had been completely taken over by Ranunculus repens (aka creeping buttercup). I'd fought it for a few years, but it just got too good of a foothold, and our berry yield wasn't very good last year. So we're starting over.


One good thing about weeds and chickens is that chickens love weeds. They feasted happily on this tasty pile!


Speaking of weeds, my grapevines went bezerk last summer, starting when I was taking a monthlong intensive organic chemistry class and had zero time to do garden maintenance. They wound their way into our large Japanese maple next to the patio and by the time I could deal with them, the job felt way too daunting. It wasn't an easy job, even now, but the lack of leaves this time of year at least meant I could see what the heck was going on.


Speaking of the patio, we have residents in this bird house! The cutest little things...I think they are some type of finches but I'm not sure. They started moving in materials before spring break, and we were horribly, sickeningly afraid that Jeff had scared them off when he powerwashed the deck and patio (it needed it SO bad). I cannot express the extent of our relief when we saw mama in there last weekend sitting on her eggs! We think there are three or four...it's hard to tell.


Speaking of birds, even though the ladies have taken well to their chicken nipple waterers, they insist on beelining for their old waterer whenever we let them out of the coop. They act like they are SO dehydrated (picture a hen laying wing to brow and swooning), but I know them for the little fakers that they are.

I've got tomato, pepper and basil starts growing in the basement, but my hands are tied until we get at least a brief stretch of warmer, slightly less wet weather. It's brightly cloudy today, so maybe I'll get out there after I go for a walk. I had a four-hour microbiology lab this morning, and it kind of wore me out!