Talk is Cheap for this Backyard Chicken Farmer

This past May, I was talking tough about what it takes to be a backyard chicken farmer. Turns out, talk is cheap. My flock put me to the test these past several weeks as I tried to integrate young pullets into my established flock. To say it didn’t go well is an understatement. I’ve introduced chicks previously and it’s never been without its share of difficulty, but it has never been like this. This year I was reluctant to introduced 4 more chicks into my existing flock of 3, but my husband convinced me that we need to keep rotating new pullets in as the older hens slow down their egg production. After a quick trip to the farm store, in which I got to pick out the cute little peepers, we set them up in the basement and waited for the weather to break and for them to get big enough and feathered enough to join their adopted sisters. Not wanting to relive the trauma of having the older birds attack the little ones, I sought advice from a backyard chickens website. Contributor after contributor wrote about how easy it was to integrate babies in with the big girls and how nobody has ever had a problem…except me. What I read was that as long as the chicks were still peeping (not clucking yet), that the other birds would accept them. I seem to remember this particular advice NOT working in the past, but hey, I have to introduce them at some point, right? I kept the girls in the same coop, but separated by a rock, hoping to let them get big enough to protect themselves before removing the rock. Unfortunately, one morning the rock fell and all heck broke loose. To save you all of the gory details, one of the older hens had to be removed from the flock and rehomed. When the day came to get her all caged up and ready to transport, I had a flawless plan. I would simply throw her favorite dried mealworms into a dog kennel, she would trot right in, I would slam the door behind her, and we’d be off. Unfortunately, she had a different idea of what was going to take place, and getting into that box was not part of her plan. What followed was a series of attempts by me which included that dog kennel, about 3 cups of bird seed/mealworm mix, a cardboard box, a large beach towel, 3 videos and an article on “How to Catch a Chicken,” an apple, and another kennel. After about 2 hours total, I finally, and humanely got my hen into the back of my car with minimal stress for either of us. Truth be told, I could have grabbed her, but I was scared she would turn around and peck me. That’s right. The big, bad backyard chicken farmer is scared of her own chickens. Like I said, talk is cheap and if you’re looking for advice on raising backyard chickens, I find the internet is a great place to find all sorts of helpful advice.

Musings of a Backyard Chicken Farmer

When Chick Season arrived at the area farm stores, my husband, Tom informed me that we would be getting more chicks to add to our flock of 3. I resisted the idea because, in my professional chicken-farming opinion, our coop is too small to handle 7 full grown hens, and honestly, I just didn’t feel like getting more. Even though I’ve been there, done that, got the T-shirt, (really, I have a t-shirt that says “Backyard Chicken Farmer”), doing the work it takes to raise chicks and then integrate them into the flock seemed daunting to me this time around. Perhaps it’s because I have a lot going on this spring, or maybe I just know what 7 chickens crammed in that coop will look like in the middle of January. I got into this whole thing a little bit, ok, a LOT naive about what it really takes to be a backyard chicken farmer. I learned rather quickly, that taking care of chickens is a bit more involved than taking care of say, a cat. I’d like to share a few pros and cons about raising hens that you might not know.

Pro- Fresh eggs. We have an abundance of eggs! They are rich and beautiful and delicious. I know what’s in them and how long they’ve been around.

Con- Eggs can be tricky. Sometime they are laid with thin, rubbery shells, and sometimes they are laid with no shell at all. When that happens, you have to figure out what’s going on and why so you can correct it. It can be a system of trial and error.

Pro- Chickens are entertaining. I could sit for hours and listen to them murmle and interact. They seem to discuss the goings on of the coop and when something new arrives they are curious.

Con- Chickens are animals that get sick sometimes and die. I started out naming them. In our first round we had Betty, Ruby, the Gerries, and Lola. First Gerrie died a mysterious death. Then Ruby (my favorite) got sick and died, then one of the brown ones, (after I stopped naming them), became a fox’s dinner in broad daylight. I’ve had to clean dried egg off of vents, which is just gross. It is. I realized that emotional detachment is necessary in farming.

Pro- They are pretty self-sufficient. We can go away for the weekend and they are fine with plenty of food and water. Eggs tend to pile up but it’s not a big deal because they don’t have to be refrigerated.

Con- They are dirty and buggy and they can devour the blueberries from 6 bushes in a matter of moments. When you free-range hens, expect some damage to foliage.

All-in-all my chicken farming experience has been a positive one and I’ve learned a lot. I wear that t-shirt proudly. And if you’re wondering if we got the chicks, they are in a dog kennel in my basement happily kicking wood chips everywhere. I call them “The Peepers.”

I'm Starting to 'Lose It!'

Over the last 6 months or so, I’ve found myself in need of some extra assistance when it comes to my diet and exercise routine. Fortunately, there is help available in the form of phone apps for just this sort of need. The one I have been using is called “Lose it!” and just the name itself was enough to get me interested. It’s basically a calorie counting app that also figures in your exercise and allows you to track how you’re doing in terms of your weight & fitness goals. You can use the free or paid version. I’ve been using the free version until I decide whether or not it’s worth the $29.99 yearly subscription price. I got started because I was having a difficult time losing that pesky 10 pounds before my son’s wedding. The cool thing about this app is that I can simply scan the bar codes on the back of the food or drink containers and it immediately logs in what I consumed and calculates calories and applies them towards my daily goal. My goal was set based on how much I currently weigh and how much I want to weigh. The really handy thing is that it remembers what I eat from day to day, so I can just grab “Larabar and coffee with cream and sugar” every day without re-scanning. Once I realized that my problem wasn’t that my body just has a slow metabolism, but that my fork-to-mouth ratio was higher than I estimated, I was forced to find some loopholes in the system, otherwise I’d never make my daily goals. One thing I discovered right away is the more I exercise, and the higher the intensity, the more calories get put-back onto my daily calorie allowance. For instance, if I take a “slow” morning walk for at least 20 minutes, I only have X-number of calories left for the day, but if I up the intensity of that same walk to “brisk/moderate incline” on the app, hey! I just built in enough calories for a snack! Same thing goes for food. If I don’t like the number of calories that a certain brand of soup has, I just scroll for a different brand of soup with lower calories. Now I can have 2 servings instead of one. I also found out that the difference between a “large honey crisp apple” and a “medium apple” is 34 calories. An apple’s an apple, right? So I’ll do myself a favor and log the medium apple and add on another mini Snickers. Apparently, I kill my daily calorie count with evening snacking and portion size at dinner. So I just don’t even bother logging those. Who wants to get discouraged just before going to bed? For now, the jury is still out on “Lose it!” I’m not sure how to rate it because I really haven’t lost any weight. I better save the $29.99 because I’m going to need to buy bigger pants. It must be my slower than average metabolism

I'm Not Wearing Socks Today

I’m not wearing socks today! I announced to my husband on March 12.
“Oh, I’ll wear socks and boots to school, but as soon as I get there, the
socks and boots go in my closet and I’m putting the flats on, without socks.”   
I usually wait until April to ditch the socks, but I don’t know if I can wait that
long. I also know that we had a warmer than usual December, but in my
mind, it started snowing in mid October and it hasn’t stopped.
My weather friends would beg to differ, but the length and intensity of this
winter have been unbearable at times. If it sounds like I’m complaining,
I’m trying not to because I do realize that I enjoyed roughly 12 snow days.
We also took a brief trip to San Francisco in February. But the type of winter
that we have endured this year calls for desperate measures. And I’m getting
desperate. I have gotten completely tired of wearing black. On my no-sock
day, I went into the attic to dig out my light pink pants. “It’s time to brighten
things up around here,” I thought. I froze my feet in the -3 degree attic burrowing
through 3 totes of spring/summer clothing, only to come up empty handed.
What happened to those pants? It can’t be spring unless I have pink pants
to wear (even if they are topped with a sweater).
But then I remembered. My over 50 statistically accurate 10 pound average
weight gain prompted me to add those cute and comfy spring pants to the
Good Will pile last summer when they proved to be slightly too restricting
around the backside and midsection. That evening I ordered a replacement
pair that would be delivered and ready to wear by the
time we got back from spring break.
Even though I know that spring is further off than I care to accept, I do like
this time of year. Unlike October, when I have the whole winter in front of
me with the dark mornings and dark nights, even a snowy spring has the
promise of warm days ahead. When it snows in November, I’m breaking out
my warm clothes and pulling the big, warm socks to the front of the drawer.
When it snows in April, I know that the snow will melt and although I need
to wear boots and socks and mittens to work, that those things can
quickly be swapped out and It’ll feel like spring inside,
even if it doesn’t look like it on the outside.