chickens 101

 Chicken basics.
Like....the very basics.
Like, we are still figuring this chicken stuff out....but here is what we've learned so far. please feel free to add your two cents (or 50 cents!) in the comments.
I love learning about chickens.

Heads up: I don't talk about the coop--we picked ours up for free (along with a hen, remember?) and added on to it a bit.....and works for now. Someday we will build one and I'd do things differently, but for now it's good.
I don't talk about getting started--I never documented much of that last spring. I promise to do a "getting started" post next spring when I get more babies. It's very easy and anyone can do it, promise.  
If you want to see how cute our girls were as babies--check out THIS post.

Remember those old commercials--
"The Incredible Edible Egg"?

I didn't realize how truly incredible they were until our ladies started laying.
They make an egg. Inside their body. Every day. And we eat it!
Incredible!
And eggs are one of the healthiest foods you can eat. Check out all the juicy nutrition info HERE.
And did you know that pasture raised eggs have 10% less fat, 34% less cholesterol, 40% more vitamin A, and 400% more omega-3 fatty acids. Also, an egg from a pastured hen has 30% more vitamin E. Pasture-raised eggs produce positive HDL or good cholesterol and lower “bad” triglycerides.
[source is HERE. along with some great egg facts.]

Here is some very basic information, and answers to a few questions I've received over the last little while.
And yes--our girls have names......Fanny (Delaware), Wilma (Plymouth Rock), Goldie (Rhode Island Red), Hermione (Ameraucana), and Millie (Orpington).

General Care

How easy are chickens to take care of you ask? Suuuuuuper easy. How's that for an answer? They really require very little hands on attention. When we leave town we keep them locked in the coop with plenty of food and water and we are good to go. Most days they are out in the yard eating for several hours a day and I give them all of our table scraps--they will just about anything. I keep food in their coop but they eat alot less when they spend the day out grazing.

HERE is a great list of what chickens can/can't eat when it comes to scraps.
I use pine shavings inside their coop and nesting boxes and add a fresh layer as needed. Every now and then we get out the shovel and scoop everything out of the coop/run and mix it into to our garden "soil". I'm hoping to make our lousy desert brick dust soil a little bit better than this past summer....fingers crossed.

Free Range?

My girls are so happy when they are out wandering the yard. When I go out to the coop they gather around the door waiting to be set free. They spend a big part of the day out roaming. I do have to be able to keep an eye on them--they like to wander over into the neighbors yard.....and he's not the biggest fan of that. So as long as they behave they get to say out as long as they like. We lock them up in evening to keep them safe from the crazy country nightlife.

Winter
So far we have only had a little bit of winter--I'm anxious (and nervous) to see how the next few months play out. There is a big debate in the chicken world over supplemental light. Chickens need about 14 hours of daylight to lay eggs, so in the winter egg production slows waaaaaay down, or stops completely. 

We have a heat lamp on a timer that comes on about 3 hours before the sun comes up. With this extra light/warmth we are still getting 3-4 eggs a day (we have 5 chickens). Some people choose to give the chickens a break and not add light throughout the winter. Supposedly chickens will lay longer if they take it easy in the winter, but we decided to add the light this year. It also makes me feel better knowing that they have a few extra hours of heat in the morning as our temperatures continue to drop.

For water so far I am just hauling out warm water every morning to melt the frozen layer on their water bucket. We'll see how things go as it gets colder, but I'm eyeing one of THESE for water if it gets too nasty.

Washing Eggs

Another big debate in the chicken world is to wash or not to wash. When eggs are laid, they have a natural coating covering them called "bloom". This prevents bacteria from entering through the porous eggshell. If you wash off the bloom, bacteria has a better chance of entering the egg. Most of the time my eggs are pretty clean. Every now and then I'll get a poopy egg--so I do gently wash those. The rest I leave as is.
Broodiness
When a chicken goes "broody", she sits and sits and sits on her egg.....and really, she doesn't do anything else. The poor thing wants so badly to be a mom and hatch that egg. Our hen Millie that we got with the coop wasn't laying when we got her. Her previous owner said she never did lay. She was at our house for less than two weeks and started laying--we were beyond excited. I never knew why she started laying so suddenly, but then two months later she stopped laying....again.
She was broody. She never left her nesting box, ever.
I'm thinking that was her problem before we got her--and I think having little baby chicks around snapped her out of it.
Weeks went by without an egg and I started researching what to do. There were so many ideas--throw a bucket of cold water on her. Put a basket over her for 3 days (sad!?).
But I decided to block off her nesting box. She only sat in the middle box (we have 3), so I blocked it off to see what would happen. Within a week she started to lay again--woohoo!
She's never consistent, but her eggs are giant and beautiful.....thanks Millie!

What to do with the girls after they are done laying.....

Who knows.....I haven't thought that far ahead. I don't know that we'd eat them--laying hens aren't really meant for eating. They are pretty small, and from what I understand, the older they get the tougher and chewier they will be. In the next few years I might want to try my hand at raising a few turkeys to eat.
My friend Meg shared THIS post with me--how to butcher your own chicken.  
(DON'T look at this post if you get queasy.....it's step by step with photos).
So for now we'll just be happy that they are laying.

 
So all these eggs.....what do we do with them?
Everything.
Scrambled. Fried. Baked. Hard Boiled.
mmmm....eggs. 

Farm Fresh Egg with Kale and Goat Cheese
Chop kale into large pieces and saute on medium heat with minced garlic and a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes.
Add a splash of balsamic and salt and pepper.
Make a little "nest" in your kale and crack an egg into it.
Cook until your egg is done--I like the yolk just a little bit soft.
(Stir the kale around a bit as the egg cooks)
Sprinkle with goat cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.
(See more egg recipes on my recipe page HERE)

I never ever thought I would like this chicken business so much. I knew I'd love the eggs--but I never thought I'd be so interested in the chickens themselves. They fascinate me. They each have their own quirky little personality and they are just so funny to me. I am already excited for spring--we'll be getting a few more babies to add to our flock.

Backyardchickens.com has lots of helpful information--it's like the Chicken Bible.

Do you have chickens?
What's have you learned from raising your own flock?
Oh--and point me to your favorite egg recipes.

Still have questions? Ask them here and I will do my best to answer them in my next Friday Q&A

eggcellent

Yesterday was a very good day.

We have five chickens. 

We got five eggs.

Up until yesterday we'd only been getting two a day. 

So FIVE eggs was ridiculously exciting.....and the fact that we got our first little GREEN egg.....aaaaahhhhh!!!!! 

Really. I screamed. Eggs are that exciting around here.

All that hard work (ok. chickens aren't really that much work....but they were in my house for 6 weeks....) has finally paid off.

Aren't they pretty?

wilma, goldie, hermione, fanny, millie

So yes, we eat a lot of eggs these days. 

Here's a meal I threw together in just a few minutes

Eggs with Chard, Roasted Tomatoes and Goat Cheese

-halve a few cups of cherry tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with thyme and s&p

-roast tomatoes at 450° for 15 minutes

While tomatoes are roasting:

-roughly chop chard and saute with minced shallots in olive oil. salt to taste

-after chard has cooked for a few minutes, make a few little "nests" in the chard to crack eggs into

-crack eggs and cover with a lid. 

-cook the eggs for a few minutes--the steam from the chard cooks them pretty quickly.

Add a giant scoop of your roasted tomatoes and top with goat cheese. 

and it's still peach season so we had peaches and yogurt for dessert.

enjoy!

What are your favorite ways to eat eggs?

Teach me.

blogged 1 year ago: mixed bean and bacon soup

blogged 2 years ago: hello fall

weekend things

Now that school is back in, weekends mean soooooooo much more! 

We have to cram in as many good things as we can. 

First things first.

I forgot to tell you guys--my chickies have started to lay! I'm guessing the eggs are coming from Wilma and Fanny....and I think the teeny tiny one was Goldie's first. It has been so much fun checking (over and over) all day long to see if there is a tiny adorable gift for us. 

Swiss Days! 

Our little valley celebrates it's Swiss heritage each year, and I helped out with the Swiss Children's Chorus (kind of funny, since I don't sing OR dance).

 The kids sang their little hearts out and got to ride in the parade. 

Swiss looks good on them.

Our sunsets these past few weeks have been incredible. Starting around 6 o'clock we like to guess what colors the sky is going to turn. Saturday night we sat on a hill and watched the sun sink. 

Homeschooling last spring made me realize there are so many teaching opportunities throughout the day. My kids don't have to be officially "homeschooled" for me to attempt to cram knowledge into their growing brains. So we talked about the sunset. The mountains. The clouds. They drew the earth and colored the sky as we watched the big show. 

I watched them work, and listened, and felt so lucky to call them mine.

*******

And then we ate some pizza. 

Pizza is so easy to make in the summer--there is an abundance of ingredients just begging to be thrown on top. 

Prosciutto and Blackberry Pizza

inspired by one of my favorites at Pizzeria Limone

Your favorite crust topped with:

-olive oil

-mozzarella

-prosciutto

-red onion

-pine nuts

-fresh black berries

-fresh grated parmesan cheese 

Margherita Pizza with Goat Cheese

Your favorite crust topped with

-a simple tomato sauce (like THIS  easy one)

-mozzarella cheese

-your favorite kind of cherry tomatoes, halved (I like to use little ones because they are so sweet)

-pine nuts

-basil

-goat cheese

Lately I have been loving Whole Foods whole grain pizza dough. I always keep some in the freezer so I can pull it out for a quick dinner. I cook it on the grill just a few minutes, then put the toppings on, and then cook it a few minutes more until the cheese is nice and melty. 

How was your weekend?

oh--and we also hiked! and ate pie! more of that coming soon.

meanwhile, back at the ranch

I picked a tiny jalapeno from our garden the other day.......the saddest little harvest.

Last summer was the year of the vegetable......by this point in summer we were feasting on all types of veggies--lettuce, tomatillos, carrots. Tomatoes still warm from the sun and so much zucchini we were eating it three meals a day. 

I could go out and pick our dinner right off the vine.

This year due to this and that, I planted late.......and boy has it just been hot for those poor little plants. 

We have green tomatoes that we check every day to see if they are starting to turn.....and we are celebrating our zucchini blossoms that finally decided to show up.

Maybe someday, (like right before it frosts) we will have a little garden.

I start to get discouraged, but then I remember.....

our little chickies are big girls now and we are hoping to be seeing eggs maybe as early as next month!

While the kitten doesn't provide us with anything to eat......I just know she's going to take care of the mouse I just saw run across my bathroom floor. And come on, she's just cute. 

So in replace of a flourishing garden, we have just continued to acquire animals that really make it feel like we are living on a farm sometimes (don't be surprised if we end up with goats and turkeys one day). I'm kidding, and I'm not.

(pictured: fanny, hermione, wilma)

And while it wasn't OUR cow, we have been enjoying beef we purchased from a local farmer--with cows so close I can almost hear them from my house--now THAT's the kind of burger you want to be eating. 

Blue Cheese Bacon Burger

-good grass fed beef (it REALLY makes a difference, I promise) seasoned with salt and pepper and grilled to perfection

-bacon

-a big heap of blue cheese

-mayo

-greens

-tomato

-toasted bun

I'm hoping next year we can really get it together and have our garden and our farm animals producing all at once....how great would that be?!

What's your thing--garden, farm animals, or both?

friday senses

We have dove headfirst into summer and have yet to come up for air.....it's been wonderful. 

Days just feel better with summer kissed skin and popsicle stained lips.

Seeing: the whole valley is in bloom! Lilacs! Poppies! Blossoms and blooms everywhere. 

Watching: Two little barn swallows build their nest on our porch. It's fascinating watching them gather materials and bring them back to make their cozy home.

Planting: Well.... Garden fail this year. It's still not in. We've had too many other projects going on and sadly the garden has yet to be started. I know we'll get there eventually....so I'm trying not to remind myself of all the homegrown goodness I'm missing out on right now. But I've planted a few flowers if that counts for anything.....(it doesn't)

Justifying: I'm telling myself it's ok that my garden isn't growing and flourishing, because our lovely Millie is giving us an egg a day now. Since she started laying, she's only missed two days--it's such a treat to go out to the coop and find her daily gift. It will still be a few months before our chicks begin to lay, so for now we are so thankful we inherited Millie!

Eating: With lots of running comes lots of eating.....here is one of my favorite breakfasts right now 

Raw Oats

mix 1/2 cup raw oats and a big spoonful of chia seeds with enough almond milk to cover

soak for about 15 minutes

add bananas, strawberries, raspberries, almonds, cashews, coconut, hemp seeds, flax seeds, cocoa nibs and raw honey.  (really though.....anything goes....obviously)

It's a loaded breakfast (or sometimes an afternoon snack for me) and keeps you full with lots of GOOD calories for all your summer adventures. 

Excited for: getting my bike out again. I'd been so focused on running this past month, I'm excited to add mountain biking back into the mix. Hoping one of our favorite trails opens up soon!

Smelling: A few weeks ago we were out for a little hike and Charly rolled in a dead skunk. Because any other dead animal wasn't good enough--it had to be a DEAD SKUNK. 

The kids scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed her until she was a yellow fuzz ball, but every now and then we get the faintest smell of skunk......

Hearing: Every morning as the sun shines in and the cool mountain breeze comes through the windows, we hear the song of the Western Meadowlark.  It transports me back in time to when I was little--this is the sound I remember from my summer mornings.....it makes me so happy.

Farmer's Marketing: Our market has started! Not a lot is growing quite yet, but we picked up lots of greens, asparagus, honey and some freshly baked asiago bread.....and have been loving every bite.

Grilling: It's grilling season! Nothing is safe. Here is a favorite salad that we have often--it's easy to throw together and always a hit with the family. Sometimes I don't add the chicken and make it a side salad, or just add beans for a quick lunch. 

Grilled Chicken Salad with Beets and Asparagus

-your favorite greens (we used a mix of spinach and red lettuce from the farmers market)

-grilled chicken (brushed with olive oil, lemon, and salt and pepper)

-grilled beets (brushed with olive oil) we used golden beets this time to mix it up a bit

-grilled asparagus (tossed in olive oil, s&p)

-goat cheese

-easy balsamic dressing (olive oil, balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, honey)

-your favorite bread, brushed with olive oil and grilled

What are you grilling this week?

Happy Weekend!

eggsellent

Guess what?

Our new hen Millie (she'd never laid an egg at her old home) surprised us with an egg on Thursday. 

And then Friday. 

And then Saturday. 

THREE eggs from a supposedly barren hen!

It was like Christmas morning. 

(you know you live a simple life when you are ridiculously giddy over an egg)

Thanks Millie.

short stories

So many little stories to tell.....

Circle of Life

Our first story hurts my heart......last week I had mentioned that our little chick Pebbles wasn't growing like the others. As the days went by she began to move a little slower and sleep a little longer. We came home from church on Sunday and found that she had never woke up. It was a sad sad day for my Lu--Pebbles was HER chick, her baby. We snuggled and she cried, and snuggled and snuggled some more until her tears had soaked my shirt. We had a proper funeral (I mean, of course we did.....for a chicken.....because that's normal) and said our goodbyes. 

She had a hard afternoon--she's so sensitive this one, and loves like no other. 

I'm so lucky to be her mom and to be loved like that.

Chuck

But I wouldn't tell you a sad story without a happy ending!

Friday night Robby went to get our coop (no more chickens in the house!) A friend from work was getting rid of it--perfect for us! What we didn't realize (until he went to GET the coop) was that they still had one hen left......and she was coming home with US! Her name was Chuck, and she was completely barren-never laid an egg in her life. I didn't really know what we were going to do with her.....until.....

Until our sad afternoon a few days later when poor Pebbles died. We decided that Lu's new pet and very favorite would be Chuck. She was thrilled.....as long as she could rename her. And she did. 

Meet Millie.

A gigantic barren Orpington who gets carried around on a hip like a baby.

(also totally normal.)

Sugar Sugar

Remember that time I announced I was going off sugar for the month? (You should remember, it was only last week) That is really funny that I said that. Well, I made it 6 full days. It actually wasn't that hard skipping out on the treats--I craved my usual piece of chocolate after dinner (and let's face it, usually lunch as well), but I skipped it and felt good about my decision. But I was also trying to ease up on other carbs, which the more I think about, the more hilarious it is. I had mentioned I'm adding mileage to my weekly runs, and that doesn't go over so well with a lack of carbs in my diet. My 5 mile run felt fine--no problem. Eight miles felt like I weighed 300 pounds and was running through Jell-O. It was terrible. I realized I needed some more carbs in my diet, so before my 12 miles on Saturday I had a big bowl of oatmeal with fruit and pure maple syrup......I felt better than I had a few days before, but still slow and sticky. So after laughing at myself and realizing how silly I'd been, I decided I'll try out my sugar cleanse when I'm not running so much. And naturally I ended my say-no-to sugar campaign with a Ruby Snap Cookie.

Mother's Day

I went to bed on Sunday evening giggling. What an odd day is was--we had a funeral for a chicken. 

But other than that, we had such a good afternoon. I read, napped, and feasted on grilled burgers with my favorite people. I sure do love these two--I feel lucky each day that they were sent to me. 

They are wild and crazy and dirty and silly and I just love watching them grow.

Summer Senses

These last two days have felt like summer--hot hot heat and sticky sweat dripping down. The taste of grilled burgers, veggies, and popsicles on my tongue. I hear squeals and giggles from outside in the late afternoon until the sun drops out of sight. I smell the fresh summery air--trees and dew and afternoon sun. And I see summer........well.....ok, it actually looks like spring still....Blossoms, baby animals, and new life on the mountain--it's perfect, really. 

The Cookbook

Every few days I get an email from Mrs. Whitney L. Ingram with a few sample pages from her upcoming cookbook.....and I see MY photos on the page! It's crazy! And it's happening! Soon! Things are coming together more and more each day, and we should have a date sometime soon--I will keep you posted.

Eggs and Greens

Does all this chicken talk lately make you hungry for eggs? I love eggs.....we are counting down the days (we are so far away) until that magic moment when our own eggs start to arrive. 

I have some combination of a fried egg and greens several times a week--breakfast lunch or dinner, I'll take them all. Here are two to try:

Sauteed Kale, Egg, and Goat Cheese

Sauté kale and leeks in some olive oil and a big squeeze of fresh lemon juice. After it's cooked for a few minutes, crack your egg into the kale and let it cook until it's done to your liking. 

Add some salt, pepper, another squeeze of lemon to the kale and a few crumbles of goat cheese (or feta).  

Egg and Spinach Salad

-fried egg

-baby spinach

-blackberries

-pine nuts

-goat cheese

-a splash of balsamic and olive oil

the end.

tiny flock

Our girls are growing up! 

They are true teenagers......eating and sleeping the day away while their awkward bodies grow grow grow.

With the exception of making my house smell like a barn, these girls have been pretty easy to keep.

The first two weeks they lived in one of our over sized moving boxes. Just chick food, water, a heat lamp, and five fuzzy chicks in a box. We changed their bedding (pine shavings) every few days and listened to their peeping (alllll night long). 

(oh ps. they are in my house because it's cold outside and we don't have a garage.....please don't keep them in your house if you don't have to)

By week 2 they were testing out their wings and getting too close to the box top.....time to move into a bigger place. 

We took Charly's large dog crate (it's huge) and made a new home, with a door that latched and a roof overhead. As they've continued to grow and their fluff has magically transformed into feathers, they haven't needed anything more--just extra food (they never stop eating) and we have someone on vacuum duty 24 hours a day(seriously though, almost). They scratch and flap and flutter and spew their bedding out of their cozy home. And have I mentioned they stink? Because they do. We now change their bed daily--and let them roam around the yard as we do so. And they LOVE it. Pecking at bugs and stretching their wings. Being toted around by my little animal loving country girl. 

They have their feathers now and will be out in their coop this weekend.....I can have my house back!

To see them as chicks (cuteness overload) and for breed info click HERE

Question for any chicken owners out there:

Our Pebbles is still really small. (3rd photo from the bottom) She eats and drinks just fine, and doesn't act sick in anyway.....she's just so far behind her sisters. Her beak is curved down and seemed long--and after talking with a helpful gent at the feed store I clipped her beak back a bit last weekend, to see if that would maybe help her get more food. (Never thought I'd be trimming a chicken's beak, that's for sure.) I've been reading up and learning that sometimes they just grow slower.....but I'm wondering if anyone has experienced this? Thanks!

If you are interested in getting chicks, I'm here to tell you that you can do it! It really is pretty easy so far. Your local feed store will have everything you need to get set-up....including the chicks themselves.  It's still a while before we will be feasting on their beautiful eggs, but for now they really are quite the little entertainers.

meet the ladies

I have to start out by saying this:

Taking pictures of little chicks is a hilarious event. 

They

run

everrryyywhere. 

And sooooooo fast.

It was very entertaining.

We are pretty excited about our girls. 

I have been wanting chickens for quite some time, and moving out here finally made my chicken dreams come true. We had the hardest time only leaving the feed store with five....they are just so cute, and I felt like all their "peep peep peeping" were cries of "pick me! pick me!"

It will be quite sometime before we get to feast on their colorful eggs, but in the meantime we will enjoy them as pets and admire their quirky personalities. And they are growing so fast!! I can't believe how quickly their little feathers are coming in. Soon we will have awkward ugly teenagers.

Goldie

Rhode Island Red

So sweet and mellow. Always snuggled up next to one of her sisters to sleep.

Fanny

Delaware

She's an olympian. Ridiculously quick and impossible to catch--even being so little. 

Pebbles

(named by my girl. she is in LOVE)

Ameraucana

 So sweet. Loves to be held. Starting attempting to fly out of their box already. yikes.

Hermione

(named by my boy.....he's realllly into Harry Potter right now, obviously)

Ameraucana

Another sweet little girl. Maybe part woodpecker....she is constantly pecking at the side of their home. 

alllll night long, mind you.

Wilma

Barred Plymouth Rock

Wilma is the loudest little bird I have ever come across. Constantly peeping and squaking. 

Loves to stand on her sisters.

They are currently in a giant box (in our house) with a heat lamp, but we'll be moving them into something with a roof soon, to avoid any escapes. It will be a few more weeks of growing, and warmer weather before they can go outside (oh, and we should probably get their coop ready....)

Things I've learned so far:

They never stop pooping

They never stop peeping....such chatty little girls.

I was prepared for them to grow fast.....but I can't believe how much they have changed in just the few days we've had them.

Are you getting baby chicks this spring?

Do you have chickens? What can you tell me?

I have found this website to have lots of answers to lots of questions.