It's way too early to garden...

I was on the phone with a friend the other day when I mentioned I needed to get back to gardening. "Gardening? It's way too early to plant anything right now!" Ah, but that is not the case. One of the fantastic things we've learned in our 2 years of chickens and gardens is that vegetables grow every month of the year! Here is our garden in February:

 

We've got broccoli and broccoli romanesco (gorgeous green cauliflower) in the first photo, lettuces (Little Gem, Romaine, Oakleaf Red, and other varieties) in the second, and parsley and carrots in the third (plus a little cover crop for the chickens).  We also have kohlrabi, bok choy "Toy Choy", spinach, radishes, arugula, and lettuces.  Did I mention lettuces? Because lettuce grows like a weed.  I'm not sure I can ever buy it again in the grocery store.  We can't keep up the the masses of lettuce growing in our garden beds.

I've always thought of gardening as being about fresh tomatoes, zucchini, and basil.  But, wow!  There is so much more that is easy to grow.  Granted, we live in Atlanta which is Zone 7b, but gardening can happen throughout the year all over the country. There are wonderful crops like carrots, beets, and lettuces that are sweeter and better when they ripen in cool weather.  Our vegetables have to stand on their own little seed-feet, too, because we don't have a sprinkler system or regular watering method- way too much effort and expense -or I'm just too lazy. 

Gardening in the winter is definitely a learning experience. We planted many seeds like broccoli in November 2011 which was too late.  Right when the broccoli started to sprout the following spring, it bolted to seed in the warm weather.  My dreams of fresh broccoli went right to the chickens. This year, we planted the winter garden in August 2012 to gain a few more months of cool. 

Carrots are incredibly easy to grow. Stick the seeds in the ground and you're set.  We've had purple dragon, yellowstone, and royal chantenay carrots (seeds from http://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/). It's a great feeling to have nothing for dinner, run out to the garden, yank a few things out of the ground, and there's you go!  Plus, the kids like helping and actually eat what they grow (most of the time- no one is eating radishes or bok choy but me).  These are fabulously flavorful carrots that you can't get at Publix or Whole Foods...

In January, we planted a second round of seeds- beets, more carrots, lettuces, and potatoes.  The lettuces turned bitter and the chickens got happy.  They cluck when I go to the garden and pluck leaves. The radishes turned to wood and the chickens were thrilled with all the delights thrown into the coop.  It's one of the complete circles that I love- throw the leaves/scraps/bitter plants to the chickens who eat them and turn them into fertilizer.  And bless my husband who hauls that "fertilizer" out of the coop!

A tough day for chickens

As I pulled up this blog today, I couldn't believe it has been over a year since I have last posted. But then again, yes, I can believe it. Raising chickens has been incredibly rewarding for our family, but also VERY time-consuming.   I've decided to expand this blog a bit to include more of the changes the chickens have brought to our lives, our awareness of food, and our attempts to homestead.  Or be urban farmers...

But today, we had yet another chicken tragedy that I think deserves mention.  We've had so many challenges in keeping these poor, sweet creatures alive.  We've given them a safe coop, build an expanded run (because free-ranging was quickly ending our chicken experiment), and tried so hard to keep our pets safe.  We even got two dogs to help protect the chickens which is another reason why finding time to write a blog has become a challenge.  Here are Moxie and Max:



 

After our last tragedy with a raccoon, I researched guardian dogs who can protect flocks.  While building an outer run protected the chickens from certain predators, it left them vulnerable to others- like raccoons.  Apparently there are only two breeds of dogs who are good at protecting livestock- the Great Pyrenees and the Rhodesian Ridgeback.  Fortunately, Atlanta has a wonderful Great Pyrenees Rescue group and these two delightful creatures came to live with us last February and March after being rescued from shelters in Alabama.  I didn't realize that much training is needed to help them learn not to attack the chickens, but we didn't have any fatalities and all seem to coexist.

Today, the dogs were inside my studio when I heard great commotion and clucking from the coop.  I looked out the window and saw Blobby, our lone rooster, walking back and forth inside the run.  I wrongly concluded all was well.  Here is a photo of Blobby, a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte:

Our nine year old often goes and checks on the chickens when he gets home from school.  He came running inside in a panic telling me about the hawk sitting on the run.  We rushed outside to see the hawk on a low branch above the coop.  And Moxie's guardian instinct kicked in.  She immediately sensed the danger and ran to the hawk, barking her deep, echoing bark.  Of course, Max, our non-instinct driven dog, thought she was barking at the neighbor's dogs and proceeded to bark at them.  Moxie was different, though.  She was trying to jump up a tree at the hawk who had moved to a higher branch.  My heart sunk as I noticed his crop (if that's what hawks have) looked full.  Moxie kept barking and the hawk flew off.  Our son was in tears though as he said, "Georgina's hurt".  Nope, Georgina's head was gone.  Here is what he found:

After comforting my son, we took a look around to see what had happened.  The windstorm had blown down part of the soft wire fence.  The hawk climbed in and chased down a chicken, tore it to shreds, and terrified all the other birds.  The boldness of the hawk was astounding.  Most often (at least in my experience with hawks -see previous post), hawks dive-bomb their victims.  To just hop into the run is incredibly fearless and bold.  But it triggered an amazing reaction in Moxie.  Instantly, she realized what she was supposed to do as a guardian dog.  And it isn't to gently pin a chicken down with her paw and pull a feather out...

We moved the dead chicken into the garage to wait for burial (it was too cold outside).  Moxie sat beside the dead chicken and wouldn't leave her side.  Chickens and dogs have been such an amazing learning experience for us and for our children.  Sad, oftentimes, but when is life ever perfect and happy? Actually, life is pretty happy when chickens follow you around a garden and big, fluffy dogs lick you and think you're great :) 

Photos of the roosters

My husband and I often think of the same thing at the same time- we just don't often communicate this! As I was hitting "Publish Post", he sent me some of his wonderful images of the chickens.  I thought I'd share them with you as an homage to our beautiful roosters.  It is amazing to see how gorgeous these birds have become. Gorgeous, you might say? A chicken? Yes, they are so pleasing to the eye and relaxing to watch.  Although, it has been difficult to explain the mating process to our children...
"Oh, they are just playing hopscotch, sweetie."
"But they aren't jumping over," points our our 7 year old."
"Yes, they just haven't quite learned how to play yet," was my quick quip.
Let's see how long he buys that story! 

Fuzzball, one of our Mille Fleur D'Uccles

Midnight

Butterscotch, our Easter Egger. The Flock

Cinnamon posing.

Cinnamon in his full glory!

Butterscotch with his magnificent plumage.

Our roosters move tomorrow

I haven't posted in a while -it's a busy time of year, but it's also been kind of sad with the chickens.  We lost another chicken last week.  Holly was one of our favorites and it was very upsetting to find her headless in our new run extension. Our best guess is she got too close to the fencing and a raccoon/possum/fox snagged her through the fence and chased her inside.  It was the morning and we hadn't staked down the fencing yet- that was our afternoon project but we were too late.

Tomorrow, we are taking 4 of our favorite chickens to live with Mr. Tony who has 30 acres and lots of room for 4 roosters.  We love our roosters but we are happy they have another place to go with reassurances from Mr. Tony that he won't eat them (our 7 year old's main question).  Incredibly, out of the 7 chicks that were hatched in the kindergarten, FIVE have turned into roosters!  What are the odds?  Clearly I didn't do a good job trying to figure out the girls from the boys.  In fact, I just need to do the OPPOSITE of whatever I did last May!  But that is fodder for another posting.


We are fortunate that this past spring Mr. Tony offered to take the roosters. They have been our most personable birds but as their testosterone has kicked in, their personalities have changed.  Our 2 boys have been very gentle with the chickens but they are boys. They love to pick them up and pet them, but the chickens don't understand the love in their little hearts. Typically, the boys back the chickens into a corner to pick them up. This was all good and fine until the rooster-instinct kicked in a few weeks ago and the roosters decided they had to protect their little flock. Cinnamon (to the left),the Bantam Mille Fleur D'Uccle (a miniature chicken) has been chasing our middle son (5 years old) around for weeks.  We found this rather humorous because our son would just bend down, scoop him up, and pet him for a while.  Cinnamon was trying to be so ferocious but a miniature chicken can't help but being cute.  They are less than a foot tall reared up to crow.

But when Midnight became protective, that was a different story. In one of those rare moment "I told you so", Midnight decided he had had enough of our older son picking up his hens. I was in the house and heard screams as this chicken chased my son around and around and around our driveway. Midnight is probably 2 feet tall and terrified our poor son. While it was a good lesson to be gentle with the chickens, our 7 year old was now too afraid to go in the backyard. As he is in charge of opening the run in the mornings, this wasn't a good development.


So it is with a heavy heart tomorrow that we are taking our 4 roosters to live somewhere else.  Our boys are at least reassured that they can visit Mr. Tony and the roosters in the future.  As I explained, it is better than them being on our dinner table...

You can't be chicken around chickens

My heart is still pounding after tonight's chicken adventures. Who knew I would be battling a huge hawk when I picked up our 5 day old Wyandottes a few weeks ago?!  After a sad day 3 weeks when we came home to the following explosion of feathers

All that remains of Pigwidgeon, our Barred Rock

and a another headless chicken discarded in a bank of ivy, we have wondered what struck our precious birds. Was it another dog? The last dog quickly thrashed our chickens to death and didn't actually eat them, though. We thought our birds were too big to be preyed upon by hawks or owls. Did we have a fox attack in the middle of the day? A coyote?  Not wanting to lose another beloved pet (although whatever ate the head off of Fluffy at least chose the rooster that we were going to have to give away...), we have been very cautious in letting our chickens out of the coop.  We now let them out of the coop late in the afternoon or if we are going to be outside with them.

Our 2 blue-laced red Wyandottes and one splash Wyandotte

Tonight around 7pm, we decided to let the Wyandottes outside of the small coop to test their wings and eat some clover. My 4 year old and I were standing next to each other by the coop with the 3 little birds between us and the coop.  Out of thin air, a great whooshing and flapping of wings appeared and scratched my son's head as it tried to grab one of the chicks. Somehow, the flash of cream and brown registered quickly in my brain, "This is NOT one of our other chickens paying a visit and learning to fly for the first time." I knew immediately that it was a hawk and began screaming some lovely expletive that I am sure I will hear repeated many times over the next few days. The hawk chased one chick behind the coop and the other two chicks vanished. As the hawk's wings were outstretched over our poor chick, I grabbed the hawk's wing. I grabbed this amazingly beautiful predator's soft, strong, and very much alive wing. The rustling of the feathers sounded like a taffeta dress I wore in the 80s.  All that registered in my mind was that there was no chick in its talons as I flung this wing and the bird with it into the sky like a frisbee.  My child was screaming but uninjured.  Unfortunately he had just come outside to tell me about the movie "Rango" that he had just finished watching and the hawk that was scary in it (seriously, that was the timing of this bird!)

The hawk flew away, came back a few minutes later, and perched on a branch 15 feet above us. It was huge. We decided it was a red-tailed hawk which means it really wasn't huge (up to 3 pounds) but red-tailed hawks can grow to 2 feet high with a 52 inch wingspan. I would say this one had a wingspan of 3 1/2 to 4 feet based on how its wings were outstretched when I grabbed it.  I flapped my arms at it and yelled. It flew 2 trees away. I'm glad I didn't injure the bird as I flung it in the air.  I'm very happy it was as surprised as I was and didn't claw me when I grabbed it. But I feel sad for our birds because we don't know how to protect them.  I don't want them to stay cooped up -that's not the point of being free-range.  But at least we have our answer as to what killed our other 2 birds. And I know that I can be brave and quick in the face of a small, fierce bird attacking my chicks.  That has to count for something, right?

No longer cooped up

When we realized we really enjoyed our chicks and added a few more, we knew we needed a bigger coop.  My husband is very handy with electricity, fixing things, hanging pictures on the wall, and all things computer-oriented. But he'd never built anything with a electric saw. And we had salvaged wood in our garage plus wood siding that someone dumped in our dumpster. And so a challenge was born!  Could we build a coop ourselved entirely from recycled or salvaged materials?

And the answer is YES!  Except for the hardware cloth- we decided the chicks' safety was most important and couldn't scrimp on that.  First, we reused a pile of bricks that were dumped in our backyard.  We thought these bricks would be the ideal base for the coop. Raccoons and other animals will not be able to dig up under the floor to get inside.  We (the collective "we"- I just watched) chipped the old mortar off the bricks, laid them down for the floor, and put concrete in between:

 

Next, we added the walls above the brick. It leaned a little bit at this point (we didn't exactly know how to build walls...) but we decided the windows and siding would give some stability to the coop.  A contractor friend brought some lumber by that he was going to throw away because it was warped. Chicks don't care about warped wood so we were grateful! The windows were found in a dumpster at my old studio.  The door was actually on the back door to our house- I think it looks much better on the coop.

The trip to the salvage yard for the metal roofing and sides was quite interesting.  They weren't quite sure what to do with me showing up in flip flops at a metal junk yard and were very concerned I was going to cut my feet. Because apparently I might burst into a run in a metal junk yard and not watch where I put my feet. They ignored me at first but once I started picking up metal siding and moving it myself, men showed up to help with a forklift in tow.  Any reason to use the forklift is apparently cause for celebration at Star Salvage.

We had leftover paint from my studio- our choices were either periwinkle blue or lime green. The lime green was rather jarring in the garden so we decided to pretend that the coop was Monet-influenced:

And the crooked door inspired our name "The Crooked Coop".  Inside the coop, we put roosting bars, a box underneath some of them to contain some of the poo (important for keeping disease down), and added nesting boxes.  We also built a drawbridge door to use once we build the run on the outside. Of course the leaves and pine shavings got mixed together after 10 minutes of  furious chick-scratching. But the chicks decimate the leaves nicely which will be delightful for our compost.



To the left are the nesting boxes. To the right, you can see the roosting bars, door to what will be the run, & the shelf above the window where chickens sleep

 

We added the run this past weekend and the chicks are happy and safe.  The chicks love that they can escape into the run and we cannot follow easily. Actually they seem to like my husband and me- but escaping from our lovely, enthusiastic children makes them happy...  Here is the completed coop/run:

Trendy or trend-setter?

One of our neighbors heard us hammering the other day and came over to see what we were building. We told him about our new chicks and he scoffed, "Chickens! You and everybody else in Buckhead has chickens nows." Really? Are we (horrors) trendy? Granted a number of our friends have brought little flocks home recently or are planning to get chickens. But why is that unusual?  We seem to be one of the few cultures that doesn't have chickens roaming around. When we visited my brother in Greece, we woke up with the sound of chickens. In the Bahamas, chickens. A friend from Kenya says he had a hard time acclimating to the silence of this country because there were no chickens.  People we know from Mexico, Ecuador, France, and Jamaica all think having chickens is a normal part of life.  You raise the chicks and eat the roosters for Christmas dinner. Well, we won't be eating our roosters for dinner because we are softies but for many other parts of the world, this is an expected cycle of life. 



Cinnamon and Fuzzball- our Mille Fleur Bantams



Midnight and 2 of our black Penedesencas

Bringing these little creatures home has been such an unexpected joy! Unexpected in many ways- first, they were only 2 weeks old when they joined us. I thought they were going to be 4 or 5 weeks old.  Not that it really matters except that 2 week old chicks don't have feathers yet and have to stay inside under a heat lamp. And we have cats. 

Second, these little chicks are growing so fast and have really endeared themselves to us.  When the chicks were inside, each of our children would wake up and immediately want to play with the chicks. Now that they are outside, the kids love wandering behind them and watching them. Or scooping them up and carrying them around to play.

In the last month, we found a previous owner of our house who lived here in the 1950s.  He said they had a chicken coop with 70+ chickens. So we aren't trendy after all! We're just getting back to the roots of our house.