Coop renovations by Farmer Ian

When I was growing up, farmers were considered kind of backwards, like the hayseeds wearing overalls on Hee Haw.

My son Ian, 26, the organic farmer, has taught me otherwise. Farmers are problem-solvers and fix-its who care about the earth and animals. We would be very hungry without farmers.

After Ian took care of my small flock of backyard chickens when I was in St. John Virgin Islands for a week, he announced, "We have to make some changes in the chicken coop so you don't have to go inside of the coop every day."

When backyard chicken keepers go in the coop to refill the water and feed, and to gather eggs, we bring in snow and bring out chicken manure on boots.

Chickens like to stay dry, especially when it's cold outside. Humans don't like chicken manure in boots.

Ian and I rearranged everything: the nesting boxes, the electrical outlet, a roosting perch, the locations of the feed and water, and installed a new egg door. All of the renovations are egg-cellent. It took about an hour for three of us. Bob got involved in installing the egg collection door.

Now we have four doors -- one for humans, two for chickens [one is a fire exit :-) ], and one to collect eggs -- thanks to my smart, problem-solving farmer son. I like the convenience and clean boots. The chickens like to be dry.

Note to self: building a chicken coop requires lots of hinges and doors of all sizes.

"All cooped up" and "The pecking order"

Raising chickens has taught me a lot about animals and human behavior, and the etymology of words.
Birds and people get stressed from being all cooped up because of cold weather. Like humans, birds take it out on whomever is most convenient. They target weaker birds and pick on them to relieve the stress and establish a pecking order.

Witness "Negro Dos" (Blackie Two) above. The other five birds have pecked off her tail feathers out of frustration, boredom and instinct.

Did you know that state law requires that chickens can only be sold in groups of six because chickens are social creatures. They need a group of at least three to be happy. The law also prevents one or two birds being sold at Easter as a living toy that may be neglected and abused.

Chickens know how to abuse each other. I'm not sure that it's good. It is natural instinct to establish a social order. Someone has to be in charge. And unfortunately, someone has to be on the bottom. Bullying is an unfortunate fact of the animal kingdom.

We humans have the intellect to be aware of bullying, educate each other and make different decisions. We can learn from "being all cooped up" and "the pecking order." I wish my chickens could.

There are reasons for the chicken to cross the road

Cars, trucks and people stopped for this hen and her chicks in the center of Cruz Bay in St. John US Virgin Islands. She had the sense to cross just in front of the crosswalk.

The reason she's crossing the road is, um, to forage for more bugs, scraps and food on the other side. And for a different view. It's fun to explore.

I ate more factory-processed meat on my one-week vacation in St. John/US Virgin Islands, than I have in months.

These birds remind me of my own backyard chicken flock who RUN out the door when I open it every morning. They LOVE it outside.

Chickens who are raised with one square foot of cage, piled on top of each other, with beaks cut off, have a completely different life than the birds above, who live more naturally.

Of course, when roosters started crowing outside of our hotel room at 4 am, I had a different opinion of free-range chickens. However, when we previously lived next door to roosters, we became inured to the crowing. I just didn't hear it.

I was so cock-a-doodle deaf that one day a friend came over and stopped mid-sentence, "Is that a rooster crowing?!"

I said, "What rooster?" I had heard nothing. Like the chickens in the photo who can navigate in a town with vehicles, we adapt to our surroundings. We prefer the best surroundings possible.

Big decisions using chicken brains

That's Delaware, the bossiest hen in the coop, mulling over whether she ought to get her feet cold and snowy for the opportunity to snack on one of her favorite treats - cantaloupe from the compost pile.

Eventually, she declined and stayed in the coop. The next day, she was tired of being all cooped up and ventured out to the bigger compost pile, finally. Everyone else followed her, of course, because she does the thinking for them.

When the hens stay inside because of the weather, they eat more feed and less compost, and get the hen house dirtier, which costs the farmer more because she has to buy more bedding to keep it cleaner in there.

Animal husbandry is harder and more expensive than it looks at first glance.

The coop now has water and electricity

The silver water dispenser and heater below it represent an investment of $99. I have to clean out the water dispenser once a week and have electricity for the heating element- which was 60 bucks.

Last winter I toughed it out by taking out water twice a day and breaking the ice. I didn't have electricity last year. It's so convenient to have the heated water. I don't have to worry so much. It keeps them inside more, which is a downside.

It took me an hour or two to run the extension cord from the garage out to the coop. I had to drill some holes and figure out how to loop it in. Then I installed a florescent light on a timer to increase winter production. The light works! It goes on every morning at 3 am and fools them into thinking it's summer. Egg production is back up.

It's convenient to have the electricity because I could install the water heater. Now they are thoroughly modern with electricity and water - not running water, yet.

It's not "chicken feed" to keep chickens. In the winter, they eat less compost because they hate the snow, so they eat more chicken feed. The heater and water dispenser cost the equivalent of at least 33 dozen eggs.

My son Ian, the organic farmer, is always encouraging me to use organic feed, instead of the genetically modified feed. Organic feed costs at least double the $13 a bag for standard feed. This farming is expensive -- especially the luxuries like water and electricity. I haven't seen how much the light increased my electric bill.

Free Backyard Chicken Workhop

Learn about raising chickens for eggs and meat in your backyard and in a cooperative at a free information night on Sunday, March 7, 6-7:30 pm, at First Church Unitarian, 19 Foster St., Littleton.

An optional potluck meal will be offered at 5 pm (no signup necessary). Childcare available if requested in advance.

I'll be moderating a panel of five chicken keepers -- Brad Bigelow of Littleton, Denali Delmar of Westford, Alison Kaiser of Littleton, Margaret Miley of Acton -- about how to get started keeping chickens alone or in a co-operative. Learn about chicken shelters, yields, breeds, disease prevention, predators, equipment, vacation care, butchering (it’s not that hard), predators and more.

Notice I didn't call us "experts" :-) I know enough to feed them, keep them alive and gather eggs. I even participated in the butchering at right.

People will be invited to join a community egg co-operative in Littleton to share the work and benefits of raising backyard chickens together, and to join a meat co-operative to raise chickens for meat. Joining a chicken co-op is fun, shares the workload and offers the opportunity for people to learn from each other.

Raising backyard chickens is gaining in popularity across America with the local foods movement. The typical food has been transported 1,500 miles. Eggs from backyard chickens travel a few feet from coop to table and are incredibly delicious, fresh and satisfying to raise and eat. Raising chickens will lower your carbon footprint and make new friends in the community.

This free workshop will provide information and confidence to get started raising backyard eggs and meat on your own and to join a meat and egg co-operative.

The workshop is sponsored by the Green Sanctuary Task Force of First Church Unitarian. Children welcome. Please RSVP if you need free childcare. Come for the potluck before or just the meeting. The public is invited. You do not have to attend the meeting to join a co-op. No registration required for attendance. If you're bringing something for the potluck, just bring it!

For more information contact Susan Tordella, 978-772-3930, susan.tordella@gmail.com or call the church at 978-486-3044.

When the weather outside is frightful

The chickens are not that fond of snow and cold. They're managing in their unheated, unlit hen house and venture out for water that has frozen during the day since mid-December.

Because I have not invested in a water heater, it's my duty to carry out fresh water twice a day or more, depending on how cold it is.

Besides the satisfaction of raising my own absolutely delicious eggs , the next best aspect to keeping chickens is my heightened connection to what's happening outside. I must monitor the weather to determine how often fresh water is needed, or if to move the feed can inside in case of rain. I like to keep the feed outside to encourage them to spend time outside.

Like a farmer, I keep tabs on the weather. It's like having a pet or a child -- they occupy a corner of my radar screen. Like a pet or a child, rewards accompany the responsibilities.

I still haven't decided whether chicken keeping is a long-term avocation.

My son Ian, 25, an organic farmer whose friend raises chickens advised me to "Put a light out in the hen house to increase my yield" during winter, when egg production decreases along sunshine.

It would require cracking a window to run an extension cord or Bob to install an outside outlet and running an extension cord. I'm collecting about two eggs a day, which could double if I illuminated the hen house from 4 am to 6 am.

I have the timer, light and extension cord. I even have Bob. What I don't have yet is the time for Bob to upgrade the technology. Electricity changes farming. I could use it to heat my water. We're managing so far with traditional means.

Increasing my yield is tempting, however, now that all five hens are producing. I do love collecting the eggs and eating them. Raising chickens can always be counted on as party conversation because it's still such a novelty.

More than that is the "chop wood, carry water" reminder that we depend on the earth, weather and animals for our existence, a reality we usually overlook.

No running around with its head cut off

Bruce is cutting the neck of a rooster while Denali is holding it still so the blood can drain into the can below. The birds squirmed for one to two minutes after the cut. One of them crowed and moved for what seemed like three minutes.

I took a turn cutting a head off two birds I have raised since June. I thanked them for their lives, took a deep breath and cut as fast and hard as I could with the sharpest knife.
I'll remember that moment of killing to eat for a long time. I'm usually so far removed from the source of my food.

Butchering in a group shared the workload and expertise. It was easier to do it together and learn by doing. Now I know how. I could do it in my backyard. We had a feast at the end of the day. The meat was tougher than I anticipated. Denali shared organic potatoes, beets, carrots and cucumbers from her garden and her homemade bread. It was delicious. I provided homemade peach and apple crisp with fruit from a nearby orchard. YUM!

Denali said chickens bred for meat are more tender. I'll cook the birds I brought home in a crock pot all day to soften them up.

To cut the neck of those chickens, I connected to a deep primal instinct to kill another living creature for survival. My birds had a much more humane life than chickens raised in commercial feeding operations. Someone else does my killing for me when I buy chicken in a store. It was a bit messy, but not as bloody as I anticipated.

Tomorrow-- de-feathering and gutting them.

Not one to follow the crowd

I'm not usually the one to be "the first" to do anything, unless it's counter to everyone else.

I had a baby and stayed home while most of my peers were dressing for success, climbing the career ladder and avoiding pregnancy and marriage.

When everyone else got perms in the 1980s, I kept my prairie grass -- straight and flaxen.

Now I have chickens and it seems it's the thing to do. Shocking! My urban friends out-and-out laugh at the idea and think I'm a bit odd. I used to think people who kept chickens were a bit odd.

People aware of the cutting edge, nod carefully and say, "A lot of people I know are getting chickens."

Chickens require regular attention -- less than keeping children, men and a dog, but more than fish, a car or growing a garden. (In the photo above, Denali, Mike & Bruce are defeathering a newly killed rooster during "processing."

One of my roosters, Houdini, takes after me -- avant-garde. When Bob opened up the crate to take him to get beheaded at butchering party at Denali's yesterday, he took off into the woods and disappeared. Houdini refused to follow the crowd and go docilely to his death.

Houdini survived the night probably by roosting high lup in a tree to avoid predators, and showed up at her hen house this morning.

"We tried chasing him with the dog and couldn't catch him. We're leaving for Maine in a few minutes," Denali said.

"Why doesn't he fly over the fence?" I said. Her run has no containment over the top.

"I don't know, Susan," Denali said patiently. "He wants to get in and is crowing like mad."

"Oh well. I don't want to come over. It's only a rooster. We were going to kill him anyway. I have other worries -- my car won't start. Just let him be. Would you put out some water for him?" I hung up.

Bob said, "We could go over and try and catch him."

"Emphasis on 'try.' There's no guarantee. And it will take at least an hour. He's not worth it," I said. I'm not one to put animals at the top of my priority list.

Denali left a message a few minutes later. "We caught him and he's in our pen. Call me later."

Roger allowed Denali and Bruce to catch Houdini. So much for independent thinking. Now what do I do with him? It's too much trouble to butcher just one rooster.

I guess I'll keep him for a few weeks, when I get around to picking him up, if he hasn't escaped from Denali's run in the meantime. Houdini likes to fly over the fence. Chickens are not the brightest birds.

Houdini was contrite when Bob opened the box to let him out into our run, the opposite of his dash to freedom the day before. In less than a minute, he re-established himself in the pecking order by going after Big Red.

Barnyard meanderings

The chickens gobble up slightly imperfect tomatoes, corn cobs with shreds of corn, and the rinds of cantaloupes and watermelons. They bolt into the compost area when they see me coming to the fence carrying the compost bucket.

If you're going to have chickens, it's worthwhile to have a few tomato plants because the chickens love tomatoes. They provide a recycling repository for the slightly imperfect tomatoes. I love f being part of a cycle where my waste is recycled a few steps away from where it was grown. They make weeding fun because weeds are like salad to them.

While the birds relish weeds, they rejected a bag of stale Trader Joe's whole grain hemp corn chips. Shocking. Maybe they needed some salsa.

Bob observed the two marans picking on Charlie Brown, the lowly bird at the bottom of the pecking order. Not much we can do, but let nature take its course.

When I brought a load of compost this morning, I tossed some goodies towards Charlie Brown, but her self-esteem is so low, she didn't think she was worthy of pecking away at an ear of corn.

Denali says to keep the birds busy so they don't pick on each other. I'm still learning what chores to give them. Maybe if they had more to do they'd leave Charlie Brown alone.