A slight departure from chickens today.

I hate wasting things. Unfortunately, it means that sometimes, but trying not to waste, I end up wasting even more. Don’t throw that away, it might be useful someday! And of course it never is, and what is more wasteful than having a possibly useful item sitting in a box in the garage? Yeah.

We all have neat things, things we see value in, but which have no real value in our lives. And we ask ourselves, “Why am I keeping this? It’s useless to me! But it’s so neat, and it still has uses…”, so we keep it. In a closet, in a box in the garage, hell, in extreme cases we keep them in storage units because it’s just too hard to get rid of it.

This is where donating comes in. It’s a way of letting these ever-so-useful items become useful again – to someone else.

A lot of us shop at thrift stores, but we don’t consider that we could donate just as easily. We see things that we need, things we didn’t know we needed until we saw them…so why can’t we do that for someone else? Give them a chance to see our neat things, and let them see how much they need neat things.

Last week, I had a few things I wanted to donate. Not much, but a few things. Some clothes my daughter let me pry from her hands, mostly. I put them in a box in the living room, and told my roommate it was there, if he wanted to add to it. And miracle of miracles, he did! He added a jacket he’d had since the 80′s. Some shirts he’d had almost as long, things he’s had in his closet because they were too nice to throw away, but didn’t fit him anymore. They did have some sentimental value, they were from peak of his youth and all that. It was hard. But knowing that someone else can use them, that made it possible. It made it a good thing, not an angst-driven purging.

And what that means, is that somewhere out there…there is a person who will find that jacket. That jacket that looks like it was made from the upholstery of my grandmother’s couch…and think it’s neat.

And that is why we donate.

Today, some Egg news and a silly little chicken video.

I have six hens, and they have been pretty consistant layers. Every now and then one would skip a day, but no big deal. Recently though, I’ve only been getting 4 eggs a day, every day. For about two weeks this happened. Part way into it I realized that one of the “missing” eggs was actually being laid soft-shelled, and was sat upon by a hen and squished into the bedding. Sad little eggy. The other, I don’t know.

But today, all of my brown eggs where there – including one very odd shaped egg. I’m used to getting the occasional double-yolker, but today it was not the size but the shape that made me go, hmmm.

The odd egg, shown here with a typical egg.

As you can see, it’s not a normal egg. My heart goes out to the chicken who laid it. It can’t have been comfortable. It’s got me wondering now though…I saw a video once where they had an egg inside an egg. Maybe that’s what happened! I supposed I’ll have to have eggs tomorrow for breakfast…and have the camera ready just in case.

Now for the silly chicken video. Every time I go out back, the chickens come running. And if I wander around the yard, they follow me. So today, I walked backwards, camera in hand, to show the world how cute my ladies are. Turken is missing, she was busy having an egg.

I found out today that my hometown just passed an ordinance allowing 4 chickens (hens) within the city limits. What makes it more fun is that the mayor who signed it, he used to be my Social Studies teacher. His wife is now my brother’s teacher.

Bonus: Checking Facebook not an hour after I found this out, I see a post from someone who went to that same school with me, graduated in the same class, is now a teacher there. His post? ” I am the proud papa of 4 chickens now!”.

Fantastic.

Via Community Chickens, I came across this today.

That’s a short trailer for a full-length video, which I’ll likely be ordering on DVD. It’s for a good cause!

The website associated with this is pretty clever – and as we know, if it’s not clever, it won’t get much attention.
The Chicken Revolution

Now, where I live the laws are a little…ambiguous. I’m in unincorporated country territory, between a 2-hen city and a completely unknown quantity (chicken-wise). I’ve attempted to look up the rules for this area, but there is nothing that makes sense that I can find. A very old zoning ordinance says that I’d need something like 4000 sq ft. per chicken – my kid doesn’t even get that. In fact, she doesn’t get 1/10 that. So why would a chicken need that? They don’t, but as you can see in this blog, that’s likely not the point.

No livestock, but large pets are acceptable. Reason: Ostensible reasons are health based, a few even broadly grounded in fact, real reason is that pets, which have no purpose other than companionship and cost money, are broadly a sign of affluence, while livestock are a sign of poverty, because they provide economic benefits.”

It’s kind of crazy. I imagine that if my neighbors have a problem with it, they’d say so. But so far, after having 6 chickens in my back yard for more than a year now, I haven’t heard a peep. Hell, they didn’t even complain when I had the rooster.

It’s not because I’m such good friends with my fence-neighbors, either. I don’t even know their names. We don’t get together and BBQ, or have block parties, or gossip about the other neighbors. I know they have some dogs, because we share a fence. I know they have a couple kids, because they found our bunny and brought it back one day. So really, there is no reason for them *not* to turn us in, should they desire to do so. I haven’t even brought them a dozen eggs! I should do that, now that I think of it.

I figure that chickens are a pretty good type of “pet” to have, actually. They keep decent hours, go to bed at dark and get up at daylight, they aren’t noisy, no barking, no worrying about finding them roaming the streets at all hours terrorizing small children and old people (like my cats do). They’re pretty easy on the neighborhood.

Point is…well, I guess it’s that there aren’t any good reasons to not allow them, legally. Like I said, the town next to us has a 2-hen limit, which is ok, but really, why not 4? Or 6? My 6 ladies are terribly happy in my back yard, having the run of it with the cats and dogs. Depending on their moods, I get between 4-6 eggs a day, which is enough to feed us plus have plenty left over for bartering. It’s how I paid to have my leaves blown in the fall, and the nematodes spread in the spring. It’s age-old – remember, Mrs. Ingalls used to pay Doc Baker in eggs sometimes!

Anway, support your local chickens. I won’t deny that there should be limits, just like on other domestic animals, but c’mon, why should we not be able to keep a couple chickens, give us that one area where we know where our food comes from?

My sister and I have had a strange, spotty relationship.  We usually live far away from each other, and have historically gone for even years without really talking.  But when we do, it’s usually…interesting.  To say the least.

Most recently, it’s led to my daughter going up there for an internship with her husband, a nice breakfast where I discovered Dutch Babies, and best of all:

It's a chicken.

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. There are those who will try to tell you that it is the Loch Ness Monster, or a "swan with a turkey tail", but they are incorrect.

It is irrefutably and incontrovertibly – A Chicken.

They like green tea.

“So what?”, you might say…but think about this:

Chickens not only can eat green tea grounds, but they benefit from it.  They have fewer parasites, which leads to healthier chickens and therefore healthier eggs.

“So what?”, you might say…but think about this:

Green tea grounds come from making green tea.  Green tea can be used to make Thai iced tea.  So, it stands to reason that for the sole benefit of my lovely ladies, I must consume more Thai iced tea.

The chicken gods are smiling on us, this day.

I’ve been buying instant Thai tea in single-serve packets, and thought I’d save some money by getting a larger packet instead.  I didn’t pay enough attention though, and ended up with just plain ol’ Thai tea.  

Fine…I did some googling and found that it’s not a complicated thing, making your own Thai tea.  I made it stovetop this time, but I’ll probably try making it in the coffee pot next time, see how that turns out.

Anyway, I made a big batch and stored the resulting tea in a 1/2 gallon mason jar.  That did leave me with a large mess of used tea leaves, and what the heck do you do with that?

I’ve somehow turned into one of those people who actually care about food leavings.  Probably the chickens did it to me, because every time I have scraps I think, “garbage, or chickens?”.  With tea I wasn’t sure though.  I have been tossing out a bit of coffee grounds for them, maybe once a week, but I had no idea about tea leaves.  Google again.  And here is what I found: Green tea can help the immune system of the chickens.

Fantastic.  Now, I can drink my Thai tea, usually a special treat, as much as I like.  And I can feel good about it.  My chickens will be better for it, and that makes me happy.

Now, if only I could find a study that tells me that chickens benefit from eating chocolate wrappers.

I know you’re all thinking that I decided to keep chickens because of the eggs, or because I love animals, or maybe just to drive my roommate nuts, but you are incorrect if you do.

The real reason I wanted chickens?  The fabulous accessories.

First, of course, is the coop.  If I’d had my way, I would have spent close to $2000 on this baby:

After shipping, it’s a spendy little guy.  But so damned cute.  And, it comes in fashion colors!

There are two other models as well, for those with fewer chickens, and the company also makes rabbit hutches, guinea pig hutches, and bee hives (“Beehaus”).  The simplicity of the designs makes me happy, the clean lines and the lack of wood to get soggy and splinter.  The wheels make it even better – you can just tote your chicken house around the yard.    The run also has a specially designed bottom edge, to keep out predators.

The Omlet website is also a great place to find other accessories…and lead me to hunting down more.

Like this.  I love it – it’s space saving, and would make it much easier for egg-access.  Unfortunately, America has yet to realize that refrigerating eggs isn’t really necessary, so a lot of this type of item can only be found in the UK or other more civilized countries.

From what I’ve read, as long as the egg is unwashed, they can be left at room temperature for a couple of weeks.  Sounds good to me – I can keep the “give-away” eggs in the fridge, and the “keep” eggs on the counter.

For the record, Eggsafety.org says this:

The general rule is that if food items are at room temperature for more than 2 hours, the safest thing to do is to discard the product. If you leave eggs anywhere that is not refrigerated, the best thing to do is throw those eggs away and buy a new carton.

Wow.  2 hours.

I’ve never been a freak about refrigeration though.  I’ll keep pizza in the oven overnight and eat it the next day, and I haven’t died yet.  I regularly keep my eggs in the collecting basket until I have to take them out to refill it.

Moving on.

This is great:

I don’t like the “got chickens” part so much, it’s one of those things that’s been way over used, but I do appreciate the “my pet made me breakfast” concept.

Even over the winter, I got at least an egg a day.  I take it as a sign that my ladies love me, that they lay in the off-season even.

Now, something for the meter reader:

It’s only fair that he get a warning when he enters the back yard, right?

My girls are generally shy of strangers, but they don’t always realize at first that it’s not me and come running willy-nilly from all parts of the yard. I imagine that this could be disconcerting for some people.

Although…it could save us some money on the gas bill…

Ok, one final thought.  As Seen On TV:

I really like this idea.  Perfect eggs…every time.  Seems like I get them perfectly soft boiled when I need them hard, and vicey-versy.

Besides…it comes with a free Bacon Wave!  I may need to start raising pigs!

I got some help in the yard today, in the form of 6 happy hens.  There were other animals in the vicinity, but considering them “help” would have been a gross misconception.

I was trying to find the edges of the small round “clearing” in the back yard, which is really just a maybe 6ft across circle of not-as-much-grass.  There is a stump in the middle, where the apple tree was before we moved in.  Like, it was there until days before we moved in.  It apparently fell over.

It’s also where we buried the kittens, when Twink’s first litter got mauled by Lola-dog (not out of viciousness, but out of some strange mothering instinct).  They are buried between the catnip and catmint plants, so they get lots of visitors throughout the day.

Last year, before I lost my job, I had planted all sorts of ground-cover as well, hoping it would grow over the low stump and make sort of a fairy-circle there.  They did really well, until the weather changed and they stopped growing.  The grass and weeds did not stop growing, so it got messy.

So today, I started pulling up handfuls of weeds, throwing them into the chicken enclosure.  Eventually the chickens got brave enough to come help, scratching and tossing, eating bugs and slugs.  Oscar-pug didn’t care for it, tried to charge them a few times, but eventually decided to pee on the last patch of weeds instead, which effectively stopped my weeding project for the day.

Then I decided to go ahead and rearrange the chicken run, since a couple of the girls have decided to continue to lay eggs in the bottom of the coop.  Stoopid chikins.

but they sure can fool me into thinking they are sometimes.

A week or so ago, I noticed that the glass egg I’d put in one of the nesting boxes had disapeared. My roommate laughed and told me to check the egg cartons…but I was more concerned that the chickens had knocked it into the coop, where I couldn’t really see it. But I thought, “They’ve been laying eggs in those nesting boxes since last summer – they’ll be fine.”

And they were, for a few days. Then I started getting fewer eggs – I thought, “It’s just because it’s early in the season yet. I’m sure it’s fine.”

And then yesterday I only got 3 eggs. Today, there were none.

So fine. I moved the run and grabbed a long-handled cultivator. and a flashlight.

Yes indeed, in a nice tidy little depression in the corner, there was a pile of white and brown eggs. At least my Araucana’s had sense to keep laying in the boxes.

I was going to leave it at that, it’s been on the edge of rain all day and I didn’t like the idea of messing with it all right then. I pulled out the eggs, grabbed the glass egg that had, indeed, fallen in to the coop. I cleaned out the nesting boxes, put in the glass egg plus a couple light colored plastic eggs from Easter. But then my chickens all looked at me, sort of accusingly. So I ended up mucking out the whole coop.

I’ve been using a form of Deep Litter Method in my coop, mostly because of the ease-of-use, with the homemade coop only having two openings – one up high for nesting box access, and one chicken-sized one at the base.  Using DLM, I can eliminate cleanings for most of the year.

It does mean that when I do a cleaning, it’s heavy duty.  It was about a foot deep when I did it today, but as advertised, no odor.  Pleasant surprise!  I used the cultivator and a hoe to pull all the litter out, which the chickens thought was awesome.  They immediately started digging through it, looking for treats.  After it was 90% cleaned out, I dumped in a bag of ABM and a crate of very dry straw.  Now it’s good for another 6 months, or more, depending on how much they use it in between.  They aren’t in the coop a lot, they have a large yard to roam over, so I may be able to wait until this time next year to clean it out again.  Not bad at all.

The litter that was removed is in a pile right now, since the part of the yard it will go to is just next to the coop, I’m counting on the chickens to do most of the spreading.  Whatever they don’t get by the end of day tomorrow, I’ll grab the cultivator and spread it around some.

I did find myself wishing that I could put them in the front yard, just for a few days.  They’ve completely torn up the moss in the back yard, which is something our landlord has been trying to do in the front.  He’s used moss-out kind of products up there, but I don’t see much of a change.  It’s just too shady.

Anyway, wish me luck on the ladies using their proper nesting boxes.  If they don’t, I’m gonna end up with back problems from pulling eggs out of the bottom of the coop.

A few months ago, we went to Uwajimaya, an Asian market, and got a sampling of odd (to us) treats.  One of them was a small bag of Chiz Curls.  How can you go wrong with corn puffs and cheese powder?

Well, they weren’t really good enough to eat the whole bag.  There were six of us all together who tried, and no one ate more than 2-3 curls.  So they’ve sat in their bag, waiting for their moment.

That moment was today.

My roommate came inside from the back yard, and says, “Have you spent any time with your chickens today?”  Well, yeah, I’d gone out and gathered eggs and gave them a handful of 5-grain.  Apparently that wasn’t enough, because he had been beset by chickens when he went out.

So I looked around to see what I could take them, and my eyes settled on the lonely bag of Chiz Curls.  I took them out, handed one to Turken, and she pecked at it pensively.  The others soon came running to see what I had, so I dropped a few on the ground.

They liked them.  Now, I’m not saying that they got the same response as say, a corn dog, but they did like them.  And lucky for them, no fingers to turn bright orange!

Of course, this is newsworthy so I had to record it for posterity.