Chicken Tales

A few comments on our flock. Okay, the irony is not lost on me (as a few have pointed out) that I got chickens for eggs, but I'm actually buying more eggs now so I can give them their nightly hardboiled egg treat. Hopefully this will turn around in a few months when they start laying eggs of their own. My other reason for raising chickens was for the fertilizer and they are definitely holding up to expectations here. The thing is, they've become pets. Spending an hour watching them explore and interact with us and each other has become a great way to unwind after a day at work. Also, their comedic antics keep us cracking up. The picture above was taken just as they discovered the strawberries planted in the front of the house. After this they played chase the girl with the strawberry.

Also, I've not forgotten this is a garden blog, and will post some garden updates soon. It's just that chicken watching is so much more fasinating than, well....broccolli.

Rudy, giving me the stink eye.

Our young cockrel Rudy is trying to be a bad**s, but at times he's just a chickens**t. A neighbor was over the other evening to check out the coop. The chickens were already on the roost for the night, but became agitated and alarmed, presumably from hearing a strange voice. I opened up their awning window to sooth and reassure them, and caught Rudy trying to hide under the hens.

He's tried to bite me a few times, but this has stopped. Whenever he did the bite thing, I'd just pick him up and hold him while telling him who the alpha chick is.

I've also discovered why he's started crowing at such an early age. Seems Bill has been cockle-a-doodle dooing to him every morning when he heads out to get the paper.

I guess it's a guy thing.

Please Can I Have a Treat?

"If I come sit in your lap, can I have a treat?"

"Or maybe I'll just peck at the threads of these holey jeans."

"If I look really cute can I have a treat?'

I'm training the chicks with treats. It works just as well with them as it does with dogs. The only problem is that they are picky eaters. They are curious about anything I give them, but only get excited and devour a few favorite treats. At the top of the list is a chopped up hard boiled egg. I've given them this since they were a few days old. (Adam thinks this is wrong on so many levels). Egg is their first food though. They absorb the egg sac when they are born. This provides all the nutrients they need for three days (which is why you can ship day old chicks). So eggs for chickens is like milk for us. They also will eat yogurt mixed with chick feed, but don't like it's messiness. They spend more time wiping off their faces on the grass after they are finished than they do eating it. When I gave them grapes they had more fun playing "chase the guy with the grape" than actually eating them. I throw an occasional worm in the pen and they play with it but don't eat it. They have not been interested in spinach, green beans, strawberries, or sweet potato rolls. They did devour a plate of field peas cooked with ham. And they will eat offered chickweed which is a weed with lots of nutrients, named so because it is a chicken favorite-like catnip to cats.

Anyway, in my attempt to lure them back into their pen after their nightly free range, I started to put a dish of a chopped, hardboiled egg inside the door while yelling "treats!" Rudy, who seems smarter and more aware than the girls, caught on quickly and now follows me when I go inside to get the treat, waiting by the back door for me to return. After three days of this, they all now come running when I holler "treats" and follow me straight to the pen.

Mirai Corn

I tried a new variety of corn two years ago and was totally blown away by its flavor and tenderness. You've probably not heard of it or seen it in stores because it is so tender that it cannot be mechanically harvested, making it impractical for commercial farmers. In Japan however, it has captured 35% of the corn market. The word "mirai" is japanese and roughly translated means "taste of the future." Why is this corn so great? Mirai is a combination of all 3 types of sweet corn - supersweet, sugary enhanced and normal, so it captures the best taste, flavor and texture of any sweet corn. It also holds it's sweetness longer than other sweet corn, lasting up to ten days in the fridge. Mirai is about two weeks earlier to mature than Silver Queen.

Up north they say the corn should be "knee high by the 4th of July." In these parts we like to serve it up by Memorial Day.

Herbs

For an avid gardener and cook, I don't grow a lot of herbs. In the past I've grown sage, rosemary, and oregano, but don't bother anymore as I don't use them in any of my dishes. I interplant basil with tomatoes because it is supposed to be a good companion plant, but don't use it often. Complex recipes, seasoned with multiple herbs have never appealed to me. I do use quite a bit of garlic, either fresh or as garlic salt.

The two herbs I use a lot of are parsley and chives. Parsley is great because it is so underwhelming. It just adds freshness and greenness. It is the perfect addition to chicken soup, or cooked carrots, or spaghetti sauce. Chives are ideal when you want onion flavor without the texture of onions. I snip them over baked salmon and deviled eggs, and into potato salad and white sauce that I toss new potatoes with.

I use parsley and chives so often that I have a pot of both just outside the front door, easily accessible in bare feet while cooking.

Both herbs like cool temps and wilt and die in the garden sun and heat. This pot gets afternoon shade and they hang in through the heat of summer.

Rudy the Roo

"What do we have here? Oh, it's a ...red thing!"

"I think I'll get a little closer and check out this...red thing."

"Yikes! I think it just moved!"

"Hey, you've got to come see this red thing!"

Some interesting trivia-It is a myth that bulls charge a cape because it is red. They are actually color blind and are drawn to the movement of the cape and not it's color. Chickens, on the other hand, are attracted to the color red. This explains why their feeders and waterers are generally produced in this color. It also explains why poultry with a sore or injury are so unmercilessly picked on. This also shows why Rudy was so fascinated by this red object on the driveway.

Rudy is definately a cockrel as we have guessed since he was just a couple of weeks old. He is later to feather out than the girls, but has a redder and more developed comb. Also, when he sees a stranger he attempts to crow. It is not cock-a-doodle-do, but a er-er-ooo. A adolescent attempt at the real thing.

It's a bit amazing because reading through the chicken forums I frequent these days, it seems roosters generally start to crow at 16-18 weeks of age. Rudy is just a six week old pup. I also see people posting pictures of months old chickens asking for help in identifying pullets and cockrels. Rudy, although smaller and later maturing than the girls, has been all boy from the beginning.

He is protective of his flock, as any good rooster should be. When I let them out to play recently, he ran to the door to let me know that one of his girls didn't make it out before the door swung shut. He comes running when he hears one of his girls squawk.

We had originally planned on 6 laying hens with no rooster, but I'm happy now that we will have fertile eggs in a few months so we can hatch some more babies!

Free Range

"I take time to smell the flowers!"

"Did you hear the one about the chicken that crossed the road?"

"I know there's a bug in here somewhere."

"I am sooo pretty, and I know it."

The chicks are approaching six weeks of age, and for the last week or so we've been letting them out of their pen for thirty minutes of supervised exploring. We stay with them to keep them safe from predators. Usually I sit in the grass and one or another will come to perch on me for a few minutes before setting off on a bug finding expedition. They are so fun to watch...much better than tv! They are both cautious and curious, goofy and gorgeous. They still do the chest bumping confrontation thing occasionally. When I hear the term "pecking order" I think of a sneek attack with claws or beak from behind, but with these kids it's a quick frontal bump like a jump shot, and one quickly backs off. They know how to fight fair and they don't hold a grudge. There are lessons to be learned here.

They are so happy to be out in the world doing chicken things like scratching in the dirt, tasting various plants, and taking dust baths. They crowd the pen door excitedly whenever one of walks by. When we open the door they run out and immediately become airborne, flying in short bursts like little whirling dervishes, before quickly settling in to an orderly exploration.

When it's time to get them back in the pen, we open the door and two or three will go in on their own. The remaining chicks are either herded in, or scooped up and put in. There is always one though, that plays hard to get. I'm not sure that this is the same girl each time (they do all look alike) or whether they take turns. Getting the last girl in is a two or three person ordeal while we rotate between trying to maneuver her home while one person stays by the door; holding it closed to keep the rest in, waiting to open it for the latecomer, or trying to corner and scoop her up. It's a 10-15 minute chase around the pen.

I think they're having fun with us.

Creatures of Habit

Success!! The kids all head into the coop at dark now to roost and mostly sleep until dawn. It took a week for them to catch on. After three days of lifting them into the coop from the run, four would automatically walk up the ramp as the sun set. For another couple of days though, two remained on the ground until one of us, many hours later, would place them with the rest. Bill would say, "they do have small brains." I would reply, "and they are blondes." But finally, as with many of us, habit has become behavior, and we can go to sleep knowing the chicks are snug and safe in their sleeping loft.