What happens when a girl from Miami and a guy from Chicago move to a 118-year old house in small-town North Carolina and care for our rescued chickens.
Maple was found by our local animal control wandering the streets. A friend of ours let us know that there was a sweet girl with a hurt foot who needed a home, so we went and picked her up.
Jake took to her right away. He even acted as a bit of a buffer against Butterscotch and Telly as the pecking order was established.
Sadly her hurt got a bit worse so we took her to a local specialist who prescribed some antibiotics, pain meds and foot soaks. For the last week Maple has alternated her time between the porch, the chicken "playpen" in the yard and a softsided crate when sleeping indoors at night.
She's been good about taking her meds and letting us care for her foot, but we weren't sure what to do this past weekend, as we had planned on going out of town.
Luckily, she was able to come with us! She snuggled into the carrier for a five hour ride and was good the whole way. A few chicken purrs and some bored feather preening and we were there.
Maple did manage to get out of her outdoor pen the first night but was no problem after that. It was a bit warm but she cooled off in the grass and charmed family and friends.
It was actually kind of fun traveling with her. Who wouldn't like having a sweet girl along for the ride?!?
Her foot is looking much improved and we will take her back for a check-up next weekend. We want her to heal up soon so she can run around with the other chickens. But I may actually miss her being up by the house too!
As mentioned in the previous post, our Meggie (Nutmeg) passed away on Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Jake was very sad and we knew he needed some companions. So we spoke with Red Dog Farm, the rescue group that many of our animals have come from, to see if they had any hens who could be placed with us. Lucky for us they did and we were able to bring home Butterscotch and Tellicherry (Telli for short) on Friday.
They are such pretty girls. I have already taken a ton of photos of them, but here are a few...
Jake and girls get along great and he is already acting as their protector. Telli and Butterscotch were perfect in the car home and became accustomed to their coop after just one night.
We are sad to report that our girl, Meggie, passed away last evening in her sleep. We found her this morning and it is a bad dark day for us all. She had come to us just about four years ago and was a wonderful girl.
Jakey is very sad as well and we are talking to Red Dog Farm about what we can do to ensure that he stays happy and healthy. We don't want him to be sad or lonely.
If you've checked out my other site, Shoe Daydreams, you know that I am a big fan of Etsy and the many artists who work there. I recently found Julep115 and loved her whimsical animal designs paired with meaningful messages.
Christy, a vegan, sells her "Earth and Animal Friendly" from Texas. I love so many of her pieces... and what they're each saying...
As a lover of hens I was immediately drawn to her "Vegan" chicken piece and asked if I could have one made for me for my up-coming 3 Year Vegan-versary.
It turned out splendidly and I'm so happy to wear it. It's light and comfortable and it makes me glad to wear my vegan message near my heart. It especially looks great paired up with my Wendy Brandes "Chicken on Nest" necklace.
So we've had another "change in plans". We're essentially cutting eggs out of our diet altogether.
Not that this is a big change. We're pretty much egg-free all winter. Most people don't recognize this but chickens, left to their natural cycles, do not really lay eggs during the winter. Unless they are artificially tampered with, as all commercial egg factories do, hens don't lay eggs when it is not feasible to have baby chicks around. Therefore, no eggs in the winter.
But it's spring again and the girls have started laying again. We know that our girls live in a cruelty-free, natural environment. We know they won't be killed when they stop laying. We know they were rescues and not bred just for us. So theirs are the only eggs we ate because they lay them regardless of what we do with them. And, as there is not a rooster around, these eggs would never become chicks.
(BTW, you know that's how it works, right? Eggs are part of the hen's reproductive cycle. Just like humans, they produce an egg no matter what. Only if it is fertilized does it become a chick. So many people have been surprised by this that I have to make sure to clarify.)
The hubby is really the only one who has been eating the eggs. I was never a huge fan anyways but after we became vegan I really saw no point in it, especially as I've had no problem working around them for baking. Well, he tried eating some recently and has found that they are bothering his stomach. His body has recognized, by being free of this animal product for several months, that it does not need them. So now they're out.
What are we going to do with the eggs that Meg and Gertie lay each day? We are going to share them with our friends. While I don't want to encourage egg consumption, I'm hoping these eggs can replace some of the purchasing of commercial eggs and spare, if only slightly, the millions of abused animals that are subjected to unspeakable cruelty in this industry.
While we're talking eggs, check out the giant egg that Meg laid the other day. The egg on the right is her typical egg. Crazy, huh?
Even though the weather has been shifting from sort-of warm to rainy wet snow today, the early signs of Spring are here.... the hens have started laying again.
We didn't even notice it at first because the girls like to be sneaky. We have several bales of hay for the goats stacked up in the coop side of the building and covered with a large tarp. We thought we were discouraging the hens by covering the hay but nope! The sneaks had climbed up in there, made a hay nest and layed a few eggs. Even though their "nest" keeps getting disturbed as we use the hay for the goats, they're still using it.
We were surprised they got up under the tarp. I'd have thought they would have been scared of it, but I guess not.
So far we're getting an egg every other day which leads me to believe it's just one hen, probably Meg, who is laying.
We have been vegan for almost a year now. And one of the best things about it is answering questions and talking with people about how and what we eat. There are a lot of things we grow up being told - mostly because our parents or grandparents were told these "facts" by the governments or agencies whose only vested interest was in their own bottom line.
There are also a lot of things we are not told. Things that, once we learn about them, it seems so obvious we can't believe we never put the facts together. Things that, now that we know about them, we can't help but change how we act and how we think. Now that this knowledge has come through to us we can't help but share it because we think "If only we'd known sooner, we could have changed earlier. And surely others would want to know these facts too so they can make a change as well."
Things like this -
In the egg laying industry they throw away, crush and grind up all of the baby male chicks. Millions and millions of one or two day old fuzzy little chicks are piled and run through conveyors and then tossed down a chute alive to be ground to death just because the egg industry sees them as waste.
All so we can have an egg for breakfast.
Yeah, I can't abide that. I can't be a part of that. I can't support a system that thinks that's just a cost of doing business with no remorse or caring.
So for me, eggs are easy. Easy to give up.
And while we know there are people in transition into vegetarianism and veganism. Eggs seem simple and harmless to keep in (like dairy) but, in terms of overall suffering, in many ways the egg and dairy industries are worse than the meat industry. The numbers, the longer term daily suffering and the male chick "by-products" .
Many would say that I don't really have a right to speak against this as we have the option of eating eggs since we have Meg and Gertie. And yes, the hubby, does eat them at times. But I do not. Yes, we know they are cruelty free and our girls would never be harmed or killed if they stopped laying. But we also have friends who have chickens too. And I'm sure they take great care of them. So even if we didn't have our girls we could still get cruelty-free eggs.
But we wouldn't.
There isn't any point because we don't need them. For us it isn't about the fact that we can't get access to eggs but that we don't want them.
Not a lot of people nowadays get to see live chickens at all, but especially not in a natural environment, so I wanted to share these videos I just took of my girls. When the weather is warm and dry, the girls love to find a coop patch of clean dirt and have a lovely dust bath. Think of it like using a dry shampoo. Many animals use dust baths to absorb oils and keep away itchiness or parasites.
But I think the girls also just like to kick up the dirt and sand, roll around and take a nap in the sun.
Gertie especially loves napping. She lays on her side, spreads her legs out like a kitten and closes her eyes.
This is just one of the many natural behaviors that factory farmed chickens are not allowed to engage in. Something so basic and simple is denied them, just like roaming in the grass, seeing the sun, living a normal lifespan.
It's a horrible life I'm so glad I don't contribute to. And I'm glad that my girls will never be subjected to it.
In the winter, the hens don't lay eggs every day. In fact, after their Fall moult which was a few months ago, they have not really laid at all. But just as the winter solstice passed, Meg started laying again. She hasn't been having an egg every day but so far we have 4. Gertie isn't laying again yet, as far as I can tell.
One of the questions we a lot, now that we are vegan/vegetarian, is what do we do with the eggs from our girls.
Well... the simple answer is, we eat them.
Or, mainly the hubby does. I don't eat eggs a lot ever anyways. I mainly used them in my baking. But since I made the switch to a fully vegan diet right around the time they paused in their laying, I've been looking at substitutions for when I'm baking. So it hasn't been a big deal.
There are many reasons why people choose to become vegetarian or vegan. One of my main reasons is to avoid participating and supporting an industry that subjects animals to cruelty and torture. I don't need eggs (or meat or dairy) and I don't want it enough to make the animals pay that kind of a price. I just can't justify it any longer and I can't continue with it now that I'm aware of it.
As I mentioned before, our 3 chickens were rescued. We keep them because we like them and we like taking care of them. We aren't going to eat them and we didn't get them for the eggs. We aren't going to kill them or get rid of them when they stop laying - which could be tomorrow or years from now. The girls are going to lay eggs as a part of their natural cycle. We are not raising them for breeding chicks either. So, because we know where the eggs came from, how the hens are treated and what their future is, we feel comfortable eating the eggs. Outside of know that about any food, I try not to risk it.
Of course, we are lucky in that we are able to do this. If we were living in Florida still, or even another location here, this would be difficult to impossible. If that were the case, I do not forsee us eating eggs at all.
But we don't.
We live here. We have the girls (and Napoleon, of course). We do our best to take care of them and to avoid causing harm.
Not only does my rooster love me and like to jump up onto my hand and (usually) come when he is called but is now on his way to being an entertainer.
Okay, he already entertains me for hours, as do the girls, but now we have fun playing together too. We already play a sort of "tag" where I run around the yard and he runs after me but now I've taught him to jump from one hand to the other.
I'll have to get a video of this but he jumps up on my hand and then I hold up my other arm/hand a fair distance apart and he half-flies/half-jumps to it. We'll do this several times in a row or until one of us gets bored or tired.
You may not know this, but chickens are inquisitive, interesting animals who are as intelligent as mammals like cats, dogs, and even primates. Dr. Chris Evans, administrator of the animal behavior lab at Australia’s Macquarie University, says, “As a trick at conferences, I sometimes list [chickens’] attributes, without mentioning chickens, and people think I’m talking about monkeys.”
My goal is to teach him to remain calm enough that we can bring him other places so that more people can get to meet and actual live chicken and learn more about these sweet animals outside of a dinner plate.
Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne started keeping chickens in their Echo Park backyard a little more than a year ago. The two are co-authors of "The Urban Homestead," a handbook for city dwellers who want to live off the land as much as possible, and the couple were interested in taking their urban farming experiments a step beyond harvesting artichokes, blueberries and zucchinis. So last summer they purchased four chicks, and now they are obsessed."I used to think it would be so great to bring the laptop outside and just watch the chickens and work," Knutzen said. "But I can't get anything done when I'm out here because I can't take my eyes off the chickens. They are hypnotic."
Any urban dweller interested in living green has good reason to keep chickens. They reduce garbage by eating your leftovers mixed in with their feed, and they will pick off those irritating caterpillars destroying the vegetable garden. Their poop is an excellent composting aid, and they will even trim your grass and weed for you, if you let them. Added benefits: farm-fresh eggs right from the backyard and the amusement of impressing friends with an interesting new pet -- and for many it is a pet, not a future entree.
"Bottom line, chickens are a lot of fun," said Dave Belanger, publisher of Backyard Poultry magazine, who has seen subscriptions more than triple since he launched in 2006.
Because neither Knutzen nor Coyne had kept chickens before, their venture began with lots of research on message boards and websites. They learned it's best not to name the chickens and get emotionally attached (they did anyway), and that chickens are social animals, so it's better to have more than one (they have four). Then there was the whole question of constructing a coop to ensure maximum chicken comfort and safety.
"I was talking to a friend of mine who used to be an architect who keeps a lot of chickens, and we think that architecture students should have to design chicken coops," Knutzen said. "It's the perfect way to practice how to meet a client's specific needs."
An infinite number of chicken coop plans are available in books and online, but most share the same concept of four zones: a run for the chickens to scratch and peck in the dirt, a place to eat and drink, a covered and secure roost in which to sleep at night, and, of course, the nesting box to lay their eggs.
In Mount Washington, furniture designer and artist Dakota Witzenburg built a chicken coop for his wife, Audrey Diehl, for Christmas last year as part of their ongoing effort to live green. When designing his coop, his priorities were keeping it easy to clean and making sure his chickens were safe by sinking corrugated metal at least 6 inches below ground so that burrowing predators couldn't get in. But he also considered aesthetics.
His innovations included a green roof planted with succulents, and he's considering a pulley system to make raising the roof easier. He chose yellow cedar and redwood planks not just for their sturdiness, but for the patina. "I didn't want it to be something I had to maintain," he said. "This will gray out nicely."
Diehl has been keeping an elaborate blog on her chickens' development and socialization at greenfrieda.blogspot.com.
"I'm kind of obsessed with them," she said. "Chicken people always talk about how chickens are better than TV. You could watch them all day and never get tired of it."
Oriana Bielawsky had her boyfriend, carpenter and doghouse designer Billy Peshel, build a midcentury modern coop to match their midcentury modern house (and their midcentury modern doghouse) in Laurel Canyon in fall 2004. Bielawsky didn't even want a chicken, but Peshel found one wandering on Mulholland Drive one night as he was driving home, and nobody responded to their "Chicken Lost" signs, so they decided to keep her.
Even though Cecilia passed away this summer, her coop still stands, an olive green structure built on stilts to blend with the slope of the backyard. Bielawsky, who works in film production and considers herself more of an animal lover than a backyard farmer, said Cecilia became part of an extended family that included dogs, doves and cats. Plus, there were the eggs.
"Everyone loved them," Bielawsky said, "and they were the most gorgeous sunset orange color."
I think it's safe to say that I am a huge Paraphernalia fan. I mean, I think I have a good 10 pieces now and I just love each one of them. In fact, I'm wearing my Anatomica skull necklace today!
I have a love of vintage illustrations and now I get to wear them. Miss Vanda has done a great job of sourcing and working with such unique images that I want almost everything.
But I have to say some of my particular favorites are, not surprisingly, chicken related.
In my original purchase, I bought the Fauna Claw necklace. I often look at my birds' feet and admire them for how perfectly designed they are.
And now, Vanda has just launched a new shopping site and continues to tempt me further!
Of course I had to have this Fauna Chickens bracelet. Doesn't it look just made for me! It even looks like my girls.
And I can't wait for this (because of course I placed an order right away) - the Menagerie Cpt. Poulet, Cultural Attachê Necklace. I mean, it is Napoleon! Right down to his military-inspired coat. And, even better, it's a locket! I may never take this off.
As always, I continue to be amazed and awed by Vanda's work. To celebrate her new site she is providing a 10% discount with the promotional code: YAYNEWSHOP.
I was recently asked in an interview to describe my ideal Saturday. I think I said something like: "Waking up early, going to the farmer's market for local produce and then letting my chickens out to free range in the yard."
When a friend read it, he said, "But that is what you do pretty much every Saturday!" I replied, "Well, yeah, it is. I guess I'm living the dream."
I didn't occur to me until later that they were probably looking for a response that was something along the lines of: Waking up in a 5 star hotel to breakfast in bed, then strolling the streets of Paris while shopping for designer clothes, etc. Or something equally grand. But, while that would be totally great and I wouldn't turn it down, I feel happy and at peace and joyful when I am sitting quietly in my yard, watching the sun come up. The birds are chirping, the squirrels are running around finding pecans and chasing each other in the trees and the chickens are scratching up the ground and eating some fresh greens.
It's so lovely to just sit still and silent for an hour or two. The other animals in the yard forget you are there and run near you or peer at you with curiosity rather than fear. We don't live in a very rural (or urban) area but we do get a bunch of different animals. We get all manner of birds, including songbirds, woodpeckers, crow, hawks and geese. We have bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks and groundhogs. In the evening we get deer who come up and nibble on the spilled birdseed.
This time is so addicting. Even though I know there are chores to begin and work to do, when I see the excitement of Napoleon, Meg and Gertie as they watch me open the door from their coop, I can't help but smile and feel happy.
Okay, I know everyone on the planet has probably seen this already, but I just love the sweetness and compassionate and playful interaction of this pup, kitty and baby chicks.
Thanks to CuteOverload for posting these. I'll do my part to pass this along without cluttering up a million Inboxes!
Today is absolutely gorgeous out, here in North Carolina. My favorite weather of all - cool, clear and sunny. It was so nice that I couldn't resist staying out with the chickens this morning and letting them run around the yard a bit before I went in to make breakfast.
This is the life that chickens deserve. Being able to spread their wings, scratch on the ground, interact with one another, eat some fresh greens and hunt for bugs and worms.
I have extremely crappy video capabilities on my little digital camera. This was low-res on the original video and even worse now that it is uploaded to YouTube. So, I know, you can't really get a good view of them.
What you can hear (and sort of make out) is Napoleon and the girls walking around and Napoleon finding stuff then making his little coo-ing sound to call the girls over, letting them know he found something good for them to eat.
It also shows him running over to me as soon as I got closer to the ground because he wants to jump up on my lap. He loves me.
I haven't really discussed this much on any of the blogs but we have changed to being vegetarians. I have actually wanted this for a very long time but it can be hard when you live with someone who is not totally ready for the change, especially if they do most of the cooking.
But Napoleon's attack really brought the issue and the disconnect home and we were both ready for this. And I have to say, no diet change has ever been easier. Or made more sense.
We are not completely vegan. We still each cheeses and butter and, rarely, milk, as well as the eggs we get from our girls. The hubby still eats fish. I'm a bit of a seafood snob in general so I didn't eat much in the past unless I was within an hour of the ocean. In terms of the cheeses, most of what we get comes from a local goat dairy, so we are very familiar with how the animals are treated.
With all of the great produce out there as well as the huge surge in recipes, menu choices and prepared foods, eating vegetarian is amazingly easy. And once you get past the mindset that a meal needs to include meat it's been simple.
One of my biggest hurdles was the milk issue. I love cereal and eat it a lot, generally. I always have - ask my parents. If I wanted a simple dinner, that was what I ate. So I was I bit leery of the Soy/Rice milk products. But when we decided to make the change we thought we would give them a try. How bad could they be, right? And if we hated them, we'd just dump them down the drain.
Well, we tried the Silk Soy Milk and LOVED IT. Seriously, I couldn't get enough. We have now tried the chai and chocolate flavors too. I like to have a glass of the chocolate when I get home from work for a quick "snack". The hubby uses it in his hot tea in the morning and to make scrambled eggs. If you haven't tried it, you really should. It's a little sweet but yummy.
The two of us have slightly different reasons for doing this but, hey, as long as we're together on the end choices, I'm fine with that. We're just at the beginning (just 3 months or so in) but I've never felt better physically or emotionally. It's kind of exciting.
I'm trying to convince the hubby to do his own blog talking about the recipes he's making and the products we find and try. I hope I can get him to do it because I think it would help to have someone share this change from a very early step. A lot of the vegetarian blogs and writers and podcasters have been on this for a long time, which can be intimidating. We're still learning ourselves but we're enthusiastic. What do you think?
We've been talking it up and, of course there are always questions. Our culture is so ingrained with how meals "should be" but once you get past that, you'd be surprised to realize that it's so easy.
And as I'm saying to everyone who is considering it or who we talk about it to:
You don't have to do everything; just do something.
That means, you don't have to make a 100% vegan lifestyle switch overnight. Ease into it. Give up chicken. Have 3 nights a week be vegetarian meals. Anything is better than nothing. I think you'd be surprised how much you already do and how much you like it.
Plus, if you want to chat or ask question (or follow my daily yummy meals on Twitter) I welcome it!
As a part of having the chickens and having their food and the compost pile all be out in the yard, we get a variety of "visitors" who like to come out and snack on some of the bounty that is laid out each day.
We get tons of songbirds for starters, but we also get squirrels, deer, geese and bunnies
And groundhogs.
Yes, these two little stinkers live in our backyard. I think, under our garage. I'm sure one day the garage is going to sink into the earth becasue of them. And no, we haven't tried catching them yet. I don't mind them that much.
They do have a tendency to sneak under the chicken wire which makes up the coop yard fence. Their fat butts have previously pushed up the wire to the point that Napoleon was able to slip out. We put wood posts all along the bottom of the fence but we still need to do this in the new coop yard annex.
This morning I heard Napoleon squawking up a storm and thought something like a hawk or something was in there trying to get him. When we ran down the stairs and out the door we found that it was one of the groundhogs trapped in the coop and trying to get out!
Usually the chickens don't mind them when they get in the coop. Maybe today he was eating too much and they weren't happy about it.
We scared him so he ran into the brush and, I'm assuming, found his way out.
