by Winding Pathways | Nov 9, 2015 | Chickens
This alert chick will delight a family someday.
There is no better time than The Holiday Season to start thinking about your springtime chicken flock! Yes, now! Make part of your stocking stuffer plans to be a gift certificate for chicks. And, tuck a good chicken book under the tree for winter reading.
Chickens have been part of our lives for over five decades. A daily joy at Winding Pathways is discovering newly laid eggs in out chicken coop. They are as beautiful as jewels and delicious to eat. Our hens recycle kitchen food scraps and garden weeds, snack on insects in their outdoor run, and entertain us with their amazing intelligence, curious antics and colorful feathers. We wouldn’t live without them.
We teach teaching backyard chicken workshops at the Indian Creek Nature Center, and when we ask participants why they are considering keeping a few hens they always seem to say:
*I want my children to learn where food really comes from and to learn responsibility by caring for chickens.
*I want my family to enjoy high quality eggs.
*I want to eat eggs laid by hens that are raised in healthy and humane conditions.
We encourage homeowners to consider keeping a small flock of chickens in the backyard, and there’s good news. The ban against small flocks of chickens is changing fast. Our city, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for example, changed the ordinance a few years ago to allow chickens. There are but a few restrictions. Only hens are allowed, and people can keep a maximum of six birds. Slaughtering is banned. Other towns across the continent either now allow chickens or are considering changing the ordinance to accommodate citizens who wish to produce food.
Chickens are as at home in suburbia and big cities as they are on farms. Don’t count chickens out if you live in in a metropolis. Many New York City residents, for example, successfully keep chickens, that are often housed in community gardens.
So, in the next couple of months, Winding Pathways encourages readers to do some reading and research to see if chickens are in your future. Look for a detailed blog on the Winding Pathways Website in late December that will have much more detail on chicken husbandry. HERE ARE SOME BASICS:
Where do I get chicks? Local hardware, garden, and farm stores. Find out if they will be selling chicks next spring. Or order on line to arrive in the mail.
What’s the cost? Female chicks, called pullets, cost between $2 and $3 each for most breeds.
When do I order? Tony Halsted, part owner of Hoover’s Hatchery offers this advice: “If you want specific breeds on a specific date place your order in early to mid-January for spring delivery. If you wait we might be sold out”.
When should I have chicks arrive? An ideal time to start baby chicks is three or four weeks before the last killing frost in your area. That’s early to mid-April in northern states and a month earlier in the south.
What will I need? Here are the basics – a coop, nests, feeders, waterers and a place to store feed.
Are they easy to care for? Yes. But remember, they are living creatures that need daily care.
How many eggs will my hens lay? Each bird will lay four to six eggs a week.
Where do I get reliable information? Fortunately, the huge upturn in backyard chicken interest has stimulated the creation of many printed books, blogs and websites crammed with information that helps a novice learn how to care for chickens. Odds are the local library has chicken care books. Also, there are likely people living nearby who have chickens and will share tips. Nature centers and farm and garden stores often sponsor workshops on chicken care, usually in the late winter. And finally, carefully read chicken hatchery websites and catalogs for a host of outstanding information.
Our Favorite Book: CITY CHICKS by Patricia L. Foreman>
Magazine: Backyard Poultry
Website: Scoop From the Coop
Winding Pathways
Hatchery: Hoover’s Hatchery
There are many other excellent books, websites, magazines, and hatcheries.
REMEMBER, WATCH FOR A DETAILED BACKYARD CHICKEN BLOG COMING TO WINDING PATHWAYS LATE WINTER.
by Winding Pathways | Jun 21, 2015 | Chickens, Garden/Yard, Nature, Trees/Shrubs
As we welcome summer we also begin to indulge in Iowa’s natural harvest of berries and cherries. Mulberries must be ripe because purple colored bird droppings mark lawns and sidewalks. Scat from raccoons and coyotes are full of seeds. Mulberries are great to eat out of hand and we get great laughs from the purple tongues and fingers that result from our munching them.
Black Raspberries, or “Black caps”, are ripening. Red raspberries big as your thumb fall into your hands and cherries hang tantalizingly just beyond reach on the most slender branches. If the weather stays warm but moist, we will have excellent blackberries come mid-July into August.
Squirrels and birds naturally have an advantage over humans and our chickens make sure that they clean up any cherries that escape the squirrels. But we are out with the best of them harvesting the fruits of an Iowa summer, indulging in fresh berries by the handful and freezing some for winter.
Take time to walk a trail and have fun with summer’s bounty.
by Winding Pathways | Mar 11, 2015 | Chickens
An unusual sound can be heard in the Crowne Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. Listen carefully as trains clatter across elevated tracks and cars and delivery trucks scurry here and there and you might hear a rooster crow.
Few would believe that chickens are common in America’s largest city, but they are thriving in all parts of New York. “I’d say the chicken population has grown 100% since 2009,” said Greg Anderson, Urban Agriculture Manager of Just Food, a private nonprofit organization that encourages chickens and other forms of food production.
The crowing rooster lives contentedly with several hens in the Imani Community Garden near the corner of Syracuse and Dean. Although in an amazingly urban area, the chickens share a community garden with beds of vegetables and a few leafy trees that form a green oasis in the urban landscape.
Unlike in many American towns chickens have never been banned by ordinance in New York and many other large cities. They were part of the immigrant experience, and interest in raising chickens is growing as fast in the city as it is in smaller towns across the country.
Many New Yorkers live in quiet Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island neighborhoods and keep small coops in their backyards. Others live in massive apartment buildings in densely populated neighborhoods and lack a yard. That’s were community gardens enter.
Many years ago New York was pockmarked by abandoned lots where people tossed trash and consummated drug deals. Entertainer Bette Midler and others saw potential and several nonprofit organizations were formed to convert them to green places where neighbors could gather to grow food and keep chickens. Imani Garden, like dozens of others, is owned by the New York Restoration Project, a nonprofit that places conservation easements on land so they legally remain open space. Just Food, another nonprofit, organizes community gardens and CSAs and teaches people how to raise chickens in the city.
“Not all community gardens have chickens but many do and every garden handles its flock a little differently,” said Greg Anderson, Urban Agriculture Manager for Just Food. Often flock responsibility is divided among many families that each care for the birds on a specific day. That’s the day a specific family keeps the eggs. Other gardens sell eggs at farmers markets and use proceeds to operate the organization.
Some urbanites keep chickens as pets. Anderson tells of a woman in Queens who has leashes for her two pet chickens and regularly takes them for walks.
Live in a big city and want to keep chickens? It’s not impossible and it’s likely there are already chickens near your home. A good way to locate local resources is to simply GOOGLE “Chickens in (name of your city)”. To learn more about the New York chicken and gardening experience check out Just Food or New York Restoration Project
by Winding Pathways | Dec 30, 2014 | Chickens
Chickens are colorful and entertaining transformers of kitchen scraps and garden waste into delicious organic food. What could be better than a small flock?
Chickens have been part of our lives for decades. We can’t imagine living without them. Today millions of American families are building coops and enjoying the benefits of flocks as small as a few hens.
Previously, ordinances banned chickens from many towns, but recent interest in local food has reached city hall, and antichicken ordinances are falling like autumn leaves. Many cities now allow backyard flocks in even urban areas, but often limit them to six hens and no noisy roosters.
Six hens will do these wonderful things:
Lay three or four fresh and delicious eggs every day.
- Quickly repurpose food scraps and weeds into eggs.
- Provide a wonderful opportunity for children to learn responsibility by caring for chicken. And they’ll learn where food really comes from.
- Add color and life to the back yard.
Chickens are easy to raise and care for but need attention 365 days a year. Anyone who has kept any domestic animal can easily learn to care for a small flock. They just need these things:
- A coop to protect them from the wind, rain, raccoons and other predators. Chickens only need four square feet per hen, so a backyard coop can be tiny and can be purchased ready-made, is easily built with simple carpentry skills and tools, or crafted inside an existing garage or shed.
- An optional but helpful outdoor run that gives the birds fresh air, sunshine, and plenty of plants and insects to eat.
- Someone to check on them daily to harvest eggs, fill feeders and waterers, close the door at night to keep nocturnal predators at bay and open it in the morning.
How to Get Started
The first step is to either call your town’s city clerk or check the municipal website to see if keeping chickens is legal and, if so, what restrictions are in place. Assuming that your city has endorsed backyard chickens here is what you can do:
- Read a few how to books that help beginners learn the basics. There’s also plenty of information on the Internet.
- Scan websites of hatcheries for information on chicken care and breeds. Just Google chicken hatcheries and a screen of websites appears. We’ve ordered chicks from Murray McMurray and Hoover’s Hatcheries. Both have been part of the Iowa business scene for decades. McMurray’s on line and paper catalog is a gem of information and they sell dozens of breeds of chickens. Hoover is a down home hatchery that sells fewer breeds but of top notch quality.
- Check with your local nature center or county extension office to see if a basic chicken care workshop will be held in your area. Take it in. They may be able to put you in touch with nearby families who have chickens.
- For a list of nature centers scan the website of the Association of Nature Center Administrators.
- Subscribe to on line chicken care blogs. Two good ones are Scoop From the Coop and Community Chickens.
- Read more on chicken care in future Winding Pathways Blog.
- Then, have fun with your chickens.
by Winding Pathways | Nov 17, 2014 | Chickens, Children/Play, Nature, Reflections/Profiles, Wonderment
First Snow has a magic that draws children to it. Even some adults “get into” a first snow. Share your adventures and memories – current or past – of a First Snow. (Or any winter adventure you cherish.) Let us sparkle with life. For those who prefer to enjoy winter inside curled up with a good story, Robert Frost’s “Stopping By Woods On Snowy Evening” or John Greenleaf Whittier’s “Snowbound” both at Poetry Foundation are terrific reads.
*The idea of posting about the magic of first snow was inspired by Wahneta Tonn Dimmer’s FB post and hearing our neighbors’ children laugh as they belly slid down a slope by their home. Yes snow has its hazards and needs to be shoveled. But we can whistle while we work and appreciate the beauty of an Iowa winter in November.
First Snow is magical.
Devany Souza – musher extraordinaire
“I was dog-sledding to Alaska. I had some medicine for the
children and all the grown ups who were sick. I put the medicine
in the box, with a blanket under it and on top of it, so it wouldn’t freeze. And the lead dog was my Husky named ‘Snowflake’.
The dogs’ paws froze and I had to put them in my sled and
push the sled until I got to Alaska. When I got to Alaska, everyone
got out of their cottages and cheered. I let my dogs off their harness and a lot of children came up and started petting them and they built
a statue of the three dogs and a statue of me. The End.”
Devany Souza as dictated to her mom, Kelly Carr Souza.
Considering their options.
Plotting a Winter Escapade
Summer Bunny and Jumping Bean were two intrepid Tortoise Shell Dutch Bunnies who loved to explore in summer and winter. They like the paths that we shoved for them best, but they were little deterred by snow. Hilarious to watch, they would seem to plot their adventures. Usually their paths took them under the gnarliest branches and into the thorniest thickets.
After a suitable romp they usually were ready to come back to the hutch for a snack and warming up in their bunny box. They always made winter fun.
“Hygge”
The infant snuggled close to her mama as snow drifted down outside.
“I made a conscious decision to stay home today. I did not touch my car, or anyone else’s car. We had a warm breakfast. We wore comfortable clothes. Around 11:00 a.m. the neighbor girl came over and drew my older daughter outdoors, where they mostly stayed until about 4:30 p.m., reveling in the newly fallen snow. Too powdery for snowmen or snowballs, but good for pulling a sled! My little one, of course, was intrigued by her older sister’s adventures. I found too-big snow pants for her and rolled up the legs; put on her coat and hat, and held her little hand as she shuffled down the sidewalk. In the afternoon, we had chicken noodle soup and a nap. I read my book. To the little one’s delight, we were not separated by more than an inch for most of the day. My sister came to visit and we toasted with a couple of glasses of wine and ate some salmon. I recently read about Danish “hygge”; there’s no good translation to English but it could be thought of as coziness, togetherness, and well-being that gets us through winter. We may have discovered it in Iowa already this winter! I hope it carries us through.” Sophie Nicholson
The Magic of Winter
A typical winter scene – an assortment of gloves, mittens, hats, scarves all returned from a day on the snowy slopes.
“Children know how to do it right, celebrate winter that is! Watch the excitement in their eyes as the first snow flakes fall, then as the snow begins to accumulate on the grass, trees, patio swing and sidewalk. “Do you think it will be enough to go sledding, Mom?” my son asked.
“As a child I was fortunate enough to grow up in a five acre wood that was once home to a ski jump in rural Wisconsin. My brother, two cousins and friends from the neighborhood would bundle up and brave the Wisconsin winter cold for the thrill of the descent. From our side of the hill, we would climb a narrow, well worn trail through the woods. As we approached the top the ski slope would open up to reveal the valley to the south. We were well protected from any wintery winds by the tall hardwoods that lined the ski slope.
“The ride down was well worth the long trek up through the woods. The hill always kept its promise of a fast and exciting ride down. We would often have races to see who could reach the bottom first! I can only imagine in the stillness of the snowy countryside, that our giggles and squeals could be heard far and wide. When we just couldn’t bear walking up the hill one more time, our sled seemed like 50 pounds instead of five, our mittens were just too wet and our toes too cold, we would trek back down the trail in the woods. Mom would surely have hot cocoa and warm wintery treats waiting upon our return. She would welcome us home, pink cheeks and all. She would want to hear every detail of our adventure.
“What strikes me most in hindsight is the realization that we never worried about the time. We were so engrossed in the wonderful experience, the joy of it, the thrill of it, that we had not a care in the world. We were truly present and enthralled by the experiences that winter had blessed us with.
“An old friend once said, “It is not really about bad weather. It is really about having the right gear.” Whether you choose to bundle up and dive into the snow and cold or have the opportunity to witness the magic through a child’s eyes, allow yourself to get caught up in it. Magic is all around us. Take time to see it and experience it!” Wahneta Tonn Dimmer
The Severins welcome winter’s first snow with
the magical spirit of children.
The Severins take on winter with a smile and dinner out!
“The first snowfall of the season descended in large fluffy clumps … the kind of snowflakes you want to try to catch on your tongue … the kind of snowflakes that sparkle and glisten in the light from the street lamps. We ventured out into the snowy night and shared in its magic.”
by Winding Pathways | Jul 14, 2014 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Chickens, Garden/Yard, Mammals, Nature, Pests
The charming but pesky chipmunk is an amazing forager and storer of food.
Wildlife sometime create yard mischief. Raccoons, possums, and skunks tip over trash cans in the middle of the night. Chipmunks tunnel under walls, moles heap mounds of dirt. And woodchucks and cottontails raid the garden.
Damage, or perceived damage, often infuriates homeowners. Woodchucks have the uncanny ability to harvest lettuce the day before it is to be picked for an evening salad, and raccoons raid the sweet corn patch the moment ears are ripe. Moles hump up hills of dirt that lawnmowers hit, and skunks mine into the sod for grubs. What’s a homeowner to do?
WHY WILDLIFE CAUSE PROBLEMS
There’s no mystery to it. Wild animals are attracted to yards because they are comfortable places to live or find food. All living creatures need food, shelter and water to live. Yards frequently offer these basic needs all in proximity. Create a beautiful diverse yard and wildlife will enjoy it as much as people. In most cases people love seeing most species of wildlife in their yards, but often agree that they are best enjoyed in moderation.
THREE STEPS TO CONTROL GARDEN WILDLIFE DAMAGE
There are three ways to effectively overcome, or at least minimize, wildlife damage.
Homeowners differ in their strategy on how they weigh the benefits versus problems of wildlife in the yard.
Strategy One: Tolerate damage and enjoy wildlife.
It’s a state of mind that may require attitude adjustment. How important is a perfect lawn or head of cabbage, versus watching a cottontail mom peacefully nurse her babies on the edge of the law? How valuable is the beauty and inspiration gained from seeing chipmunks pack their cheeks with seeds and scamper across the yard versus the tunnels they make in retaining walls? For many people having beautiful and interesting wildlife out the window far outweighs damage they may cause.
We had a friend who grew a tiny garden with a few lettuce plants, a short row of string beans, and one hill of summer squash. When a cottontail devoured them she was incensed and declared war on bunnies. She bought traps but never managed to catch them. She built a fence but the lettuce thieves found their way under it. Her stress level rose as plants disappeared.
We suggested she might rely on simple arithmetic to solve her problem.
“Instead of spending about a hundred bucks on fencing and traps, wouldn’t it be simpler and cheaper to just buy lettuce, squash, and beans at the farmer’s market”, we asked her. She agreed. It took some mental adjustment, but now she buys locally grown vegetables and enjoys watching the cottontails that she once hated.
SOMETIMES IT’S BEST TO JUST IGNORE MINOR DAMAGE AND ENJOY WILDLIFE.
Strategy two. Preventing damage in the first place.
The saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” holds true for wildlife damage. In most cases homeowners can both enjoy wildlife and prevent or greatly reduce damage critters might do. Some simple ways to anticipate and reduce conflict include:
Fencing: Craft fences sturdy enough to keep rabbits and woodchucks out of the garden. Cottontails, for example can jump a long ways horizontally but not high vertically. An inexpensive 18 “ tall temporary fence of chicken wire will keep them out of the garden. Woodchucks are more challenging, as they are expert diggers and climbers. A garden fence needs to extend below the ground to keep them out and needs to be at least three or four feet tall. Watch for more fencing specifics in future editions of Winding Pathways website.
Securing: Store trash cans inside the garage with the door closed to keep raccoons from tipping it over. Better yet, compost food scraps and don’t put anything in the can that will interest wildlife. Composting turns waste into a wonderful resource that improves the soil. Don’t let the trash man cart it away. Some people who prefer not to add meat scraps to the compost bin, feed them to a small flock of chickens or simply put them on the edge of the yard in the evening for the raccoons to devour. No more tipping over the trash can.
PREVENTION IS A KEY
Strategy three: Killing the offending animal.
Often people resort first to killing an animal. However killing a few woodchucks, raccoons, moles, or chipmunks will not solve damage problems. These animals are in the yard because they find perfect conditions there to live. Remove a few and others will move in. Keep killing and you’ve created a wildlife death trap.
Sometimes it is necessary to kill an animal. Upcoming issues of Winding Pathways will feature tips on how to eliminate problem animals.
