Christmas Time Chicks!

Sweet Chick

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.

Tony Halsted of Hoover's Hatchery

A winning smile and great business acumen have made Hoover’s Hatchery a foremost hatchery in the Midwest.

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 basicsa 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.

Big Apple 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

For the Love of Backyard 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.