The Birds and the Bees

They're Back!

2010-02-08T08:32:00.000-08:00

A friend is enamored with a special breed of chicken, the Sicilian Buttercup, and the only way she could get these chicks was by mail ordering them. When you mail order chicks, you have to buy 25 at a time so the chicks stay warm in transit. I agreed to take some of the birds since Maryann did not want so many babies. Maryann ordered a random assortment of chickens along with four Sicilian Buttercups, two for me and two for her.

When the postal clerk delivered the box on Friday, one bird, a Sicilian Buttercup no less, was dead. That left us with 22 birds because the company sent us only 23 birds. I took 11 chicks as I will be raising two for Joe, our beekeeping friend. I took the weakest looking Sicilian Buttercup and despite my valiant efforts, the sweet thing died last night. Concord Feed, our local animal food store, will receive their first shipment of chicks next week so I will pick up another bird for Joe. He wants a white and black one so I will get him the "Elvis" breed, the Light Brahma. I will give Joe his chicks as soon as this flock is ready to move outside.

Below is a photo of my birds. The Sicilian Buttercup is in the right hand corner. I will be raising two Silver Lace Wyandottes, a Rhode Island Red, two Buff Orphingtons, a brown leghorn, two Ameraucanas (these lay the green/blue eggs) and a barred rock.

During the past few weeks I have been planting bushes and vines to reduce the noise and visibility of the chicken yard. I am very excited about being a chicken mother again! I have been telling my old girls about these new babies so that they will be ready for them in a couple of months!

Easter Egg Hunt

2009-11-10T05:30:00.000-08:00

It is a bit early to be celebrating Easter, but Brant is a kid at heart and he loves Easter Egg hunts. I didn't think he would find any eggs as I had already collected six earlier in the afternoon. Brant wanted to check things out so I told him to have at it.

And guess what he found? An egg! And there was not just one, it turns out, but two!

This is Polly's egg because it is white and only one bird in my flock lays white eggs.

Here is a Plymouth Rock checking out the hen house in the middle of the afternoon.

Photo Op

2009-11-10T05:10:00.000-08:00

Dave's profound statement when he viewed the photos that Paula took of Brant and me during their recent visit to the chicken pen: "It is okay to pick chicken up with your fingers."

Here is Brant holding an Ameraucana.

Here is a Production Red prancing up the hill to join us.

This is what she saw - our fearless cat, Mr. Darcy.

Paula and Brant know how to ingratiate themselves with the chickens. They bring leftovers and the great thing about my ladies is that they seldom turn their beaks up at anything that is offered to them. This Ameraucana is enjoying leftover pumpkin bread pudding. As Paula points out in her food blog (http://www.dishingthedivine.com/2009/11/08/its-for-the-birds/), this was not one of her favorite recipes.

Extra Extra Extra Large

2009-10-29T18:19:00.000-07:00

Check out this humongous egg! It is so huge that the extra large chicken carton I put it in will not close properly. I told Paula that this egg counts for two.

Never Enough Fence

2009-10-19T14:20:00.000-07:00

After the 3.5 inches of rain we got last Tuesday, I noticed tons of new plants growing on the hill. Dave and I felt sure that the chickens had eaten every seed and we were quite concerned that the winter rains would cause a mud slide. Dave actually called several local government agencies to find out if we were eligible for free grass seed.

Since there is life in 'them thar hills', we decided that it would be prudent for us to fence off the area to allow the vegetation to grow. Of course, this means more fencing. We had most of materials on hand so Dave tackled the project Saturday afternoon. He needs to borrow a come-a-long and rope to stretch the fence tight so he will finish the job this Thursday when he has a break from work. The chickens will not be pleased but the new trees we planted last week and the baby weeds and grass will get a break from their pecking. Eventually we will let the chickens roam this area again but we will manage the amount of 'grazing' they do.

The following photo may look familiar as I included many of Dave setting up the original fence in earlier blog entries.

The tree above the word hill in the photo below is our new lemon tree. We plan to cover the hill with other fruit trees this fall. So far we have a pomegranate, a lemon, a fig, and a white peach tree. The hill is composed of shale so we are not sure how well these plants will grow. I guess time will tell!

How Long Will These Eggs Stay Fresh?

2009-10-14T10:27:00.001-07:00

"How long are these eggs good for?" is one of the most frequent questions I am asked when I offer eggs to friends. In this post I will attempt to answer that question while also explaining why some hard boiled eggs are easier to peel than others. My source of information is the Chicken Keeping Secrets newsletter at chickenkeepingsecrets.com.

When an egg is formed, the yolk and whites are enclosed within a thin membrane. A second membrane lies just inside the egg’s shell. In a fresh egg, the two membranes lie against each other. In an older egg, evaporation has had a chance to occur within the egg because of the porous egg shell resulting in more space between the two membranes. When you boil a fresh egg, the two membranes lie so closely together that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to peel the egg. Use for old eggs for making boiled eggs.

You can use a “float test” to give you an idea how fresh your eggs are. The older the eggs, the larger the air pockets between the two membranes. The more air the eggs contain, the more they will float.

Fill a bowl with cool water. Gently place your eggs in the bowl.

(1) If the eggs lie flat on the bottom of the bowl, they are very fresh. These are the best eggs for eating alone.
(2) If the eggs stay in contact with the bottom of the bowl but one end starts to rise, these eggs are still fresh, just not quite as fresh as the one that lies flat.
(3) If the eggs stand on end but still stay in contact with the bottom of the bowl, they are still perfectly safe to eat but they are better used for baking or cooking. These are the eggs to use for boiling, since the air pocket between the two membranes is large enough to prevent sticking when peeling the shell away from the egg.
(4) If the eggs do not stay in contact with the bottom of the bowl, throw them away as they are not good for eating.

In the following photo, the brown egg is one day old. The white egg is a Safeway 'special' with a "sell by" date of October 30. As you can see, the white egg is already beginning to tilt upwards.

The reason store bought eggs usually peel so easily is because they are not very fresh. You may not realize this, but eggs can be more than 45 days old before you buy them. I do not know how long the “farm” has to package their eggs for sale once it has been laid. But at the time of packaging, the “sell by” date is 45 days later! In short, most of the eggs that you scramble for breakfast are likely 2 months old!

If your are lucky enough to get really fresh eggs, enjoy them as they are very special.

First Rain of the Season

2009-10-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

Our rainy season begins in late October and continues through April or May. Yesterday we got our first serious rain and I was curious to see how the chickens would react to it as they have never seen rain. As I expected, the ladies were not very happy. Like us, they do not like to get wet. As the torrential rains hammered their playground, they stayed underneath the hen house, the only dry area available to them. I checked on them several times and they were extremely delighted to see me. I felt sorry for them so I made them macaroni and cheese. Needless to say, they polished off this comfort food in no time at all. I added flax meal to the cheese mixture to boost the nutritional quality of their eggs.

The rain finally abated around 4:30 PM. The chickens cautiously made their way around the yard and scratched at the damp soil. I was glad that they had some play time before retiring for the night at 6:45 PM. Withthe days get shorter, the birds head back to the hen house earlier and earlier in the evenings.

Here you can see the tail feathers of an Ameraucana being fluffed by the wind.

Dinner?

2009-09-29T17:40:00.000-07:00

I brought Polly into the house this afternoon to show her where and how I live. As a lark, Dave wanted to get a photo of me showing her the chicken rack we use for store bought chickens. Polly is such a lively, adorable gal. I would never consider serving her for dinner.

Haircuts

2009-09-29T17:26:00.000-07:00

Ms. Polly, the White Leghorn ring leader of the flock, was vexing me by sneaking through and over the fence in order to feast on the tasty treats in my compost pile. Concerned that one day she might venture even further or that some stray dog might find her, I decided that it was time to give her a haircut.

On Friday morning I Googled 'clipping chicken wings' and read the first article dealing with this subject. The process seemed pretty straightforward. I grabbed my super sharp kitchen shears and went outside to the compost pile. Polly is used to letting me pick her up and she was very calm as I snipped her flying wings. You can barely tell that her wings have been clipped. Later that morning I did the same to a Production Red who also likes to fly over the fence. It has been four days and neither bird has flown over the fence. Problem solved.

One of the Ameraucanas may be next as she seems to be overly interested in my neighbor's perfectly manicured green lawn.

They have it so good!

2009-09-14T06:51:00.000-07:00

I wonder if my chickens truly appreciate what a wonderful life they lead. I feed them high quality foods and I keep the hen house so clean that it looks as new as the day Dave set it up.

I am in Tucson, Arizona, visiting my sister Kathy who lives on an eight acre "ranch". Kathy raises llamas, goats, sheep, geese, Angora rabbits, cats, AND ten chickens. Now that I know something about chickens, I was interested to check out her set up. I was not impressed at all and this is no fault of my sister. She lives in the desert where you have to deal with bobcats, hawks, and rattlesnakes. She cannot allow her ladies to wander wherever they please. Instead, she has to keep them locked up with complete overhead covering. Kathy lives in the county so she can raise roosters as well. Last week her husband made dinner out of their two roosters because they were pecking the heck out of her hens.

I thought having a rooster would be fun, but now I am not so sure. Roosters can be so brutal when they mount the hen. Here are some photos of 'battered hens.'

And here is a photo of the chicken coop. The cages on the left are for the Angora rabbits. The rabbits are living in the mother-in-law's quarters as they were showing signs of being overheated.

Thanksgiving

2009-08-26T04:20:00.000-07:00

I celebrate Thanksgiving every evening when I put our chickens to bed. I thank them for all the wonderful eggs they have given me and I tell them how pleased I am with them.

Our ten chickens are now laying between 5 and 8 eggs a day. The Ameraucanas started laying two days ago when they turned six months old. I recognize their eggs because they are green in color. Even one of the two Bobbsey Twins is laying eggs. The twins are a month younger than the rest of the chickens. They are finally acting more like they are part of the flock.

Paula has been selling the eggs to her friends at church and in her book club group. These eggs are extra special because I feed the chickens organic chicken feed and supplement their diet daily with ground flax meal. For a while I was also feeding them 'dumpster' produce but I cut that out when I realized this was creating havoc with their reproductive system. A few chickens started laying rubbery eggs and in some cases they laid eggs with no egg shell at all. The birds were also suffering from diarrhea. So, despite the fact that chickens can and do eat pretty much everything, not every food is good for them.

Our Chickens are Grown Up

2009-08-18T18:06:00.001-07:00

Dave has been experimenting with various features on his camera. Here are some recent photos he took of our ladies.

Below is a White Leghorn and a Maran enjoying corn on the cob that Paula and Brant grew in their garden this summer.

Here is a Production Red. This breed is a very good egg layer. Her eggs are light brown and larger than the eggs laid by the other chickens.

One of our Ameraucanas and our Australorp are sitting on the gate. I had to put up a large piece of cardboard to break them of this habit because they would often jump down on the wrong side of the fence. Some evenings I just didn't have the energy to round them up. They like to make me chase after them.

A larger photo of the Ameraucana sitting on the gate. In the following photo Liz is holding this bird when it was only a few weeks old. What a difference a few months make! We named one of the Ameraucanas after Liz because they looked so much alike. Now the Ameraucana has cheeks that puff out like a chipmunk's. I am not sure Liz would feel flattered to be compared to the chicken now.

DIY Tune-Up Project

2009-08-01T21:59:00.000-07:00

Dave -

Do you prefer doing a process or a project? The difference is that a "process" doesn't have an end, while a "project" has a definite start and finish. Cleaning the house is a process; yes, you may think that the house is clean, but the fact is, within minutes of having everything spic and span, someone (usually me) is already creating a mess. Our jobs are also processes. While it may be Friday, you are not finished with work, but simply taking a two day respite before returning to the salt mine. Processes - only death will end them.

A project, on the other hand, has a definite start and finish. Today I will be writing about a tune-up "project". Rather than take the old BMW K100 RT motorcycle in for a tune-up, I decided that this would be a good DIY project. The service manual clearly states that anyone with a couple of simple tools and the willingness to follow directions can tune-up a bike. Shoot! I have some tools and I have always been good at following directions. As I read the chapter on tune-ups, I jotted down things I would need: oil, spark plugs, coolant...I am feeling comfortable at this point...brake fluid, transmission oil, gear grease, fork oil...okay, I have to admit I am getting a bit out of my comfort range. By the time I finished reading the chapter, I had added gaskets, sealers, special crush washers, O-rings, a couple of special tools, and three types of filters to my list. Now I am very much over my head.

Motorcycles are high performing, powerful machines and the oil and coolant that you use in your car will not work in a bike. I spent several hours surfing the web, learning about different kinds of oil and coolant, trying to differentiate between one company's marketing hype and another one's legitimate claim. Then, armed with a list of exactly the right oil and coolant that I would need, I headed to the store. The store didn't carry exactly what I was looking for so I headed to Store #2. Store #2 carried the same stuff as the Store #1. I realized at this point that unless I planned to special order these items, I was going to have to be satisfied with what was on the shelves. I continued on to Store #3 and Store #4 before I had everything on my list. When I got home, I was pretty much sick of this project and decided to spend the remainder of my day doing something else.

Day #2: When I ventured into the garage the next morning, the bike sat there surrounded by bottles of oil, coolant, gear grease, and a sundry of other life-giving fluids and two bags of parts and pieces that I had picked up the day before. Here is a bit of information that I found interesting: modern motorcycles have all the same pieces and parts and systems that your car has.
Whoever designed this motorcyle crammed all this stuff in a very small package. Working on a motorbike is much like solving a Rubic's Cube - getting the pieces to line up is never as simple as it looks. In the case of the bike, changing something as simple as the air filter requires you to remove something call the “air box”. To remove the air box, you have to remove the gas tank from the bike. Stop! You can’t remove the gas tank until you remove the seat AND the left hand side upper and lower faring. So to change something as simple as the air filter, I had to virtually disassemble the bike. I am NOT making this up! To replace the coolant, the right hand side faring must be removed. The coup de grâce was the requirement to take off the oil pan to remove the oil filter. The day ended with the bike torn apart, but with the oil and coolant successfully changed.

Day #3: Today I spent the day figuring out where all the little (and big) pieces of the faring, brackets, and fasteners were supposed to go. The manual was not overly helpful inasmuch as it simply stated something to the effect that reassembly is just a reversal of the disassembly process. Two things to remember in digesting this bit of information is that I took all of the crap apart yesterday and had not the foggiest idea of how I got to the point that I was at now. I started putting pieces together until I ran out of both pieces and fasteners. Actually, I did end up with a big piece of foam that certainly fits somewhere, but I will have to visit the local BMW dealer and ask a mechanic where it is supposed to go.

With the bike back together, I was ready to tackle the tasks that could be completed without reducing the bike to a million little pieces. Replacing the spark plugs, transmission fluid, the rear end oil, brake fluid, and suspension fork oil turned out to be fairly straightforward. I was making excellent progress and then Mike called to ask if I would like to help him tune-up his bike. It was like Dante’s three levels of hell…forever another level when you thought things couldn’t get worse.

Epilogue: The bike is back together and running better than ever. Mike (with very little help from me) changed the oil and coolant in his bike. My tune-up project is finished. I must say that at times during the last couple of days I thought that my "project" was going to morph into a "process".
Looking back, I think the project worked out pretty good. I enjoyed working on the bike and working alongside Mike. I did not have a hot rod to tinker with while growing up, so I guess the motorcycle is my hot rod.

Special thanks goes to my neighbor, Richard. He is a knowledgeable mechanic who has a ton of really cool tools – many of which I had to borrow over the course of the last couple of days. Without his help and his willingness to loan his tools, the bike would still be in a hundred pieces scattered about the garage.

Another Chicken Farmer

2009-07-25T17:54:00.000-07:00

Dave -

Do you remember our friend Joe? Flip back several "blog days" to when we initially got involved in honeybees. It turns out that Joe is quite a character. In late May he picked up four day-old chicks and was looking forward to raising them for eggs and maybe chicken soup.

Shirley and I find it so refreshing to see our octogenarian friend taking on such a long-term project as chickens typically produce eggs for six years and can live several years after that. Joe is more involved in life than many people half his age - what fun!

Shirley and I dropped by to visit with Joe and his wife, Alice, to hear his chicken stories and to check out his chicken coop. Joe and Alice live in your typical residential neighborhood and they have accumulated the usual stuff that staying in one place for decades brings with it. It was interesting to see how Joe made use of this junk to build his chicken coop. He fashioned a couple of bolts and door fasteners from scraps of wood. (Shirley and I, lacking this talent, opted to pick up a couple of metal fasteners at the hardware store.) The pictures tell more of the story.

Here is his feeding box. Joe has it stabilized so the birds cannot tip it over.

Here are his home made latches.

Joe set up his chicken coop at the end of his shed. He replaced the roof with a skylight so his "ladies" would not have to spend their time in the dark.

Joe's chickens are thriving in their new home. We all agreed that two of Joe's four chickens are roosters. The birds are still a couple of months from crowing - the sure sign that the "ladies" are really not ladies at all - but the narrow feathers and long tail make it pretty obvious that the two are not ladies.

Dumpster Diving Treats

2009-07-19T10:53:00.001-07:00

I went to the produce store this morning and after buying some veggies for our meals this week, I went around back to the dumpster to see if there was anything good in there for my birds. About a month or so ago, I had asked one of the store people if I could take some of their leftover produce to feed to my chickens. He said sure but the dumpster would be open to the public only on Saturday when the local enforcement code people were not likely to be snooping around. To my dismay, there was nothing in the dumpster and a guy was moving crates of fresh produce with a forklift so I could barely reach the dumpster even if there had been anything in it.

As I pedaled home, I figured my dear chickens would have to make do with scraps that I could scrounge up from my own veggie patch.

Later in the day, I decided to give the dumpster another try. It was 103 degrees outside, but my chickens were worth the sacrifice. So I loaded my panniers down with plastic bags and returned to the produce store. The photo says it all.

As you can see, my fridge is pretty full now. Those bags are stuffed with romaine lettuce leaves, cherries, two whole heads of iceberg lettuce, 2 whole heads of cauliflower, several stalks of celery, tomatoes, spinach, beets, eggplant . . . If you come to my house, be careful what you grab from my fridge. If it looks like a tossed salad, you may want to pass on this as it is likely chicken food!

Update on Our Chickens

2009-07-17T05:16:00.000-07:00

Back to the subject of chickens.

Since my last entry, we had to find a home for another chicken; the Rhode Island Red was also a rooster. We gave him to an acquaintance who lives on four acres in Martinez. Needless to say I cried over losing him too, although I hear that he is adjusting to his new yard and family.

Our ten remaining chickens are definitely females. We are collecting three eggs a day - one from a Maran (a small, dark chocolate egg), one from a Production Red (a little larger, tan colored egg), and just yesterday our White Leghorn popped out her first white egg! In another month we should be collecting six to seven eggs a day. Since these first eggs are so small, Dave needs three of them for a decent scrambled egg.

Without Elvis in charge, the chickens no longer move about as a cohesive group. I guess it takes a rooster to keep them in line. I often wonder if they think I am the rooster. They do not seem to head to the hen house in the evening until I go outside to remind them that it is time to go to bed. Bedtime is now 8:30 PM. Without Elvis, the birds find their spot in the chicken coop and quietly go to sleep. Several birds crowd into the three nesting boxes.

Dave took several photos the other evening. As you can see, our birds are getting bigger and look like chickens. This is a Maran.

This is an Ameraucana. She will lay a greenish blue egg.

Here is Polly enjoying corn on the cob before calling it a day. Every Saturday morning I pedal to the produce store and fill several bags with 'old' produce to feed my birds. They really like pecking at the fresh kernels of corn.

And here is me securing the coop for the night.

Bike Restoration - The Final Chapter

2009-07-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

Dave -

Finished! After assessing what we had on our hands (other than grease), the project morphed from a "restoration" project to a "paint, clean, and lube" project. Old parts are difficult to find and current design is certainly superior to the components found on bicycles 45 years ago. Overall, the project has been enjoyable. My next project will probably be another bike from the past, but probably from the '80s, not the '60s. I would like to find a chromoly steel frame (as opposed to aluminum or carbon fiber) and build the ultimate touring bike. Ah...something to dream about.

For a couple of other pictures of the finished project check out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34610497@N07/3711126071/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34610497@N07/3711936730/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34610497@N07/3711125933/in/photostream/

Bike Restoration - Part II

2009-07-07T16:00:00.000-07:00

Dave -
The bike restoration project sped along full speed until it abruptly hit a wall. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the wheels did not match. I'm not talking about some subtle differences, I'm talking about blatant differences - one has an alloy or satin finish and the other wheel has a heavy chrome finish. Of course no self-respecting bike mechanic would allow this, so I have been scouring the Internet for inexpensive used bike wheels. I think that I may have found someone that has what I am looking for. Of course I thought this to be the case last week and upon inspection the wheels were no better than what I have.

I had the rear derailleur to clean and lubricate so I took on this job last week. As the picture shows, my work bench is the top of the trash container. While some would feel that this is no way to tackle a project, I have to say that it works well for a procrastinator like myself. The trash container goes to the curb on Thursday night so this forces me to finish what I am working on before then. It is my motivator since I would be at a lost if I had to disturb the reassembly order.

Speaking of reassembly, I have fooled around with bike parts over the years but I have never encountered the complexity that seems to define British engineering. Those of you that own British cars can certainly attest to the nightmare-infused package of parts that the British refer to as 'engineering'. Case in point, most derailleurs have about 15 parts; this derailleur has 27 parts - not counting the 15 ball bearings in each of the pulleys. I reassembled the derailleur and ended up with two extra parts. I re-reassembled it two more times until I finally ran out of parts - I figured that at this point I was done.

To date the bike has been stripped, primed and painted. No, it isn't perfect. I justify the $87 spent on sandpaper, cleaning fluid, primer, paint, and buffer pads as an "investment" in a project that Mike and I are enjoying. The alternative would have been to take it to a paint shop and just write a check for $155; what fun is that? (Of course, I am told that the professionally painted frame would have been really, really nice.)

Once I have some wheels, it should be just another four or five hours and the bike will be ready to be enjoyed on streets, bike paths, bike lanes, and an occasional sidewalk.

Egg-citing News!

2009-07-07T05:04:00.000-07:00

My chickens are 19 1/2 weeks old. On July 4th, I noticed one of the Marans sitting in the nesting box, tossing strands of straw at her back. I thought for sure she was going to lay an egg but she didn't. None of our girls had laid any eggs but I figured this would change shortly as most chickens start laying around 20 weeks.

When I checked on the chickens yesterday afternoon, this is what I found in the middle nesting box:

Our very first egg! Based on its color, this belongs to one of the Production Reds as Marans produce very dark chocolate brown colored eggs.

Dave fried the first egg for his dinner and to our surprise, this one had a double yolk! What a fortuitous sign. FYI, the cholesterol in free range eggs is good for you so having a double yolk does not mean you are increasing your cholesterol intake.

Check out our new rooster plate!

Below is a photo Dave took of Amelia, Bedelia, and Fredericka sitting on the gate. We often find them here in the evening. So far they have shown no desire to jump to 'freedom.'

Chickens in the Family

2009-07-02T04:26:00.000-07:00

My father-in-law attended a family reunion this past weekend and when he saw this photo he decided to share it with me. Apparently Dave's great aunt and uncle (the Lloyd Kuckers) were also in the 'chicken business'. Picture circa 1940.

A Different Project

2009-06-27T21:15:00.000-07:00

Dave

Let's take a break from the farm life for awhile. Enough with the construction projects, the fencing projects, the bees, and the chickens. While these are interesting - and continue to occupy a portion of my daily routine - I have recently embarked on another project: the restoration of an old bicycle.

Bicycles define our family. Shirley prefers to bicycle rather than drive. In fact, she drives the car about once a month. Shirley does everything by bike: grocery shopping, running errands, even attending birthday parties, church services, and funerals by bicycle. Our daughter and her husband ride their bikes to work and to run errands, and our son, Mike, has recently expressed an interest in becoming re-acquainted with a bicycle - after driving his car non-stop for the last three years .

I have lost my fascination and craving for the lightest, fastest and newest bicycle. My bike is about 15 years old and Shirley's is even older. Our bikes are workhorses with comfortable saddles (seats to the non-cyclists), panniers (bags on the back for hauling everything from 48 rolls of toilet paper from Costco, the cat carrier with a couple of cats, to 50 pounds of flour), and low gearing to enable us to climb the hills in the East Bay.

But lest I digress too much, let's get back to the new "project". After weeks of checking Craigslist, I found an old Carlton (British bicycle) that was hand-built from Reynolds 531 tubing in 1964. This bike has seen better days and the technology, while functional, is certainly not on par with new bikes being sold today. But this is not a project about building some exotic racing machine. Rather, this is a father/son project. Mike and I decided that it would be fun to restore this the Carlton to its original condition. Our plan was to sand the frame, knock off the rust, scrape off the gunk, replace a few broken or missing parts, true the wheels, grease the bearings, oil the chain, and put some air in the tires. This goal was pretty straightforward until Day 1. The bike - being of British ancestry - was built to exacting standards. Unfortunately, these "exacting standards" happen to be the manufacturer's standards which are different from other British bicycle standards, French standards, Italian standards, Japanese standards, and the standards adhered to by the handful of bicycle manufactures that were making bicycles in the U.S. The threads are different and every nut and bolt seems to be a different size. I have come across two bolts that I have yet to find either a metric or standard wrench that will fit it, and the right side of the crank has reverse threads! Disassembling this bike was like solving the Rubic's Cube!

So, over the next couple of weeks, I will take you through some of our work on this project. The following photo shows Mike preparing the fork for a coat of primer and hopefully some new paint.

Alert: Swarm in the Area

2009-06-10T04:57:00.000-07:00

The other day when I was watering the blueberries on the hill, I noticed that one of the bushes was a-buzz with bees. Dave suspected that it was a swarm and later we noticed that the bees in this swarm were trying to 'break in' to one of our hives. "Our" bees managed to hold them off.

Yesterday, Dave and I actually saw a swarm of bees attached to a bush on the hill. Dave called a member of the Mount Diablo Beekeepers Association to see if anyone wanted a swarm to fill an empty hive. Brad said he would pick it up for Steve Gentry, a local beekeeper who manages over 100 beehives around town. Steve is all into bees and beeswax products. He sells his honey for $9 a pound at the produce store and farmer's markets.

Diane, a friend, stopped by to visit at the same time Brad arrived to remove our swarm. It was a good thing she was here too as we needed something for this guy to transport the swarm in. She happened to have an empty 5 gallon paint bucket in her trunk that she was taking to the dump.

Dave told Brad that we did not want to pay the usual $50 swarm removal fee. If no one wanted the swarm, we would let it be and eventually it would leave on its own. Dave and Diane went to Ace Hardware to pick up paint straining cloth. This is breathable material with a rubber band that fits perfectly over the 5 gallon bucket. Brad donned Dave's bee suit – a tight fit as he is a huge guy, Dave cut the limb, and the guy lifted the swarm into the bucket. All done. If we had had an extra bee hive we could have adopted the swarm ourselves.

Diane left shortly after the excitement was over and Patrick, our neighbor, came down to find out what we were doing. He was fascinated by the 'humming' bucket and the warmth the bees had generated in such a short time in the bucket. It is just our luck – this is the first swarm we have seen in our area and we cannot keep it because we don’t have an empty hive.

Number of bee stings - 1. Dave and I will need to invest in different gloves as the ones we loaned to Brad are not bee proof. Brad has been stung before and did not make a big deal about it.

Good Night

2009-06-09T06:01:00.000-07:00

It is fun to watch the chickens put themselves to bed at night. Unlike most children, they do not need any coaxing. The chickens head for the hen house at about 8:20 PM. A few chickens actually go in a few minutes earlier - perhaps to secure the best roosting spot. Some of the birds scramble up the ramp, check out who is already roosting, then head back outside to dig up another bug or seed before calling it a day.

Most of the older chickens think they belong to a private club and do their best to intimidate and prevent the Bobbsey Twins (as I have nick-named the two youngest chicks because they stick together like glue and look exaclty alike) from entering the hen house. After a lot of commotion, pushing and shoving, and sometimes even a little pecking, everyone finds a place to sleep.
The chickens are calm at this time of the day, so you can pet them to your heart's content. Their feathers are surprisingly soft. I always wish our gals a good night and give them a heads up if there is something special going on the next day. Then I put their feed in the house and lock them up so they are safe from racoons, possums, and other nightly 'predators.'

Just Like Me!

2009-06-09T05:54:00.001-07:00

My friends and family know how crazy I am about popcorn. As it turns out, my chickens enjoy popcorn too. Paula brought over a bowl of leftover herb coated popcorn. Since Dave and I prefer plain popcorn, I served this to our gals for breakfast. They scarfed it right up.

Our chickens also like to chew on the leaves of my rose bushes. I will take steps to replant those today before there is nothing left of them.

Fencing...done

2009-05-30T19:57:00.000-07:00

Dave -

I believe the fencing project is coming to an end. I refrain from claiming completion since these type of projects tend to have one more little task that needs to be done - just ask any farmer. Shirley and I installed the last two sections of fence; both came with problems - oh, why can't projects just go as planned?

My first challenge was to find something to anchor the come-a-long that I use to stretch tight the wire fencing. Since my neighbor was not home, I solved my problem by tying a borrowed rope to his tree about 60 feet away. After securing the wire fence to the corner posts, I proceeded to set the metal posts. Here is where I ran into a stone wall. More accurately, it was not a stone wall, but rather a stone hill. I was able to drive one of the posts only a foot deep. Shirley's fixation on uniformity dictated that the post needed to be driven down another three inches to match the others. I flailed away for what seemed like an hour (okay, maybe five minutes...but remember that this is in the middle of the day under a scorching sun) trying to drive that post three...two...even one inch deeper. No way! Seeing the sweat pouring down my face, Shirley resigned herself to the fact that this post was going to be a couple of inches higher than the other two. With that, we called it a day.

Yesterday we stretched the last section of fence into place and secured it to the wooden corner posts. Uneventful - and this is a good thing. This morning we schlepped the metal posts, the pile driver, and the level up the hill and prepared to drive home the last three posts. Our hill is so steep (truly, about a 45 degree slope) that each step was a challenge. Fortunately, the underlying rock that more or less defines our hill was covered with enough dirt that we were able to drive the posts without encountering the problems of the day before. Job done. Time to head to the house for a cold beer. At the bottom of the hill - at the corner of the fence - the 4x4 corner post looked like it was leaning, not standing straight like it was the day before. Upon a closer look, the problem was obvious. The post had a knot and the tension from the fence was causing the post to crack. I realized that replacing the post would be a huge job requiring me to remove the post along with the 75 pounds of concrete anchoring it as well as splicing in two sections of fence so that the fence could be re-tensioned. Bottom line, this meant that my fencing work was NOT done.

I found a two foot length of heavy gauge uni-strut and screwed it to the post using five hefty 2-1/2" lag screws. This band-aid approach straightened the cracked post and I deem that the post is now stronger than before it cracked - at least I have convinced myself of this since I have a clear understanding of what the alternative holds.

So, is the fencing project really done? Well, I guess the answer depends on who you ask. Ask me, and I will give you a definite "Yes!". Ask Shirley, and she may also say "Yes" but in the same breath also mention that she would like the original 5' high fence removed. Ack! Did she say "remove" a fence?

Overview of Our Fencing Project

2009-05-29T09:36:00.000-07:00

This photo is rather small and gives a distorted 'fish-eye' view of our yard. Dave made it by connecting several photos using a special panoramic landscape feature on Adobe Photoshop. The red line shows the outline of our new fence. As you can see, our chickens have plenty of room to forage. On the far right are our two beehives.

Fencing on the Brain

2009-05-25T05:55:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since our last post. This is because Dave and I have embarked on another chicken project entailing lots of physical labor. By the end of the day, neither of us had any energy left to write about our doings. Dave sent several photos to his father last night with the following comments. This will give you an idea of the changes we are making to our yard:

Dave -

I felt that our chickens needed more room to roam given the fact that we have been telling everyone that we are raising "free range" chickens. The chickens had pretty much decimated all of the grass in their initial 75'x20' chicken run so I decided to extend the fenced in area to encompass most of the hill that makes up our yard.

Shirley and I set four of the six corner posts on Saturday. When I put in the original fence, I simply dug two foot holes and tamped the dirt around the posts. This time around, I opted to set the posts in concrete. Using concrete simplifies the job considerably. The downside is lugging 50 pound bags of concrete mix to the top of the hill...phew!

I watched several YouTube videos to learn how to install field fence. I learned a new technique for wrapping the fence around the fence posts and making knots.

The chickens are happy in their expanded space.

Hen House Frustration

2009-05-17T05:07:00.000-07:00

When our neighbor expressed concern that feathers and the smell of chicken poop might contaminate his yard, Dave recruited several friends yesterday to help him move the hen house up the hill.

This was no easy task. Dave built the structure assuming it would stay in place forever so he did not use lightweight materials. When Dave went out to level the house, he realized that in order to do so one end would have to be planted in the ground, and the other would be up in the air. Notice the car jack in the first photo!

This was not acceptable. At the new height, I can barely reach inside to clean the hen house. So, as soon as we find another gullible group of volunteers, we will move the house back to its original spot. In the meantime, we will extend the fence we 'completed' the other day inside the hen pen. This should reduce any odors and flying feathers.

Needless to say, Dave is not happy by all of this extra work. He dug two post holes in 100 plus degree weather yesterday. His brain was boiling by the time he was done especially since he had to dig one hole twice.

Done

2009-05-16T04:09:00.001-07:00

Fencing Frustration

2009-05-15T04:43:00.000-07:00

Dave and I went to Home Depot yesterday to pick up supplies to build a second gate at the top of the hill. By using this gate we would no longer have to walk in front of our neighbor's property, affording them a modicum of privacy. As we entered the warehouse, Dave realized that it would be easier to give in to my demands - and less expensive in the long run since I would get my way anyway - to build a 6 foot tall fence in front of the neighbor's property and be done with it. Climbing our steep, slippery hill is no easy feat and would require Brant to come through with his idea to build step stones to the top. Brant doesn't have the time or the desire to do this grunge work.

Dave dug the holes and planted three posts. The middle hole proved especially challenging because there was a huge slab of concrete exactly where the pole needed to go. After removing the slab, Dave found that the ground turned to solid rock - not the shale that breaks up into pieces with the crow bar. We used a bag of Quikrete to set this post. Needless to say, Dave's heart is not in this project. Perhaps you can sense his frustration in the photos.

More In-sights into Beekeeping

2009-05-10T05:17:00.000-07:00

Robert Madsen -

The yellow glob you see on the bee's hind legs is pollen from the flowers and is most interesting. This picture shows what a bee looks like when returning to the hive with a full load.

This picture clearly shows the pollen deposits as well as cells containing larva. The worker bees take pollen and nectar to the developing larva. They deposit the 'meal' on top of the larva and it gets absorbed. The youngest fully developed bees perform these chores. In a few days they will join the other bees in work outside the hive. The naturalists speak of 'division of labor' and it is really apparent here. Also present is capped honey.

Larva beneath the word 'THESE' are more developed than the larva to the left. It would appear that this is a very good queen as the 'larva circle' is quite compact.

The above caption tells the story. This hive appears to be quite active so it will be only a few days before the bees will be covering this frame too.

If I am correct in what I think I am looking at here...you can see a few cells where the fully developed bee will soon emerge. They are those cells that have a dark body in them.

For the finale I wish I had a nice bottle of honey.

Immediately outside the hive some bees do a 'wiggle-waggle' dance. This dance tells the other bees the direction and distance to a nectar source. A Nobel Prize was awarded to Karl Ritter von Frisch who deciphered the wiggle-waggle dance.

Karl Ritter von Frisch (Note: Ritter is a title, translated approximately as "Knight," not a first or middle name) (November 20, 1886 – June 12, 1982) was an Austrian ethologist and zoologist. His research revolutionized our understanding of the sensory perception of fish and insects. His most distinguished discovery was that honeybees communicate the location of a food source to their hive mates by performing a complex dance, known as the "waggle dance." Frisch received the Nobel Prize in 1973.

In-Sights into Beekeeping

2009-05-09T08:27:00.000-07:00

My father-in-law kept bees when he lived 'out on the farm' in Spencer, Iowa. Here are his in-sights into beekeeping.

Robert Madsen -

One of the fun things I did years ago was to keep bees. Now, one of my kids, David, and his wife are giving it a shot.

He just sent me these pictures...they are the best pictures I have seen of what goes on inside a beehive.

Inside that regalia is son Dave. He and Shirley decided that they would like to include bees as a hobby. He has taken the lid off the box (called a 'super') and he is checking over things. You see a jar of sugar water there...you have to feed a new colony until the bees build up their numbers and are able to support themselves from the area's flower nectar and pollen. There are ten 'frames' with a sheet of foundation (wax with imprinted 'cells' that the bees "build out" to make full cells).

The legs of the beehive are immersed in oil to prevent ants from climbing into the hive.

That other 'box' is also a brooder box that will have ten frames set. It will sit atop the one Dave is working in. There is no partition between the boxes so the bees can move into it as their numbers increase.

Since this is a new brooder box it is nice and clean. After a few weeks, the bees deposit propolis which they produce as the 'glue' that sticks everything together...a dark yellow color.

A good close up. Here the bees are putting the nectar into the cells. The bees 'build out' the cells from what was just a little ridge on the wax foundation into what you see here. All are six sided.

Dave has lifted out a couple of frames so he can see inside the hive. Long ago bee keepers (apiarists) learned that bees always build their natural hives with spacing that is a specific distance (3/8" or 7.5mm +/- 1.5mm for you metric people) so the manufacturers' of hives use these same tolerances. It seems to be just the distance a bee requires when carrying a load of nectar or pollen.

Dave has removed two frames to show how things look inside the hive. At this time you will find most of the bees located in the center of the hive. Actually, the bees form a 'ball' that sits right in the center of the box...with the greatest density being between the fifth and sixth frames and lessening in numbers as you move to the sides of the box. The central part of the hive is the first part that the bees develop. In the winter, the bees bunch to maintain their body heat.

Can you spot the queen in the upper right-hand section? She is about twice the size of the worker bees. She deposits fertilized eggs into the empty cells. The cells that appear "shiny" inside have developing larva. The queen flies on a mating flight and is chased by a number of drones...of which only one will mate with the queen (he, the drone, is rewarded by immediately dying - giving us guys something to think about, huh?). This one sexual encounter provides the sperm to fertilize the hundreds of thousands of eggs she will lay during her lifetime. These bees are of Italian stock, the most common variety used for pollination and honey production in the U.S.

All Is Calm

2009-04-29T08:19:00.000-07:00

My new Barred Rock chicks are growing by leaps and bounds. During our mini heat wave last week, I carried their cage to the chicken pen so they could watch their sisters forage for food. It is too cold for them to be outside this week so my dear girls have only the cats and Dave's and my feet to entertain them.

The older girls have have reached puberty as I heard many of them clucking yesterday when I offered them garbanzo beans as a treat. A web site has recordings of chicken sounds which I occasionally play for my housebound birds. They immediately stop chirping and turn their heads to listen.

Dave and I have been 'ignoring' the bees. Hopefully each queen is laying her quota of 2000 eggs a day. We will open the hives this weekend to check their progress and assess the conditions of the colonies. Needless to say, whoever opens the hives will be wearing the bee suit. We emptied a bottle of Caladryl on our last bee bites!

Beans has no interest in the new chicks. I cannot believe how much we worried about the first set of chicks being attacked by the cats. Mr. Darcy is not interested in reruns and barely glances at these birds as he passes by the cage.

Even More Bee Issues

2009-04-22T17:34:00.000-07:00

Dave and I are competing with the Wongs to see who can rearrange things in their yard the most. The Wongs do it with their plants, we do it with our bee hives.

The morning after we moved the dark green bee hive to the top of the hill, Dave suggested that I paint the hive a lighter color. The bees in the light green hive seemed to be dealing with the heat better probably because the lighter color did a better job of reflecting the sun's rays. I agreed to paint the dark green hive to match the color of the other hive on the condition that we move it back to where we originally had it.

The next morning I toted the paint can and brush up the hill and I painted as much of the hive as I could with bees buzzing around me. It was so warm that the paint was dry within minutes. I was tempted to bring the hive down the hill by myself, but I knew that this would be foolish as the foraging bees would not know where their home was. This job would have to wait until evening when the bees retire for the night.

After lunch Dave called to tell me that his friend went to release his queen and found that she was dead. We had planned to release our queens on Wednesday, but started to wonder if they too might be dead. We figured the sooner we knew the sooner we could order a replacement. The bees were already stressed. Why not stress them some more by ripping open their hive! Dave was out of town so I did the honors. The queen in the first hive was alive and active with worker bees attending to her through the screen in the tiny cage. I removed the cork and dropped Her Majesty among the 8,000 worker bees. Each hive started out with 12,000 bees, but by now we had almost certainly managed to kill off a third of them with our antics. I released the queen in the second hive too and she appeared ready to go to work laying eggs.

As soon as the bees had returned to the hive for the night, Dave and I carried the newly painted bee hive down the hill and back to its original spot. This time each of us got stung twice. I am getting used to it, but Dave is ready to set the hives on fire.

Below is a photo Dave took of our bees at work this morning. His comments to his dad are below.

I snapped a few pictures this morning to validate Shirley's statement that at least some of the bees seem to be earning their keep. If they behave I will put my plan for a huge pyre on hold...for now.

The yellow specks you see on the bee's legs are buckets of pollen!

More Bee Issues

2009-04-21T04:58:00.000-07:00

Dave -

The temperatures soared into the upper 90's this afternoon and both of our hives are sitting in direct afternoon sun. Most of the bees in the dark green hive were trying to cool off on the porch. According to the book Beekeeping for Dummies, this is not a good sign - it is a waste of bee energy for worker bees to flap their wings to cool the hive. Shirley did some research and came to the conclusion that we needed to move the hives to a cooler location. But where?

Since most of our property consists of a hill, there are few areas in our yard that lend themselves to a beehive. Shirley wanted to take the easy route and relocate them next to the fireplace in our side yard. I nix'd this idea. After my bee sting experience on Saturday, I was in no mood to live that close to the damn bees. We settled on a place half way up the hill that receives dappled afternoon sunlight.

In order to make room for the hive, we had to level a 3 foot by 2 foot section for us to stand on to work the hive and another 4 foot by 3 foot section to set the hive on. We prepped the area for one hive and then waited until dusk when all the bees would be inside the hive. We blocked the entrance to the hive with tape, picked up the hive and hive stand, and started to climb the hill. Shirley was wearing tennis shoes with no grip and since she was walking backwards she claimed that she could not see where she was going. She started to slide causing the brood chamber to separate from the bottom board. Angry bees started coming at me - AGAIN. A bee stung my hand and I imagined a repeat of Saturday night. . . whack, whack, whack, whack. Watching me lose my cool, Shirley ordered me to leave. Since she couldn't carry the hive by herself, I headed back into the house to don the bee suit. I fumbled with the zipper that secures the hood for about five minutes before finally figuring things out. Invincible in my suit, hood, and gloves (like Superman and his cape) I rejoined Shirley who was waiting patiently on the hill. In no time at all, we had the hive situated in its new spot.

Shirley got stung on the forehead. Stoic that she is, she did not complain. "It is only a bee sting" . . . "It was only one" . . . "What's the big deal?" You won't hear those words uttered from this guy's mouth.

Wednesday evening we will do this whole thing again with the other hive.

Damn bees.

Bees Galore!

2009-04-19T07:25:00.000-07:00

Dave -

Shirley and I picked up our two boxes of bees today. The process is pretty straightforward; it says so right in the beekeeping book! You open the hive, dump out the bees, close up the hive, return to the house, and enjoy a cold beer. So where do I begin this story? Should I start at the beginning, when our friend Joe Mueller assured us that beekeeping was a fun hobby that made few demands on those wanting to tend a hive, or should I start at the end where I am writing this while nursing six painful bee stings?

This is really a story about a heroine. Shirley was solid gold today. Her role was to watch me, perhaps take a few pictures, hand me frames, and generally just support me, the master beekeeper. This plan didn’t last long. Within 30 seconds of opening the box of bees, a couple of bees got tangled in my hair and stung me. I tried to remain calm thinking this would have a similar calming effect on the bees, but then three more bees insisted on having their way with me. Enough! I moved away from the hives as quickly as possible but still ended up getting stung on the mouth and encouraged a bunch of them to pursue me in their maniacal desire to sting me to death. My cowardly departure left Shirley literally holding the bag . . . or in this case, the box. What a trooper. Even after being stung herself, she remained focused and completed the transfer of 12,000 bees from the box into the hive. I don’t know anyone who could have handled this with the poise and confidence that Shirley exhibited.

Click here if you would like to see more photos of the process of installing a package of bees.

Deja Vu

2009-04-18T04:44:00.000-07:00

Does this scene look familiar? This is not a photo from my archives. These cuties are the new additions to the Madsen/Wong flock. They are Barred Rock chicks. I actually got to see the adult version of these birds while babysitting Maryann's chickens this past week. She has three Barred Rocks and they are truly gorgeous birds. I bought these chicks at Concord Feed yesterday seconds after the postman dropped them off. I was not the only one in the store anticipating the arrival of chicks. The chicks sell quickly so you have to stay on top of delivery dates or you miss out.

I also picked up a three gallon waterer and a 12 pound feeder. This will save me from having to carry water and food up to the pen twice a day.

Dave and I will be attending the Mount Diablo Beekeepers' Association's demonstration workshop this morning. We will pick up our two packages of bees and install them at dusk when the bees are less likely to 'run away.' We will take lots of photos and perhaps even a video to share in a subsequent blog.

What's in a Name

2009-04-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in a previous blog, most chicken 'experts' advise you not to name your chickens. By naming them you become more attached to them and there is a good chance that you will not be able to butcher them if you are raising them for meat. Our girls are layers and we plan to keep them around for a long time so we felt that this rule did not apply to us.

Here is how we came up with the names you see in the above photo.

Mr. Darcy Chick is the name I gave to a chick that our cat Mr. Darcy bonded with when we first brought her home. This is not a very pretty, feminine name, but it is the one that sticks in my head.

Paula's friends came up with Elvis for the black and white bird with fringes on her feet. She looks like Elvis in his later years when he dressed in white and wore bell bottoms.

Polly is the name I gave to the White Leghorn (the only chicken in our flock that will lay white eggs) that Paula picked up at Concord Feed. She had stopped by the store to buy organic chicken feed and when she got outside she called to tell me how proud she was for not succumbing to the temptation to buy another cute chick. When I broke the news to her that my day old White Leghorn had just died, Paula turned around, marched right back into the store, and got a replacement. So, I named this bird Polly after Paula.

Liz is named after Paula's friend Liz Marsh. As you can see from the photo below, Liz looks just like 'her' chicken.

Paula had a coffee and tea tasting event at her house about a month ago. She asked her friends to come up with names for the chicks that she was babysitting at the time. Someone suggested 'Salt n' Peppa'. So, a black and white bird was 'christened' with that name.

Paula likes the sound of Amelia Bedelia, the name of the main character in a series of children's books, so I named one chicken Amelia and another one Bedelia.

Frederika was named after the gentleman (Fred) that I met at Concord Feed a few weekends ago. He gave us tar paper, nails, and shingles for the hen house. I promised I would name a chick after him.

Finally, Dave has a quirky sense of humor. He insisted that we name the two Production Reds Shake and Bake.

All About Eggs

2009-04-08T10:51:00.001-07:00

Around Easter, grocery stores practically give eggs away. Last night I came across a website that explains the differences in supermarket eggs. I thought I would share some of this information here. For the record, I did not verify this data so if you know something is not correct, please let me know.

First of all, the color of the eggshell has no bearing on the nutritional value of the egg. Instead, it is related to the ear or cheek color of the hen. Second, the color of the yolk is directly associated with the hen's diet. A very pale yolk means that the hen lives in overcrowded quarters, is underfed or lacks greens in her diet.

The supermarket eggs that you normally throw in your grocery cart come from 'battery hens.' These are White Leghorn hens that are crammed into small cages so they barely have room to stand let alone move around. Commercial egg farmers prefer White Leghorns because these chickens are super egg laying machines. They are provided food, water, and light 24 hours a day (the more hours of light a chicken gets, the more eggs she lays). The hens never see the sun or a rooster, they never taste grass, they never get to peck at the ground or take dust baths. In short, as the author of this website says, they live in Chicken Hell. As I mentioned above, the eggs from these birds are pale, higher in cholesterol, and for the most part tasteless. Of course, you may not know this if you have never eaten a 'real' egg.

Some people pay a premium for brown eggs because they think they are healthier. Well, sometimes those brown eggs are simply supermarket eggs that have been dyed brown so the next time you buy brown eggs check the carton. Real brown eggs tend to be healthier because the most common commercial brown egg layer breed - the Rhode Island Reds - cannot tolerate being housed in overcrowded cages. These birds have to be kept in runs which means slightly better eggs.

What about those fancy fertile eggs? A fertile egg simply means that a bunch of hens and a rooster have been crammed 'cheek by jowl' into a large run inside a building that is lit 24 hours a day. The rooster may or may not have mated the hen. Roosters, like the Rhode Island Reds, cannot be kept in battery cages. Fertile eggs are only slightly better than the white supermarket eggs.

Free range eggs are the same as fertile eggs without the rooster in the run. The hens live in cramped quarters in a building so they get no sunlight and never experience grass between their toes.

The Madsen/Wong eggs will be 'pasture' eggs since our chickens are free range birds with access to sunlight and grass and lots (and I mean lots) of room to stretch their legs. Our eggs will have a very dark yolk since the birds will be eating lots of plants. We will also feed them lettuce and spinach. I will also supplement their diet with organic chicken feed designed specifically for laying hens.

And the Winner Is . . .

2009-04-07T06:11:00.000-07:00

We would like to congratulate Brant Wong for submitting the winning entry to our unannounced contest "What Would Be a Better Name for this Blog?"

Brant decided that this blog needed a new title because its scope was expanding in new directions. His suggestion, chosen from no other entries, was selected for its originality, creativity, conciseness, and appropriateness. Brant will receive nothing for his outstanding suggestion.

Despite the fact that Brant is my adorable son-in-law, no nepotism was involved in this decision.

Busy as a Bee

2009-04-06T06:04:00.000-07:00

Dave -

Chickens...chickens...chickens...that's all you read about. But wait, let's turn our attention to honeybees for a moment. We will be picking up two three-pound packages of bees in about two weeks. Before we bring these bees home, we will need two beehives.

First, a little history. Last year our honeybees absconded less than three weeks after we got them, fleeing from ants that were running amok in the hive. Shirley and I fought the ants as soon as we noticed them using various methods but each method proved ineffective. Beekeeping lore holds that the most effective way to control ants is to surround the hive with a moat of boiling oil. Okay, I added the "boiling" part for effect, but ants apparently are repelled by used motor oil.

Being a projects-type guy I jumped right on this project, grabbed a hack saw and started cutting an old bed frame into pieces. My plan was to make two hive stands that would stand in cans of motor oil. I made excellent progress for about 60 seconds, then the saw seemed to just ride over the steel as opposed to cutting into it. I replaced the blade with a new one and my progress improved dramatically . . . for about 60 seconds. Apparently, either manufacturers are making bed frames out of high carbon steel or someone has figured out a way to make even the lowly hack saw blade cheaply, capable of cutting only the softest metals. Rich Grove came to the rescue with a grinder in one hand and his MIG welder in the other. What a guy! In the time it took me to gulp three cups of coffee, I watched him transform the bed frame into two hive stands.

Meanwhile, back on the homestead, Shirley was busy priming and painting the beehives. As soon as the paint dries, we will assemble the hives on the new stands, create the oily moat, and wait for the arrival of our 24,000 Italian honeybees.

Look Who's Doing All the Work!

2009-04-05T05:34:00.001-07:00

Here is a view of our chicken's yard. The blue line that you can barely make out at the bottom of the photo marks the position of the horse fence at the top of the hill. The horse fence on the right and the wooden fence on the left show the other boundaries.

Dave has been one busy man. Bill drove Dave to Home Depot earlier this week to pick up 100 feet of horse fence which Dave installed in a day almost single-handedly. Yesterday morning he went to the Solano flea market to buy a special tool to attach the fence to the metal posts and yesterday afternoon, when I was ready to call it a day, he pulled out the paint and painted the hen house. This was supposed to be my job but since it didn't look like I was going to do it, Dave took charge. There is no stopping that guy!

I spent the afternoon attaching chicken wire to the bottom of the horse fence. My babies are now safe and secure so long as they do not attempt to fly out. As they get older, their body weight will keep them on the ground. With such a perfect home, why would they ever want to leave it?

More Projects

2009-04-04T05:10:00.000-07:00

My sister Kathy sent this photo to me and suggested that I might want to knit a few of these cute outfits for my chickens. If I start on them now, I might have them done by Christmas. Kathy doesn't see any purpose in these vests except, perhaps, to keep the birds from flying.

I am still working on the chicken fence. Dave finished installing the horse fence yesterday and I have been busy attaching a chicken wire skirt to keep the birds from sneaking underneath the fence in spots where the ground is not level. I also need to finish painting the beehive boxes for our bees which will be here in two weeks! So much to do. Dave has given up on the idea of me painting the chicken house. He will do that this afternoon.

I have been advised not to name my chickens but it is hard not to do so. Paula's friends came up with an excellent name for our Light Brahman. She has adorable 'fringes' on her legs reminiscent of outfits from the 70's. Though she is a female (we hope!), her name is Elvis.

Just Like Me

2009-04-01T06:01:00.000-07:00

Most of my friends and family know that I lead a very regimented life. The more control I 'think' I have over my life, the more content and less stressed I am. My husband and children know exactly what I am doing based on what time it is. 3:00 A.M. Mom is drinking hot cocoa while reading The Harper's Magazine; 9:30 A.M. Mom is enjoying coffee time with dad; 1:20 P.M. Mom is taking a nap - don't call her as she needs her beauty rest; 5:30 P.M. Mom is drinking her tea while responding to emails; 9:00 P.M. Mom has called it a day.

You may be surprised to know that you can also set your clock by our chickens. They want out of the cage at 7:00 A.M. and they return to the cage all by themselves at 7:36 P.M.! No kidding.

I took this photo the other evening after the birds returned to the cage. They huddle in a corner and after some chattering (I imagine them saying "Be quiet. I am trying to sleep." "Move over, you are hogging all the space." "Did you see that bug I found?" "Pipe it down, already.") they become absolutely quiet. I miss their nightly talks now that they live outside. More about that in another blog.

Fencing Woes

2009-03-31T06:05:00.000-07:00

Dave -

I am a pretty even tempered person. In fact, I daresay that most people would say that I am a pleasant person to be around. Well, today was an exception. Several things happened that even ‘mellow Dave’ was not able to let slide.

My goal this morning was to put up a fence for the chickens. Shirley and I had already agreed that the purpose of the fence would be to keep the chickens in, not the predators out. Wouldn’t you know it - as soon as I had finished hammering in the last peg to keep the chicken wire down, the design requirements changed. And, I might add, they changed unilaterally...without my input...without my vote...without my "hey how about if we...."

When the fence was up, Shirley and I stood back to watch the chickens enjoy their new home. All was good with the world until we spotted Mr. Darcy walking along the wooden fence that makes up two sides of the fenced area for the chickens. Obviously, if the cat could walk along the fence, he could just as easily jump into the yard and kill our dear chickens. Our cats have always walked along this fence so I could not understand why Shirley was so shocked to see Darcy doing so today. Well, the short story is that Shirley insisted that I needed to erect another fence within the fence. I ignored my body’s cries to take a break, plastered a smile on my face, swallowed a few choice words, and tackled my second fencing job of the day. As the afternoon faded, so did my energy, but I finished putting up the fence and again all was good with the world.

After dinner, Shirley went outside to check on the birds. To her surprise, there sat Mr. Darcy INSIDE the new fence watching the chickens. I want to point out three things: (1) Mr. Darcy is a sweetheart and while he might give chase to the chickens, he has never maimed one, so I am inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt; (2) the second fencing project was to keep the chickens safe from Mr. Darcy and from the looks of things, this extra effort was not warranted; and (3) fencing with chicken wire is a huge waste of time insofar as Mr. Darcy figured out how to slip into the chicken enclosure in less time that it takes Shirley or me to open and close the gate.

I don't know what Plan B will be...or if there will even be a Plan B. Of course, even if Mr. Darcy doesn't chase the chicks to death, we have three other cats which might give it a try. At this point, I am just tired of the whole mess. Hopefully I will view this situation with a more positive mindset in the morning.

We Are Getting There!

2009-03-28T06:18:00.001-07:00

Dave has been working on the chicken coop 24/7. I mean this literally as I am pretty sure he continues to hammer, paint, measure, and saw even in his dreams. Every morning he waltzes into the kitchen with exciting new design plans. He is such a kid!

Today I found out that an unpainted basic three hole chicken nest box retails for $42 at our local animal feed store. Wow! Dave is quick to point out that his chicken coop is unique in that it is compliant with the seismic code for Zone 4. I guess this means our chicken coop will still be standing after the next earthquake.

I've been doing some work too! Here I am applying paint to the trim boards.

Neighborly Help

2009-03-24T05:09:00.000-07:00

When Richard, our neighbor, heard that Dave was building a chicken coop, he promised that he would swing by our house to scope out the project and to give a hand. Sunday afternoon Richard made good on his word. He helped Dave measure, cut, carry, lift, and nail the boards to support the roof. Richard also offered several excellent suggestions that Dave will incorporate into his design.

Yesterday afternoon Dave made a very brief (due to camera limitations!) YouTube video showing progress to date. You can view this video at chicken coop progress.

Scrambled Eggs

2009-03-22T18:36:00.000-07:00

This morning I fed my chicks some scrambled egg yolk. I read on line that chickens really enjoy this treat and it is a great source of protein for them. One bird cautiously tried it and when she gave her nod of approval, everyone else went wild over it too. Feathers were a-flying. I have been feeding the birds oatmeal and spinach leaves too, but I prefer that they eat their 'growing' food as I have about 40 pounds of it in the garage. They cannot eat this medicated food once they start laying eggs.

I put our gals outside in the pen this morning even though it was cool and breezy. The birds are getting too big for their cage and seemed antsy. The were delighted to be able to stretch their legs and wings. I guess they are getting used to their new routine. In a few weeks they will have a home and it will be warm enough at night so they will be able to live outside all of the time.

When I went to check on the chickens at 4 this afternoon (of course I checked on them throughout the day!) they were all huddled inside the cage. The sun was no longer shining on their patch of grass so they must have thought it was bedtime!

If I Had a Hammer . . .

2009-03-22T17:54:00.000-07:00

Dave -

I have a hammer and I have a saw. Actually, I have many tools but the two things that I don't have that I really need are a 200-foot extension cord and a set of sawhorses. So what's the big deal? Well, I'm building the Taj Mahal (or as some might say, a chicken coop). Since the coop will be quite heavy when completed - about 200-250 pounds - I have to build it on-site, about 150 feet from the house.

I must have walked from the garage to the half-built chicken coop about thirty times today. Yet, most of these trips could have been avoided if I had had a long extension cord and a pair of sawhorses. The longest extension cord I could find at Home Depot was 100 feet. Normally I avoid projects that require the use of sawhorses. Let me make this clear - building this chicken coop is an anomaly - an experience that I will not be repeating for years, if ever!

So I walk back and forth. But I never walk empty handed. Unfortunately, I never seem to have everything that I need. I bring nails but forget the screws. I bring the board that has been cut to an exact length but forget the plans. I can't find the framing square. The battery for the cordless drill is dying. And the board that I cut appears to be about a half an inch too short.

You see, if I had a 200-foot extension cord and a couple of sawhorses, I could measure and cut and fit and size and hammer without walking back and forth to the garage. At my advanced age, my memory is not as sharp as it used to be. By the time I get back to the garage, 54" becomes 45", the 2x4 becomes a 1x4, angle measurements are forgotten, the screwdriver is no longer where I thought I left it, and I seem to have misplaced my good work gloves. If I could keep stuff together, this chicken coop project would be pretty straight forward. As it is, I feel that I am working through some how-to-improve-your-memory course.

I the future I think I will stick to smaller projects like changing a light bulb or tinkering with my bicycle.

Helping Hands

2009-03-21T18:11:00.001-07:00

Dave -

An honorable mention goes to Bill who stopped by yesterday to lend me a hand with the chicken coop.

When I designed the chicken coop, I surfed the Internet and skimmed through several books on raising chickens to determine the optimal size of nesting boxes, the best height for roosts, different ways to keep vermin out of the coop, space requirements . . . I am finding that as I build the coop, I have to tweak my 'perfect' blueprints to fit into the real world.

Now that I am well along in the construction phase, I am facing another issue that has nothing to do with the making the chickens happy. Now my concern is structural rigidity. Yes, I realize that this is "just” a chicken coop. Yes, I realize that most people use scrap lumber, camper shells, crates or large cardboard boxes to make their chicken coops. So what is my fixation with structural rigidity? I don’t know except that I don't want to worry about the darn thing collapsing within the first year.

People offer various chicken coop designs on the Internet for a couple of bucks. I am thinking about offering my updated 'perfect' plans also. This could end up being my only source of income if work doesn’t start to pick up. I imagine that most people evaluate chicken coop designs based on size, ease of putting it together, and anticipated cost of construction. This last point really has my attention as I trudge back and forth between the garage and the “construction site”. I keep rolling around in my head different ideas that I think might make the building process easier and lower the construction cost.

Fencing

2009-03-21T17:30:00.000-07:00

Dave -

I need to fence in an area for the chickens having a perimeter of about 180 feet. As a kid growing up on a farm, I helped my dad put in what seems like miles of fence. I visited the old farmstead last summer and that 40 year old fence is still in place and still straight and taut as the day it was put in. In other words, when it comes to fencing, I'm no hayseed cowboy and this ain't my first rodeo.

I have come to the conclusion that chicken wire should not even be considered "fencing". The stuff must be made of 22 gauge wire (thin!!!) and it is twisted together so that it is almost impossible to install in an acceptable manner. Following fencers' "best practices," I used a 2x4 to "clam shell" the wire. I pulled the 2x4 but because of the way that chicken wire is woven, different parts of the damn fence just stretched. I could get either the top, bottom, or middle stretched taut but the remaining fence just billowed like sails on a windless day. My job was made especially difficult inasmuch as the chicken wire is 60-inches high.

Chicken wire is probably used primarily to shore up existing fence or keep pests (read: chickens) from getting into or out of a small area. I went online looking for advice from others that have walked this road before and they confirmed my feelings, to wit you cannot install chicken wire in a taut manner for any length greater than 6 feet.

One option is to put up a 5 foot wooden perimeter fence. At $60 per foot, my vote would be for ten chicken dinners.

Another option is to put in "regular" fence and then tack an 18 inch high piece of chicken wire at the bottom of the "real" fence. This is really little more than just a "feel good" fence since any chicken worth its wings (or drumsticks or thighs) would have little problem hopping the 18 inch piece of chicken wire and jumping through the 4 by 6 inch grid typical of a "real" fence. And since a chicken cannot be slowed down by an 18 inch piece of chicken wire, why even bother with it.

A final option is to let the chickens roam freely. Our yard is fenced in by 6 foot high wooden fences on three sides. The chickens would have to wander more than 150 feet before escaping their little Shangri-la. The chicken hawks, foxes, coyotes, cats, and dogs would ensure that they wouldn't get too far.

Stay tuned for how this matter gets settled (i.e. wait until Shirley decides what I should be thinking).

Check Out Our New HDTV!

2009-03-20T09:51:00.000-07:00

In a couple of months, TV stations will have to switch from analog to all-digital television broadcasting. This will free up frequencies for public safety communications and, since it is a more efficient transmission technology, stations will be able to offer improved picture and sound quality, as well as more programming options for consumers through multiple broadcast streams.

As you can see from the photos below, Dave and I upgraded our "TV" to a new, wide screen HDTV. Mr. Darcy now enjoys more channels with sharper views of the chickens.

Bees

2009-03-19T04:15:00.000-07:00

Dave -

Merriam-Webster defines a beekeeper as a person who raises bees.This just goes to show you that the people who write dictionaries have never been beekeepers.

Beekeeping has nothing to do with raising bees. Beekeeping is trying to convince several thousand insects to return to your hive at the end of each day as opposed to finding a hole in a tree to call home. These ungrateful little buggers care little that you have spent the kids' inheritance on brood chambers, bottom boards, telescoping covers, frames with special wax foundations, sugar water feeders, and honey supers; or that you have spent untold hours assembling and painting the hive, and then finding the optimal location for placing said hive, aligning it with the rising sun as called for in the thousands of books that have been written on the subject.

Bees do not appreciate the fact that you are concerned about their health, treating them for Varroa mites and hive beetles and worrying endlessly that they may succumb to the dreaded American foulbrood.

You may be wondering why I have not spoken of the presumed goal of beekeepers - that is, to extract fresh, raw honey, the bees' golden reward of the doting beekeeper. That is because savvy, experienced beekeepers buy their honey at the supermarket like everyone else.

Shirley thinks I need a hobby. So now I am a beekeeper. Actually I was a beekeeper last year too...for about three weeks. After three weeks, I was just a guy with an empty hive. Empty, except for a million ants. I started off with bees, but they left. Gone. No honey, no bees, just ants. But a hobby is supposed to be something that you live for, something that you are passionate about, right?

Today I made a trip to Sacramento to buy stuff to entice the bees to stick around this year. I will not be spending my time playing golf or fishing or swimming or skiing. No, I will be using my time assembling frames and hive boxes and painting everything so that these cheesy pine boxes will not completely rot after sitting outside for a year. Ah...hobbies.

Working on Their Summer Tans

2009-03-17T04:47:00.000-07:00

Since the temps are finally climbing into the mid 60s during the day and the chickens are about a month old, Dave put up a temporary chicken pen in our side yard so that I can let the birds stretch their legs and wings. I coaxed the birds out of their cage yesterday, but most preferred the security of their old home. The Light Brahma (the bird with feathers all over its feet) made half-hearted attempts to fly and pecked at the ground around the cage. When I finally brought the chickens back inside the house, they were exhausted and took a long nap. The fresh air did them good!

Dave dug another hole for a fence post. He did not hit rock this time so the task took less than fifteen minutes. Dave is trying to figure out how to stretch the chicken wire so that it is taut. He thinks that if it is not stretched tight the fence will look trashy.

We Really Do Have a Plan!

2009-03-16T05:02:00.001-07:00

Check out these drawings!

As you can see, Dave is a veritable expert when it comes to using CADD. After designing the coop, he drew up a materials list which he took to Home Depot to buy the supplies for the house.

I have not posted any photos of the chickens lately, but they are still doing great in their cramped cage. Dave made two perches to give the birds more floor space.

It's Coming Together

2009-03-15T15:58:00.000-07:00

While I was napping this afternoon, Dave was busy in the garage building our chicken coop. As you can see from these photos, he is making great progress.

When completed, the chicken coop will be a 4 foot by 8 foot structure with two doors on opposite sides for cleaning, three nesting boxes, and an 8 foot perch. The floor consists of 1 by 2 inch galvanized wire. I will cover this with cardboard and/or newspaper as I have read that the birds should not stand on wire flooring for prolonged periods of time. Dave opted for a wire floor rather than a solid plywood floor because he believes it will be easier for me to clean. I will remove the cardboard periodically and put it in my compost pile and pressure hose the floor as needed when the birds are in the yard.

Digging Holes for Fence Posts

2009-03-14T06:05:00.000-07:00

Dave deserves special recognition as he has been a real trooper in our chicken endeavor. He claims that growing up on a farm in Iowa killed any desire in him to be a farmer. Yet, for the past three weeks he has been working night and day on the drawings for our chicken coop. No sooner would he announce that he was done, than I would see him at the computer tweaking the drawings. Our chickens are going to be living in a pretty fancy house.

Dave has also been socializing the chicks, holding each one at various times throughout the day, talking to them, and feeding them from his hand. He installed a roost for the birds and figured out a way to hang the waterer so that the water stays clean.

On Thursday, Dave and I borrowed Sam's truck and made the round of stores to buy the lumber and hardware for the chicken coop. As soon as Brant is available, the two guys will start building.

Yesterday Dave took a break from work to dig a hole for a fence post. Here is how he described the process in an email to his parents:

Let me tell you about putting in a fence: This story does not include a power auger...or a power anything for that matter. Part of our chicken project includes a fence to keep our little critters in the yard. Any fence worth its salt includes sturdy corner posts so today's goal was to set one. I carried a heavy 8-foot post to the top of our hill along with the post hole digger and started in. What a lousy tool that post hole digger turned out to be. The first 3 inches was smooth sailing. The next 23 inches was shale. Shale, or whatever the heck the underlying rock is, was some of the most unforgiving stuff a guy can come across while digging a hole. I ended up getting our 20 pound breaker bar and slammed that into the bottom of the hole 4,000 times - each time chipping loose minuscule amounts of shale. I spent over an hour boring through the earth's crust to the depth of 24 inches before the post dropped in with a thud. I tamped fill dirt around the post and it wasn't until I was done that I noticed that the 4-sided post was not square to the fence line. Shirley and I had been so focused on ensuring that the post was vertical that I completely overlooked the fact that it was not square to the fence line. A round post would have solved this little problem. It took about three seconds for me to decide that I was not going to remove that post just to rotate it 20°.

Only three more fence posts to go!

And Pretty Maids All in a Row

2009-03-12T08:20:00.001-07:00

This line from the nursery rhyme Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary came to mind when I saw my gorgeous chicks lined up in a row sleeping. I searched the Internet to make sure that I got the correct phrasing and quickly changed my mind about the appropriateness of this description. As it turns out, there is a bloody story behind this innocent sounding childhood rhyme. If I have managed to peak your interest and you don't mind learning the truth about your cherished Mother Goose rhymes, check out this site. Now I am off to learn more about other nursery rhymes.

Quit Shoving!

2009-03-11T06:31:00.000-07:00

This post brings me up to date on the chicks. All previous posts were 'copy and paste' from emails.

Paula showed off her chicks to her friends and their young children at her tea and coffee party on Sunday, and then yesterday afternoon she brought them 'home' for me to raise. Naturally she was sad to give up her babies, but she knows that I will take good care of them. The birds need to spend some time together before the pecking order process takes place. When I saw all ten birds together, I wondered what the heck I had gotten myself into. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed.

As you can see, the cage barely holds all ten birds. The chicks are growing by leaps and bounds! Very shortly I will have to come up with a creative solution to house them as they will not be happy when they can no longer 'spread their wings.'

I suggested to Dave that he build a temporary, small, enclosed area for the birds so that I can leave them outside during the day to stretch their legs. Daytime temps will soon be in the mid 70s - plenty warm for feathered birds.

How About a Few White Eggs for Breakfast?

2009-03-11T05:50:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, on Wednesday, March 4th, Dave and I picked up a new baby chick at Concord Feed - a White Leghorn. This chick will be white feathered as an adult and will lay white eggs - the only chick in our bunch that will do so as the rest will lay brown or green/blue colored eggs. The White Leghorn is the preferred egg layer in the egg industry simply because it is an efficient and prolific egg layer.

Paula found out that brown eggs are more expensive because they are larger and it costs more to feed the birds that lay them because these chickens typically serve dual purpose - they make eggs for your breakfast and then the bird itself can be served for Sunday dinner.

Dave and Paula are trying to figure out how to make the birds pay for themselves while also providing us a few extra eggs (like 47 extra dozen eggs). Dave and I stopped at Home Depot on our way home from Concord Feed to price the materials for the chicken coop. As it stands now, it will cost somewhere between $350 and $400. As Brant and Dave build our chicken coop, I will take photos and videos. Dave would like to sell his elaborate designs on-line and he feels a 'how-to' video with a finished product photo should be included in the package.

Paula is drumming up egg interest on Craigslist and among her friends. She feels confident she can sell enough to make ends meet. She wants me to feed the birds organic chicken feed as organic eggs command a higher price.

I am primarily interested in learning about chickens and nurturing them. My friend once told me that she loves to sit in her back yard and watch her chickens run around freely. I thought boring! Yet, I am now finding that I can easily stare at the birds for a long time. Mr. Darcy, our cat, often keeps me company. He likes to 'change channel' by sticking his paw in the cage.

Asleep in a Heap

2009-03-10T05:20:00.000-07:00

The chicks are like children when they are awake, squabbling over scraps of newspaper that they rip from their floor or pieces of bread that I toss into their cage. They even fight over one feeder station port when there are plenty of others to eat from. But, when it comes to nappy time, they tend to sleep 'cheek to cheek.'

I turned the heat lamp off to take this photo. The black Maran joined her friends when she got cold.

My Rhode Island Red has a nick above her eye. I read on-line that chicks start to figure out the pecking order at six weeks. Paula is bringing her five chicks over today so that I can mother them from here on out. It will be interesting to see how they all get along!I wonder if my cage is big enough for all ten!

Below is a photo of some of Paula's birds. The squirrel looking one is an Ameraucana. This chick will produce blue or green eggs.

Just for the record, these photos were taken last week. I will include more recent photos in my next blog as the chicks no longer look like this. Chicks do not stay cute and fluffy for long!

Housecleaning

2009-03-10T05:01:00.001-07:00

The other day I went to Paula’s house to check on the five chicks she is babysitting. One chick’s vent was closed with poop so I took the time to clean it off. I know this sounds disgusting, but when you are responsible for pets you tend to overlook the gross part of taking care of them. For those of you who are not chicken savvy, chickens have one vent or opening through which poop and eggs come out. The bird will die if this opening ever gets sealed off either by an egg that gets stuck or poop.

The birds’ sex organs are not on the outside of their body so hatcheries hire experts to determine the sex of day old chicks before they are shipped to the stores. They look at coloring in some cases. The staff at Concord Feed told me that 95% of their chicks are females. I cannot return the chicks so if I end up with any cocks, I will have to find homes for them on Craigslist as Pleasant Hill does not allow you to raise roosters. Paula is pretty sure that her Production Red chick is a rooster. It is a very colorful bird, totally unlike my Production Red. We will wait a few more weeks before we do anything about this.

A Different Set Up

2009-03-09T05:12:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, Paula and Brant are babysitting some of the chicks for a few weeks. This is their original set up. As the birds became larger and more active, they replaced the lamp with a clamp style lamp to give the birds more room to move around. This photo was taken when they had only two birds. Since then they have added three more birds. The following photo shows two of the chicks enjoying the outdoors.

By the way, Paula and Brant also have a black and white cat named Sammi. She can be a handful just like my Mr. Darcy.

Our New Entertainment Center

2009-03-09T04:36:00.000-07:00

I don’t know who is entertained more by the chicks, our cats or me. The first photo shows two of our four cats, Beans and Mr. Darcy, watching the new chicks. You will be hearing a lot about Mr. Darcy, our black and white cat, as he manages to stick his cute nose into everything

Dave is convinced that he can train Mr. Darcy to play gently with the chicks and to resist his bird eating tendencies. I have to supervise Dave when he is around the birds as the other night he bragged that he allowed Mr. Darcy inside the cage to visit the chicks. Dave explained, “He just wants a friend.”

Our Nest is Getting Crowded

2009-03-08T10:07:00.000-07:00

On Friday, February 27^th, Dave and I headed back to the Concord Feed store to buy more chicks. At first I thought six birds would make me happy, then eight. As of this writing, I am up to ten birds!

After buying two Production Reds and two Marans, I picked up four different breeds of chicks – a Light Brahma, an Ameraucana, a Black Australorp, and a Rhode Island Red. During this shopping expedition I also splurged on a heat lamp, a waterer, a feeder, and a cage so the birds would have room to grow. The cage would also allow me to watch the birds and it would keep the birds safe from my four cats. Dave and I dropped off the Americauna and the Black Australorp at Paula's house. I did not want to hog all of the chicks and her rubbermaid container had plenty of room for these adorable fluffy chicks.

On Saturday, Paula and Brant bought another Americauna because their friends had expressed an interest in buying varied colored eggs. The Americuana is often mis-called the Easter Egger because it lays green and blue eggs. Our bird count was up to nine.

This past Wednesday, I bought a White Leghorn. This bird is the one you often find in commercial set ups because it is an efficient bird - it turns a small amount of food into lots of white eggs. My flock did not have any white layers so I just had to have this breed. I promised Dave this would be the last chick purchase as the chicken coop he was designing could house only so many birds.

Filling Our Empty Nest

2009-03-06T04:20:00.000-08:00

My ladies probably realized that I needed some cheering up this morning so they put on their finest feathers for me. Aren't they gorgeous?

But I am getting ahead of myself.

This blog began as a series of emails to my family and friends to tell them how I was coping after my 19 year old son moved out, leaving my husband Dave and me all alone for the first time in twenty six years. My sister gave me several good reasons why I should keep a blog instead, so after procrastinating a week, I opened a Google blog account. The purpose of this blog is to share my experiences as a novice chicken 'farmer'. From time to time I will also post articles on my other hobbies: gardening, baking, and bee keeping.

My friend keeps chickens in her urban back yard and often shares her fresh chicken eggs with me. I suspect that one of the reasons I am interested in raising chickens is that her 'home grown' eggs taste so good. I don't know how else to describe them except to say that they are eggy. In my opinion, fresh eggs are far superior to the cage free chicken eggs I buy occasionally at the Pleasant Hill produce store.

I toyed with the idea of keeping chickens last year, but Dave and I ended up keeping bees since a friend offered us the use of his bee hive. I will share that story another time.

My daughter Paula kept urging me to get chickens. She offered to pay for the chicken coop and the food if I paid for the birds and nurtured them in my yard. She pointed out that since I live on a quarter acre lot at the end of a cul-de-sac, I have the perfect spot for a chicken coop and plenty of space for the birds to roam.

Last Wednesday, Dave and I drove to Concord Feed and picked up four chicks: two Marans which lay chocolate brown eggs, and two Production Reds which are a hybrid of Rhode Island Red and New Hampshire Red chickens. The postman had just delivered these chicks to the store that afternoon. We took the chicks to Paula's house so she could see them. On the way there, I decided that I would let her take care of two of them for a few days so she and her husband Brant could enjoy them in their cute stage.

Dave volunteered to design the chicken coop. He is a CADD expert, fully qualified to draw up the plans for a perfect house for our birds. Since raising these chicks is a joint project with Paula and Brant, Brant will help Dave with the actual building of this coop.