Welcoming the Girls Home!

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve updated this Outright Chicken blog - almost seven years - and there’s a definite reason  I’m updating it now. But before I go into that, let me give you a bit of history...

I started my Chicken Adventures in October 2011 (check out my first Outright Chicken entry HERE). My flock consisted of Bronny (a Dark Brahma), Mary and Sophia (both Ameraucana), Miss Lynn (a Red Star), Little Jo (a Black Silkie), and Arabella (a White silkie).

Our set up is a 4’x4’x6’ coop we call Coopenhagen. And we have a trapezoidal Chicken Run (Hensylvania) measuring roughly 12’x7’x6’. Shelter from the elements, safety from predators. A nice, roomy area, both inside and out. A great place to raise a small Flock.

Arabella passed away in March of 2013 (this was my last post up until now - check it out HERE). The rest of the Girls each lived much longer and productive lives, the last of whom - Miss Lynn - passing away in Autumn of 2017.

In 2018, California announced a Virulent Newcastle Disease Outbreak (read about that HERE) and any and all chickens needed to be quarantined. This also meant that there was a moratorium on selling chickens in California. And that meant that there was no new Flock for us. At least not at that time. But...

Welcome to 2020!

Not the best year on record in recent times, but as of June 1^st California's Newcastle Quarantine was lifted. New chickens were once again available to be purchased or adopted.

In the three years since Miss Lynn left us, Coopenhagen and Hensylvania started to run down. Paint faded. Hardware rusted. Ivy grew through the hardware cloth and took over a lot of the once wide open Run.

In early November of this year all of that changed.  Operation: Chicken Revival took effect. A new coat of paint for Coopenhagen. New Hardware on all the doors. A diatomaceous earthing of the Coop interior. The de-ivying of Hensylvania. A new Run door, as the last one had warped to the point of not being able close - and that just wouldn’t do. Why? Because it was time for us to re-chicken. And since a new Flock was imminent, their homestead needed to be not just in working order, but comfortable and safe.

Flash forward to November 16, 2020. Everything from fresh bedding in the Coop to new feeders and waterers to a bowlful of grit to a cabbage dangling from a chain in the Run was in place. The only thing missing was a Flock. Having said that, I'd like to introduce to you...

The Girls

Ruby

Molly

Daisy

Fern

Kit

For now we'll stick with this brief introduction. A future post will delve more into who these Girls are and hopefully answer a few question, while probably asking a few more. Stay tuned for that!

At this point, these Lovelies have made Coopenhagen and Hensylvania their own. It’s been a fun and interesting and informative time with them so far, and there will be more on all of that in upcoming posts, as well. Either way, we are thrilled to be able to raise these beauties. And we look forward to our time together and the stories that will come from it all.

Chickeny Updates coming soon!

 

Arabella

Normally my blog posts are more informational than personal.  But not today.

Today I write about one of my flock. Her name is Arabella. She’s a white silkie and was hatched October 13th, 2011.

Arabella

About sixteen months ago I started down a path. Knowing next to nothing of chicken rearing, I built a Coop, built a Run, and purchased six chicks, each two days old. And every day since has been a crash-course on everything chicken. I’ve learned so much, but I realize I know only a handful of what I truly need to know.

Arabella and Little Jo.

Yesterday, while filling my girls’ feeder and freshening their water, I treated my flock to a few handfuls of mealworms, their favorite treat. Five of the six came running. Peck-peck-pecking at the ground. And that happy sound that only Chicken Owners can understand filled the silence. But one girl was missing: Arabella, my often-broody, somewhat shy White Silkie. I peered into the small door of Coopenhagen (as my Coop has come to be known) and saw her lying in the straw.

It only took a moment to realize what the situation was. Arabella, at some point in the past twelve hours or so, had passed away. And there she was, still fluffy as ever. But gone.

Arabella and her flock
enjoying a veggie sub.

A shock went through me as I went to tell my wife. And then, once that was done, I had to think of anything and everything that might have caused Arabella’s passing.

On our several-times-weekly free-range around the yard, Arabella would stay back to herself, sometimes not even leaving the Run. But that didn’t stand out, as she was the broody one of the bunch. Then, three days ago I noticed she was roosting on the lower-most roost by herself when the hens were put to bed. And, after finding her barely-cold body in the straw, I noticed several – more than several – white silkie feathers scattered around the run.

White. Fluffy. Relaxed.

None of this really tells me anything, to be honest. She was eating and drinking. At least when the others were free-ranging. And, being broody more-than-not, she kept to herself quite a bit. As for the feathers in the run, I assumed they are from her summer molt.

Yes, there's the possibility of the others bullying her. It happens even in established flocks. And Arabella was at the bottom of the pecking order, being the smallest and most timid of the group. But she had no bruises or cuts or scrapes or any evidence of being pushed around. At least none that I could see.

So the question remains: What happened to Arabella?

Mad as a wet hen.

I will never know for sure.

What I do know is she was a sweet, funny girl who made me smile, not only because she ran in that special sort of silkie-way, or scratched for grit like only she could, or devoured mealworms in a fluffy-white blur. But because she was a truly wonderful hen. She was not only a part of my flock. She was a part of my family. Like my dog. Or my two cats. And after the sixteen or so months spent with her, she captured my heart.

We miss you already, Arabella. Rest in Peace.

Arabella

October 13th 2011 to March 29th 2013

The Chicken and the Egg

Keeping chickens, I can honestly say, is one of the most fulfilling endeavors I’ve ever undertaken. From being in awe of the first egg my flock laid to being freaked out by Bronny’s first molt. From dealing with a broody Silkie to dealing with ‘Straw-mageddon’. Each and every day is a learning experience.

Here's Miss Lynn
looking at me differently.

In addition to the everyday ‘here’s-what-you-got-yourself-into-by-deciding-to-raise-chickens’ knowledge, I’ve also been a huge advocate of diving in (to google) and trying to wrap my head around actual cold, hard facts about chickens.

Some are small facts. Chickens have more bones in their necks than giraffes, for example. Others are eye-opening. Like the chicken is the closest living relative of the t-rex. With each new piece of information, I look at chickens in a new light. And since I’m looking at chickens differently, I’m obviously looking at eggs differently.

In my latest sojourn into all things chicken (and egg), I decide a history lesson was in order. So here’s what found...

A little chicken history.

Chickens have been around since before humans, obviously. And way before historians. So, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when chickens became domesticated but there’s speculation that it happened 8000 years ago in what’s now Thailand. But recent research suggests the good old chicken may have multiple origins in different areas of South and Southeast Asia. (More on that here)

And then there were the Egyptians. And the Chinese. Both of whom domesticated chickens like crazy not only for meat but for eggs. In about 600 B.C. domestication happened in Europe. And then Columbus went out to find the new world and took along some chickens. These chickens, whose strains originated in Asia, are the ancestors of the chickens that lay eggs in North America now. (More info here)

Now, a little egg history.

We (humans) have been eating eggs since forever. Eggs have always been easy to find (unless you run out of them at 11:00pm on Christmas Eve and still have three dozen cookies to bake), they’re easy to cook, and they were (and still are) part of a lot of socio-religious symbolism and tradition. Just look at Easter.

At some point someone realized that if they take the eggs out from under a chicken, that chicken would lay another one instead of going broody (unless that chicken is my Silkie Arabella). So, eggs became a good and easy source of food. And this all happened around 3200 B.C. in India. And in China and Egypt in 1400 B.C.-ish. Maybe earlier.

Interesting. Possibly even fascinating. Or boring. Depending on where you stand on history lessons from blogs.

Anyway, with all that early chicken and egg history running through my mind, it got me thinking about a question that has been haunting civilization since the beginning of time.

So, here it is. The biggest chicken question of them all:

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Well, the argument usually goes something like this: The chicken came first! Then where did the chicken come from? The egg! But what laid the egg? The chicken! Then where did the chicken come from? The egg!

Up until a couple years ago this was it. There was no real answer. But, in July of 2010 the answer was found. At least that’s what scientists in Great Britain claimed. They say that they discovered a protein in chicken ovaries that is absolutely necessary to form a chicken egg. Without this protein the egg isn’t truly ‘chicken’. Which means, in order for there to have been a chicken egg laid at all, there had to be a chicken to lay it. No chicken. No Protein. Therefore, no egg. So. There’s your answer. The chicken came first.

And here's the link to prove it!

Very exciting. Or boring. Depending on where you stand on awesome answers to impossible questions on blogs.

***   ***

Want to know more? Click HERE for a great page (where I got a lot of my info) about eggs and the history of different variations on their cooking.

--Chicken Dup

The Stinking Rose

So. One day, I’m in Lowe’s Hardware and I see a poultry magazine praising the benefits of garlic in a chicken’s diet.

So, when I got home, I hopped online and did some research about garlic and chickens. And the first thing that came up was a recipe for Garlic Chicken. (For that recipe, click here)

Not what I was hoping for. So I decided to just look into the benefits of garlic in general. And then see how they apply to chickens.

So. Let’s talk garlic.

It dates back over 6000 years and is native to Central Asia. There are about 300 varieties of garlic and it's sometimes refered to as The Stinking Rose, but it's actually part of the lily family. And I, for one, love it.

How can something so small bring so much joy?

I use garlic in everything. Liberally. And apparently, according to folk-lore, old wives’ tales, and Whole Foods, I’m doing the right thing. Garlic is wonderful. And to paraphrase this website here…

• The medicinal properties and benefits of garlic are strongest when it is raw and crushed or very finely chopped
         
• Raw, crushed garlic is an anti-fungal, however it can produce skin blistering
      
• Raw, crushed garlic is a powerful antibiotic
      
• Cooked prepared garlic is less powerful but still reputedly of benefit to the cardiovascular system
      
• Garlic cloves cooked whole have very little medicinal value however their milder taste makes them more acceptable to some people
      
• There have been claims that garlic can help with cholesterol management however the research is inconclusive
           
• Vampires do not like garlic. Everyone knows it, but these days not too many people are promoting it.

Okay.  So, the vampire factoid is mine. But the rest of it sounds pretty good.

Now. How does this all relate to my flock?

Well according to the Mudbrick Cottage website, with regards to chickens, garlic is the best organic treatment for worms. (Click here for the treatment)  

The site also says that garlic is good not only for worms, but also for lice, mites, and chicken health in general. Other sites do, too. Check out here, here, and here.

And speaking of mites, the red mite keeps coming up in my research. PoultryKeeper.com says this about them:

Red Mite (Dermanyssus gallinae) is a blood-feeding ecto-parasite that lives in cracks and crevices in your chicken house, coming out at night to hop onto a bird for a feast. They cannot fly but are a very serious problem for poultry keepers and a large infestation can kill your birds by sucking their blood, making them anaemic.
  

How can something so small cause so much pain?
Red Mite photo from Wikipedia

Wait. Blood-feeding? Comes out at night? Can kill by making its victims anaemic? Wait. That sounds familiar. Don't tell me. Don't tell me... Vampires! That’s right. So maybe that little factoid up top wasn’t so far off. Oh. And yes, red mites hate garlic. A lot. They don't like how it makes the chicken's skin smell or how it makes the chicken's blood taste.

So. Those are some positives. Now what about the negatives.

Well, a couple resources have had minimally negative things to say. Primarily that if chickens eat a lot of garlic, the garlic will taint the taste of the eggs. (Same goes for onions and fish, by the way.) So, there’s that. Garlicky eggs. I couldn't find much else that was all that bad.

So, the results are in. And I guess I should have just listened to what that magazine at Lowes had to say. Garlic is indeed good for the flock. Its health benefits certainly outweigh the garlicky eggs thing. And if it’s only fed to the chickens every so often, this shouldn’t even be an issue.

Plus. It will keep those pesky vampires away. So, there’s that. Which is nice.

--Chicken Dup

A Lot of Fuss and Feathers

At just over twenty weeks of age, my six Girls are coming along just fine.

Miss Lynn, so far, is the only one laying any eggs (click here for more on this) , and the others are gearing up to start soon (hopefully). The roost I constructed from discarded tree limbs seems to be used quite a lot, based on the pattern of chicken droppings below it. And all day a steady cooing, clucking, and buk-buk-buk-bukawwing emanates from The Run.

But there is one thing that bothers me.

I noticed Bronny (my Dark Brahma) has a patch of feathers missing from her neck. Curious. And I also noticed that when Bronny jumped up onto the roost inside Coopenhagen ready to turn in for the night, Miss Lynn hopped beside her and immediately started pecking at her neck.

WHAT?!

Poor Bronny.

The next day when I examined Bronny's neck, I saw this...

Again. Poor Bronny.

It looked like Miss Lynn pecked the feathers all the way down to the quills. How painful must that be? At least Bronny's skin wasn't broken.

Then I did some research. On Google. As usual.

What I thought was chicken-on-chicken abuse was simply part of the molting process. Even Miss Lynn's feather pecking.

Now what exactly is molting? It's when old feathers are lost and new ones grow in to take their place.

According to this website, there's a specific order in which feathers are lost and regrown. First from the head and neck, then from the saddle, breast and abdomen (body), then from the wings and finally from the tail.

Aha.

And what I thought was pecked-away quills is actually the new feathers growing in. They're called 'pin feathers' and they're what pushed the old feathers out.

Aha!

Now why the feather pecking?

Well, feathers are about 85% protein. And to regrow lost feathers it takes protein, so eating them makes sense (to chickens). And where's the best place to get nice fresh feathers? From other nearby chickens.

AHA!!!

This, by the way, is also why egg production goes down during molting. All the protein that's usually used to make the eggs is now used to make the new feathers. A good idea during the molt is to up protein foods and treats to supplement what the chickens lose while their new feathers grow in. Meal Worms, anyone?

Having taken all of this in, I think it's safe to say: Chicken Mystery solved.

And as I said before, at just over twenty weeks of age, my six Girls are coming along just fine.

--Chicken Dup