Saturday, August 27, 2011

Exploring the human-chicken relationship

Spend two minutes talking to any urban chicken farmer, and you'll hear the tone of voice and see that sparkle in the eyes indicative of the special bond between any human and the animal they care for. (Well, except for those cold-hearted lizards, but that's another post entirely!)

Lee Zasloff, and Adjunct Professor of Psychology at American River College in Sacramento, has a professional interest in human relationships with animals of all kinds, and she's very interested in learning about the experiences of people and their chickens.

Zasloff is conducting a survey of chicken owners to promote greater understanding of the human-chicken relationship, and I thought this would be a great opportunity for you, dear reader, to help out!

To take her survey, please visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/chickens. (I took the survey this morning and it took me about six minutes to finish it).

Zasloff will be presenting the information she collects from the survey at the Veterinary Social Work Summit at the University of Tennessee this coming May.

She'd also like it if folks would send her photos with their favorite chicken (or with any chicken) and some stories about their chickens. You can send these direct to chickensurveyphotos

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Martha Stewart Chicken Show to Air April 2

At last! This Friday, April 2, urban chickens get their moment in the spotlight on the Martha Stewart Show (check local listings).

While it seems the actual raising of chickens is only part of the territory the show covers (in addition to egg decorating and the requisite cooking of eggs), the chickens are the most important part, right?

Here's the official description of the chicken show (taped just yesterday!) from her site:
Discover how easy and rewarding it can be to raise chickens in your own backyard with a guide to getting started from "My Pet Chicken" owner Traci Torres. Then, decorate farm-fresh eggs for Easter with children's book author and chicken owner Jan Brett, and make a mini egg and sourdough bread dish with Tini executive chef Darius Salko. From the looks of it, our urban chicken interests will be well-represented by Traci of MyPetChicken.com (the sponsor of this blog).

I wanted very much to be at the taping myself, but what with jury duty Monday and helping a client launch their new web site today, I just couldn't make it east to be in the audience. Lucky for me, I've got a DVR so I can watch this show over and over again!

Photo credit goes to Ori on Flickr

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Urban Chickens and Conspicuous Consumption

The most often-asked question I hear from reporters or other curious folks is "how expensive is it to raise urban chickens?" My answer is always the same: it all depends on how much you want to spend on your coop.

The hens themselves are cheap, their food is cheap, straw/woodchips/water is cheap. The coop is ususally, decidedly not cheap.

And why is that? As long as our chickens have a dry, draft-free, safe place to sleep and a box to lay their eggs in (more for our convenience than theirs), they're fine.

We humans are the ones who insist on aesthetics. And the cost curve for aesthetics is steep as soon as you move away from the "homely, but it'll do" point and toward the "I'd be proud to show this off on a coop tour" end of the spectrum. So why bother?

The clue to this answer comes courtesy a blog post by Seth Godin (author of Linchpin

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Secret Gardens of the East Bay Follow Up

I had the pleasure of talking all things urban chickens with a group of people who were participating in the 24th Annual Secret Gardens of the East Bay tour over in Oakland yesterday. It was a delightfully beautiful Spring day outside (sunny, mid-70s) and I was impressed that the group of about 30 or so people actually chose to cram into a small classroom to listen to me and ask good questions.

I promised I'd provide them links here on the blog to the urban chicken resources I listed in my blog, so without further ado, a shout out to the following people/places to get your urban chicken on:
BackyardChickens.com - a strong online community of backyard chicken enthusiasts and just about any question you have about the cluckers, someone at BYC will know the answer.MyPetChicken.com - a wonderful online source for small quantities of just the breed of chicks you're looking for. They've got lots of other good chicken supplies and paraphernalia, too, and don't forget to consult their Chicken Selector Tool to help you narrow down your choice of chick!FeatherSite.com's Poultry Page - While it hasn't been updated in over a year, the content about chickens is timeless (and rest assured chickens haven't evolved enough in the meantime to warrant any updates).Yahoo! Groups related to chickens (like San Mateo Chickens and Silicon Valley Chickens)4-H ClubsMeetupsAnd a big thank you to Nina for coordinating the speaker series and the gift of the awesome Slice of Organic Life

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Animal Sanctuary Coalition Hoodwinks Mankato City Council

I've blogged about the urban chicken goings-on in Mankato, Minnesota before because it's such a rich source of perplexity regarding the evolution of anti-chicken laws, the hysterical anti-chicken sentiment and the schizophrenic actions of the City Council. The Council rejected an ordinance last year that would allow urban chickens to return to the city for the first time since 1949.

Lucky for wannabe urban chicken keepers, the Mankato City Council has decided to give the chicken issue another look in 2010! Good, right? Read on...

Unluckily for wannabe urban chicken keepers, the council is referring to a staff report that contains more hysterical fiction than fact. From Dan Linehan's article in the Free Press:
A staff report on this issue brings up some predictable negatives like smell, proper care and protection from predators.

It also says between 20 percent to 50 percent of chicks sold as hens turn out to be roosters.

“These unwanted roosters are often given to animal shelters, released into the streets, and, in a growing number of cases, sold for cockfighting,” the report says.

Companies that sell chicks typically ground up the newborn roosters for feed or fertilizer, according to the report. Wait a minute! We've seen these scary (and still unsubstantiated) facts before somewhere, haven't we?

Oh yeah, it's the same crap that Animal Sanctuary Coalition who blasted their outlandish Position Statement on Backyard Chickens last December. And it would appear this coalition has managed to brainwash the Mankato staff with a single sensational press release. It smacks of laziness on the city staff's part that they'd take the claims lock, stock and barrel. Yet, the council is able to say (with a straight face) it's "open to revisiting the issue" even though they'd get better inputs from perusing the menu at the local KFC. (or Church's or Popeye's or whatever fries up the chicken parts near you).

I'd love to get my hands on this staff report to see exactly what it claims. But I don't hold out much hope that the Mankato City Council changes their mind if what's described by Linehan in his article is indicative of the kind of preparation they're doing.

Such a shame.

If you could write a press release to help the folks at the pro-chicken Mankato HENS (Hens Enriching Nutrition and Sustainability) what kind of material would you include to counteract the sanctuary coalition's claims?

Photo credit: A.Myers on Flickr

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Friday, August 26, 2011

take a video tour of a large-scale egg farm

If you're keeping a small flock of your own, you know what it's like to collect a handful of eggs from your coop each day.

So, what's it like to collect and process over 1.7 million eggs a day!?

There's a fascinating video posted over on the USA Egg Farming site that gives us a behind-the-scenes look at large-scale egg farming at Willamette Egg Farms in Oregon.

You can see a breakdown of the difference between raising hens caged versus cage-free (they do both), both in terms of hen health and production costs.

I found it quite educational to see and learn about the inside of their modern hen house that holds 188,000 egg-laying hens in a clean, cool environment. It's a far cry from the stinky houses of old that are permanently etched into the brains of anyone who's against the idea of urban chickens.

Yes, this video is clearly part of large-scale agriculture propaganda, but that doesn't take anything away from my fascination of the process by which so many eggs are produced for the population at large (at least until everyone has a chicken in their own backyard!)

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Eggstravaganza: The Art of Living with Chickens

I'm accustomed to coop tours and chicken talks happening in the spring and summer months, so it's a bit of a surprise to discover that there's a coop tour appearing on the calendar just before Halloween this year in McClellanville, SC.

The McClellanville Arts Council ("Where everyone is an Artist") is holding the on Saturday, October 30, 2010.

The day-long schedule includes the following activities:
a morning panel discussion on raising poultry and a craft workshop: Chicken Art with Chicken PartsAn afternoon Tour da Coops, a self-guided tour of local chicken coops and poultry sites.And things wind up with a photograph exhibit featuring local poultry and coops and a raffle of a hand-crafted coop/tractor in the shape of a chicken. People will be able to vote on their favorite poultry and coops and there will be door prizes throughout the day from local businesses.
If only I lived on the East Coast, I know where I'd be spending the day before Halloween. I look forward to hearing the recap from the event and you can rest assured I'll be posting it here.

Anyone know of any other Fall/Winter coop tours or chicken talks? Let me know and I'll add them to the list.

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Happiness is knowing where your eggs come from

Photo credit: Wombatunderground1 on FlickrA store-bought egg recall? Again? Well, thank goodness for our own backyard egg producers!

It's staggering to think that Wright County Egg is recalling 380 million eggs since improper handling at several of its facilities has been suspected of sickening hundreds of people with salmonella. For now, I'll leave the "how did this happen?" story to be told over on the news web sites.

I imagine we'll be reading a lot about federal regulations and industrial processing plant working conditions and distribution chains in the coming days before this story dies out.

What I hope people think about is the plight of the millions of hens who actually laid those 380 million eggs now recalled (for destruction if they haven't been eaten already). Thanks to human negligence and mishandling, all the energy expended to create and deliver those eggs into the industrial system has been wasted. And this coming from a creature that spends its life laying eggs in a space only as big as a standard letter-sized piece of paper. It hurts to think about it.

If you've had to buy eggs at the store since May, please check to see if you need to return your eggs.

And the next time you step out to the coop to pick an egg from the nesting box, please give your hen a hug.

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How many of us have road-side chickens?

I visited my parents new house in Seattle this weekend, and wouldn't you know it, a neighbor just two doors down from them has chickens!

How did I know he has chickens? Because he keeps his coop along the side of the house, just a few feet from the sidewalk. This isn't to say he doesn't have a backyard to keep them in. He does, but his girls are there for all the world to see and (like me) admire and wonder about.


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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

What to do when chickens no longer lay eggs?

Photo courtesy Flickr user fooferkittenSo what do you do when your hen no longer lays eggs? Keep her around out of gratitude for all those years of eggs? Put her out to (someone else's) pasture? Or do you (gulp!) "process" her?

There's been some traffic on the Silicon Valley Chickens mailing list recently about what to do with old hens, and it seems there's a general agreement that processing an old hen is a rather cruel way to show thanks for eggs well laid.

While some urban chicken keepers seem content to keep the old chooks around for amusement, the more economically minded chicken farmers seem less than enthralled with the idea of all those extra mouths to feed.

And those of us who live where there are tight restrictions on the number of hens allowed in a backyard can't really keep a flock of non-layers around if we're in it for the omelets, can we?

So it seems there's two strategies for mercifully coping with the inevitable aging of hens:
Once she stops laying (at age 3 or 4 or 5, depending on your hen's productivity cycle), offer her up  to someone who's got a much larger patch of land and is willing to keep a large non-laying flock. Or,Sell her while she's still in her laying prime, commanding a higher price and making room for another fluffy chick in the coop to start all over again.What have you done when your chickens stopped laying? Or if you haven't gotten there yet, what are your plans for hens d'un certain âge?

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Another beautifully sculptured urban chicken coop

I'm a sucker for creative, cleverly designed and aesthetically pleasing coops.

So when a friend sent a link to the nogg, I got all warm inside thinking how cool it would be to have this cedar coop placed in the corner of my yard. From their press kit:
The nogg is a modern chicken coop that has been designed in the shape of an egg. It has been designed to house from 2-4 chickens and is to encourage domestic farming while adding a touch of playful elegance to sit beautifully in any garden, urban or rural environment. The nogg is designed to enhance and compliment its surroundings and fit sculpturally with this aesthetic assumption.In a sign of true chicken design pedigree, the nogg folks hail from the UK (just like the Omlet design folks did before them).

And in a sign of just how design-minded the nogg manufacturers are, you can download over 100Mb of high resolution pictures of the nogg "sculpture" (aka "coop-porn") from their one-page website. Tip: you can also see the same images in a much lighter weight PDF by downloading the press kit.

So here's to delightful coop design! Sing your praises to nogg folks on twitter

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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Garden chicken coop

Filed under . There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

I have an allotment which me and the kids have our own and grow our own vegatables you know the normal thing patatoes,carrots,peas etc . They love it and its a great way to spend time with them. Seeing there faces as they pick their veg for the sunday roast is very rewarding for me and them.


The chicken coop is a new addition as we had decided to keep chickens so we can get fresh eggs every morning and the kids are so excited about it. we went to buy a chicken coop but nearly fainted at the prices and have been putting this idea off for a while trying to trick the kids into thinking its a bad idea,but i have stumbled over some great plans to make my own chicken coop.


Its great, and the bonus is there is so many to choose from that the kids are getting involved from the very start. They know what size, shape and even the colour (which by the way is going to be painted like a rainbow as they couldnt decide!) There choice not mine obviously. I know that letting them choose all these option will make them feel like its their project and then they will keep up the work after the chicken coop is finished.


So we have watched the video and fetched our wood, nails, sweets and drinks, (well we need to keep focused don’t we!) The chicken coop took no time at all really, proberly half the time if i’d done it myself but where’s the fun in that.


The kids chose the chickens and they all have names, so now all we have to do is wait for our fresh eggs. Oh and try and convince them that the colour of the chicken coop is proberly a bad choice.

For the best easy to follow how to build a chicken coop plans you will not go wrong with the build you own chicken coop video guide.


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Buying Cheapest Chicken Coops Online Where?

Filed under cheap chicken coop. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.



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How to build a chicken coop

Filed under Chicken Coop Construction. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

The Funkis Chicken Coop by The Urban Conversion. Step-by-Step instructions on how to build an urban chicken coop.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Get all the tips and secrets for building chicken coops in fast and sturdy. You can make taking care of chickens a breeze with the right chicken coop conditions.

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Tags: build, chicken, coop

« City Chicken Coops – Some Factors To Consider In Your Building PlansFancy Restaurant Almaden Sonoma Chicken Coop offers »2 Responses to “”

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Fancy Restaurant Almaden Sonoma Chicken Coop offers

Filed under Chicken Coop Restaurant. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

A restaurant catering business is a lot of work, and demands a great deal of organizational skills. We have found that our catering businesses are the best ways to get the word out about what we do.

We would like to think that our Almaden Sonoma Chicken Coop is one of the best restaurant in San Jose, and feel it is only fair to pass on to our customers and future catering customers what our capabilities are. So we have outlined some of our organizational catering capacities so you can better understand of what we have to offer.

Almaden Sonoma Chicken Coop offers:



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Monday, August 22, 2011

CHICKEN COOP IDEAS 2

Filed under Chicken Coop Ideas. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

COOP
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COOP IDEALS

Get all the tips and secrets for building chicken coops in fast and sturdy. You can make taking care of chickens a breeze with the right chicken coop conditions.

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Chicken Coop Ideas For The Diyer

Filed under Chicken Coop Ideas. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

If you decided to build your own chicken house, you may be pondering chicken coop ideas. There are many things that you need to decide when building your chicken coop. Having a set of plans can help you decide what type of chicken house you want or may give you some ideas how to proceed with your project.

Chicken coop ideas can impact how difficult it could be to raise your chickens. One idea could be to make a movable chicken house. This is a coop that could be moved around the yard. There are many reasons why you may want to do this. The direction of the sunlight could change according to the season or big trees could block sunlight in the summer. You can move your chicken coop to areas of your yard that allow maximum sunlight. Another reason why you may want a moveable coop is to move it closer to your house in the winter months. You would have a shorter distance to access the coop when it is cold outside.



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