Traced Elements

Tag: chickens

Chickenisms

I know from the demand following the pandemic, there are lots of new chicken raisers out there now. Many of them it seems are females (nurturers) trying to get their reluctant partners (practical) to get on board and help them set it up. The learning curve is steep and I’m sure there has been quite a few trials and tribulations. Raising chickens can be fun, frustrating and eye-opening, just like life in general. With this familiarity comes the realization that chickens offer a philosophical and social microcosm, especially within the English language. I believe there are more parallels attributed to chickens than any other farm animal. I am going to run you through just a small portion of sayings about chickens and how they relate to us.This is a short scenario about new Covid-inspired chicken farming couples.

First of all many of you have been COOPED UP, with the lockdown as opposed to RUNNING AROUND WITH YOUR HEAD CUT OFF as per usual. So with no HEN PARTIES and a desire to be more self-sufficient you thought you would WING IT and and take some chicks UNDER YOUR WING.You wanted to play MOTHER HEN to someone other than your homeschooled children before they FLY THE COOP. Your husband may have CHICKENED OUT but you PLAYED CHICKEN with him instead, stating not to PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET when it comes to food security. Being NO SPRING CHICKEN, and knowing the PECKING ORDER, he was eventually HEN-PECKED to the point of having to build a coop. Doing the math, he realized that the cost would not be CHICKEN FEED. His calculations looked like CHICKEN SCRATCH on paper and the numbers didn’t add up. The CHICKEN AND EGG SITUATION is that raising chickens could actually cost money as you CAN’T COUNT YOUR CHICKENS BEFORE THEY HATCH!

June 11, 2020
lessons about diversity inadvertently learned by a chicken farmer

Once upon a time way back in the day, as my made-up legend goes, a farmer tripped and fell returning from the chicken coop, smashing his eggs. A couple of valuable lessons were learned at that moment that still ring true today. Firstly: “Don’t put your eggs all in one basket.” Another adage, assuming the eggs were fertile, is “don’t count your chickens until until your eggs have hatched.”

Now these wise words go well beyond the tragedy of broken eggs with respect to farming. The true moral of the story is life in nature is unpredictable and there are so many variables. Therefore DIVERSITY is your best insurance when raising crops or even livestock. Nothing is guaranteed, until the final transaction.

The rise of monocultures, factory farms and GMOs that treat food as commodities is both foolish and greedy. What was originally designed to provide food security for the masses now appears to be doing the opposite. Mad cow disease, avian Flu, threats to bees, extinction of heirloom gene pools are all human-made problems. Mother Nature always knows best and I think she’s pissed off at our shenanigans.

Seeing huge fields of one variety of apples in Washington state, or whole towns in California boasting they are the __________ growing capital of the world, makes my blood boil. Talk about risky. Take Gilroy, California, for example. For decades the commercial garlic exporter for all North America was hit with an untreatable white rot mould. This has opened the market for an even bigger producer, China, to dump tons of low quality, bleached, and irradiated toxic garlic on the market. Yuk! Or worse, the potato famine in Ireland, growing one variety of a single staple, all destroyed by blight, starving millions and displacing more.What happens today when a pest or disease goes rampant? The answer is almost always more chemical pesticides. What about nutrient depletion? More chemical fertilizers of course. What about weather related? The droughts, hailstorms, floods – the things we read about in the news somewhere in the world daily and exacerbated by climate change? Often its government bailouts and huge insurance claims or bankruptcy. Why are humans so shortsighted and stubborn? We have been cultivating food successfully for thousands of years. Why did we have to change the program?

Biodiversity is the key to every balanced ecosystem and we have to look at our gardens in this light.

At our farm we plant a half dozen different fruit trees every year, not just for variety but more for security. Fruit set often takes a rest after a bumper crop. It’s cyclical like so many things in nature. Pollination is also variable, dependant in temperature, bugs, wind and other factors beyond our control. Remember when we try to control nature it usually backfires. So we have to learn our lessons from our observations, trials and errors taking our clues from nature. Mother knows best.

June 5, 2018
Bees? Why not!

Several years ago my Aunt had honey bees. My sister Lia, @pembeehives, was cuckoo about those bees. I thought they were pretty cool until I started walking up to the hive and had a massive panic attack. I was certain they could feel my fear and that the whole hive would ascend on me and sting me to death. Death by bees, no thanks!! Since then I have had ZERO interest in raising bees. My sister, on the other hand, has only grown more fond, more bee crazy.

Last fall, my kids and I moved back into my childhood home. A little house on 2 acres. A small green patch of freedom to plant, grow, raise, and love. I brought my chickens, added a few more to the flock, and then a few more and maybe a few more after that! I also got 2 more horses so that my boy Banjo wouldn’t be lonely.

Horses and chickens, dogs, cats, rats and kids. I was set, and I am busy!! Then I had a thought. My sister loves bees, maybe she would like to get some bees and they could have a little spot here and she could be the crazy bee lady and I will be the crazy chicken lady and everything would be fantastic!

Bees? Why not!!

I forgot about the fact that I was terrified of a colony of bees coming after me while I weeded my garden or fed my horses, stinging me while I was just minding my own business. Lia, @pembeehives, was all in! She was already dreaming of hives, long before I offered. She and Alex built hives, they brought them up and she painted them with my kids.

The 2 nucs (boxes of bees) were ordered and the site for the hives planned, changed, replanned, changed and planned again. Still, here I am scared of bees. Terrified.

On Saturday, Lia and I went up to Delores’ for a bee keeping workshop. A few hours of listening to Delores talk about bees, watching her take the hives apart, standing closer to a swirl of bees than I ever thought I would, and I discovered that I am no longer afraid of bees! They are fascinating!

When I first put our names down for this bee-keepers’ workshop, I was going into it as a non-interested party. I was going for my sister, so that when she wasn’t around I would have a bit of knowledge and if anything needed to be done while she was in Vancouver I could help the hive out.

In the end, I have had the chance to face my fears and now I can go into this as a partner, not just a watcher. I can go into this beekeeping adventure with less fear and more enthusiasm, though I think I will let Lia hold the reins, and stick, for the most part, to being a crazy chicken lady.

Meg
Once a farm girl, always a farm girl.

Follow my farm adventures on Instagram @once_a_farm_girl

May 28, 2018
A day off work is never really a day off

Today is a Pro-D Day, which means no school for the kids, no work for me. I fell asleep last night excited about sleeping-in (I don’t want to brag but I am an excellent sleeper), the kids were equally excited to sleep-in (I may have passed my excellent sleeping skills on to my daughter). Of course, you all know what happens on sleep-in days. I was awake bright and early. The horses were galloping around and their thundering hooves was as good of an alarm as any. They’re not small horses and the pasture is beside my bedroom, I could probably feel the pounding of their hooves before I heard it. The sound of running horses is always a reason to leap out of bed and check that the gates were still closed. Luckily they were only playing with each other! Galloping, biting, rearing, kicking, striking, being magnificent and 100% contained in their pasture. But I was now fully awake and ready to tackle a few of my morning farm chores.

The boys: Banjo, Guinness and Taurus.

I fed the boys their breakfast and headed over to my chicken “duplex”. I had my flock separated, 15 on one side and 22 on the other side, until last night when my son and I moved the “chicks” (they’re now 7 weeks old and need more space) into the smaller side of the duplex. I wanted to let the hens out into the run early now that there are so many hens on one side. I opened the door to the coop as I looked up into the nearby Elm tree and there perched at the top is our new friend from yesterday, a massive Bald Eagle.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner.

Yes, he is magnificent. Yes, he is majestic. Yes, it is really, really cool that he is so close. Yes, I could watch him all day. And yes, he wants to eat my chickens. After a quick count of my flock, I am missing one of my beautiful new Bovans Brown pullets. Usually I count them every night but I forgot to last night, fingers crossed that she missed curfew and found somewhere else to sleep but Mr. Eagle is suspect #1.

My sweet Bovans Brown pullets.

I spent about 15 minutes in the run with my chooks, talking to them and counting them, watching Mr. Eagle. I managed to spook him out of the tree and watched him soar through the back field.

I hope, for my flock (and my cat’s) sake, that he finds a river full of delicious fish and never comes back.

I headed back into the house, emptied and reloaded the dishwasher and tuned off my 7:15 a.m. alarm.

Time to put on a pot of coffee, it’s going to be a long day.

Meg

Once a farm girl, always a farm girl.

Follow my farm adventures on Instagram @once_a_farm_girl

April 13, 2018
Why Everyone Should Have Backyard Chickens
With Easter here, I thought it fitting to talk about the true supplier of eggs. Bunnies get all the credit this time of year, but we all know we have chickens to thank for the ever so versatile egg. Although they may not be filled with chocolate there is not much that beats a fresh scramble with eggs that were laid that morning.

6 years ago we made the decision to invest in chickens. Specifically, laying hens as opposed to meat birds or roosters. We were renting a house up the Meadows where we were cultivating 1/4 acre plot of land as a veggie garden. On the property was an empty chicken coop that hadn’t been used since our landlord kept a few birds many years before. It was a little rundown and being used as storage but we emptied it out and fixed it up. We have since then moved to Reid Road and were fortunate enough to be able take our chickens with us.

To be honest I didn’t have the greatest memories of chickens. I remember getting chased around the yard by an angry hen and being pecked at by mean-looking rooster. Maybe we lucked out, maybe it’s the breed or maybe there is something to be said for raising your day old chicks but we have some of the friendliest birds. They LOVE to be petted, picked up and they are not afraid of people, dogs or cats. We let them roam free for most of the day and then when the sun starts to set, they retreat back into their coop and we lock them up for evening. I thought there would be a lot more chasing and wrangling involved but they seem to know where their home is and enjoy staying there (that or they know where their food is!)

Roaming freely around the yard.

It was a bit of a life adjustment and took a bit of getting use to caring for birds – cleaning the coop, collecting eggs every day, filling feed and ensuring clean water – but the benefits quickly outweighed the work. In six years of owning chickens, I think I’ve only purchased eggs from elsewhere once. We usually have eggs to spare and either sell them or share with friends and family.

Olive deciding wether or not to share. Petey the dog and Dr Gre the cat coming to check out what’s happening

Here is my list of benefits to keeping laying hens:
- They compost for you! I keep a scraps bowl in my fridge and every morning bring it to the birds. Carrot peels, the tomatoes I forgot about and are now stinking up the fruit bowl, the stale bread that’s about to mould, aside from a few items the chickens will gladly eat it all. (We do not feed our chickens any dairy or meat products. There is also a list of fruits and veggies to avoid feeding your chickens such as citrus, grapes and mangoes)
- They are incredibly entertaining. Have you ever watched a chicken run? It’s like peaking into the Jurassic age. And if you have children, chickens are a fantastic source of entertainment. Have you ever tried to catch a chicken that does not want to be caught? Well, kids will try for hours!
- Not only will you waste less food (feeding your birds scraps) but the grocery stores will also waste less food. Did you know that at the Pemberton Valley Supermarket you can pick a banana box of the grocery store’s unsellable fruits and veggies? For $2 you can pick up a chicken box filled with an assortment of items that are perhaps a little too ripe or bruised but the chickens aren’t picky, in fact they are thrilled to see that box coming their way.
- You know exactly where your food comes from. You know the living conditions of these birds and you know exactly how long the eggs have been sitting on your fridge shelf. This was a huge one for me. There are companies that advertise “free range” or “free run” by giving their birds an additional amount of space and a minimum amount of time spent outside but at the end of the day we just can’t really know how these birds spend their existence. (Of course, in Pemberton we are so fortunate to get access to eggs from trusted farmers, so I am speaking more to what is available at the grocery store.)
- There is something so rewarding in caring for a creature. There are many reasons we keep pets, it has been shown that cuddling a pet can reduce stress, loneliness and anxiety. Chickens are no exception! Plus if you’re not interested in having indoor pets, chickens are a great alternative!
- Chickens help keep the bug and slug population under control. If you do keep a home garden chickens can play an amazing role as a natural insecticide.
- EGGS! Oh yeah! When was the last time your dog left you a tasty treat? Chickens are fabulous, you feed them, they feed you!
An example of the contents of a chicken box from the Pemberton Valley Grocery Store

When is comes to the coop there are so many amazing and innovative plans available online but here are a few essential features that every chicken coop should include:
- Waterproof roof
- A secure structure with a raised floor. Ensuring there are no holes that a mouse could fit through
- Ventilation grills
- Window(s) for ventilation and natural light
- Nesting boxes
- A roost of sorts
- Lockable door
- Fenced run using either chicken wire or galvanized wire
- Heat lamp
- Waterer
- Food dispenser
- Electric fence (optional but recommended)
There are a few different options when choosing which laying hens to get and where to get them from. We are very lucky in Pemberton. Through the Animal Barn you can place an order for “ready to lay hens” meaning these chickens have been sexed and then the hens raised until a week or two before they are ready to lay.

Another option is to get “day old chicks”. There are a couple hatcheries in the Vancouver area that offer both sexed or unsexed day old chicks and you can expect your hens to start laying around 6 months.

The last option and my least favoured is to purchase day old chicks and have them sent through the mail. I won’t go into any detail on this one.

We opted for day old chicks and we drove down to the Little Red Hen Hatchery in Abbotsford and picked up ten of the cutest little “Easter Egger” chicks. Easter Eggers are a breed of hen also sometimes called Americanas and they lay pastel coloured eggs sometimes blue, green, white and pink.

Since then, we have purchased ready to lay hens through the Animal Barn and adopted a few stragglers around town that needed a home. We’ve grown our brood to 20 hens, each one adding its own personality to the dynamic. It was 6 years ago that we invested in laying hens and I can’t imagine my life without these feathery friends!
March 29, 2018
Burn Your Plan

A very long time ago, I passed a man on a couch at Burning Man Festival. It was so late it was almost morning, and the sun had just begun to paint the edges of the mountains with the faintest of light. The man struck up a conversation. And as I warmed my hands at the small fire he had lit at the edge of the road, he told me something that has come back to haunt me more times then I would like to admit.

“You know” he said, hanging in the pause to build up the effect, “sometimes you have to plan your burn… and then burn your plan.”

In this rural, beautiful, messy, animal filled life- where some of the beautiful things you want to create never happen because you have to fix fences instead, and you show up at the grocery store wearing boots covered in muck no matter how hard you try to remember to change them- burning your plan is inevitable. And actually, I think it makes for more love filled creations most of the time. In being willing to let the universe lead the dance every now and then, we make space for magic to happen. And when we have magic, well then anything is possible. We do need a bit of a plan to start with, otherwise we would never get out of bed in the morning, a container and a direction in which to move. But then the more we can be open to running with what happens in the moment, the more our creations and actions can start to suddenly seem a little bigger than ourselves. And that’s always a good thing.

I run a horse and nature based teaching business called Mountain Horse School. This past week I ran 4 days of March Break camp for an amazing little group of kids. I was so proud of the design for this camp: I had found the most amazing natural art activities, and had planned everything out as far as two weeks ahead. But then I found I was unable to source one crucial item for each creation. Then the weather was freezing and that changed the plans I had made too, and one of my horses was terribly grumpy, and so I pulled him halfway through camp and let him watch from the bleachers. Given the circumstances, we did the only thing we could: we improvised.

When things got a little too frantic, we held chickens in our laps and waited until they felt safe enough to close their eyes…

My newest mare Besa (who is not yet trained to ride and was NOT part of the plan for camp) kept insisting she be included. On the last day as we were getting ready to do horse painting she asked again. I looked at her big black head hanging over the gate, and weighed my options and risks. I was doing something more than that too: I was feeling towards her and towards the empty space between us, to see what might want to happen out of the moment. The look in the mare’s eyes was definitely an invitation. Ok. I thought. The kids have enough horse sense that if something goes sideways, we will all be able to stay safe. We’ve been studying their behaviour and body language all week, and imagining our way into their thoughts. It might be neat to have them involved in the process of introducing Besa to something new.

Juliette introducing Besa to the colour fuchsia.

Not only did Besa decide it was ok to be painted, she stood in a kind of trance, with a look on her face that I have only seen in horses who are very, very deeply concentrating on the work at hand. She didn’t even shiver her skin when the first wet blue brush touched her skin. And now, two days later, she has not rolled, and the colours shine brightly out from her white coat.

If you are driving out in the meadows this week and see a black and white horse with a brightly coloured wing, apple, and heart on her side, you are not losing your mind. You are seeing my plan as it has gone up in flames, and the much more beautiful genuine messy thing that has come in to take its place.

March 24, 2018