the keep

I spent all day Sunday on my knees, replacing the wire on the roost, the chickens' inner sanctum.  I was thankful that I discovered how rust had set it free from it’s earthly bonds (staples) before raccoons swung down in a chariot of fire and not-so-sweetly carried the hens away.

I’ve struggled with my chicken-architecture terminology.  I thought I had settled on coop, roost & yard to describe the homey trinity we have cobbled together with our humble carpentry skills, but as I labored in the unseen light of the waning paschal full moon, I realized I was fortifying the hens’ keep, employing a medieval strategy dating back 1000 years.

Mary & I entered the ancient keep of Marvao as we honeymooned in Portugal 25 years ago, though we thought naught of chickens at the time.  The perfectly-preserved castle rises from one end of a fortified mountaintop village, unprotected by ticket-takers or docents.  We walked through a manicured garden, entering through a narrow slit optimized for defending with lances, and mounted the walls on a narrow stone staircase.  It was a sunny weekday morning, the castle was unoccupied, all we could hear was the wind.  We followed the parapet along the perimeter to a squat tower with a dark doorway.  Through the doorway was a square windowless room, perfect for storing wine, or a desperate last stand.

The hens' keep sits next to a lovely garden. You access it through a gate, though without fear of being lanced.  So it’s a lot like Marvao, except for the medieval village, stone stairway, underground cistern, mountaintop ringed by castle wall, and 360˚ view.

Coo, coo, ca choo.

what almost happened

Our flock started twelve years ago with 8 chicks.  We named each hen, and surprisingly, they all lived long lives, except for Joe, Rex’s favorite, a white crested black polish, who was killed by a hawk one Saturday morning.

Now we have a secure roost, a big, fenced enclosure, and the experience to know that we’re doing well if half the new chicks in any one year live out their natural lives.  We added 6 chicks who would develop into sturdy hens last spring, and just two remain.

We’re getting lots of eggs this year, and with 14 hens, the flock is about average.  Unfortunately, we recently learned about marans, a breed that lays dark brown (“chocolate" eggs), so, of course, we wanted some.  Marans are a new breed, or a breed that’s new in the U.S., so they’re not easy to find.  After sorting through search results that started with Oklahoma, Kansas & Dhangadhi, we located some nearby in Brownsville.

Murray McMurray Hatchery Egg Photo Contest 3rd Place

The farm had a lot of chicks available, so we had a lively discussion about how many to buy.  Somehow, we decided that if we wanted a few chocolate egg layers, we needed a dozen new chicks, despite Rex wanting more chickens like Joe, and 8 being the most chicks we had ever added in one year.  We called, emailed & texted the sellers to let them know we were moderately interested in stopping by and quickly had an appointment for the next morning.

Luckily, our giddy buyers’ high wore off after a good night’s sleep.  Doubling the size of the flock no longer seemed like the great idea it had been 24 hours earlier.  We decided against the drive to Brownsville & texted our regrets.

So there are no chocolate eggs in your future yet, but stay posted.  There will be chicks for sale in the feed stores until June...

Coo, coo, ca choo.

egg hunt

We’ve all heard stories about skunks & racoons getting into chicken coops, or of chickens escaping from them.  It’s not that it’s hard to build a predator-tight refuge,  but it’s expensive. Eggs are cheap, baby chicks cost about $1, and you have already invested in fences & coops, so if you’re getting by, it’s a lot easier just to keep getting by.

A few summers ago, we rebuilt the fence around the chicken yard, so for a few days, the hens ran free, and laid their eggs where ever they pleased.  We found nests all around the house, in ivy, in tall grass, anywhere the ground cover provided a little privacy.

The coop where the hens roost up at night is small, so it’s not much trouble to keep it secure.  The fence around the chicken yard is another matter, and I’ve grown weary of hens pushing under or finding a way over it.  I wasn’t worried about losing eggs, the problem was the hens were much more persistent about getting out than getting back in.  If we didn’t open the gates before evening, they’d start roosting up on rooftops, steps or low trees, from which I’d have to extract them by flashlight when I came home from work.

So we left the hens in the coop & built a mighty fence.  It seemed like we collected more eggs than usual while the hens were cooped up, but I couldn’t be sure.  When the fence was ready, I was relieved to see that it worked.  With the hens confined to their yard all day, we kept getting “extra” eggs”.

So I decided I couldn’t wait for Easter & went on an egg hunt this weekend.  It didn’t take long to find a clutch of eggs in one of the hens’ old haunts, the ivy by the back door.  18 eggs!

Will we ever know if it’s the only place they were laying?

Coo, coo, ca choo.

the hens' latest thing

We often let the hens out in the afternoon.  Despite the size of their yard (it’s has a bigger footprint than our house), they gang up inside the gate as we approach in anticipation of their release.  They peck around in the grass outside their fence, and work their way up to the bird feeder to forage for sunflowers seeds.  Then they’ll make a circle around the house and on their way back to the coop.

I was surprised a couple weeks ago, when I saw a hen coming out of the fir grove near the street.  It’s not an encouraging development, if they’re that far from the house, they might attract a neighbor’s dog into our yard.

So this weekend, I played poultry gumshoe, and kept track of the hens as they fanned out across the yard.  Sure enough, half a dozen, the alpha clique, made their way past the bird feeder, across the lawn & down the hill through the trees.  They came to the fence next to our neighbor’s raspberry patch.  I’ve been mulching leaves there for several years to kill weeds along the fence.  Somehow, word about the worm-rich soil has spread through the flock, so the flock flocks to the fence to feed ;-)

Like me, the hens are easily bored, so they were soon strutting back up the hill.  No dogs were alerted on this day.  The hens roosted up as the daylight waned, I latched the gate, and collected the eggs that had magically appeared again in the nesting boxes.

Coo, coo, ca choo.

the role of roosters

I don’t understand chickens any better than I understand how women select jewelry.  So I can’t explain why the big barred rock went broody in late summer instead of in May.  Spring is the best time for baby chicks.  The days are getting warmer & dryer in spring, now they are getting cooler & wetter.

Well, no chicks appeared after several weeks, & she finally gave up on Saturday, joining the rest of the flock for the daily scattering of sunflower seeds, quail food & scratch.  We should be getting more brown eggs now.

Her skewed breeding cycle might be a regular occurrence, I may not have noticed before as I don’t brood about our hens broody behavior.  Maybe it’s due to the lack of men in her life.  We don’t have any roosters.  We men do have an important role to play, even if we shouldn’t be buying the jewelry.

OCF?

The chicks had a grand time at the OCF* this weekend.  We keep an eye on them when they’re out & about, to forestall the plans of any cats who pass randomly through our yard, but mostly because they can rarely figure out how to get back into the chicken run after they find a way out  of it.  This is when a veteran chicken herder’s decade of experience comes in handy, but more on that in a later installment.

The chicks are very active, dare I say, even athletic.  They’re not as quick as the brown leghorns were at the same age, but they run around, climb trees & chase insects with just as much energy.

(* Oregon Country Farm)



Coo, coo, ca choo.

they are what we eat

Why are our eggs more yellow than commercial eggs?  I’m pretty sure it’s the varied diet of our hens.  Every morning they receive their ration of multi-grain scratch, quail feed & sunflower seeds.  Now that we’re working in the yard & garden again, there’s a steady supply of cuttings, kale is their favorite.  And for dessert, “mushroom” compost.  The compost heap in the chicken yard has developed a distinctive profile as the hens peck their way in from the perimeter.