Comments on: Farm chores

By: Jessie K

Jessie K — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:57:11 +0000

Kim: EXCUSE ME???? Your neighbors shot your CHICKENS because they BIT their dog??? My chickens bite me all the time and it doesn’t exactly hurt (only sometimes). You realize this means war, don’t you? You may have to leave a burning bag of poo on their front porch one night. Not that I advocate such things, or anything. I’m speaking more metaphorically here. JK

By: Kim

Kim — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 02:35:38 +0000

Your site makes me 100 kinds of happy. Someone “gifted” (read that as, dropped off in our yard) two bantam hens. The amount of scat they left in the yard, in all its stinky glory, turned me off from them (scat all over my house from the kids flinging it on each other also repulsed me).

But then I see how many eggs we eat a week and think, “okay, chickens, you and I have to make friends.”

Our redneck neighbors shot our gifted chickens because the chickens bit her tiny dog. That’s how they roll out here, I guess – little dogs are more important than free eggs.

By: mark

mark — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:27:53 +0000

you’re damn right that’s what husbands are for!!! I know Jake works hard, and all that but he doesn’t have jerky in the food dehydrator as it were!! if there weren’t 6ft drifts of snow across this truck stop town i’d come down there and give him what for!! tell him to stop tack welding horseshoes together and give you a hand, and then make you some delicious quiche with jerky in it!

By: sparrowgrass

sparrowgrass — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:49:05 +0000

More to add–I also give all kitchen scraps to the chickens, and let them compost them. The only things I hold back are bones–I have dogs, and I don’t want them digging into the chicken yard for things the birds can’t eat.

In the fall, I collect leaves from anyone who will bag them for me, and dump them right into the chicken yard. The girls love them, they scratch and dig and poop and make the most wonderful soil you have ever seen. The leaves also cut down on the amount of mud on the girls’ feet, making for cleaner eggs. In the spring, I scoop up big shovelsful of compost, for very little effort.

By: sparrowgrass

sparrowgrass — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:43:09 +0000

I have been keeping chickens for 8 years now, and I clean the chicken house once a year. I use the “deep litter” method–put a foot or so of straw on the floor of the house. As it compacts and gets wet/dirty, spread some more straw, and sprinkle the floor with “scratch” , a mix of seeds and corn. The girls will dig in the straw, mix it all up and the wet stuff will dry out. No odor, eggs are clean, because the girls keep the feet clean by scratching in the straw. I think shavings would work too, but I have only used straw.

In the spring, I haul out wonderful compost that I can put directly on the garden because the girls have mixed the straw and the manure, and it doesn’t burn the plants. I have an 8 x 10 house for about 25 hens. It is about 50 feet from my living room, and I never smell chickens. (Well, very ocasionally, if we have a very long spell of wet weather.)

By: lo

lo — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:45:12 +0000

Every time I’m tempted to get a couple of city chickens to keep out in my garden-enhanced-but-distinctly-urban yard, I think about the work. And I wonder if I’d be up to the challenge.

BTW, am loving your blog (which I just found, thanks to the shout-out on InnBrooklyn)… definitely good reading here, and it’s looking like I’ll be back again, probably soon!