The chicken knew spring was coming weeks before the time change. All of a sudden she started popping out an egg a day again. I think the amount of light that they get helps them start egg production. Since the sun is up longer now, she is an egg laying machine.
Chicken eggs
Another of the blogs I wrote for the Greeley Tribune was printed today. I am an official blogger for the Healthy Habits blog on their website, and occassionally, they will publish a blog into hard copy. It is fun to see your work in print. This particular one is based on our experience with our chickens, that I have written about here as well. The only downside to getting printed is when the editing is done by someone else. They took out probably the most important paragraph:
“<p>Overall, chickens are a fun addition to any sustainable-living adventure, and I would recommend them whole-heartedly. These eggs have health-benefits that go above regular eggs as well. Not only are you lowering the number of confined animals (sometimes over 30,000 chickens in one hangar never see the light of day or step on the ground), but eggs from chickens that are allowed to roam freely in the yard have a higher omega 3 ratio than those who are fed only grains. They also usually have larger and more brightly-colored yolks which indicate high-vitamin levels. And contrary to popular belief they do not increase blood cholesterol levels in a healthy diet.”
I wish they would have put this picture in to illustrate it as well. Store-bought egg left, Home-grown egg, right
I have a feeling it has something to do with the fact that we have so many confined-animal feeding operations (CAFOs) all over our county…hmmm
That is the general response we hear from people when we talk casually about the chickens. (We hear the same similar response and incredulity when we talk about Puerto Rico, too!) The chickens are awesome! Here are a few fun facts about chickens that we learned, and hopefully they answer a lot of your questions about chickens. If you have other questions, I’ll try to answer them!
1) They generally lay one egg a day. This is not a 24 hour day, however. Our chicken lays one about every 30 hours, so we skip a day every so often. They lay based on the amount of sun – or day length. In the winter, some breeds stop altogether. This is a natural response so that the chicks would have the best chance of survival (spring, summer, and fall). In commercial enterprises, they use artificial lighting to keep them laying through the winter.
2) You don’t need a rooster to have eggs. You only need a rooster to fertilize the eggs. Unless you have a lot of room or want to have chicks in the spring, don’t get a rooster. The hens are not noisy at all, but roosters can start crowing at 3am, which may make you the least favorite neighbor ever.
3) They start laying at between 3-5 months old. The black one still hasn’t laid.
4) They spend the day on the ground looking for things to eat, but like to sleep up on a board. This is the “roosting” habit. They should have shelter from the elements and predators. A lot of chicken predators (foxes, skunks, weasels, etc) are noctural and strike when the chickens are most vulnerable.
5) They do poop a lot, and their poop is considered “hot” but is excellent fertilizer. We usually just hose out the greenhouse every so often and that takes care of the smell.
6) Regardless of what your egg carton might say, chickens are not naturally vegetarians. They LOVE grasshoppers, spiders, beetles, etc, and they are GREAT at catching them. One day, Kitty caught a baby bird and left it dead on the back porch for us as he likes to do recently (yuck). I went to go move it from the porch but got a little distracted. When I came back about a 1/2 hour later the chickens had finished him off, feathers and all…Is that cannibalism if it’s in the same family?
7) They are “flock” animals. I wouldn’t suggest getting just one. They have their own language and squawk when we come out to let each other know we are there. They are always together, sleeping, eating, pecking around in the yard.
8)- The egg comes out of the same part as the poop, but it is through a different tube (think: our throats are used for food and for air), so they are completely sanitary unless they land in poop on the ground (the shell would be dirty).
9) Overall, chickens can be used as: pets, meat, eggs, feather source, fertilizer, entertainment, bug abatement and much, much more 🙂
10) Oh, and yes, they are legal to have in Greeley city limits. Other towns like Fort Collins are also considering it.
BONUS! When Britton and I were in Puerto Rico last, they were talking about how chickens are great for catching unwanted critters, especially scorpions. Well, that’ll help you sleep at night.
By Cassie
Gathered up the materials: Eggs straight from our hard working and feisty leghorn backyard chicken, basil (the chickens have helped our grasshopper infestation as well so we have more basil another benefit!), garlic clove, cherry tomatoes, jalapeno, potatoes (all from our garden) and tortillas from a Greeley tortilleria
Purple potatoes are awesome! Unlike red potatoes, the potatoes are purple through and through. Britton didn’t even have to dig much at all to get these out of our garden
We had to use up some of the older store-bought eggs as well. Can you tell which is which? **Hint the local egg is bigger and oranger!** FYI-Free range eggs like these are much higher in omega 3 and have a closer omega 3/omega 6 ratio than industry eggs. This is mainly due to the fact that they can eat grass, bugs and other plants in addition to just feed
VOILA!
YUM!
If you have never heard of the locavore movement, aka real food movement, aka local food security, aka 100 mile diet, aka food sustainablity and related to the organic food movement, this meal is a representative of this. It is not all that hard especially in the summer. Basically, the assumption is that we can use less fossil fuels, bring ourselves closer to nature, feed ourselves nutritious foods and avoid the atrocities that are committed every day in the conventional food industry such as genetically modified (GMO) foods, pesticide residue, chemical dependence and a disconnect from nature.
An example of this: Most egg and meat chickens in the conventional industry have their beaks burnt down when they are chicks so that they don’t peck the other chickens to death because they are so stressed. The local food movement (locavore movement) also avoids the monoculture tendency in the current farming practices which means you can grow a variety of things to eat rather than just fields and fields of corn (most of which is not to eat anyway).
This is a major reason why I am so excited to live in Puerto Rico. I can eat local and healthy here in Colorado in the summer (with a lot of help from sprinklers or it’d be too dry!), but not so much in the winters. I can’t wait until we can eat off of the land year round! In fact, there is often so much food that one family could never eat it all. Imagine: Oranges, grapefruits, passionfruit, mangoes for breakfast, fresh avocados, tomatoes, goat cheese, and eggs for lunch, and salad, beans, fried plantains and maybe some fresh meat for dinner with a fresh lime and mint with local Bacardi rum or a lime slice for a Medalla Light (local Puerto Rican beer). All from your own yard or within 100 miles! And that’s just an idea…I am sure we will have to be very creative in order to use all the different things out there.