We have had a very low-key quiet and SNOWY Christmas in Greeley this year. We got about 8-10 inches of snow in the last couple of days. The white Christmas is pretty in its own way, but so cold! We finally put the heat lamp in the chicken coop last night because as I mentioned earlier, two of the girls are molting and must be pretty cold. Unfortunately, when Britton put it in at about 10pm last night (with negative 10 degree weather), he put it directly into the coop and this woke them up. They could not sleep with the light glaring in their faces and ended up sleeping on the shelves of the greenhouse. Today we moved it out of the coop itself and just into the greenhouse. Hopefully that will keep it warm enough without keeping them awake.
Omelette with the heat lamp
Yesterday we also went over to Britton’s parent’s house for Christmas. We opened a few gifts and decorated some sugar cookies. It was pretty fun.
Our cookie creations
Decorating some cookies with our niece and nephew and Britton’s sis
Then today we went over to my parent’s house and opened gifts and had a nice meal. We spent time with my Grandma, brother, his girlfriend and my parents. The best gift of all was hearing that my dad’s PET scan came back with very good results! We also got some goofy presents including some fake crowns that made for a good picture.
My crazy family
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Britton and Cassie 🙂
UPDATE: 2013: For the current chicken rules of Greeley, see this post.
Molting and debating chickens in Greeley. This title is a shout out to Wheel of Fortune’s “before and after” category. 🙂 We have two of our chickens currently molting which means fewer eggs. For some reason, as we are learning, chickens molt in the dead of winter…when it got below freezing again, just like last year. Luckily, two of them are still laying though. We have also been busy debating the chickens’ very existence in our backyard with the Greeley City Council. Last night we had a work session that covered the ‘chicken committee’s’ recommendations. As you may know, from previous posts, I thought they were micromanaging the issue, but we felt like it was something of a compromise.
Henrietta Molting
Last night, the Community Development section of Greeley government put together a powerpoint that highlighted our recommendations. The problem I had with it is that it put the cart before the horse. In my work, I have learned that if you are to ever make a policy change, you must show the WHY before the HOW. I felt like last night the city staff didn’t address the “why” fully. And of course, the why to me is: food safety, food security, responsible pet ownership, property rights, environmental and economic sustainability and healthy food, few of which were addressed in the presentation. Instead the presentation talked about all the nitty-gritty of set-backs, coops, number of chickens, etc -the “how”. Now we will need to back track in order to educate the community about chickens.
It’s interesting to me to see how many people are ignorant about chickens. Britton said it best last night at the council meeting when he said that he had the same hesitations as most of the council members because he’s been a city boy (albeit not a huge city) and lived in Greeley his whole life without much exposure to chickens. All of these worries washed away within the first month of having our first chickens. However, when you put the “how in front of the why” people look at it differently.
For instance now with the idea of a permit planted firmly in their heads, they (one council woman in particular) see $$ dollar signs and want to charge for people to raise chickens. To me, this just defeats the whole purpose! We should be encouraging people to become more self-sufficient, to decentralize our food. Has anyone seen Food, Inc? Come on. There were also some comments about the set-back and some discussion of on-site slaughtering/processing. I don’t think I could kill our particular chickens (when they have names they say it’s nearly impossible) anyway, so that is not of such a concern to us.
I had a friend on Facebook (become a fan of Greeley Backyard Hens on FB and get updates about this issue) ask me why we would care about this issue if we are moving the Puerto Rico anyway? Well, I did not ask for this fight to come to me, but I will fight it for others (with your help!). This is something we believe strongly in. It is not only our right to have chickens, pets, or raise our own food, but our civil responsibility to be actively engaged in the process. Those who don’t stand up and speak up must be content with the decisions made by others… When the new mayor, Tom Norton, asked why people who want chickens don’t just move, it felt like a slap in the face. In the end Britton and I said, you know, maybe our ideas are just too different for Greeley. Maybe that is part of the reason we DO want to move. Greeley may have wide streets, but very narrow minds.
We just seem to have an uphill battle in this and that concerns me. When people are unfamiliar with something, their first instinct is to be afraid of it. Change is scary to people. What we should really be scared about it leaving it as it is: leaving our food, our very existence, to some outside entity be it the government or the huge multi-national corporations that currently run the food system. Raising chickens is our small way of saying we care, and I think that we as individuals should have the right to do that.
How can you help? Write letters to the City of Greeley (1000 10th Street, Greeley, CO 80631) showing your support, become a fan of Backyard Hens on Facebook, come in person and give testimony. Contact us! There is a lot you can personally do to help. Also, you can get educated about our food system. Here’s the trailer for Food, Inc. I strongly recommend it.
We are finally progressing on the chicken ordinance in Greeley. Britton and I are on a Greeley ad-hoc committee to make it a little easier for people to have chickens in Greeley. I am coming to the conclusion that the only thing “easier” to having chickens in Greeley is the number. The number of chickens one can have in residential areas will likely increase from 1 per 1/10 of an acre of land (that is all that it says on the books currently about chickens) to up to 6 per residential house with a whole lot more to say on that subject.
For instance:
There will now be a requirement/regulation
-on the size of the coop
-on the size of the run or yard
-on the keeping of the food (in a metal, rat proof container)
-on the color of the coop
-on keeping the coop predator-proof
-on the distance of the coop from property lines
-on closing up the coop at night
-that no roosters are allowed
-that they must be kept away from geese and wild ducks and their excrement
-that slaughtering must be done out-of-sight of neighbors
-that only single-family residences can have chickens
and it wouldn’t be government unless it had, of course, a requirement to apply for a permit whereby they will have an “inspector” come by to tell you if you have met all of the said requirements. To me, I feel like we have lost a lot in the compromise. It’s not that I don’t agree with many of the points, it’s just that it’s a LOT of freaking rules. To raise chickens. Come on. Chickens! They do not take a whole lot to figure out and if you mess up and a predator eats them or you have other problems you will be the first to find out and fix it. As for neighbor complaints about smell and noise, these are already covered in the existing animal codes.
I am for barrier regulation when we are trying to help reduce major problems in society, not when we are trying to promote a positive aspect (some may argue that chickens are a negative but to me, the positives tip the scale disproportionately in the favor of the girlies). By barriers I mean that we are making it somewhat more difficult to have chickens than before instead of easier. Like I said before, the only thing we won in the compromise is the numbers of chickens one can have and the fact that most of these rules are mostly common sense. But still. It’s the idea behind it. Would you like to be told that in order to raise your dog, someone would have to come look at your backyard, make sure the dog house was the right color or where to store your dog food? It just reeks of superiority complex (or job security?) -even in the most harmless of matters. I mean, how long have people been raising chickens in society? Do we really need all these rules? Yet again, it seems, that everything I want to do is illegal.
Well, enough of my rant. We are happy to keep our girls and probably come January we will schlep on over to the city of Greeley’s office to file for a permit for our chickens, wait for an inspector, and hope that they grant us approval (oh, please city, please won’t you let us keep our pets?). Before that time however, the city of Greeley and the city council will be voting on this and maybe making changes to the proposed ordinance. I will keep you posted. And if you are around Greeley, tomorrow, I will be on Pirate 104.7 again at 7:30am talking about it. You can stream the show here.
And here’s a funny video of the chickens playing in the snow of our yard:
Now that we are getting about 4 eggs a day from our four hens, we have had to get extra creative with how we use eggs. When I talk about our eggs, I feel like the scene in Forrest Gump talking about shrimp. Here are a few of the foods we have tried to make (some more successfully than others):
Fried Eggs
-Over-easy, scrambled, sunny side up
Hard Boiled Eggs
Soft Boiled Eggs
Poached Eggs
Egg Drop Soup
Souffles
Meringue
Frittata
Denver (and other types) Omelet
Huevos Rancheros
Breakfast Burritos
Egg Sandwich
Raw Eggs (Britton, not me)
Egg Salad
Use in breads and cakes
Fried egg and Spaghetti (haven’t tried it, but found it in a recipe)
And of course deviled eggs, Britton’s specialty.
We often bring deviled eggs to parties and they are usually the first things to go, but we never had an egg plate to put them on. So…we stopped by the thrift store the other day, picked up some clothes and I found an old 70’s egg platter, perfect for deviled eggs. Score! It’s kinda cool I think. After finding a mark on the back, we looked it up online and apparently the creator of the china, George Lefton company, is semi-famous. I love thrift stores! 🙂
Pretty cool for a dollar!
Can you think of any other meals we can make with eggs? We need all the ideas you can send us! Seriously.
