The other morning, when I went to open up the chicken coop and do the food and water, I couldn’t find Ruby. Ron had put up the chickens the night before, and he doesn’t count the chickens like I do. I was in a panic until I realized I could hear Ruby. But, as I looked around, I still couldn’t find her. It literally sounded like she was coming from inside the coop walls. I didn’t know what to think.
And then I looked down. Outside, there is a ramp with slats leading to the big front door of the coop, Ruby was stuck under the ramp! I have no idea how she got there. It is solid on the sides. In fact, as I write this, I am a little freaked out by how she got there. But that’s where she was. Just complaining so loudly, probably extra because I was stepping down on the ramp and probably squishing her a little.
I raised up the ramp, and Ruby ran out. She didn’t even seem grumpy to me, as she usually is. She just seemed so relieved. That little girl!
We all took guesses as to what happened to her. Mostly, we just made up wild stories. I suggested the rats grabbed her and took her under the coop, but she escaped–sort of. My teen son said the rats got her and were storing her under the ramp for later, like in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. If you have read that book, I am sorry for that imagery. If you have not read that book, right now is definitely not a good time to read that book. Just don’t do it.
My real guess is that Ruby was out late roosting somewhere, got scared by something, managed to squeeze under the coop for safety but then was drawn to the light under the ramp in the morning. That’s truly just a guess though because there are holes in that theory as well because there is no easy path from the under the coop to under the ramp. I guess I will never know, but words cannot express how badly I wish Ruby could talk to me.
One thing I know for sure is that Ruby has a wild heart and is determined to make life an adventure for herself.
I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I have been reflecting on my life and my constant push and pull between wanting adventure in my life but then wanting safety and security at the same time. I feel I am a mess. Maybe a little too much like Ruby in some ways because Ruby.
I was thinking about this more when I pruned the pear trees the other day. I love those pear trees so much, but I love them for what they give me, of course. I hate how I have to tame them to not get too tall and how I have to trim branches to ensure the best fruit in the fall. The chopping feels so harsh to me. You know those trees want to be wild. They try every year.
But their fruit is tied to my security. Every year, I get to can pears, make pear crisp, and the like because I tame those trees.
This morning, when I opened the coop door, Kate, Juliet, and Ruby were out and about right away. When I came back later after caring for the ducks and doing their water, Ruby and Juliet were at the door wanting back into the coop. After the rest of the flock clears out, they like to go back into coop to eat. I couldn’t find Kate at all though.
I looked around and found her walking way down the driveway. She is so adventurous. Kate-Kate has a wild heart that will never be tamed.
Well, friends, I did it. I successfully hatched a batch of baby chicks, and they are now all in the brand new brood box Ron made for them. That brood box is a masterpiece, and I must write about it one day. However, for my story today, you just need to know that it has a large window in the front, so it literally looks like a giant chicken tv.
And, as such, my husband, son, and I have found ourselves watching the baby chickens on “television” several times a day. Last night, we all happened to be out there together watching through the window at how the baby chicks interacted with their world.
“It’s so interesting to think about how their whole world is in that box right now,” my teenager said. “They don’t even know to look out the window.” Oh, that kid has a beautiful mind!
We all talked about how they have everything a baby chick could need or want (besides a mama) right there in that little box–it’s warm, it’s spacious, there’s fresh food and water. And there are many friends to be had. I think I hatched 29 chicks.
“Every now and then the hand of ‘God’ reaches in and adds fresh food and water, and then they are go on their little ways” my son said.
And this led us to a discussion of humans.
We talked about how much there is that humans can’t see or understand, which relates to how we define “God,” though my son pointed out that there are plenty of scientists who have been trying to “look out the window” and see what all is out there. Still, most of us probably don’t even have time to stop and look up at the stars.
I just spent the last four months working non-stop to try to save money and pay off debt before things get really tough economically. Thankfully, we did not have much debt. We are lucky. But we do not own our property outright, so that’s a worry. So, pretty much, for the last several months, if my eyes were open, I was working. I was exhausted mentally and physically and could not move my right arm very well from the repetitive motions. I noticed I was getting more and more grumpy, and I don’t like myself that way.
And then, last week, my jobs were cut back, as I knew they eventually would be. I didn’t “lose” the jobs, but there is just less work–fewer students in college means fewer classes. So, last week, for first time in a long time, I felt like I could breathe a little. As scary as it all is, I was just so thankful to not have to work so much.
The other night, when I went outside to put the ducks to bed, instead of rushing them into the duck house, so I could get back to work, I just stood outside and looked up at the stars. When I did, I realized I had not looked up at the stars in months. What a tragedy that is, right? The stars make me think of our Great Pyrenees Gus, who loved to sit outside and just look up at the stars at night, or the clouds during the day, or a cool bird on the fence. But, right before he died, we sat out under the stars for a long time and just took them in together.
The stars are lovely and remind me of how small I am and how small my problems are and how small even the cruel people in charge really are. They don’t know they’re small–well, maybe on some level they do and it scares them and that’s why they behave as they do. But I guess that’s a whole other issue. Still, doesn’t the vastness of the galaxy just give you some perspective?
Looking up at the stars made me think about how I am just a blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things. I am a human animal, a mother doing my best to protect my children, keep them safe, ensure the survival of my species because that’s what I am programmed to do, I suppose–and, because I seem to have been born with an urge, make some human art along the way.
But I also have to remember there are so many things I don’t quite understand, how it all fits together, why things fall apart, why cruelty seems to be such a part of it all, but maybe, if I take time to look out the window, I will find some answers. Of course, the older I get, the more I realize that the answer might be that there are no answers.
In the meantime, I am watching the baby chicks. It’s been a few days, and they haven’t looked out the window yet, but give them time, they will soon. And, then, their curious minds will want to know what is outside of that brood box, and the day their feathers come in and they no longer need heat and they get go outside to touch the earth and eat bugs and play in the grass will be the best day.
I have so many stories to tell because my baby chicks hatched today, but Thursdays are heavy work days, which means I have to wait until tomorrow. I just had to show you these beautiful eggs. It’s egg season right now, and my 6’4″ teen son is in heaven. This is what he ate for breakfast…plus coffee and a bowl of yogurt and blueberries.
Then he ate two more eggs for a snack.
Hopefully, that’s all for today. The girls are laying very well though, so we have plenty. I love this time of year. I feel so rich. I even saw Betty Jr., who is 7 years old, laying an egg today. How is that possible?
Oh yeah, Rooster is her father. He has really good genes.
Last week, for the first time in five years, I cleaned up the nice incubator and prepared it for hatching eggs. Last fall, the meat chickens we ordered came with some kind of respiratory illness. I do knot know if they had it from the hatchery or picked up something along the way, but some very sick chickens arrived last fall. We lost 11 of 26, and I think the only reason the rest survived was because of my experience with respiratory illnesses in chickens and Ron’s ability to remove and cull quickly. It was a nightmare for sure.
And, to add to the stress of all of it, we had to worry about our main flock getting the sickness. We had to wash constantly and never let anything that touched the sick chickens touch anything that would go to our main flock. And keeping Ruby away from the baby chicks was an extra challenge because you know how she is.
Thankfully, we succeeded in keeping our flock from getting sick, but the whole experience led to some deep thinking about ordering chicks from the hatchery moving forward. I am sure getting sick chicks in the mail is overall quite rare, but with the state of things and our deep connection to our flock, we decided to not risk ordering live chicks this year and just order hatching eggs.
This means my incubator skills from years ago will come in quite handy–only I’m nervous I don’t have the skills I used to. Still, I am going into this experience with a lot of wisdom learned from my broody hen mamas, so I wanted to share instructions for hatching chicks from hatching eggs with notes from my observations of what a broody hen does to ensure a successful hatch. After all, Mother Nature knows best, so if I can copy her, I surely will.
And I have to add that, so far, so good because I candled the eggs on Saturday, and out of 36 hatching eggs, we had just one that wasn’t developing. It’s early, but I am hopeful for good numbers.
Instructions for Hatching Chicken Eggs (with broody hen notes)
Choose a Good Incubator
The first step is to choose a good incubator. You want to choose an incubator that measure temperature and humidity, and I highly recommend one with an automatic turner. Good visibility and easy cleaning are perks, and one thing I learned from experience is that, if you live in a colder climate and want to start incubating in the spring when it might still be chilly outside, a styrofoam incubator holds the temperature better. I haven’t researched incubators in a long time, but read for real reviews and consider your price range. We have a Hova Bator, and I have had good success with it. I had a plastic shell incubator first, and it did pretty well as well; however, I had to add heat on the outside to help ensure the temperature stayed proper on the inside.
Choose a Good Space
I learned from my broody hens that a good space can make a big difference in success rates for hatching. You want to choose a space for your incubator that is out of the way and dark. I cleaned out a closet for ours because I want to make sure the eggs stay in the dark. After all, under a broody hen, it’s warm and dark.
Prepare Your Incubator
Even if your incubator is new, you will want to clean it. It’s best to not use harsh chemicals because fragile little babies are going to be born in that incubator. I use vinegar and water to wipe down any parts I cannot submerge in water, and I then I submerge and scrub any parts that can be submerged, like the flooring. Again, no harsh chemicals, just some vinegar and water.
After you have your incubator cleaned and dried, it’s time to set it up and test it out for a day or so to make sure it can maintain the temperature and humidity you want. You will add water to the water reservoirs, turn on the incubator, and then start monitoring things. You want to ensure consistent temperature and see how much water you need to add to ensure consistent humidity. You also want to make sure the turner works.
A broody hen is magically consistent. She sits for 21 days, only leaving for some periodic bathroom breaks. I keep food and water near our broody hens, so she can have easy access to nourishment. And I always hear the turning of eggs at night. I am sure she probably turns eggs during the day too, but in the quiet of night, it’s so cool to hear a broody hen in there turning her eggs with such care. You definitely want to make sure your incubator is consistent like a broody hen.
Temperature and Humidity Level
Temperature: 99.5 degrees if your incubator has an air circulator, 101-102 degrees if your incubator has still air
Humidity: 45-55% until lockdown on Day 18 (I have seen varying thoughts on humidity, but this is a good range for our incubator that circulates the air.)
Humidity: 60-70% for lockdown from Day 18 to Day 21 (You have to work pretty hard in the last few days to keep that humidity up, but it’s important to prevent the membrane from sticking to the chick during hatching.)
Schedule
When your incubator is ready, and your temperature and humidity are at proper levels, it’s time to start. You should not wash the fertilized eggs, but you can dust off any messy bits. I tend to avoid really dirty eggs just because. The whole journey will take a total of 21 days, but I have had eggs hatch as late as day 24. I also had a broody hen who ended up with a very cold egg in the middle of a process stay on that egg and hatch that baby at day 29! We still have that baby chick. She’s all grown up and will be four years old this summer.
After Day 7, you can candle the eggs. If the chick is developing, you will see blood vessels or a dark spot forming in the egg. To candle the egg, simply hold up a flashlight to the egg. If the egg has a dark shell, you will have to get into a really dark room and hold the flashlight up to the egg and then study hard. If you see just a clear egg and a yolk that just moves around freely, you know that one isn’t going to develop and should be removed to prevent it from rotting and exploding. If you are unsure and think you might see some development, leave the egg in the incubator for now and candle again after waiting several more days.
I used to stress out about candling and try to hurry so fast, worried that somehow being out of the incubator a few minutes would be harmful. I even accidentally broke an egg in my rush before. After seeing that a broody mama can leave her eggs for up to an hour and everything will be just fine, I no longer rush. Take your time and be careful with the eggs when you candle.
On Day 18, it’s time for lockdown. First, you will remove the eggs from the incubator and candle them again. Be careful that you have a good, safe places for holding and candling the eggs. Of course, remove any eggs that stopped developing. At this point, the egg should be full. You can sometimes see little feathers, which is just so cool.
While the eggs are out of the incubator, remove the turner. The eggs will stay still for the last three days. When a broody hen gets to Day 18, she stops leaving the nest. She will not even eat or drink, so I take them water. They won’t eat much though because they know they can’t leave. For the last days, the heat and humidity needs to be steady.
After you remove the turner, you may want to put down some shelf paper to help the chicks have traction when they hatch. I have not done this before, but I read about it and plan to do it this time. I read it can help prevent splay leg.
Be sure to keep the humidity up during lockdown! This is so important!
At this time, you should also get your brooder ready for the babies with food, water, and a heat source. (That will be a different post.)
By Day 20, you will likely start to see some pips in the eggs, but don’t panic if you do not. If all is well, most the eggs will hatch on Day 21, but you should definitely give them a few extra days. Hopefully, you will have a successful hatch.
After the Hatch
First of all, just like a mama hen, you are going to be so excited when those babies start hatching. When they first hatch, they look rough. They are wet and tired from all of that work unzipping an egg. They are also really wobbly. But the wobbly won’t last long. Soon, they will fluff out and get their legs under them.
Once they are completely fluffed, you can move them to the brooder. Definitely let them get good and fluffy before you remove them, and wait until you have at least two or three ready before they go to the brooder. If you put one in the brooder alone, that baby will cry itself to death. That may be an exaggeration, but I can see the possibility. Chickens are social right from the get go.
I have to admit that, after seeing the way a mama hen and a baby chick look at each other, I always feel sorry for the chicks that I hatch. I am a terrible mama replacement. Just terrible. But I do my best, and the chicks have each other, which helps. Plus, when you are the mama hen, you definitely get to know the chicks better.
If you are thinking about trying incubating eggs for the first time and have questions, please do not hesitate to leave a question. I hope these notes helpful, and I hope you get to see this very soon!
I am taking a break from work to tell this story about Kate, affectionately known as Kate-Kate. Kate is our little Easter Egger mix, part Schubert and part Rooster, and full of personality. She is the one, when she was little, who kept going over to the other mama hen’s crate, which stressed her mama out and stressed me out. Even after I put up a barrier, that sassy little girl would take her tiny little chicken nugget self all the way around the barrier. She was like four days old doing this! I had never and have never since seen anything like it.
Kate is so curious and very independent. .
I was worried about her a bit this winter. It was a long winter with a lot of snow. She was in the coop for weeks and weeks, and I could tell it didn’t sit well with her. She had a look in her eyes that really worried me, but thankfully, despite second winter rearing its head this week, it’s spring. Kate is out of the coop and running around, even though I am trying to get her to stop. I have thought about clipping her wings to keep her out of the driveway and in the chicken area, but since we have had not a single report of bird flu in our area yet and Kate is really good at dodging the mail trucks, I’m just letting her run around the driveway for now.
But she’s difficult because she’s Kate.
So this is what happens: I won’t let her out of the front door of the coop in the morning when I am doing food and water, so she goes around the coop to the side gate and flies over herself. But then, for whatever reason, maybe she has to lay an egg or may she just changed her mind, she stands at the front door of the coop wanting to be let back in. I do not know why she doesn’t just fly back over, but she doesn’t. So, all day long, I am taking breaks from my work and looking out the window to see what Kate is up to. Most of the time, she’s there wanting back in the coop. I ask her why she can’t make up her mind, but my sense from her is that this is exactly what her mind wants.
This process has happened five times of this just today. In fact, I had to go let her in the coop in the middle of writing this post. She walks in without even a “thank you,” just like, “of course you’re going to wait on me.”
On time today, Faure took the opportunity to sneak out when I had the door open for Kate. She was so sassy out there. She meandered over to where the other chickens could see her, and she scratched in the grass like she was so special. The other hens watched in envy. Dvorak watched with worry. He hates when his girls are on the other side of the fence and can’t be protected, and Faure is definitely his girl. They were raised together and are very close.
The cutest thing happened later though. I looked out the window to see Faure freaking out and pacing at the coop door. She is a big girl and cannot fly, so her only chance to get back in the coop is if I let her in. I ran out there because she absolutely looked like she was about to lay an egg. It’s like a pacing when you really have to go the bathroom.
She ran in that coop and went straight for a nest box! It was all fantastic!
It made me think about how much I love getting to spend my days back and forth with these amazing animals. I have been looking for jobs recently, and I realized today that, for some of the jobs, I wouldn’t be able to work from home. I would miss all this. I would miss Kate and Faure and Ruby and all of her antics. It made me decide I had better keep looking for online work. I mean, I’ll do what I have to do, but I sure would like to keep watching my chickens. I am spoiled, I know, but who else is going to tell these chicken stories?
With that in mind, if you are a long-time reader and would consider supporting this blog and the journal on Patreon, I would be grateful. I am planning to hold events for members, so I hope you will consider it if you can. If you have supported in the past but took a break, I hope you will check out the Patreon page again because we now have a $3 a month membership. If you cannot afford it right now, that’s totally understandable. Just leaving a comment of support is really good too.
I have been buried for weeks in the work of this, and I am so proud. In between the chickens and the children and the cooking and the working, I managed to get this latest issue of the journal completed. It is the most beautiful issue I have ever created, and I hope you love it. Please check it out. I believe it will be good for the soul!
To the many of you who have followed Mary Jane’s story over the last nearly 8 years, I wanted to let you know that she passed the night before last. I found her in the coop yesterday morning, and my heart is broken, of course.
The night before, we had been out pretty late because our son had a performance in Portland. When we got home, I went out to close up the chickens and put away the food and found that Mary Jane was not in her usual spot. I went to her and touched her. She got up and was moving slowly, but she went to the food dish and started eating and eating. I thought this was unusual.
I went about doing everything else for the evening chores–closing up the ducks, dumping waters, busting ice, etc.–and came back and told her I was going to have to take away the food dish because it was bed time. Because she was so old and so wise, she understood a lot of language and understood I had to take the bowl. I gave her some pets and kept the flashlight on, so she could make her way over to her usual spot in the coop. She was moving so very slowly heading to her spot, but she has slow been all winter. At some point, I just quit worrying about her quite so much. I think I just thought she might live forever.
I said good night to her and told her she was a good girl. I wish I would have hugged her, though she was only sometimes in the mood for hugs. I keep thinking about seeing her slowly making her way in the coop in the light of the flashlight. That’s the last time I got to see her. I wish I would have said more, but I know in my bones she knew I loved her. I made it clear so, so many times.
When I went to the coop yesterday morning, she was in her spot and had passed sometime during the night. The flock wasn’t acting weird at all, as they sometimes will when someone dies in the coop, and Mary Jane just looked like she passed in her sleep. She looked peaceful. I think it must have been a quiet death, as the flock was not disturbed until later when I was holding her and crying. .
I held her for the longest time and angry cried a lot, though I do not know why I was angry–other than I am just angry at the world, I guess.
When I went to get Ron and let him know, Boudica found me. She had heard me crying and was so worried about me. She did all she could to make me feel better–and I did feel better. I was reminded that I still have Boudica, and that, as much as losing Mary Jane hurts, it will pale in comparison to losing Boudica. So I had better treasure my time with that amazing girl.
I picked a feather from Mary Jane to save forever. Ron said he took her by the coop to say goodbye to the flocks, and Rooster was visibly upset. That old boy is also moving very, very slowly himself. Ron took her about a half mile into the woods to feed a hungry someone, maybe a fox, maybe a hawk. He lay her at the base of a big, beautiful Ash tree and told her how much he loved her and how thankful he was to know her. He told her the story of the day she was pardoned from processing and why she stood out from the others. That trauma was a part of her story, and she always carried herself with the wisdom of having seen some things.
There are so many lessons there that I don’t know if I will ever learn them all in this lifetime, but I will try.
I am going to miss her terribly. It feels like the end of an era.
She would have been 8 years old at the first of June. She was a Freedom Ranger meat chicken and one of the most intelligent creatures I have ever met. And one of my dear friends reminded me of this important lyric in Tom Petty’s song:
“She said, ‘I dig you, baby, but I got to keep movin’ on, keep movin’ on'”
We are flirting with mud season around here, and I am thankful for the melt but also not a fan of mud season. The chickens are not fans of mud season either. I put straw in the run, but it’s still messy. The girls stand at the front door of the coop and look at the driveway like they really want driveway time. I have been avoiding it, just trying to train them to lock down a little bit with bird flu in mind, but tomorrow, I think they are going to get a little driveway time. I think I am going to have to do a deep clean on the coop. I have a little dread about it. It’s going to be hard, but it’s time.
When I went to collect eggs this evening, I saw that Ruby has a poopy bum, so I had to pick her up to check things out. She does have a few mites, so I had to treat her, which led to me bleeding because she is fierce. That chicken is so wild and stubborn and histrionic. I was so kind and patient the whole time, but she made such a scene that the other chickens started to get upset. I promised them all that it was okay and that Ruby was just being Ruby, and I think that worked.
Anyway, she has now been treated. She pecked me one more time for good measure when I put her down.
In contrast, I thought I had better do a health check on Hector while I was checking on people tonight, and while she is not doing the greatest, she is certainly hanging in much better than I thought she would be. I am sure we will lose her this spring, but she’s holding up well and seems content. She was so chill while I checked her. Her crop is a little bit squishy, so I will have to treat that tomorrow. When I was done, I held her right in my face, so I could check out her eyes, trying to see what’s going on in there. Does she look like she has pain? Is she mostly okay? I am happy to report that her eyes looked good. She is such a great hen. I am so, so, so sad she didn’t win the genetics lottery.
I am thinking about ordering a few hatching eggs for heritage chickens this year. I think that should help in the genetics lottery. I also realize that a lot of our flock won the genetics lottery because of Rooster. We have so many old hens, and they are all Rooster’s babies. And, of course, Rooster will be 9 this summer.
We are all just trying to stay sane and focused on preparing for tougher times. The straw we get comes from Canada, so we bought a lot today because we assume the price will go up if the tariffs are put into place on Monday. Of course, you never know if he’s really going to enact the tariffs or just threaten forever. Either way, we have a good amount of straw, and I had a Blue Seal coupon. That coupon covered two free bales of straw–and straw is not cheap.
There is a part of me that feels like I am panicking too much, but then I read a little bit about what is going on and feel like I am not panicking nearly enough. All I know is that I wake up each morning so differently than I ever have. I wake up scared. Then, I get my brain to adjust to this new reality and tell myself, “put the anxiety into action.”
And then I get up and start getting the food and water ready for my sweet chickens. And Ruby too.
I wish I had talked to my grandparents more before they passed away, but I was actually pretty young. I was in high school when my great grandmother, who was like my grandmother, as she had raised my dad, passed away. I have wonderful memories of her. She was part Cherokee and taught me a kind of Christianity that I don’t see much of today. She taught me to be kind to everyone–no exceptions, to turn the other cheek, to help those who might have less, and to never judge others. She also taught me about chickens.
I wish I had a photo somewhere of her chicken coop that was in the back of an old garage. I can’t remember the outside very well, but there were strawberries and blackberries around the outside of the chicken run (I definitely remember those), and I remember the inside of the coop. It was kind of dark, without windows, and being in Texas, I guess there wasn’t a huge need for protection from the cold. It was a much “looser” structure than the coop we have now. I remember the nest boxes. I remember helping her collect eggs and being a little bit afraid of those hens pecking my arm. I remember her telling me not to look outside when she had to go get a chicken for dinner. And I remember helping her feed her chickens.
My great grandmother, Bertha (One of Poe’s grand babies is named Bertha in her honor), had lived through the Great Depression. She told me stories about growing and canning food and how she used to make clothes out of flour sacks (I later learned that the flour companies started using pretty fabrics for the flour sacks when they learned people were making dresses from them). She told me about surviving, and all of my memories of her are related to the habits she must have learned surviving the Depression. She kept a garden. She canned food. She made everything from scratch–from potato chips to syrup (no lovely Maple trees to tap in Texas). She made her clothes, and she worked non-stop even in her older age. Even when she was watching her “stories” on the little black and white television in her living room, she crocheted blankets and tablecloths.
One of my best memories of her was feeding the scraps after meals to the chickens. It was way more fun than collecting eggs, and I was so thankful to those chickens. I was a VERY picky eater when I was a kid (autism and all), and though my granny begged me to eat all of my meals, all I really wanted to eat was her homemade jam on her homemade bread. I was so thankful to the chickens for eating my carrots. Maybe that’s when I fell in love with chickens. I just didn’t know it at the time. My great grandmother’s chickens were fed with table scraps and grains. She didn’t use chicken feed, though it had been developed by the time I was a kid in the 80s.
I have been thinking more and more about my great grandmother as I try to figure out a million worst-case scenarios in my mind for what the future holds. My jobs are no longer stable, so Ron and I have been doing our best be as frugal as we can be, stock up where we can, and figure out how to live even more self sufficiently. It has occurred to me: What if we couldn’t afford organic chicken feed?
Using my great grandmother as inspiration, I researched to find out how people fed their chickens during hard times like the Great Depression and in the times before chicken feed was a thing. Below is a list of the things I have learned. I hope they are helpful to you, and I hope none of us need them.
Table Scraps
Right now, we use table scraps to supplement our chickens’ diet. It is a great way to save money on feed and avoid food waste. Plus, the variety is great for the chickens. They love getting new things to eat. You can tell it boosts their spirits. But in hard times, the table scraps become more of a staple for chickens. This means you have to get serious. We have always been pretty serious about it, and this is how we do it: We have a large glass bowl that stays in the refrigerator, and we put every single teeny tiny scrap into that bowl. When the bowl is full, it goes to the chickens. This is everything from the single edge of toast crust that my son didn’t eat at breakfast to leftover pan of rice when I accidentally cooked a little too much. It’s the three noodles left on the plate. It’s the piece of broccoli I just couldn’t fit in my tummy. Save it all. It adds up and can make such a difference and can help add variety to your chickens’ diet if you don’t have access to commercial feed.
For more information on what chickens can and cannot eat from your table (it’s pretty much everything you can eat), please check out this helpful list from Heritage Acres Market.
Foraging
Allowing your chickens room to forage for bugs, worms, and greens is a great way to feed them. Of course, given the fact that bird flu is on the rise, you may not always be able to give your chickens the space to feed themselves. It may be necessary to keep your chickens covered, but when bird flu is not a threat, allowing your chickens to fend for themselves can supplement other methods of feeding chickens. Ours love the dandelions and clover, which is a reminder to plant clover instead of grass if you can and definitely let your yard be wild.
Grow a Garden
I remember my great grandmother feeding her chickens from the garden, and we do the same thing. We can’t do it in the winter here in Maine, so winter would be tough on us in many ways if we couldn’t access chicken feed; however, from the first of May when the greens come to the middle of October when the tomatoes are winding down and the squash is ready, our chickens eat a lot from our garden. Ron grows greens the full growing season, so the chickens always have that. Then it’s beet tops, raspberries, blueberries, so many tomatoes, fresh corn, melons, and so on. There is always something about to get by us in the garden, and the chickens can take advantage of it.
And, at the end of the growing season, we let the chickens into the garden to glean, and they surely do. They love the leaves from the broccoli plants all of the tomato drops.
Grains
According to everything I have read, no grain is ideal for chickens because they need such variety in their diets, but corn, wheat, and oats can be good in combination with something like soy or another protein. While there is certainly nothing that can fully replace a really good layer pellet, the reality that layer pellets can generally only last about six months stored means that it might be a good option to store grains, which can be stored for years and may be easier to purchase during tough times. They can also be grown if you have the space.
After reading this helpful article on chicken nutrition and grains from Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners, I hope we can always access our chicken feed, but it’s good to know that chickens can get by without it. The key is definitely just to use variety and use all of these methods listed here. You also have to provide supplements if you aren’t using chicken feed.
Supplements
Without feed, there are supplements that your chickens will need. First, the laying hens will need calcium supplements. Oyster shell works great. We also save our egg shells and crush them to feed back to the hens as a calcium supplement. They will also need grit. Grit is really just small stones that chickens can eat that stay in their gizzards to grind up larger food items like bugs and pieces of meat from scraps.
Final Thoughts
I have read in some forums that people say chickens are not worth keeping if things get so bad that you can’t access commercial feed, but I disagree. My great grandparents survived the Great Depression by growing their own food, and that included chickens. I have also read stories from people who lived through the Great Depression and felt that the chickens were part of the reason they survived. Chickens provide eggs, meat, and fertilizer. They also provide resources for trade.
Humans domesticated chickens 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, and we have been living side by side ever since. There’s a good reason we have had such a long relationship with this amazing animal.
P.S. If you have additional ideas, please share. I have been wondering about a meal worm farm but don’t know if it’s hard to do.
I wish I had better news to share about the bird flu right now. In terms of spread to humans, chances are still low, but in the last 24 hours, another human became infected. This time, it was a dairy worker in Nevada. So far, there is no human to human transmission, but about 70 people have become infected from animals. And, according to research presented in a recent article in Scientific American, the virus is just one mutation away from being able to bind more efficiently to human cells.
And while transmission to humans is a concern as the virus continues to mutate, right now, outbreaks in wild and domestic bird populations are decimating populations. Eggs are so expensive people are stealing them by the truckload. I saw today that organic eggs were $11 a dozen at the grocery store. Maine has now also reported its first cases in York County, and the state has issued a high alert for the virus. I’ll speak to what we are doing and what other chicken keepers can do below, but I wanted to step back for a moment and talk about the devastation this virus is having on wildlife.
This weekend, I read an article at NPR about why the bird flu we are experiencing now is so much worse than the bird flu of the past. I have seen many people in farming and chicken forums skeptical about the dangers of the bird flu, citing evidence that bird flu has been around forever and that there have been outbreaks in the past. These things are true, but there has been an adaptation in the bird flu in recent years that has changed things. Things are not as they used to be. Nothing really is, is it?
Scientists in the article explain that, starting in 2020 to 2021, the virus adapted. In the past, sick birds would die quickly from the symptoms, which cut down on the spread of the virus. In recent years, the virus has adapted, and infected birds live longer–just long enough to spread the virus to another population. It’s causing the virus to spread differently than in the past, and there are many, many people who are in denial about this, which never bodes well for the prevention of spread.
The author of the article, Gabrielle Emanuel, citing experts who have studied the flu virus for decades, explains:
“The particular virus that causes bird flu — H5N1 — itself is not new. It’s a disease that originated in east Asia, first detected in China in 1996. The virus has mostly terrorized poultry farms and led to massive culling. It has occasionally spilled over to humans, causing some 400 deaths over the decades, but rarely spreads human-to-human. And while it has jumped over into wild birds periodically — killing many birds in many places — it never took off globally.
Then came 2020 and 2021, when the version that’s driving the current outbreak emerged.
The virus evolved so some wild birds are able to migrate just far enough to reach another bird community or mammal population to pass the virus on before dying.”
A scientist cited in the article explains it’s like “dead birds flying,” and the virus is wreaking havoc on wildlife–birds, marine mammals, and, of course, it’s spreading to both commercial and backyard chicken flocks, dairy farms, and some humans.
I guess the question comes down to this: What can we do?
While scientists keep stressing the importance of government preparedness (I read that the UK has ramped up production of vaccines), it’s not hopeful that our government is doing anything to prepare for this. In the immediate, if you live in a state like we do where there have been cases of bird flu, it’s a good idea to take some precautions.
We do not live near water, so that helps us, but it’s no guarantee, of course. We studied the migration patterns of birds and see that our greatest risk in our part of Maine is from the first of April to the middle of June. If we start to see cases in our area, we will have to lock down the flock. To make it possible to lock down the flock, Ron plans to build two covered high tunnels that he thinks will be able to withstand the wind. I’ll definitely keep you posted on Ron’s plans because he thinks his plans will be affordable and effective, and he’s usually right on such things.
In the immediate, we are keeping food and water away from wildlife. We are only feeding the chickens in the coop, and they are barely leaving the coop right now anyway because of all the snow. Last year, when we realized we had better not get new chicken babies and work on naturally downsizing the flock, who knew it was going to be so important so quickly?
It’s also important to keep people away from the flock, and we are using designated shoes for the coop, but we always do the latter. I have also not been letting the flock have driveway time this winter, which makes everyone sad.
Our ducks have also been locking themselves down for the most part on their own because of all the snow, but we do keep their feed and water outside, so I am making a canvas tent this week to connect to their duck house and put food and water in. My only worry is that those skittish runner ducks won’t stand for it. I’ll keep you posted.
Please take good care, everyone. There is so much to follow in the news that we can’t keep up with it all. It’s just exhausting. I’ll do my best to keep you updated on bird flu.
