a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

  • A Cold Day Doesn’t Stop These Chickens

    Chickens on a late afternoon
    Late afternoon

    This was taken this evening, looking out from the door to the chicken yard. It’s a cold day, barely above freezing, but that doesn’t stop the chickens from venturing far and wide.

    The New York Times had an article today titled The Seeds of a New Generation by Michael Moss, describing corn farmers in the Corn Belt who are starting a movement by turning part of their corn fields into fruit and vegetable fields. According to the article:

    The success of this movement, still in its toddler stage, could affect more than just the farmers. Field corn, bolstered by subsidies and corporate research, now dominates American agriculture and constitutes much of what we eat in processed foods. A turn toward locally grown produce would lessen the dependency on California (now plagued by drought), slash carbon emissions from trucking, make produce available to more people, increase its appeal through freshness and perhaps even lower prices.

    These farmers are finding they can earn much more per acre growing fruits and vegetables than they can growing corn.

  • At the End of the Day

    Mother Hen Taking her Chicks to Bed
    Mother Hen Taking her Chicks to Bed

    The nice thing about chickens is that they like to come home in the evening. Your or old, as the sun starts to set, they all make their way back into the chicken yard and the coop. In the winter months, they are in by 4 o’clock. In midsummer it can be 9 o’clock or later. They don’t want to be left outside in the dark.

    Chickens coming home
    Chickens Coming Home

  • All in a Morning

    All in a morning
    All in a Morning

    So just how far do chickens travel in a day? Much further than most people realize. In just three hours, the mother hen has taken her chicks over 600 feet through woods, pasture, and gardens. Over the course of a day she will take them from half a mile to a mile. This would be the equivalent of a person walking three to six miles.

    I wonder what the psychological effects are on chickens which have very little room to move. I look at chickens being raised in 10 by 12 foot chicken tractors and can’t help but imagine they must be going mad. I’ve yet to see any of my chickens limit their daily movements to such a small space. Some of them travel so far I’m surprised they don’t get lost.

    What I’ve observed with my chickens is that they don’t like to stay in one place very long. Even when they are in the midst of plenty to eat, they won’t stay more than five or ten minutes eating before moving on. It may an instinctual behavior to keep from being found by prey. Wild chickens which stay in one place too long may have a greater chance of being eaten than those which keep on the move. And if chickens have this instinctual need to keep moving, what happens to their psyche when they can’t?

  • Every Day is a Good Day

    Chickens come running
    Chickens come running

    Each time I go outside, chickens come running to see what’s up. And in the upper right, you see a three and a half month old chick with its mother. The chick was a single chick, and though most chicks are on their own by the time they are three months old, single chicks bond closely with their mothers and stay with them for much longer.

    Six week plus chicks
    Six week plus chicks

  • A Basket of Eggs

    Eggs in a basket
    Eggs in a basket

    Collecting eggs every few hours is always a pleasure. Some hens are consistent and lay their eggs in the same nest. Others move from nest to nest. And then there are Lucky and Peach. Lucky lays her eggs in one of the doghouses early in the morning. It’s a race as to whether the dogs or us humans get her egg. She does cackle a lot after she lays her egg. If we hear her, we can usually get to her egg first.
    Peach is another matter. A very determined Buff Orpington, if one of the dogs is in the doghouse she likes to use, she will shoo the dog out of the doghouse so she can lay her egg.
    One thing I don’t understand is why there are so few varieties of eggs in stores. Open a carton of eggs in the store and it is so boring. Most people have no idea eggs come in so many colors, shapes and sizes.