Space Farm Continuum Guest Post: Chicken FAIL
/Introducing UpCountry Living's FIRST contributed post!
This post was written by Chris and Christie, backyard homesteaders in Indiana. I met them through the blogosphere and have since started negotiating with the earth's tectonic plates to shift Indiana and Maine closer together.
On Space Farm Continuum, Chris and Christie blog about "urban chicken raising, gardening, canning, worm rearing, knitting, do-it-ourselfing, cooking, and various other skills that could (if you were so inclined) be lumped into a self-sufficiency or urban homesteading label" {from their 'About' page}.
Do you remember those awesome chicken pictures from my mini-series "Why I Bought A Local Broiler?" Those are Space Farm photos! Click on over there and check them out - a truly awesome couple and a group of fantastic chickens.
Let's give them a warm UpCountry welcome!
Chicken FAIL || by. Chris and Christie at Space-Farm Continuum.
Get chickens, they said. They’re easy, they said.
For the most part, chickens are easy. They are not without difficulty, however. We prepared extensively for our first chickens and still made some mistakes. Here are the things we wish we had known when we got started.
Know (and Like) Your Neighbor, or the Difference Between a Rat and a ‘Possum
While many chicken resources focus on predators that can kill and maim your chickens (and rightly so), we discovered early on that the urban chicken keeper has another concern – rats and other adorable rat-like creatures, like opossums. This is not to say that opossums don’t eat chickens (they do) – it’s just that you have to remember that the little ones, though break-your-heart adorable, will steal food and grow up to maybe steal your chickens.
Initially, the coop that we purchased had 2″x4″ chicken wire on all sides. One evening, as I gazed out the window, mindlessly doing dishes, I saw a RAT scurry out of the run, along the fence line, and under the fence into the neighbor’s yard. That was when we stopped leaving chicken feed out at night, discovered that the neighbors have a pile of brush the size of a Prius, and began searching for 1/2″ hardware cloth to keep these little dudes out.
I won’t even tell you about the time we opened the door to the coop in the morning, only to have a rat scurry out followed by four chickens shooting out like feathered bullets from a rifle! Oh, wait, I guess I just did. We have also had some tiny critter try to tunnel underneath the run, only to be thwarted by the 1/2″ hardware cloth. Take that, critter!
We also built the chickens a covered wagon. Really, it’s protection from both sun and the many hawks we seem to have in the area.
Some (Don’t) Like It Hot
Living in central Indiana, when we first considered chicken breeds and housing, we were greatly concerned about winter. How will they stay warm? We need a coop with plenty of protection from the elements! Should we wire it for electricity in case we need to bring a heat lamp out? You get the idea.
Fast forward to the first triple degree days of many this past summer. Less than 24 hours after landing in Colorado in late June on our one vacation of the summer, our friends arrived at our house to discover three of our four chickens, who we had raised from day-old chicks in March, dead. Just… dead. Not gonna lie, that was pretty rough for everyone involved. We just didn’t know how horribly the heat would affect them and how hot it would stay the entire time we were gone (and, yes, thankfully our friends who buried our first girls are still our friends!).
After that, we got serious, and the chickens got fans, ice baths, cold water, yogurt with frozen berries, cold hard-boiled egg concoctions, and our shade tent. We spent many stressful days sweating it out with them to be sure we could catch them at the first sign of any heat issues.
The three wees made it through 103-degree temperatures with us that first week.
Biosecurity – It’s Not Just for California Produce or Factory Farms
We have heard on multiple occasions that getting your chickens from Craig’s List is a great idea. We heard it so much, in fact, that after Mass Chicken Death of 2012, we contacted a woman off CL right away. She was just outside of the city, and she had probably 100 chickens, guinea fowl, and turkeys cruising around – plus a self-described mean dog and a goat. We wanted to LIVE there, we thought it was so awesome with its crowing roosters and chicks weaving around your feet.
Now, though, after nursing five chickens through various stages and severity levels of respiratory illness, we think of that house and cringe. In the guidebook of things you should not do while raising chickens, next to “Biosecurity,” there is a picture of her house with a giant, red X through it.
We are fairly certain it was this beautiful, sweet little jerk who brought the sickness to our home. It was our fault, really – but how could you turn down this sweet face?
On Chicken-Related Decor
Last but certainly not least, one thing that was strangely missing from every chicken resource, online or paperback, was a warning about the downright startling influx of chicken-related decor that new chicken owners face. Currently, we have a bobblehead-style metal chicken, a chicken lawn ornament, a metal fresh egg sign, a baby chick in egg salt shaker… and that’s just the stuff we’ve received from friends and family! Add in the handmade chicken card I framed ages ago, the block print I made this spring, and my grandmother’s glass candy dish I played with as a child, and you can see we have a bit of a problem.
- Be prepared for rats. Use 1/2″ hardware cloth. Anything bigger will let rodents in.
- Unless you live near the arctic circle, your bigger concern is summer heat. Your coop probably needs more ventilation. Per “Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens,” shoot for at least 1 sq foot of ventilation for every 10 sq foot of floor space. BackYardChickens.com has a nice article on ventilation – Chicken Coop Ventilation – Go Out There And Cut More Holes In Your Coop!
- Get your birds from quality hatcheries. Craig’s List birds may be cheap and convenient, but you risk introducing disease, mites, etc., to the rest of your flock.
- You may find yourself surrounded by whimsical chicken stuff, and chicken stuff in general. Books, magazines, metal bobblehead chickens, etc. Speaking of whimsical chicken stuff…
Chris and Christie have experienced some hardships during their first year with chickens, but they adore them nonetheless. They are still awaiting their first egg. You can read more about their chicken and gardening adventures at the Space-Farm Continuum.
