Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Playing Chicken

It is not a secret that I am antsy to get chickens out here. Why? Because in an attempt to grow/produce mostly my own food, chickens are a no-brainer (ha!). Eggs, meat, pest control, compost production, (veggie) scrap disposal, you get the idea.

Many people like to raise chickens as pets... I find them to be not exactly my definition of loveable in that sense, and have no problem whatsoever harvesting them for meat. And I think that this is absolutely healthy. There are too many people too disconnected from their food - I feel better if I know where my food came from, and a pampered chicken is a tasty chicken. IMHO. And as much as that will piss some people off...

Unfortunately I have to postpone my poultry acquisition until next year.

This does give me a lot of time to ponder the various aspects of this adventure - what kinds of chickens I want and I what I want out of them. Other than meat and eggs, I want a breeding flock so I'm not buying a shipment of chicks every year (don't get me started on why. I will go on and on. Although feel free to email me if you really want to know my thoughts on the subject. I will have a coop and an enclosed pen - large enough for them to roam and forage and sun bathe and dust bathe and those fun sorts of chicken activities, but enclosed as my dog loves to chase chickens and it will take a while to break her of this habit. Also I am not sure exactly what sort of predators I have roaming around and the thought of losing a whole flock due to avoidable ignorance is a very sad one to me.

So far I am contemplating the Plymouth Rock or the Dominique and the Ameraucana.  Let's face it, the blue and green eggs that Ameraucanas lay are cool. And Ameraucanas keep up better egg production numbers after the age of 2 than many other breeds. I like the idea of the Dominique better than the Plymouth Rock as it's a heritage breed and it's still making a comeback in terms of numbers, but the Plymouth Rock is such an American classic. Rocks keep their production up throughout the winter, but Dominiques make better mothers... Hmm. Quite a welcome conundrum!

8 comments:

Steve said...

You could just go with all three- nothing wrong with a little variety.
Chicken coops are popping up more and more around Portland (roosters, however are not welcome within the city limits)- if we didn't have such a tiny yard, we'd consider building one ourselves. Although Cara's mom has about 20 hens, so we usually get more than enough eggs from her in the Summer.

caitlinvb said...

I'm only thinking one or the other so I can keep them apart. Ameraucanas are a non-standardized breed so they come in all shapes and sizes to begin with.

I LOVE that backyard chicken keeping (or whatever this wewk's catchphrase is) is becoming so popular. It was really taking off when I left Oakland, and the coop/tractor options (readymade) are just dizzying. I'll be building mine - so basically a glorified raised dog house (with the back wall on hinges so the whole thing flips up) in a glorified fenced in pen. Et voila. Chicken land. Or the stoneyhaw meat & egg dept, if you prefer ;)

George and Kerri said...

Zora is so much like Spangle that I'm glad you put that in there about a coop and closed yard. Spangle would harvest the hell out of a chicken... :/

caitlinvb said...

She has been around lots of them. The training process to get her to leave them alone was horrible (it involved tying said harvested and expired chick to her collar for 3 hours) and unfortunately only taught her to leave THOSE chickens alone. Not others. She's super smart, but her prey instinct is so strong she just can't help herself. I am wimping out and building a fence. Maybe when she's old and gray she'll let them be.... But not now for sure!

Kerri said...

One of my childhood friends just bought 6 fuzzy chicklets and determined somehow that her coop was too big and needed many modifications. In the meantime, she has a smaller coop for them. And is considering adding peacocks.

Here's the interesting part. She's also thinking about Guinea Hens. They rid yards of ticks, snakes and bees. TICKS!!! First line of defense for Lymes Disease!!!

caitlinvb said...

I like guinea fowl. I know people with guinea fowl AND pea fowl (hehe), and honestly I don't get the point of peacocks, and pea hens make waaaay less sense to me ... But I'm utilitarian like that and if you don't eat it, I don't much see the point. (and they're loud. And NC has enough birds tgat sing all night. I'm not eager to add to the cacophony even if they are pretty...)

I know people who have successfully integrated guinea fowl into their main flock, and I know several who have to keep them very separated.... Kinda like chickens and turkeys. They are NOT friends. But someday I hope to gave multiple coops, so maybe guinea fowl. And I want to put a duck house down on one end of the pond :) with my mom here, with another set of hands, the plans inflate....

George and Kerri said...

This showed up on my facebook wall.

http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/tractors.html

caitlinvb said...

I had actually seen that link before...and. Big news (to be blogged about for realsies soon) I'm actually getting a couple of chicks from tractor supply and building a chicken tractor for in front of the camper. Trial run, if you will. I need to know I've got some other line of defense in place for bugs (even if it only really helps me mentally). Heritage birds & real coop next year!