Chicken and Two Veg *

Carrie

Not in the cooking sense, you understand. Our chickens will live out their senior years in the chicken assisted living facility known as Triskelion Farm. Having had mixed success with chicks this year, trying to widen our range of both colored eggs and exotic chickens, our ratio of cocks to hens managed to come out too high. Consequently, we have been playing catchup in the hope that the new coop occupants would both play nicely together and not start a "who is cock of the coop" war! Thanks to Heather we have some pretty Marans with a boatload of creative names, and the photos really don't do them justice. "Little", who spent the first few weeks of his life on everything except life-support, has now caught up with the others and is a very colorful and robust young man. Having tried to save money by designing our own coop (back of envelope design shown below) and getting the ever-handy Todd to build it, we have had to give in and add another coop in the small run, to accommodate the growing (literally) number of chickens. Thus a small village is growing up at the back of the arena, much to the puzzlement of the cows who spend hours gazing into the runs.

As you can see the vegetable choice is much wider than just two, and our color chart for nutrition is well covered. We aren't really self-sufficient but we do have enough produce to last the winter, supplemented with regular eggs and dairy products.

What is more pertinent, we know where they came from, and what went into the ground and onto the leaves. Also thanks to Keith and Michelle, and the "poop barter", we also have a much wider choice of veggies than we could ever grow ourselves. Jorg and I count ourselves lucky in these troubled times that we have the means and the health to use the beautiful space that we have in this way.

*"Meat and two veg" was the traditional British meal post-WW2. Much lampooned by the rest of the world - under or over-done meat, soggy cabbage, burnt potatoes, we've heard it all.

The more things change, the mooo they stay the same.

We didn't need another cow. I knew that because Tom, Bessie and Rosebud had all agreed upon a congenial routine of daily greetings, meals, milking and tuckings in at night. The calves have settled happily into their new homes. Life was good. Everyone was happy.

Tom has one thing in common with his cows. He is happiest having a peaceful, predictable daily routine. The difference between them is that the cows have one, while Tom does not. Tom is married to me, and I am less content with this kind of serene existence than one with challenges, change and variety. This is a character flaw that even I get irritated with. But my most patient of husbands often ends up dealing with the interesting consequences of my varied interests. For example, this past year, he has mastered being a dairyman to two cows, though in all fairness, he was a willing partner in this recent exercise in self-sufficiency. But while our two cows had an orderly and routine year, Tom had to acquire a whole new career (though I think this makes about six).

About a month ago, I ran across a sales ad for a Miniature Jersey cow. I see these all the time, being a member of a number of internet lists pertaining to these small cows. But this one just "spoke" to me. Maybe it was the little white socks on her back feet, her small size or her unusual black color (she is part Dexter). But the upshot is that we decided that she would make an excellent, anniversary-Christmas-New Year's-Jorg's Birthday present, and Priscilla came to live with us.

Priscilla was not happy with this arrangement, being the only one not consulted about it. And she compensated for her small size with a large attitude. Her first week was spent doing an impressive Spanish bull impression every time you approached her paddock. But she has gradually come to realize that people here mean food and head scratches and a warm stall on cold nights. Bessie took her small size to mean that she was a calf, and our accomplished nurse cow immediately "adopted" her. Rosebud is frosty.

Priscilla is due to calve or "freshen" in April or early May. When she does, we will learn something new: how to deal with calves born with horns, as this calf will likely have them. In the meantime, we have all setttled in to the new farm routine. Until it changes. Spring is only two months away and it's hard to tell what the new year will bring. We still need to "introduce" Bessie and Rosebud to their mail-order husband. And try some new heirloom vegetables, and raise some new garden beds...we need new fruit trees....

Photo (L-R): Priscilla, Bessie and Rosebud

The Price of Eggs

Everyone likes fresh eggs and the image of picking creamy white eggs, laid by happy chickens, out of golden straw nests appealed to us. So, one of our first efforts towards greater self-sufficiency was to buy some pullets (young hens), so that we could enjoy our own fresh eggs. This is usually a simple enough exercise that goes something like this: Find someone with chickens and then buy some.

But given our tendency to over-intellectualize things, the reality went more like this:

1. Decide upon the desired breed, age and number
2. Locate person with appropriate breeds and ages through various classified ads
3. Determine method of transport: fly, drive, otherwise ship. How to pack?
4. Decide on coop features: size, access, position, lighting, heat, security, cooling
5. Decide on run features: length, width, height, material
6. Design coop furniture layout: nesting boxes, storage and chicken ladder
7. Construct coop (made easier through the handiwork of the awesome Todd Davis)
8. Select coop color, hue and tint, then paint it
9. Construct run using chicken wire
10. Research various options for hawk protection
11. Install deer netting across top of run to deter the hawks and amuse the deer
12. Determine appropriate diet to achieve desired nutritional balance
13. Make the difficult decision on plastic vs. metal waterers. You won’t find the kind you decide on.
14. Research all health issues associated with chickens and learn words like “bumblefoot,” Practice using them in casual conversation with loved ones.
15. Join several Internet lists devoted to chickens. Set them all on “no mail” because the arguments are clogging up your inbox.
16. Decide on a few additional chickens, then repeat steps 1, 2, 3, 11 and 12 and add additional task of socializing new chickens

Engineers probably shouldn’t buy chickens.

Based on what we spent for them, the coop, feed and materials, we estimate that we are currently paying approximately $1/egg, though the price continues to decrease. Our first egg cost approximately $2000, though it was actually laid in the crate on the way home. It was a nice egg and Tom promptly claimed it, as well as Lady Hamilton, the chicken that laid it. By this time next year, we will be down to approximately $.50/egg. In about two years, we will break even and pay approximately what everyone else pays in the grocery store (assuming no increase in grocery store prices, which probably isn’t realistic). Beyond that, we will some day in the future (I am not doing the math on this) actually come out ahead.

On our farm, we know exactly what goes into our eggs: snakes, germs, lizards, worms and dead bugs. Chickens will eat anything. But no problem with any of that sneaky melamine or ethylene glycol from foreign countries. If the Big One ever hits Burkeville, we and our trusty chickens will be survivors. Our chickens have good lives. They have names, personalities, a 401K and retirement housing. And in the long run, we ended up with exactly what we wanted: fresh eggs.