instructions for the chicken sitter

We're getting ready to go out of town for five days, so I thought I'd post our instructions for the chicken sitter here on the web instead of writing them on a piece of paper that might get lost on the counter.

HOW TO TAKE CARE OF OUR URBAN CHICKENS

Taking care of Sophia and ZsuZsu is really easy... should take no more than five minutes each day (and you get to keep the eggs). If it takes more than five minutes, you're making things too hard on yourself. Here are the things to pay attention to:

TIMING: On busy days, we usually tend to the chickens around supper time as it gives the girls plenty of time to lay their eggs during the rest of the day and we can collect them so they don't sit in the nest overnight.

WATER: Make sure the girls have fresh water daily (especially in this heat). I usually fill up the bowls once a day with fresh water. This is the most critical need of all, as lack of water will kill chickens really quick. Use water from the hose at the spigot along the fence separating our yards. Unhook the bowl by lifting it off the run's wire cage to dump it on the plants nearby, then rehang once it's filled.

FOOD: I've filled their food bowl with enough crumble to last two days, simply make sure it's topped off each day while we're gone. The crumble is in the big 50-lb. bag in the big grey plastic trash can outside the run. The scoop's inside the bag. I generally unhook the bowl from the side of the run and take it to the food bag (less spillage), then rehang the bowl so that it's about chest-high on the birds (same as the water bowl).

EGGS: Collect the eggs daily! You should expect to get two eggs each day, one per hen, but you may only get one, depending on their cycles (one egg per 25 hours). The eggs are generally clean, but we bring the eggs inside and wash them off under running water anyway. If you manage not to eat them right away, refrigerate them within the first 24 hours of collection.

POOP: Simply slide out the bottom tray from underneath the Eglu (there's a little catch at the centerpoint that you lift up to disengage it), then empty the contents in the compost bin tucked over under the cherry tree. I'll turn the compost once I get home, so just dump the poop on top and return the tray to the Eglu. Yes, it's that easy.

IF THE CHICKENS GET OUT DURING THE ABOVE: It's easy to lure them back in using some chicken scratch (in the small brown paper bag with the crumble food). The girls are addicted to the stuff and when they see you reaching for it, they'll come running. Simply take a handful of it and lure them to the front of the run and when they get right up to you, toss the scratch inside the run and close the door behind them.

QUESTIONS? don't hesitate to give us a call on my cell number (you have it).

Thanks for tending to the girls, Lisa. Enjoy the eggs, and I'll take over chicken-tending duties after I get home late late Tuesday night!

Olivia and her chickens won Storytubes!

I'm very happy to see this morning that Olivia won the StoryTubes contest (previously blogged here with the video) for the week of May 29 - June 4. Stacey and Olivia must be over the moon.

I appreciate all you Urban Chicken fans (here on the blog and in the Facebook group) taking a couple minutes to vote for her to win. By the time I'd cast my final vote, it was a two-person race with Olivia in the lead by just 400 with over 13,500 votes cast for her. Then the long wait while results were tabulated before the win was given to her.

For her efforts, Olivia wins $500 in books and her sponsoring library gets another $1000 in books.

Hooray for Olivia and her chickens!

Creating a map of urban chicken farmers

Great to see KT over at the urbanchickens.org site beat me to the punch on creating a Google map to display where in the world folks are keeping urban chickens.

(I got to know KT via email as she was doing a research paper for her graduate program, and I really like the pile of resources she's gathering around the urbanchickens.org domain.)

Got urban chickens of your own and want to add them to the map? Here's how:

1. You'll need a Google account to start (easy to acquire one from this very blog page, look in the upper right corner of the browser)
2. Follow this link to display the map in your browser
3. In the left column, click the "EDIT" button next to the "urban chicken keepers" map name
4. A cluster of buttons should appear next to the zoom in/out slider in the upper left corner of the map. Click the one that looks like a generously-scooped ice cream cone. This is your marker.
5. Click where you live on the map and a popup box will appear to enter your details (quantity and type of hens, a link to your blog even)
   
6. When done (IMPORTANT!) click the "DONE" button over in the left column (where you originally found the "EDIT" button). This'll exit you to the regular map display.
7. Sit back, smile and admire how many other urban chicken farmers there are around you!

Thanks, KT, for the initiative, and I look forward to seeing how many other folks are raising chickens here in the Bay Area and beyond with us.

Urban Chickens now legal in Ann Arbor!

Fantastic news!

The Ann Arbor News reports that the city council approved (by a vote of 7-4) an ordinance allowing up to 4 chickens per resident:

The change still requires community members who want to keep chickens to get an OK from neighbors. Evidence of that approval will be required to get a permit.

It also creates setback requirements for coops and addresses noise, pest and other issues.

The council will review the ordinance a year after it goes into effect.

City officials said it will take 60 days to put a permit process in place.

Congrats to City Council Member Steve Kunselman, who promoted the plan and to everyone who worked so hard to make the change, especially the twenty or so folks who showed up at the meeting to make the case for the ordinance, summarized as:

• Permits granted only to residents of single- or two-family homes.

• Birds have to be provided with a covered enclosure and fenced or in that enclosure at all times.

• Chicken coops have to be 10 feet from any property line and no closer than 40 feet from any residential structure on an adjacent property. (Neighbors could agree to a waiver.)

• Coops and feed have to be secured to prevent problems with mice or other pests.

It's great to see such progress taking place to bring more Urban Chickens to backyards across the country.

vote for Olivia and the chickens to win!

Stacey shared this great little video of Olivia reviewing Your Chickens - A Kid's Guide as her entry into the Story Tube contest put on by Scholastic:



(my fav part is watching Olivia dance around with the chicken on her head).

Now Stacey's plea:

[Olivia] was chosen as a finalist and now the winner is being chosen by a live, on-line vote. The winner receives $500 in books plus $1000 in book for their local library (she wants to give it to her school library which just lost massive funding.)

If you like, check out the video and vote at http://www.storytubes.info. You can vote once a day until the polls close on Wednesday night. Tell all your friends, too! Go chickens!!

So please watch the video and vote (every day!) for Olivia to win over at Story Tubes (hers is in the bottom row, center).

Let's win one for the chickens!

how does a chick develop inside the egg?

Thanks to Mark over at boingboing.net, I found this great photo series on haha.nu chronicling the development of a chick inside the egg.

(warning: those squeamish about these detailed things should steady yourself before clicking through to the series)

I'm surprised to see how the embryo grows in the albumen (white) of the egg and how it feeds off the yolk repleat with blood vessels into the yolk over time. Yet all this sliminess ends in a cute little peeping fluff-ball we call a "chick."

For the curious: the whole process takes 21 days from fertilization to hatching.

Amazing what you'll find on the web, no?

chicken coop envy

I just discovered pictures of Green Frieda's chicken coop down in LA.

Wow, I'm so impressed. If we didn't already have our Eglu (which is more than enough for our hens), I'd be begging for Green Frieda's plans so I could try and build one for us up here in Redwood City.

Oh, and their two Rhode Island Red pullets (Jackie and Lisa) seem to like it, too.

Welcome to urban chicken farming, Green Frieda!

Now to find some urban chickens in San Diego and Sacramento...