The First Farmers Market of the Year!

Tomorrow, May 18 I will be at the Farmers Market in Gridley. The hours are from 5pm to 8pm and it is located at the ACE Hardware Store on highway 99. Hope to see you there!

Chickens in Your Garden

I told you I would discuss why chickens are great for your garden! Of course, while it is growing and producing, chickens are not a great idea in your garden as they will eat all of your plants and fruits/veggies! But after your garden has passed its prime, let your chickens out in the garden. They will eat your aging non producing plants, till your garden by their scratching the earth and their droppings are high in nitrogen, an excellent natural fertilizer. This is a great way to go back to nature taking care of your garden instead of using synthetic fertilizers and such. Also, chicken droppings and the shavings/straw from the chicken coop can be easily composted to create a wonderful soil amendment to prepare for your next garden in spring.

On a recycling note, until my husband has the time to make me my dream raised bed garden where I can garden on a larger scale, I am currently container gardening my veggies. In the past, in my suburban days, I would buy pots or whatever to container garden. But now I have great farm surplus stuff to do it! This photo shows my container garden in old, leaky non-usable stock tanks. But they work great for a container garden!

New Babies

As seen in the picture in my last blog, the baby chicks are doing well, all 50 of them. They are almost two weeks old. The yellow chicks are White Leghorns and the buff colored ones are Buff Orphingtons. Both are excellent layers. Our next batch comes in June, which will be Rhode Island Reds and Maran which are the chocolate brown egg layers. Not only does Happy Chick Farm have new babies but a friend of mine also has a new baby, a filly born about 2 weeks ago too! Here name is Belle and isn't she cute? Who can resist animal babies? Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Here They Are!

New Babies on the Way!

I am so excited, we are expanding our flock. In the next couple of weeks we will be receiving the following baby chicks, for a total of 70, which are Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, Marans (chocolate colored eggs!), and Buff Orphingtons. As our current flock gets older, these new girls will be the back up "second string" layers to supplement our egg supply. And don't forget, all of our girls live out their natural lives here on Happy Chick Farm and are not "culled" when they get old. Not to mention, chickens lay throughout their lives, just not as much as they do when they are 1 to 2 years old. But that's OK! Their eggs just get larger and more wonderful. All of our girls are an invaluable contribution to the farm.

In one of my next posts I will talk about building our own chicken "tractor" for free ranging our chickens. And the benefits of chicken manure for your garden!

Happy Easter!

Fresh eggs are available today (as always) in our self serve fridge at the farm, if you still need eggs to complete your Easter Sunday festivities. Enjoy the day!

Answers to the Top 10 Chicken Questions

Here they are!

1. Do I need a rooster for my hens to lay eggs? The answer is no. But if you want to produce baby chicks, you do need a rooster.

2. How long do chickens live? The answer is from 8 to 15 years.

3. What do I need when my chicks arrive? The answer is a container (at least 18 inches high) to hold the chicks that gives them ample room, pine shavings for the floor, food and water containers, and most importantly 250 watt red glass infared heat lamps to maintain the temperature at 95 degrees for the chicks (that temprature will decrease as they age).

4. At what age do hens start laying and how many eggs will they lay? The answer is that they will start to lay around 5 to 6 months old and will lay approximately 200-300 eggs per year, depending on the breed. Peak production occurs at 2 years old and diminishes there after.

5. How much feed do chickens eat? The anser is a typical laying hen will eat 4 to 6 ounces of feed each day. This increases in cold weather and decreases during warm weather. If you free range your chickens you can expect that amount to decrease significantly.

6. How big does my chicken coop need to be? The answer is 2-3 square feet per chicken. You also need space for the chickens to roost at night and for nesting boxes. Think of the coop like your bedroom, you spend most of your day outside of that room.

7. How many nest boxes will I need for my hens? The answer is one nest box for every 5 to 6 hens.

8. What is the best way to deal with internal and external parasites? The answer is you want to use natural products assuming you eat the hen's eggs. Food grade diatomaceous earth can control both. You can dust the chickens or put it in their food. There are also natural products on the market that will take care of parasites.

9. What is the best way to protect my chickens from predators? The answer is a well built chicken coop. You need to prevent predators from crawling in small spaces and digging under the coop.

10. How do I get my chickens to go into the coop at nights? The answer is that chickens instictively go into the coop at night. You may need to help in a few stragglers and most importantly, you need to remember to shut the door for them at night.

I hope you enjoyed this Q&A from Backyard Poultry magazine. I encourage anyone interested in raising chickens to pick up an issue. It has been extremely helpful and informative for me.