Fowl Play: creating a hen house for fun!

Nothing entices me with the idea of pastoral paradise more than the crowing of a rooster at dawn, so you can only imagine how my mind took flight when my friend, JoAnne from Raleigh, North Carolina, told me that she and her husband, Levis, just established a chicken coop.

Now, as my thoughts took these fanciful flights, I wasn't thinking about practicalities--penning in the birds, and picking up after them--but of the enormous farm-fresh eggs that would have my mouth watering for omelettes every morning, and the charming clucking and pecking of fat, happy hens wandering around the yard.  Ah, sweet dreams are made of such thoughts....

But the reality is that this dreamy scenario can quickly turn nightmarish without proper preparation.  Establishing a viable hen haven is hard work.  Fortunately, JoAnne assures me that it's well worth the effort.

Of course, the first step in the process is to get your hands on some healthy chickens.  JoAnne and Levis bought theirs at a chicken auction.  Now, if you're like me, you probably didn't even know there was such a thing.  JoAnne happily recounted their adventures: 

"They had auctioned off two goats and a few rabbits as well. If we had a farm, we would have come home with the goats! We wound up winning the bid on the hens we had picked out before the auction: one Barred Rock and two Rhode Island Reds (pictured above). The Reds are beautiful, but I really love the Barred Rock. She's a big, beautiful bird. The funny thing is that when we were first looking at her at the auction, she laid an egg!  She acclimated easily to her new home. The other two, which had been sold as a pair, stuck together for the first two days, but slowly came out of the coop, and started exploring on their own."

JoAnne also graciously shared photos of their project.  She writes:

 

 

"As you can see in this side-view photo, Levis built the coop onto the shed to save room, and to save on lumber and siding. He used discount lumber from Home Depot. This was lumber that had flaws. It really helped to keep the project's costs down.

Inside the coop is a nesting area where the hens go to lay their eggs. This area can be accessed from the outside of the building by lifting the roof of the nest-area extension. Inside the coop is also a roosting area. This area has a pole for the birds to sit on, and a screen underneath for when they go to the bathroom.

Outside the coop is an eight-foot high fenced-in area with a gate. There's a sand pit in this area because the sand helps the chickens with digestion.

Attached to this fenced-in area is a four-foot high chicken run. The run is 40 feet long, and four feet wide. The chickens really enjoy this area, typically eating the grass.  One thing we were surprised about was how much water chickens can drink!

 

For anyone interested in learning more about securing and raising chickens, JoAnne suggests the following website:  http://www.backyardchickens.com/, which "has everything you'll need to know about chickens," she says.

 

Except the answers to those age-old ponderings: why they crossed the road, whether it was the chicken or the egg that came first...or why one should never count them before they hatch!  Seems like a harmless enterprise, after all.

 

Such timeless trivia tells us just how vital chickens have been to their human counterparts through the ages.  And for those of you who love them...start building your coops.  Plenty of hens are looking for homes. 

 

 

Ways to ward off the winter blues

I may just be getting old and cranky, but doesn't it seem as though the month of February has been endless?  This impression probably has a lot to do with the fact that it literally snows every other day, and temperatures in my neighborhood have only cracked the thawing point two or three times all month.  I admit it:  I'm restless for Spring.  With the dawn of a new season only 29 days away (but who's counting, right?), I need a little prelude to the main event.  Something to tide me over for the next four weeks, and one day.

A writer friend from Minnesota has offered inspiration: African violets.  These hothouse hotties come in a variety of hues--from pink to periwinkle and blue to maroon--they're offered online, and in many home-improvement and hardware stores.  Or, start one yourself--from a single leaf.  Grab a clipping from a friend's plant, place the leaf in a bud vase with the stem end remaining at all times in water, and you're on your way to a new plant.  In just a few weeks, roots will grow.

Another plus to planting African violets: they attract that most beneficial of beetles: the ladybug.  At a quarter-inch long, these bright orange or red bugs with attractive black polka dots, consume about 400 aphids a day!  That's some pretty handy houseplant housekeeping if you ask me!  These commendable critters will keep not only aphids at bay, but never turn down a meal of mites, scales, and whiteflies--tidying the terrain for optimal houseplant health.

And, like the violets, ladybugs can be purchased online.  Amazon, that Walmart of the web, offers 1500 live ladybugs for $3.85!  If buying in bulk, the ladybugs can be stored in the fridge (never the freezer) for up to two weeks, and released gradually.

I could elaborate on the therapeutic aspects of brightly blooming plants and bespeckled bugs to help ward off the winter blues, but I've gotta run--got to head out to the hardware store for my violets before the next snowstorm hits!

Keeping "track" of winter

In the midst of a harsh New York winter, it's easy to plunge as low as the temperatures. As my back's soreness increases from ceaseless shoveling, and my senses tire of the endless stream of cloudy, gray days, I know my sagging spirits need a boost. Of course, nature has answered my call--and provided me with a brilliantly sunny morning which beckons me out into the sparkling glare of newly fallen snow.

The Channel 7 meteorologist predicts that the weather gauge on my potting bench will rise to near 40 degrees today, a veritable paradise of tropical proportions when compared with recent temperatures, and I am making the most of it. My first order of business is to provide my poor little housebound Shih Tzu with some much-needed exercise. As soon as I pop out the back door, hundreds of miniscule markings mar the snowy canvas covering my patio, a sign that the birds have made good use of the birdfeeder hanging just outside our kitchen window. I glance around, following the calls of these winged warriors. The songs bursting from the tiny feathered breasts sound joyful. They are happy, I think, to have a reprieve from the harsh weather.

As we make our way around the back of the house, a playful succession of paw prints create a pattern in the pristine white, and I gaze around, trying to determine who left these marks. I decide that the equally spaced, matched-set of prints are the reveal of a critter who jumps through snowdrifts: An adventurous rabbit perhaps? A frolicking deer? I take a picture to document its course. And while I snap away, I notice that the stylistic wrought iron "sun" I've tacked to the front of the woodshed is just "rising" over a snowdrift (far right): the symbol of a bright new day.

Tomorrow it will snow again, and another half-foot will join the existing feet of winter white, piling ever-higher. But I won't fret. I'll smile, knowing Spring to be a mere 36 days away. I'll watch the whirl of snow whipping around my windowsill, and think of the haiku poem I just created:

Snowflakes drift
Endless expression
Of God's love

Winter's wonders

Okay, I have to admit it. Winter isn't my favorite time of year. But having said that, I hasten to add that I've learned to find beauty in even the most stark landscape. I've enjoyed walking around my neighborhood in newly fallen snow, trying to identify the varied tracks made by snow-trekking animals. And how my heart sings along with a bird's sweet call in the midst of a frozen morn's sunrise. Just last weekend I took this beautiful photo from my front porch and splashed it all over social media with the caption: "This is why I live in upstate New York."

Most people who know me also know that my love of literature equals, if not exceeds, my horticultural interests. For this reason I have joined an online writing site called FanStory in which I have discovered the amazing talents of writers of every stripe. From essayists to short-story authors, novelists and poets, the site has indulged my need to read--and allowed me to share my own writing.

On this cold winter morning I came across a magnificent offering on FanStory by poet Roy Owen, who generously allowed me to share his inspirational words:

A breeze, a butterfly,
flit by, like beauty's sigh,
a cloud in floating flight
drifts by on wings of light,

Eternal things are found
in depths of silent sound,
on breaths of angel's wings
with songs creation sings.

Eternal things are sown
found deep in hearts of stone,
God's touch will bring the spring
your heart to life will bring.

These lovely words remind me that Spring will come, and sooner than I think. Yet in the meantime, I should relish the frozen landscape outside my office window. And as the snow falls, yet again this season, I watch the flakes float downward, keeping my ear attuned to the "depths of silent sound" and enjoying the experience.