The other ladies are a bit rattled, but otherwise OK. Egg production is down, but picking up again. We found a small breach at the base of the coop, a place where a single strand of wire had rusted out. We can’t tell what happened for sure, but Jessica may have had her head stuck outside, or something small and agile may have come in. It’s tough to be a chicken.

For any of you who don’t know me, I am not heartless. I am sad she died, but if you keep chickens you have to put up a barrier, a clinical approach to death. They are my pets, but they die frequently and in unpleasant, messy ways. I’ve had exactly one chicken die of old age, poor old Larry, who was actually senile.

Silver linings: I only lost one. The others will benefit from more run space. She lived a relatively long chicken life. I found the hole and patched it.

“The Tour de Cluck: A Bicycle Chicken Coop Crawl!”, presented by the Davis Farm to School Connection, offers the chicken lovers and chicken curious among us the opportunity to visit a variety of our Davis, CA community’s chicken coops. Your participation will benefit the Davis Farm to School Connection’s work to support local food in a healthy school environment.

How amazingly cool is that?

Please do not buy chicks for your kids’ Easter baskets, unless you plan to keep them, or you’ve lined up a good home in advance. Chicks are adorable for about one week (or less) and then they turn into teenage birds that only a chicken mother could love. At this point, they are messy, a little loud, and you may not know what they need for heat, light, bedding, vitamins, feed, etc.

The dyed chicks are the worst, in my opinion. Imagine taking a human baby, dunking it in purple dye, and sticking it in a basket as a decoration. No one would think of doing that to a human, so why a chicken? These are living, breathing animals that deserve our respect and care. Even if (or, especially if) you plan to eat your chickens, they should be treated with respect while they live.

Unfortunately for my legs, the cute santa hats are the same color as tomatoes. Chickens LOVE tomatoes, so I had six hens attacking my legs, trying to extract tomato juice from my pajamas. 30 second later I escaped, but not before I had 6 painful welts (”chicken hickies”) all over my lower legs.

Moral: Do not wear monkey santa hat pants in the chicken coop.

Be warned, my personal experience was that the ark was difficult to clean (poop and chips get stuck in the corners.) I actually had a family of mice move in one year!  Also, they are HEAVY so it will take 2 strong people to move it. But, they are cute and trendy and the chickens will be safe from most predators. Here’s my peanut in the foreground, homemade ark in the background:

Thanks to my buddy Rob for passing this one along!

Now I change water once a day, and they have ice-free liquid all day. Definitely worth the $25.99!

Our yard is quite small. We have a couple of acres, but it’s mostly a steep hill. The coop is built at the edge of the back hill. 2009 was a relatively rainy year, and the water flowed down the hill, directly into the coop. Every time it rains the water collects in the coop and creates a mushy, muddy, stinky mess. Good thing for my gals that I don’t mind some hard labor. Every time it gets muddy I don my muck boots and shovel out a layer of stinky mud. Chickens are notoriously wasteful of their food, so all the layer ration gets flung out on the ground and mixed into the mud. It smells awful when it’s wet, just a cloying, sickly smell. So, I have to shovel it into a wheelbarrow and haul it to my compost pile, and bury it.

If you’re considering a coop, keep drainage in mind. I am looking at my options, maybe digging some drainage tunnels behind the coop. Unfortunately it mostly rock and shale, so it’s going to be some hard digging!

• Pro-chicken legislation failed; BUT
• Anti-chicken legislation was deferred indefinitely!

I still have my beloved girls, and they are full-grown and beautiful. Despite the cold weather, they have begun laying. Yesterday I had a record day: 6 chickens, 6 eggs! Now that they are up to production I am able to share the bounty with my neighbors. I am delighted to report that they love having chickens in the neighborhood, so my girls are safe from the law. At this point, the only reason I’d have to give them up would be a neighborhood complaint. I will post daily updates from now on!