A new beginning
In many cultures around the world, eggs and — in particular — chicks are symbolic of new life and rebirth. So picking up two new chicks today couldn't have happened at a better time. In recent days, I have faced serious struggles. I walked into the heart of the storm, and somehow emerged on the …
Losing Loretta
I've been losing Loretta almost from the beginning. In her first year, she had a short but spectacular laying season. Her rich, deep brown eggs did not disappoint. But midway through the winter break I saw things had gone awry. The feathers on Loretta's bottom, her chest and eventually her legs disappeared. She had already …
Little Siouxsie Sioux
On the sixth day, I found little Siouxsie Sioux crumpled near the front of the brooder. Not knowing how long she had been out of the heater, I worried about her body temperature. I held her close to me, and saw that she was weak. The emergency box, which I had obsessively curated two years …
An egg???
Every day when I trek up to the chicken coop to collect eggs, I chuckle and remind myself that it's singular. Egg. My Olive Egger, Gigi, provides a green egg almost every day. But Loretta, our Black Copper Marans, hasn't laid an egg since last summer. And truthfully, it's been almost two years that I've …
More chicks? Yes, please
Chicken math is a funny thing. The punch line is that we always want more, right? Where I live, I am constrained by an ordinance that limits my chicken numbers to four. Oh how I wish I could have six. Or seven. But I must be strong. I already have two, but four is the …
Difficult decision
Nellie was my favorite chick from day one. I loved cradling her in my palm, and as she grew, she seemed to enjoy snuggling in my lap. Right around the time she started to lay eggs, all of that changed. She started attacking my, my legs, then she would fly up and go at my …
Week 16: Crazy chickens!
Editor's note: This is a blog from last year that I never published. It was just the beginning of what became very aggressive and destructive behavior. Tonight for the first time I felt something other than absolute adoring love for my chickens. I experienced fear. I often joke that my house was built upon a junk …
Catching up: Moving with chickens
Moving with chickens is an exercise in logistics. It seemed enough to pack up every single thing in my house and come up with a plan to move it about an hour from my house. But what about the chickens? I couldn't see transporting them the day of the big move. So I decided to leave …
In the trenches
With the last bit of summer running past us, I decided to embark on a large pre-winter project: running an electrical line out to the chicken coop.Why do chickens need electricity, you ask? Mostly so I can plug in a heated water jug. I just don't have it in me to run fresh water out …
Chicken Scratch Fever 