Domestic Chickens

Chicken Feed +(earthworms, Beneficial Insects)

More information on sustainable urban homesteading. +

Mites and flees don't like juniper wood. Roosting bars.

My birds, their coup and run:  We get an average of 5, full sized eggs a day except when they molt, or go "broody". Feed costs about $8 per month but we are starting to reduce that. They make better compost than any pile and because they live on a slope and I drop in all the yard waste and dead leaves at the top, there is NO smell.

0125.JPG View down from the top of the flat over the run. Shows the screening and how it can be pushed back to dump in leaves, etc...

All the pictures

James Newton Says:

I need to find a way to make more bugs and other sources of good protean for "my girls" (chickens). We seem to keep killing our worms and need to find a way to regulate the temperature and moisture in the worm bins. Another idea is to make a habitate for spiders inside the chicken run so that they can feed on the (few) flys that breed in the compost bin and when overpopulated, become chicken food on the long trek out to find a new home.

My concern with the spiders is to make darn sure we are attracting the correct types. Black widows are a constant problem around here. I can't seem to find anything about any difference in habitate between standard garden spiders and the black widows. Any ideas? Or other bugs that can be grown without a lot of smell? Snails and slugs would be great, but I don't seem to be able to grow them either. (funny, I sure could grow them when we didn't want them... but after we got the girls, there isn't a one to be found.)

Anyone with kids should be aware that the bugs that come with chickens will attract Black Widow's in the areas the chickens are allowed to range. The birds will eat all benificial spiders and the widows will move in behind them and not be eaten. Birds aren't that dumb! I hope the development of a spider safe house inside or around the run will cut down on that.

James Newton Says:

We blew it: We forgot to close up the roost one night and went up to a neighbors. When we came back, the girls were scattered all about, one was very seriously injured and our little flyer, Amelia, was dead.

Don't forget or automate it. They MUST be protected at night.

P.S. The injured bird was taken to the vet and $400 later, she is healing nicely and still laying eggs! It was our choice to try to save her, and not an economical move at all. For us, it isn't so much about money as it is about controlling our food source. And we love our girls as well!

See also:

• Many cities are changing zoning laws to allow a few hens in the back yard of most residences.
  Even Escondido changed the law in 2012.

  Household pets in residential zones are addressed in the Zoning Code Sec. 33-1116:
  http://www.qcode.us/codes/escondido/view.php?topic=33-57-33_1116&frames=on
   
  This section does not specifically address chickens; however it allows other similar animals to those listed in the code, as determined by the Planning Commission {see Subsection (f) }. Therefore, in the interest of time, we did not do a code amendment for this issue; rather, it was a Planning Commission determination pursuant to Subsection (f).
   
  http://www.escondido.org/Data/Sites/1/media/staffreports/PC/DR-07-24-12.pdf Planning Commission staff report for 7/24/12:
  http://www.escondido.org/Data/Sites/1/media/minutes/PC/pm072412.pdf Planning Commission Minutes for 7/24/12 (See Current Business Item 2):
   

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_S3P0eU0lE Respectful butchering of a chicken. Held until calm, slightly upside down, head gently stretched and neck rubbed until relaxed, then the neck cut to bleed (not choke) the bird while it struggles a little until it dies. For those who wish to, please do it right.+
• http://www.nifty-stuff.com/chicken-automatic-waterer-feeder.php Automatic chicken waterer+
• http://www.backyardchickens.com/chicken_feeder.php Homemade automatic chicken feeder.+
• http://www.batcon.org/bhra/economyhouse.html Bats: Possible natural mosquito control+
• James Newton refers to

  http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/158359_feed28.html
  http://www.mycattle.com/news/dsp_topstories_article.cfm?storyid=13563
  Cattle feed is often a sum of animal parts. When the FDA banned banned cattle feed from containing most byproducts of cattle, sheep and goats, the loophole was that chicken feed could still have that and cattle could be fed chicken feces, poultry feathers, cow blood or other parts of pigs, horses, fish, cattle and just about any animal part unfit for human consumption.

  In January of 2004 the FDA moved to ban feeds containing cattle blood and poultry litter, which includes manure.

  Feed can still include parts of pigs, fish, chicken, horses, even cats or dogs. And some of those animals -- before being rendered and mixed up for cattle feed -- are raised on food containing the same cow parts now banned from cattle consumption.

  Additionally, there is nothing to prevent factory cattle farms from directly feeding their cattle with chicken shit or other items which can not be SOLD as feed.

  To some degree, every thing is recycled or "rendered" in nature. All the parts of a dead chicken in the wild would be recovered in the growth of plants, worms, bugs and other things which might be eaten by other chickens.

  But the point is that the larger the difference between the consumer and the by-products produced by the doner, the smaller the chance the something "bad" will happen. Feeding cow to cows has proven to be catistrophic. Feeding one animal to another is less so, but the best would be to feed animal parts to plants before feeding those plants to other (or the same) animals.

  http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/chicken.html You don't want to see this. It shows the reality of the egg production industry. Did you know that in some hatcheries the male chicks (which have no value) are ground up and fed to the female chicks?

  http://www.njfarms.org/njhs.htm The animal cruelty laws in NJ will send you to jail if you fail to feed your pet for a few days... Unless you are a farmer, and then you can starve your hens for 2 weeks to force molting and start a new egg laying cycle.

  http://www.factoryfarming.com/health_more.htm Human Health risks from factory farming. This organization is pushing for vegan diets, but they do admit that small, family farms are a better choice if you will eat meat.

  http://www.bancruelfarms.org/meatrix/ The Meatrix Moovie.
   

• http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020627/science.htm#1 Chicken poop is a clean burning fuel for power stations in rural areas+
• http://www.ces.uga.edu/pubcd/L206-w.html Poultry Waste: Georgia's 50 Million Dollar Forgotten Crop
• http://www.ecochem.com/t_compost_faq.html Composting is a natural process carried out by Bacteria & Fungi. Composting can destroy pathogenic bacteria in Chicken mortality, livestock Carcasses, Manure, Sewage sludge, Food waste etc.
• http://www.geocities.com/KelliAnn293/ The Chicken Encyclopedia+

James Newton Says:

Maria figured out how to do the earthworms! They have tripled in population in the last few months, and as we continue to fine tune this, includeing growing worms in the rabbit poop, we will have more to feed the girls. Now I just need to convince Maria to write up how she did it...

See:

• /techref/member/puuf/lunches.htm PUUF "No Gas" Lunch+

Questions:

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