down to earth

I have to refocus myself sometimes. I need to bring myself back to where I should be. These past few months have been so busy I've taken shortcuts, left things undone and strayed from my path. I realised that when my sister was here and she did all the ironing. When I saw that ironing room turned back into a bedroom, it made me stop and think. I have to slow down and focus more on my values.

My very untidy and over-packed knitting basket.

It's quite a balancing act because I work best when I'm under pressure. I'm not the sort of woman who needs a lot of down time, in fact I like to work. As I have aged I take more breaks, but the overriding spirit of most of my days is to do a good days work and to feel as if I've achieved something. Well, I have been achieving a lot but it's the overflow from my voluntary job being done at home, and that has taken me away from my tasks here. I have to separate work and home, I have to regain my balance.

I'm getting back on track today, back to my regular rhythm. I'm going to have breakfast with Hanno then clean the kitchen and sweep the floor. I'll get bread on to rise and then do my main tasks for today - repotting pot plants, planting an elderberry and tidying up my knitting basket. Simple things, yes, but necessary in the general scheme of my week. They'll help me remember how I want to live and that these small tasks are a significant part of it. It is always those simple things that get me back to where I want to be - both in my head and physically, here in my home. There is nothing like a couple of home projects to return me to my rightful path. I think I feel a new knitting basket lining coming on.

Reading matter is scattered all over. These are in the living room.

I've been pleased over this past month to see many new readers, both in comments and in the stats. Hello to all of you. I hope you find what you're looking for here. If you haven't said hello yet, please take the time to do so. I am looking forward to a nice quiet weekend here, just Hanno and I. I hope you enjoy your weekend too and take some time out for yourself.

Chickens were the first pets my sons ever had. Shane and Kerry were about eight and nine when we bought our first little flock. The boys helped look after those chooks and it was their responsibility to feed them, give them fresh water every day and to collect the eggs. They used to walk around with them and take them visiting to various hidden spots in our back garden. Those chooks taught my sons about death and new life, and the importance of a gentle touch. They were an important part of their childhood. Whenever they visit now, they still go out to see the chooks.

At the moment we have our chooks roaming through the dying vegetable patch. They're scratching around, turning over the compost and eating bugs. Soon they'll be out of there after a job well done and we'll be planting up again. Above is Anne Shirley and with Kylie on the compost in the background.

If you have small children you must teach them how to be near chickens. Chooks will be stressed if they're handled roughly or if children are screaming near them or chasing them. The same goes for dogs and cats. Our dogs have always been protective of our chickens but it is in their nature to see chooks as prey. You have to spend time with them and show them that the chickens are a valued part of the family and should not be chased. This takes time and patience. You'll have to pick up the chooks and sit with them. Call the dog over and let him smell the chicken while you're holding it. Pat/pet both of them so the dog realises the chicken is a friendly addition to the backyard. Doing that over and over again will help train the dog. Still, don't leave the dog alone with the chooks until you're absolutely sure it won't attack the chooks.

If your chooks start scratching and you notice they have lice, this is fairly normal in dry and warm temperatures. Treat the lice straight away by covering the chook with food grade diatomaceous earth. You can usually buy it from your local produce/grain store. Make sure you cover under the wings and tail and around the comb and wattles. To help prevent this happening again give the chooks an area where they can dust bathe. It just needs to be a bare patch where they can scratch up the soil and roll in the dry dirt. This is will help prevent lice.

This is our new feeder. We wanted a feeder that would keep rats out of the food when it was left overnight. This feeder closes when there are no chooks around. When they want to feed, they stand on the steel plate at the front and the hopper opens. Currently it's in training mode while the chooks learn where the food is and how to get it.

There is still so much to write about keeping chickens but space and time will make this my last post on them for a while. Please try to buy pure breeds and not the Isa Browns that are available almost everywhere. You might have to look around a bit but there will be pure breeds available near most capital cities and large towns. But no matter what breed you buy, all chickens will add to your life. They'll give you hours of free entertainment with their mad antics as well as the best and freshest eggs available.

Quentin at the feeder with two broodies in the background in the blue nesting boxes.

Karen, you should work on worm prevention. Add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and a squeeze of garlic to every 10 litres of the chicken's drinking water. Keep new chickens from old ones to prevent worms being brought in. Make sure their water is always fresh and clean. Feed them good quality food. Keep their quarters clean.

Carol, I guess we don't let the chickens reproduce because we don't want to keep roosters and we find it difficult giving them away - you never know if they'll end up in the pot. When we gave away Seth we offered him with his girlfriend, a silver sussex hen and hoped they'd stay together as a breeding pair. But you can never be sure. If we could be guaranteed all girl eggs, we'd do it but the roosters are a real problem for us. A couple of years ago we threw caution to the wind and had some rare fertile partridge Wyandotte eggs sent to us which we put under one of our Rhode Island Reds. They hatched out on Christmas day when we were at the Christmas breakfast, and the first time mother squashed all of them. What do you do with your roosters?

Kathy, I'd ask your immediate neighbours if they have a problem with you keeping three chickens. I bet they don't. Your zoning laws are stupid. Imagine what our pioneering ancestors would have thought of such nonsense. Chickens helped them survive through very tough times when there were no supermarkets or corner stores. Everyone has a right to raise their own food and a few chooks doesn't diminish the neighbourhood, it does the opposite. Good luck.

Penniless, Polish chooks are not good layers. Often they don't lay at all. It's been bred out of them and now they're usually kept as show birds. Many chooks go off the lay when they're moulting and will restart when they gain their feathers back. They put their energy into making feathers rather than making eggs. You could try giving the non-polish chooks a week of high protein feed - just soaking a slice of bread in milk will provide added protein for them. See if that works. How old are they?

Leslie, once chickens know that their own eggs are food, it's difficult to break them of the habit of eating them. And often, if the other chooks see the eggs being eaten, they'll join in. Leaving eggs in the nests for long periods is a great temptation for chickens. I doubt there is a cure for this but collecting eggs frequently will take away the temptation.

Jan, snake proofing a chicken coop is quite difficult. Snakes don't know about fences or doors, they just see everything as another obstacle to overcome. You'll need to block every hole, even the very small ones. We did that with the small hole chicken wire but you could also use shade cloth or fly screen wire. Pythons are the worst around chooks because they will swallow a chook whole, smaller snakes will look for eggs and swallow them whole. So get your hammer and nails and go over the chicken coop looking for any hole and block it off. Good luck.

Pinkandwhitepony, a good sized small flock would be eight chooks, a large one 20. You should never keep just one chook. If you want eggs for breakfast and you have a small family, three or five chickens would do. Speaking about companions, you'll find if you get different breeds, often the same colours will become friends. Our black chooks rarely hang out with our white and buff coloured chooks. Heather, our salmon coloured Faverolles, is friends with Martha, a buff Orpington. The red chooks stick together and the black chooks always wander the backyard in a group, without any other colours.

Annikka, chickens rarely overeat. They regulate themselves well and that is why most people leave a hopper full of feed in the chook pen so they can eat when they feel like it. We give out chooks bread almost every day and only the large varieties, like the Orpingtons and Sussex are big girls.

Yvette, your chicken house sounds like a masterpiece of recycling, Well done!

Becky, I'm no expert on breeding chickens but I would imagine the separation from the main flock would be the most important thing. Also, make sure your breeding girls are healthy and maybe feed them extra protein to get them through the long days of sitting on eggs.

I hope I have encouraged you to think about chickens if you've never had them before. Like most other new things, you'll have to learn about your girls and give them good food, love and protection but they will return everything you give to them tenfold. Dive.

As discussed yesterday, the most important part of preparing to bring chickens to live at your home is to provide safe living quarters. If you check the comments on the previous post, you'll see that predators can cause major damage, and let me add, major heartache too. Once you establish your little flock, you'll quickly become attached to them and want to keep them safe. The preparation will pay off later when you know you can put your girls to bed every night and they be safe and sound the next morning. Remember too that if your chooks become stressed - by dogs chasing them, children handling them roughly or thunder, egg production will suffer.

Chickens are real characters and they love to climb. If you can, provide places where they can climb and sit off the ground.

So what chickens should we buy? There is no one answer to that question. It will depend on how much room you have, what you want to chooks for - either eggs or meat,and how much time you have to spend with them. Some people will want to raise their chooks from chickhood and will buy fertilised eggs and hatch them in an incubator; some will buy day old chicks and raise them as part of an exercise in getting to know the chickens before they start laying; some will buy pullets that are e ready to lay and some will get chooks that are proven layers.

Here, from left, we have a buff Sussex, a buff Orpington, light Sussex rooster, Barnevelder rooster, silver Sussex, Rhode Island Red, Australorpe and New Hampshire.

If you want to raise chickens from eggs or from their first days, you'll need to have a bit of time to spend with them. Our local chook lady, Margaret, from whom we bought several strong and healthy Rhode Island Reds and some pretty bantams, hand rears her chickens and early on handles the chicks and carries them around with her while she's in the yard. She works near them or takes them to where she is working so they get used to people. When we buy her chooks they're always very tame and friendly and often let you pick them up. If you raise your own chicks, try to do at least some of that work to get the chicks used to people. You have to be careful, they're very fragile at that age, so it's not a daily task for small children, but they will benefit a lot from being around you and scratching around while you work near them.

If you don't want that added responsibility or don't have the time, buy pullets which are chickens that are almost ready to lay their first egg. They'll be around 20 - 22 weeks of age. Here we pay around $12 - $15 for a pullet and you'll be assured that all your chooks are hens and within a couple of weeks they'll start laying eggs. When a chook is ready to lay, all you have to do is provide a safe nesting area and she will do the rest. You can see they're getting ready to lay when their combs and wattles start growing and becoming red. Those first eggs are really sweet. They'll be little and sometimes they'll be laid with no shell, or a soft shell. As the egg laying progresses, you might get double yolkers or very large eggs but when the chooks hormones settle down, you'll be rewarded with consistently uniform eggs that will provide your family with an excellent source of nutrition.

Chickens are like seeds - it's best to choose heirlooms. Just like seeds that have been hybridised by seed companies so that you have to buy your seeds every year instead of saving your own and replanting, chickens have been modified for the caged poultry industry. The ability to reproduce has been bred out of hybrid chickens so they are egg laying machines that do not take time out during the year to go broody and potentially raise their own babies.. Let me tell you that sometimes having chooks that go broody is a complete pain in the neck, but even if they're not sitting on eggs, they'll rest and replenish the calcium levels. They use a lot of calcium to make egg shells. If you want the best for your girls, you'll be pleased they take that rest. So choose heirlooms if you can and help the pure breeds survive the attacks on their survival by large corporations.

Happily free ranging in the backyard in the late afternoon sun.

Just a word about broody chooks. They usually go broody when the weather starts getting warmer and the potential for it lasts all through those hot months. Just ten minutes ago, I went out to feed the animals and let the chooks out, and Heather is sitting on the nest, along with Germaine and Mary. Mary has been there for weeks, Germaine for a week and now Heather has joined them. It means that while they sit, they won't be laying an egg almost every day and when the other girls come in to lay, they'll steal those eggs and sit on them as their own. When chooks are broody, you have to be vigilant in collecting the eggs as often as possible, and as soon as they're laid. Most of our hens lay their eggs between 8am and 10am. We check the nests at 11am and bring the eggs in. We check again in the afternoon. To stop a chook sitting on a nest, you have to lock them away from the nests, although sometimes, when you do that, they'll lay a little batch of eggs in the bush and try to hide them from you. If you find eggs like this, throw them out because you don't know how long they've been there.

If you have adult chooks and get some chicks or any new chooks, it's wise to keep them separated for a while before mixing them. You'll be able to make sure you're not introducing any diseases from outside and your baby chicks will be safer. This is our coop being modified to what it is now, can you see Hanno on the roof?

Here is a chart of chicken breeds. On this chart you can check their size, whether they're suitable for hot or cold climates and their behaviour. Some breed are flighty, others suit confinement well, some like to free range. If you have a small space, choose bantams, otherwise you go for your preference in colour - both in feather and egg. If you want chooks for meat, choose the large varieties, if you want good layers, go for New Hampshires, Plymouth Rocks, Australorps or Rhode Island Reds, they're all reliable. Never buy just one chicken, go for two at least. Chickens feel safer in groups. A small group would be four to six, a large group would be around 20. Twenty is a good number for a backyard flock if you have the space. That will give you enough eggs for your family and some to sell or give away, but please be guided by the regulations in your area. Apparently chickens can recognise up to 200 other chooks, but prefer small family groups of 20 or less.

Tomorrow I'll finish off the chicken information and answer any questions you might have.

Today's post is a crossover between food and backyard livestock. Let's talk chooks, or as the rest of the world knows them, chickens. Many people are looking at creative ways of bringing healthy food into their homes and even if chooks have never been part of your home before, the time might be ripe now to introduce them. Chickens may be kept in a variety of climates - from tropical to cold and snowy. As long a you have a safe home for them that is appropriate to the climate, a roost for sleeping on, nesting boxes and food, chooks will happily make their home with you.

George, our old rooster. George is a bantam (the size) partridge (the colour) Pekin (the breed).

Before you get your first chickens, think about the predators lurking in your area. Your chooks must be kept safe - they will reply on you to protect them because up against a dog, fox, raccoon, hawk, coyote, large cat or snake, they have no hope. This is an important responsibility. Make sure you can keep them safe in a barn, coop or chicken tractor. If you have snakes in the area, it will need to be snake-proof, if you know of wild dogs, or even neighbourhood dogs, you need to be able to lock your girls safely away at night. Chickens do not see well at night so if something creeps into their coop, they won't see it and will be a sitting duck, erm chook.

We used shredded paper before we realised they were eating it. Now we lay down straw, it soaks up the droppings and we add it to the compost heap.

When you get the accommodation sorted out, you'll need to install some roosts, off the ground, for the flock to sleep on. These can be sticks from the bush that have been tidied up a bit to remove burs or they can be dowel attached to two side braces. Don't rely on the nesting boxes as sleeping quarters because they soon mess up the nests and you'll have to change the nesting material every day. When your girls go in to lay eggs, you want them to do it in a clean environment. Place some straw under the roosts to soak up the droppings made every night. That can be removed when necessary and added to the compost heap.

Nesting boxes can be a safe and darkish area, like a box or old container. It should have a small strip of wood nailed over the bottom of the box - they will step over this when they enter the nest. It will help keep the nesting material in and stop eggs rolling out. If you live in a hot climate, try to add a bit of ventilation to the nesting boxes. Hanno drilled a few holes in the side walls of ours. Your chooks will like a private darkish spot in which to lay their eggs, so place the boxes away from the door and in a dark corner. Fill the nesting box with straw or hay to provide a little nest that will safely hold the eggs. We used to used shredded paper for this but found the chooks would eat it. BTW, don't put any polystyrene boxes near chooks, they peck at it and eventually eat it. Not good.

Heather, our salmon coloured Faverolles as a baby chick.

Chickens must have fresh water at all times. Particularly in hot weather, but this applies to all chickens, they need water. Depending on your container, this may have to be refilled daily. We use a bucket as a water container but be aware that baby chicks will drown. If you buy chicks, you'll need a water feeder that they can't fall in to.

Martha - our little bantam buff Pekin.

Food - chooks eat almost everything, including meat. If you buy chicks, you'll start them on chicken starter or scratch food. You should buy good quality feed and supplement it with kitchen scraps, odds and ends from the garden and old bread. If you want organic eggs, you'll need to buy organic feed. We buy layer pellets and mash, which is mixed seeds like sunflower, wheat, millet and barley. There are a number of plants you can grow to help feed your chickens. Pigeon pea, sunflowers and comfrey are all favourites but they also love tomatoes with grubs in them, outer lettuce and cabbage leaves, radish tops, silverbeet and spinach. In fact almost everything you eat, the chickens will eat if you feed them that from the day you get them. If you go on a gardening rampage looking for grasshoppers and caterpillars, the chooks will eat all of them for you. They love something warm in winter - we make nice warm porridge and milk for our girls every morning in winter. Any high protein food you give them will enable them to produce more eggs and if you find your chooks off the lay for a reason other than moulting, a high protein boost for a couple of days will often get them laying again.

These are all the same breed but different colours. They're all Sussex chickens. Seth is the large white rooster, behind him is Margaret Olley, our buff Sussex and the two black girls are silver Sussex. Sussex chooks have a black necklace and tail feathers.

When you have your own chooks, you shouldn't be throwing out any food scraps, apart from bones, and even those they will pick as clean as a whistle. Never feed mouldy food or raw soy beans to your chickens - the mould will poison them and the raw soy beans can be toxic to chickens Remember, what you feed them will help form eggs and you want the best and safest eggs possible. Chooks love eating grass and if they do, the eggs they produce will contain Omega 3. Let your flock out on a grassed area for free ranging every day if you can. This can be a small area like a little back yard, or a huge paddock. While they're pecking on the grass, they'll eat any bugs they find as well as any frogs or mice. They'll also pick up little stones, and dirt that will help them digest their food. Chooks don't have teeth and their food is ground up in their gizzards, with the help of the grit they pick up in the field. If they can't be let out to free range, your chooks should have a supply of grit added to their food. You can also grind up eggs shells in the processor and add them as a calcium supplement. It will help strengthen their egg shells.

As you can see this is a big subject so we'll continue tomorrow. Then we'll talk about selecting your chickens and how to raise them well.

This is Dee's kitchen in Idaho, USA.

Dee writes:

"I've been reading your blog for about the last 3 years. I really enjoy your tutorials! In fact, tomorrow I am going to try my first batch of cold pressed soap! I've always enjoyed reading your blog and never once have I joined the discussion - but this new Kitchen Sink idea was fun. Also, my kitchen is my favorite room of our home so don't mind sharing!

My husband and I moved here about 4 years ago. We built this house together, and put a lot of ourselves into it. We did most of the work ourselves or traded out what we couldn't do ourselves. I chose every fixture, paint color, etc. And this is the first house where we have both felt at "home". We live in a small town, Payette, Idaho USA. We have a little over an acre of land, a barn that is over 100 years old where our chickens live, and I have a huge garden every year. We love it here. When we moved here, we were getting out of a large city where it was crowded and expensive. We wanted to simplify, and we wanted to raise animals and have a nice garden. We have had sheep and a cow, and chickens and next year we plan to have turkeys. When we moved here, I was able to quit working outside the home and focus on my household. And we planned to have children too, so I wanted to be home with them because I don't think there is any job more rewarding.

Sadly, we were unable to have children and after spending over $30,000.00 on fertility treatments I became pregnant only to miscarry. It was devastating, and words do not describe what we've been through. We have managed to keep ourselves out of credit card debt by refinancing our home, until this year. My husband found out he had a health problem and we had to get him treatment that was not covered by his insurance. His medicine cost us $1,000.00 per month! We are not wealthy people, and this was not something we had anticipated. So we put these medicines on our credit card. Then my husband lost his job in the beginning of October! So, we are both looking for work again. The government is going to cut the unemployment starting January 1st. And what we get right now is only enough to pay our mortgage payment. When his unemployment is cut, we will have no way of paying the mortgage payment. It's a sad situation, and I know a lot of people in half a dozen states that are in the same boat as us. Many of our friends have already lost homes to foreclosure. I thought I would send you these pictures of my kitchen, because I think it may only be "my" kitchen for a short while longer. We don't qualify for any government aid, and we've applied for every job there is with no luck so far! We are hoping to both find work and try to get our debt under control and get back to our simple life. Even if that means that we wont be living in our home. And we have learned a lot from this situation, I've found even more ways to save money. Someday, when our situation improves we want to try to adopt a baby. Please enjoy my pictures. These were taken right after I cleaned up from breakfast this morning."

Please don't forget to comment. A comment is like payment for the time taken to post, and in this case in sending in the photos. Many of us were enthusiastic about this series, so make sure all the photos get a good number of comments. I don't want any of the ladies sending in photos to regret joining in. Thank you friends.