20 Tour Hosts are graciously opening their backyards for all to see.  This allows aspiring urban farmers a chance to see first hand how easy it is to raise chickens in the backyard.  It also is a great way for seasoned urban farmers to look at different coop designs and maybe pick up a few ideas on how to improve their own coop.

Guide books area available at The Eugene Backyard Farmer starting Monday, May 14th (but please remember The Tour itself is only on Saturday the 19th).  Once you have your guide book, you can decide which coops you want to visit and in what order.  Then with plenty of ideas and inspiration, you are ready to build your own backyard hen house.

Guide books cost just $7.00 and just like last year, part of the proceeds will go to Habitat for Hens.  This is a fun way of giving a chicken coop with all the fixings (including chickens) to an area family that could benefit from a backyard flock but can not yet afford it.  Additional funding for Habitat for Hens comes from the Eugene Friendly Neighborhood Farmers who donated the prize money from last year’s Eugene Celebration parade prize.

This is a wonderful event and a great way to see how diverse and widespread urban farming has become.  We hope to see you on the 19th.

Broodiness is a condition where a hen’s maternal clock goes off and she sets to hatch eggs.  Most hens never go broody but some go broody often.  As an urban farmer, you probably collect the eggs daily.  And the fact that you likely do not have a rooster and thus do not have fertilized eggs is of little concern to the broody hen.  Even when you remove any inspiration eggs from the nest, a broody hen will still create a clutch of eggs in her head and try to hatch nothing.  It is both frustrating as well as beautiful and poetic.

Here are a couple thoughts on how to deal with broody hens.  First, you may want to add an additional nest box so the other hens still have a place to lay.  A broody hen will not lay eggs but she will occupy the box.  The other hens are usually cool with it but you might as well try to smooth things out.

If you want to just let nature run it’s course you can just let the hen set.  It takes about 21 days for eggs to hatch so ideally after 21 days she will give up.  It wouldn’t hurt to pick her up once in while and put her in front of her food.  Broody hens usually do not starve themselves, but you are welcome to force her to eat once in a while.

You can also try to break her of her broodiness. To do this, build a cage with a wire bottom and place her in the cage.  The cage can be elevated on some bricks so that there is plenty of air flowing under her.  Give her only food and water and no bedding material.  The cold air will drop her body temperature and she will usually snap out of it in 72 hours.  We have had success placing a broody hen on a concrete pad with a cage over her and only food and water.  It may sound harsh but it usually works.

Another option is to slip some newly hatched chicks (or fertilized eggs) under her.  For the urban farmer it is pretty easy to get newly hatched chicks from your local feed store.  Once you have established that the hen is indeed broody (she has not moved for at least a week), you can take your newly hatched chicks and slip them under her wing.  If you do this early in the morning and when it is still dark, the hen very likely will think that she was successful and will do all the hard work of raising the chicks.  Breed of chick does not seem to be an issue.  The photo above is of a Salmon Faverolle hen with her two different colored Ameraucanas.  She couldn’t be more proud of the work she has done so far and is doing a great job of protecting the chicks from the elements as well as the coop mates.  Keep some chick starter and water near the nest box and before long you will have your next generation of hens.
Tricking a broody hen to take hatch-lings does not always work.  Just because a hen wants to be a mommy doesn’t mean that she will make a good mommy.  Be sure to have a back-up plan.

Urban farming is still farming and dealing with a broody hen is just part of the adventure.  Embrace this time to learn more about your backyard flock and enjoy the satisfaction of urban homesteading.

Ideally you have a broody hen that will take to some new chicks.  Just slide them under her and let her do the work.  However you can’t force broodiness and even if she is broody, she may not make a good mommy.  In which case expect to raise your new chicks indoors for awhile.

By the time they are three or four weeks old they are nearly feathered out.  Slowly introduce them to the flock by having a separate run for them.  This run can be as simple as some wire or a large cage in the corner of the overall run.  They can stay outside during the day, then bring them in at night.  Be sure they have access to food and water in their separate run.  Also be sure their run can be accessed by the older hens.  They will scratch and cluck around the pullets but will not be able to peck them.

In a week or two, they should be used to each other.  By now they are five or six weeks old and you are ready to take the plunge.  Pick an evening when the nighttime temperatures will not be too cold and wait for the hens to go to bed.  Once it is completely dark, take the pullets to the coop and place them on the roost next to the older girls.  do it quickly and make sure they are all on the perch.  Then close the door and walk away.

Chickens don’t see well in the dark so the chickens will spend the night smelling each other, clucking to each other, and getting used to each other.  Come sunrise, the chickens will ideally act as if they have always been a big happy family.  But just like any family, fights are bound to break out.   Remember that establishing a pecking order needs to happen and it is generally a dynamic process.  A couple of pecks and squawks are perfectly fine but even this should subside after a few days.

Over the next few nights go out to the coop at night to be sure the pullets are sleeping on the roost.   You might have to help them up for a few nights until they learn the routine from the older gals.  Keep the young girls out of the nesting boxes to avoid soiled eggs.  Now give them plenty of fresh water and high quality feed.  Before long you will have plenty of eggs for friends and neighbors.

The first class is Sunday, February 19th starting at 5:00 with subsequent classes each Sunday through mid-April.  Just pick which Sunday works best for you, then call or e-mail to reserve your space.

We stop selling baby chicks in mid September. This gives the chicks plenty of time to get feathered and plump enough to survive the winter. But we have a business partner who is raising chicks to the two-month stage. He has about 40 total pullets spread out over 5 different breeds. So if you lost a couple younger chickens recently and need to add a couple to your flock, this is a great opportunity. Or if you are getting a late start to urban farming but don’t want to wait until spring, this could be the last time you see chickens for sale.

The person raising these soon-to-be hens is doing so with care, skill and compassion. If you were at last year’s pullet sale, you will no doubt see a significant improvement in the overall condition of the birds. In addition to the pullets, he will have about eight ducks available.

This will be a cash only event, although our store can still take cards for all your other urban farming feeds. This event was very popular last year so you if you really want to add a few chickens, you might want to arrive early.

The last round we got just Red Broilers. The benefit of a this breed is they mature much more slowly then the Cornish Cross. At the store we raised six Red Broilers. The roosters were butchered at 14 weeks and the hens at 16 weeks. The roosters dressed out to five pounds and the hens were a bit smaller. They made exceptional meals!
The disadvantage to raising slow-growing broilers is the cost. We fed them an 18% protein GMO free grower as well as plenty of kitchen scraps. They eat a pound of feed per bird per week which works out to about $8 worth of feed. Our six Red Broilers ate a total of 100 pounds of feed. If you calculate feed plus the cost of the bird plus any scratch, it works out to be between $10 and $12 per bird as a total cost. They lived a very healthy life, were treated well and were butchered with dignity.

The Cornish Cross is bred specifically as a fast growing meat bird. The advantage is that they mature so quickly that they can be ready for butcher at six to eight weeks. This means that your feed costs could be half as much as the Red Broilers. The Cornish Cross’ biggest asset is also it’s biggest liability. They often grow so fast that their hearts and legs can’t keep up with the weight gain. They tend to be a bit more lethargic and sometimes do not forage well for food. They also do not do well in extreme heat (this is why we are bringing them in during August. By the time heat is an issue with them, it will be mid-September and probably much cooler.)
If you keep your feed to around 18% protein and give them plenty of ranging space, you should be able to grow a healthy Cornish Cross. The key to raising a healthy Cornish Cross is to avoid filling it up with high protein rations with lots of filler grains. Raise a Cornish Cross with the same respect as you would any other chicken, and you will be rewarded with a fine home-raised meal.

This will be the last meat bird order we do for the year, so call or e-mail the store to reserve yours.

Of course there are still gardens to water and chickens to feed but the scale is so small that it can be done by somebody else.  Ideally you would ask a neighbor to watch your hens.  But if you can not find someone to do this, we do provide chicken sitting services.

We come to your house in the morning and make sure they have plenty of food and water.  We let them out to their run or to free range (your choice) and do some light cleaning.  Then we come back in the evening, collect the eggs and tuck them safely in their coop.  Chicken sitting costs just $10 a day so feel free to contact us if you want to arrange chicken sitting.

So you are finally ready to raise some chickens.   Many of you have gone on a chicken coop tour and your have some great ideas for your coop.  The weather is finally warm and dry and you figure you can finish your  coop in the next couple weeks.  Or maybe you already have chickens but were paid a visit by a raccoon.  Or perhaps you have a broody hen and you want to give her a couple chicks to try to raise.  Traditional feed stores only carry chicks in early spring and stop around Easter.  The good news is we sell baby chicks throughout the summer.

There are a number of advantages to raising your chicks in the late spring or summer.  Since it is warmer outside, it will be warmer inside.  This means your chicks won’t need a heat lamp for as long.  Once they get to the three week old stage, they can go outside during the day and come back in at night.

Also most regional hatcheries are focused on the more standard breeds during the early spring.  Now that they don’t have to supply large feed stores, they can hatch more unusual or heritage breeds.  We have some fun breeds scheduled to arrive in the next few months.

The disadvantage is that you may or may not get eggs this year.  Most hens start laying between three and seven months but many don’t lay often in the late fall and winter.  So a chick that was hatched in August will be out in their coop in September.  They will have plenty time to feather out and go through their gangly stage before winter arrives.  These hens might lay occasionally in the winter but as soon as the sunlight returns you will get a jump start on next year’s eggs.

The trend toward urban farming is allowing us to approach things in more creative ways.  Raising baby chicks in the summer is a great example of adapting  a rural farming practice to meet the needs of a backyard homestead.

The guide book costs just $5.00 and proceeds go to Habitat for Hens.  In conjunction with The Chicken Gardener, The Eugene Backyard Farmer will be donating a chicken tractor, chickens, feeder, feed, waterer and bedding to an area family that could really benefit from a backyard flock but can not yet afford it.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

This year’s Eugene area Tour de Coop is set for Saturday, May 21st.  The tour will be self-guided and will be more city wide.  We hope to have between 18 and 24 coops on display.  Tour goers will buy a guide book for a small fee and then will decide how many coops to visit and in what order.

Proceeds from the Tour will go to Habitat for Hens.  Our friends from Salem’s CITY (Chickens in the Yard) came up with the idea helping out an area family.  We will find a Eugene area family, perhaps a foster family, who could really benefit from a backyard flock and we will make it happen.  Ben from The Chicken Gardener will donate the coop and The Eugene Backyard Farmer will supply the chicks, feed and supplies.

Do you want to help inspire new backyard farmers by displaying your coop?  We already have about 6 volunteers and need at least a dozen more.  We are looking for a wide variety of coops and backyard settings.  We would like to show super fancy coops, very simple coops and everything in between.  You may have a highly active urban farm or you may just have a small coop by the hot tub.  Coop diversity is the key here.  The goal is to take away the intimidation factor of raising chickens by showing people how easy and fun it can be.

If you are interested in participating, please e-mail the store and we will start the planning stage.  If you are not sure, feel free to e-mail or call and we can talk about the particulars.  Regardless, this is a great way of growing an already impressive movement of backyard food sustainability.

www.salemchickens.com

www.chickengardener.com