Adventures of an urban homesteader growing greens, preserving the harvest and tending a backyard barnyard
My sister raised a new batch of hens this past September and I was with her and my nephew when they picked out new chicks. We brought them home and noticed one of the baby chicks had a slightly crooked beak – like millimeters off. It didn’t seem like a big deal… at the time anyway. Weeks went by and the crooked beak became much
The chickens have been patient through a very wet, cold Spring in Oregon. Wet conditions in a chicken coop can often lead to increased chances of disease and bacteria, so a dry coop is important to build. Mine held up pretty well, but things still got soggy. I like to do an annual deep cleaning of my chicken coop – sometimes every twice a year.
My flock of urban chickens have had quite the busy and productive Spring this year. They enjoyed free-ranging in the backyard in the early months while I had my row covers on, but on now back on ranging hiatus in their coop while the garden grows in. Since late February they have been steadily producing eggs. Pearl will be entering her fifth or sixth summer
‘Tis the season for bee swarms! Spring seems to be the most popular time of year for bee colonies taking it to the streets – moving out of the hive and into a temporary location until they essentially find a better home. This is referred to as the bee colony “swarming”, when they hang out in a temporary spot. They can swarm for anywhere from
“An egg! An egg! An egg!” You could hear the excitement in my voice carrying through the neighborhood on a recent, drizzly evening as I did my regular check on the chickens. A little brown egg quietly laid in the nesting box. I then recalled how my urban hens seemed to be making quite a ruckus on a recent morning – and the dots connected.
Yesterday I had a couple sunny hours ahead of me before dusk, so I decided to tend to a few minor repairs on the chicken coop. The roof had been leaking in a couple spots and a damp coop can increase the likelihood of pests and disease infiltrating the coop. An even bigger issue, I have been noticing that something has been burrowing into the
We had our first “storm” of the season a couple nights ago involving some chilling overnight temperatures, hard rain and strong winds whipping trees around. The next morning was cold and still, but branches and such were left along sidewalks as a memory of the night before. The first thing I think of when the forecast talks of stormy nights are my little flocks of
I love having a new little flock of mini, bantam chickens, but sadly they are moving to a friend’s house in the next couple of weeks. My landlord is uneasy with me being over the city limit of chickens and my attempts to persuade her otherwise have failed. Although I am not naming the little girls, I wanted you to still meet them before they
We have some new, temporary residents on our little urban homestead: bantam chickens! Bantams are nicknamed “banties” for short and they are most certainly the cutest chickens I have ever seen. Just like standard chickens, there is a large variety of bantam chicken breeds. Bantams are typically about half the size of standard chickens and lay eggs about half the size as well. Due to
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