RIP Sarah, 2/10 - 9/14

RIP, Sarah, you big, white fluffy butted chicken. May you forever peck at delicious cabbage worms in the big hen house in the sky.

Defending Your Chickens Against the HOA

The following is a guest post from Shannon Boling. Shannon was raised in the country and now lives in the city. An aspiring urban homesteader, she spends her time planning events for teachers across California when she's not gardening, canning, crafting, cooking or chasing her chickens, dog and cats.

Shannon writes at the blog, Where is Shannon? Make sure you check it out! And, thanks to Shannon for this contribution!

Defending Your Flock Against the HOA (aka your neighbor doesn’t like your chickens)

Recently, I had the unfortunate experience of having to defend my dear chickens at my neighborhood Homeowners Association (HOA) Board meeting. After numerous complaints from a single neighbor, my husband and I had to attend a hearing in which the fate of our chickens was in the hands of 3 unknown Board Members. Though I won’t go into about the actual specifics about my case, I did realize I had a new wealth of information to share with other folks who may be up against a similar threat. Here are a few tips to help you navigate through the murky waters of HOA rules.

Tip # 1: Do your research

This may sound pretty obvious, but knowing the rules is the most important part of building a case for your chickens. Read your CCRs carefully. Don’t just pay attention to the rules about animals, think beyond the box. Have some knowledge in your back pocket.

•   What are the proper channels one should take when filing a complaint against a neighbor? In our case, the HOA encourages neighbors to resolve issues on their own. Our neighbor never contacted us with her concerns about the noise our chickens made. Knowing that the HOA encourages neighbors to deal with issues on their own shows that she a) doesn’t know the rules, and b)if she knew them, she didn’t act upon them.

• Find out what the proper dispute resolution sequence is (for my HOA, it was having a hearing, then mediation, then arbitration). It’s good to know what steps you’ll need to take in case they deny your case.
• Are there height/dimension limits to any coops built in your yard? Do they need to be a certain distance from your neighbors’ houses? This is important to know. For example, if our coop was another 2 feet taller, we would have had to get approval from the HOA to build it.
•  How much authority does the Board really have? In our case, the Board had the final say on issues – meaning one cannot get a measure put on a ballot for the neighborhood to vote on. Some HOA’s allow members to gather enough signatures to get something on the ballot (how democratic!) This is worth looking into just in case the Board decides against you – you could still get a petition going and leave the vote to the masses. 
• Get your city and/or county’s municipal code, and be sure to include it with your materials. Many CCR’s defer to the municipal code (be sure you don’t have more chickens than you are allowed!) Thankfully for us, our city doesn’t have a restriction on the number of hens you can keep for non-commercial purposes. 
• If your HOA is run by a management company, get to know the person that works with your Board. If they are friendly, use their knowledge of the CCRs to help build your case. This proved to be a great resource for me - I was told there was a 1987 CCR that prohibited poultry in our neighborhood (which changed in 2007). I never would have known that if I hadn’t *gently* prodded my contact. 

Tip #2: Get the support of your neighbors

I can’t stress this one enough. Thankfully in our neighborhood, everyone loves our chickens. It was really easy to pass a document around for their signature, stating that they did not believe our chickens were loud or a nuisance to the neighborhood. If you do get people to sign a document, be sure to include specific language related to the CCR’s. I used “loud” and “nuisance” because there is a rule against loud animals that are a nuisance. This allowed the Board to compare the CCRs with the support signatures apples for apples. Once you get those signatures, create a graphic that shows your house in relation to all that signed your petition. This is a great way of visually showing those who support you in your neighborhood. Finally, if you’ve got great neighbors like mine, you’ll have them come as your posse to the Board meeting. I had 5 adult neighbors (and 1 child) attend the meeting and speak in support of our chickens. Hearing this from others really showed the good impact our flock was making in the neighborhood. (Note: a carton of eggs is a great way to show your thanks)

Tip #3: What have other Associations done?

Google “HOA and Chickens” or any combination of “chickens”, “HOA”, and “CCRs”. You’ll be amazed at what you find. Backyard Chickens has a few great forums with information from other chicken owners and their experiences with HOAs. I found a few promising articles and presented this information to the Board. I think it’s important to highlight that people all over the country have chickens, and there are many different ways of accommodating them in a HOA (whether that means restricting the number of chickens, or how the decision to allow chickens is made).

Tip #4: Are you willing to compromise?

On a personal note, this was the hardest part for me to come to terms with. If the Board votes no more chickens – are you ready to go to the next level (i.e. court) to keep them? Are you willing to give up a few hens to keep the neighbor(s) happy? After taking everything into consideration, I decided to pair my flock down from 6 to 3. Sure, I miss the extra eggs and the sound of a happy coop. But, because I showed the Board that I was willing to compromise, they agreed to let me keep my remaining girls. In the end – totally worth it.

Go to the meeting with confidence and your head held high – after all, you are a steward of this uncharted urban chicken-raising territory!

Plucked and pecked

Poor Chloe. The other day I noticed that Sara, the big blonde pushy Orpington, was pecking at her bald spots (from molting), making her bleed. The little vampire seemed to be enjoying the taste of blood. I spent hours reading up on what to do if the behavior continued, since I know that chickens will potentially just peck each other to death if left unattended.

Fortunately, Chloe is smarter than Sara and was spending most of her time up in the coop, away from Sara, who spends most of her time in the run during the day. I made sure everyone had plenty of food and water in both areas and that kept them apart long enough.

I checked on Chloe the next day and didn't see the bloody spots and noticed her new feathers were coming in nicely and were providing protection. I looked her over to make sure no new bloody spots had appeared. When I looked yesterday her new feathers were sprouting like mad - she looks like she's covered in long quills. Long and poky enough to keep Sara's beak out. Damn vampire chicken.

Have any of you experienced this problem with chicken cannibalism? What did you do?

Plucked chicken aka molting

Chloe is molting. Even though she's the youngest chicken (about 18 months old, which is prime molting time), the older two have managed to escape a full-blown feather explosion like she's experiencing. I wish I could get some better pictures for you, but suffice it to say, she looks an absolute mess.

Here you can somewhat see her neck. It looks like it's been through the wringer:

And, here you can see her missing feathers. Paco has been enjoying them as a backyard snack:

She's stopped producing eggs during this whole procedure, although I think she's still spending a bunch of time up in the nesting box. Poor girl.

The broodiness is finally at an end

In honor of the end of our chicken, Sarah's, long and protracted bout of broodiness, we had eggs for dinner last night. Yes, that's right, Sarah started hanging out back down in the run last week and yesterday finally laid her first egg in almost 2.5 months.

In spite of wanting to throw her in the pot, we just let her do her thing. I finally got a system down where I'd flip the nesting box sideways to evacuate her and steal the eggs, thereby reducing my chances of being pecked to death. While we have two nesting boxes, all three chickens have only used the one on the left so, even though Sarah was constantly occupying the nest, the other chickens would squeeze in with her to lay.

Emma declared last night, as we were watching them free range in the backyard, that we were so lucky that we have chickens even though we don't live on a farm.

Anyway, a big woohoo! to Sarah for finally getting out of the nest. She has redeemed herself.

The 100 foot dinner

Sunday we finally got some warm weather in Seattle and I think it got close to about 80 degrees. Of course, we're back to cold weather and rain today, but I'll take what I can get.

Over the weekend, I harvested all of our onions and got them ready for storage. Same thing with the garlic - they've been drying outside for a while now and I clipped them and got them ready for final drying before I store them. I've never grown hardneck garlic so I did things differently than I normally do, which is braid them and hang them in the basement. This time around I trimmed the roots and the stalk and brushed off the outer skin that was covered in dirt.

Sunday night our dinner consisted of snappy salted potatoes from our backyard, grilled cauliflower with garlic and hot peppers (the cauliflower was also from the backyard) and fresh wild salmon. Dessert consisted of lavender shortbread cookies from the lavender I dried a few weeks ago. I still have more lavender to process and store, but it was a great taste of things to come.

Our blueberries are producing nicely and the kale, swiss chard, lettuce and sugar snap peas are all still going to town. Our mint is continuing to rebound and, when Paco isn't stealing strawberries, we are still getting some from that bed.

I'm in dire need of putting in some more plant starts (namely more lettuce and greens) before the end of the month. I meant to do that Sunday, but ended up spending 2 hours weeding instead. I'm losing hope on all my pumpkin plants due to the cold.

Sarah, our white orpington chicken, is still broody. We finally did the chicken water-boarding over the weekend. She got perfectly wet but when we lowered the ramp later in the day, she ran back up to work on those imaginary eggs. I think I need to put an ice block under her butt next. She's making it exceedingly difficult to get what eggs we are getting from the other chickens so I'd like to see this end sooner rather than later.

Dog versus chickens

Result:

Dog - Likes chickens
Chickens - Not so much

I made the mistake last week of letting Paco (our new rescue Chihuahua mix) loose to run around our backyard and check things out. Now, our chickens are totally used to the neighborhood cats sitting and staring at them at close range (see picture at right), so I didn't think much about it. Of course, the chickens were in their enclosed coop and run, safe from any puppy rambunctiousness.

However, as he ran around the yard and eventually ran over to the run, the chickens went batshit crazy and, in an attempt to escape Paco (who is notably smaller than they are), they ended up slamming themselves into the side and roof of the run.

Okay, that wasn't so helpful. The next few times, I walked him around the yard on the leash and they were a little bit better. Since Sarah is in perpetual nesting mode (we're going to try water-boarding her this weekend), she didn't care, but Chloe was bagawking like a crazy lady.

I'm hoping they eventually get used to having him in the backyard since I'd like to be able to work out back and let him run around at the same time (while the chickens are in their run) without having to listen to a bunch of chicken bitching.

For those of you who have chickens and pets, how did you introduce them?

Ladies who lunch

Here are the chickens on our urban homestead, working on some leftovers and a few dandelions. In goes food scraps. Out comes eggs.



If you just can't get enough hot, live chicken action, here's a new video for you. With some random commentary in the background. Enjoy!

Blowing feathers

I woke up this morning to find our chicken coop run covered in white feathers and Sarah no where to be seen. This is always disturbing because it looks like a chicken crime scene. I knew there was a reasonable explanation, that she was probably up in the coop working on today's egg delivery, but you have to wonder what's going on with the feathers.

I suspect she's hotter than the chicken we roasted in the oven last night due to the change in temperatures around here. It's been uncommonly warm (or so it seems) with fifty degree temperatures during the day. The other night it was still 50 degrees at midnight. Compared to the build up of feathers for the more frigid weather, she probably just needed to blow a few feathers to stay comfortable.

For you chicken keepers, do you see this as well when the weather gets a little warmer?

Chicken neglect

Our chickens generally are awake and down in their run even before it's really daylight out, so I was surprised yesterday morning when I glanced out the kitchen window and didn't see any of them digging around in their run, which is where they spend pretty much all day. I figured they were up in the coop eating or something and thought nothing of it.

When I came back home from dropping the kids off at school and going for a walk, it was the same thing. No visible chickens. Strange. I figured there was a reasonable excuse for their absence, but went out to check on them all the same. Plus I had some food waste for them.

In our house I always exclaim with delight how our three chickens turn our garbage into eggs. What other kind of pet does that? In any case, I figured they'd jump down the ramp as soon as they heard the back door open, which is what they usually do. But still, no chickens.

As I was walking down the stairs they all starting piling down in the run. Phew. I realized that I hadn't even bothered to check for eggs the day before so I think they were all in there nesting on the eggs, trying to hatch them or something. Because there were eggs out there and they were warm.

When we first got the chickens I would diligently go out there every morning, let down the ramp, clean the run and the coop and get them set up for the day. But, then again, the weather back in September was warm and it was light out that early. Over the months I started cleaning less frequently and, since the run is completely enclosed, figured I'd just leave the ramp permanently down so they could come and go as they pleased. I rethought how often I cleaned the coop and it's pretty much down to every other week. I still go out there just about every day to give them some scraps and check for eggs. Well, except for the day before yesterday. Fortunately, the air temperature is about refrigerator levels so it's not that big a deal.

I've become a less anal chicken keeper and they don't seem to care just as long as they get their dandelion treats, which they will pass over everything else in order to eat. I call the dandelions I dig up with our weed extractor chicken toys because they spend hours nibbling on them and flinging them around the run. I have to make sure I give them at least three or more so they don't steal them from each other. They are quite silly about it - I figured they'd prefer the bread or pasta but, no. Their most favorite food in the whole world is dandelions. And, it's a good thing for all of us because we have a shitload of them in our lawn. It's a symbiotic thing we got going on over here.

Cold weather and frozen chickens

This fall started out quite warm with sunny, balmy temperatures stretching into mid-November. However, since this is a La Niña year, we've been having predictions of an extremely cold winter and we saw some of it this last week.

The Monday before Thanksgiving we got enough snow to put the city of Seattle into a tailspin. My husband was fortunate enough to get out of downtown on a less travelled bus route extending his commute only by a half hour or so. Others weren't so lucky - it took his oncologist 7 hours to get home that night. The rest of the week we saw temperatures down into the teens with highs in the mid-twenties, which is very unusual around these parts.

Since our chicken coop is fairly well closed up, with plexiglass on the biggest of the "windows", I wasn't too worried about the chickens. I could always cover up the other windows and pull up the ramp to really seal them in. They've been putting on a lot of feathers over the last few weeks, and I was really only concerned about the smallest one, Chloe, who isn't packing as much fluff as the other girls. I made sure there was extra bedding in the coop to snuggle up in if she wanted to, but I think they really just huddled together on the roost at night.

The biggest issue, however, was keeping their water supply liquid. Since I didn't have a solution at hand, I ended up replacing their water several times a day. Their main water tank froze up into a solid tube of ice, so they relied on the water bowl I supplied them. Now that the temperatures are back up into the normal range, it's business as usual, but I will be getting a heated dog bowl to use for the next time it's that cold, just to make sure they have ample water.

In spite of all the cold, snow and craziness, Chloe managed to start laying. She really likes hanging out in the nesting box and Roxy has been indulging her own broodiness by sitting on both their eggs. Alas, Sarah, the big white hen, spends more time eating and less time laying. She hasn't laid an egg since we first got her back in mid-September.

All in all, the chickens did fine. They didn't spend much time down in the run when the wind blew a bunch of snow down there. But, once I cleaned out the snow, they were back down in the run, digging and bagawking and searching for snacks of the buggy kind. I froze my tail off with all the oversight, but I'll be prepared for the next cold snap.

Do you have chickens? If so, how do they fare during cold weather? Do you have a heat lamp or other set up to keep them comfy?

For a tour of my chicken coop and an introduction to the girls, you can check out this video here.

Cat on a hot chicken roof

'Nuff said...

Urban chicken video action

If you are, like me, hanging around on Veteran's Day and looking for a little diversion, you can check out the 10 minutes or so of video I made this week explaining our chicken coop setup, the run and the stars of the episode themselves, the chickens!

Enjoy!

If you are having problems viewing this you can go directly to my channel on the YouTubes.

My chickens stopped laying

Okay, my girls are seriously slacking off. The first week we had them, the two that are laying were squeezing them out like clockwork. We got about 10 eggs that week. This week? I think we got 3. WTF?

I know it's getting darker out earlier, but in one week should we see this sort of drop-off? One egg was under the roost the other morning and ice cold so I have no idea when it was laid. They all look healthy and happy and adjusted to their new environment, so what's going on, ladies?

Oh, and I did figure out that their errant brown poops were cecal poops, so I can stop worrying about diarrhea now (warning for the faint of heart: don't click on the poop link).

These chickens can be tricky :) Well, not really. Start laying ladies or you'll be looking at the inside of my All-Clad pot!

Any ideas about what's going on?

Bagawk!

Spot the backyard grown egg

Before we got chickens, we always bought the best eggs we could find, short of going to the farmers market each week. We bought from a local farm, Stiebrs, where the hens are cage free and the eggs are organic. They are Certified Humane and the hens are naturally cared for and never given antibiotics or hormones.

But, I guess it just can't compare to backyard grown eggs. The color and composition just isn't the same as fresh eggs. I still can't get over that I have pets that produce something edible without killing them. It's just mind boggling.

Can you spot the store bought egg in this picture?

Meet the Crunchy Chickens

Well, I suppose it's about time that the Crunchy Chicken finally got some chickens. Saturday, my husband and I headed down south near Mt. Rainier to pick up some started pullets for our coop, which was finally finished last week. It was a long drive because of some nasty traffic, but it was well worth the trip in the end.

And, without further ado, here are our chickens.

Roxy, the black and white one, is a Plymouth Barred Rock. Sarah, is a White Orpington. They are both 7 months old and are laying every day.


Sarah makes an amazing amount of noise when Roxy is working her egg delivering magic in the nest. She's either announcing to the world that there's an egg on the way, or she's pissed because Roxy is hogging the nest box. Of course, there are two boxes, but that doesn't mean she can't squeeze on in there with her when Roxy is laying.


Roxy is the dominant bird and is definitely the more intelligent of the two. Sarah, bless her big, fluffy bottom is not too bright. Fortunately, Roxy leads the way, solving all the difficult problems, like how to handle the crust side of a butt of bread. No, Sarah, it's not a rock!


Chloe is finally coming out of her shell. She spent the first two days up in the coop on the roost. She's an Americauna / Rhode Island Red mix. So, she looks a little like each breed. She'll lay green eggs when she's gets around to it and will be productive like a RIR. She's only about 5 months old and is at the bottom of the pecking order.

I suspect when she gets bigger she'll be more bossy. She's not lumbersome like the other two. This girl is fast and actually tries to take flight when I'm trying to chicken wrangle her back into the coop. She's got this great little feathery cheek thing going on. Chloe, I like your beard.


Needless to say, the kids are ecstatic about the chickens and have spent hours watching Chicken TV. Except when Emma got pecked by Roxy when she had her cornered and was going in for some heavy petting. I think Roxy had better ideas about how to spend her free ranging time. Like searching for bugs.

Mangoes? Yes. Tomatoes? No. Salmon? Better than crack.

Chicken coop tour

I got my "saltbox" chicken coop, made by Berg from Seattle Chicken Coops, delivered over the weekend and, instead of explaining every detail, I made a quick and dirty movie for you guys to see all the features.

I have to admit that I'm still a little anxious about taking on a flock of chickens. I know they are easy to take care of, but we've had a bad history of pets that haunts me, mostly because we end up having problems of one kind or other. But, now that we have a coop I'm feeling a little more committed.

I'm undecided about where to keep the coop, wondering if (once we have the run built in) it would be better to keep it on concrete or on grass. The benefit of having it on concrete is the easier clean-up, but I would need to build up at least something for them to scratch around in or they'll go crazy. The grass area is a little less convenient, but then I would be able to let them do their chickeny business, which is eating grass and enjoying some dirt. But the poop clean-up isn't as easy.

If you have chickens, what's your set-up? Are they on dirt, grass or concrete? What do you recommend?

Sorry about the spots on the video - the camera has some misty goodness on it from our trip catching crab that needs to be cleaned. And I'm still trying to figure out how to convert the HD video into something that isn't 150 MB and isn't squished or herky-jerky. But, you'll get the idea. If it's cutting off, you can go directly to the video here.

Backyard chicken breeds

I made the statement in another post that it's about time that the Crunchy Chicken got chickens. Then Greenpa made the excellent point that maybe I should get some suggestions of what breeds of chickens to get.

This Sunday we are having our coop delivered. It is made by someone in our neighborhood, who is a laid off carpenter and turned to making chicken coops. I'll be sure to take pictures and show you our setup. Of course, we will still need to get chickens.

My plan is to get pullets, mostly because I don't feel like getting chicks at this point, but I also wanted to get your opinion on your favorite breed. I'm looking for a chicken that is mellow, quiet and a good layer, but I'd rather have mellow and quiet over production, if I can't meet those needs.

So, what's your favorite chicken breed and why?

Chicken conundrum

We are getting really close to finally getting some chickens. I managed to get board approval from our neighborhood henchmen, found a great local coop builder and know where to acquire some pullets.

I've asked the neighbors ahead of time (because if they complain about noise, as per our covenants, we'll have to get rid of them) and, while they aren't exactly enthused about the idea, they seem to be marginally okay with it. Which doesn't make me feel very confident about them not complaining later, but I think it's because we live in a conservative area of Seattle (go figure!) and the idea of chickens is totally new to them.

But, the big question I have that sticks in my craw, so to speak, is what do people who keep chickens do with them when they go on vacation? I'm not ready to be tied down to the urban farmstead just yet, but I don't know of any chicken sitters.

So, for you chicken keepers out there who live in urban areas, what do you do with your chickens when you go away for a day or more?

Seattleites - get your goat

Did you know that it is now legal to own dwarf or pygmy goats in the city of Seattle? Recent legislation now treats smaller goats as a pet, just like cats, dogs and potbelly pigs.

One of the council members that voted for the measure stated: "There are arguments to be made that could achieve greater heights of urban sustainability by bringing farms back into the city and farm animals."

Seattle already allows its residents to own up to three chickens (or "domestic fowl") per standard lot, with an additional 1 bird allowed per additional 1,000 sq. ft.

I think it's pretty exciting that, within the city limits, one can grow enough vegetables, fruits and animal byproducts to live a fairly sustainable life (along with help from farmer's markets). It's getting to the point where you don't have to move out to a rural area to achieve self-sufficiency.

So, let's see:

Fruit and nut trees

Raised beds for veggies and herbs

Goats for milk and wool

Chickens for eggs and meat

Rabbits for meat and fur

You can have a veritable farm here in the city! What do you all think of that? Does this change your attitude about how and where you live?

Oh yeah, and Happy 4th birthday to Emma, my crazy little chicken!