in clover: remembering Patsy

Last night, when Michael went out just after dark to shut the chicken coop, he found our Dominique hen, Patsy, dead in the nesting box.  We have no idea what happened.  Earlier in the day she seemed fine.  Michael and I worked in the garden in the afternoon and she was out and about as usual.  

Needless to say, we were all quite sad last night.  Circle of life and all....we get it...but this is our first experience of losing a chicken friend.

Dominiques are quite striking in appearance....their feathers are black and white and are irregularly striped or "barred."  They have a red comb.  They are calm and personable. 

This is my favorite photo of Patsy, the Dominique hen.  

Our Patsy was a good layer and we easily recognized her egg.  She laid the smallest egg of the bunch and hers were the nearest to pink in color.  When she began laying, I was quite concerned for her because the shells of her eggs were thinner and more brittle than the others and they were rough in texture, like sandpaper.  But, time went by and she seemed healthy and happy, so I quit worrying, mostly. 

We weren't really sure what to expect when we began our chicken keeping experience.  The work has been minimal, thanks to the deep litter method of hen house keeping.  (Here's a link to a short, informative article on the deep litter method.) I had no idea the chickens would be so entertaining or how much I would enjoy hearing them cluck to one another.  I had no idea the sense of life and energy they would bring to my garden. 

But what I was most completely unprepared for was the level of responsibility I feel for their well being.  It has at times made me quite anxious.  I've sat with this, asking myself why I feel more anxiety and fear for my hens than I do for my dog and my cats.  I think it's because hens are so completely vulnerable. 

Chickens have many predators to worry about.....racoons, foxes, hawks, dogs....and bless their hearts, they have no claws or teeth to use to defend themselves.  They can barely fly and while they are quite speedy when you are trying to catch them, they aren't speedy like a cat or a rabbit.  They can't see well in the dark so a night attack could result in the demise of an entire hen house!  More than once I have woken in the night, sat straight up in bed and shrieked loudly, worried that we forgot to secure the coop.

I am grateful that by all appearances, Patsy died peacefully.  

Patsy may or may not be in these photos taken when we went to visit our friend's chicks....we received six chickens from this group of chicks.  

 

A very young Patsy....trying out the roosting bar in her new home: 

 

 With a young friend, who charmed Patsy by feeding her blueberries....

And this is the last photo I took of Patsy...this summer, as she joined her friend Loretta Lynn in the hen favored left side nesting box: 

 
Last night, after I told little c that Patsy had died, she drew this photo and penned this little obituary.  June Carter is actually c's proclaimed "favorite hen" but maybe that made c feel a little guilty for having a favorite...who knows?  

Like little c, I am glad we have "pichers of her" to help us remember our friend, the little Dominique hen, Patsy Cline.  She was a good girl.  We will miss her.

 peace and all good, 

Lisa

in clover: egg-static

After getting off to a slow start (compared to some other chickens I happen to know), my hens are now regularly laying eggs! 

Patsy Cline, our Dominique

The Brown Leghorn lays white eggs.  The Dominique, Silver Laced Wyandotte and Rhode Island Red all lay light brown eggs.  The Americauna (nicknamed an "Easter Egger") lays GREEN eggs and the Welsummer contributes a lovely, rich dark brown egg with...(be still, my heart)....SPECKLES.




June Carter's first egg...hard to tell but it is definitely green!

It took a little time to get the nesting boxes just right for the girls.  At first they preferred to squeeze under the very short ladder that leads to the aviary for laying their eggs rather than using the nice, cozy and EASILY ACCESSIBLE nesting boxes Michael carefully constructed for them.

My chicken keeping neighbor suggested that I put a cardboard box in each of the nesting boxes so that the girls would feel more enclosed and secure.  When Michael brought home a bushel of cucumbers from our farmer's market for pickle making, we realized the boxes would fit just right so we gave it a go.  Another friend brought us a grocery sack of hay to line the boxes and the very next day we found six eggs (from six hens) laid neatly right where we had hoped.

Hallelujah! 

No more climbing into the coop on my hands and knees to hunt for eggs hidden under the ladder. 

Here are some shots of our first eggs.  I can't even begin to tell you how exciting it was to find them. 

Did you know that you do not need to have a rooster to get eggs?  You DO need to have a rooster to have fertilized eggs.  

Chickens lay about an egg a day except in the winter when egg production drops significantly.  Some commercial egg operations keep lights on in the coops in the winter to trick the girls into laying more eggs but the fact is a chicken will only lay so many eggs in a lifetime and once she's laid them, she's done.  Tricking your girls into laying more in the winter just wears them out early.  

One of our chicken keeping goals was to have a "zero waste" yard and so far, so good!  We live in a neighborhood full of large, old oak trees.  Leaves in the fall are abundant, to say the least!  Last fall, we saved a number of bags of oak leaves and that is what we have used (shredded) as the bedding in our coop.  When we mow our lawn we either mulch the clippings back onto the lawn or we bag the clippings and feed them to the chickens.  They LOVE grass clippings. 

We were all ready composting leaves and kitchen scraps but I have never composted weeds.  I did not want weed seeds in my compost.  Now I feed all the weeds to the chickens.  The greens are very good for them and they must taste great because they go crazy when they see me coming with a bucketful. 

When we remove soiled bedding from the coop or aviary we put it straight into the composter and then in a few weeks time it is ready to be added to the vegetable and flower garden.  We feed the chickens most of our kitchen scraps but what they don't care for goes into the composter.  It decomposes much more quickly now...the chicken poo really keeps the composter hot.

So there you have it...we have no yard waste anymore and the "waste" the chickens create is a much better fertilizer than any chemical fertilizer we could buy.   All of that plus fresh eggs and a whole lot of entertainment.  

What more could you want?