Backyard Flock Demonstration Part 1

Backyard poultry flocks are all the rage right now as people want to produce their own eggs and meat. In February, the University of Maryland organized the Mid-Atlantic Small Flock Poultry Expo. We expected 100-200 participants. Over 400 people showed up from 7 states. People are eager to learn about how to keep backyard poultry. So at the University of Maryland research farm, we are constructing demonstration facilities that people can visit and where we can conduct education programs. Below is a photograph of the complex. Our farm manager Dave Wyand, who stands in the middle, built these facilities for us.  At the right is a large layer coop that houses two free range layer flocks. It opens onto a large pasture at the rear where portable electric netting is used to optimize pasture grazing for the flocks. This demonstrates larger scale backyard production. At the left is portable pasture coop, a “chicken tractor” as some people call them. We can load it in a pickup and take to various education events to show people with small back yards how they can keep layers. In the next few days I will post more articles that describe these systems in more detail. I want to thank Dave Wyand for the work he put into building these facilities. 

 

Sustainable Landscapes

How I Artificially Re-engineered My Hens’ Pecking Order

By Michael Atkinson, Chicken Lover

A brazen daylight attack

One day while in my kitchen I heard a baby screaming. An awful, heart-wrenching sound… coming from my backyard. As I rushed outside I realized it was one of my hens.

Let me introduce them. Two Rhode Island Reds (Sammie-lane and Rose), one Golden Laced Wyandotte (Bobby Jo) and one Americana (Nikki). This was their pecking order – led by big, confident Sammie-lane who led with a gentle wing:

1. Sammie-lane      2. Rose        3. Bobby Jo         4. Nikki

Back to our story. Bobby Jo was caught up in the curled end of the chicken wire fence, freaking out in a way that made me sick, sounding the alarm. I saw two Boston Terrier dogs in the process of eating Nikki. It was shocking. Feathers were everywhere, Sammie-lane was limping nearby and Rose had simply vanished.

I grabbed each dog. Up and away they went, flying high over the fence unceremoniously back to their yard with satisfying thuds – they were neighbor dogs and had dug under my fence.

 I rushed the remaining three hens to the veterinarian. The triage nurse quickly admitted them for emergency life-saving surgery. My incredulous wife mocked me bad (and was upset later at the bill) but my kids stood by me. We saved the hens’ lives. Over the next couple months we did our best to administer oral anti-biotics twice daily and rub anti-biotic cream on their wounds. Bobby-Jo got re-infected and had to go back for Surgery Part II. Nikki was severely depressed for a few weeks… instead of being her spry self, she’d slowly shuffle around dejectedly despite actually having the least wounds. I was worried sick they wouldn’t pull through but they all did. With consequences...

Chickens pecking chickens… and a new regime

We had found Rose hiding under discarded netting for the strawberry patch, reunited them all and soon I was shocked again: Sammie-lane was being severely pecked by the others. Her surgery shaved rump literally squirted blood as the others tried feeding on it. I put smelly black cream from the feed store on the wound but it didn’t do much. I then separated her: keeping the others in their fenced off area I let her roam the rest of the yard. She got lonely, it was sad.

Meanwhile over the next several weeks a New Fowl Order was established. Gone was Sammie-lane’s kind reign. Bobby Jo took over, and ruled with an Iron Claw. She cracked down on the other two brutally. It was senseless violence, shameful and ruthless. Realizing I was too emotionally immature of a human to let the chicken’s pecking order go its own way naturally, I staged an intervention.

Manipulating the pecking order

Step 1:

• I isolated the bully Bobby Jo from the other two in a solitary A-frame coop for a few weeks. (I believed if I brought her back at a later time, it would be 2 vs 1 in the pecking order and she would lose status and I was correct.) I always made sure the groups of chickens were near/could see each other.
• I also tried reintroducing Sammie-lane after a couple weeks, thinking she was healed enough. Nope. Nikki and Rose still went after here. Back to Isolation for Sammie-lane.

Step 2:

• After almost a couple months I felt good about Sammie-lanes’ healing so I re-introduced her again. Feathers were growing in well and she looked much better. They all looked like they were going to survive! But I was still worried about the pecking order, and still had three separate groups of chickens. I reintroduced Sammie-lane with Nikki and Rose. Rose, having successfully hid from the dogs, had of course been the healthiest this whole time. Bright red comb and wattle, she was energetic and quite a contrast to the recovering three.

Soon as I put Sammie-lane back in, Rose attacked really aggressively. Poor Sammie-lane just melted. It broke my heart and made me mad. So I booted Rose in with Bobby Jo – misery loves company ladies! Nikki asserted dominance with Sammie-lane and I let it slide because she wasn’t cold-hearted cruel about it. Again I figured I’d eventually add Rose or Bobby Jo back in one at a time, they’d enter at the bottom of the pecking order, and I’d re-arrange Nikki later… exactly what happened.

Step 3: After a couple weeks, Bobby Jo got let out of the coop to rejoin Nikki and Sammie-lane. After staying long enough to ensure Bobby-Jo sinks to the bottom of the pecking order (the power of 2 vs 1), Nikki went in with Rose. Sammie-lane got good payback and Bobby Jo quickly sank back under her in the pecking order.

Step 4: Nikki came back, easily went back under Sammie-lane (and Bobby Jo), and then finally Rose was reintroduced as well. By this time Sammy-lane was flush red again in her comb and wattle, and strutting her stuff. All back to normal!

A happy ending

There are still remnants of the Pecking Order Wars of ‘11-12. Nikki and Sammie-lane are best of friends – I’ve never seen Sammie-lane so much as nip at her, and Nikki is always quick to hop up on the roost and get under Sammie-lane – her favorite bedtime routine.
Rose is deft at fitting in and avoiding problems. She hangs with Bobby Jo at nighttime a lot, but is frequently welcomed to join Nikki and Sammie-lane. Bobby Jo continues to pay for her reign of terror. Dumb as a rock and a social misfit, she often gets pecked and chased off. At times she sleeps alone. Lately the girls have been reuniting a lot at night like an old teen band getting together for reunion gigs. It warms my heart. They are happy and each lay eggs almost seven days a week. And most importantly, back to where they started in their original pecking order, after months of hard work and juggling isolations and social groups by their favorite meddling human…

 by Michael Atkinson

Legacy of trees

When my grandfather built a farm home east of Shelley, Idaho in 1928, one of the first things he did was to plant trees around the house. He was 53 years old and he knew he would not live there long enough to enjoy the shade of those trees. He was planting them for the generations to come. My father and mother bought the house and nurtured the trees. Those Box Elder trees grew large and shaded the house. Flocks of song birds nested in their branches. I played under them and in them (tree houses) as a child in the 1960s. I napped under their coolness on hot summer days. I splashed in piles of their autumn leaves. How grateful I am that Grandpa Johnson planted those trees.

We delight in the beauty of spring flowering trees, suckle the sweet goodness of fruit trees, bask in the coolness of shade trees, revel in the fire of autumn maples and aspens, celebrate in the glow and scent of pine, fir, and spruce Christmas trees, and contemplate the majesty of a mighty oaks and walnuts. But we must remember that many of these trees were planted by those who have gone before us, not for their benefit but for ours. We must carry on this legacy for future generations.

Plant a tree when each of your children or grandchildren is born.  Tree seedlings make wonderful gifts for birthdays and anniversaries. When my mother passed away in the spring of last year, my in-laws gave me a beautiful Prairie Fire crab apple tree. Now each spring when it blooms deep reddish pink blossoms, it will remind me of her.

Celebrate National Arbor Day on April 27^th. Plant trees in your yard for those who call your place home after you are gone. Organize tree plantings around your schools and churches. Initiate tree projects for your parks and playgrounds. Encourage reforestation projects. Leaving a legacy of trees is an altruistic action that passes on the pleasures of trees to future generations.

 A Prairie Fire crab apple tree commemorates the passing of my mother.

 A row of ornamental cherry trees, a birthday gift from my daughter will one day bracket our pasture fence.

~by Uncle Dale

 

Signs of the Food Apocalypse

We are going to start a new segment on this website showing the absurdities of processed foods. it is going to be called Signs of the Food Apocalypse. It will showcase the absurd processed foods that are the beginning of the end of all real food as we know it.

We are making things in this country that people 50 years ago wouldn't recognize let alone eat. I can't think of a better food to start off the sign of the food apocalypse posts. Pizza hut has created a pizza with a cheeseburger crust. I know you don't believe it because I thought it was just another Saturday Night live joke but you are wrong. Pizza hut actually thought this would be a good idea. I imagine that the Pizza Hut menu makers are a group of people that Pizza Hut has kept on a deserted island and the only thing that they have to eat are cheese puffs, slim jims, and Kool Aid.

Is there really anyone who thinks this works! I am beside myself. Check out the video for said burger pizza and fear the end. It is near.




 What are your nominations for the signs of the food apocalypse?

"We are Not Born Craving Whoppers and Skittles"

Check out this video of a TED talk from Mark Bittman. I think you will find it interesting. I don't agree with everything he says by any means but he has an interesting viewpoint on the ills of our modern food supply. He posits that one of the biggest problems with the world today is that we eat too much meat. This leads to health, and environmental problems. He gives a very quick history of modern food supply starting at about 7:40 in. My favorite quote that he gave was "We are not born craving whoppers and skittles."




Like I said, I don't agree with everything he says but I do think I would be better off eating less meat and processed foods. Marisa and I have already improved on this but we can do even better.

Now that you've seen Mark Bittman's opinion, share with us what you think is the biggest problem with what we eat in our modern society?

CSA

Don't forget to start looking for a local CSA (community supported agriculture). I love this video put on by my local CSA. Check it out: