Bauer Kirsten's Urban Farm...e-i-e-i-o

Martha

2011-04-17T20:09:00.001-07:00

Martha is my Ameraucana hen and coincidentally a rescue. When I got her last year her entire saddle (back) had not a feather on it from being picked on by an alpha type hen at her previous residence. Now look at how healthy she is. I guess she had to catch up with a molt and has never gone broody on me yet. Just getting to the point where she'll let me pet her back and has always eaten from my hand.

My hens eat organic pellet's (to reduce waste) mixed with food grade DE on occasion, they free range in the yard and I am sure they consume a considerable amount of bug matter and grit, plenty of my garden (of which they can reach), all of the scraps that we do not consume, organic plain yogurt and probably an occasional lizard or two. She certainly doesn't turn her nose up to much.

Getting Caught Up!

2011-04-11T16:12:00.000-07:00

Not too sure where time has gone, like the entire school year! WOW. Where to begin. I left off with some new pullets getting ready to lay so they are graduated to HEN status. All four (Sonny, Esther and Jean pictured) of them have started to lay on a daily basis, all light brown eggs. The hens come from a leghorn hen and pekin bantum cock. All are beautiful hens and very social and loving and on occasion naughty. School has become a fun teaching environment for me. Kindergarten has an egg section that they study and I have been invited into the classrooms this year to speak about being an urban farmer, specifically hens. Currently waiting on 38 eggs that are sitting in a kinder incubator--we'll see how brooding goes in my kitchen this time around. Should be interesting, to say the least.

The gardens are doing well. I have a raised bed in the back currently with red leaf, arugula, broccoli and a couple potato varieties. The new bed out front has tomato plants, pole beans, okra, cilantro and jalapeno's. Seems to be working well out there catching a good portion of the southern sun exposure and knock on wood, no javelina visits. For those of you who do not know what a javelina is...it is a peccary not a pig but looks like a black boar. On the edges of town that are opened to the desert they come in to forage on the flowers and plants that people try so hard to grow. Pretty aggressive and very protective of their young. I wouldn't want to be confronted by one!

Composting is very beneficial in our family. First of all, nothing is wasted in this house. What little food is not consumed goes straight to the hens with the exception of onions and potato skins. No protein goes into the compost heap but I have been experimenting with old socks, t-shirts and of course Sun Chip bags and I think I even threw in an old silk scarf. Pulled out the better part of a yard of black gold not too long ago and the trees and veg gardens loved every bit of that nice amendment. This is a fun adventure and some great learning for the boys. Being Sicilian, I grew up in a garden and have nothing but great memories!

I am really trying, not too hard obviously, to find the motivation and time to build a new chicken coop. Maybe it just isn't the right time as they, all ten of them, seem pretty cozy in their little log cabin BUT...a packrat has spread the wrath of destruction throughout their current residence. Just in case you were wondering, pack rats gnaw on pretty much everything. I found the finger of a glove inside the coop where a little pack rat was hulled up inside of an old "H" block. Needless to say I was happy to introduce him to his or her maker with no remorse.

Almost Ready to Lay

2010-08-02T13:04:00.001-07:00

Well, we have our flock reduced to 10 now. After finding out that Chicken Little was a little fella...we found a great place for him to live with his two brooder-mates, Maggie and Jasman. They didn't come from the same hatch but grew up together so I really thought that it was best to not separate them. A really nice lady from the South Tucson took them in and is giving them a great life. Thank you so much Julie.

I am getting ready to do yet another modification to the hen house. I am going to take another Little Tykes playhouse (cottage, if you will) cut out the south wall and attach it to the other Log Cabin. Then, I will reconfigure the inside of the house with a couple more nesting boxes and some new and improved roosts for the girls. Want them to be cozy and safe and certainly protected from the elements.

We have added a new bunny, Lovehearts, to our small farm outside. He is a nice addition to our family so far and hopefully teaching the boys a little more about how much care and love animals NEED. Although I am seemingly the primary caregiver to Lovehearts the rest of the family is pitching in. I will post progress to the add on as I get going.

Acceptance...

2010-05-20T20:22:00.000-07:00

Life is good on Ranch de la Richter! I have introduced 4 new hens that are 2 months old now to the rest of the flock. The eat, sleep and roost together. As you can see in this picture Ms. Claus, the Araucana, is teaching little Sunny how to dust herself properly and completely obliterate my mulch. The older Aunties are doing so well with the little ones. Aside from a little henpecking at night when they goto roost they are doing great. I think the only problem, which really might not be a big issue, is that the older hens want to eat all of the 'baby food'. I think they are just pigs with wings. Anyway, I am really pleased with the way things are going here. Maxie, our 2 year old Shih Tzu, thinks that perhaps she is some kind of herding dog or a chicken for that matter. Wherever they might end up Maxie is always somewhere in the mix. I don't know if it is the free chicken poop snacks that they leave laying around or if she really enjoys playing the part of a chicken. At any rate it is really cute.

New Family Members/ Coop Ad On

2010-05-02T20:03:00.000-07:00

Where do I start. We have been very busy with our little urban farm. Our class project hatched 17 chicks and we kept 6 of them for ourselves. 2 Roosters (the two dark chicks above) from our 6 went to a nice new home today in Rio Rico, Arizona and I am looking forward to keeping up with their lives. So now I am left with 4 new hens. They are beautiful and developing their own little personalities. We also have had a very broody Buff Orpington who was sitting on a baseball. Wow- did that baseball get some big love from her. I think she sat on that thing for a week before I started to feel bad about denying her maternal/hormonal needs so I got a half dozen fertilized eggs from a farmer around the corner and slid them under her. Talk about content and dedication. We ended up with 3 more chicks from her hatch a couple of weeks ago and they are beautiful. Last week we also took in a pretty little chick from another class hatch. Life is good in the chicken department.

To make room for our new family members and to make it easier for Vanessa while we are gone this summer I put an addition on the coop. About 8x12' and used all materials that I essentially went dumpster diving for, alley hunting and freecycling. All but the shade cloth that was so necessary to buy at ACE. Don't want to come out to fried chicken this summer- it will be brutal heat for them but this area was built under a Palo Verde tree (about 30-40' tall) and provides ample shade but you can never be too careful. The shade cloth will also act as a line of defense for any predators. Knock on wood, we have been doing very well with the exception of an occasional annoying pack rat. Snap trap loaded with peanut butter seems to handle that problem pretty well.

Off to bed. Still love being a chicken lady and taking a bunch of crap from my dear friend Brooke in Cape Coral, Florida. Seems like she is awfully hungry for chicken wings on a frequent basis.

HoooRay! An incubator batch with Emmett's Kinder class

2010-04-09T07:27:00.000-07:00

Donor Roo- Pekin Bantam, Egg donors...Araucana and Leghorn. What do we get? 16 beautiful, fuzzy, fat and healthy little chicks! We have found 8 of them great homes and I am going to take my chances with the other 8. Any Roo's will need a good home- perhaps not in a stew pot. This is just like having a baby. I am going to introduce them to the outside for a bit this weekend.

This is really working!!

2010-03-07T07:51:00.001-08:00

Life as a micro farmer is really working beautifully for our little family. Gardens are thriving, only because Mother Nature and El Nino are in our favor for moisture right now. Our hens are really doing well and seem to be a happy little netork not to mention really hard workers. Our newest hen, Martha, who I swapped a bag of feed for is a great little layer. She is an Amerucana who was being pecked on her back by her henmates and all of her feathes have about grown back. She is still trying to figure the human element out but coming around nicely. She actually ate some yogurt from a spoon in my hand yesterday and I was elated. Silly, hugh? Just want her to feel safe around me and not to think I have a butchers knife behind my back.

Egg production is good. We are getting between 5 and 6 eggs per day. With that we have been feeding our family quite nicely and able to supply a dozen of eggs every other week to two rotating customers. One of our hens, Joo Joo, has decided that she is a lap chicken and favors Emmett petting her little neck. She will sit and let him pet her and close her eyes for a quick nap in the safe hands of a very able boy. Harrison, who is three, wants to try and jump over the hens and I know that this will result in sure death. He cannot jump over a crack in the sidewalk let alone a living creature.

I am thinking about expanding the size of my coop by half and need to build a better entry for the human folk to clean it out- oh, and exterminate a pack rat who has decided to eat a hole in the side of the playhouse. Bad rat! More later

Composting Chicks n' boys

2010-01-18T07:41:00.001-08:00

We really had not announced any new hens- but we have added 3 Buffs to our home, Big Bertha, Elly and Milly and the new Araucana is Joo Joo and of course we have Ms. Claus. Now that the formal introduction of names has taken place.

We have relocated our compost to an area in our backyard near the coop. The composter is a very easy and basic one. In this case we have 3 bales of alfalfa butted up next to one that makes up a part of a breaker wall to the hens coop back yard covered by an old gate that the dumpster gods have so kindly supplied us. Vanessa turned the rich matter yesterday, which smells like lovely rich, healthy soil and the hens pulled a seat up to the buffet. Have you ever seen a hen fight another for a big ole' juicy bug? Not pretty. If they had jewlery on they would be taking it off getting ready for a fight!
Emmett kept a glove on his right hand in case he saw one to feed Ms. Claus, who is still being slightly hen pecked by Big Bertha.

Here you can see them getting down to the goodness. I think that they are taking a liking to their new environment and coop. We love it that they are like dogs with feathers. All of our hens but Ms. Claus will let you hold them and pet them a little but of course they will all come running and eat out of your hand.

When the Buff's came Big Bertha found it comforting to lay her egg near a rock in the alfalfa that was close to the size of one of her eggs. Elly, I think, was laying a pile of eggs under the Oleander hedge. Now all three Buffs lay next to a baseball in a fluffy nesting box on the ground. Unique. We are getting at a minimum 4 eggs per day from 5 hens right now. I would really like to add two or three more at this point. I have 2 customers right now who I can give at least a half of a dozen to each week and have a 3rd lady who wants eggs, too. A micro business. Now all I need is a name.

Some New Family Members

2010-01-11T18:45:00.001-08:00

Welcome to our family Joo Joo (pictured to the left). She is a pretty little Araucana who has quickly made friends with our other little Araucana and sole survivor of the bobcat incident, Ms. Claus. They have actually hit it off quite nicely. Joo Joo doesn't mind being handled and coos when you pet her close to you. I LOVE HER!

We have also added 4 Buff Orpingtons or as Emmett calls them, Puffins. Very cute so of course we are calling them Puffins as well. Unfortunately we lost one the other night to probably the stupid bobcat. We have since spent the weekend reinforcing our coop and researching how to eradicate the bobcat from ever coming on our property again short of using a large shotgun. If something gets into this coop now we have certainly failed in a large way. The roof is super reinforced with an old shed that I took apart and built a nice sturdy roof. We basically sewed all of the chicken wire with a heavy guage wire fastener- closed up any potential holes and so on.

Yesterday Joo Joo spent the ENTIRE day working on 3 nesting boxes...scratching and organizing the alfalfa in them not to mention cackling the entire time. In the end she gave us a pretty little green egg. Today the 'puffins' gave us their first beautiful brown eggs and I am certain that one of them has a double yolk.

I really love keeping chickens and it is quite addicting to say the least. Not only do I have human children, children with fur (my shih tzu's) but now I have kids with feathers. Oh, the pressure! I feel very guilty that the others, Nana, Donna, GoGo and a beautiful unnamed Buff met their demise to that damn bobcat through a coop that had a couple weak spots but I promise to do better by them.

Learning alot here. Learning alot about chickens and myself and I am loving watching the boys learn and be so caring with them. I am loving watching Vanessa find herself in the garden, building a compost bin and hugging chickens. Those things just make me fall in love with her even more and appreciate my boys beyond belief. I am lucky in that regard.

R.I.P. Donna, Nana and Go Go Suzy Q

2010-01-02T09:17:00.000-08:00

I am so sad today. I woke up wondering why the chickens were not up yet afterall, it was light. Then I noticed Ms. Claus squaking as usual but different. THEN...I noticed a large Felis Rufus or bobcat in our henhouse, in the henhouse!! It had already killed Donna- who was just warming up to me and eating out of my hand, Nana...she was the leader, strong and in charge but certainly no match for a bobcat and GoGo, my absolute favorite little hen who sat on my lap, ate from the kids' hands and looked at us through the sliding glass door for snacks. My heart hurts so badly this morning. This is not the picture of the exact bobcat but this is what that shit looked like.

Eat the Pansy's

2009-11-02T17:44:00.001-08:00

Looks like GoGo SuzyQ is getting a little more comfortable here at her new home. She has found that she loves to eat the pansys and the others have learned that they like them as well. She is doing very well even though her coop-mates make her feel like she needs to hide on the roost when they are in the coop area. I have been giving her a mix of organic plain yogurt and some chick food for some good high protein- she loves it and eats it in little balls from my hand. Mrs. Claus has learned to eat from my hand as well while Donna is thinking about it and Nana just gets pissy. Good chicken.

Welcome to our home GoGoSuzyQ

2009-10-23T18:23:00.000-07:00

We have added a new hen to our little family. Emmett and Harrison have decided that GoGoSuzyQ shall be her new name and so it is. She had a good day after an hour drive to our home on the other side of Tucson. Once introduced the rest of the girls were not pleased but over the course of the day they seem to be easing into the idea...very slowly. She is very sweet little girl, an Araucana, eats from my hand, sat on my lap and seems to want to be by my feet and I am just fine with that. She had watermelon and salad with the girls and I think her fair share of seed, little seedlings under the birdfeeders and more bugs that she could get. She was living in close quarters with several other hens on a lovely homesite in the NW Tucson area. Now she will have the freedom of a large yard- and lots of little buffets everywhere. So happy.

Such a nice breakfast

2009-10-10T07:43:00.001-07:00

Breakfast compliments of Nana and Ms. Claus. Their eggs are so pretty and now we know the meaning of "urban farm fresh". Awesome. I must say however the kids were a little disappointed when the green egg wasn't green when we cracked it open.

Venturing from the coop

2009-10-07T08:26:00.000-07:00

Ms. Claus and Donna have learned to adventure far away from their coop and here they are seen enjoying some of the 'grass' in our yard. Obviously there is no moisture in Tucson and the grass that we have is a hole we patched for a giant party this past April so nobody would break their ankle. Time to put some irrigation in. It is Bermuda grass and they seem to enjoy chomping on it. Nana is busy inside the coop laying an egg as these two munch. The girls have definitely become very trusting with me out in the yard, Vanessa too. In fact- they cluck until we let them out, like little kids. We are still working on Maxie not chasing them and giving them a heart attack but it seems like we might get there. If she could only be like Ruby.

I am looking to add 3 more hens to our family this week.

Little brown egg...so cute.

2009-10-04T18:10:00.000-07:00

Nana has been nesting today and looking happier and healthier. See what she made? A perfet little brown egg. We are so stangely proud of her and happy all at the same time. Like we are doing something right and giving them a new, stable and loving home.

Things are going quite well for us with the exception of a little incident this weekend. Maxie, our Shih Tzu, kind of wants to chase the chickens so she is not allowed out with them. Hopefully this will pass. Our other Shih Tzu, Ruby is fine with the chickens and they don't seem to mind her either. Vanessa accidentally let Maxie out Saturday morning while the girls were grazing in the yard- Donna was so scared that she flew up into an old mesquite tree then into the alley which is loaded with cacti and lots of pokey things. It took 1.5 hours of coaxing and looking for Donna and we found her sitting under a giant agave. Vanessa and I were able to flush her out and get her to walk into the yard through a gate on her own. TRAUMATIC for all involved.

The girls spent the weekend grazing on lots of bugs, fresh produce and lay crumble. Getting used to each other is a little easier than I think. We are thoroughly loving our chickens and our little chicken farm.

The girls.....

2009-09-30T19:31:00.001-07:00

We brought Donna, Ms. Claus and Nana home today- they are a little skittish but will adjust fine, I am sure. The only issue we are having is that one of my Shih Tzu's wants to eat the chickens and actually got into the pen with them and it was not a good scene. I felt really bad for the girls but we were able to ambulate through. Here are a couple of pictures.

One step closer to opening for business.

2009-09-28T11:17:00.000-07:00

Here are a few shots of the new coop. I just need to attach the gate and arrange the nesting boxes and roosts. Then, pick up some ladies.

As you can see I recycled a playhouse- built it up on some fence block so we could also have a concrete floor. The nesting boxes and roosts I built out of some birch and they are 12" cubes with a 4" lip. The roost I think I am going to use a branch of eucalyptus or mesquite, I haven't decided yet. The posts for the little yard are some Eucalyptus that I scored off of Freecycle. To my luck someone cut a 70' tree down and I was happy to take the wood off of their hands. I bought a few new corrugated metal sheets to provide additional shade and then fixed chicken wire overhead and used the existing Palo Verde to affix it to. I wanted it to be as natural as possible for them and safe, too. I am proud to say that 99% of this little project was created from scrap, recycled items or things that I have found along the way. The boys have been helpful and are very excited to bring some ladies home- so far they are choosing the names Ms. Claus and Donna. Where did they even come up with that ?

Coop Completion Nearing

2009-09-27T09:23:00.000-07:00

I am so excited!
Well, I have somehow managed to transform our son's little tykes log cabin into a kick ass hen house! Patting myself on the back for now. I just need to finish the nesting boxes and stick some hens in there and hope I don't kill anything. The kids have been very helpful and SO excited to bring Ms. Claus and Donna home to lay some tasty eggs for us. NOTE: THESE WILL NOT BE MEAT CHICKENS....
Pictures to follow at some point

Setting out on a chicken adventure

2009-08-27T20:22:00.000-07:00

I am in the planning stages for a small urban style chicken farm or ranchette- whatever you would like to call it. We live in Tucson, Arizona and have about a half acre for a yard. Plenty of room for chickens. Why chickens? I hate paying $5 a dozen at the grocery for who knows what you are getting, I have 2 boys who eat more eggs than you can imagine and it sounds like a rather cool hobby- I like hobbies. So here we go...going to get on the coop. Chicken tractor or a permanent coop? Stay tuned.