mediaOrganic » Chickens

Circle of Life

Phyllis — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 13:24:19 +0000

Anyone who is contemplating getting into the backyard chicken movement needs to answer this inevitable question: what are you going to do when they stop laying eggs? The precise moment when this needs to be answered is as fixed as the tides; a hen is most productive in the first year of her life [...read more]

Raising Backyard Chickens

John — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 12:22:19 +0000

We’ve been keeping backyard chickens since 2008. When Phyllis first floated the idea I was skeptical and at the same time intrigued. The idea had never crossed my mind before and I had to reconcile my suburban tidy green lawn mentality with this new, expanded possibility. Certainly the idea of fresh eggs from happy [...read more]

Brewing Leftovers Make Excellent Chicken Feed

John — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 20:22:54 +0000

Today was a brewing day and today’s recipe was a honey brown ale, two of the ingredients for which were a half pound each of crystal grain and chocolate grain barley malts. The malts are typically steeped like tea in water that has been brought to a boil. Once the steeping is complete, the [...read more]

Chickens in Winter

John — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:51:52 +0000

While in the midst of snowblowing (yes, I’m using it as a verb) my driveway last week I happened to look up and see our Australorp K.J. saunting down toward me as if it were the most normal behavior in the world. The contrast of her greenish-black iridescent feathers against the pure white snow [...read more]

Raising Backyard Chickens

John — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:45:25 +0000

In July, Phyllis gave a presentation on raising backyard chickens as part of an educational series presented by Powisset Farm, our local CSA. The presentation offers a fairly comprehensive overview of the issues and considerations involved in raising chickens in an urban/suburban locale. I have uploaded the presentation to the web and embedded it [...read more]