Chickens, Seeds, and February Happenings

(An update and an attempt at a conversational blog post)

Up to this point, my blog posts have been mostly informational, structured, and essay-like. I’m going to try to break that tendency with this one by writing freely and authentically with little planning (but not no planning, because I am who I am– I still made a bullet point list for this).

It’s February now– we’ve made it through most of the winter. After living in eastern Washington for several winters, I have learned ways to appreciate the season, despite it often feeling bleak and grim. I will say, northern winters were definitely a part of why I wanted to relocate further south, but they did teach me how to make the best of this time if nothing else. In the northern US, cities and towns are used to long winters and snowy, icy weather. People there don’t seem phased by a few feet of snow, slippery roads, or 4 p.m. sunsets. In fact, they are acutely aware of how important it is to gather together to make it through and are profoundly better than me at winter sports which helps. 

At a certain point in the northern winter, it starts to feel natural getting your evening started after the sun has set. I would go home from work (already dark), get home and decompress (still dark), then do something like go on a walk with my partner or walk to the pizza shop up the hill, or one of the many pubs down the hill (darker still), and during those times I always saw a good amount of other humans, stretching their legs, getting together with friends, getting a second wind. This brought great relief and helped to balance out the intensity of the winter time. I remember these winters so fondly, though they were not easy and I am grateful to be in a place where I can still walk outside and absorb sunshine most days throughout the winter. (But look how beautiful):

A Washington Winter Sunset

Here in the Oklahoma Ozarks winter is, for the most part, pretty mild. The days certainly get shorter, darker, and colder, but it isn’t surprising to have several days where temps hover around 50F (10C), and we don’t get a deep, months-long freeze with a spring thaw. This makes it pretty easy to start feeling like it’s spring in early to mid February. However, my brain is still very much in introspective winter mode. There are so many projects I wanted to do this winter: 

• Learn to make soap (I bought most of the supplies, still need a few ingredients and more confidence)

• Get some more practice making candles (100% failed to do this despite having supplies)

• Organize and order seeds (I did this!)

• Practice baking bread (I did this, thanks to my grandma gifting me her stand mixer)

• Get the website up and running (obviously)

• Start writing (also obvious)

• Make lots of artwork (I definitely made some artwork and I am continuing to do so)

Clearly I have not done/worked on all the things I had planned to do during winter, but you can’t really blame a girl with a full time job for not dedicating all of her free time to hobbies, can you? I’ve still got to pencil in time for things like sleeping, eating, spending time with other humans, making nice meals with my partner, and binge watching shows with my cat as well. However, I am proud of myself for setting aside any time at all to work on skills I want to develop, and even more proud that I have been dedicating a sizable amount of time to these skills and hobbies. I’m working on building habits that stick, which I have found to be one of the most difficult things about adult life. Some days/weeks are easier than others, but overall I’m proud of the results of at least trying.

There are a few upcoming projects that have been on my mind in this late winter starting-to-kind-of-sort-of-consider-the-idea-of-spring period. One of them is raising some new baby chicks. I’ve currently got 4 hens that I raised from babes, none of which have begun laying eggs yet. They are right at the age where they should start, so I’m giving them extra treats lately and making their nesting boxes as enticing as possible and I’m hoping for a harvest soon. In the meantime, I want to add some variety of breeds to the flock as well as get a rooster for both protection and the possibility of hatching out our own chicks in the future. 

Last year I bought our guinea keets (keet=baby guinea, like chick=baby chicken) and chicks from a local hatchery and have been happy with them, so I have preordered a few more this year: six Ameraucanas (yes, it’s often spelled like that) and one Barred Rock. I’ve wanted these breeds for a couple of reasons: 1) Ameraucanas are known for having gentle, friendly dispositions, and since these will be straight run (meaning they aren’t sexed at a day old when you get them, so it’s an unknown mix of males and females) I am almost certain I’ll end up with a rooster, and probably more roosters than I want. I’ve been apprehensive about bringing a rooster into the mix because of their notorious aggression and loudness, but this breed is supposed to have (fingers crossed) some of the friendliest roosters. 2) Ameraucanas lay blue eggs! 3) Barred rocks are gorgeous and known to be some of the sweetest, friendliest chickens. They’re also a heritage breed, meaning they are pure bred (in theory, provided that you trust the hatchery) and are generally healthier birds who will lay longer and be nice and hardy. 

Barred Rock Hen

Ameraucana Hen

Ameraucana Rooster

I’ve got their brooder all set up to bring them home to and since I did this last year, I’ve got all the supplies ready to go. As with most things in my life, I didn’t decide to buy chickens without doing extensive and agonizing research. Last spring I spent hours watching “How to Raise Baby Chicks” tutorials, dredging through spam-filled local Facebook groups (there are actually some pretty helpful local groups though, if you look hard enough), and reading tons of articles on the subject. 

Even still, I made a lot of mistakes. I started with a plastic storage tub lined with pine shavings. The birds outgrew that within a week or so, and constantly kicked pine shavings into their water dish, sending me into a panic about the pine shavings poisoning them. I then upgraded them to a kiddie swimming pool, which had plenty of space for them to run around, but had very short walls. To keep them from hopping out and doing their business all over the place (they seriously do their business anywhere and everywhere they stand/walk/run), I put a length of chicken wire all around the edges of the pool, which kept them in but simultaneously made it nearly impossible for me to reach in to change their food, water, and bedding. I soon found out that many people just put down paper towels instead of dusty pine bedding. The chicks can’t kick it around (well, they did but at least it doesn’t turn into dust and land on everything), they don’t eat it which makes them less likely to ingest something they shouldn’t, and it was way easier to clean as I could just pull up the newly nitrogen-rich paper towels and compost them. Efficiency! 

The pool/chicken wire setup and my cat dreaming of chicken nuggets

and the chicken nuggets

This time my plan is different. These babes are going in a medium-sized dog crate with a brooder plate, wrapped with insulating materials on three sides and the bottom, with an old plastic feed bag underneath, with paper towels on top of that. They’re going to sit at about chest level on a shelf so that hopefully I won’t look so menacing coming at them. We’ll see how it goes.

Another project we’ve been working on is starting seeds for the garden. Last year we got a seed blocker which has been such a useful tool. It eliminates the need for plastic plant start tubs, keeps the roots from getting root bound, and makes it way easier to transplant into the garden with less root disturbance. Damien makes the blocks and I plant the seeds. This also creates a use for the many spinach tubs and clam shell plastic boxes we tend to acquire, which is great. We are growing the seedlings indoors under some cheap grow lights I got last season, and they’re doing so well! Right now we have started various kinds of lettuce, spinach, broccoli, kale, calendula, and chamomile. It’s so exciting to see germination and growth when it’s still freezing out.

Seed starting setup

The last upcoming project I’ll mention here is growing fodder for the chickens. Growing fodder means purchasing seeds such as barley, oats, or wheat in bulk and sprouting them in water. This means that you only need seeds, some trays, and water to grow twice the (organic) food for the birds. As you may or may not know, the price of feed has increased astronomically over the past few years, and even more so in the past year. Any amount of savings in this department is a huge win. Plus, the sprouted grains are densely nutritious, and healthier birds means healthier eggs.

Are you thinking of raising chickens? Are you wondering if it’s worth it or have questions? I have many thoughts on this, so comment and let me know if y’all would want to read about it. I’ve also got a killer herbal chai recipe (it’s Damien’s, he gets all the credit) that I’ll share soon.

In closing, it’s been both a restful and productive winter, I’m prioritizing making art, I’m obsessed with raising chickens, the first of the year’s seeds have germinated, and spring is on her way. Life’s not always easy, but it’s pretty good for now at Fox Hollow. 

Thanks for reading.

Until next time,

Allyson