Organic Poultry Feed

We have teamed up with several local chicken owners to place an order for organic poultry feed and scratch.  Our local stores don’t carry anything of the sort, and when we were contacted by Amy to see if we were interested, we thought it was worth trying.  If the process works out well, we may continue to order through this local group.  I’m sure the girls will just love it.  From the description, the feed contains ingredients you can actually identify and pronounce.  We’ll post an update once the girls give it a try.

Nesting Boxes

What a treat to find these beauties in the nesting box every morning!  I love how the girls push the straw to the sides, creating the cute nests I thought only existed in cartoons.  They really do look like that!

Egg Variation

This is a great picture to show how our eggs used to vary in size and color as the hens first began laying.  The browns have since gotten more similar in color, and the sizes are generally closer, but we still get some great variation.  Sometimes an egg will come out long and skinny, and there is one aracauna that likes to lay blue green eggs with beautiful gray brown spots all over it.  We are definitely blessed with some artists in the bunch!

Dust Baths – Update

We discovered that it wasn’t necessary to create a dust bath after all.  The hens have made their own by pushing the bark mulch aside, digging down a little, flattening themselves out in their indentation, and rolling in the sand.  They also like to stretch one wing and leg out to the side if the sun is nice and warm on them.  You can see several of the girls nestled down in dust baths here.

First Winter

It’s been a while since our last update.  We’re well into our first winter with the girls, and they seem to be doing just fine.  We had a few weeks of very cold weather where the temperature was getting down to around 5 degrees at night, and the girls’ water was freezing during the night.  We have since started to close them up in the coop at night, hoping to keep more heat in the coop, and we put the lamp down closer to their water with a bigger bulb.  In late fall we switched to a 3 gallon galvanized metal waterer, suspended from the ceiling, hoping to keep their water cleaner.  So far, it’s working great, and the water hasn’t been freezing up much.  If we do hit a cold spell, we may try using a heater from a bird bath to keep the water flowing.

Now the chickens can’t wait for us to arrive in the morning and open up their chicken door so they can go outside.  They start squawking VERY loudly as soon as they hear the garage door opening.  A couple of them have even started jumping onto the sill of the door that separates the coop floor from the garage floor and venturing into the garage a few feet ~ all seeming to tell us,  “It’s about time you got here!”

Another change we have made recently is that we have switched over to laying pellets instead of laying mash.  With the mash, they always seemed to flip the smaller-grained food onto the floor in search of the large corn kernels and other large seeds.  It seemed so wasteful to us, and the coop was quite messy because of it.  They don’t seem to like the pellets as much, but they are eating it, and the coop is a lot cleaner.  We also supplement with greens and other goodies when they are available, which is always a welcome treat for the girls.

You can see from the latest photo of Rosie, the comb on the black sex-links is really well developed now, and I think they look just beautiful.  All of the birds do, and I will try to post updated photos to the flickr page soon.

Update on Salt Lake City Domestic Fowl Ordinance

I received the following email about the public process and the updated version of the ordinance:

Good afternoon,

On Thursday, November 5th, the Salt Lake City Council will hold a public hearing regarding proposed amendments to the Salt Lake City Code (8.08.010, 8.08.060 and 8.08.080, and enacting section 8.08.065) to allow chicken keeping in residential areas with certain requirements. If approved, chicken keeping would become less restrictive as long as guidelines such as total number allowed, space, shelter and sanitation requirements are observed.
Attached is a fast fact on this issue, or if you wish to review comprehensive information on this issue, please visit: http://www.slcgov.com/council/agendas/2009agendas/Nov5/110509C4.pdf

Thank you for your interest and comments on this issue.

The Council meeting will take place at the City & County Building, 451 S State Street, Council Chambers, Room 315 at 7:00 pm.

If you are unable to attend a City Council meeting, other options to view or listen to the meeting:

* visit: www.slcgov.com/council/<http://www.slcgov.com/council/> and under the “Audio/Video Link” column listen to Council meetings live from a computer
* view a rebroadcast of a City Council meeting on SLCTV cable channel 17
* visit: www.slctv.com/vd_city_council.htm<http://www.slctv.com/vd_city_council.htm> to listen to a previous Council meeting or download a podcast
* contact the City Recorder’s Office at 535-7671 and request a CD copy of a Council meeting or on this particular agenda item
If you wish to submit additional comments:

Mail: Salt Lake City Council
451 S State Street, Room 304
P.O. Box 145476
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-5476

Visit: http://apps.slcgov.com/general/absolutefp/councilAll.htm
Email: council.comments@slcgov.com<mailto:council.comments@slcgov.com>
Call 24- hour comment line: (801) 535-7654
Fax: (801) 535-7651

When providing additional information or comments to the Council, it is helpful to include your name, address, contact number, email, and submit a set of bullet points, such as:

* Issue/concern/problem
* Concerns/objections to the proposal
* Aspects of the proposal you support
* Questions you may have
* Recommendations for solutions
* Information you want to be sure the Council knows
* Other
Thank you.

Jan Aramaki
Salt Lake City Council Office
Council Staff Member
451 S. State Street, Rm 304
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
801.535.7600 (telephone)
801.535.7651 (fax)

Salt Lake City Domestic Fowl Ordinance Facing Changes!!!

Please see Amy’s note below:

Hi All,

Salt Lake City Council is proposing to limit the number of chickens you can own (according to lot size). Currently, you can own up to 25 birds. But with the new proposed changes, most people who live in the downtown area, like I do, would be limited to 4 CHICKENS TOTAL! See below:

“The number of hen chickens which may be kept shall be limited based on the size of the lot or parcel as follows:

a. ten thousand (10,000) square feet (approximately .23 acres) or larger: to twelve (12)

b. nine thousand (9,000) square feet (approximately .21 acres): up to ten (10)

c. eight thousand (8,000) square feet (approximately .18 acres): up to eight (8)

d. seven thousand (7,000) square feet (approximately .16 acres): up to six (6)

e. at least five thousand (5,000) square feet (approximately .11 acres): up to four (4).”

Ten thousand square feet is very large lot and not very common (at least in my area/ downtown).

There is one good thing about the proposed changes which is that your coop could be 25 feet away from a house (which is better then the current 50 feet law — seeing as most lots in SLC are small).

Here is a link to the Salt Lake City Council page with all of the info: http://www.slcgov.com/council/

Fact Sheet: http://www.slcgov.com/council/announcements/FFchickens10-13-09.pdf

Comment online: http://www.slcgov.com/council/ Click on “Submit Comments on a Specific Issue” on the right-hand column menu.

Mail (one copy is appreciated): Salt Lake City Council Office, 451 South State Street, Room 304, PO Box 145476, Salt Lake City Utah 84114-5476

Phone: 24 Hour Comment Line – 801-535-7654
Fax: 801 -535-7651

If you own chickens please comment. And if you don’t own chickens maybe you can pass this one to someone who does.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!

Amy

Crouching

We’ve noticed a new behavior in our hens since some of them have started laying eggs.  When you approach them in the coop or outside of the run, some of them have started crouching on the ground with their wings lifted a little out to the side.  It’s almost like they go into a trance, and they’ll let you pet them until at some point they snap out of it and realize they don’t want you to touch them after all.  Then they’ll run off.

Has anyone else noticed this with their chickens?  We are sure if it’s from some predator bird flying overhead, or just some sort of mating behavior they take on once they’re laying.  It’s interesting to see.  It’s nice not to have to chase them in order to pick them up, but it doesn’t necessarily seem like they’re enjoying it either.

We Have Egg!

Thar she blows!  The most beautiful egg I’ve ever set my eyes on.  We suspect Rosie, because she’s the most mature in her appearance, and the brown color means it’s one of the black sex-links.

Not too early after all.

Laying Eggs

Okay, maybe we were jumping the gun on egg laying.  Another text we were reading said that the average age hens start laying is 5 to 7 months.  We are just barely at 5 months (or 20 weeks).  There’s supposed to be some variation based on breed, and I can see that our aracaunas are going to be later than the black sex-links just based on physical maturity.  The aracaunas are just barely starting to develop their combs, where Rosie and Speck have pretty substantial combs already.  We are switching to laying mash this weekend when we purchase our next bag of feed.

If anyone has any input on this subject, any personal experience, please share it with us.

Oh, and the girls are getting pretty stubborn when it comes to rounding them up at night.  They love hanging out in the shade under the viburnums so much that they’re beginning to refuse being herded into the secure run in the evenings.  Last night I had to climb into the outdoor run, and even then, had to do a bit of chasing around to get them in.  Looks like I need to bring my herding dog in and give them what for ; ).