The
Ladies and The Reluctant Urban Rooster
My wife is now the queen of her own
backyard coop. We have become part of
the urban chicken movement in New England. Honestly it was a quick decision more than
likely based on two of our three children leaving the roost and going off the
college than the desire for sustainable agriculture in our backyard. After admiring the flock kept by a neighbor two
streets over she said “I want some chickens.”
After 26 years of marriage I knew
that meant I needed to jump into action.
After some internet research I decided I would build a “chicken tractor”
which most of you know is portable chicken coop ideal for moving around the
yard. Our goal was to make the coop
without spending too much money, otherwise the idea of eggs produced by the 5-6
chickens we planned to keep for the purpose of supplying us was not a sound
financial decision. I set upon an old
child’s redwood play structure in our backyard which was not of any use to our
children. It provided all the wood
needed. I searched the net for a design
to copy. Multiple websites and several
You Tube videos later I had the chicken tractor designed and built. I had even managed to enlist a child’s
scooter for wheels and an old kitchen cabinet for the door of the living
structure. The only item that I needed
to purchased was the appropriate wire for the outside of the coop. We were now ready for the LADIES, as my wife
has come to call them.
My wife, daughter, and I decided to
find someone in our local area that had chickens available. We decided to get chickens that were already 8-10
weeks old and able to be outside in a coop without additional temperature
concerns. We knew that a New England
winter would come 12 short weeks after they joined us and we wanted to make
sure we had success.
After purchasing 6 Ladies of various
breeds I cannot recall, a few books and periodicals, feed, a feeder, a watering
apparatus, and the wire for the coop, we were now into the project for about $110. After my wife and daughter named chickens
Dumpling, Bubbles, Sprinkles, Tater Tot they turned to me and told me to name
two of them. Without hesitation, I named
them for something I loved about chickens, Fajita and Enchilada. My wife changed their names to Rita and Spicy
because she felt I was putting a little too much pressure on them to perform.
A chicken tractor at the time seemed
like the best choice for our back yard.
We move the tractor every week which I have found prevents the grass
from being completely decimated by the chickens in the coop. My wife, a degreed horticulturalist, assures
me that come this spring the chicken poop will be excellent fertilizer and the
Ladies will eliminate any lawn pest problem we may have had. I wonder how grass can grow when all that is
left is dirt when the Ladies are done but I will pass my judgment next spring.
We were told that the chickens could
begin laying sometime between 20 and 24 weeks.
After 22 weeks I was circling the coop with warm flour tortillas and Texas
Pete buffalo sauce threatening their existence if they did not soon provide us
with our required bounty.
On a crisp morning on the first day
of winter it was my chore to clean out the coop. The chickens make an amazing and aromatic
mixture of hay and chicken poop that my wife has me pile neatly in a mulch pile
for use next spring. Out of the corner
of my eye I spotted a light green oval object.
I was a little skeptical since at 21 weeks my wife had placed a couple
golf balls in the coop to encourage the Ladies to lay eggs. This would either trick them into thinking
the balls were actually eggs as an example or she was letting them know that I
had a set of clubs and was willing to use them. I had come running in with the two golf balls
a week earlier telling of my joy at being the first to find two eggs. I knew we had amazing chickens since one was
able to lay an egg with Titleist printed on it and the other with my company’s
logo! Indeed, this day, I had found our
first real egg. I told my wife one of
the Ladies had tried to engrave something on it as a peace offering to me, but
she assured me it was just a random chicken poop design.
We took pictures of it and sent it to
all our family from California to Texas as if our chickens were the first ever
to manage laying eggs. My father in law
has also added a new coop which he has yet to stock with chickens because he
was worried about their laying in the winter, he lives in Waco, TX. I guess the chickens in Texas don’t have
feathers.
We are now getting 4-6 eggs a day
from our Ladies during some very cold winter days. We found that we have to gather them early so
they do not get damaged, we gather them quickly when we let the Ladies out of
their coop.
Chicken knowledge is what one gains
every day the Ladies are in our back yard.
The eggs have been wonderful. I
was a little unhappy when my wife had me purchase a dozen store eggs so she
could keep the carton to put our eggs into.
This took our $110 investment to $112.29. I did not add in the box of Cheerios she uses
as treats.
Well, after a couple dozen eggs some
of our investment has been recovered, but I have now decided to consider the
chickens a hobby rather than a money saving venture, which is fine considering
the smile they put on my wife’s face and the joy they bring her each day as she
shares her anthropomorphic stories about the Ladies. “Rita was irritated with me today.” She will say and I will reply “How do you
know?” “I can tell by the expression on
her face.” No offense but I have stared
at the chickens trying to get some sort of facial response and have yet to see
a change of expression.
A chicken truism I have learned; No
matter how carefully you walk in the chicken coop, you will step in chicken
poop.
