Chickens in Chicago

Another gem from City Farmer News. Somehow itR17;s a lot more fun to listen to someone else talking to city bureaucrats: “Video by Chad Kimball. Raising Chickens In The City – Chicago Police Say NO. “Is it legal to keep chickens in the city of Chicago? Listen to conflicting information I receive from the police, the city clerk, and the legal department.” For more info on the law in your area, City Farmer News suggests checkin...

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Coffee Chaff Chickens

A hen checks out her fluffy new digs: coffee chaff bedding Image shamelessly stolen from Lyanda HauptR17;s Tangled Nest blog Mrs. Homegrown here: Deep litter in the chicken coop is good for chicken health, general aesthetics and good neighbor relations. Chickens need to scratch, so giving them lots of stuff to scratch is kind. It also absorbs odor and protects stray eggs from breakage. Even better, their constant scratching combines their...

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An open letter to Trader Joes

Dear Trader Joes, First off weR17;re not an animal rights activists, nor are we even vegetarians. WeR17;re just people who like honesty in packaging. So letR17;s take a look at the carton for your Grade AA Cage Free eggs and assess the truthfulness of the illustration on its cover. Now conventional wisdom says that you are to be congratulated for selling only cage free eggs in contrast to many other food retailers who continue to sell e...

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Making Beer in Plain Language

...r.” -Guggenheim Fellowship-winning professor of rhetoric and comparative literature Judith Butler via the Bad Writing Contest Huh? At least the terminology surrounding beer making ainR17;t that obtuse, but it certainly could use some simplification. For novice home brewers, such as us here at Homegrown Evolution, the terminology creates an unnecessary barrier as impenetrable as a graduate school seminar in the humanities. Let...

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Back on the Yogurt Train: How to Make Yogurt

...what I can. Lately IR17;ve realized that one consistent source of waste plastic in our kitchen comes in the form of yogurt tubs. This is a little silly, because we know how to make yogurt. In fact, I do believe we covered it in our book. Thing is, back in the day when we made yogurt, it was ErikR17;s job. When he slacked on it, I didnR17;t even consider picking it up. Chalk it up to the mysteries of division of labor in a household. An...

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Our New Chickens

...ary Jackemuk have an ambitions breeding program to take the Barnevelder from show chicken back to farm chicken. So far the results are impressive. I took this as a message that I should fix my run and get ready for some new chickens. This weekend, I picked up four new pullets from Winnetka Farms, all crosses between a Barnevelder and an Americauna. I call them “Winnetkavelders.” The Barnevelder, according to Craig and Gary, are a gr...

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Saturday Linkages: A Boat Couch and Chickens in the News

‏ Design Couch made out of old rowboat: http://www.dudecraft.com/2012/12/all-at-sea.html … Chickens in the News Pet chicken alerts family about house fire http://www.weau.com/home/headlines VW Chicken Coop Scale Model http://www.dudecraft.com/2012/12/vw-chicken-coop-scale-model.html … Gardening What a Little Paint Can Do In Your Garden | Garden Rant http://gardenrant.com/2012/12/what-a-little-paint-can-do.html … For these links and more, fo...

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Root Simple Media Frenzy: Bees, Chickens and Road Kill

Rob McFarland of Honey Love on KPFK. I was on KPFK this week along with Rob McFarland from HoneyLove (a great organization that is helping legalize beekeeping in Los Angeles among many other projects). We were on to talk about why bees are dying off in the Central Valley and about keeping chickens in the city. You can listen to the interview here. I really enjoyed being on this show–we all sat around talking for an hour after the taping. I...

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Hens Busy Dust Bathing

ItR17;s difficult to capture the cuteness of this chicken behavior with a still camera–we really should try to make a  video.  Anyway, this is called “dusting” or “dust bathing.” The ladies have dug a hole in our yard and are gleefully rolling around in it, flicking loose dirt under their wings and driving it between their feathers. This is an innate behavior and an important part of chicken hygiene. Dusting s...

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Urban Chickens and Lead

From the One More Thing To Worry About department, the New York Times has an article on lead levels in eggs laid by urban chickens “Worries About Lead for New York City’s Garden-Fresh Eggs.” According to the article, the lead levels found in New York CityR17;s home grown eggs ranged from none to over a 100 parts per billion. Since the FDA does not have an acceptable lead level in eggs itR17;s difficult to interpret the results...

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