Let's Talk Chicken

Backyard chickens. We introduced you to a few local devotees of keeping chickens in the April 23 edition of Spring Tonic. Since then, The New York Times has run an article about residents of New Haven who are technically running afoul of the law by keeping egg-laying birds. (The city, it is reported, is looking the other way for the time being.)

   The good news for local residents in the Northwest Corner is that most towns in the area have no such restrictions. Of course, all homeowners need building permits for accessory buildings, so there is some paperwork to be done and fees to be paid. (And you should check with the zoning office in your town before setting up a coop.)

   The trend towards keeping chickens in the backyard is part of a nation-wide slow-food movement. In fact, people who invest their time and energy in living off the land as much as possible have a new name. They are called locavores. Al Ginouves is a locavore; that is someone who is committed to eating food grown and produced locally.

   Ginouves lives with his wife and three children in the center of Lakeville. His seven hens live in a custom built hen house just a few paces from their kitchen door. Ginouves designed and built it from recycled pieces from construction jobs and scavenged items found at the dump. As hen-housing goes, it’s comparable to the Biltmore! It is fully insulated with double paned windows (though, alas, no A/C). The chickens aren’t complaining though. His hens have a fully screened in yard complete with a chicken wire roof to protect them from the hawks.

   Ginouves told a story about Valesca, a chicken he was quite fond of.

  “She was over ten years old and twice she was hauled away by a fox and twice she escaped. She was a tough old bird. She was named after my mother.â€

   Indeed, predators are the biggest impediment to a long-lived flock. A hawk can pick up a full sized chicken and possums, weasels, neighborhood dogs, raccoons, foxes, even bobcats are all waiting for the day someone forgets to close the hen-house door. A rooster will actually do a pretty good job of protecting the flock, while he certainly is no match for a bobcat, he will alert the hens if he sees trouble and give them a chance to seek shelter. However, roosters’ reputations as non-stop alarm clocks make them less than desirable for some people to have around. Ginouves noted, “Roosters are hard on the neighbors.â€

   As noted in the previous article chickens are quite easy to feed, needing not much more than fresh water and simple chicken feed. In addition, many people love to give them their table scraps. But in the bizarre but true category, chickens are carnivores and will sometimes eat their own eggs. For this reason, some people who feed their chickens table scraps are careful not to include eggshells or chicken bones, because the chickens will eat them. Which actually makes them more than carnivores, it makes them cannibals.

   Anne Hepner and her husband Charlie live in Sharon. They have a small flock of three hens and an Aracana rooster. Anne grew up with chickens. Her father “put me in the chicken business, †she says. This was during World War II and she used to peddle the eggs off her bicycle. She’s had chickens ever since. We discovered one beautiful blue-hued egg in a nest on the floor. Though their coop is quite palatial, as it used to house goats, and they have lovely warm nesting boxes, the hens seem to prefer to make their own nests in the straw on the floor.

   The birds she has now are several years old and their productivity is waning, so in June they will take delivery of a new batch of chicks from a hatchery in Amherst. Anne explained that the difficulty in getting chicks from a catalog is you have to buy them in “straight runs.†That means you don’t know what sex you’re going to get. Most people don’t want roosters and besides, one is enough, if you do.

 but true category, chickens are carnivores and will sometimes eat their own eggs. For this reason, some people who feed their chickens table scraps are careful not to include eggshells or chicken bones, because the chickens will eat them.  Which actually makes them more than carnivores, it makes them cannibals.

   Anne Hepner and her husband Charlie live in Sharon. They have a small flock of three hens and an Aracana rooster. Anne grew up with chickens. Her father “put me in the chicken business,†she says. This was during World War II and she used to peddle the eggs off her bicycle. She’s had chickens ever since. We discovered one beautiful blue-hued egg in a nest on the floor. Though their coop is quite palatial, as it used to house goats, and they have lovely warm nesting boxes, the hens seem to prefer to make their own nests in the straw on the floor.

   The birds she has now are several years old and their productivity is waning, so in June they will take delivery of new batch of chicks from a hatchery in Amherst. Anne explained that the difficulty in getting chicks from a catalog is you have to buy them in “straight runs.†That means you don’t know what sex you’re going to get. Most people don’t want roosters and besides, one is enough, if you do.

   Dody Clarke-Wolfe who lives in Cornwall Bridge is dedicated to her chickens. She loves the various colored eggs and breeds her chickens to get the color eggs she wants. Most of her birds are various crosses. She points to different hens, “This one is a Golden Spangled something and that one is a Moran, the one over there, is a Brazilian cross.†The Aracana is the South American chicken made popular by Martha Stewart a decade ago because of the beautiful colored eggs it lays. (We’re talking about the shell color now, not the inside.) But everyone I talked to agreed that the color of the yolk of a farm fresh egg was one of its merits. It is a deeper, richer yellow than its store-bought version. Dody pointed out, that the leg color of the bird is often an indicator of the shell color. Her chickens lay eggs from pink to almost burgundy, from a pale green and blue to an oyster white.

   Dody wins the prize for the most imaginative hen house of the day. Her son Wayde built it many years ago from the body of a pick-up truck. The cab is gone and there are various appendages on it. But it’s on wheels and has a trailer hook-up, so it can be moved from spot to spot. Dody also has a custom-built mobile chicken coop on a garden cart. This she says is perfect for the roosting hen with her chicks.

   Things to know about home-raised chickens and their eggs:

   Fresh eggs should be washed before eating. Ideally wash them just before using, because there is a coating on the shell that keeps it fresh.

   The egg yolk of a fresh egg will stand up more than a store-bought one that goes flat.

   Fresh boiled eggs are hard to peel. The older the egg, the easier the shell comes off after it is hard-boiled.

   Chickens love vegetable trimmings and most dinner scraps, so they cut down on garbage waste.

   You do not need a nesting box for each chicken; they like to share.

   They are easier to take care of than a household pet; as they can be left for several days unattended with ample feed and water.

   Popular breeds are the Barred Rocks (they are very productive layers); Rhode Island Reds; Aracana (pale green and blue eggs); Silver-Laced Wyandottes; Buff Orpingtons.

   You can order day-old chicks from the Murray McMurray catalog (mcmurrayhatchery.com) and they will arrive via USPS.

   Or get them from the local Agway (by special order).     And don’t forget to check with your town’s zoning officer.