As the emu fad was passing in 1994, Chuck DeCourley and his wife, Sue, bought a pair of emus. He was looking for a marketable use for the eggs, perhaps something artistic, but simply painting the shells seemed too obvious. Then DeCourley learned of a unique feature of emu eggs — the shells are made of three distinct layers, each of a different color.

There are three primary layers in the shell of an emu egg. The outside is dark green. The middle layer is teal, and the inside layer is nearly white. Occasionally there is a fourth layer, which is thin and rather gray, between the outside layer and the teal layer. Carving the eggshells seemed to use the colors of each layer to the best advantage.

So in 1997, after doing some research, DeCourley purchased an engraving system. He taped a snowflake pattern onto an eggshell and started carving. That was a crude experiment, but it was the beginning of a hobby that has held DeCourley’s interest for more than a decade. In January 1998, DeCourley’s father, who was in a nursing home, suggested DeCourley try carving playing cards into an egg. That was supposed to be a practice project, too, but DeCourley was able to give the finished carving to his father for his 68th birthday. His father, being nearly blind at the time, was able to feel the precision carving of the egg and was pleased with the gift.

Getting Ready to Sculpt

To clean the eggs, DeCourley drills a three-eighths-inch hole into the large end of the egg with a diamond bit. Regular drill bits can cause hairline cracks that can’t be easily seen. These cracks would ruin the egg during the carving process. Eggs should be cleaned out when fresh or, at the very least, within three to four months of being laid. Some people use a sander to create a hole in the egg, but the holes generally get large.

Egg contents can be shaken out, or you can use an “egg-sucking bucket:” a vacuum device to remove the contents of eggs. After this, use a 25-percent bleach solution to remove the lining of the egg. Be sure to use rubber gloves when working with bleach, and avoid the fumes by working in a properly ventilated area. The solution only needs to be left in the egg for a few minutes, but then needs to be rinsed out thoroughly. The outside (dark-green) layer won’t fade if exposed to the bleach solution for a short amount of time, but if left for several hours will cause discoloration.

Shells are then coated with Krylon clear acrylic. This gives the eggs a non-yellowing, UV-resistant coating, but the carving will still turn a sort of sepia color if left in sunlight or under fluorescent lights. Carvings are best displayed under incandescent light. It is also important to protect the inside of the shells, as the white layer is only 0.005- to 0.006-inch thick. For this, you could use a mixture of 50 percent Elmer’s glue and 50 percent water. Coat the inside of the egg several times with this mixture prior to working on the egg. If you consider carving chicken or goose eggs, in which case you might have larger empty spaces or fine filigree work, this is an especially important part of the process.

When choosing a design, be careful to choose a pattern that is not under copyright protection if you plan to sell the carving. Then simply use a copy machine to reduce the pattern to the size you need and attach it to the eggshell with glue stick. The glue softens the paper; and if the paper creases during application, simply dampen the paper and reglue it. After the glue dries, you’re nearly ready to start carving, but remember: Safety first. The calcium dust caused by the carving process is fine. DeCourley recommends using a dust collector box with a vacuum system. He also sculpts the egg under a Plexiglas shield and wears earplugs while working, as the drill used in carving produces a high-pitched (and loud) noise.

Equipment for Carving Eggs

DeCourley’s tool of choice is a “Turbocarver,” which is an air-powered dentist’s drill. The hand piece is light and comfortable, it needs no lubricating oil and can carve with or without water. DeCourley’s preference is to carve without water, because when the water mixes with the dust it produces a mud-like substance. This is a second-best situation if you don’t have dust box to remove the dust as you sculpt.

Another option for the carving tool is “Dental Tech” hand piece. This uses no air or water to run, but needs to be oiled every four hours.

The carving tool requires a significant volume of air to work properly, but not a great deal of pressure. Only 70 pounds per square inch (psi) on the condenser is required to turn the bit an amazingly fast 400,000 to 450,000 rotations per minute (rpm). The burrs (bits) are carbide and diamond burrs purchased from a dental supply house.

DeCourley uses an inverted cone burr for the basic outlines of the pattern. Being right-handed, he works in a clockwise rotation, with the burr turning away from himself. This method cuts neatly through the pattern paper without making the edges of the paper rough. As you pull the tool toward you, you make larger cuts. Working away from yourself produces finer cuts. To maintain the pattern, it is best to work from the outside of the pattern toward the center.

An old sock filled with fish-tank gravel makes an excellent resting place for the eggshells while being carved. In addition, the artist usually holds the egg with one hand while carving with the other.

Keep an extra copy of the pattern handy for reference while carving. After the basic outlines are carved, you have the pattern sketched onto the shell. “Study the egg as you work. The egg talks to me like a canvas speaks to a painter,” DeCourley says.

The Finished Product

The quality of each carving improves with time and experience. How does DeCourley know when the carving is complete? “I ask myself, ‘What can I do to make this egg better? Nothing.’ Then I quit,” he says. Although some artists polish the finished work, DeCourley does not. “I leave the burr marks in there — it’s my signature,” he says. But the marks are few and small, so they’re not easily seen.

DeCourley has sculpted over 30 eggshells since he began, and has been featured in the Eggshell Sculptor Newsletter.

The eggs make great gifts for special occasions and sell for $100 to $500. “They’re not the everyday gift,” says DeCourley. Preparing each egg for carving can take 30 minutes to two hours. Carving the egg can take 10 to 50 hours or more. This is a rare art. Many people sell decorated eggs, but few people sell sculpted eggshells.

An investment in the basic carving system, including compressor, hand piece, dust collector and some burrs, will start at about $500.

Photos by Troy Griepentrog

You can participate in the our Survey of Chicken Breeds and Hybrids.

One of the first questions people ask when they’re thinking about raising chickens is, “What kind of chickens should I get?”

That question leads to more questions. Do you want to keep chickens primarily for eggs or for pest control? How much space do you have? What are the temperature extremes in your location? Do you want your chickens to hatch eggs and raise chicks? What color eggs do you prefer?

After you’ve answered those (and other) questions, you’ll want to match your needs and desires with the breed or breeds that meet your criteria. But what are the characteristics of each breed? You can research many breeds, but how do you know the information is reliable?

Although we understand that there are significant variations within breeds of chickens, each breed has a few characteristics that are common to almost all birds of that breed. And we think that some of the information about certain chicken breeds and hybrids might be outdated, or even wrong. So, we’ve developed a survey to determine the characteristics of breeds of chickens. Our goal is to publish an article summarizing the survey in the April/May 2010 issue of MOTHER EARTH NEWS magazine.

If you have experience raising chickens, we’d like you to take the Survey of Chicken Breeds and Hybrids. Depending on your experience, it may take 15 or 20 minutes to complete. You can start by clicking here.

It’s the time of year when people are thinking “turkey.” So, this is a good time to compare six heritage breeds of turkeys that we raise. We have been raising heritage turkeys for quite a few years now. It started with a pair of Midget Whites; our most recent addition is the Standard Bronze. At any time, we have approximately 100 turkeys on the farm.

We raise Midget White, Beltsville Small White, White Holland, Royal Palm, Bourbon Red and Standard Bronze turkeys. We originally planned to raise a small flock of turkeys for meat, but we liked them so much that one breed was not enough. The more we researched, the more we wanted to help preserve some of the rare breeds. Here’s a brief history of the breeds that we raise, listed by size small to large.

Midget White

In the 1960s, J. R. Smyth Jr., who holds a doctorate in poultry genetics and served on the faculty at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass., developed the Midget White as a small meat turkey. Unfortunately, they never really caught on and the flock was dispersed. (Read A History of the Midget White Turkey.) The Midget White and the Beltsville Small White were the only 2 breeds specifically bred for the modern poultry market; the others are much older breeds and were developed on a more local or geographic level. The Midget White was never accepted into the American Poultry Association (APA).

Mature toms (males) weigh 16 to 20 pound; hens, 8 to 12 pounds. The Midgets are easily the favorite at our table because they taste great, and we rank them No. 1. This breed also received the most votes at the second annual “Timeless Turkey” taste test of nine heritage breeds at Ayrshire Farm.

Midge Whites lay a surprisingly large egg for a small hen, which can cause prolapse problems with young hens on the first laying cycle. They tend to be early layers but go broody quickly, are good sitters and do well raising poults (babies). They have a calm nature. The hens can be fence-jumpers because of their light weight. For more information on Midget Whites, read Why the Midget White Turkey is the Perfect Homestead Turkey.

Beltsville Small White

The Beltsville Small White was developed in the 1930s by Stanley Marsden and others. At the height of popularity the Beltsville Small White was the No. 1 selling turkey in the United States, outselling all the other breeds. Its success was short lived, as Broad Breasted turkeys became more popular because of shorter growing time and larger size. Beltsville Small Whites were recognized by the APA in 1951.

These birds are the same size as the Midget White, or maybe a few pounds heavier. They have wider breasts. A very nice table bird, they have the classic turkey appearance; however, we rank them fourth in taste as they have a more bland flavor than the others. They are the most prolific layers and outlay all our other breeds combined. The younger hens show little interest in sitting, but the more mature hens are more inclined to hatch eggs and be good mothers. They are the most standoffish of the breeds we raise; they show little interest in us except at feeding time.

White Holland

The White Holland is the oldest breed we raise. White feathered turkeys were brought to Europe by the early explorers. The white turkeys were bred in Holland where they were given their name; from there they returned to the colonies with the early settlers. Also a popular meat bird that was pushed out by the Broad Breasted, they were recognized by the APA in 1874.

Toms mature to 30 pounds, and hens weigh about 20 pounds. We rank the White Holland No. 3 on our scale, due to the size and shape of the dressed bird; they show their history of being a popular meat bird in the past. White Hollands are the calmest of the varieties we raise and are a great choice for someone who doesn’t have experience raising turkeys. They’re good setters and mothers but they sometimes break eggs by stepping on them because the hens are so large.

Royal Palm

The Royal Palm is the only breed we raise that is not specifically raised as a meat turkey but more of an ornamental type. The breed dates to the 1920s and ’30s. With the black and white color pattern, their appearance is striking. They were recognized by the APA in 1977.

Mature Royal Palm toms weigh about 18 to 20 pounds; hens, 10 to 14 pounds. They are a fine table bird. We rank them sixth, not because of taste but the breast meat is less developed. They are calm birds, but the hens tend to wander and can fly over most fencing easily. They are prolific egg layers and tend to go broody quickly. They are solid sitters and do well raising poults.

This breed won first place among the panel of judges at the second annual “Timeless Turkey” taste test. The qualities noted by the judges were “superior depth of flavor in both its white and dark meat.”

Bourbon Red

Bourbon Red turkeys are named for Bourbon County in Kentucky, where J. F. Barbee developed them in the late 1800s. Bronze, White Holland and Buff turkeys were bred together to develop the Bourbon Red. They were recognized by the APA in 1909.

Toms weigh about 30 pounds; hens, 12 to 14 pounds. The Bourbon Red is ranked No. 2 on our taste scale. They are curious turkeys. Anything in their area is subject to close examination by them. They are calm and often underfoot during feeding time. They’re good sitters and mothers, but also tend to go broody early.

Standard Bronze

Most people will describe Standard Bronze when asked, “What does a turkey look like?” This old breed dates to the 1800s or earlier. They were recognized by the APA in 1874.

These are large turkeys. Toms weigh about 35 pounds; hens, 20 pounds. They rank No. 5 on our taste scale but only because of the dark feathers. They don’t dress as cleanly as a white-feathered turkey. Even though the size makes some visitors nervous, Bronze turkeys are docile. They’re good layers but tend to be less broody then the others. And they tend to break eggs in the nest. They are protective mothers when raising poults.

Is one variety better than another? I would have to say, “No.” Each has its own strengths and weaknesses — even quirks. Big birds, small birds, for the table or eye candy — there is a turkey breed for everyone. Here at S and S Poultry we always say, “Everybody loves a turkey.” The more time you spend with them, the more you can see individual traits in each one.

There is a lot of misinformation about turkeys. For example, they don’t look up and drown in the rain. They are not that hard to hatch and raise, but they are sensitive to clean and proper brooding and management techniques. A little research and planning goes a long way to success. We are passionate about the heritage breeds and want to see them preserved. 

You can get more information from the American Breeds Livestock Conservancy and the Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities.

Each winter at Nature’s Hatchery, our customer service staff gets calls from concerned poultry owners who are looking for tips and guidelines on how to successfully keep their poultry through the winter. Although there many questions and concerns, we offer the following advice to cover some of the most frequently asked questions, and help folks tide their birds over until spring production begins.

Winter, although it can be harsh at times, especially in certain parts of the country, should not be detrimental if your flock is prepared and properly monitored. Birds already prepare themselves by cutting back on production, molting (getting in new feathers) and increasing feed consumption. As long as you do your part, your poultry should be just fine.

The general guidelines and specific pointers below are primarily for first-time poultry owners. These pointers contain several little-known facts, recently confirmed by science, about feeding and supplementing your birds with necessary nutrients. While the main part of this information will be most relevant to backyard poultry owners who have small- to medium-sized flocks, the principles laid out here apply whether you have one bird or hundreds.

Starting a Flock

Different age groups of poultry have unique requirements and abilities to survive cold weather. Day-old chicks are the most fragile. One of the most important things to remember when starting a flock in the winter is that the information most hatcheries and books give is often confined to raising chicks in warmer weather. In addition to the guidelines suggested, precautions must be taken for power outages, extreme weather and unexpected circumstances that can arise during the winter. Something minor in warm months, such as a heat lamp failing, could quickly affect your whole flock in colder weather, making it necessary to start over.

We recommend starting with a minimum of two heat lamps for any number of birds. Red-tinted, 250-watt bulbs are best as they produce the most heat but reduce brightness, so they’re not as hard on the chicks’ eyes. A good rule of thumb is to use one heat bulb per thirty chicks, keeping in mind that a backup bulb must always be burning as well, to make up for the occasional failure of a bulb. You can wean the chicks off heat easily by elevating the heat lamps a few inches per week, reducing the temperature by 5 degrees Fahrenheit until the birds are comfortable with the temperature outside. Make the transition over a 10-week period, and the birds should be ready to range outdoors.

Another important thing to remember is to check on the birds as often as possible, with a recommended minimum of three times per day. If birds are cheeping loudly, or huddling in groups, they are most likely too cold. Chicks that remain in the same place or are lethargic usually need immediate care. Try feeding them warm water and placing them under the heat bulbs. Damp or wet patches of bedding should be replaced with new material daily. We have found straw to be the best bedding material. It retains and radiates heat from the bulbs, and can’t be eaten by the chicks.

One of the most important factors in winter brooding is the power supply. A covered brooder is ideal, as it holds the heat in longer than other types if the electricity goes out. But because power failures often occur at night, even a covered brooder couldn’t retain heat for more than a few minutes. One of the best products we have available to help this situation is a unit that plugs into a wall outlet and activates an alarm when the power is off for more than a few seconds. This doesn’t replace checking your brooder or incubator at night, but it’s helpful.

If chicks chill, they often get a condition called “pasting” during which their vents (anuses) becomes blocked with droppings. If caught early enough, you can prevent the chicks from dying by slowly and gently removing the blockage with the help of warm water. This condition can also suggest insufficient water consumption or supply.

Eliminating drafts is another key to success in winter brooding. The best method to prevent drafts is by using a brooder fence (cardboard) two feet or higher. To check for drafts, simply observe the general placement of chicks in the brooder. If they group on one side, you will need to eliminate the drafts coming from the opposite side. Chicks will grow faster and be healthier without drafts.

General Guidelines for Winter Brooding

• Before your shipment of chicks arrives, preheat your brooder for a day, and use only warm or room temperature water for the chicks’ first drink. Cold water can be a shock to their systems (as is the minor stress of shipping) and should be avoided.
• Add Karo syrup or sugar to the water to give the chicks an additional boost and to perk up any droopy chicks. The ratio should be one part sugar, three parts water for waterfowl, and one part sugar, two parts water for chicks.
• Do not raise chicks in outbuildings during the winter, especially for the first four weeks, unless they’ll be kept in a room heated above 70 degrees. Raising chicks outside greatly increases the odds of something going wrong. After their fourth week, they can be moved to a brooder in an outbuilding. They’re past their danger point and have begun their growing stage.
• Do not allow the birds out of their brooder until they’re fully feathered, with no down visible, or are eight to 10 weeks old. If they’re let out, they will need to put all of their energy into growing feathers, rather than growing in size.

Winter Tips for Older Poultry (12 Weeks and Older)

After your birds are 12 weeks old, you should have no further problems relocating them to their permanent coop. At this stage, they should be fully feathered and will look like mature birds, although they may be only half their final size and weight. You can check on these birds as often as you like, but after they have reached this hardy stage, more than two or three times per day shouldn’t be necessary.

You may want to give your birds warm water periodically. Chickens and smaller birds, such as quail, are particularly fond of warm water in cold weather. This is understandable, because it helps them keep warm without using up energy reserves in the process. Water supply is important to successfully raising poultry, especially in winter. If you have access to electricity in your coop, we recommend purchasing a heater or a heated waterer so your birds can enjoy an uninterrupted water supply (more on that later).

Another tip that we often give our customers is to feed scratch grains, especially corn, to their birds in this age group. This shouldn’t replace their regular feed, nor should scratch grains be used in excess, but they are an essential part of a good poultry owner’s feeding routine. We choose corn, because in the digestion process it produces more energy than other grains to keep the bird warm. It also converts into fats, which help insulate the bird against the cold. Chickens, and waterfowl especially, will produce better in the following year if they are slightly fattened the year before. Too much fattening can harm their productivity, but if you keep their weight at 5 to 8 percent more than their normal state in the winter, it can pay off in the number of eggs collected the following spring.

In autumn, check your coop to ensure that it is free of drafts. Fill any cracks and reduce ventilation be to hold heat. Because predators are more likely to view your flock as an easy food source during the winter, make sure that your coop has raccoon-proof latches and all holes are sealed. Weasels and rodents can fit through amazingly small openings!

It’s a good idea to change the bedding in your coop regularly, to prevent accumulation of damp or wet material, which can not only freeze and cause frostbite, but it is unhealthy for the poultry and can be a stress on their immune system. A good cleanout schedule would include at least two short cleanouts per week. (Or consider a deep litter system as an alternative. — MOTHER.)

Because birds that are bred for production never completely stop laying through the winter, keep an eye on the nests during your daily checks. Eggs do not freeze quickly, but to prevent cracking, it’s best to collect them two or three times per day. Keeping your coop lights on for 15-16 hours each day will encourage hens to lay. Following the schedule you choose is crucial. Even a delay of 20 or 30 minutes can affect the birds. Most folks who use this system often employ a simple lamp or appliance timer to keep the schedule accurate. Lighting doesn’t have to be bright, but it shouldn’t be noticeably dim. A 100-watt incandescent bulb or equivalent per 800 square feet is usually sufficient.

Troubleshooting Cold-weather Poultry Problems

Here are a few extra pointers to help prevent common obstacles to successfully keeping poultry through the winter.

Freezing Conditions

A key aspect of raising poultry through the winter is to provide a constant supply of fresh water. Because most folks would rather avoid having to thaw the ice on the waterer several times per day for their birds, heated waterers are becoming popular. Many products are available, but we feel that one of the most versatile is our submersible water warmer. This unit can be used in pans of water, or under your existing waterer, to keep your birds with an uninterrupted supply. If you don’t use a heater, or if you do not have electricity in your coop, ensure that your birds have access to unfrozen water several times per day. Birds should not be left without water for more than a couple of hours at a time.

Frostbite

Frostbite is another common winter issue. Check your birds frequently. Frostbite commonly affects combs in chickens and feet in waterfowl, and can be avoided by keeping bedding clean and dry. The best type of bedding for cold weather is straw, as it holds heat better than any other material.

Contact with snow and ice can contribute to frostbitten feet — if your poultry can’t get away from it. You can solve this by maintaining a spot in your poultry yard covered with at least two inches of straw, large enough for all of your birds to fit comfortably at the same time. This will insulate their feet and provide an escape from the frozen areas.

Chickens’ combs often become frostbitten due to wind chill, rather than ambient temperature. Thaw the affected area with cold water, slowly warming it to room temperature. Then apply a coating of petroleum jelly to isolate it from direct contact with the cold. This treatment may need to be reapplied periodically, but it is usually invaluable, especially for quality show birds. Alternatively, you could hang a radiant or halogen poultry heater just above their head level and they will spend time under it, preventing the need for more involved care. If you are not able to locate any of these heater models, we carry a variety of options that have been tested and work best for us. Coop heaters come in several types, which primarily include hanging and floor models. The types we recommend usually radiate heat downward, but we also make floor heaters that radiate heat outward. These are especially handy for folks with limited headroom in their coops.

Predators

Shortage of food supply causes an increase in predation during the winter months. Losses to predators, such as hawks, raccoons and coyotes, are preventable — as long as a few of their basic behavior patterns are understood, they can easily be thwarted by a little forethought and preparation.

Raccoons are one of the most common predators. They are nocturnal, and can be the worst of the proverbial “fox in the henhouse,” sometimes killing, seemingly for sport, the majority of a flock in a single night. They normally work to gain access to your coop, rather than finding and enlarging a hole. They will remove loose boards or roof shingles, open simple latches (such as hook and eye) and reach through small holes to gain access to your coop. They have been known to be strong enough to tear chicken wire, and similar deterrents usually do not stop them. The best way to handle a raccoon problem is to secure the poultry housing and to be present if they begin to target your coop. Trapping can be effective.

Weasels and minks are harder to stop. They can fit into small openings and are hard to deter. Like raccoons, they usually kill in nighttime rampages that seem more for sport than food. But these creatures are relatively rare and often too timid to come near civilization.

Coyotes are easier to keep out due to their size and limitations. Simple fences will often take care of this problem, although they can burrow under them. A line of electrified wire near the top and bottom of the fence will keep them from digging or jumping over your fences. Coyotes work in groups or alone at any time of the day or night, and are capable of capturing birds as large as turkeys. Simple prevention in the fall will eliminate these predators for the rest of the year.

Hawks aren’t limited by fences and normally do not try to gain access to the coop. Most often, they snatch birds in daylight while foraging. There is really no better way to protect your birds from these aerial predators than to raise geese with them, or to set up bird netting on the tops of your pens. Hawks usually take only one bird at a time and leave only feathers behind as evidence.

There are many products on the market designed to deter these predators. One of the most effective for night predators is the Sentry, a motion activated LED light that senses predators from a distance and flashes on for a few seconds, often scaring them away permanently.

If you are not sure which type of predators you have in your area, check the tracks around your place or use a field guide to determine the source of the problem and the best course of action. Local water sources are a good place to look for tracks.

General guidelines and summary

Even though most backyard flocks are commonly out in harsh conditions during the winter, they are quite hardy and, if cared for properly, will make it through without any difficulty, resuming production in the spring.

Rats and mice may be your biggest problems. Not only do they carry disease, but they invariably leave contaminated droppings that eventually wind up in your bird’s diets after they get into the feed. It’s best to store feed in metal containers, such as new trash cans, to keep mice and other critters out. Feed left in bags unprotected will most certainly be taken advantage of by populations of smaller rodents. Wooden or plastic containers usually keep these pests out for only a short time.

Occasionally putting a vitamin-electrolyte supplement in water can help keep your poultry healthy. Even commercially prepared feeds cannot replace the green forage available in warmer months, and supplements help temporarily restore the natural balance. In conjunction with the fattening mentioned above, this type of feed program will usually ensure top productivity — as soon as spring comes again. We can’t too strongly emphasize the basic principles of proper feeding and monitoring during the winter. In warm months, birds can take care of themselves to a greater degree, but the cold season in many areas is a time of survival for poultry. If you are aiming for top production and healthy birds, taking care of them properly will reduce problems in the future.

An important aspect of this is to give your birds appropriate (broiler, production, or maintenance) feed that is full strength — no scratch grain added. Scratch feeds can be used as outlined above, but it cannot replace the proper feed schedule. If your feed store does not have a good variety of feeds, you should provide unmedicated feed to your birds and feed only the appropriate rations to certain groups. For example, chicks should get chick starter or broiler feed up to their twelfth week, ducklings should be started on a waterfowl starter-grower or broiler feed until their sixth month, and birds that are laying or past their sixth month should get either a layer feed or breeder ration. Mature birds can be put on a maintenance ration through the winter.

Check on your birds to observe any inconsistencies or irregularities. If you listen to your birds, you should not hear heavy breathing, wheezing or coughing. Limping birds should be isolated until they are ready to go back with the rest of your flock. Ideally, keep a notebook handy to jot notes and keep records of feed consumption, weights, water shortages and miscellaneous occurrences. The more accurate and complete your notes are, the better you will be able to foresee problems the next time.

If your birds become ill, your local county agricultural extentionists usually have great information. They often give advice that is just as good as a vet’s, and will know when to refer you to one.

Winter illnesses are rarely significant but can become problematic if left unattended. The standard procedures for treatment of illness include quarantining the bird and using a broad-spectrum antibiotic, such as Terramycin, in feed or water, depending on which type of antibiotic you have. But this is only necessary when simply warming the affected bird is not sufficient to restore its normal hardy nature.

Winter should not be a problem for your flock, but rather a steppingstone to the following year! Just don’t forget to check on the birds!

We’ve completed the Community Chickens projects for 2009. It’s been a great experience to test incubators, feed and equipment. We’ve had fun hatching a variety of eggs and raising all sorts of poultry.

Here’s a quick overview of some of the things I’ve learned throughout the process:

Shipping hatching eggs significantly reduces the hatch rate, but it’s still a great way to get the type of birds you want. (What to Expect When Purchasing Shipped Hatching Eggs).

Storing eggs reduces the number of chicks that will hatch from them. (How to Improve Hatch Rates and Tips on Hatching Eggs and Starting Baby Chicks from an Expert)

Using incubators that frequently turn eggs and precisely control temperate and humidity improve hatch rates significantly. (Improve Hatch Rates with the Right Incubator and Incubating Duck Eggs Successfully)

Using broody hens to raise a few chicks is a great idea — but you have to work in the dark to make things work smoothly. (Using a Foster Broody Hen to Raise Chicks)

Even if you don’t have room for chickens, quails are lots of fun, and productive egg layers. (Keeping Quails: Newly Hatched Baby Quails and Keeping Quails: Gender Differentiation)

Sharing the experience of processing meat birds fosters a sense of community and encourages reflection in ways you might not expect. (Processing Broiler Chickens and Chicken Processing at Home Reinforces Feelings for Processing Meat Myself)

We’ll continue to share what we’re learning about poultry and community in future blogs here and on Grit.com.

I’ve been using a small backyard chicken coop, the Back Porch Chicken Coop from GardenEggs.com, for the last several months. It’s housed a cockerel and three pullets that aren’t quite old enough to be laying eggs yet. The bottom of this backyard chicken coop is wire mesh to allow in fresh air. The mesh pattern isn’t quite large enough for droppings to fall through. Adding some wood chips or other bedding makes cleanout easier.

I’ve also used this portable chicken coop to hold two broody hens until they accepted some broiler chicks. (Read Using a Foster Broody Hen to Raise Chicks.) In this situation, I lined the bottom of the coop with feed bags and covered the bags with wood chips. The hens fit nicely behind the roost, so you could easily build a nest into one corner if you want to keep a few laying hens in this coop.

This small chicken coop is light enough to be moved easily by two people, though it’s not on wheels, and the design concept is simple. If you allow your hens to range during the day, this is a nice little coop for keeping them safe and dry at night.

Photos by Troy Griepentrog

I'm trying something new: starting a "grass-fed eggs" movement as a way of promoting great-tasting eggs from happy outdoor hens. People have become cynical about the term "free-range," which often doesn't mean what people want it to mean. Everyone wants free-range eggs to be eggs from happy outdoor hens who have something better than a barren yard to forage around in, but that's not what they get. So I'm hoping my as-yet unsullied "grass-fed eggs" term will fare a little better.

You probably already know that grass-fed eggs are the best-tasting eggs ever, have superior nutrition and are environmentally friendly. And the flocks are way more picturesque, aesthetically pleasing and fun than the alternatives. But lots of people don't know this yet! It's an easy sell, though. We just have to spread the word.

I picked the term "grass-fed eggs" because it doesn't quite make sense — eggs don't eat grass, or anything else, for that matter. So when people see the term, they have to ask about it. (Of course, it's the hens that eat the grass, not the eggs.) The cartoon was chosen for the same reasons: to evoke the idea of happy outdoor eggs (or maybe chickens) in a way that has some appeal, but which still makes people ask the question.

Once they ask the question, we can pony up the answers without boring them. Much better than button-holing people and talking to them about eggs when they haven't asked!

I don't like rigid definitions, so my take on grass-fed eggs is that the ideal is "great-tasting eggs from happy outdoor chickens who get lots of fresh green plants to eat." But mostly the key is to acknowledge the ideal, while doing the best you can under the circumstances. It's hard to have grass-fed eggs or happy outdoor chickens when there's 6 feet of snow on the ground. It's hard to have free-range hens in a suburban backyard. Do the best you can, and don't let people tell you that your approach isn't pure enough.

This is also my answer to the supply-and-demand problem. Hardly anyone is making a living from growing grass-fed eggs, so consumers need to hook up with people who are doing it as a sideline — or raise a few hens of their own. The small scale of most operations blurs the difference between consumers and producers: many people have hens some of the time, but not always. So this is not a consumer movement or a producer movement, but a "people who like grass-fed eggs and happy outdoor chickens" movement.

One of these days, someone will figure out a business model that allows people of ordinary ability to make a living at grass-fed egg farming. When that happens, the eggs will become a lot easier to find in stores. But that hasn't happened yet. Not even close. I certainly haven't quit my day job! So let's start with the problem in front of us: popularizing the notion and hooking up consumers and producers. With enough demand, commerce on a larger scale will follow.

To help get the ball rolling, I've ponied up three sets of resources:

• A website at http://www.grass-fed-eggs.com. This is the clearinghouse of information that's coming from me. It's still sort of skeletal, but check it out anyway.
  
• A discussion group at Google Groups. This is the clearinghouse of information from everybody who cares about grass-fed eggs: producers and consumers. Topics will include how to find grass-fed eggs, how to sell them, backyard housing, predator control, dealing with neighbors who don't like chickens, and so on. Post your questions here!
  
• A line of Grass-Fed Egg merchandise. As I already mentioned, when someone sees your "I Heart Grass-Fed Eggs" T-shirt, shopping tote or mouse pad, they'll ask you about it. This gives you the chance to give them your spiel and maybe press some eggs into their hands to ensure their conversion. It's also a good way for people who are already sold on the concept to identify each other. We're pretty scattered!
  Anyway, check out the website, the discussion group and the goodies. I'm hoping we can change the world one egg at a time, with a totally grass-roots, non-hierarchical movement. I expect it to be great fun.

I’ve been telling people for quite a while: Real environmentalists eat white chicken eggs. That’s because white-egg layers are almost always more feed efficient: Hens that lay white eggs are lighter weight and eat less feed to produce the same amount of eggs as brown-egg layers. So, brown chicken eggs require more resources to produce.

Here’s an Example

Hy-Line is a large poultry genetics corporation. Their website says that Hy-Line W-36 hens (the “world’s most efficient egg layer,” according to the site) consume 1.82 pounds of feed to produce a pound of eggs (white eggs). Hy-Line Brown hens eat 2.02 pounds of feed to produce a pound of eggs (brown eggs).

For reference, a dozen large eggs weighs about a pound and a half. So if your family eats 50 dozen eggs a year, it would take 15 pounds less feed to produce the same amount of white chicken eggs as brown chicken eggs. (See calculations below.) Multiply that by all the families that eat brown eggs, and we could produce much less grain to produce the same amount of chicken eggs.

Then, I watched this video:

Whether we eat conventional, industrial brown chicken eggs or conventional, industrial white chicken eggs, the male chicks of these egg-laying strains are destroyed at the hatchery because they’re not good meat-producing birds — they’re inefficient at converting feed to meat.

I’m not prepared to become a vegan, for a bunch of reasons I won’t mention here. So, what’s a meat-eating environmentalist to do? Buy eggs from a farmer who raises dual-purpose heritage breeds. Heritage breeds aren’t as specialized as commercial breeds of egg-layers. They’re pretty good at producing eggs and pretty good at producing meat, so raising the males for meat and the females to produce eggs makes sense — without discarding half the chicks.

Some of these heritage breeds lay white eggs and some lay brown eggs, but the biggest factor is management. It’s time to start telling people that egg color doesn’t matter. Real (omnivorous) environmentalists eat pastured poultry from heritage-breed, free-range production systems.

Using pasture farming methods, giving the birds room to roam, access to sunshine and all the bugs and seeds they can eat (in addition to necessary supplemental feed), produces the most healthful eggs and meat. And, if heritage chicken breeds are involved, you can enjoy the eggs knowing that half the birds weren’t simply discarded.

For more information on egg labels and the benefits of pasture farming methods, read Free Range vs. Pastured: Chicken and Eggs and The Amazing Benefits of Grass-fed Meat.

Calculations

50 dozen eggs x 1.5 pounds = 75 pounds of eggs

75 pounds of eggs x 2.02 pounds of feed = 151.5 pounds of feed to produce brown chicken eggs for your family for a year

75 pounds of eggs x 1.82 pounds of feed = 136.5 pounds of feed to produce white chicken eggs for your family for a year

151.5 – 136.5 = 15 pounds of feed saved

An experienced pasture-raised poultry expert, Robert Plamondon, shares his thoughts on the best methods of keeping free-range chickens.

I have found that the best way of containing free-range chickens and pastured broilers is with electric fences. Electric fencing keeps the chickens in and the predators out.

Predator control is especially important to me, because I have been almost put out of business by predation several times. If it weren't for the techniques described here, I wouldn't have any chickens today.

Electric fences are also much less expensive and easier to set up than alternative methods of confining them.

Here is an introduction to the topic.

1. Simple one-wire and two-wire electric fences.

2. Electric Poultry Netting.

3. Adding hot wires to your existing fences.

4. Choosing an electric fence energizer.

Few experiences in life compare to the wondrous event of witnessing a baby chicken labor with instinctive determination and emerge from an egg. Being a spectator of this miraculous event is the motivation that prompts many people to attempt incubating and hatching eggs. Regardless of the reasons behind your decision, knowing what to reasonably expect when purchasing shipped hatching eggs can make your experience more pleasurable and helps to ease potential disappointment.

When discussing shipped hatching eggs with an individual, I always remind them of the risk involved when purchasing eggs and the difference between an infertile egg and a nonviable egg.

Shipped hatching eggs may travel a great distance and experience excessive variations in climate, including temperature, humidity and pressure changes that may occur with fluctuations in altitude. These conditions, coupled with the possibility of simple human carelessness when handling the package, can decrease the likelihood of a successful hatch.

Because of these factors, a fertile and viable egg can be packed into a box, shipped to you and arrive in a nonviable state. When candling the eggs, nonviable eggs appear clear, just as infertile eggs do. When cracked open upon completion of incubation, you can see by close visual inspection that these nonviable eggs were fertile and became nonviable from exposure to extreme conditions.

So, why would a person accept the risk and purchase shipped hatching eggs when they understand that there is a possibility the eggs may not hatch? There are a variety of reasons:

• The minimum order requirement for baby chicks from hatcheries is 25 chicks (too many for some people to manage).
• A particular breed may only be available from an individual breeder who doesn’t ship live chicks.
• Ordering hatching egg, instead of live chicks, may be more affordable.

Incubating eggs that have been shipped through the mail can be and is successful for countless people just like you everyday. With simple preparation and correct incubation techniques, you can successfully hatch your own chicks.

To increase your chances for success, clean and turn on your incubator a couple of days prior to the arrival of your hatching eggs. Be certain that your incubator is maintaining proper, consistent temperature and humidity for the kind of eggs you are hatching and for your type of incubator. Still air units will require a slightly different temperature than forced air units (follow the manufacturer’s instructions).

When your eggs arrive, carefully unwrap the eggs and inspect them. Discard any broken or cracked eggs and notify your supplier of the damage. If the eggs are very dirty, a light and gentle rinsing under water will not harm them. Place the eggs to be incubated pointy end down into an egg carton or egg-hatching tray at room temperature for 24 hours prior to placing them in your preheated incubator. This “resting” period can greatly increase your chances of a successful hatch by allowing the air cell within the egg to settle back into proper position. This resting period is the same if you are using a broody hen as your incubator.

Acquiring hatching eggs has never been easier. The resources are vast and hatching eggs can be found everywhere from online auction sites to websites that specialize in the sale of hatching eggs.

Incubating your own hatching eggs can be very rewarding and enjoyable. Understanding and accepting the reality that even the most experienced person has unsuccessful hatches occasionally, will help avoid the disappointment that we each have felt at times from a failed attempt at hatching shipped eggs. The successful hatches far outweigh the latter. Proper technique and perseverance will reward you with an incubator full of peeping chicks.

Julie and Michael Gabbard own and run Gabbard Farms.

On April 17, 2009, the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC) and Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch hosted an event in Lindsborg, Kans., announcing the definition of heritage chicken. The event included tasting meat of four breeds of heritage chickens. The tasting was divided into a meal (including side dishes) for each season, because different breeds of chickens mature at different rates and the meat is better suited to different uses depending on the maturity of the bird at slaughter.

Here’s an overview of the menu. Some of the recipes are available on the recipe page of the Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch website.

Fall — New Hampshire Red
Fried Chicken
Chicken Osso Buco

Winter — Jersey Giant
Baked Chicken
Tropical Mole’ Chicken

Spring — Cornish (Indian Game)
Cottage Pie
Chicken Soup with Knaidlach

Summer — Plymouth Rock
Pressed Chicken
Chicken Salad

So what’s different about heritage chicken? Everything! The size and shape of the pieces of meat is remarkable; the drumsticks are nearly as long as that of a small turkey. The texture is firmer. It’s similar to tender beef — you can cut it with a fork, but you can’t mash it like industrially raised chicken.

By the way, cooking heritage chicken requires different methods to make it turn out right. In brief, you have to cook it more slowly, at lower temperatures and with more moisture.

It’s more flavorful, even to an untrained, dull palate (such as mine). The meat, regardless of which dish it was used in, tasted great. But the flavor of the broth was dramatic. I’ve tried to make chicken broth from industrial chicken without adding commercial bouillon, but it always ends up flat. The broth from the heritage chicken was wonderful, and I confirmed it was not “fixed up” with bouillon.

Our final chicken egg incubation test for the Community Chickens project is complete. We set eggs from Gabbard Farms in a Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco and Brinsea Mini Advance. I had great success incubating duck eggs in the Octagon Eco and wanted to see how the Mini would compare.

We received eggs of three breeds of white-egg layers: Golden Penciled Hamburgs, Silver Spangled Hamburgs and Appenzeller Spitzhaubens. Overall, 75 percent of the eggs were fertile. That’s good this time of year. Usually, fertility starts to drop in April or May and hits a low point between June and August (this varies depending on your location and climate). The eggs we set were laid in July, so fertility levels above 70 percent are perfectly acceptable. And I didn't open the eggs that were "clear" when I candled them, so more may have been fertile. Shipping eggs lowers the hatch rate, too.

Once again, the Brinsea incubators performed above expectations. All six of the fertile eggs in the Mini hatched (100 percent), and 15 of the 17 fertile eggs in the Octagon Eco hatched (88 percent hatch rate). Overall hatch rates, not accounting for fertility, were 62.5 percent for the Octagon Eco and 85.7 percent for the Mini.

And the incubators were easy to operate. Both incubators have automatic turning, and I set the Mini to turn eggs every hour for a fair comparison. The Mini can be set to turn eggs as frequently as every 45 minutes. Turning the eggs during incubation prevents the embryos from sticking to the shells and exercises the chicks. (See How to Improve Hatch Rates.)

The digital features of the Mini Advance make it a bit easier to set and operate, plus the range of options is a little broader than for the Octagon Eco. But you can buy a digital version of the Octagon Eco, too. It’s called the Octagon 20 Advance, and digital humidity display is a wonderful feature of the Octagon Advance. Humidity is such an important part of good incubation, and other methods of determining humidity levels are not precise.

If you’re planning to hatch a small number of eggs (such as in a classroom setting or as part of a small backyard poultry hobby), the Mini Advance is a great choice. You can see the eggs and hatching chicks just a bit better in this model. If you want to hatch a few more eggs at a time (up to 24 chicken eggs), buy the Octagon Eco or Advance. The value of more healthy, live chicks per hatch easily makes up for the cost difference between these incubators and the small Styrofoam incubators.

We’ve been hatching eggs in incubators for more than 12 years, and my wife’s comment sums it all up: “Using these incubators makes hatching eggs much more fun. More chicks hatch, and they don’t need help hatching.”

Here are the some photos of the two-day-old chicks.

Golden Penciled Hamburg chicks

Silver Spangled Hamburg chicks

Appenzeller Spitzhauben chicks

All the chicks in our GQF brooder. We put paper towels over the wire floor for the first few days so we can scatter feed on the floor until the chicks learn where the feeders are.

Photos by Troy Griepentrog

As I went out with a bucket to feed my Australian Emus, there arose a raucous ruckus in the nearby, freshly hayed field. Cheee-cheee-cheeeeee! This is the alert of the guineas. Being a dutiful poultry keeper, I investigated and there it was ... poor thing! A small red fox was being routed by my guineas. Snatching up my digital camera, I ran out into the field to snap some shots of this common chicken predator. It’s one thing to say that guineas are the first alert system on any poultry operation; it’s another to see it. The photo shows the sad little fox making a dash home with no chicken dinner.

The first line of defense against poultry predators is well-constructed housing. I have no protected run for my chickens, as all my birds are free-ranging. In more restricted areas, you’ll need a run or portable coop for your birds during the day. High chicken-wire sides and netting on the top are adequate to curb birds of prey and rascally dogs in your neighborhood. At night, all poultry should be in a locked and secure roosting area, winter or summer. This is a necessity. Most predators visit at night — just at sunset and prior to sunrise. Leave no food or scraps around that would attract predators of chickens to a free meal. It’s best to feed your birds inside their enclosures, as they are also vulnerable when gathered at feeders.

Elevate your buildings. A coop constructed on stilts or a truss, such as those decks are built on, will prevent problems with mice and rats. Elevated structures also provide shelter for hens to run under in the case of a storm or high-speed flyby by a Red-tailed Hawk!

Guineas are a good first line of defense, as they fearlessly chase off dreaded squirrels, deer, stealthy cats, and — as of 20 minutes ago around here — a fox. Unfortunately, they also sound the alarm when they see the mail carrier, a new car, or their owner walking out of a side door to sip coffee in the morning sun! Their reputation as the noisiest barnyard residents is well earned. In exchange, they eat every imaginable bug.

This leads to a related topic ... snakes. Some perceive snakes as pests, or threats to their chickens: the dreaded egg-eaters, chick-snatchers or hen-stranglers. I understand that it’s easy to give a snake a thwack and appear the hero of the neighborhood. But consider what sort of snakes are actually in your area. Are they truly a threat to your livestock or to you?

Unless you live in Africa or Australia, chances are good that most snakes in your part of the country are helpful rather than detrimental. Consider the common garter snake (there are many sub-species). It eats slugs, worms, tiny amphibians and other creepy crawlers that most people want to eradicate. They don’t eat warm-blooded anything and cannot swallow a chicken egg. So, if you choose to be a meanie, then do what you will.

I say, “Save the snakes!” I leave you with an image of a little brown snake (also known as DeKay’s snake). It was under a water bucket, and I decided to photograph it for your viewing pleasure. It’s fat with slug supper, garnished with a worm or two. I picked it up and parked it neatly on this moss. Please focus on real pests and let nature benefit us with species already in place designed to do so.

If you'd like to learn more about raising chickens, check out the DVD, Regarding Chickens.

Photos by Frederick J. Dunn

Who can resist estimating or daydreaming about how many of the eggs in the incubator or under a broody hen will hatch? Hatching eggs is certainly exciting and fun.

For the Community Chickens project, we have 152 pheasant eggs from MacFarlane Pheasants and 62 from Oakwood Game Farm (a total of 214 eggs) in the GQF 1202A incubator. As a little experiment, I didn’t turn 42 of the eggs for the first six days. They were in the hatching tray instead of the trays that are turned automatically.

Most books recommend turning the eggs at least three times per day from the second day of incubation until about three days before the expected hatch date. Turning the eggs prevents the embryos from sticking to the shells and makes chicks stronger by giving them exercise. Some people I’ve spoken with say that turning eggs doesn’t increase hatch rates or health of chicks at all. The pheasant eggs should hatch late next week. I’ll share the results with you.

So that we don’t have all our pheasant eggs in one incubator, I also have 35 eggs in the Brinsea Octogon 20 Eco in my basement. Yesterday when I came home from work, an electrical breaker had flipped, and the incubator wasn’t getting electricity. The eggs had cooled below 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I’m not sure how long they were chilled, but I hope the eggs were far enough into the incubation (two weeks) that some of the embryos will still survive.

I also have two broody chicken hens setting on nine eggs each. This morning when I opened the crate to water one of them, she left the nest. Sometimes a broody hen will do this just to stretch, eat and defecate. Other times she’ll leave for good. She didn’t return to the nest after about 15 minutes, so I put her eggs under another broody hen that was setting on two infertile eggs. I left the infertile eggs for the hen that left the nest, just in case she returns.

Between an electricity outage and an unreliable broody hen, I many not get any chicks or pheasant chicks at home. Then again, you never know. There’s no point in trying to count them now — until they’ve hatched.

Chickens and other fowl have played a large role in history. The first book in the United States that was dedicated entirely to poultry was The American Poultry Book, published in 1843. You can find that historic book and over 1,000 others at the Leonora Hering Memorial Poultry Collection on the campus of Kansas State University.

You don’t have to be a student to access this special collection. Anyone can use the books for research 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. People come from around the world to read these books, which cover more than U.S. poultry. The collection includes an original copy of Aldrovandi's work on ornithology (this link is to a German site, but it has scanned pages of the original books) published in the early 17^th century in Latin. One volume focuses on poultry. If your Latin is a little rusty, you can read the English translations in the collection.

The library would like to add to the collection, as the donor, Lenora Hering, stopped collecting in the 1980s. For example, if you happen to have an original 1886 copy of The Book of Hamburgs by L. Frank Baum (yep, he wrote more than the Wizard of Oz) the library would gladly accept it.

To find out what’s available before making the trip, search the online catalog. If you’re looking for something special, Roger Adams, the librarian, can help you find it.

Photo by Troy Griepentrog

Five chicks (from the Community Chickens project) hatched late (on a Saturday). They needed a little extra attention, and my wife Sue and I had them in a homemade brooder. The following Tuesday, we noticed that one of our hens didn’t roost at night, but stayed on the nest. That’s a good sign the hen was broody, or “clucking,” as my family used to say.

My mind started to race: What kind of eggs could we give that old cluck hen to hatch?

But Sue had a better idea: Let’s see if the broody hen would foster the five chicks we had in the brooder. I had recently read about Gwen Roland using a broody hen to raise some broiler chickens (Raising Chickens for Meat: Do-it-yourself Pastured Poultry).

On Wednesday morning while it was still dark outside, I moved the broody hen to a secluded box to see if she’d continue to cluck. I left two eggs for her, and she was setting tightly — fluffing up to look intimidating when I’d check on her. By Friday night, I was satisfied that she was committed to the project.

Saturday morning (so I’d have more time to watch the results), I took the chicks from the brooder box — again before sunrise — and tucked them under the old cluck hen’s wings. Although they’d been under a heat lamp for a week, they seemed to sense the hen’s warmth and nestled right in.

The broody hen immediately gathered the chicks, keeping them under her wings. She seemed a little confused by their activity throughout the day and didn’t really want to get off the eggs. In the evening, I removed the eggs. (There were three eggs. She must have laid one more the day I moved her to seclusion.)

Sunday afternoon, I moved the hen and chicks to a small portable coop. The chicks are doing well with their foster mother, and we’re happy to have one less brooder to box to manage during this busy summer.

Photo by Troy Griepentrog

As I mentioned in Which Poultry Hatching Eggs are in Which Incubator?, I had been incubating duck eggs (20 Golden 300 Hybrid eggs) in a Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco poultry incubator. In my old Styrofoam incubator, I had another 20 Golden 300 eggs and 12 Pekin duck hatching eggs. I’ve been using my old incubator for 12 years and wanted to see how the Octagon compared. Which would be the best incubator?

The Octagon 20 won the competition easily: 18 of the 20 eggs hatched! A 90 percent hatch rate is absolutely remarkable. It’s also amazing that all of the eggs were fertile — the parent flock must have been managed nearly perfectly.

I’ve never been so successful hatching duck eggs or any other eggs. We may have had a 95 percent hatch if I hadn’t cracked one egg slightly when returning it to the incubator after candling it.

Of the 32 eggs in my Styrofoam incubator, I removed seven eggs during candling. They were either clear or had a blood ring in them, which means the embryo started to develop and died. One of the Golden 300 eggs from this group was clear, so I assume it was infertile. One duckling died during hatching, and five eggs didn’t hatch at all. That’s about a 60 percent hatch rate overall — about what I’d normally expect from this incubator using eggs received in the mail.

Both incubators were in my basement, where the temperature and humidity were consistent. But the temperature in the old incubator fluctuated about 6 degrees at various times, and because I don’t have an automatic turner in it, I only turned the eggs once each day. The automatic turner on the Octagon turned the eggs every hour.

Keeping the temperature consistent and turning the eggs frequently seem to have made a huge difference. If you’re thinking about buying a small incubator, I recommend the Brinsea Octagon 20. I’m thoroughly impressed by it.

Duckling photo: Matthew T. Stallbaumer

Incubator photo: Courtesy Brinsea

PHOTO BY TROY GRIEPENTROG

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a broody hen and my concerns about the eggs hatching, Hatching Eggs: Broody Chickens and Duck Eggs on the Way. It’s very unusual for chicken eggs to hatch so late, but on the 23rd day of incubation, three eggs hatched. One chick was a runt and died a few days later, but the other two chicks are doing well.

The hen has been doing a great job taking care of the baby chicks: showing them what to eat, protecting them and keeping them warm. I love the clucking sound she makes to call them to food. I guess that’s the reason people sometimes call broodies “clucks.”

Lots of things can go wrong when hatching eggs in an incubator. (Power outages spring to mind.) But it’s important to know that natural incubation methods aren’t foolproof either. Only two or three of the dozen eggs she was sitting on were not fertile, so the rest didn’t hatch for other reasons: wrong temperature, wrong humidity, nutrition of parents or something else.

The Community Chickens project is at an eggciting stage: the incubators are filled with a variety of poultry hatching eggs. We’re hatching a bunch of eggs so that people in our office can try raising a few chickens, ducks or quail. You might be interested to know exactly what we’re hatching and in what kind of incubators, so here’s the list.

In the office, we have a GQF 1202A Sportsman incubator provided by Sure Hatch. It’s loaded with 222 chicken eggs!

20 Golden Comet eggs from Ridgway Hatchery
24 Brown egg layer eggs from Moyers Chicks
90 Dominique and 40 Rhode Island Red eggs from Bob Berry Hatchery
24 Buff Orpington and 24 Silkie eggs from Ideal Poultry

These are divided into three separate hatch dates. Plus, we have 13 Coturnix quail eggs from Purely Poultry. Most people would not recommend mixing different types of poultry hatching eggs in an incubator, but we had some leftover quail eggs, and I couldn’t make myself throw out viable hatching eggs.

In a Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco incubator, I have 20 Golden 300 duck eggs from Metzer Farms. I have another 20 Golden 300 eggs, plus 12 Pekin duck eggs from Hoffman Hatchery, in my old Styrofoam incubator. I’ve used that old incubator for about 12 years. It was originally a still-air model, but over the years, I’ve added a fan and replaced the thermostat.

Compared to my old incubator, the Octagon keeps the temperature remarkably stable. And although I’ve always enjoyed the hands-on experience of turning eggs, the automatic turning feature of the Octagon is a real time-saver. The duck eggs are about half way through the incubation process. So far, I’m really impressed with the Octagon.

Helen has 12 White Silkie eggs and  24 assorted bantam eggs from Meyer Hatchery in a still-air incubator from Murray McMurray Hatchery.

In a Brinsea Octagon 20 Advance incubator, Hank has the 20 duck eggs from Ridgway Hatchery. Jim has another 15 duck eggs in a turbo fan incubator from Stromberg’s Chicks and Gamebirds.

Kate has 20 Golden 300 Hybrid duck eggs from Metzer Farms and 22 Pekin duck eggs from Hoffman Hatchery in a Brower Top Hatch incubator.

Connie has 12 Pharoah/Coturnix quail eggs from Purely Poultry in a Brinsea R-Com incubator.

Look for hatch results in future blogs!

It’s not something new. They’ve been around for a long time. But the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy recently defined “heritage chicken” so that consumers have a better idea of what they’re buying when they see meat with a heritage chicken label.

Mother Earth News interviewed Marjorie Bender and Jennifer Kendall, who explain what defines a heritage chicken and how chickens are certified. We also interviewed Frank Reese Jr., who is well known for the production of heritage turkeys. But he's raised heritage chickens just as long. You might be surprised by what Reese has to say about pastured poultry and the economics of raising heritage chickens.

What’s the definition of a heritage chicken?

How are chickens certified as "heritage chickens"?

Why should people be interested in heritage chickens? Isn’t “pastured poultry” good enough?

So, what breeds of heritage chickens do you raise, Mr. Reese, and why did you choose them?

I thought the  American Poultry Association only promoted show poultry. Can raising chickens that meet those standards still be profitable?

You can learn more about heritage chickens by visiting the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy's heritage chicken page and reading these blogs:

Chicken Choosin Decides Dorking Chicken is Best Eating
Best Tasting Heritage Chicken Breed

What’s the new Community Chickens project all about? It’s about sharing the joy of keeping poultry and spreading the knowledge to help people successfully raise chickens, ducks and other fowl.

Cheryl Long, the editor in chief of Mother Earth News, and Hank Will, the editor of our sister publication, Grit, keep flocks of chickens. So do Bryan Welch, the publisher of both magazines, and a few other people around the office. We had several poultry-related products that we planned to test and write about. Then, Hank had a great idea. Why not write about the whole life cycle of chickens (and other poultry) as it’s happening — egg to table — and share the experience with our readers? (Great idea, Hank!)

The Community Chickens website serves as a resource for poultry information. As part of our commitment to poultry enthusiasts everywhere, we will be hatching eggs, trialing incubators, brooding chicks, raising and processing broilers and writing articles and reports that chronicle our efforts every step of the way. Our goal is to get more people raising poultry for food, fun, pest control and profit.

“Community chickens” could mean a lot of things. In some neighborhoods, people take turns caring for the chickens: Someone opens the coop in the morning; another person gathers eggs during the day; someone else may feed chickens. Everyone shares the responsibility — and the eggs. If responsibilities are clearly defined, that's a great idea for the right group of people. But our project is about bringing information to the community of people who are interested in raising poultry. 

We have a broody hen that’s been sitting on eggs for three weeks. Today should be hatch day! For the last few days, though, she’s been off the nest quite a lot. The eggs look dirty. And much of the time she’s simply hovering over them — even standing on them. She still seems broody, though, so I’m not quite sure what’s going. (It’s been quite a while since I’ve used a broody to hatch eggs.) Two things come to mind: 1) The chicks in the eggs are creating enough heat that the hen doesn’t need to sit right on them all the time, or 2) something is wrong with the broody hen and she’s not going to pull off this hatch. I’ll write an update on that next week. In the mean time, share your thoughts on this in the comments section below.

Next week, the Community Chickens project will be off to an exciting start. Duck eggs will be arriving for us to use in our incubator tests. Metzer Farms will be sending 60 Golden 300 Hybrid eggs. We’re getting 35 Pekin duck eggs from Hoffman Hatchery. And Ridgway Hatcheries is sending an assortment of duck eggs.

I’ve been hoping to try a few of the Golden 300 Hybrid ducks for some time. They’re supposed to be excellent egg layers and calmer than Khaki Campbell ducks. A bonus for our project is that the male ducklings are shades of black; the females, shades of brown. We’ll be able to determine the gender of the ducklings easily. (Because they’re hybrids, this characteristic doesn’t continue in future generations.)

Duck eggs can be a challenge to hatch, so this will be a good test of the incubators. Duck and goose eggs require more humidity during incubation than chicken eggs. Another challenge is the wait! The duck eggs will take 28 to hatch (instead of just 21 for chickens).

The Community Chickens project is about to begin! Mother Earth News and our sister publication, Grit, are working together to test and tell you about all sorts of things related to poultry. Over the next few months, we’ll write about incubators, a brooder, feeders and waterers, fencing and feed.

We plan to hatch chicken, duck, guinea and turkey eggs, and we’ll share our experiences raising the babies. As always, we’ll provide information on alternative and time-tested methods. (See Furry and Feathered Friends Welcome on Grit’s website for photos of a broody hen and the chicks she hatched.)

While we’re waiting for the hatching eggs to arrive, I’ve set up the poultry box brooder from GQF Manufacturing. (I still need to install the light bulbs and remove some of the protective plastic from shipping.) It’s important to be ready for chicks when they arrive.

PHOTO BY TROY GRIEPENTROG

I’m looking forward to trying out the brooder. It should be easy to clean and make taking care of the new chicks easy. In the past, I’ve used various types of homemade brooders, including cardboard boxes with a small board across the top to suspend a heat lamp from. That works for a few birds for a short time, but it’s important to make sure the cardboard doesn’t get too warm and create a fire hazard.

A new website for the Community Chickens project will be live early next week. That site will give you easy access to all the information about the project, plus great tips on raising poultry. Check back for a link to that site.

PHOTO BY FREDERICK J. DUNN

Nothing says spring like the sound of peeps — newly hatched chickens — in my incubators. It seems to be the time of year when folks stop into the feed store or local hatchery expecting to begin their selection of new birds for their backyard barnyard. However, you may find it easier and more convenient to shop for your chicks online.

Here in the United States, the postal system accepts boxes filled with day-old chicks and delivers them coast to coast in two to three days on average. The chicks travel by Priority Mail and often have no food or water in their cardboard carrier to sustain them. How can this happen? Just prior to hatching, a chick absorbs all the remaining nutrients from within its egg. With this nourishment, the chick can survive for up to three days without food or water. This makes it possible to ship them by mail. In the nest, this process allows the mother to wait out the hatching of other chicks in her clutch before tending to the early hatchers: If chicks required immediate attention, the mother would leave with those that hatched first and the unhatched chicks would perish. Once again, nature has provided well for the chicken!

Selecting a hatchery to buy from couldn’t be simpler. You can start by visiting the Mother Earth News hatchery finder and search for the chicken breed or variety you want. You can also check the hatchery directory where you can sort hatcheries and poultry breeders by state or by company name for ease of reference. Nearly every variety of chicken, either purebred or hybrid, is now only a mouse-click away.

Take time to read about breeds you are interested in and understand what their unique characteristics are. This is a great opportunity to get children involved, showing them the various physical features of different breeds: comb type, leg feathering, silky, frizzle, bantam, standard, etc. You may read that some bantams are not “true bantams.” This is simply a variety which is a miniature version of a large standard breed. For example, a bantam Dark Brahma is a miniature, as it has a large counterpart by the same breed name. On the other hand, a Silver Sebright is a true bantam, meaning that it only exists in the miniature form with no large counterpart.

In the short video below, I demonstrate both the importance of having a brooder set up before your chicks arrive and of collecting the peeps as soon as you receive the call from the post office. Postal workers will gladly share stories about recipients who don’t seem to be in a rush to collect their chicks (waiting a day or more) only to collect a box of half perished little ones. If you are not ready to receive live chicks, do not place an order with a hatchery. 

Here's another useful video demonstrating how to place a catalog order to a hatchery, what the terms mean and what you may expect to pay for purebred poultry.

There are chickens and then there are CHICKENS! The modern factory-farmed chicken breed is a Leghorn. That breed’s ability to become broody and set a clutch of eggs to hatching stage has just about been bred out of them. Chickens that are hatched in incubators, as factory-farmed chickens are, do not need to know how to incubate and care for a brood of chicks.

However, most of the heritage breeds of chickens, those breeds that have been successful free rangers for generations, make great moms. There are also some poultry breeds that produce a slightly higher egg count per year, those that are easier to tame and others that seem to be especially good alarmists when danger approaches.

If you are keeping a small flock of chickens in your backyard or on a small acreage, tell us which breeds you have come to admire and why, in the comments section below.

ISTOCKPHOTO/EKATERINA STARSHAYA

If you’re hoping to get a few hens to keep in your backyard and want to start with baby chickens, you can order through the mail from a poultry hatchery. But the minimum order is usually 25. It takes that many chicks to keep each other warm while they’re traveling.

You could order some hatching eggs and put them in an incubator, but some of the chicks that hatch will certainly be males. You could also order 25 pullets (females) and split the order with friends and neighbors. To find the variety you want, check out our Hatchery Finder.

But don’t forget to check your local farm store, such as Tractor Supply Company or Orscheln’s. You can order just a few chicks or ducks of a certain breed and gender. The chicks will come with a bigger order for the store. Farm stores and feed stores may also have chicks or ducklings available in the store, but the number of varieties is usually narrow, although there are often several breeds and hybrids to choose from. Depending on the store, chicks are available for several weeks in the spring.

Meyer Hatchery allows customers to order as few as three chicks. They include a heating pad and ship only via express mail. There are additional restrictions.

PHOTO BY JENNA WOGINRICH

Spring is taking over Cold Antler Farm and all of us are happily surrendering to it. The snow is melting off the garden fences, the sheep are starting to hoof up green mosses and young grass, and the chickens are getting brave enough to hop down to the stream that was once blocked by snow. There are buckets and tubing on every sugar maple in the neighborhood, and with every spare minute I’m thinking about plans for spring chicks and new beehives.

Yes friends, spring is finally here. Time to start farming.

Regardless of whether your homestead is your backyard or a couple acres off grid, it's time to start planning for the spring. If you're looking into chickens and plan on ordering from a hatchery, take some time to find the birds closest to you. If you have a particular breed in mind (I'm looking forward to raising some Black Silkie Bantams) you can use the Mother Earth News Hatchery Finder to find the right birds at the right time for you.

You can start sowing seeds indoors for early crops like lettuces, peas and broccoli. And if you haven't already stepped outside, crossed your arms, and given your garden plot a long hard look — it's time to start planning where the bounty will begin. If you're new to gardening, don't be shy because you're in good company. Scads of new homesteaders and urban gardeners are taking the reins for the first time, and blogs and forums are heating up as they discuss big plans for new gardens. Sites like YouGrowGirl are a constant inspiration for me to get my fingernails dirty.

 Maybe this year is the year you'll start that new project? The rain barrel or compost turner you've secretly been eyeing in catalogs all winter may deserve a place in your budget. But before any dollars are spent on large purchases for your farm, make sure you use the elbow room spring allows to research exactly what you need. Save yourself the problems of returning items that don't work for you, or the disappointment of getting that prefab coop only to find it's 3 inches too wide.

 Most of all, enjoy these warmer days. Before you know it we'll be pulling off ticks and cursing the heat, so revel in the honeymoon while it lasts darlings.

Josh Frye raises a lot of chickens — as many as 800,000 birds a year. A lot of chickens means a lot of chicken poop to dispose of, plus the need for a lot of propane (about 30,000 gallons a year) to keep the chicks warm in the winter. So when his buddy, Matt Harper, suggested they take a road trip to Illinois to see a gasifier that would turn poop into heat, Frye was interested.

The machine at Southern Illinois University made a good impression on Frye. The fixed-bed gasifier processed five tons of poultry litter an hour with no smell, no smoke and no internal moving parts.

Frye decided to procure his own gasifier. He worked with Southern Illinois-based Coaltec Energy to identify a technology that best met his needs, and settled on the fixed-bed gasifier produced by Westside Energies of Canada. Coaltec is the U.S. sales representative for Westside Energies, and the companies helped him apply for grants to purchase and install the unit (approximate cost, $1,000,000).

The gasifier.

PHOTO COURTESY INTERNATIONAL BIOCHAR INITIATIVE

Things fell into place as grants and low-interest loans came through from several West Virginia state agencies. After the grant writing was completed, the price of metal suddenly spiked, increasing the cost of the gasifier. Westside and Coaltec kicked in a contribution to keep the project within budget.

A more welcome surprise came for Frye when he was introduced to the concept of biochar by Tom Basden, an extension specialist in nutrient management at West Virginia University. “Tom told me I would end up growing chickens mainly for the poop,” Frye says. “I thought he was off his rocker, but now I think he might be right on the money.”

Frye is now producing a high quality biochar and has sold his first ton at a net price of $480 ($600 a ton for the char and $120 a ton transport costs) to a farmer in New Jersey who is testing its qualities for his crop of corn and soybeans. A farm in South Carolina is testing the char on pharmaceutical grapes (used in the nutritional supplement industry). Frye worked with International Biochar Initiative (IBI) board members Johannes Lehmann and Stephen Joseph to optimize the gasifier to produce quality biochar rich in phosphorous and potassium. His test burns so far have made biochar that ranges from 1.7 to 3.2 percent phosphorous and 5.4 to 9.6 percent potassium.

Josh Frye explains the gasification process.

PHOTO COURTESY INTERNATIONAL BIOCHAR INITIATIVE

Biochar promises to add an impressive income stream to his operation, but it’s not just about money for Frye. He had been concerned that his waste-to-energy gasifier was going to destroy the fertilizer value of the poop he had been cleaning out and selling to local farmers for about $5 a ton. “Now I feel like I am making a real contribution to the ag world,” Frye says. “Taking a raw material and converting it into a stable carbon-rich product is a great thing. Talk about falling in the poop and coming out smelling like a rose!”

Frye Poultry’s annual production of 125 to 600 tons of poultry litter can generate an estimated 25 to 120 tons of biochar. From his initial testing of the char, Frye found that depending on the operating conditions, his gasifier produces biochar with an organic carbon content ranging from 10 to 34 percent. The carbon content is largely dependent on the moisture content of the poultry litter. With lower moisture contents, the carbon percentage in the biochar increases.

The 30-foot-by-50-foot fixed-bed gasifier was installed at Frye Poultry in March 2007. It operates with negative pressure so it can burn at lower temperatures and produce biochar concurrently with energy. The unit has a maximum feed rate of about 1,000 pounds an hour, which can produce five million BTU of energy. Burning up to 12 tons of litter per day, it can produce 3 to 4 tons of char a day.

Char from the gasifier

PHOTO COURTESY INTERNATIONAL BIOCHAR INITIATIVE

Coaltec staff is able to monitor performance of the unit from their offices in British Columbia, Canada. Frye operates the gasifier single-handedly at his West Virginia farm. It took Frye roughly five burns over three months to feel competent in the operation of the unit. Coaltec representatives visited onsite to help with these initial burns. One of the biggest hurdles for Frye — a dedicated Macintosh user — was learning the IBM-based computer programs to operate the gasifier.

In the winter of 2007-08, Frye ran six test burns testing wet or dry litter with or without adding wood shavings or chips. He has run the gasifier in a continuous steady state mode for up to 10 days. He has determined that one burn per cycle of broilers is ideal, with a continuous operation period of about three weeks to warm the poultry houses up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit for hatchlings, tapering off to 70 degrees.

The initial funding covered much of the installation and first year of operation. But Frye realized that to continue a viable operation, he needed to have a structure to store and dry the chicken litter. Wet litter significantly slowed the process and was less efficient. Frye received additional grant funding through MicroUnity to build a storage area.

Last year’s test burns produced about 30 tons of biochar and saved Frye about four thousand gallons of propane. Eventually he expects to reduce his propane consumption by 80 to 90 percent. He is also looking into using the gasifier heat in the summer to operate a chiller to cool the poultry houses.

Frye is happy with the unit and appreciative of all the help he has received from Coaltec and others. And he’s become accustomed to surprises because they keep on coming. Frye gave some biochar to his neighbors to play with, and one neighbor “cussed him,” he says, because the grass growing on the biochar was so thick it tore up his hay mower. “Looked like he gave that pasture a punk rock haircut,” Frye says, “He needs to get more horsepower and sharpen that mower blade.”

Thinking about starting or expanding your chicken-raising efforts? Maybe the neighbors like your free-range eggs so much that a small market for your eggs is developing. There are lots of simple, inexpensive coops you can make, such as the Portable Chicken Mini-coop. Free plans for coops of all sizes are available from North Dakota State University.

And you can find dozens of plans for sale on the Internet. If you're planning to purchase plans, take a look at BuildingAChickenCoop.com. I've had an opportunity to review these plans, and they show details well. There are options for small (4-foot-by-12-foot, including run), mid-size (3-foot-by-8-foot, plus nest box) and large (7-foot-by-8-foot, roughly) coops. In addition to the step-by-step diagrams included with the plans, the package of e-books includes information on positioning coops, building nest boxes and tips for materials.

I attended Lawrence, Kan., city commission meeting on Dec. 2, 2008, to hear the discussion of keeping live fowl in the city. Prior to public comments, Assistant City Manager Cynthia M. Boecker summarized current laws and how other cities in Kansas handle the issue.

TROY GRIEPENTROG

I was glad to hear the discussion firsthand. Earlier reports gave the impression that the Humane Society was against the idea because of potential health hazards to humans.

Midge Grinstead, executive director of the Lawrence Humane Society, clarified that the Humane Society "has no opinion about keeping fowl" in city limits and is neither for nor against it. But she raised some questions for the commission to consider:

• How many fowl will be allowed?
• How large must the property be?
• What kind of fowl will be allowed? (Peacocks, guineas and roosters are all very loud.)
• Will there be regulations for coops, cleanliness and parasite control?
• Will fines be imposed if fowl leave their owner's property?
• If a dog or cat kills fowl, will the dog or cat be considered "dangerous"?
• Will there be a regulation against butchering fowl for meat?

Those are valid questions, and clarification would certainly prevent misunderstandings in the future.

Several private citizens spoke — all of them in favor of keeping chickens.

One person spoke about the freedom to produce his own food saying, "I want to use my land to build a henhouse, not a whorehouse." Another man, who already keeps a few hens, said that he was in favor of some clarifying regulations.

A WorldWatch Institute article and information from the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production were referenced by someone who pointed out that industrial poultry is more likely to develop avian influenza than are backyard flocks.

A representative of the Coalition of Lawrence Urban Chicken Keepers (CLUCK) said she saw no issues with developing regulations to avoid problems, and that CLUCK would be happy to work out the details of regulations with the commission. A local veterinarian (who stated she didn't realize the issue was on the agenda and hadn't planned to speak) said that she regularly sees chickens and ducks in her practice and that owners are "a pretty responsible group." She also pointed out that chickens are "green" animals, in that they're very useful in gardens.

Finally, a woman spoke about an experiment implemented by a friend, her and their 3-year-olds. The goal was to see how much of their own food they could raise (including eggs from chickens) and to educate the children about where their food comes from. She said it would "be a shame if [keeping chickens] were forbidden."

As the commissioners discussed the issue, no one seemed to be opposed to allowing live fowl in the city. Mayor Dever said he would like to ban roosters, and that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have concerns with pathogens.

The final decision was that city staff would develop regulations to be voted on at a future meeting. If you're fighting to make keeping chickens legal in your community, it may be a long process, but stick with it! Many other cities have laws allowing chickens.

If you're thinking of keeping a few hens for eggs, How to Raise Chickens in Your Back Yard is a good place to start.

This exercise pen is simple and practical. It’s inexpensive and easy to build, even without power tools. Although I call it an exercise pen, it could have all sorts of uses with minor modifications. I built this pen to keep ducklings on the lawn during the day, but put the ducks in a building at night.

TROY GRIEPENTROG

I used all 2-by-4 untreated pine. The premise is simple: make the pen 8-feet-by-4-feet so a minimal number of cuts will be necessary. It’s 2-feet high so cutting the chicken wire is also easy (assuming you buy or have a 2-foot roll of wire).

Materials List

• 10 8-foot 2-by-4s
• 40’ of 24-inch chicken wire
• 2 hinges (not absolutely necessary)
• Staples for attaching the chicken wire
• 2.5” or 2.75” #8 or #10 screws

Some variation in materials is acceptable. Remember, this is a practical and quick project, so use what you have or use what you like. 2-by-3 lumber would work. Bigger screws are a little stronger, but this pen isn’t necessarily predator proof.

Putting It Together

Start by cutting six 2-by-4s in half. If you want to account for the width of the saw blade, it’s a good idea, but not critical. Take two of the 4-foot sections and cut them in half again. You should now have four 8-foot pieces, 10 four-foot pieces and four 2-foot pieces.

Make a rectangle out of two 4-foot pieces and two 8-foot pieces, but be sure to put the 4-foot pieces between the 8-foot pieces; that is, you’ll drill holes all the way through the 8-foot pieces where you’re going to attach them and the screws will anchor in the ends of the 4-foot pieces. After you’ve secured the corners with at least two screws each, make another rectangle the same way.

Next, attach the 2-foot corner “posts.” It’s a good idea to put screws through both the 8-foot pieces and 4-foot pieces that you’re attaching to the posts. It will make the entire structure stronger. You should now have the basic frame for the pen. If you don’t want to mess with putting a top on the pen, simply staple chicken wire all the way around it and you’re done. But if you want to keep cats or wild birds from getting in the top, read on.

TROY GRIEPENTROG

Topping it Off

Attach three of the 4-foot pieces of lumber to the top rectangle. Place them 2-feet apart on center so that the chicken wire will reach across the span without much overlap.

I added a “door” to the top of the pen. Of the four sections created in the top by the separating 2-by-4s, I put mine in the second section. Putting the door in an end section would probably be better because the birds always run to one end when you’re trying to catch them. But if you put the door in an end section, you have to account for the corner posts, which complicates the project.

To build the door, make another rectangle, this time using the 4-foot sections for the long sides. You should have a 4’ piece of lumber left over at this point. Cut two 20.25-inch pieces from that to make the door. You’ll want it to fit somewhat loosely so that you can open and close it. Attach it with hinges. I made rough handles with the left over ends of the 2-by-4s.

Cover the door and the top with chicken wire and you’re done. The pen isn’t terribly heavy, so it’s easy to tip it up to get the birds out.

If you want better predator protection, heavier wire attached more securely should improve your chances of success. You might also want to add something to the top to provide some shade for your birds.

TROY GRIEPENTROG

Ducklings enjoy spending time on the lawn on a sunny spring day.

PHOTO BY JENNA WOGINRICH

Will this turkey become Thanksgiving dinner?

Back in May when I was driving to pick up my spring chicks, I wasn't planning on also picking up dinner to-go. But when I arrived at the feed store I discovered I could go home with a free-range turkey dinner for five bucks. Well, if I wanted to raise my own that is...

Inside the brooder crates holding their chirping throngs there were a half-dozen random turkey poults for sale. They were orphans from an abandoned order and had no farmer to raise them. In an act of homesteader-impulse I took one of the broad breasted white poults home with my laying hens and goslings. The plan was to raise him along with the other birds, but unlike his egg-laying siblings, he would be for the holiday table. On the ride back to Cold Antler, I called my parents in Pennsylvania to announce that Thanksgiving Dinner was on me this year. Which is a weird call to get if your daughter is a vegetarian. But that's another story.

Raising a turkey turned out to be an easy and rewarding experience. Since it was the lone gobbler in my chicken coop, it seemed to get along fine with my flock. Some farmers warn never to mix your turkeys and other poultry together, and I suppose in larger numbers that is sound advice. But my little guy never showed any aggression or caused any problems in the henhouse. He lived out his summer as a free range yard bird, plodding behind the geese and chickens. Spending his nights in the safety of the coop on soft straw. I was proud to have him here on the farm, which generally only produces eggs, wool, and vegetables. And being able to hold a three-day-old poult in your palm in the spring, and then help pluck its feathers on harvest day in late October was a wholesome lesson in the source of one family's entree. It felt really good to know I was producing food for the holidays that lived such a great life. TD, as I came to name him (an abbreviation for his destiny) was a gentlemen to the end.

Alas, it didn't pan out. The turkey I raised won't be adorning my family's Thanksgiving table (there was some discomfort from some family members about eating someone they knew, and my offer was respectfully declined) but I did get to trade the 26-pound bird for an hour of private herding lessons with a sheepdog trainer. So TD not only helped teach me about raising a healthy meat bird, but in his own way taught me how to work with a border collie on a small herd of sheep. Which in my book is a hell of a trade, and that's a lot more than most people are getting from the Butterballs in their grocers’ freezer.

Jenna Woginrich  is the author of the forthcoming book, Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life, from Storey Publishing. Want to hear more about Jenna's turkey? You can visit her blog at Cold Antler Farm or hear her talking turkey on NPR's Morning Edition here.