18 Chicken Facts

1. Chicks poop A LOT
2. They will poop anywhere and everywhere (especially in their food and water)
3. If you give them something to sit on (a stick elevated above the floor for roosting) they will prefer to poop there
4. Chicks will waste half of their feed making messes and playing with it
5. Chicks like bugs that fly, a lot! Worms and slugs, not as much (ants are a treat!)
6. Chicks being young are quite oblivious but very friendly and entertaining
7. Chicks reared together will tend to flock together
8. Change the litter in their box (or wherever you raise them) at least every week or week an a half
9. after about the second week they will probably need a bigger box
10. after about the third week (or sooner depending on weather) it is a good time to introduce them to the outside world and let them run about and get some exercise (especially good for broilers that grow very fast and need to stretch)

11. chicks like shiny objects like wedding rings and will peck at them frequently (so far not hard enough to hurt)

12. chicks will quickly learn to trust you and come to you if you hand feed them bugs

13. a frequently handled chicken is calmer when handled in the future 

14. chicks love to explore and take dirt baths

15. chicks love to scratch and can ruin seedlings in your garden if left unattended

16. after about the second week they will start to loose their fluffy feathers and start to grow adult-like feathers

17. chicks poop a lot (said that already) the poop is great in the compost pile - mixing the leftover woodshavings and poop from their box and some fresh cut lawn grass got my compost heap cooking at over 110 degrees

18. keep a thermometer in your chick box for several weeks (they should be at around 90 the first week, 80 the second, 70 the third and around 70 there after until mature) if you accidentally throw your chicken thermometer into the compost heap when cleaning out the chick box pretend like you did it on purpose. Then when you find it a week later when digging for worms for your chicks you can see how well their poop has helped the pile...

Chicken Pics

I bought the chicks on April 4th - here are some pics starting with the beginning of April to now...

I picked up five chicks, two Broilers (a white feather fast growing meat bird), two Rhode Island Reds and one Bantam Amerucana.
Their names (in order of breed) are: Dinner, Lunch, Scrambled, Sunny (side-up), and Roast Beef(y) (my youngest daughter insisted that was what its name was to be, Roast Beefy)

Here is Dinner (consistently our biggest bird)


All the baby chicks at the feeder


Roast Beefy (not yet sure if it's a boy or girl - it has curled toes though - I tried to correct these with chick shoes [tape, band-aids, etc] but no luck, once the shoes were off (s)he would just start walking funny again)


Roast Beefy in "shoes"


The ladies (the Rhode Island Reds)


Getting bigger

Books Update

The refrigerator and the universe:
Very detailed book on the science of thermodynamics, for what I was looking for perhaps a bit too much. But very thorough, approachable and very informative.

A short history of nearly everything:
still reviewing

Gödel, Escher, Bach : an eternal golden braid:
still reviewing

The ten most beautiful experiments:
A must read for science junkies, very insightful and inspiring

Your inner fish : a journey into the 3.5-billion-year history of the human body:
A great book about evolution and the whys of how we are put together (some neat points too on how evolution compensates for the growing complexity of organisms and so quirks along the way)

Home cheese making : recipes for 75 homemade cheeses:
If you plan on doing more than trying your hand at some basic mozzarella or cheddar this is the book for you. Detailed recipe after recipe

The bread baker's apprentice : mastering the art of extraordinary bread:
still reviewing

The backyard beekeeper : an absolute beginner's guide to keeping bees in your yard and garden:
A one stop reference for all of your apiary needs - incredibly complete and infromative

Artisan bread in five minutes a day:
still reviewing -- but I've looked up some internet video clips and I have to say, this is the first time I've ever been able to successfully make bread. Really GOOD bread too!

The backyard homestead:
A good general reference but very vague on many points - a helpful starting point to get inspired

World War Z : an oral history of the zombie war:
I did not think I was going to like this (I was concerned that the characters would act like most stupid people in horror movies, "No! don't go down in the basement!"), but I have to say that I was impressed. Aside from the zombies there was very little "fictional" events. All the characters normally acted in character and it was very true to human nature. A good book for those who would like to tackle the extreme of self preparedness.

Neverwhere:
Perhaps not terribly believable but a very good compelling story (my impression was that the author attempted to blend a fantastical world with the real one - and for the most part it worked - there were just a few points where you would just not think it would happen that way).

Earth Abides:
If you have not read it or something like it (see the amazon page for this book and look at the comparable books), then please go check one out. It is a great work on the fragility of the human society.

Tea

I'm looking for a place in the Willamette Valley (Oregon) to procure reasonably priced Green Tea.
Specifically, loose OP (orange pekoe), fair-trade, organic, not pressed or balled (gunpowder) and with no additional flavors. Just plain ol' wrinkly green tea.

A note on tea (thanks to Alton Brown of Good Eats on Food Network) -
Types of tea:
Orange Pekoe - whole leaves
Broken Orange Pekoe - large broken chunks of whole leaves
Fannings - tiny bits
Dust - dust, bad stuff

The problem with tea, the more it is broken down the more surface area is exposed and the quicker the bitter flavors are released. Most bagged tea is dust and fannings. You can't go wrong if you start with whole loose leaf tea.

The only place I've found to get what I like is the Boise Co-Op in Boise Idaho.
The long term plan is to go to onegreeworld.com (in Molalla OR) and buy a Sochi Tea bush (if I remember right, Sochi is some Russian town or something near China - anyhow the point is that the plant is cold weather tolerant).

EDIT

This is the BEST damn green tea:
http://www.rishi-tea.com/store/jade-cloud-aka-green-jade-organic-fair-trade-green-tea.html

Chicken Day April 4th

Old Mill and Feed in Dallas Oregon will be hosting their annual Chick Day this April 4th. http://oldmillfeed.com/index.html

What I have on order:
2 Rhode Island Reds (for eggs)
2 Broilers (should be mature for butchering by the 4th of July)
1 miscellaneous breed of Bantam (miniature chicken)

Pictures coming soon - also I built a coop, pics of that coming soon too.

A very helpful resource for raising chicks / chickens can be found at:

http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/poultry
and
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/

BOOKS!

books that I will be reviewing soon:

The refrigerator and the universe : understanding the laws of energy / Martin Goldstein, Inge F. Goldstein.

A short history of nearly everything / Bill Bryson.

Gödel, Escher, Bach : an eternal golden braid / Douglas R. Hofstadter.

The ten most beautiful experiments / by George Johnson.

Your inner fish : a journey into the 3.5-billion-year history of the human body / Neil Shubin.

Home cheese making : recipes for 75 homemade cheeses / Ricki Carroll

The bread baker's apprentice : mastering the art of extraordinary bread / by Peter Reinhart

The backyard beekeeper : an absolute beginner's guide to keeping bees in your yard and garden / Kim Flottum.

Artisan bread in five minutes a day : the discovery that revolutionizes home baking / Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois

The backyard homestead / edited by Carleen Madigan.

World War Z : an oral history of the zombie war / Max Brooks

Neverwhere / Neil Gaiman

Earth Abides