My Edible Yard: Baby Chick Stampedes and Other Goings On

Have you ever seen a baby chicken stampede? It's a sight to behold. Eight puffy little chicks of assorted colors and sizes, new feathers protruding rather awkwardly from their wings and tails, running as fast as they can from one end of the cage to the other all for the sake of a fly or moth or whatever flying insect has made the extremely poor decision to enter the little chicks' air space. The chicks take off as if they are one, stumbling  and climbing over each other, pushing each other out of the way, honing in on the prize with admirable concentration. "Oh, was that your head I stepped on? Sorry, but I've got to get to that bug first." "Shoot, I knocked the waterer over again. That's okay. Mom doesn't mind cleaning it up for the third time today." I've got to get a video camera. Pictures will never do this scene justice.

2 Cuckoo Marans, 3 White Rocks, 2 Easter Eggers, and 1 Rhode Island Red

The new little munchkins eat like horses, as if they're worried they'll never have another meal. They are a source of much enjoyment, chirping all hours of the day and night, pushing each other around for perfect positioning at the feeder and waterer. They are constantly on the move and then comically suddenly drop to the floor of the cage for a quick nap under the light. They are enjoying their expeditions out into the yard, first eyeing their new surroundings with a little trepidation, and then furiously scratching, pecking, and hunting for bugs as if their lives depended on it. Lots of fun. I would suggest getting chicks to anyone contemplating an urban homesteading lifestyle.

As for the garden, aside from the fact that this past weekend I harvested my first batch of Pink Beauty radishes from the front yard garden (I planted a batch of D'Avignons 2 weeks later to keep the radishes coming) and pulled about 5-6 pounds of carrots from the backyard garden, we now have a grape arbor totally put together and straddled by 2 Concord grape plants in pots.The beans they are a blooming, as are the zucchini and yellow squash, and I've put the husband to work making trellises out of electrical conduit and jute string for the shelling beans and summer squash. I decided on the jute string because it's compostable, so when I go to pull the bean and squash plants up at the end of the season and they are all entangled in the string, I don't have to untangle the plant-string mess. I'll simply put it all in the composter.

Pink Beauty radishes

I'll take pictures of the front yard next week when we should have the trellises finished, but for now I'll wind up as I've got dinner in the oven, a hungry husband who kissed me twice when he walked in from work (it just means he's really hungry), and more work on a big project to do this evening.

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My Edible Yard: Lessons Learned on the Urban Homestead

This past week has been tough at the My Edible Yard urban homestead. We excitedly waited for a delivery of six 1-day-old Cuckoo Maran chicks that my friend and backyard chicken raising mentor, Renee, had ordered. The plan was that she would order 15 (the minimum order at the hatchery), 9 for her family (she's feeding 12 people), 6 for me. I wasn't quite sure we needed 6 chickens in addition to the 4 we already have, but Renee's theory that you need chickens of different ages cycling through the urban homestead for steady egg production made sense to me. Couple that with a quick Google search on "cuckoo maran chickens" to see pictures of them (they're beautiful!) and learn that Cuckoo Marans produce the darkest brown eggs of all chicken breeds, and there you have it. Baby chicks here I come.

The baby chick delivery was originally scheduled for the 18th of May, but about 2 weeks ago, the hatchery called Renee and said they'd be delivered ahead of schedule on the 5th. No problem. I ran out a week ago Friday and got the few items I'd need for the little chicklets--a chick-size waterer and feeder, some baby chick grit, some organic breakfast cereals, yogurt and kefir. I already had a used rabbit cage that seemed perfect for little chicks. I had saved the email Renee had sent me with chick raising instructions. I was ready for the new arrivals in about an hour.

The chicks arrived on Wednesday as scheduled, but sadly 5 out of the 15 had died in transit. I've heard of it happening before, but Renee said it had never happened to her with this hatchery. No big deal, I thought, because 4 chicks seemed like a fine number to start out with for my first foray into chick raising. I felt horrible for Renee because I could just imagine the scene that went on at her house with all her children excitedly opening the box only to be traumatized by finding dead chicks.

I made it to Renee's house at the scheduled pickup time and was immediately mesmerized by the 4 cute little puff balls. I took them home in a cardboard box, got the chicklets set up in their new home with fresh water with a splash of apple cider vinegar with garlic in it, and made them a batch of organic brown rice cereal cooked in chicken broth and then stirred in some yogurt to give them as much easily-digestible protein as possible in their first meal. I picked up each chick and gingerly dunked their little orange-yellow beaks in the water and food as all the chicken-raising manuals advise so they know where their food and water are located, and I hovered over the little chicklets all evening, checking on them every hour (or half hour), spending the time in between checks trying to convince the dogs that they were not for eating, but instead were lovely additions to the family. Ha! The dogs were not so easily convinced. At the end of the evening (about 8:30), I figured it was time for the chicks to be tucked in for the night, so I covered the cage with old pillow cases to block outside distractions and they settled in quite nicely.

I got up Thursday morning, made my usual pot of coffee, and excitedly went out to the front porch to check on the chicklets. Much to my horror one of the chicks had died during the night. I was frantic. I knew it had to be my fault. I hurriedly got the dead chick out of the cage so as not to traumatize the other chicks (or my husband) and kept running through the list of things I was supposed to do to take care of them. I changed the paper towels in the cage, changed the water and food, and then sat down at the computer to email Renee for help. There was a message from Renee--she had lost 2 chicks overnight and was going to call the hatchery as soon as they opened. She was very comforting and assured me over and over that I had done nothing wrong, that chicks don't need food or water for the first 4 days of life because they feed off the yolk sac and egg white, so something had to be genetically wrong with them. Phew. The sweat on my brow lessened, but mother's guilt did not. She suggested that I put out a finely-chopped scrambled egg to see if I could get them to eat it--I did, they wouldn't. But 2 out of the 3 remaining chicks looked to be in good shape and were eating and drinking on their own. I could tell that chick #3 wasn't going to make it, and she didn't, but that little girl tried her hardest for 2 more days. She ate off my finger, she drank when I dunked her--she had real character. But Mother Nature wasn't going to let her stay around. Sadly, she passed Saturday early evening.

Cuckoo Maran chicks - 5 days old

I'm happy to say that chicks 1 and 2 are doing just fine. They love their warm cereal with yogurt, have started pecking on the quinoa grains I've put out for them, and they love playing in the yard, instinctively hunting for anything that moves in the grass. They're already getting new feathers and I swear chick #1 has grown an inch (maybe not quite that much, but she's definitely bigger). Chick #2 is doing fine, too, and has quite a personality. While it was a scary couple of days for me, I learned some valuable lessons, the biggest of course being that you just don't have control over Mother Nature. I've added some pictures of the chicks in the My Edible Yard Chickens photo slideshow in the right-hand sidebar of the blog. Enjoy!

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The Dinner Garden: The Solution to Hunger is in Your Backyard

Just a quick post today to bring your attention to a relatively new non-profit organization that needs our help called The Dinner Garden. Based out of Austin, Texas, The Dinner Garden is working to end hunger by teaching people to grow their own food, giving them seeds, and building their gardens. In just 13 months, they have given over 48,000 families and 120 communities the seeds to start home and community gardens, as well as providing free gardening advice. Their goal is to create 1 garden for every 6 people in the United States.



While The Dinner Garden can certainly use donations of seeds, mailing supplies and money, we can also provide non-monetary help by simply voting for them in the Pepsi Refresh Good Idea Challenge that is currently in progress. It's a daily vote ending on May 31st, 2010 and the winning organization will receive a $250K grant to help fund their goals.

So please vote for them daily through May 31st. You can use the widget in the right-hand sidebar of the My Edible Yard blog or click on this Pepsi Refresh Good Idea Challenge link. I can't think of a more worthwhile gardening organization.

Thanks for your help and feel free to pass this blog post on to anyone you feel might be interested.

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My Edible Yard: South Florida Planting Guide for May

As promised, here's May's gardening guide from The Edible Landscape by Tom MacCubbin.

May*

• Plant lima beans (Bush 20, Pole 20), snap beans (Bush 50, Pole 20), collards (8-10), and summer spinach (30-40). Continue planting heat-tolerant veggies such as calabazas (4-6), chayotes, yard-long beans (20), okra (8-12), Southern peas (15-20), sweet potatoes (5-10), cherry tomatoes (3-5) and tropical crops.
• Plant basil, chives, dill, sage, savory, sweet marjoram, mint and thyme.
• Cover developing papaya fruit with paper bags to protect from fruit flies.

*Number of plants to plant for sustainability in parentheses.

My personal planting plan for today:  Caribbean mutton and seasoning pepper seeds I just received from my cousin Frank in Louisiana and Everglades tomatoes.

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