Blog Archive

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Chia Chicken


I doubt I will be able to find one person who hasn't heard, let alone owned, a Chia Pet.

We are all familiar with the unique sprouting greens coming from the bulbous, cheesy piece of terracotta pottery shaped into the head of your favorite dog, pig, ex or current president, cartoon character, tree, etc.


In the past two years, studies have gone back and forth over the benefits of Chia seeds.

The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry released their study on Chia seeds earlier this year. Chia seeds were studied for their benefits, high in Omega-3 and have been known to protect the heart and liver from disease and other vulnerabilities. (In obese rats, anyway!)

Here's another interesting article: http://www.healthyfellow.com/305/chia-seed-research/

 After doing some research, here is my take on it.

Chia seeds have been in use since the days of the Aztec and Maya in Mexico and South America. Both civilizations used chia seeds as a supplement for their chicken flocks.
I'm gonna say that anything that has been around that long is safe. Not only safe, but I believe beneficial.




I'm a curious student of the anthropology of homesteading in different cultures. Especially when the homes were kept in Urban areas, such as my home sweet home. The Aztec seems to have felt it was important enough to make chia seeds a vital crop. I think they were onto something...

artwork by matthew meyer


Chia seeds are relatively cheap and easy to procure at around $3.75/lb and now they've hit the mainstream and are popping up in everything from chips for drinks.



 Next time you are out and about at your local grocery store-- ask them if they carry chia seeds and grab a pound... your chickens will thank you.

Will you be using chia seeds in your flock supplement? If so let me know!





Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The Backyard Chicken Fight


This week we are spotlighting local award winning author/speaker, chicken champion and all around great person Gretchen Anderson. 

Gretchen has been keeping chickens from the time she was a child and her latest book 
The Backyard Chicken Fight is a wonderful collection of stories and vital knowledge that any Backyard Chicken Keeper would be proud to have.

Recently I had the opportunity to pick her perfectly coiffed head on some questions that I've been itching to know. 





 With the popularity of backyard chickens what do you feel is the most important message to your book? 
- "That just about anyone can keep chickens—even in the smallest places.  They make great pets and it is one of the most sustainable actions we can take right now.  There is also a message of taking on City Hall.  It’s a message of people fighting for the right to be more sustainable."

 As an award winning author and speaker why did you choose to write about chickens?  
 - "I was fascinated by the stories from around the country where people had to fight for backyard chickens. They all have several things in common: they want food security, they believe in private property rights and they want to be more sustainable."

If you had to choose what is your favorite quote from your The Backyard Chicken Fight?  
- "Probably the story of the Rogue Rooster.  I quoted my friend Mary Defayette as saying, A rooster has adopted a busy corner in town and when a lady complained to the cops that he wouldn’t let her pass by, they told her to cross the road! Ha, the chicken made the lady cross the road!” I love the irony!"

 Do you have a favorite chicken in your flock? And why? 
 - "Absolutely! My Ameraucana, named Hedwig.  She’s my house chicken, very docile and a champion layer of green eggs! "

Hedwig the house chicken


Your book and awareness campaign was instrumental  in the fight for the recent change in regulations to allow more chickens. How do you feel about that? 
- " I’ve had people come up to me and tell me I’m the reason they now have chickens.  I love it!  If I can help families become more sustainable while learning how to thoughtfully take care of chickens, I feel really good about that!"

What do you have planned for the future?
- " I am currently writing a book called “Secrets of the Lazy Urban Gardener” which will be out next spring."

Where can your book be purchased?  
- "In the Treasure Valley, you can purchase it at Zamzows, Costco and Barnes & Noble.  You can find it on-line at Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com and my Facebook page (The Backyard Chicken Fight)."


Pick up your copy of The Backyard Chicken Fight today!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Repurposing the tramp








Not that kind of tramp. 

A litany of leaves left under the family trampoline led me to the idea of creating a annex to the chicken run.
It seems like an obvious re-purpose project waiting to happen.

It was a low cost way to improving the grazing area of my chickens, which we all know leads to happy chickens and more eggs.

I also want to use the chickens to clear any bugs, slugs and spiders that might have set up camp. The chicken droppings will then be mixed with the composting leaves and be used to supplement my garden soil later. Win, Win, Win.

Secure zip ties to plastic barrier fence then folded down excess
A single roll of plastic garden fencing, a few garden stakes and zip ties, and a few metal fence posts and voila.





Chickens love it

Secure fencing against the perimeter of frame.
Now this is a tramp everyone can enjoy

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The code

The BBYC would like to thank guest author Ben Petzinger for his keen insight into Idaho living.


The Code

 by Ben Petzinger


Some live by the farmer's almanac, but there's another reliable source for direction in rural Western Idaho called the 'code'. The code isn't written as it doesn't need words to direct action, it's more common sense mixed with the reality of living with chickens and dogs.

Growing up, we had chickens and lots of spare land in Canyon County, a place I am proud to call home. Mom and Dad expected us to gather eggs, feed, water and occasionally we even got to test the theory that recently capped chickens really do run about as beheaded feather balls. It's a grisly affair, but the code is part of realizing where food comes from. The code also teaches you how to deal with the untimely demise of poultry due to the blood lust of neighboring dogs.

Coyotes are always a risk with chickens, but with robust coop security and nightly lock-downs, coyotes can be held at abeyance. No one ignores a coyote on their property, but dogs on the other hand can be a little more covert and inconspicuous to the novice chicken coup patrolman/owner. It's the neighbor's dog that chicken owners need to watch out for.

The code is clear about the hierarchy of dogs vs. chickens, but it is only enforced when one of them is killed.

Having never seen a chicken "hen-peck" fido to death, I think this is a one-sided hierarchy and rightly so. Chickens are no match to the blood lust of a dog and once the canine gets a taste for pre-KFC, they'll be back for the original recipe again and again.
I don't remember many such killing raids by neighborhood dogs when I was young, but I do remember one event that taught the code very clearly.

Dad bought some guinea hens which ran wild on the property and stayed close to the house and orchard. They weren't chickens but more of a garnishment to the land which my dad enjoyed seeing. One summer day 3 or 4 of his hens turned up dead and it was clear to him that the neighbor's dog was guilty. Dad carried the dead birds with him and left his anger at home as he walked down the lane to the neighbor's house.
In a matter-of-fact delivery known to those familiar with the code, he simply laid the hens at the door step, rang the bell, explained the situation and asked for compensation. The neighbor also knew the code and accepted the fate of his dog's actions. Dad was paid but the full price was brought to bear upon the mongrel down the road who's ultimate demise was paid with a single shot. We all heard the shot ring out and that's how I learned this part of the code.

Fast forward 20 years, and a round trip of employment opportunities across several states which ultimately brought me back to Idaho; only this time to the Wood River Valley.
Jelina and I bought a small farm and started Petzinger Beef Garden, a small beef growing operation with grass fed and hormone free taste as a way to keep the pastures down and enjoy the gentleman farmer's lifestyle of having one foot in corporate America and the other foot in manure; the odor differentiation is difficult to distinguish. I love them both.

Our neighbors were wonderful people. Our children of the same age and interests and both families love the quiet life in rural Idaho. They kept a healthy coop of egg laying chickens and loved them like pets. We had our cows, much less productive on a daily basis but the yearly reaping yielded healthy beef and paid the bills. It wasn't until a new addition to the family pets, that I had any remembrance of the code. Chewi is a massive Rottweiler  who came to be in our family as a result of someone else's misfortune. No longer being cared for, we decided to adopt her in not fully knowing how she'd handle life on the farm. It was quickly apparent that boundaries needed to be defined.

One winter's day, I received a curious phone call from Jelina who reported that Chewi had a chicken in her mouth out in the yard. Flash back code instinct took over and I told Jelina to keep the dog at home until I could get there, but it was too late.....the damage was long done.

I walked over to the neighbor's coop crunching through the snow and turned the corner to see all 13 chickens resting in the snow crumpled, broken, torn, and red. It was like a terrible egg carton of red feathered snow cones each in their own divot of death. Chewi had definitely tried the first one and came back for more-all 13 of them to be exact. It was a grisly sight. I assessed the situation and decided to clean up the mess before my neighbor came home. Jelina had already called and the proud chicken owner was on her way.

I walked home and put the dog on leash. She was marched to the scene of the crime and I had a choice to make. I either had to follow through with the code or find an acceptable solution to spare the rottie's life. It was clearly a death sentence to ever set paw on the neighbor's property again but she knew no boundaries and as training goes, she had never had any.

Retribution: I knew what my neighbor wanted and that had already been taken care of; we had located 15 egg laying hens in Kuna and I had already purchased them and made arrangements to pick them up that evening. They never mentioned a commensurate punishment for the dog, the code left that up to me. It was my responsibility to contain, train and protect that dog from her own instinct to kill chickens. Now that she had done the damage, I either needed to move her away from there, shoot her or forever keep her on leash. The choices were hard to accept as a new reality. 
I quickly made up my mind; she would live and I'd have to enact my own version of the code. She would never forget the scolding and throttling she received at the scene after being marched over there and our relationship forever changed from that day. But she's alive thanks to a small investment in an invisible fence with enough wire to enclose at least 4 acres. This kept her away from any trouble and kept my friendship in tact with our neighbors who quickly reported that the 15 hens delivered that same night quickly began laying eggs in their new coup.

We've since moved again but I've brought the memories with me and whenever that dog sees a chicken, she looks out for me. Smart dog, I let her live to understand part of the code.

As a side note, I found it strangely ironic that the shock collar she wore ever after had as it's highest setting the lucky #13. Code or not, she quickly grasped the full shock and power of #13 and never tested that range again. The code is now amended to include boundaries.



Friday, April 6, 2012

Pysanky egg-sperience


How do I know it's spring?

It's that time of year when I itch to sleep outside again.  Which worries me that my sense of weather is run by my innate girl scout, not a seasoned urban farmer.  Neither of which is necessarily going to help me explain my egg-addiction.

They are perfect globes of compacted nature with babies/food inside. And every spring they begin showing up like magic falling right out of a chickens behind. 




This spring I wanted to appropriately express my gol' durn amazement at this mystical process.
Then I recalled something in my brain. The part of my brain where I keep all the crafts, magazine clippings, urban farm lifestyle tips and funny animal you-tube videos.
It's a big area, so it took me a while to remember the name.  Pysanky



 I needed supplies:  Ukranian annaline egg dyes, Kitska, pencil, beeswax, glass jars,egg stand, spoons.

For future record, should anyone ask, there are no Ukranian Pysanky Supply shops in the greater Boise Idaho area.

Heck if this girl scout was beat. I rustled up some o' my own version rigged Idaho style from what I had in the house/art store.

Beeswax - Check
Beeswax melter tool/batik/kitska - Check 
Eggs- Check 
Food Egg Dye- Check
Several glass jars - Check
Spoons- Check
Big table in messy art studio that I should have cleaned before taking pictures - Check.
Over caffeinated cheerleader enthusiasm  - You're damn straight.


Thank you Rabinowitz Design, you saved my arms many wax burns from my first attempt with a less expensive tool. I'm hoping my arm hair will grow back in those areas soon

I did some  research on the internet and was inspired and touched by the idea that Pysanky Eggs were meant not to be kept but to given to others as a gift. Normally when I research a project I take weeks reading, researching and taking notes.
This time I had twenty-two minutes until the next Sponge Bob video was done entertaining my five year old. 

Let me preface the following experience by explaining that my ego was riding a little high by being fortunate enough to have our Boise Backyard Chickens Blog and Facebook Page mentioned in the Idaho Statesman in an article about chickens in Boise.

For all intents and purposes I was kind of a jack ass about the whole Pysanky "challenge".

No problem,  I could master this centuries old art in an afternoon in the art studio.
Needless to say I was confused when my first egg came out so broken and muddy colored
that I sent the contributing hen a mental apology for the tragedy I just inflicted on her perfectly good egg.
Then one after another to my horror the eggs just got a little bit better, but that's about it.

My artistic talents in this area should transfer right? Nope. Nopity, nope, nope.
 What did transfer is my artistic sense of self censure and obsessive compulsiveness about line spacing. I figured my ego was probably just smacking itself back into the real Idaho spring air.

These market food dyes didn't do the job
The outcome were some pretty interesting looking eggs.
None of them look like Pysanky Eggs. Not even a little. 
Of course I can laugh about it now,but if you had asked me about it a day ago I'd have still been pretty warm about my ignorance and frustration.

I've decided that I like my eggs, and I'm going to be brave and give them to friends and family as tokens of love and luck. Ugly, ugly eggshell luck.

Better luck and preparedness to you during this holiday from the Boise Backyard Chickens Urban Farm.












To learn more about Psanka/Pysanky visit: