Chicken poop Tea

The chicken is lauded for many wonderful qualities. Fresh eggs, natural pest control, entertainment and of course being able to create wonderful all natural fertilizer for your garden.

Until now I haven't even really ventured to try to use the chicken droppings that have been accumulating. After a little research an alternative popped up.
Chicken Poop Tea. First I thought oh no that sounds like it would taste terrible. No silly me-- it's for fertilizing your plants.

 
While my research is limited to the time it limited to the length of time it takes for my children to be engrossed in a Spongbob Squarepants episode-- I think the idea is solid.

I'm going to give it a try. Here is the excerpt I found from a website on the matter.

  Chicken Tea

"To make fertilizer tea, scoop the chicken manure into a burlap bag. 

Then, throw a rock into the bag to weigh it down and place the whole thing into a 35-gallon garbage can.

Fill the garbage can with water and let it sit for about three weeks. Once the three weeks are over, you will have nutrient-rich chicken manure fertilizer tea as the water becomes infused with the nutrients from the chicken manure. You can use this fertilizer tea to water your plants to give them a vitamin boost." 

I read later on a website that I shouldn't pour the tea directly onto the plants. It should be around the area of the plants to soak into the roots. Ok. Will do. 

Update on Winnie and her chicks: Winnie had her chicks-- all five eggs hatched. Three of the died at the hands of other chickens in the yard who wanted chicks of their own. Even after separating Winne and her chicks from the other chickens 3 chicks died when Lola and Clara snatched three of the chicks away.

Poor Winnie-- this is her first try at momma-hood and the bigger chickens are too big for her tiny banty silkie size or her quarter sized chicks.
Two of the chicks remain and will be set in a brooder.  

baby chicks in infant sock

My new silkies are all doing well-- as you can see.

Huckleberry

Heat, Death and Eggs.

It's been freakin hot... and I've been busy getting our little suburban micro farm ready for the heat. Soooo... that's my excuse for the long absence. Not a very good one eh?

Well the green house is up, the new shades are in place, the a/c is getting a tune up and we've invested in a water-evaporator cooler to try to relieve the power meter from running round and round and burning a hole in our budget. Anyone else who  has done anything to prepare their house for summer? Tips, Idea's? Please do tell!

The chickens are doing well. Here is nut shelled update.

A dog we were fostering killed Ferdinand and Isabella my Rosecomb Pair and Ruby our big reliable Easter Egger. Children crying, feathers everyone, dog gone the next day.

RIP Ferdinand & Isabella





This silver lining was that now I deserved a trip out to Schwartz Farm in Parma Idaho.

Martha was out back and  I picked out a mottled blue banty Cochin, (Fluffy). Martha was good enough to let me buy her gorgeous Japanese/Serama Rooster ( Henry), and his mate- a petite grey Japanese bantam (Anne).

All are happily enjoying the backyard and all the bugs they can eat.

Oh oh!! The first chicks we bought from Schwartz Farm back in February are now laying eggs! For the last two eggs we've been finding a big beautiful soft suede colored egg in the coop.

Winnie our partridge silkie hen has become broody and is sitting on a clutch of eggs-- all of them are Henry and Anne's. She only leaves her nest twice a day to eat drink and indulge in a quick dust bath. This is her first try-- so I'm not going to get my hopes up. :(

My summer of failure ended in a happy note with finding a breeder in Ohio who sold and shipped me her beautiful blue silkie hen and some black silkie chicks.   I am still on the hunt to find some Showgirl chickens...

The chickens got under the solar tarp on my garden and made quick work of all the leafy greens, sparing only the prickly bush of the zucchini-- making it necessary to build a  greenhouse. Crafty chickens--- all my greens gone from our raised beds.

Still at the end of everyday I look forward to sitting on the lawn and watching the girls come running at me, heads bobbing back and forth to noodle out any treats in my hand.

They talk and parp at me and each other as if they are asking me questions then settle in next to me and nap at my feet.

A Turken's day out.

Jenny is our bantam turken. She is the only hatchery chick I still have in my pen.
I sold my hatchery silkies at the recent IBBA auction because I needed to make room in my pen for the hatchling's I was expecting.
All are show quality lines- these should be really gorgeous birds. Like Marylin Monroe chickens.. if she were a chicken.

Jenny on the other hand is more of a Pippi Longstocking looking little thing. Bear in mind that for a turken, she is quite cute. She also has the softest demeanor and is so very docile and actually quite cuddly.

We took a turn in the yard yesterday together and smelled the flowers and watched the other chickens peck about the yard at fat bugs and juicy weeds.. and occasionally my plants..

I will admit- I am smitten with my chickens.

Incubation - Part II The Aftermath.

If anyone out there is actually reading this blog.. maybe someone may have been interested in what happened with my hatch.
It was a complete failure. 32 eggs-  Not one chick.  Not one hatch. In my hatching group everyone else got tiny bodies of lovey joy wrapped in fluff. I got a rock... then I got the rock taken away because I broke it.

Most likely my Franken-Bator was the final death blow.

I saw movement, but no pips, no little beaks breaking through the shell. On day 24 I candled them again-- no movement.  I opened them up yesterday (ironically) on Mother's day to find that their umbilical cord had not closed and they were all covered in a gooey sticky membrane with un-absorbed yolk sacks. 

Feeling like a gooey sticky membrane myself, I studied each little lifeless body to see that they also had malformed head and beaks. I referenced the "what went wrong" guide and figured it was the roller coaster ride of temps and humidity. 

I learned quite a bit. Darling hubby and kids brought up my spirits with coffee, good chocolate and a new book about chickens.



Relief is a much deserved after thought. In the future to anyone who might actually read this blog-- if you want to start hatching your own chicks here are a few very important lessons I will heed in the future.

1. To save my sanity- get three thermometers. A digital thermometer/hygrometer, a mercury and a stem thermometer.
2. Only candle eggs at 10 and 18 days. I think I candled the eggs too much and all that handling and opening the incubator took it's toll. 
3. Incubator location needs to be in a stable temperature area. I put my incubator in our mud room which fluctuates by 5-10 degrees... bad bad.
4. Don't use expensive eggs on your first hatch.  In hindsight I should have offered to hatch some barnyard eggs for someone else before popping in my super nice and spendy silkie and cochin eggs.
5. Learn from mistakes. ie: Don't do anything I did in my last post. Bad Bad.


I have a new sets of eggs in the Hovabator which I have placed upstairs in my walk in closet of all places.

Meticulous is my mantra for this hatch.

News Flash: We have lockdown, I repeat Lockdown.

It is officially 18 days from the first day I put my eggs in the incubator.
That means it's time for lock down.

Lock down happens 18 days after first day of incubation. On day 18 the incubator stays closed unconditionally for the next three days while the chicks hatch.

After fighting irregular temps and humidity in the Hovabator I am taking a risky and potentially dangerous course of action.. (cue movie trailer music and throaty guy voice over).."Lock down in a home made incubator".

So, okay, while obviously not the wisest course of action I was feeling entirely powerless with the fluctuating temps and humidity in the current incubator. I was also (probably irrationally) scared that there was no air flow in the incubator.

*warning: the following is going to make most of you seasoned fowl professionals cringe and or possibly induce eye rolling- please stop reading this woman's misguided actions now*

Faced with the idea that all my clutch (possibly five) that survived thus far are potentially a loss.. I made my own 'bator.
Ingredients for my idiocy.

1- 10 gallon fish tank (washed and dried)
1- Utensil tray (unused and waiting for a yard sale, to hold the eggs)
2- Kitchen sponges (brand new, to draw water up from the bottom of the fish tank)
2- Locker mates shelves (un-assembled and laid flat)
1- Toddler sock (soaked in water to aid in the humidity)
1- heat lamp 250 watt (make you crazy red bulb)
1- Fish tank air pump (gets sock wet with the bubbling action and also works as a fan.. sort of.)
1- Thermometer/Hygrometer (Timex: because if it fails me, it's going to take a licking)
1- Soft bath mat and or stroller snuggly (for insulation)

This is the result: (chicken experts after you've finished laughing at the above, please avert your eyes from the below)

The temps have been holding steady at 99-100 degrees and the humidity is steady at around 50%.

I've had my few schizophrenic moments of sitting next to the tank for what seems like hours, glaring red light burning my brain, staring at the eggs, swearing I just heard something or saw something move, I swear I heard something... I may have swatted at a few imaginary flies.
It was like living in the Kenny Roger's Roaster's Episode of Seinfeld.



My husbands laughter turned to a odd worried look when I told him I wanted to sleep in the mud room with the incubator, just in case I hear something again.

I'm waiting for that all glorious first pip.. that first sign of life.. and the relief and elation that I'm not a complete failure at hatching eggs.

Update in the morning-- I'm going to put another pot of coffee on.

They're heeeerrree!

And it almost didn't happen.. thank you very much google  maps.

Yesterday my husband and I headed out with our youngest to the Schwartz Chicken Farm in Parma Idaho.

We knew we didn't have too much time because of long set appointments that we had scheduled.

So we drove out to Parma. We pass through Caldwell... and then into Notus.. and then into Parma. I've gotta say I'm biased because I love Parma.
I love the rolling spaces and the blue brush and the stark beauty of it all. It was looking especially gorgeous this morning with the fog sitting on the hills like gauzy cotton blanket.

So we took out our handy dandy phones/pda's and google mapped the directions to the Schwartz Farm.
3500 Elmore Rd Parma Idaho.

The maps directed up to a golf course. Then do a dead end street off of Ward lane. We'd been driving over 1 1/2 hours and we were due to be on our way back to Boise already.
Conversational polite scuffles ensued when my husband kept insisting that we come back another day.
I finally made a statement... "I'm not leaving Parma without my baby chicks!"

Silence. Then pouting on my point. My husband realizing how important it was to me charged ahead on our mission (I think the twelve point verbal presentation about the importance of getting what I want helped)... then there it was. I saw the Schwartz Farm Coop! We're Here... I think I actually clapped.

**Insert glorious opera aria here**

It may be a bit of a drive-- but oh so so so worth it.

I had exactly thirty minutes to get in there pick out my chicks and head home.

Ok-- so forgive me if the following sounds like an infomercial, but I have to brag on my chicken breeders Jim & Martha Schwartz. (and this is NOT a paid endorsement)

Jim and his Martha were wonderful. Big smiles and greetings from both of them.
They showed us around the coops and gave great information on the chicks. Martha was great at giving a guided tour of the chickens and any detail you want to know.
And the chickens! Oh-- I was like a hypoglyciemic kid in a candy store! Beautiful chickens everywhere, and in such great shape.
I chose Jim & Martha Schwartz' smaller chicken farm because I wanted a more personal experience. Here are some other reasons why.

• They guarantee the sex of their standard size chickens. If you by chance get a rooster.. just take em back and they'll make it right. 
• They are both founts of chicken knowledge and get back to you with quick responses. All of my questions were answered in a personable way. They really want to help their customers.
• They really care about their chickens and it shows. The chickens were all in such good form and really beautiful. 
• They are local! Buy Idaho! 
• For the experience. There is something special about going to a working chicken farm. Buying from a commercial hatchery or pet supply store is ok.... but I guarantee that you won't get the experience and the memories you will from a real personal experience. 
• They want  you to succeed. The relationship they have with their customers doesn't stop after you pick up your poultry. It will be a relationship.

If you are in the market for a coop you should definitely check out Jim's Coops! He has a selection and different types and styles. My favorite was the coop that looked like an outhouse, complete with toilet seat brooder ports! And his coops are made of cedar- (way good for chickens). But he can also build custom coops too.
If you are looking for a more personal experience in getting any of your poultry stock you really should go to the Schwartz farm first.

And psstt... they are getting a shipment of the Belgian D'Uccle Mille de Fleur' Bantams on Friday... EEEH!!! These are such sweet docile beautiful birds and sold out on almost all the chick provider sites via mail order and finding them around here isn't much better.
They are gonna go fast so better get your deposit in now!

So without further ado... meet my new baby chicks.!

2- Buff Orpingtons
2- Plymouth Barred Rock
2- Ameraucana's (I wish I had gotten more)
1- Buff Silkie
8- Silver laced Wyandotte

They are all settled in and cozy.

Here is the info for the

Schwartz Chicken Farm Coops or Chickens
3500 Elmore Rd Parma ID 83660
208-674-1012.

And here are the directions. Coming from Boise take I-84 towards Caldwell.
Take the exit 20, then make a left. Stay on through Notus and Parma. Then turn right on Pearl Rd and stay on the road. Turn left on Elmore to 3500 Elmore road. It should be on your right.
Just stay on those roads and you'll get there. 

P.S. Jim is also an author and has several Country lore books for sale. Definitely worth a read and priced way reasonable! I'm going to pick up a couple next time I'm out-- they will make great gifts for any Idahoan.
Check out the page and order your books online at JimSchwartzBooks.com then pick them out when you go to pick up your chicks!

Chick-mas eve

It's Chick-Mas eve! I can only liken the excitement to being a 11 year old with front row seats to the Jonas Brothers concert.
YEEEE!!

I was able to find everything I needed at the local Zamzows. They were really helpful, but a little low on stock as they said that Chicken stuff is starting to fly off the shelf. I did have to settle for plastic feeders. (I would have preferred galvanized. Brooder lamp with the 250 watt bulb is set up.
But the supplies I bought will more than do. 
1- Adjustable Brooder lamp $12.99
1- 250 Clear white brooder heat bulb $6.49 (I bought the cheaper clear lamp instead of the red one which only emits heat. The sales clerk let me know that it doesn't really matter which type you use)
1- Pine shavings in a compressed bale $9.89
1- Package of Zamzows starter chick feed - $11.99
1- Feeder base - $2.99
1- Fount base (water) - $1.99 (I actually grabbed the last one they had on the shelf)
2- Poultry Jars 1 qt. 2x 2.49 - $4.98
1- Poultry Vitamins $3.99
Total with tax came to $58.63 

Not bad I think for everything my chicks should need for the first few months of their life. 

I used an empty storage bin and a shelf in our mud room.

My brooder has been sanitized, a thin layer of pine shavings laid. Starter feed is loaded, and water is waiting to be filled. We have a cloth screen that will lay underneath a heavier metal screen.
I need to pick up a thermometer to ensure that the temp stays 99 degrees. Then each week after we will have to lower the temp from the brooder lamp by 5 degrees but shutting if off at times or using an oil heater I placed on the floor next to the brooder. 

I am agonizing about having to look at a silkie chick and just say no.. I'll tell you this readers.. I'm going to really try.

My biggest challenge is going to be keeping our kitty Pabu and our dog Moosie from disturbing (ie: eating) the baby chicks. Family members have been instructed to keep animals out for the first week.

Next post you'll see from me I will be the proud Mama of 14 baby chirpity chicks!