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for Gourmet magazine- my favorite food publication… Conde Nast announced on Monday that it was closing the magazine- see this article. So sad! But there’s a movement to save the magazine, via crowdsourcing… please join!
For the past few days, the chickies have been snacking on some fresh, organic, local baby lettuces from a friend (thanks J!)
The greens were a little wilted for our friend, but once we refreshed the leaves with a little rinse and spin, our girls thought they were a tasty treat! And why wouldn’t they, when the farm that grew the lettuce supplies some of the best restaurants in town?
We always like to joke that our chickens eat better than most folks- since almost everything they eat is organic, and sometimes local to boot.
Here’s what they eat:
organic layer pellets – This is their primary source of food. (Layer pellets are formulated for chickens who lay eggs- there is a higher percentage of calcium in the food, to help them produce eggs with nice, strong shells. You can’t feed the same food to baby chickens, or chickens that are not yet laying- since their bodies don’t rid themselves of calcium by making eggshells, the calcium buildup in their bodies can cause liver damage. You can actually mix up your own chicken feed from a variety of grains and other food sources, but with the way our chickens like to “pick and choose” what they eat, they’d probably just eat what tastes the best, and not everything they need!)
grass + bugs – Whatever they forage when we let them free range around the yard in the afternoons and on the weekends. Grass and other wild green plants (uh, weeds…) give them lots of Omega3 fatty acids, and bugs give them protein and calcium.
organic yogurt – A few times a week they get a couple of spoonfuls. We give it to them both for additional calcium and for probiotics (just as important for chickens as humans)- but they also love the taste! They lap it up and Sweetie often ends up with it all over her comb and wattle…We just give them the same stuff we eat- its easier than buying a separate container for them, since we don’t eat that much of it.
scratch – a mixture of seeds and grains such as millet, corn, quinoa, etc… (It’s their morning treat- we scatter a handful around in their run, when we let them out in the morning- picture Laura Ingalls feeding the chickens – I like to pretend that I’m wearing a long calico dress + bonnet). Its especially good for them in the wintertime, because all of the cracked corn in the mix provides additional fat to help them keep warm.
organic rolled oats - We mix a couple handfuls in with their scratch in the summertime- its supposed to promote healthy egg laying, and also cut back on the amount of fat that scratch provides.
grapes – Their favorite treat- generally only provided on the weekends- whenever B. and I have snack time, the girls have snack time too! You should see how high they’ll jump for grapes!
garden produce – You can’t get any more local and organic than the stuff right out of our garden! Sometimes its lettuce – they love frisee and escarole…These days, its tomatoes from the garden- we have a bunch of cherry tomatoes, and I can’t resist Spotty-Dotty’s begging- she stands outside the garden when I’m harvesting, and makes a high-pitched kind of whine- so I end up tossing her a tomato, and then next thing you know, everyone wants one!
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Of course, if you ask the chickens, they don’t get nearly enough treats, so they like to supplement on their own by sneaking into the garden! We still blame Tweetie for the fact that we didn’t eat any yellow tomatoes last summer..
Tweetie is our other red chicken- the alpha to Sweetie’s beta. She’s the biggest chicken out of the bunch, but despite her physical size, she’s at the bottom of the pecking order…and usually the hungriest… looking for Tweetie? Usually you’ll find her in the middle of the tomatoes- eating away… When Tweetie was a mere ball of fluff, she was always the one that would stay awake the longest- and would begin “tweeting” loudly, upon finding herself the only one awake. She’s always active, and definitely a go-getter – especially after tasty morsels! She loves to follow us around when she thinks we might have something delicious hidden up our sleeves- constantly asking us for a little bite- “bok-bok-bok! bok-bok- BOK! “ She’s also the strongest flier we have- and able to make quite a few leaps/jumps – between her powerful wings and strong legs and haunches, she’s managed to land on my back when I’m bent over, or on my shoulder when I’m standing straight. (Granted, I’m only 5′-2″, so its not as though she’s landing on the moon…) But you should the height she’ll go for a grape!
She’s also very fond of “helping” us refill her feeder- she’ll jump up on the bench next to me, and will “help” pour the chicken feed pellets- basically using her beak to kick them out of the measuring cup, in order to get to the bottom, where are the tasty little crumbles are hidden. It reminds me of when I used to eat sugary cereal – I’d always try to dig down to the bottom of the box- and either pour those tasty sugary bits into my milk to turn it pink, or, when no one was looking, tip them straight into my mouth…
Tweetie is also one of our best layers- consistently producing big, light-to-medium brown eggs, that are also sometimes speckled. She’s very fond of looking at what she’s laid- she’ll stand up in the nest box, and use her beak to tuck her egg underneath her, moving it this way and that. Once, she was trying to move it so far beneath her that she actually lost her balance, and ended up on her back! I panicked and quickly turned her right-side-up, but she was unfazed- still busy looking at her accomplishment!
passed away on Saturday, November 15, just nine months and 2 days old. She started having reproductive problems about 2 months ago, thus the long hiatus from posting on this blog.
Blondie was our sweetest chicken, and definitely our prettiest- everyone likes blondes! We were, and still are heartbroken over losing our favorite chicken. Once her health problems started, we moved her inside- and any remaining dignity we had as aloof non-pet people definitely went out the window. “Pookie” or (sometimes “pumpkin”) became a house chicken, or, we liked to say, a “chat” (chicken-cat) because she would follow us around the house, and sit on our feet and take naps in the sun. She would cluck softly at us in the morning, when we’d peek at her on her perch, ( a comfy towel-wrapped stack of wood 2×4’s, next to another cushy towel that served as alternate bedding and her favorite egg-laying spot), and wail piteously when we’d leave her alone to step outside. She still had plenty of time outdoors- in the afternoons, we’d let her out along with the other chickens, to free-range around the yard. Oftentimes, she’d have the special privilege of getting to hang out inside the garden (everyone else is fenced out, as they are too fond on eating all the same things we’re fond of eating…). She would find her favorite space snuggled between the marjoram and the romaine lettuces and happily take a dirt bath and lie in the sun… We like to think that’s what chicken heaven is like for her now- a big sunny yard, an eden where she can happily wander and peck, nap and bathe, and sample endless amounts of her favorite treats.
We’ll always love you and miss you Pookie!
blondie preening in the sunlight
blondie in the house
blondie in the garden
* look for a separate page about Blondie, full of photos, coming soon…
These days the chickies prefer a different sort of spa- a dirt bath right next to the patio- here’s an action-packed video of Brownie, Blondie, Sweetie and Spotty-Dotty cleaning themselves…
