Urban Chickens
Families frustrated by ordinances banning backyard chickens might be astonished to learn that flocks legally thrive in the Big Apple, America’s largest city Many New Yorkers tend chickens both in backyards and community gardens, encouraged and helped by the New York Chicken Guy, Greg Anderson
“Chickens have always been allowed in the City Years ago the State Department of Health declared that chickens and rabbits are pets This means the citizens of New York City can keep them as long as they are clean and safe Unfortunately roosters aren’t included since their crowing can reach
Adventures in Ordinance Change
During the past few years thousands of American families have started a backyard chicken flock Bringing a breakfast’s worth of fresh eggs into the house is as prideful and delicious as growing and enjoying home grown vegetables
Gardening is legal and encouraged everywhere But sadly, many towns have enacted ordinances banning chickens inside city limits Positive change is sweeping the nation Town and city councils everywhere recognize that many citizens want to legally keep a small flock They are learning that it can be done without causing problems So, many towns have changed anti chicken ordinances to allow families to
Jersey Giants
They come with lustrous black, bright white, or blue feathers but Jersey Giants are really a mellow yellow chicken breed The reason goes back to the breed’s creation in the late 1800s
Back then, few families enjoyed chicken or turkey dinners for one reason It was expensive Birds of that long-ago era gobbled down plenty of food yet grew slowly
Raising them to market size was a slow and expensive process so, typically, chicken and turkey dinners were reserved for holiday meals and special meals served to guests
New Jersey chicken breeders John and Thomas Black were determined to make chicken a
A Chicken from Outside to Inside
People are familiar with mammal anatomy After all, we are one Dogs and cats are common companions and have body features, like hair and digestive and reproductive systems somewhat similar to humans
Birds are different They’re modern-day dinosaurs Whether they’re a Rhode Island Red chicken or a chickadee snatching sunflower seeds from a backyard feeder the anatomy of birds varies greatly from familiar mammals
Both types of animals have muscles and skin, but a bird’s feathers, digestive and reproductive system are very different from mammals From the outside to the inside of their bodies here are how birds, especially chickens Special
Creating Bold Yolks
Celebrity chefs know there’s more to food than taste They strive to deliver a meal that’s so handsome it’s as much a work of art as breakfast Sometimes it looks so good it seems a shame to attack it with a knife and fork
The best chefs are picky about eggs They insist on yolks with a deep golden hue Whether they are just frying eggs or blending them into a complex recipe, that bold color impresses diners and makes chefs happy
Owners of backyard flocks are often like picky chefs They want their hens to lay distinctive eggs as attractive
Chicken Combs
Imagine a 36-foot-long duck billed dinosaur with a bright comb on its head strutting around the yard Those enormous beasts roamed North America between 65 and 75 million years ago and shared a feature with modern chickens Both sported fleshy combs!
“No one ever suspected dinosaurs may have combs like roosters because the evidence of soft tissue usually decays before fossilization,” said Dr Phil Bell of Australia’s University of New England Fortunately, skin impressions found on a dinosaur skull in Alberta, Canada, revealed that this huge animal did have a fleshy comb somewhat like a chickens Other dinosaur species may
Saying Goodbye
As I weeded a patch of string beans one July morning, sadness overcame me
The plants were loaded with beans, but the silence got to me
My garden adjoins our chicken run Whenever I’m planting, weeding, or harvesting, our 14 hens are my companions They watch me from just beyond the fence and encourage my work with cheerful, expectant clucking The hens joyfully feast whenever I toss tasty weeds or vegetable thinnings over the fence But, on that July morning no perky hens kept me company
Whenever we bring a pail of kitchen scraps
Rocks and Shells Are Good for Hen Health
If bread is the staple of human life, calcium is its backbone Lacking calcium, the bones of every living creature, from people to flounders, wouldn’t exist Without calcium neither clams nor bird eggs would have shells Chickens, and especially laying hens, need plenty of it to maintain both their health and laying ability
Laying hens have a calcium dilemma When chickens were wild birds roaming the Southeast Asian woodlands, they would only lay one or two clutches of eggs a year, maybe two dozen total Every egg removes calcium from the hen’s body, but when she didn’t lay many eggs,
Seeking the Earliest Egg
Anyone studying the Hoover’s Hatchery catalog or Website faces one easy and one challenging decision The easy one is deciding whether to buy layer or broiler chicks
With delicious fresh eggs the goal of most people it’s easy to rule out broiler hybrids, like Cornish Rocks
Other choices get challenging Hoover’s sells dozens of breeds and hybrids that all promise good egg production How does someone select chicks that are likely to begin laying at the youngest age and keep producing for many months?
Actually, that’s also a fairly easy decision but takes some planning and thought Hoover’s lists the characteristics of