Miolea Organic Farm

I read that more and more of us are starting backyard chicken pens.  If you've ever had a fresh egg you can understand why.  We read a lot about raising chickens, specifically layers, before we actually took the leap.  As I've lamented before mortality bothers us and was one of the main reasons it took us so long to incorporate hens into our farm model.

But I have to tell you it has been an experience that I wouldn't change.  We've had some sad times but the hens have brought us more joy than sorrow.  We've picked up veterinary tips and tricks and have become quite adept at handling situations as they arise.  One on the most important things to know when raising hens in your backyard is what to look for in terms of health and how to detect unhealthy situations as quickly as you can before the problem spreads to the entire flock..

We had never thought of chickens as being happy but I guess like most things you are either stressed or not stressed.  If not stressed then I guess you could consider the bird to be what we would call happy.  You can tell signs of stress and negative stress affects taste if a bird has been stressed for extended periods.  Anything subjected to long periods of stress is going to have problems.  That's why cows, pigs, chickens or any animal raised on these confinment farms are pumped up with anti-biotics, hormones and other synthetic substances.  They were not meant to live that way.  Evolution has prepared them to be grazers, hence the term ruminant.  Not in confinment yards where they stand and sleep in their own excrement laden pens with no hope of getting on grass.

First and foremost you must know what signs to look for in chickens and you must be able to compare it to what a healthy chicken looks like.  The first signs of any problem with a layer is that they will not be themselves.  We have learned that if we see any anomally whatsoever we need to act upon it.  Meaning if there is the slightest change in the bird, isolate her from the rest of the flock and give it a health check.  You should always have a hospital pen available.  This is usually an enclosed area that has food, water, a nest and a roost.  I've seen a little 2 chicken box setup for this purpose.  The last thing you need to worry about if you have a sick chicken is where are you going to put it when isolated from the flock.  Even if you do not have a special place at least know what you will do if isolation is needed.

We've lost a chicken or two because when we saw a problem it didn't look like a problem to us.  Like counting 11 chickens when there should be 12.  Then the next day counting ten hens when there should be 12.  Then coming outside on day three in the morning and seeing the neighbors dog in the pen.  Or you see a hen in the nesting box that doesn't sound right.  They normally are vocal when laying but this is an agitated kind of squawking.  I guess the rule of thumb should be if in your mind you question ANYTHING then do something about it.  Isolate the bird and examine it.  This action also protects the rest of the flock.

A healthy chicken will be active, pecking and scratching and chasing anything that flies within its eyesight.  However, they are not constantly active and you will sometimes find them taking a dirt bath.  They will scratch up the soil making a nice indentation in the earth which has all of this fluffy dirt they just created.  They'll sit in it and roll and flap there wings and just have a grand old time.  When they get up watch out, much like a wet dog they will shake and a mini dust shower come's extruding from their body.

Healthy birds have clear eyes, beak and nostrils.  There should be no discharges dried or otherwise.  Their combs and wattles should be red.  There should be no limp or what's known as bumblefoot in their gate.  Their vent should be pink and the feathers around the vent clean.  If the feathers around the vent are dirty then she could have diarreha.  Food intake varies by stage of development, weather and species.  I've found the following site to be very helpful; http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/poulsci/tech_manuals/small_flock_resources.html  

During the winter chickens eat more because eating helps them to stay warm.  It seems water intake is constant but in warmer times it does go up.  It is important to note that they should always have plenty of water and food.  The last thing you want to do is promote competition in the flock. 

There should be plenty of roosting, nesting and roaming space.   If any of these things are lacking you will promote competiion within the flock and only the strongest will survive.  If there is plenty of room( a good rule of thumb is at least four square feet per bird inside (at night) and eight outside), water and food, your entire flock will be happy and even the runts will get enough to eat and drink.  Productivity, in turn, will be higher if the bird is happy.  You'll get more eggs and tastier meat.

If you are raising meat birds there is a strong belief that a bird rasied in a stressful environement will not taste as good as a bird in a stress-free environment.  If you don't believe me do a taste test yourself. buy a store bought chicken and a free range chicken.  Prepare them identically and give your family and friends a blind test taste.  You will pay more for a free range chicken but know that it cost us more to raise them.  But a free range chicken will be free of hormones, steriods, anti-biotics and other synthetic substances that do come with chickens from the industrial food complex.

See what your family and friends say.  Let them vote and then send us the results.  We'll compile and post what we get.

Buy Local - from a farmer not a chain hard selling the fact.

When a chicken lays an egg the shell is covered with a protein outer covering known as the "bloom".  The bloom quickly dries and seals the egg from pathogens from the outside world.  This is a good thing especially if the egg is going to be incubated or remain fresh.  Because the egg is sealed nothing penetrates the shell and gets into the inner part.  However, before you sell them you must wash the bloom off.

The logical question that comes to mind is why do we have to wash the egg's protection off creating a permeable shell?  If the bloom keeps pathogens out of the albumen (white) and yolk why would we remove that protected coating?  Not only does it keep things out it also does not allow the inside to dry out, keeping the egg fresher longer.  A commercial egg left in the refrigerator will slowly dry from the inside.  It will also absorb the odors that are in the ice box too.

An egg that has not been washed can remain unrefrigerated for up to three months.  Wash the bloom off and the egg cannot last a day with temperatures above 45 degrees before it starts to develop salmonella and other bacteria harmful to the digestive tract.

There has been a fight to get egg producers to date stamp individual eggs, this is required in the UK but not herein the US.  I saw a news show awhile back that did an expose on egg producers recycling old unsold eggs back into the food chain.  If you've ever bought a carton of eggs and get them home and crack one open and the white is very cloudy you've probably gotten one.

When you buy a fresh egg the albumen should be clear with the exception of the chalaza.  The chalaza is the strand that anchors the egg to the shell.  This strand will be solid white.  The yolk should be standing tall and proud.  The yolk color from a free range or organic egg will be dark orange, hence the high beta carotene content.   Its commercial counter part will look yellow to pale yellow if it has been recycled.  Because the shell is permeable the egg white can be smaller do to shrinkage and the egg can take on the properties of what it has absorbed.

If eggs were individually date stamped then they couldn't get recycled the way they are doing now, creating a safer egg supply.  Let’s get this straight; people get sick because of bad food in the industrial food supply.  Other people point this out, document the abuses and lobby their leaders for change.  What happens is people with more money hire insiders or just give money directly to campaigns and our leaders end up doing nothing.  Sure there are counter arguments that they will point to and the will of the people is of utmost consideration, they'll say.  Yet this is the same group that says we must wash eggs before we sell them.

Why?  Because we as consumers can't be trusted to safely handle the eggs and we'll contaminate ourselves. In the interest of objectivity an egg does come from the chicken's vent.  The vent is used to expel everything from the chicken.  So the outer shell of the egg is contaminated when it comes out.  This is important to note, the outer shell is contaminated not the inner shell or the albumen or the yolk.

Sometimes our eggs do have particulate matter on them but because of the bloom it does not come in contact with the inside of the egg.  Can an unwashed egg make some one sick if not handled correctly? YES, it can.  Will it make us sick if it is handled properly, NO. Is it hard to safely handle an unwashed egg, no. Wash the egg and your hands before use and your fine.  Chicken itself can cause more cross contamination and illness than a dirty egg but I digress.

I'm sure I'll wrap my head around this someday but until then I'll keep raising chickens for their eggs.  For the record we are a registered egg producer and all the eggs we sell are washed per regulations.  The eggs we keep for ourselves are not. 

Eat safe fresh vegetables purchased from a local farmer, not a chain hard selling that fact.

It’s the third week of August and flock three of our Rhode Island Reds have just started to lay eggs.  They are so small you can hold half a dozen in your hand.  This is a big day for us, a day we've been looking forward to ever since March 19th, 2009.  They have made it this far healthy, happy and vigorous.  The one rooster we got (by accident) has grown to be quite the leader.  His problem is he is too big and the hens are smaller, thinner and faster. 

Here they are at a day old.

You spend a lot of time with them making sure they are ok, that they don't get Coccidiosis, that their pen is clean and water free of foreign objects.  If you look closely at this picture you will notice that the feed trough does not have bird droppings in it.  That was an anomaly; as soon as they got enough strength the crap hit the fan.

They are energetic, inquisitive and love tomatoes.  We have them outside and they can't resist flying the coop and raiding the garden.  We know this not because we caught them but we started noticing peck marks on the reddest tomatoes.  We have these huge German Queen heirlooms.  They weigh in about 1.5 to 1.75 pounds each. These are bigger than the Mortgage Buster we had a couple of years ago and they are tasty.  So the new chickens have found out too.

We finally figured it out when we saw an egg sitting in one of the rows between tomatoes plants.  We packed up the electric fence and moved the house out behind the barn so they wouldn't be tempted, for all the hard work seeing a picture of them at a day old and seeing them now full grown you can't help but feel a sort of elation at the accomplishment.  .

 I am by nature a pessimist with a type A personality, I'm ok with that.  But it is times like these that make me a laid back optimist.  To have nurtured them to this point is time to celebrate the good fortune. But being a farm you don't want to crow too much because good times are not always around the corner. 

Buy Local - from a farmer not from a chain that advertises "Local"