Chicken Challenges

Even though we weren't quite ready, we got us some chickens. I just couldn't wait and I figured, like anything else, having chickens would make us ready. Three little week-old chicks. The guy at the store said they were all girls. Perfect! After I got them home, however, I read that you can't really "sex" them until they are quite a bit older than a week. Somewhere between birth and 12 weeks... I have more research to do on when I'll know. Or how I'll know: does a boy chicken have a penis?

Let's be honest: I have more research to do on every single aspect of chicken farming. Jen sent me this site today: Down To Earth. Wow: an abundance of down to earth info!!! I've learned so much already and it's not even 10am.

Every time I read new information, I have to go out and fix what I didn't know was broke: move the chicks to the box where it's warm or change the water set up or build a fence or put newspaper under them... In the past two days, I've been out there building or unbuilding at least once an hour. Sometimes for an hour. But so far so good: those three chicks are alive and I've had them 24 hours already. Here's how I spent my day:

So: Lucy, Ethel and Eva have joined our family. Since I mistook Zsa Zsa for Eva, naming one of our new chicks Eva is my way of making it up to her. I wonder if she would appreciate this. And, yes, I can tell them apart. I think.

Chickens are sure funny birds. They aren't smart like we think of smart (hence the moniker "bird brain.") But they do three things very efficiently: eat, poop and chat. I like efficiency. They sorta track to me when I talk and, if I've been talking to them for a few minutes, they don't run away completely terrified when I go to pick them up. Pretty cool.

Everyone should have chickens. Pretty much everyone can have chickens, even in Key West. I  looked up the code:

Sec. 10-11.  Keeping fowl or wildlife.
The city shall not accept or be responsible for the keeping of any nondomesticated fowl or wildlife. Live poultry may be kept by any person in the city, provided that such poultry is kept in accordance with the following conditions:
(1)   All live poultry shall be kept in screened coops or pens which are maintained in a sanitary condition free from odors and free from fly breeding.
(2)   All food used for poultry shall be kept in a suitable container with a tightfitting cover so as to be inaccessible to rats.
(3)   All poultry droppings shall be removed from the coops or pens at least every 24 hours, tightly wrapped, and disposed of as provided by sections of this Code regarding disposal of solid waste. Droppings shall not be used for fertilizer.*
(Code 1986, § 53.17 found here, search "chicken")

I'm thinking chicken revolution here. At least it sounds peaceful! Speaking of sounds, you don't need a rooster for eggs, only for more chicks. I heard enough 3am crowing in Key West to last a lifetime. Maybe if I could find a 5am rooster, who only crowed once, I'd consider it...

*Ginnee and everyone else says chicken poop makes great fertilizer but you have to compost it. Alone, it's too "hot" and will damage the plants. A compost heap is on the list!

Comments

[Mark Goldstein]

Hay Sally,
Mark Goldstein, in Key West here.
I gotta tell you, that when I did the whole chicken thing up on Big Coppitt, before we lost the house, I got a bunch of chicks, and EVERY night a snake would make it into the coop, and all the chick would start yelling for their "Dad" and I would have to come out and deal with the snake.
The snakes were never big enough to eat them, but once one of them was trying to re-set it's jaw, with a little feather or two stuck to it's mouth.
Not that there are any snakes down there.(we need a punctuation for sarcasm)
Just thought I would throw in my 2 colones.
BTW, planing on moving down in January to begin construction in Manuel Antonio.
Ciao.

[ginnee]

You built an egg house with nesting boxes, you need adult layers, not babies. Go buy big multicolored layers from a tico.

[Arden]

Hey, Sally,

I gotta tell you I'm living totally vicariously through your garden and chicken adventures. As we've become more and more interested in having "real food" to eat, we've entertained BOTH of those things -- but fear that the dogs and cat would be a problem with the chickens. (And so far just too lazy for the garden, but definitely getting there.) So I'm lovin' your Green Acres stories.
--arden--

[Paul M.]

Well, Sally...

Not sure why, if you named the one Eva, you slighted the other two Gabor sisters: Zsa Zsa and Magda. And, hey, your little chickies ARE blondes, after all! (Hmm, well Magda wasn't...) Anyway, that way you could just refer to them as 'The Gabors'...

And you've already got them staring in their own indie video -for chicken feed!

Cheers!
==

[robin]

Love it! I've thought about getting chickens but we want to go away once a year or so... and when Bri leaves again... someday... there would be no one to watch after the chickens. Plus we have doggies, and the aforementioned snakes... who I assume would try to eat eggs. So yeh. I look forward to seeing how your chicken adventure progresses!

[Saratica]

Hey, Mark - be sure to call, come spend the night with us. Would love to see you all, catch up on the news. Although I chat with Jean D. all the time there...

Ok, Miss Ginnee, I got my marching orders!

Oh, Arden, I hope I make it to the eggs!!! But it is an adventure and I do want that fresh food so I'm going to persevere.

Paul, if I can't be an international movie star, at least my chickens will be.

Robin, I'm wondering how my dog will do with the chicks. But we can keep him in the front yard and the chicks in the back if we need to. But I think most dogs aren't chicken killers. And big chickens eat snakes! One of the big pluses. We've only had one snake up here on the mountain and no scorpions (unlike Key West), but they are supposed to be hungry snake and bug eaters. We'll see... omgoodness, so much to learn.

[laurie]

EVERYBODY in Honduras keeps chickens in their yards. Probably Mel Zelaya has a few at the Brazilian embassy. Chickens here are a national passion, after politics and futbol. Buen suerte!

[Saratica]

Gracias! I remember when La Gringa was writing about her chickens... I found chickens mildly interesting then. Now... I gotta go back and re-read those posts. I understand the attraction suddenly. Chickens could become an obsession. They are so cool.

[Robert]

chickens make me feel smart.

[Teri]

Riveting footage of your biddies!!! I was sitting on the edge of my seat watching their every step, I WANT SOME TOO!
My frogs are boring. They just get fat and poop on my patio.

[Saratica]

They are so cute. Also BIG-time poopers.