In 2006, we packed up 30 years of a life in Key West on a whim and a prayer and moved to Costa Rica. Originally just for a year, but now we can't leave. Life in Costa Rica is something... breathtaking, frustrating, hilarious. Here's the tale. Más por exponer ..... prontitico! Love, Saratica
So, I'm sitting here at my desk, working away, when I hear a loud continuous squawking from the backyard. I knew from my compadre La Gringa's blogicito that when a chicken lays an egg, she trumpets the news. This sure sounded like trumpeting to me! I ran out to the backyard and found Lucy* sneaking out from behind the old coop (where it's dark). I looked and here's what I saw (click on photo to make it larger):
Wow, TWO eggs. Oh, man, I was so excited. As was Lucy! She was holding out her wings and strutting around, still squawking loudly. I almost feel bad for taking the eggs.
I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but, when I picked up the eggs, you could see where she had dug a little nest. All of us were out in the backyard by this point, so we started looking around for other nests and more eggs. We found one other nest, but no more eggs.
So, two eggs! One warm, fresh out of the oven, the other cold. You know, I remember yesterday hearing a big squawking commotion but I was all wrapped up in something (putting up a new anti-war tshirt) and didn't go investigate. I can hardly believe I missed the first egg!!!
But, no matter, today we have huevos [WAY-vos]! Delicious, fresh, high-in-Omega-3s (because they eat kefir everyday) huevos! Of course, Hal couldn't resist pointing how these were $85 an egg eggs. No matter. The rest are free.
*I knew it was Lucy because she's the biggest of the two brown hens. Eva is the other brown hen, and Ethel is the darkest brown hen. I knew you were wondering.
Ok, I was exaggerating a bit on the $500 egg. It will actually be quite reasonable, well under $200 for that first delicious huevo! And that's including chicks, feed and coop materials. It does not include the 20-hours of labor (max) to build the coop, but it was labor of love, so that would never count anyway.
Honest, that's what he told me. I'm going with it.
You, too, can have such a fine coop. Design is simple, here's a materials list:
25 1x2 @ 4 varas* each
3 shutter doors (that we had laying around from another project)
Total: 95,100 colones or $168. See? Infinitely reasonable for all this fun. And, someday maybe, food.
The girls have adapted beautifully to their new home. They are in there at dusk, all snug in their boxes (it's been too chilly to sleep on the perches). They are ready to come out of the coop at dawn.
Yesterday afternoon, I went out and did a little cleaning and rearranging in the new coop. When I was done, I turned around and all the girls, Eva, Ethel and Lucy - who had been on the other side of the yard scooping up bugs and stuff - were right behind me, standing quite still, eyeing me suspiciously. When I stepped away from the coop, they raced in to see what I'd done.
It didn't look like, "Hey, wow, what did la gringa vieja do that is new and cool in here?" It was more like, "Ok, what has she messed up NOW? We had everything just perfect and then SHE comes along and starts messing with it. Goodness..." They were clucking and flapping, checking it all out, making sure I didn't screw up their new home too badly. Those girls are pretty funny!
*When you buy wood here, it's sold in "varas." A vara equals about 80 centimeters, about 31 inches. When you see the price on the shelf, that is for one vara and each plank is 3-4 varas so you have to do the math before you know how much each plank costs. Wiki says vara is an obsolete Spanish/Portuguese unit of measure. Clearly not yet obsolete!
... is a joy forever. Last night, I had to carry the chickens into the new coop and they were not happy about being there. This morning, they wouldn't come out! They were busy pecking at everything, finding ants in the straw...
And, of course, the minute I turned off the camera and started to walk away, they all three flew out of the coop like they'd been chased! Didn't walk down the nice brand-new walkway... flew, one right after the other. Very unexpected sight. I wonder if they'll know to go back in there tonight. (I know you are wondering, too. I will keep you posted!)
6pm UPDATE: I went out to put the chickens in the coop and feed them and guess where they were? IN THE COOP. All by themselves, all snuggled up in the boxes on the shelves. Yep, like I said, I have some smart chickens. I, however, am not so smart. Hal figures our first egg will have cost about $500. Breakeven should be around 2012.
The "H&B" used to stand for Hal & Brian, but it evolved into Heavy & Bald. (Guess how.) It also stands as a testament to how long something will last, which is forever. These boys don't spare a screw. "Overbuild it!" is their motto. And that extends to chicken coops. If there is room for another corner brace, why not?
Hal is building without Brian these days (as is Brian without Hal - a sad state of affairs!) And he's no longer heavy or bald. Still overbuilding, though, and my chickens are going to have the nicest coop in Costa Rica! The effort maybe wasted on Ethel, Eva and Lucy, living in a chicken palace and all, but such a fine coop will make my life as a chicken tender very easy. Here's the scoop on the coop:
On the right will be the perches. I'm leaving my options open for keeping it clean under the perches: either newspaper and straw, changing once a week, or just straw and deep litter. I'm thinking newspaper will be the best choice because, as soon as this coop is ready (after paint and gingerbread, of course) and the grown-up birds are moved in, I'm getting 10 more chicks. Once those chicks are big enough to live in the new coop, that's gonna be a lotta poop under those perches.
The new chicks will live in the old coop until they are about nine weeks old. That way, I can keep them warm, plus the old and the new will be able to see and get used to each other before moving in together.
On the left will be three levels of shelves for nesting boxes. I figure I can easily fit 9, maybe more. I should have plenty: La Gringa's chickens often share a nesting box.
The panel on the left end lifts out to gather eggs (if they ever actually produce any....)
The floor of the coop will be screen with straw on top. I'm going with the deep litter method - the chickens spend the year making our compost!
The middle screened-floor section will be removable, so, when I need to give it a good cleaning, I lift out the floor and walk in.
Handy double doors
Raised floor for easy cleaning underneath
The ground underneath will be covered with gravel and straw. I can hose it down if I need to.
We'll see how the deep litter method actually works. If it's too messy, I can put a plywood floor in the coop and cement floor underneath. But I like the way this is looking. Mighty fine!
Last night, as I was putting the chickens to bed, I finally had to admit that, either chickens as a species are seriously lacking in the brains department, or I just lucked out and got three really dumb birds. I don't mean to be insulting to my girls, but it's a fact.
Wanting to prove or disprove my observations, I Scroogled "intelligent chickens." The top search results were animal humane sites, all using the amazing and (well) hidden intelligence of chickens as a reason not to be mean to them. We need a reason?
There were also a few videos aiming to prove chickens are not that dumb. To me, they proved some people are not that smart. Like scientists teaching chickens to watch TV. (But what do I know? Many people like to point out that I am not a scientist.) Still, I see no evidence that chickens know left from right, much less give a hoot. The smartest thing I've seen them do is figure out I'm not going to hurt them. Other than that, I can honestly say my chickens are unburdened with an intellect.
"For each 100 pounds of ration your flock eats, you can expect 45 pounds of droppings, dried weight."
Their poop production seems to be chugging right along, however. The babes (I hope) look enormous to me now and the poop tonnage is impressive. I'm going to be selling fertilizer from my backyard pretty soon. And we still have three months to go before we see an egg! I shoulda bought bigger chickens. There are a few other things I shoulda done, too. Like I shoulda:
Planned the coop and built it right the first time. It's okay,
really, that we're on our fourth coop construction. "This is how I roll,"
as Morgan likes to say: loosely plan, execute, then discover first hand
why the experts said do it the other way. If I have to plan too much, I guess I fear I'll never take the action. I probably need therapy and some drugs.
Bought more chickens right at the start, because adding chickens to an established flock is iffy. Although Barbara said to just turn out the lights (chickens are blind in the dark), add the new chickens, leave them all in the dark for a few hours, then turn the lights back on. Chickens are so dumb they will think those new chickens have always been there. Do you think Barbara was pulling my leg?
I also would have known some interesting tidbits about eggs, too. Things I wish I'd always known, like:
A fresh egg sinks and lays flat in a deep bowl of water. The more an egg wants to float, the older it is. If it actually floats, feed it to the dog.
An egg left out on the counter ages 7x faster than a refrigerated egg. I didn't know this. In Costa Rica, we keep our eggs on the counter. I mean, we used to: now we refrigerate them.
And how about vaccination for chickens? I'm glad you asked. Some very interesting tidbits here, like:
"Vaccination is a biosecurity measure you may or may not need. Newly hatched chicks have a certain amount of natural immunity, and they continue to acquire new immunities as they mature." Like newly hatched people do, if given the chance.
"Vaccinate your flock only against the diseases your birds have a reasonable risk of getting..." [Emphasis Storey's.]
"Do not vaccinate against diseases that do not endanger your flock." [Emphasis Storey's.]
Pretty sound advice there, eh?
Next week, we are going to Annie's house to see her garden and chicken coop. I've been there before, but I need to really look at her coop. I'm only building one more chicken coop so I need to get this right. Their's is huge - they have about 64 chickens. They raise chickens and rabbits for eggs and food, and almost all their own vegetables on a 10, maybe 15,000' lot. I am so impressed with that.
Isn't it telling when a 21st century woman finds it "amazing" that a family grows all their own food? And do you think one day that will be me, growing all my own food? Yeah, that's pretty funny. I would like to have goats and honeybees one day. Once I get this whole chicken thing under my belt.
I got it bad. I'd rather hang out with my chickens than almost anything. They are so cute, they don't ask for much other than food and water. I'm pretty sure they like it when I'm there. They don't run away (too much) when I put my hand out to put them down for the day or up for the night. They come to the sound of my voice. They listen when I talk. (Oh, they like me!) Here's what they look like now:
My friend Barry lent me his Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens. Talk about a wealth of information! I've learned so much and I'm only halfway through. We had the book at the farm in Live Oak but must have sold it when we moved here. Thank goodness for those who came before me and are willing to share the details!
My maid told me last week that I have two boys and one girl. Bummer. She knows from the tail feathers: in the photos, I point out Ethel's great big ole tail feathers. She says those are girl fanny feathers. Oops. I'm hoping she is wrong. This week, if you look close on the photos, you can see that Lucy and Eva are growing those same feathers. I'm hoping that means we got all girls. What am I going to do with two gallos [GA-joce, roosters]??? Someone suggested I eat them. Eat Lucy and Eva? Yeah, like that's going to happen. I'd have to be really hungry.
Did I just say that? NO, I won't eat them. I'll give them away. Maybe I'll keep one. Just until it starts to crow. Baby roosters learning to crow are pretty cute, too.
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!
Perhaps we're taking this gardening thing too far, but - drum roll, please - we're gettin' chickens this week!!! For eggs, not dinner. I'm not up to wringing and waxing... yet.
But, baby-o-baby, I am all excited by the chicken idea. Even more than Hal and the boys, which is surprising. Guys like dirt and hammers whereas I like stores and traffic. I mean, I love the idea of farming: being outside in all that sunshine and fresh air, the smell of horses, barnyard sounds, eating fresh vegetables we grew in our garden. I don't even mind a passing whiff of manure. (Good thing since I live in Costa Rica, eh?) But I can't see actually living in the country. In fact, I'd like to live in Manhattan. That's not on the horizon at the moment, so backyard chickens will have to do. Don't question my logic. I've cut back on my hormones and questioning me can be harmful to your health. If backyard chickens float my boat, we're havin' us a couple.
The first thing, of course, is to construct a coop. Over the last few weeks, I have gently coaxed, prodded, begged and finally hounded Hal and the boys to get the coop started. I'm even less of a carpenter than a cowpoke and I needed help getting the box started. Just started. How hard could it be to help me build a basic box??? I mean, they said they wanted chickens, too. But whenever I mentioned getting started on the coop, "it was not a good day."
So I picked a good day: Friday. On Friday, I picked a good time: 3pm. I gave everyone an hour's notice, plus a 10 minute countdown. I think that was very generous and accommodating of me. Then, at the appointed time, when no one showed up in the garage to get started, I said in my biggest, most pleasant yet still firm mommy/wife voice, "IT'S TIME TO BUILD THE F%^#$%ING CHICKEN COOP! LET'S GET GOING."
You'd think I'd asked them to build me a Ford 9N from found materials. The whining, the glaring, the pouting. And that was just Hal! OK, just kidding. Hal was not too bad, just kinda grumpy. But the teenagers, OMG. I think they are pretty cool most of the time, but this coop thing turned them into snarling monsters. What the heck? Together, the three of them were just hideous.
I was determinedly cheerful the first 30 minutes, then I broke and started to cry. I know I'm a trained professional and all, but these were real (hormonal) tears... Whatever, it worked. They all felt bad about being such insufferable jerks, and actually got enthusiastic. By the time we were done for the day (two hours later), they were thinking of better ways to do everything and - gasp - having fun.
It's not just my family that goes through this routine, right?
That was Friday. We got half the coop done - all very satisfying! Since that was relatively painless, when we got back at it yesterday, we didn't have to go through the entire routine. Just a coupla glares, a skosh of whining, then we skipped right to the enthusiastic part.
Good thing we stopped at the halfway mark on Friday, though, because I discovered a few critical details about coop-building between Friday and yesterday.
First of all, the floor of the coop needs to be screened so I don't spend my life cleaning up chicken poop. Tears may get me a little carpentry help, but no amount of hysteria or threats will get anyone else cleaning up that mess. So I screened what was going to be the top and flipped it over making it the bottom. I thought of that all by myself.
Secondly, it needs to be off the ground, at least a half meter, not three or four inches like we had originally planned.
"Planned." What a concept. That's our comprehensive coop plan to the left.
So we added legs. Then a door. A roof so they don't roost on the top. Then I really went to town and painted it pink. It's going to house girl chickens, right?
We built the whole thing out of scrap materials. If you are gardening, farming and animal husbandry-ing to save money, you can't spend too much on the set up. Yeah, I'm thrifty, too. Who knew?
As in all real estate decisions, location is crucial. Particularly when there is poop involved, like with la jaula [ha-OO-lah, cage]. We wandered about the yard considering possible locations: protected from the elements and predators, yet easy
to get the eggs.
On our way to check out the backyard, we saw the perfect spot right outside the bars. There's an overhang, the chickens have access to the entire backyard so plenty of room to range. Plus there's that huge bougainvillea across from the coop that should provide
shelter from hawks. Besides an occasional kitty, I think a hawk is the most likely predator. I guess we'll see about that...
And I can easily cut in a backdoor to harvest the eggs. Oh - those boxes in there are from Pricesmart. Instead of bags, you get a box to carry out your groceries. We save them just in case... turns out, they are perfect for nesting boxes. And disposable... I like that!
The only things left to do are:
1. Figure out a way to prop up the door. I'm thinking bungie from the top. We have a zillion bungie cords around here somewhere. At night, I'll use the entrance log to hold the door closed. Although maybe I don't need to do that? Since I don't have a handy copy of Raising Chickens for Dummies, I'm piecing together the requirements for backyard chickens from a variety of sources. Today, I got the distinct impression that chickens like to sleep on the roost outside. Hmmm. What I don't know about chickens would fill an encyclopedia. If they made those anymore.
2. Add a roost which should be simple. I'm going to mount a 2' 1x4 between the coop and the bars so they can roost under the overhang. I'll add a chicken escalera using chicken fencing.
3. I need about 9' more chicken wire to put up along the inside of the bars so the chickens can't squeeze through into the garage.
4. Chicken feeders and feed.
5. CHICKENS!!!
Big thanks to a couple of buddies who sent me photos of their coops:
And a big thanks to BackyardChickens.com and the new yahoo group CRGardening for all the help and advice, too. There are surely going to be more questions from time to time! Apparently I'm the last expat to think of having chickens...
Who knows, maybe the next step is buying the farm. Er, a farm. I think even Zsa Zsa grew to like farm life.
*That's our old Ford 9N from the property in north Florida that we sold
to finance our extravagant lifestyle in Costa Rica. We named the tractor Nancy after my old mom, seen here ridin' high.
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