In the hen house

A fabulous find in one of the coops today. One of the older hens who has not laid an egg in ages is apparently producing again. Out of 7 hens we now have 6 who are laying eggs. Looks like the old ladies are trying to keep up with the youngsters. In human terms, this is like Helen Mirren giving birth.

I love it when a plan comes together!

Holy Honeydew!

If you live in the East Valley you may have heard of The Backyard Farmer aka Veggies Delivered.com Someone mentioned them in a local Facebook group and I had to try them for myself. Local produce? Delivered to my door? They take PayPal? I couldn't get to their website fast enough.

The veggie and fruit selection is not bad, but even more fabulous- they also carry baked goods, canning supplies, bulk grains, homemade soaps, grass fed beef, and even animal feed. I can't list everything they carry so please check out their website for the full list. You'll be blown away. No kidding!

We purchase chicken feed and grains frequently so I know my prices. The organic grains are the same price as the place I had been buying it. The chicken feed was very close, buy hey - no hauling- they drop it off in my driveway! Veg and fruits are a bit more than Sprouts, but usually much bigger.

There are plenty of testimonials on their website, so please check it out. Personally, I am impressed. The honeydew in the photo above weighed in at a hefty 9 lbs for under $4. Selection varies weekly. Read the "Important Info" on their website for order deadlines and delivery dates. And yes, delivery is free, but there is a place to include a tip for the driver on your bill.

Desert Garden Carrot Harvest

A long time ago Ben found on old dresser dumped in the parking lot of his office. He hauled it home and we turned it into a raised bed for carrors and radishes. It is filled with a mixture of potting soil, compost and sand and we've been very happy with the results.

This month we are harvesting a mixture of baby carrots, including chantenays, oxhearts, Paris Market, and Dragons- the beautiful crimson colored carrot. Nothing goes to waste from this raised bed- the hens love eating the carrot tops.

Encyclopedia of Country Living - 40th Anniversary Edition

When I first started reading blogs about growing my own food, the book that was mentioned most frequently was The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery.

As my interests expanded into raising chickens and sustainablity, people in the know were still pointing the Carla's book as a resource. Living in the 'burbs I thought that this book wasn't for me but boy was I wrong! Anyone from homesteader to apartment dweller can use the great tips and advice from Carla.

After 18 months of looking at the chicken tractor in our yard we finaly got around to putting the chicken wire on it. The tractor is fabulous and Picatta and Speckle love it. Lucy and Molly were not impressed. The next step is to put the tractor in our smaller raised bed garden so the hens can clear out the weeds and turn the soil.

One project completed, 23,674,992 to go!

112 Degrees in the Shade

Ugh! It is going to get up to 112 degrees today and I am outside tending to the chickens and the solar oven. God Bless the person who invented the portable mister system that Ace Hardware sold me, I think I would be passed out right now without it.

The good news is that despite this unbearable heat, the chickens and the gardens are doing quite well.

Our youngest hens are now 25 weeks old and they are all laying several eggs a week in various hues. We had a over 5 dozen eggs in July. Considering the hot days, that's not too shabby. We had enough eggs that we were able to share them with friends and our (oh so understanding!) neighbors. Not once have they complained about the "hen party" in the backyard when things get a bit noisy.

Lucy soaking her feet. Or is it Molly?

Lots of eggs!
Our front garden has really worked out beautifully. Over the winter we lost the Lantana to a bad frost so we tore it out and replaced the flowers with a vegetable garden. This turned out to be a fabulous idea. The area is shaded until the afternoon and the plants are doing much better that the backyard veggie garden.

In the front garden we have several Better Boy and Early Girl tomatoes which are still producing. The Sweet 100 tomatoes were very tiny but make perfect chicken snacks. We have a single zucchini plant which, as anyone who has grown zucchini can tell you, yields more than enough zucchini for 2 people.

The backyard gardens contain some heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, and melons. Not much to say here as we have more crabgrass than garden at this point. On a lark I threw in some seeds from and Armenian cucumber that I purchased at Lee Lee's. I completely forgot about them until the big monsoon in July uncovered this. . .

I have no idea how long it had been growning under the grass and weeds but boy was it delicious. From now on I am only planting these babies.

More good news - the bell pepper curse is finally broken. My inability to grow peppers is legendary in my family and it's quite funny since I can manage to grow just about anything else. This season I finally was able to grow 2 red bell peppers in the front garden. Believe me, they are nothing to brag about and certainly wouldn't win any prizes at the county fair. Heck, they were barely big enough to add to a single dinner salad. Still, just the fact that I was able to keep the pepper plants alive and harvest a vegetable that could be clearly identified as a pepper - that is HUGE for me and I owe it all to chicken poo water.

Yes, I said chicken poo water. It smells and looks just as disgusting as it sounds but the plants love it. You see, it is so hot here in the east valley that chickens find it very difficult to cool off. Heat related deaths of backyard hens are quite common here. Thanks to the folks at Valley Permaculture Alliance and the people on the Arizona board over at BackyardChickens.com I have learned about different ideas to make life more comfortable for my girls. One way is to provide the hens with a shallow pan of water to wade in and cool off. They love it! HuzBen refers to the pans (actually cat litter pans) as the Hen Spas.

Now about the part where the "poo" comes in. Chickens are not unlike small children and won't get out of the pool to do their "business." By the end of the day the pan of water is less foot bath and substantially more chicken toilet. But - when life gives you lemons. . . or in this case, chicken poo water. . . use it to your advantage. It's free liquid fertilizer and it's fabulous. (But OMG - the smell, yuck!)

Time to go and get the bread out of the solar oven - see you soon!

A Good Week

Today's yield - tomatoes, oregano, lavender and eggs

The weather has been fabulous for the last week and a half - mostly in the 80's. This has made the hens very happy and the older girls are laying again. Even little Camilla gave us an egg yesterday, her first since late March.

The Early Girl and Better Boy tomatoes in the front garden are yielding about 2-3 tomatoes a day for us. The pepper plants are growing well and setting flowers, but that's it. Not a pepper in sight. There is one large zucchini that Ben will probably pick next weekend. He loves to marinate them briefly in fresh orange juice and sprinkle them with garlic salt before throwing them on the grill.

The cooler weather has stopped the herbs from bolting and going to seed but we were not so lucky with the lettuce. Lucky for us the chickens don't mind bitter end of season lettuce.

The newest additions to the flock are now 15 weeks old. They are still several weeks away from laying eggs but they are showing interest in the nesting boxes so that's a good sign.



Lucy, Molly, Piccata and Speckle



Speckle - our Delaware Hen

Our Very Own Backyard Chickens

We thought about it for years and this weekend we finally took the plunge and got our very own chickens. We are now the proud owners of two Black Minorcas and a cute little Blue Old English Game Bantam. The girls started work right away and we had 2 eggs in the first 24 hours. Nice!

When I say we thought about it for years I am not exaggerating. I first learned about keeping backyard chickens like most city folks did, in an issue of Martha Stewart Living. At that time I was single and living in an apartment so all I could do was look at the fabulous photos of the beautiful hens and their multicolored eggs.

Fast forward to 2009 when I discovered the Valley Permaculture Alliance (then the Phoenix Permaculture Guild). I was looking for info on veggie gardens in the desert but I was thrilled to find a group of people chatting about raising hens all over the valley. That's when we figured out that it was "do-able."

We finally got serious about chickens after participating in the first Tour De Coops where we met people just like us and saw how they incorporated chickens in their suburban neighborhoods. We stopped looking at chickens as pets that lay eggs and started considering the benefits they would bring to our gardens and compost pile. Oh, and they eat kitchen scraps and bugs? Bonus!

Our next step was to take the "Raising Chickens In Your Backyard" class taught by Rachel Bess with Valley Permaculture Alliance. Rachel's class is better than any book you can read. Most books are general but Rachel has been raising chickens for years in the Valley so she understands the needs of a desert chicken. She's also honest and says that having your own chickens is hard work and it isn't for everyone. Her class waaaaaaay under priced at $10.

In Rachel's class we also learned that you could purchase custom coops from people advertising on Craig's List. Bingo! We found Kyle, who not only builds custom coops, but he delivers too! He asked us about our needs and made suggestions about things we might like. He was fabulous! Three days after speaking to him on the phone he pulled into our driveway with our new coop. (see below for you can find Kyle's Craig's List ad "Chicken Coop for the Valley" or call him at 480-363-5775)

That brings us to this weekend when hubby bought me a trio of hens for my birthday. We are already planning a coop addition with Kyle. and we hope to add an Ameraucana to the flock soon.