Chickens in the Edible Landscape

Edible Landscaping -- including Chickens!
posted by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director

I consider myself a fairly decent gardener -- and I do a bit with edible landscaping in my own front and backyards.  I also own several of Rosalind Creasy's books on that very topic.  But watching this youtube video of Creasy showing part of her home edible landscape, makes me realize how much I still have to learn -- and how much I could (and should) still do!

Even just this photo makes me want to get out there and start planting stuff!

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Creasy "grows chickens" in her edible landscape, too!

Check out the youtube video here!  

Chickens and Weather

"Hens in the Wind: Acceptance"
Posted by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director

The following paragraph and photo were posted yesterday on Jon Katz's Bedlam Farm Journal blog (Bedlam Farm Journal):

"I admire certain things about animals. They don’t squawk about the weather, and they don’t need weather alerts or names for storms. They accept the weather as a natural part of life, and today when the wind hit 50 mph gusts, the hens dug themselves into a small dip in the grass, closed their eyes and offered warmth and support for one another. This seemed a metaphor for me, another thing I learn from the animals I live with."

At the Learning Farm, our current flock of Bovans Browns seem to be of less-sturdy stuff than Jon's hens.  We often have a fair bit of wind whipping about the farm, but we've had some exceptionally crazy weather of late here in northern Illinois (where were you when the torrential rains -- and a wee bit of hail -- hit last Wednesday afternoon?).  

For the most part, our chickens hole up inside the coop during inclement weather, and wait for things to clear up.  But as I type this from home -- on a cold, but calm and sunny Saturday morning -- they are no doubt happily scratching about, outside in their chicken yard.

"Chicken Chore Crew" Farm Camp

New at the Learning Farm –

Our Chicken Chore Crew!

by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director

Our spring “Chicken Chore Crew” Farm Camp had begun!  We have ten chicken enthusiasts – ages 8-12 – that have signed up to be a part of our first-ever Chicken Chore Crew.

 

 

 

We’ve met on two Monday afternoon’s so far, and we have two more Monday’s to go for this spring session.  Fortunately, this unusually cold and wet spring weather has been fairly nice to us – and we’ve been able to do most of the outdoor chores that we were hoping to do.

Here are some of the chicken chores that we’ve accomplished so far (some of these chores we did on both days, some only on one day so far):

·         Harvested mealworms and fed them to the chickens.

·         Fed greens and “chicken candy” (scratch grain) to the chickens.

·         Collected leftover chicken feed from feeders; made “chicken gruel” and fed it to the chickens.

·         Raked straw off the Children’s Garden beds; brought the straw to the chicken yard and spread it around.

·         Cleaned the ledges and roosts in the winter chicken coop by scraping chicken poop into our infamous “poop bucket.”

·         Learned how to pick up a chicken, then picked up and held lots of chickens!

 

 

 

 

 

If you think that you might like to spend some time hanging out with our chickens, our chicken farmers, and some other kids that like chickens – then you’re in luck!  We have both summer and fall Chicken Chore Crews on our camp schedule!

Summer Session Dates:  July 8, 15, 22, 29
Time for Summer Session:  10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

Fall Session Dates:  Sept. 9, 16, 23, 30
Time for Fall Session:  4:00-5:30 p.m.

Cost:  $25/child/session

For more information and to register, visit the Learning Farm website!

 

 

Chicken Visit

Visiting Previously-Adopted Chickens!

by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director

If you’ve been following our hen blog for a while, you may recall that the Learning Farm held a chicken adoption event last November, and was able to adopt out many of the hens from that flock when they were about 2 years old.  One very friendly woman who adopted two of our hens that day, Nan, invited me to come to her house anytime to visit them.  I didn’t try to visit over the winter, but now that spring weather has finally arrived in northern Illinois (sort of), I recently contacted her to arrange a visit.

Even though it’s still early spring, with little green showing or growing as of yet – it was obvious to me that Nan is quite the gardener.  I can’t wait to return later in the spring or summer and see her yard in all its growing glory.  Nan has a rather large yard, and a rather large backyard chicken flock – currently nine gorgeous hens of a variety of breeds. 

 

 

 

 

The two she adopted from us were new breeds for her – a Black Australorp (which she named Asti) and a Barred Plymouth Rock (which she named Oreo).  Both integrated into her existing flock with little fanfare!

 

Nan's backyard chicken coop was built by her own hands!  She started with a free coop design that she found on the Purina website (you can check out the original design at Purina Henhouse and Hutch Design), but made many modifications to suit her needs.  It serves its purpose well! 

Nan told me that her neighbors often contribute vegetable scraps for her chickens – and she, in turn, shares the bounty of eggs from her hens with them.  She also explained that the neighborhood kids come often to her backyard to visit and play with the chickens – and she welcomes their visits.  What a rare learning opportunity for them!

It was wonderful to watch her flock of nine happy hens, roaming the yard, scratching and dust bathing in her garden beds.  These birds are clearly well-loved and well-tended.  It was a joy to see it – and to “talk chickens” with such a like-minded soul! 

 

Many thanks to you, Nan!

 

Chicken Fiber Art

Chicken Potholders!

by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director

Maria Wulf is a fiber artist who focuses on creating “original functional art from recycled clothes and fabric,” according to her website.  I love this idea of repurposing old into new, and have been experimenting with some of that myself.  I am not a fiber “artist,” but more of a fiber “crafter.”

As an artist, Maria has her own website (http://www.fullmoonfiberart.com/) from which she exhibits and sells her fiber art.  She has just posted some adorable chicken potholders that she’s made.  I’ve included a photo of my favorite one here, but if you’re interested in seeing more, pay a visit to her website.

Most of these potholders appear to have been sold already – but since she seems to have sold them so quickly, my hope is that there will be more chicken potholders created in Maria Wulf's fiber art studio.