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Home of Michael Perry – Author, Humorist, Singer/Songwriter, Amateur Pig Farmer

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Posts Tagged ‘chickens’

Coop Discussion Guide (plus a ham joke)

(hardcover version here)

First, a thank you to Redbery Books and the Brick House Cafe in Cable for hosting the recent Spring Book Club dinner in Cable, Wisconsin, where the group discussed Coop and Coop. I get so many kind requests to attend book group meetings, but time, geography and calendar generally prevent it. I never forget, however, how much I rely on the word-of-mouth support I get from groups like this. So, thank you.

I am also frequently asked for a list of questions designed to help guide book group discussions. The Redbery Books group came up with one for Coop and have allowed me to share it. It follows after the break (and includes a ham joke). (more…)

Eggs-plosion

Been having a whole lot of trouble on the egg-laying front this winter. Production dropped off to nearly nothing (there’s always a taper, but this year was especially steep), then when they started laying again, they were devouring all the eggs.

Last week we instituted a program of increased oyster shell, three-a-day collections, and daily re-strawing of the laying boxes. We also added a golf ball to the plastic decoy eggs (supposedly they try to eat the plastic egg or golf ball and get discouraged).

Sixty-some chickens, and yesterday we got 43 eggs.

Including a couple blue ones.

Bounty!

Big Steaming Squash

Teens below this morning. Steam rolled off the bucket of boiled squash as I lugged it to the chicken coop. We had serious overage in the squash department this year, so we’ve been feeding it to the chickens. Ain’t gonna lie to ya, when I dumped it in the feeders, the chickens looked at me with a certain element of Seriously? Squash? Again?

I’ll throw’em a little corn later.

If they clean up their squash…

Thanks and Reality

Two nights in a row of telling stories and making music with and for friends, if a guy isn’t careful he begins to believe his own wit.  Helpful then, to be cleaning the chicken coop 12 hours later, the chickens regarding me with gimlet eyes, likely marveling at what a human will do for an omelet.  Look, they think, he’s standing right in it.

Gotta Clean

The chicken coop.  They seem happy enough, but it’s making my eyes water in there.

Whole Corn Kernels

Was revisiting Gene Logsdon’s Small-Scale Grain Raising over lunch yesterday.  We grew field corn this year – not much, just a first attempt to help keep the feed bill down, but y’know, enough to fill the (long) bed of a 1951 L-120 International Harvester pickup truck.  I keep wanting to grind the corn, but Gene’s book reminds me there is no need.  Especially if your chickens have crops (ours do!) and access to sand/dirt/grit (again, yes!).  Indeed, they gobble up those whole kernels, and the eggs keep coming.

Although I still want one of these.  (My mom lent us this, and it works for small cobs, but gets wedged on the larger ones.)

Did Not Fly the Coop

The wind is still freight-training, so I’m not sayin’ we’re in the clear, but I did wake up three times last night to peer out of the window to see if the chicken coop (which is mounted on the running gear from an old haywagon) was still upright, and it was, and is now in the daylight.  I was worried, because when I was in there at dusk, she was just a-rockin’.  It was parked broadside to the wind and the rain had left the ground too soupy to move it.  So, as the blurry rain-whipped cellphone photo below demonstrates, I took measures…

That’s a ground anchor, a boomer, and the chain from my deer-skinner.