Your Custom Text Here
Precious few family and friends will receive a Santa Chicken in the mail this week. As is our family tradition, Lil's illustration was printed on a postcard. She later painstakingly water colored each chicken.
Lil offers you, dear readers, her chicken christmas joke.
"Why did the chicken cross the road?"
"To eat the Christmas worm."
Ho ho!
Austra: Hey hey, whatcha got, there Pecky?
Pecky: Can't talk now, mouth full of mouse.
Pecky: How am I going to eat this thing?
Sussey: Hey, Pecks, can I have some?
Pecky: No way, sister, this mouse is mine!
Our chickens are most decidedly omnivores, as they demonstrated this morning with a little rodent hunting. They also eat insects and worms with relish when free ranging.
I am absolutely against chickens eating meat meal, especially if it contains chicken meat. But, the only way farmers can guarantee that eggs from their hens are 100% vegetarian fed is if they confine them, a practice that incubates disease and limits the omnivore nature of the birds. Eggs from free ranged hens, found in the backyard or farmer's market, are the best choice for the birds and the flavor.
Once I started keeping chickens in the backyard, I became the recipient of information relating to urban chickens through emails from friends and links on Facebook. These cartons are my first physical gift of chicken-related material and I LOVE them!
My Aunt Liz, a seasoned flea market and thrift shopper, found them. My Uncle Mike, jewelry maker and food-loving teacher, delivered them on Labor Day.
I scanned the red design from the Self Locking Carton Co. It is marked with a trademark of 1939. I love the lettering and the squawking and pecking hens.
I can find no age on the blue box, labeled a Hawk Egg Carton from Bloomer Bros Company. The dividers are made of intricate folds from a single sheet of cardboard.
In a dream world, I could afford to pay the amazing Cathe Holden, blogging at Just Something I Made, to design a logo for me using these as inspiration. In the meantime I will enjoy displaying them in my kitchen.
Last Sunday, we put most of the garden beds to rest for the winter. It's a melancholy job for me as I work so hard to raise these plants from seeds, care for them as small shoots, and put up the harvest. I almost hate to rip the stems from the earth and send them to the compost bin.
This year, the job was easier than ever thanks to our backyard chickens. As soon as the plants were removed, we placed the birds in the beds. In the process of looking for insects and munching up rotten tomatoes, our three toed hens turned over the topsoil. They even left behind some 'nutrients' to that will be beneficial come next spring.
While Lillian has loved these birds for many months, my affection for them has formed more slowly. The worry that I used to have for their very survival is now replaced by true fondness for their soft warbles, the way they delight to see me in the morning, and their goofy antics running around the yard. When they are cuddled up on a cold winter day against our warm window, I almost want to let them inside for a bit.
Of course I leave them outside where they can forage and lay at ease. Their egg production is slowing with shortening days, but they still have much to contribute to our homestead with their silly spirits and aerating steps.
This post added to Simple Lives Thursday.
Today's edition of Book Hounds is a political-video-chicken one.
Why political? Well, I would have precious few books to read or recommend if not for the Columbus Metro Library. Starting today, Columbus area voters can go to the polls and cast a ballot for Issue 4, the levy to Keep Columbus Metro Library Strong. This levy, the first levy brought to the public in ten years and first increase in twenty four years, will restore recently cut branch hours, reinstate the frozen materials budget, and allow the library to maintain aging buildings. I will vote FOR Issue 4 because the library is a foundation of our learned community, a resource for families like mine, and an asset to the economy of our fair city.
In addition to borrowing books and movies for pleasure, we use the library to educate ourselves about new plans for the homestead, most recently being backyard chicken rearing. Our hens are thriving in no small part due to inspiration and advice gleaned from books such as Extraordinary Chickens, Chicken Coops, and How To Raise Chickens.
Lillian is enthralled with all things chicken recently, which brings me to the video portion of this post:
If you couldn't see or hear the titles, the four chicken books Lil recommends borrowing from the library are Tillie Lays An Egg by Hen Cam blogger Terry Golson, Cheep! Cheep! by Julie Stiegemeyer and Carol Baicker-McKee, The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice N. Harrington and Shelley Jackson, and Chickens to the Rescue by John Himmelman.
These books are not available in local bookstores, so far as I could find from recent store browsing. What delight and education we would have missed without access to the vast catalog of the Columbus Metro Library? If not for the library, how else would I cater to my child's ever changing interests and unflagging consumption of books?
In the coming weeks, I will share a few more reasons why I pledge to Keep CML Strong by voting yes on issue 4. In the meantime, I would love to know: What you are reading? What library do you frequent?
I was ready to write a quick post about how you shouldn't necessarily be motivated by fear a Salmonella bacteria outbreak to switch over from eating factory to free ranged eggs. I was going to describe all the great benefits including the lower cholesterol, higher omega 3 fatty acids, and lower saturated fats you can enjoy in truly free range eggs.
Being a studious blogger, I decided to confirm what I was already sure I knew: my backyard eggs could never carry salmonella. I was surprised to learn that I was totally wrong.
The US Centers for Disease Control assert that salmonella is transmitted from the hen to the egg during egg production inside the body. It then lays dormant in the egg until the egg is cracked and used for cooking. A salmonella infected egg may not look any different than any other egg.
Salmonella occurs more commonly in factory farmed eggs because of several factors. First, the hens are usually less healthy and spread disease among themselves, causing a higher percentage of hens laying salmonella infected eggs.
Factory farmed eggs are washed immediately, which removes the protective bloom that is naturally found on freshly laid eggs. According to the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardener's Association, the bloom not only serves as a barrier to bacteria, but makes the eggs stay fresh at room temperature. Washed eggs have more porous shells, making them more susceptible to soaking up some salmonella bacteria during processing.
Oh, the processing. Factory farm eggs are then sorted by size, packaged into containers, trucked all over the country, and distributed to grocery stores. At all points in processing the multitude of eggs, slight mistakes in handling including keeping eggs above refrigerated temperature, can spread salmonella bacteria.
Some advocate for pasteurization, others spread the myth that backyard eggs are best. In an NPR report, the director of Denmark's National Food Institute asserts that "Shell eggs, we can say with rather great certainty, are essentially free from Salmonella enteriditis." The way Danes achieve this certainty is by frequent testing and culling (that is slaughtering) of any flock found to test positive for salmonella in the laying hens.
Thorough cooking kills salmonella, or so I thought. It turns out that according to Humphrey et al (1989), some home cooking methods kill salmonella in some concentrations. In some infected eggs, no amount of cooking can eliminate all traces of salmonella bacteria.
So, what's a conscious consumer to do? Here's my take:
1) Acquire pastured fresh eggs from someone you know, either a backyard chicken raiser or a farmer at the farmer's market. At the very least you will reap the nutritional benefits of free ranged eggs.
2) Consider buying with the bloom on. Many farmers will gladly skip the washing step.
3) Avoid raw eggs (including runny yolks) if you are young, old, immune suppressed or pregnant, or serving those risk groups.
4) If you are not in these groups, don't panic. Enjoy an over easy egg once in awhile. Contracting salmonella probably won't kill you.
Dear chickens,
I know our tomatoes are delicious. Or rather, I would know, if you didn't keep hen-pecking them before they are fully ripe.
Gardeners should never count their eggs before they hatch with regards to tomatoes, and I did initially believe the dogs or squirrels were stealing the fruit. I was walking on eggshells waiting to witness something eating the 'maters and suddenly there you were!
I fenced in the tomato plants, but you cocky girls nibbled right through my barrier. I'm not sure who is the bird brained one now.
I have no choice but to assert myself at the top of the pecking order again. This poppy cock has to stop. You are heretofore banished to the back of the yard for free ranging. A fence that will last until you are old biddies will be installed soon.
The chicken scratch is on the wall: Leave the garden alone or you'll be cooped up forever. I rule the roost now!
Mad as a wet hen,
Rachel
PS. I make a mean poultry stew with tomatoes. Don't play chicken with me.
Summer is running away with my sanity, I think. I still haven't recovered from waking every day at dawn on the canoe trip, so I'm lacking sleep. There are so many events, activities, plans, and parties that I can barely keep up with myself. In fact, I'm writing this post on OSU campus in a short break from my volunteer role as an orientation coordinator for the 4-H International Program.
Next week looks to be a little calmer so I hope to post more camping reflections, recipes, and a garden update. For now, here's a list of homesteading related newsbytes:
I feel better getting all that out there and now I'm off the market. Have a great one!
