Spotlight On Poultry: Rhode Island Red

I’m so sorry for the delay in getting out a new Spotlight on Poultry. Things have been hectic around here. I do always feel like I am back in high school writing a report when I do the spotlight because I do a lot of research on each breed. I was looking forward to writing about this breed because of how popular it is!

Ruby's Portrait ~ Jane Steele

 Rhode Island Red chickens are one of the most popular breeds of backyard chickens. They are good for both eggs and meat and do well in all climates. They are very friendly and have a good nature, therefore making a good pet for small children and adults alike! RIR’s lay brown eggs and rarely go broody. Their eggs are normally large in size and they can tolerate the cold. They are red in color and sometimes can be a darker “rust” color and also sometimes have white streaks in their feathers. They have red/orange eyes; yellow feet and their beaks are a reddish brown color. Males can get to be 8.5 pounds and females can be 6.5 pounds.

RIRs From The Chicken Fountain

 This breed originated in Massachusetts and Rhode Island , around the 1840’s. The early birds had both single and rose combs. Breeding began in a little town in Rhode Island called Adamsville. The chickens were bred with a Black Breasted Red Malay Rooster. The Rooster is actually on display at the Smithsonian Institution as the “Father of the Breed” RIR’s were accepted into the APA in 1904. As the breed gained popularity, it has now become one of the best known breed of chicken in the world! There are two types of RIR’s. Over time, breeders would try to breed for the qualities that they liked the best. The first type is often called industrial, or production. These birds are lighter in color and lay about 300 eggs per year. The second type are referred to as exhibition, or heritage. They are darker in color, have a larger body, and lay fewer eggs than the industrial strain of RIRs.

Rhonda ~ Alexis Henry

Talking With ~ The Chicken Fountain

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity and the pleasure to have lunch with the owner and inventor of The Chicken Fountain! We just happen to live about 20 minutes away from each other.  Once we figured that out, it was only a matter of time before we just had to get together.  A few days before we met, my 14 yr old daughter Autumn had been the 1,000^th LIKE on Frank’s FB page, therefore winning her a tshirt. My daughter and I showed up for lunch and Frank had brought us a chicken fountain in hopes that we would put it together, use it and review it. Well, we did that. I honestly have no idea how I have lived without this! Let me tell you a little more about Frank and I will explain why his product is amazing.

Frank Cardaropoli lives in Davidson, NC on 6 acres with his wife and kids. His kids are ages 7, 8, 16, and he also has a 23 yr old niece.  Needless to say, with the kids alone, he has his hands full. Then you add in his 14 chickens, 3 dogs, 2 goats, a cat, and a few hermit crabs. He is one busy man! They have lived in this area for 12 yrs and about 3 years ago Frank started making Chicken Fountains. He made them for himself and friends and family started wanting them. A good friend of his pushed him to start producing them and here we are today, with the best way to water your flock that money can buy!

So I sat down when I got home to put together The Chicken Fountain.  I opened the box and pulled it all out. It took me about 10 minutes to put the whole thing together and that included the time it was taking my 14 yr old to figure out how to use the camera on my phone to take photos for the blog. The hardest part of the entire thing was opening the bottle of PVC glue! It was SO SIMPLE to assemble! Everything you need is included in the box.

Once I got the fountain hung up out by my coop, I attached the rubber bands to the nipples to create a drip. This is only used until the chickens realize that there is water there for them, it helps them to learn. Once they have gotten it, you take off the rubber bands and the drip stops. I love that I am not wasting any water with the Chicken Fountain.  I have seen many concerns from others about their chickens learning how to use the fountain. I will be the first to tell you, I don’t have the smartest flock.  I have a Rooster that is a wimp, a hen that is the Alpha in the flock and 2 birds that just don’t  “get it” when it comes to laying eggs IN the box. My chickens learned the Chicken Fountain in less than 4 hours. It only takes ONE to learn it and once the others see one doing it , they have to be nosy. Also, when you place the Chicken Fountain out there, you remove all other source(s) of water and the fountain will be the only option for them.  

I saved my favorite part of The Chicken Fountain for last. Before I had the Chicken Fountain, every 3-4 days I had to go out to the coop, empty the water bucket and clean it. Which meant me touching this slimy gross build up.  Never again will I ever go back to that. The standard Chicken Fountain holds 1.5 gallons of water and fully refreshed the supply within two days and the slime NEVER forms!  It is made from heavy duty PVC pipe and you can add anything you want to, like apple cider vinegar, directly to the unit.

The Chicken Fountain comes in 3 sizes for different sized flocks. There is the MINI for 2 to 6 bids, The STANDARD that is made for flocks of 4-16 birds, and the MEGA which can handle 40+ birds.  Have you ever had a problem with your current water freezing in the winter? Not with the Chicken Fountain. They also make a drop in heater that will keep water flowing to your birds in the coldest of temps! I will be raving about the fountain forever! Check out his site and how to order your Chicken Fountain at www.ChickenFountain.com

Or….

You could also try to win one!!  The contest is HERE

Frank is a great guy and will answer any questions you have. You can contact him many ways, through his website, Facebook page or email him directly at info@chickenfountain.com.

Raising Mealworms for Your Chickens

When I first told my husband I wanted to raise bugs in my kitchen so that my chickens had treats, he thought I was nuts. By this time I had jumped in head first into the world of chickens. I had a chicken purse, a tshirt and I was growing stuff for my chickens to eat. Which was very weird because I had all but given up on growing anything because everytime I tried to grow something, I killed it. But for my chickens, I tried again and got a whole garden of things grown just for them. So as you can imagine, I told my husband i needed some things to start growing worms and he of course was blown away. Once I got my "worm farm" started though, he didn't think I was so crazy.

First I want to say this. I have done A LOT of research and reading. I am going to share with you what works for me. It is not the only way to do this. There are many other ways. This way is just the best way that I have found to do this.

Ok, so starting your worm farm is so easy to do. Its also pretty cheap. The things you need to set up:

- a 28 quart clear tote

-a 56 quart clear tote

(note that the smaller one needs to nest inside the bigger one, see photo)

-an exacto knife

-a hot glue gun

- a piece off window screen big enough to cover the bottom of one tote

- a screw gun and a drill bit

First, take the smaller of the two totes, turn it upside down and cut out the bottom, leaving about an inch lip to glue the window screen onto.  I found that the easiest way to cut it out is to not use much pressure and go over and over it with the knife. It will get weaker and pop right out. 

Once you have the hole cut, get your glue gun ready and glue the window screen to the bottom. Try making it as tight as you can so that the screen wont sag.  Let it dry at least an hour so that the hot glue isnt sticky.

Next, get one of the lids. You want to drill holes in it for air. I put about 15 holes in mine, you can gauge about how many you need. They dont need much air but you need some air to circulate in the boxes. I also hot glued a small piece of window screen on the inside of each hole to help prevent moths from entering the setup.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Setting up your worms and what you need -

- a jar of plain oats (not the instant kind)

- layer pellets, yes the ones for chickens

- a basket strainer

- a potato, carrot or celery stick.

-  blender or food proccessor

Start with your layer pellets, you need to grind them up in your blender/food processor. I actually use a knockoff of the Magic Bullet, I bought it for $17 at walmart. Add the layer pellets in and grind them up. Get a big bowl and sift the ground layer pellets into the bowl to get any big pieces out. Make sure the bowl you use can be put in the microwave.  Do this until you have a full bowl.

 This next part is VERY important. Are you listening? Place the bowl in the microwave and heat it up for 30-45 seconds. This will kill anything that may be living in the feed. I didnt do this the first time I set up my mealworm farm and I ended up with grain mites. They bite and they are very tiny! So make sure you do this!!!

Keep grinding them up until you have about 2.5 inches in the bottom of the big tote, the one you didnt cut. Once you have them ground, heated and put in your tote, add 2 cups of the oats to the tote and mix well. Now you are done with the bottom set up!! Congrats!! Set the smaller tote inside the bigger tote. Now you have created a sort of sifting system.  In the top tote, add 2 cups of oatmeal.

Now, for the fun part. Worms!!! There are many places you can get your initial worms from. I will put some links at the end of this post for you to check out.  I started my farm with 500 worms. I bought mine from the pet store at $3.50 per 100 of them. I could have gotten them cheaper (and more of them) if I had ordered them online, but I have a problem with instant gratification. Make sure that you start with MEALWORMS. Don't get confused and buy superworms.  If I had to do it again, I would have gotten about 3,000 mealworms to get started.

Once you get your worms, place them in the bottom tote with the oatmeal and layer mash. You need to take your vegetable and cut it up into 2-3 pieces. Place it in the tote with the worms. Humidity is important and the veggie helps with that. The worms will eat the veggie along with the bedding they are in. Don't let the veggie ever get moldy, so replace it every couple of days.

 

Keeping your worms-

The first part of your mealworm farm is the most time you will spend with your farm the whole time you have it. The life cycle of the mealworm is very simple:

 

Your worms will turn into these little alien things. They are called pupa. They dont move much and they dont eat. I went a little crazy with checking on my worms. I would do it multiple times a day because I was so excited to see the change happen. So when you go through your bottom tote ( you can do it every other day ) You put the pupa that you find into the top tote. They will turn into beetles. Each femal beetle can lay up to 500 eggs in her short lifetime. That is A LOT of worms. Its hard to wait on the worms to turn and the pupa to turn and its a HUGE deal when you get your first beetle. Make sure that the top tote has a veggie in it for the beetles.

The mealworm beetles are actually called darkling beetles. And they are named well. The beetles love dark. They love having places to hide, so make sure that you have some toilet paper rolls or some cut egg cartons. Give them places to get under.

 

Im sure that you are wondering why you have a top tote that has window screen on it. When the beetles lay their eggs, sometimes they can be a little bit canabalistic. The window screen allows the eggs to fall through to the bottom to join the worms. Therefore, beetles cant eat them.

That is about all you need to know about a mealworm farm! Its one big cycle. The worms turn to pupa, then to beetles, they lay eggs that fall to the bottom and turn into worms. Simple!

Things to do with your farm......

Name each worm. My kids did, well they tried.

Feed them to your chickens, they will follow you everywhere for a worm. Its quite funny actually.

Freeze them! Click here to get instructions on how to freeze them for your chickens.

Thats all I can think of really. There isnt much you can do with worms, hahaha! They will save you a bunch of money and give you some really cool entertainment watching the life cycle. I hope everyone  sends me pictures when they start their own! I want you to show off your worms!

Resources to buy worms online -

Uncle Jim's Worm Farm

Fluker Farms

Worm Man's Worm Farm

Spotlight on Poultry ~ Silkies

Silkies, We have all seen them and many of us have them. They are a breed all their own. I remember thinking when first saw a silkie, "that looks like an abominable snow-chicken!" Which is exactly what they look like! They are covered in feathers from the top of their head, to their feet! So if you own them now or might be interested in one day getting them, here is some cool info about the breed!


A Splash Silkie owned by

Tamara Paradis-Bittner


Silkies come from Asia. They are an ancient breed because they are mentioned by Marco Polo during his travels to china in the 13th century. He wrote about a fur covered fowl with black skin. Silkies have a blue slate colored skin under all that fur. That is one old chicken! Once a trade route was established and they were brought to Europe, Silkies showed up in the Netherlands and were sold as "a cross between a rabbit and a chicken"

Deana Rogers's day old silkie chicks

The silkie has many characteristics. Most of them are easy to spot. Having fur completely covering them is one but another is that they have 5 toes! If a silkie doesn't have 5 toes, they consider it a genetic condition called polydactylism. Silkies have what is called a Walnut comb. The comb is normally a black or mulberry color. As I mentioned above, they also have black skin and also they have black bones. Centuries ago in China the bones of a silkie chicken were thought to have healing powers and they would be ground up and eaten. I myself, am not going to eat ground chicken bones, but hey whatever floats your boat.

Samantha Avery's White Silkie Rooster & Splash Hen

There are many types of silkies that are recognized by the American Poultry Association (APA) and the American Bantam Association (ABA). Yes, they do come in a bantam size too! The colors that are recognized are White, Partridge, Gray, Splash, Black, Blue and Buff. Silkies are also available in bearded or non bearded.

Silkies are great mothers. They can become broody whether they have eggs to sit on or not. They were used in china to raise chicks because they are so great at it. Also, because of their feathering, they do very well in colder temperatures. They are fair egg layers giving between about 100 eggs a year. They lay cream colored eggs.  As far as their meat goes, most people in America don't care to eat silkies. They are great pets and very friendly, but in China they consider it a delicacy. Silkie meat was actually featured on the 3rd season of Top Chef. It was also on the show "Chopped" twice.  Famous chicken.


A white silkie sitting on her baby owned by Deana Rogers

Spotlight on Poultry : Wyandottes

As a new addition to the Talking Chicken Scratch blog, to inform everyone about each breed of chicken. I am starting with Wyandottes because I love my wyandottes. We have 6 wyandottes. One white wyandotte rooster, a splash hen, a columbian hen, and 3 silver laced wyandottes. Their names are Nugget, Sesame, Omega, Turtle, Rainbow, and Buffalo. I sure hope that you will enjoy this spotlight each week as much as I will enjoy writing it. 

A silver laced wyandotte hen, Courtesy of Tamara Paradis-Bittner

The wyandotte breed of chicken originated in the United States somewhere in the 1870's. The silver laced wyandotte was the first of the variety to come about. It showed up in New York state.  Before it was called a Silver laced Wyandotte, it was called an American Sebright and/or a Sebright Cochin. It wasnt until later on that it was named a silver laced wyandotte. The breed was named after the Wyandotte American Indian tribe of the Iroquois Indians. 

Silver Laced Wyandotte hen and White Wyandotte Rooster

Wyandottes are a wonderful dual breed chicken that are great egg layers and great moms. They lay brown eggs and will lay around 200 eggs per year.  They are known to occasionally become broody.

There are 8 colors of wyandottes that are recognized by the APA (American Poultry Association) which are golden laced, silver laced, white, black, buff, columbian, partridge, and silver penciled. However, there are more colors too! Blue laced red and buff laced. There is a total of 17 wyandotte colors. 

A Silver Laced chick

There are also bantam wyandottes. Bantams are smaller birds. There are different colors associated with bantam as well. Buff columbian, black breasted red, blue red, lemon blue, barred, brown red, and birchen.

With personal experience, Wyandottes have been a grreat breed to have with kids and as a starter breed. They are easy to take care of too.  I wouldnt trade my wyandottes for anything. 

My kids, when we first got our chicks

Every afternoon, I go outside with raisins or bread, and they all come running up to me. Its one of the best parts of my day.They have made my family stronger. We all work together with the chickens and they have taught my teenagers how to be more responsible. 

Some Interesting Facts about the Chickens We Love!

Taylor and Ian, Nugget rides in the Wagon

So last night I was way to excited to sleep because I just posted our first CONTEST!! Yay! I was just browsing around the internet and I came across some really cool facts about Chickens! Some made me go "what?" and others I was laughing at. I had to share them. I hope everyone is having a great day! Enjoy!

A chicken's heart beats 300 times a minute (about 4-5 times more than a human).

Arkansas produced over 1.1 billion broilers in 2006 which averages about 422 broilers for each Arkansan.

The record for multiple egg yolks in one egg is nine.

On average, a hen lays 300 eggs per year.

A mother hen turns her egg approximately 50 times in a day. This is so the yolk does not stick to the shell.

To produce a dozen eggs, a hen has to eat about four pounds of feed.

The largest chicken egg ever laid weighed a pound and had a double yolk and shell.

A chicken with red earlobes will produce brown eggs, and a chicken with white earlobes will produce white eggs.

A chicken is 75% water.

In the U.S., approximately 46% of the chicken that is eaten by people comes from restaurants or other food outlets.

Hens will produce larger eggs as they grow older.

A chicken loses its feathers when it becomes stressed.

A chicken once had its head cut off and survived for over eighteen months, headless.

I personally like the chickens to have heads when they roam my yard and im pretty sure that my 74 yr old neighbor enjoys that they arent headless too. 

Has anyone ever found more than 2 yolks in any of their eggs? I would love to hear about it!

Talk to you soon! 

~Jessica

Coming Together Through Chickens

In researching “our little hobby”, it’s become clear to me that over the last few years there has been a huge resurrection of families keeping “backyard flocks” of chickens.  The growth and interest is phenomenal and online communities such as backyardchickens.com, which has grown its membership to 145,000+ members in just a few years of operation, and facebook groups such as “Chicken Scratch” are sprouting up regularly and growing into new online communities of support and assistance.  These communities not only tie people together on a larger scale creating strong bonds, friendships, and support nets between people all over the world, but have also become the “breeding ground” for innovation and entrepreneurship. 

Although I think it’s awesome that we can make a few bucks here and there selling surplus eggs, hatching eggs, and chicks to offset our feed costs, this is not what im writing about today.  What im writing about is this whole new niche industry of businesses and online stores, aimed at supporting the urban flock owner, are opening, it seems like daily, and growing in support of our hobby.  The best part about our little “micro economy” is that most of the supplies and accessories being developed and sold to this growing market are American made products most of which are handmade by local craftsmen and small business owners: An unemployed engineer in Ohio was recently featured in a CNN story where he has been able to design and build small chicken coops “full time” and is able to generate income for his family doing so; A man in Indiana makes and sells electric chicken coop doors with timers for people with busy lives; and an ever increasing number of craftsmen and craftswomen across the country are making chicken related crafts, jewelry, egg carton labels,  diapers (some people like to bring their chickens into the house from time to time), and hen saddles (for breeders to protect their hens) and selling them within our community. Small businesses have been able to thrive. Randall Burkey Company is a family run business and they are able to provide everything for chickens and baby chicks.  Even reputable “seasoned” hatcheries that previously only dealt with commercial buyers are now serving the public and almost all of them currently have backlogged orders which is amazing given the economic news we read and hear day in and day out.  

Now, I’m not by any means saying this industry is “Americas road to recovery”, but in an otherwise oppressed economy, this movement is a small but growing “success” story which warms my heart and is something, I for one, am proud to be a part of and I think you should be to.  We have “accidently” figured out how to bond together and utilize our passion to do what it would seem our politicians can’t figure out.  It is so awesome to see so many entrepreneurs build their businesses thru the online communities without the need for brick and mortar outlets or even paid advertising thanks to all of the loyalty within our community.  So, the next time you order something from within the community or refer a newbie to our supplier friends, know that you are making a difference and give yourself a big “pat on the back”!  

Through chickens and other animals, we have created a way to help each other. A community that will stay strong because its members care about one another. Some may just come in and comment but others stick around and become part of our chicken family.

  

Written By Marc and Jessica Belanger

Welcome to Talking Chicken Scratch!

My name is Jessica and I love my home mini farm! I have met some amazing people once I got interested in chickens and I was hoping that what I learn and what my friends learn through our experiences, we can share with you! 

I live in NC with 3 kids, 4 cats, 6 chickens, 7 eggs in the incubator, a mealworm farm, and a whole lot of love.

Feel free to contact me with any questions!