Do you dream of chickens but assume they're illegal in your city or suburban neighborhood?  The City Chicken has created a page compiling laws from dozens of U.S. cities.

Laws range from simple:

...to complex:

...to just plain odd:

Remember those pastures I planted in winter annuals?  I reported in October that the chickens weren't interested --- and why should they have been when I was letting them run in the woods, which was still full of greenery and bugs?

Once really cold weather hit, the chickens did start nibbling on the annuals (although they still spent most of their time in the woods.)  The mustards were their favorite, followed by the oats (until they died).  Nowadays, the winter rye is eaten down to nubbins in the chicken-accessible pasture, even though the chickens are still ignoring the bright green, but apparently unpalatable, winter peas.

If I have bare ground I want to plant next fall, I'll focus on mustard and rye, with some oats if the mustard seed is too expensive for seeding large areas.  Meanwhile, I have a second pasture partially planted in rye that's just waiting for chicken beaks.  I plan to turn the flock in there shortly and let them enjoy the tender young leaves.

10 Degrees ( with Welsh Corgi as witness )

Our chicken nipples are meant to be installed vertically in the bottom of a container, but Michael envisioned a PVC pipe waterer that was so slanted it could water everything from the smallest chick to the biggest turkey.  He emailed to ask how much of an angle the nipples could handle before they started leaking.

"I'm not sure," I responded.  "But if you find out, please let me know!"

With the help of a handy iPhone app, Michael was able to put his waterer to the test, tilting it more and more until the nipples started to drip.  Here's Michael's experiment in his own words:

15 Degrees - No Leaking Yet....

18 Degrees - All OK!

20 Degrees - Still OK!

23 Degrees .....getting a little wet, but not dripping


27 Degrees and not dripping ( ! )


30 Degrees! Not really dripping but close. End of "Test".

If you decide to follow Michael's lead, be sure to install the nipples vertically in the container before tilting it so that you get a good seal.  Our do it yourself chicken waterer kits give you lots of other tips to make the best waterer for your backyard flock.

Some of our customers have written in to ask if there is an easy way to convert our chicken nipples to work on pressurized water systems.  One option is to install a pressure reducer in a hose, or you can use a toilet float to keep a bucket reservoir constantly full (a method that is covered in more depth in the CD that comes with our do it yourself kits.)

Or, as Byron wrote in:

Susie sent me some great photos of her heat tape bucket waterer, complete with an insulation layer and an easy-fill top.  The construction technique is based on this heat tape chicken waterer, but with Susie's own twist.

She started out with two buckets of different sizes.  The outer bucket was a freebie from the bakery section of her grocery store, where it once held frosting, and the inner bucket originally held bird food.

After installing the nipples (as described in our do it yourself kits), Susie wrapped the inner bucket with with a six foot length of heat tape.

Next, she cut enough of the bottom off the outer bucket to make a loose fit when it slid over the inner bucket and heat tape.  The photo below on the left shows the dry-fitting stage --- she later took the buckets back apart before moving on to the next step.

Now for the innovative part.  Susie wrapped a layer of insulation around the inner bucket and heat tape, attaching the insulation with some duct tape.  She wrote that the insulation was "foil-bubble-bubble-foil (about 1/4" thick)".

Next, Susie put the outer bucket back in place (sanding off the rough edges so the chickens wouldn't peck at the loose plastic.)

Finally, she added a hose to the lid to make it even easier to fill.  The hose is about 3/4 inches thick and is held in place using a small hose clamp on each side of the lid.  Susie wrote:

So far, temperatures have only dropped into the low 20s, but I'm looking forward to hearing how Susie's waterer handles even cold conditions.

I complained that our heirloom breeds had stopped laying in December, but now I'm not so sure.  Mark had put a shelter out in the woods when we added our sussex to the main flock since the younger birds were getting picked on and weren't always going in the coop at night.  Last week, we took a peek inside the now-unused shelter and found...eight eggs!!

The eggs all passed the float test (and didn't have any cracks from being frozen solid), so I suspect they're a week or less old.  They all look like australorp eggs too, which would hint at that breed being better at winter laying than the cuckoo marans.

We'll keep an eye on this supplemental nest box for now, but I'm pondering whether the shelter wouldn't work as a broody hen nesting area for the spring.  It clearly passed the test as a nest box.

This is what it looks like when I go out to the chicken pasture:  The Black Australorps and Cuckoo Marans come running but keep their distance just in case I decide to eat them instead of feed them.  Meanwhile, the Light Sussex cluster around my legs and start pecking at my boots just in case that speck of mud is actually food.

I've written previously about how some chicken breeds seem to be much friendlier than others.  At the time, I couldn't quite decide which behavior was preferable, but I think I've made up my mind --- I like the shy birds.  Friendly chickens get underfoot, don't learn when you chase them out of the garden, and spend their energy focusing on you rather than hunting for wild food.

Of course, if I lived on a postage stamp suburban lot, I'd probably change my tune and choose the friendly birds.  But for now, I'm 75% certain our Sussex chickens are going into the stew pot when culling time comes around next year...if not before.

I've been dipping into All Flesh is Grass by Gene Logsdon, and his fencing chapter was right up my alley.

For a farm less than five acres in size, he recommends building your fences entirely from cattle or hog panels since they're very long-lasting, easy to install, and work well on uneven terrain.  In retrospect, I wish we'd spent the extra money to install panels since they would have allowed us to put any animals we want in our pastures, not just chickens.

The other tip that hit home was about fencing rolling pastures.  Can you see the chicken running down the hill along the fenceline in this photo?  Fencelines inevitably become pathways, so if you don't want to cause erosion, make sure fences follow contour lines and don't run straight up and down the hill.  (Oops.)  If you have to install small sections of steep fenceline, it's best to think of these as erosion-prone areas and nip the problem in the bud, perhaps with some brush or a thick layer of mulch.

Stacking is a permaculture principle that refers to using a single space for more than one purpose.  For example, you're stacking when you pull your chicken tractor across the lawn --- you're keeping the chickens happy with fresh food and maintaining an open area to play in.

I could write about stacking and chickens for hours because the possibilities are nearly endless, but I stumbled across a new one last week.  The photo in this post shows my mushroom totems with chickens grazing amidst them.  Since chickens don't care for oyster mushrooms, I can "plant" the logs right in their space, and as the logs rot, they'll attract creepie crawlies for the chickens to eat.  I get tasty eggs and mushrooms, all from the same space.

(Yes, my mushroom logs are fruiting in the middle of winter.  A tasty January treat!)

We've now played with seven varieties of chickens, and Black Australorps are currently in first or second place.

Egg-laying abilities
As the name suggests, Black Australorps were developed Down Under from Orpington chickens at the turn of the twentieth century.  In the 1920s, Australorps became famous for laying an average of 309.5 eggs per hen per year, a figure that compares favorably with current modern hybrids.  One Australorp hen laid 364 eggs in another year.  However, most Australorps clock in closer to an average of 250 eggs per year.

So far, I haven't been as impressed by the egg-laying abilities of our Australorps as I'd hoped.  Compared to our Golden Comets (a hybrid egg-laying breed), Australorp eggs seem small and not as numerous.  Our pullets stopped laying when stressed this winter, but, to be fair, I started the pullets late in the spring and they weren't in full lay.  I'll report more on how the Australorps do in the egg department next year.

Behavior
In every other way, our Australorps have been pros.  They've foraged better than any other breed, coming in first among this year's breeds in feed to meat ratio.  They're on the shy side, which turns out to be a positive point since it tempts them to hunt in the woods rather than in my garden.  And the rooster is always on watch for predators but has yet to act aggressively toward me.

Some sources suggest that Australorps even make good mothers.  We added the Cuckoo Marans to our flock for that purpose, but would be thrilled if an Australorp hen or two decided to set this spring.