TOPICS: keeping chickens (part 2), the food of Sardinia, the Kitchen Sisters

GUESTS : Gayle Russell, sustainable living educator and chicken lover

              Giovanni Ebono, green cook with good Sardinian genes

GUEST RECIPE:

SPINACH PANCAKES WITH RED SAUCE (from Giovanni)

see recipes link on belly page

KEEPING CHOOKS - by Gayle

Healthy chooks given a good range of food and lots of greens grow healthy eggs - and these eggs provide a complete nutritional balance.
 
Chooks are one of the most functional creatures you can have in your yard. They can scratch, weed, produce eggs, produce fertiliser and give you untold hours of brilliant therapy.
 
They need shelter, open fully on one side - something that won't absolutely bake in the sun. This is their COOP. They need one or more roosting rails - use old branches with a diameter not too large so they can get their feet hooked around it. They sleep on the rail at night.
 
They need a couple of nesting boxes - make these accessible for both you and the chooks. Mine are off the ground so the chooks have to jump into them. I access them from the back of the coop with a raised lid. Brilliant and so simple. Put in a dummy( plastic) egg to help get them started - alternative is to find and use an old golf ball in place of the dummy egg. That works too.
 
They need an area to fossick in, a CHOOK RUN. You will need to fence this -  make it easy for you to enter and exit. Make it high enough so the chooks can't jump up on the edge and get out. Sometimes you will need to prune one of their wings to stop them flying. I have mostly had to do this when I have purchased new chooks. Do this when they are at their most docile - sunset is good. Once they get used to you they don't tend to try and fly away. My COOP has a HATCH DOOR that opens to the CHOOK RUN. I can close it if I want to, but I mostly leave it open all the time.
 
They need food such as mixed grain, laying pellets, compost scraps, greens, left over food, bread etc. They are omnivores. They also eat lots of insects. They love greens and particularly Comfrey leaves.They also need to have a good fresh water source.
 
Put the coop in a position where the chooks are protected from roaming dogs, foxes and pythons. Pythons tend to only create a problem if you have little chicks. If you can have your chook coop up hill from your veggie garden  the good fertiliser fromthe run will make its way downhill to your garden. Let energy systems work for you.
 
Best to purchase chooks as pullets - females at point of lay, around 16 weeks old. Pet shops and co-ops sell them. Ask to find out when they will next get chooks in. I have had both hybrid chooks - more regular layers, tend to be less broody (this is when they think they are going to hatch eggs and just sit.. - you need to break them of this habit I.e.. turf them out of the nesting box. You may have to repeat this a number of times.) I have had pure breeds - they don't lay quite as regularly but lay for more years - they tend to be more flighty though. 3-4 are a good number for a household to buy.
 
They develop a pecking order - so you can't introduce new ones to your little flock without there being problems - best to stick with what you first get and don't add more confusion to the chook coop.
 
My favourite egg recipe is omelette with Vietnamese mint and cheese. Yum! I beat up 5 eggs, put in frying pan with small amount of oil. Add well chopped Vietnamese mint, grated cheese to taste, add some salt and pepper, cook till just soft. Enjoy!
 
Something I would like to share:
'Lily's Chickens' from the book, Small Wonder, by Barbara Kingsolver
 
" My daughter is in love. She's only 5 years old, but this is real. Her beau is shorter than she is, by a wide margin and she couldn't care less. He has dark eyes, a loud voice and has a tendency to crow. He also has 5 girlfriends, but Lily doesn't care about that either, she loves them all.
 
I want to protect my kids against a dangerous ignorance of what sustains them. When they help me dig and plant, later on pick them and then compost our scraps,  they are learning important skills for living and maintaining life.
 
PS. You can't have roosters in any urban areas because of the crowing. I have tried roosters and thought I would raise little chicks. I personally found just getting the tried and true female pullets was the best way to go. I love my chooks, my fellow companions.
 

LINKS AND CONTACTS:

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4989099 - the full Kitchen Sisters story about King's candy

www.acebyron.org.au - if you'd like to learn to keep chooks with Gayle and much more

www.ebono.org - more info about Giovanni and the generator show