A Chicken Saga

"If I hadn't taken up painting, I would have raised chickens.  It's all art."- Grandma Moses
             

I really enjoy having chickens.  Not just for the delicious supply of eggs, but also because I enjoy caring for them and find that they help close a loop for me where the garden is concerned.  I grow fruits and vegetables in the garden, they eat the scraps of those fruits and veggies, I clean their waste out of the coop and add it to the compost bin, which finally comes back to the garden in the spring when I add the finished compost to my garden.  The compost then acts as a soil conditioner, natural fertilizer, and a natural soil pesticide for the next crop of fruits and veggies.  I like the cyclical nature of this process.  Additionally, I enjoy watching the chickens.  They all have different personalities and there is always a hierarchy or pecking order that they follow.   I find it interesting to watch this develop with each flock. 

1986

2012

 My family had chickens when I was growing up in Alabama.  They were called black sex-link chickens, which were a hybrid of Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rock hens.  In 2009, I had the opportunity to acquire a flock of Rhode Island Reds that were a few years old and I jumped at the chance to have chickens again.  The Rhode Island Reds were a medium-sized bird that were very winter-hardy, were reliable layers, and were generally very healthy.   Eventually, these hens became too old to lay eggs, so we got a new flock and decided to try out a flock of Buff Orpingtons.  These were large golden-colored birds, and while they were also capable of surviving a harsh Vermont winter, they did not seem to be as disease-resistant as the Rhode Island Reds.  They also ate more feed due to their larger size, which I hadn't considered when we first decided to try out their kind.

Rhode Island Reds

Young Buff Orpingtons

Despite the few drawbacks of their breed, we had a special bond with this flock, since it was the first flock that we raised from the time they were chicks until they were mature adult laying hens.  We learned a lot through the process and had been very lucky as far as predators were concerned.  That is, until this past spring.  A family of foxes decided to make their den in the woods to the west of the yard and one evening as they chickens were coming back to their coop after a day of free-ranging, the foxes raided the coop.  I had forgotten to close the coop door at dark after the hens went in, and left the foxes with an easy meal.  I felt terrible.  We were down to just one lonely Buff Orpington hen.   We named her Buff and realized that we had two options:  find a new home for Buff, or find a new flock of chicks and attempt to get Buff to accept them as her new family.  We opted for the latter and found some Araucana hens that were about 6 weeks old.

Young Araucanas

Buff

At that age, they were large enough to survive in the coop without a heat lamp and were large enough to defend themselves if Buff did decide to be aggressive.  We chose Araucanas this time because, unlike most breeds,  they all look a little different from one another.  We figured this would make it more likely for Buff to integrate with them without seeming like an oddball.  At the advice of some friends who also raise hens, we chose to keep Buff separated from the chicks for the first few days, but to have them divided so that they could still see each other and get used to each other slowly.  We achieved this by making a cardboard partition with windows cut out and covered with chicken wire.  This way, they could see each other and smell each other without making physical contact.  After three days, we pulled out the divider and kept a close eye on them for signs of aggression.  We were relieved when Buff accepted the new chicks and we had a happy, healthy flock once again.

Buff and the Araucanas

Things continued to go well for the next few months and we became much more cautious about letting the hens free-range while we weren't able to keep an eye on them.  One morning in late July, I was out working in the garden and the dogs were wandering around the yard.  Given the circumstances, I decided it was safe to let the hens come out and play.  I came into the house just briefly to drop off a bucket of beans and heard the chaos outside.  The foxes were back and by the time I could get back out to the yard, they were taking off with several of the Araucana hens in their mouths.  I yelled at them as they ran away and then stood there in the yard stunned by the boldness of this family of foxes.  I understood that they needed to eat, but felt they had taken more than their share from our coop.  I decided that the hens free-ranging days were over.  We instead chose to extend the boundaries of the chicken run that was attached to the coop.  That way, the chickens would still have lots of room to forage and get exercise, but would remain in the relative safety of their enclosure.

I had 5 remaining chickens and I was determined to keep it that way.  After all, we had gone three years without any run-ins with predators until this one unlucky summer.  Now they were enclosed in 200 feet of chicken wire that is 6 feet high and staked into the ground all the way around.  What we didn't plan for was a new predator that could go right up a tree and over our fencing.  We don't know for sure, but we suspect this new predator is a fisher.  A fisher is a medium-sized mammal that is in the weasel family.  It is an adept tree-climber and has a particular craving for chickens.  We found the deceased chicken this past Friday morning and I suspect a fisher because there were no visible entry points in the fencing along the ground.  We also hear that fishers are very active in this area.  Now we have resorted to keeping the remaining four hens in the coop with the door to their chicken run closed.  I don't like having to keep them confined to the indoors of the coop, but I also am determined to keep these last four chickens alive and well.  We made a scarecrow for the coop yard and plan to hang up some lights on the coop after reading that lights and human scents will keep predators away.  Ideally, we could add a roof to the chicken run to ensure that they are completely enclosed, but that would be an expensive endeavor.

Scarecrow in the chicken run

The final four:  Buff, Butterscotch, Ginger, and Robin

Although I'm feeling pretty discouraged, I am still determined.  We have learned so much over the last three years and I still believe that the positives outweigh the negatives.  I also realize that part of living in the fringes of a national forest involves learning to co-exist with the wild animals who have called this land home long before we came along with our flock of hens.   Raising chickens in this environment will have it's challenges, but I enjoy a good challenge.  I hope at the end of the day I have a few eggs to eat and an ever growing knowledge of the art of raising chickens.