The Urban Farm - Meryl Natchez

New kids on the block

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Meryl in Chickens

Once you have chickens (or at least once I do), it becomes tempting to want more exotic varieties. Four years ago I started out with six Ameraucanas, the friendly, puffy cheeked hens that lay pale green or olive eggs.

Now I have a wide variety, and often know which hen laid which egg by its size and color. Still, I wanted a couple of Cukoo Marans (rich, dark brown eggs) and Cream Legbars (turquioise eggs). When my Silkie (a small white puffball with feathered feet) got broody (sitting on eggs to hatch them), I arranged with a small breeder in Redding to ship a few baby chicks. Continue reading “New kids on the block” →

Babies

Posted on March 15, 2015March 15, 2015 by Meryl in Chickens

Do you remember the seven eggs that the silkie hen hatched? Five of those chicks turned out to be roosters! Beautiful as they were, they had to go. In their place, I got three 3-week old hens from Craigs’ list. Their breed is Cuckoo Maran, a medium size chicken that lays deep brown eggs. They are in the chick pen now. At least the owner says they’re hens…

And the silkie is broody again. This time, I’ve ordered female day-old chicks for her to raise–I’m not taking any chances. Continue reading “Babies” →

Labyrinthine

Posted on February 8, 2015 by Meryl in Labyrinths, Stuff Larry Sez

Just before the rainy days, I managed to finish weeding and replanting the labyrinth for spring. Lots of spinach, sorrel, herbs, and mustard greens remain and self seed each year. And this year some blue honey wart, too. Not to mention my friend’s statue.

And meanwhile, this by Robert Shiller from today’s paper, read to me by Larry, on the labyrinthine world of finance–the path through that is more convoluted:

“Governments…use expanded credit in a desperate effort to placate a dissatisfied electorate. Credit expansion can create housing bubbles and an illusion of wealth for many people, for a while, at least. ‘Let them eat credit.’ “

Update

Posted on January 8, 2015January 8, 2015 by Meryl in The Urban Farm

We were gone for part of the holidays, and were lucky to have an expert photographer, Evan Harrar, as a house sitter. He took some photos of the yard and chickens (as well as some stunning bridge and city photos which he will offer for sale).

The garden is full of greens, potatoes, garlic, and fennel, with morning-glory doing what it does (that is, getting out of hand):

We had breakfast this morning right from the garden: Continue reading “Update” →

Meanwhile, back on the farm

Posted on November 10, 2014November 12, 2014 by Meryl in Chickens

Many modern hens are too refined to set on a nest of eggs and hatch chicks. The instinct to get “broody” is bred out of them, because they stop laying. Commercial farmers would rather mange egg production and incubation. Continue reading “Meanwhile, back on the farm” →

A bad farmer

Posted on August 22, 2014 by Meryl in Chickens

This week, I decided that the two young Polish roosters had to go. I really can’t have three roosters. Cloud, my Americana rooster is a gentleman and protects his hens. I didn’t feel good about sending him to the stewpot, so the young ones had to go. I waited till evening, then boxed them up to take to my friend who eats them. (I would have no problem killing and eating my chickens except that plucking a chicken is hard, smelly work. My friend’s husband, apparently doesn’t mind.)

But as I put them in the box, I couldn’t help but notice their gorgeous, glossy feathers and entrancing topknots. Especially Dorie One, as my grandson named the now certainly rooster, whose head was laced with gold and red feathers. Continue reading “A bad farmer” →

Still here

Posted on August 16, 2014August 16, 2014 by Meryl in The Urban Farm

I know I’ve been neglecting posts about the urban farm. This time of year is really demanding–I’ve been spending a good part of each day with the garden and chickens. The silkies have grown into puffballs, the Polish hens have both turned out to be roosters, the plants are yielding lots of produce and everything needs to be pruned, harvested, trimmed, readied for fall planting.

Here are the Silkies:

The Polish roosters, some produce.

and the various garden areas.

The power behind the Stones

Posted on May 25, 2014May 27, 2014 by Meryl in Chickens, Philosophical

An influential guy you probably never heard of, Prince Rupert zu Lowenstein, had an obituary in the Times on Friday. He was born a Bavarian aristocrat (where is Bavaria anyway? does it still exist?) and left Paris on the last plane to London before the Nazis invaded, studied history at Oxford, became a financier and later the money manager for the Rolling Stones.

He got them out of a draconian contract that payed them practically nothing, convinced them to reside outside England to avoid taxes, and copyrighted that red-tongue logo. He got them to stop accepting paper bags full of cash as payment, planned their blockbuster tours, and licensed their music to advertisers. On a more personal level he negotiated Mick Jagger’s divorce from Bianca and separation from Jerry Hall. He described himself as “combination of bank manager, psychiatrist and nanny.” Continue reading “The power behind the Stones” →

Long overdue

Posted on May 4, 2014May 4, 2014 by Meryl in The Urban Farm

It’s not that I haven’t been spending time in the garden, it’s that I’ve been spending so much time with gardening and chickens that I haven’t had time to write about it. The labyrinth is once again completely overgrown. Everything is burgeoning and needs tending. I cleared about three feet of it in as many hours. Multiple sets of lettuce, kale, sweet peas and cucumbers are in the garden, and the first crop of raspberries is just coming in. I can’t get a full view of it all, but here are a few selections:

Even my little carnivorous plant is blooming.

Continue reading “Long overdue” →

The failed hatch

Posted on March 20, 2014 by Meryl in Chickens

For those of you who follow the chicken saga, I wrote about my attempts to incubate or have my broody hen hatch some chicks. I have to report failure on both counts. Nothing in my homemade incubator hatched. I wasn’t so surprised at this, as I had some initial problems regulating the temperature. But for whatever reason, the eggs under the broody hen also failed to hatch. After 23 days, I took them out. Three had complete chicken embryos inside, but not alive. I don’t’ have any idea why, as she was a very diligent setter. I slipped seven day-old chicks from the feed store under her the night I took away the eggs, a mix of Rhode Island Red and Americana chicks.

Two of the Americanas are black, as is the mother. For whatever reason, she rejected the two black chicks. She refused to let them be, but pecked at and chased them around the cage. A self-loathing racist hen? In any case, I had to take the black chicks out and foster them inside. Continue reading “The failed hatch” →

My chickens fly first class

Posted on March 4, 2014March 4, 2014 by Meryl in Chickens

The NY Times this morning had an article about chickens on the front page, “Wishing They All Could Be California Hens.” The article discussed a California law that requires cages for chickens “roomy enough to stand up, lie down — even extend their wings fully without touching another bird.” This law requires importers of eggs to meet these same generous standards, which has inspired potential lawsuits from out-of-state hen jailers. These larger California cages mean that you have about 60 hens in a cage the size of the back of a large pickup truck. In other states, farmers can continue to house chickens “in battery cages about as big as a filing-cabinet drawer.” The article compared this to “sitting in an airplane seat in the economy section all your life.” Continue reading “My chickens fly first class” →

Broody

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Meryl in Chickens

One of the young hens has begun to sit on eggs, or get “broody,” as chicken folk say. (Yet another metaphor from the world of chickens.) With a great deal of perseverance (though not much discrimination), she was sitting on one wooden egg in the hen house until I moved her to a separate box and put some real eggs under her. I got the eggs from an accommodating hatchery in Pennsylvania, who shipped them in bubble wrap. For 21 days the hen will barely get up, perhaps rising once a day to eat, drink and eliminate, and then renew her slow vigil on the eggs. Talk about confinement! I’m not going to disturb her by opening the door and taking her picture. She has enough to deal with.

Actually, I had put a few of my hens’ eggs under her for the first ten days, until the new eggs arrived. She had to start over with the new batch. Continue reading “Broody” →