"Green" Chickens

Saturday evening, January 22, 2011

The barometer is holding tight at 29.44 and the temperature continues at 5.5 degrees despite two different weather stations reminding us to dress warmly, bring in pets and watch out for seniors as below zero temps are on the way tonight. This is part of typical winter in Vermont and should not be a surprise. As I get older, I like it less, but I am never surprised.

I stopped by my friend Mike's today to snap some overdue pictures of his "green" chickens. Mike is my friend but he's also my egg man when the chickens are laying instead of "chivering" (port manteau word for chicken shivering). He fixes my broken machinery and provides an extra set of hands unannounced like when the potting mix truck arrives with 100 bales. He is a great mechanic and he can be a carpenter when times require.

Mike was worried about his chickens and the upcoming cold temps so he gathered up some recyclables and built a nice sun room for his chickens. Now they can come out, exercise, eat and be warm. There aren't any fancy chairs or other typical sun room furnishings but for the chickens, this is just right.

Mike added a new door to the former opening and then took an old window to serve as one wall of the new addition. Today when it was 17° and windy outside, it was 30° in the little addition. Even chickens can go green.

This isn't a fancy addition, it's a functional addition and the chickens love it. They can still come and go as they please but they are warmer as they walk around and enjoy the sun. I think they can see themselves in the window glass but I haven't asked.


Mike has a nice mix of chickens, each has a name perfectly matched to its personality, and most all lay tasty eggs which we enjoy. The big red rooster is a nasty bully but he thinks well of himself and that's what big roosters do. On the other end of the continuum are Becky (way up top in Mike's arms) and Bucky, down in front here, smallest of all with a nice red comb, black tail feathers and one heck of a voice. They are bantams and so far Becky hasn't parted with an egg. She loves the new greenhouse but she always lets Bucky go out and test the weather first.

All the shavings, leaves and vegetable scrapes from the coop and the yard go into Mike's vegetable gardens and berry patches. Chickens are fun to raise and they are great benefit to one's land and family. If you have some room on your property, consider raising some yourself!


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the barometer is dropping but the temperature is not moving. Bet it will by morning. Be warm!

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
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Final House Thoughts

Saturday, October 16, 2010

The sun has left a 4 mph wind to close the day as larch needles fly like snowflakes and maple and birch leaves drift past my office window. Mrs Doe Deer and two fawns were here for over an hour earlier this afternoon as they munched on raspberry leaves, a deer candy of sorts. Since they left, the only visit has been from brief gusts of wind and wet leaves bouncing against the window screen. 40° did not make for a pleasant day and as I dumped the rain gauge with 2.2 inches of rain since yesterday, I was thankful it didn't get colder last night as it did in some parts of New England. We have seen snow this early before but it's never welcome.

Yesterday in Back In Vermont I mentioned the benefit of studying older landscapes and older home architecture. Today I ran across this picture from a house in Harmonyville, Vermont I took last fall. We were in southern Vermont tracing the steps of writer of weird tales, H P Lovecraft, and his good friend Vrest Orton, later of Vermont Country Store fame, when we noticed the house. The house is not winning any local community awards for a tidy lawn or well kept premise but once again it exemplifies my suggestion that old is good. The lines of this house are straight, there are plenty of windows for lighting and cross ventilation, there is an ample attached shed, and originally there were two chimneys (now one), probably complete with fireplaces, top and bottom.

The standout on this house is the porch as Gail will quickly point out. In the old days, all houses had a porch someplace and the further south you went the larger the porches. They were places to recover from the heat of the day or from an overly warm house. Gail says there's nothing like a long porch and a line of rocking chairs to momentarily tranquilize an exhausted gardener. She has a point.

I don't want to overstate my premise that old is good but with houses as with gardens, there's something noteworthy with the designs of the past. In this case, a very simple architecture provides a home with ample space, opportunity for several layouts, and in modern consideration, affords both green and sustainability options that are very marketable. If this style house were rehabbed to modern standards, space exists to provide those assets and make buyers smile.

No more house stories. Promise.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond. Alex and I have chicken duty now--have to take care of a friend's chickens while he is away taking care of his recuperating dad. Maybe they'll enjoy a fresh kale......the chickens!

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook at George Africa and also Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm

Where I Get Eggs

Monday, April 12, 2010

An on-again, off-again day here in Marshfield today. The morning started out cold and held that way for some time. I had plans to be at the nursery early for garden work but 30 degrees and a slight wind suggested an additional hour on the computer and phone and then an hour in the woods cutting out the old woods road that was littered with trees and branches from this winter. By the time I returned to the house it was good to smell fresh coffee and hear the wood stove crackling.

I stopped down by neighbor Mike's to get some pictures of his raspberries and blueberries for a blog piece I had in mind. But then I got hung up with the chickens as I often do and before I knew it, another hour had come and passed. I don't know where you get your eggs but as long as these girls at Mike's keep laying, this is the place I'm going.

Each spring when farm stores get in boxes full of chicks, I get this notion that I need a chicken house again and a bunch of chickens. And then I do a quick cost analysis and after figuring out all the things I need but don't have and the time I would spend, I always come back to a different way to come up with fresh eggs. But I never like the conclusion because there is something about chickens and eggs and the color of a couple yolks in a fry pan or the taste of the cooked product. There's something special about a favorite hen pecking at your shoe lace or looking for a private handout. This year I have come the closest to building a chicken coop and it's not over yet. I weaken every time I look at Mike's girls.

Mike reminds me of many people around here with a dozen or so chickens of mixed breeds. I'm not sure how Mike put this collection together but they are a good mix and they produce well. Each has a name and although I wouldn't know a Frieda from a Helen, they all seem nice to me. When you go to the store to buy chicks, you have a choice of sexed and unsexed. This has to be the job of all times--checking the sex on chicks so customers don't get a box of 24 chicks, 15 of which grow up to be roosters. I'm glad I am leaving the world of work so I don't have to consider chicken sexing as a life long profession.

It's good to get a mix as the chickens mature at different times and they lay for different lengths of time and some start laying sooner than others. Often they don't start laying before some would-be home chicken farmers want to give up and pursue something else. Patience is a virtue will chickens and good deals can be had for those who have patience and a couple bucks to buy out those who lack chicken patience. I am reading the classifieds every day now and expect I might hit it big before Memorial Day.


Before I knew it I was cooking up some fresh cod for dinner and the chicken experience was far behind me. It turned out to be a busy afternoon after the great chicken visits and the sun finally warmed the air enough that I could take off a layer of clothes and not feel chilled. I did get some pictures of raspberries and blueberries and I'll get back to that blog tomorrow. In the meantime, think of flowers you might need this year from Vermont Flower Farm and ask yourself where your eggs come from. If you don't know the answer to the egg question, I suggest you might find your own neighbor. If you need flowers, come see Gail.



Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the sun is long gone and the temperature is dropping. Peas and lettuce aren't up yet--maybe next week.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook at Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm