Among the many things I want to add to my yard and garden is a few chickens. I know myself well enough to admit right up front that they will be pets, chickens raised for eggs and entertainment not meat. I couldn't kill something with my own hands that I've petted and loved and nurtured and given a name and laughed at its personality quirks. And I certainly couldn't eat a family pet.
Australorp
If I'm going to do this, I want to do it right. So I've been doing some research. And that's led me in all sorts of directions from thinking about the broodiness traits of different breeds of chickens... to coop design... to what to feed them... to their unique benefits with garden compost and bug control... to the nutritional benefits of home-grown eggs... and even to the horrors of factory-farming. And it seems like the more I research, the stronger my desire to add some backyard chickens becomes. But also, I have even more questions; not just about how to do everything but about my ability to do it all. I really dislike feeling so unsure of myself.
Here are some of my current questions:
New Hampshire Red
Do I just pick a supplier and order sexed chicks? When? What do I do with them after they arrive until they are big enough and the weather is warm enough for them to survive outside?
If I get 6-8 hens, how big of a coop/run do I need? How many nesting boxes do I need? Where do I best site it on my property?
Buff Orpington
Should I let them free-range at least part of the day? Is free-ranging as important in the winter as in the summer? What about predators? I do see a few hawks circling in the summertime and we have racoons in the neighborhood.
How much should I plan on spending for feed? Is feeding them a morning chore or an evening chore or both? When do eggs need to be gathered?
Wyandotte
How do I tell if they are getting sick? Where do they pick up pests like fleas, lice and worms? Do I periodically treat for these things as a proactive step or wait until there's reason to suspect an infestation?
Any thoughts, experience, advice you can share to relieve my angst?
Credit for all chicken photos and identification to poultrykeeper.com.
Aren't these just the sweetest, brightest, most cheery dishcloths ever? And the note is so clever, too. I love it!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jodi!!
They're so pretty it's going to almost be hard to use them... but I will. And every time I will be reminded of how kind and
wonderful my friend is. It's almost like a reward hug for doing the dishes.
Now... to get my big procrastinating backside to the Post Office. The items I'm gifting forward have been done and ready to go for 2 weeks and just need to be mailed. I hope they make someone's day as much as Jodi made mine today!!
Every once in awhile it happens. I get up on a soapbox and have my say about something. Some might argue that it happens pretty often, even. Maybe that's true, maybe it's not but tonight I'm stepping up there all because of a video I saw on YouTube. So, assuming the position of old-time street preacher...
Nigger.
There I said it. Go ahead and label me a racist. I'm a white girl, after all, and I just put in print that singular word no white person is supposed to even think. Ever. But... black folks can use it to address one another and it's fine, even the subject of jokes.
Is it okay for me to laugh at Glozell or should I be offended? Is my laughter offensive to people who share her racial background?
I don't know. And I don't get it. I admit that I'm utterly and completely confused by the power and emotion that continues to be vested in this one word. I just don't understand how any word is so inflammatory when spoken by one person and yet socially acceptable when said by another. And that the distinction is made based on the shade of brown gracing the skin of the speaker. How is the very same word used the very same way with the very same tone derogatory coming off my lips and just a greeting when spoken by someone else?
It's not that I even want this word to be part of my everyday language. I don't. I think it is demeaning and hurtful. Then again, there are a lot of words I don't care to have as part of my day-to-day experience for that same reason. But right now the word I'm talking about is nigger. I don't understand why we continue to accept the double-standard that's been thrown up around it. If we are all truly equal as people, as simple fellow citizens on planet Earth, then our words should have equal treatment and acceptability as well.
I did a little research and found a critically acclaimed and peer-reviewed paper from Kevin Cato and the Syracuse University Writing Program titled Nigger: Language, History, and Modern Day Discourse. In it he states:
As a black American male, the word nigger conjures up within me hate, hostility, violence, oppression, and a very shameful and unfortunate part of American History. The word symbolizes the everlasting chains of a people plagued with hate and bondage simply because of skin color. For many black people, including myself, nigger is the most pejorative word in the English language. Even when compared to racial slurs like kike, honkey, cracker, wet back, spic, jungle bunny, pod, tarbaby, and white trash, nigger is noted as the worst insult in the English language. The word nigger suggests that black people are second class citizens, ignorant and less than human.
While many blacks and whites agree that the word should not be censored from the English language, it certainly should not be used by all people because of its historical significance. For example, black militants believe whites should never use the word nigger.
He goes on to note that the word has been "reclaimed" by modern youth in the hip-hop movement who argue that people give meanings to words and not that words give meaning to people. They believe the context makes their use of nigger acceptable.
I wish we could just come to a consensus. Either nigger is an insulting and debasing racial slur or it's an acceptable term of endearment. Same word. Same meaning. For everyone. I don't care what shade your skin is, we are fellow human beings. And in that respect peers. Equals. But when you tell me I can't use a word simply because I was born with a lighter shade of skin covering my body, it says to me that you don't see me the same way. And that makes me angry. And very sad. I thought humanity was making progress toward valuing every person's contribution but maybe we're just stuck in the same old ruts of an out-dated mindset... picking at wounds to keep them from ever healing because hate has become more comfortable.
Okay, I've said my piece. And I feel better for getting that off my chest.
Out and about the last few days I've been noticing that nature is beginning to rejuvenate... Spring is truly just around the corner. For a few weeks now, I've been watching robins in the tree outside my kitchen window. The first robin sighting of the year is a grand thing to me as it means that winter is coming to end. I am not a big fan of snow and cold.
The robins in my yard move faster than I can get my camera focused and zoomed in on them so I pulled this stock photo from another website. And learned a lot about the American Robin and how to attract more of them to my yard .
I've also noticed the past week or so that the buds are noticeably swelling on most of the trees around town. And just today I was thinking the lawn has a definite greenish hue that's different than the straw-like shade of winter months when it's dormant. Tulip, hyacinth, daffodil, crocus and other bulbs have sent up leaves and a few are beginning to get flower buds. And the rhubarb crowns are starting to poke out where leaves will soon uncurl.
The spiders seem to be waking up, too. Yesterday I saw two in the bathroom (why do spiders so frequently show up in bathrooms anyway?) and just now one ran across my screen. No worries, they are just harmless little critters that look very much like this European Garden Spider. If I don't know what it is, I kill it. But these live for another day. I've even been known, if it was in the bathtub when I wanted to use it, to catch one in a dixie cup and let it go outside. They do their part to keep insects that are harmful to my garden plants under control so, to me, they are part of the good guys that I want to protect and have hanging around.
Inspiration photo for patio though mine won't
be so elaborate with columns and a fireplace.
And it will have orange trumpet vine growing
overhead because I already have some of those.
A few more nice days and I'll be itching to get outside and dig into those flowerbeds and finish the patio structure and figure out how to do it and what to use to mulch the garden. And of course then I'll complain about sore aching muscles that haven't seen that much or kind of movement in many months. I may find my garden ambitions are bigger than my abilities but I'm sure planning on giving it my best shot.
Fellow gardeners... meet fellow blogger. Clint Baker! On his blog, you'll find all kinds of great ideas you'll want to check out to make your garden grow better and more cost-efficiently along with some devotionals and other inspiring happenings. And there's a great seed give-away going on right now. Be sure to click over and enter at The Redeemed Gardener.
