The Herban Farmer Blog has Moved!

A new look!

The Herban Farmer blog has moved! The address is http://theherbanfarmer.com and although I will keep this Blogger site, I won’t be posting anything new here. For the latest posts please visit http://theherbanfarmer.com. You can also sign up to receive new posts via email.

I wanted months ago to move my blog over to a Wordpress site, but kept putting it off because the amount of work involved. I’m a graphic designer/web developer by trade and

What it's really like to have urban chickens - Part 1 - Infant chicks and how time flies

Duck at 1 week of age

Of course, I'll be speaking here from my perspective as an urban (or suburban) farmer. I grew up in the suburbs, spent most of the my life in suburbs, live in the suburbs right now. For some reason I've wanted to have chickens, well, forever. There's something so warm and homey about owning these living icons of a rural lifestyle. They're sweet, pretty, motherly and make the neatest sounds. They give you eggs.

Maybe I developed my affection for chickens as a child in New Jersey. On weekends we would drive to an Englishtown "egg farm" to get farm fresh eggs. The people that sold us the eggs were like grandparents. They lived in an old white farmhouse on a hill. While my parents were buying eggs, the wife would bring me into their kitchen and feed me date and nut bread that she made from the eggs that "needed to be used up." I might have been 3 or 4, but I still remember the warmth of that woman and her kitchen. And her bread was to die for.

As I've mentioned before, I live in the most suburban of suburbs and covenant controlled to boot. Just on the outskirts is a Murdoch's Feed and Supply Store. I'd go there in the spring and gaze longingly at the day-old chicks they'd have available for the folks that lived outside of my town limits. Then I'd come home and Google the poultry restrictions for my neighborhood. Once again, no chickens.

Nap time!

A couple of years ago I was talking with a sales person at Murdoch's and she mentioned my town had passed an ordinance allowing chickens. My day had finally come!

I researched what chickens fit our needs on a great web resource, http://www.backyardchickens.com. For us requirements were cold hardy, friendly egg-producers (as opposed to meat birds). I made my plans to be a chicken mom.

We found out what the spring delivery schedule was for chicks at Murdoch's and learned that chicks sell pretty quickly!  Chicks don't need to eat for a couple of days after they hatch, so the best time for them to be shipped is immediately after hatching. But if you want a choice, get to the store early! Our chicks came home to us in March 11, 2011.

Note: You can buy either sexed or straight run chicks. The sexed ones are determined to be, by chick private part experts, to be hens or roosters they day they hatch. Straight run means no one has looked at the "parts" and so gender is a gamble. Some neighborhoods that allow poultry--like mine-- do not permit roosters because they are too noisy. Keep that in mind.

Lap chicken Flopsy.

We set up a 3'x2' plastic storage container in the warmest room of our house, the kitchen. We used pine shavings for their bedding, a little chick feeder and waterer, and a heat lamp over one end of their new digs, all bought at Murdoch's. They were smart enough to sleep under the lamp if they felt cold, or move away from it if too warm. Chicks tend to poop in their food, water and everywhere in between. If they end up ingesting some of that, they could develop serious gastric problems. I bought chic feed containing antibiotics even though I wanted my chickens to be "organic". Chicks are tiny defenseless fuzz puffs and I wanted to protect them. A friend of mine opted to forego antibiotics in her chick feed and they got sick. After weeks of worry, lab tests, vet bills and antibiotics, she decided she should have gone preventative in the beginning. My chicks, by the way, did just fine.

In the beginning they would nap most of the time. It was not unusual to see a chick standing in the container start to drop it's head down and then just fall asleep.  Or a friend would come over to see the chicks, pick one up and suddenly the chick would go limp in her hands, fast asleep. OMG cute. Note: One of the most important things I learned about chicks was pasty butt. Sometimes a chick's poop would stick to its vent feathers (vent is another word for all purpose port -- they pee, poop and deliver eggs out of one efficient oriface). You do not want a sealed vent. If you notice poop stuck to a chick's back end you need to run some warm water over the area until it's clean. They will yell like you're killing them, but you're really saving their lives. More info can be found here.

Live meal worms, yum!

The chicks learned at an early age that humans meant food was coming and would run to us when they saw us enter the room. The napped a lot, and wanted to roost on our furniture which meant removing a rug, some cushions and putting sheets on the futon mattress. The chicks were very attracted to us and would hop on our laps and nap on us when they could.

For the first two weeks, one large storage container was fine. But the chicks grew so quickly I ended up joining two containers side-by-side. I cut out the walls separating the two containers and put a screen door over the top because they were learning how to jump up to the edges-- and out.

Chicken run goes here!

While I was cleaning out their tubs, I'd let them roam our sunroom. I'd take the screen door off their tubs and call them into the sun room. They'd all rush out, knowing there was some special treat waiting for them.  I found that chick babyhood lasts about 4 weeks.

Next, the "tweens" and outdoor living construction begins. Gasp.

So who is this Herban Farmer?

Kathy G and Me, age 4

An unwitting naturalist since early childhood in the Garden State—New Jersey. My parents and I lived in a teensy suburban Cape Cod style house painted white with black shutters and surrounded by a white picket fence. We grew tomatoes, peppers and grapes; canned fruit and vegetables; went twilight fishing on weekends with a stopover at Carvel's on the way home. Early on, I developed skills in sewing, cooking and yard work. I became a loyal fan of Tastykakes, Turkish Taffy, Taylor Ham, Ronzoni and fresh light-but-crusty hard rolls with butter after church on Sundays. I dreamed of having a yard-sized greenhouse, a horse, moving to Florida and going to the beach every day.

Back yard coreopsis

As a kid I had a strong urge to be close to nature. In winter you'd find me sprouting radish seeds, bird food and herb seeds pilfered from the kitchen cabinet in homemade terrariums. The rest of the year I'd be in the woods nibbling on birch bark and wild berries, trying to trap wild mice for pets (they always outsmarted my traps), bringing home tadpoles, frog eggs and baby turtles from Duhernal Lake. I would run through the woods trying to be like an Indian and not make any sound with my footfalls. (I still startle people because of that training.) I immersed myself in nature and still wanted more. I was adopted occasionally by both wild and domestic animals. I caught full-grown fish with my bare hands by "hypnotizing" them with touch. I had an innate sense of herbal remedies and food as medicine.

The girls enjoying some wheat grass.

Today I'm a woman living in the most suburban of suburbans and still deeply entrenched in nature. Our family includes an elderly yellow Lab, two African Grey parrots, some gold fish, a horse, chickens and a pond full of koi. I garden, fish, sew, cook, grow things, paint, make jewelry and journals. I still love to walk in the woods. I look to nature for answers and sanity. I enjoy writing. I'm closing down my graphic and web design business so I can have more time to express my creativity. I'm a certified botanic illustrator and some of my illustrations were published in a 1996 book Xeriscape Plant Guide and a couple of related calendars.

Painting of Joe

I'm learning how to oil paint and have started by painting nature. My first oil is of my horse Joe and hangs in my stall in the tack room. He likes his painting a lot. He licked it the first time he saw it. My next painting will be of our pond lilies and dragon flies. I have in mind something very different and special.

So here is my blog. For once it's not about web sites, graphic design or search engine optimization. It's about what I love, have learned and want to share.

Our garden gnome contemplating nature.

"Hold on to your diapies babies" (to quote the Rug Rats), I'm going in. It's going to be a fun ride for me and I'm committed. This blog is, generally, about stuff, a direct violation of the first law of blogs, which is all about being consistent and having one specific theme. But if you stick around long enough you'll begin to see I do have a theme and it's simply about joy. The joy of gardening, nature, cooking and eating food and being creative... and enjoying the journey called life the way it's supposed to be!