When a Chicken Isn't Just a Chicken

A year ago I met with two other women at one of their kitchen tables to discuss getting backyard chickens legal in my city. We had to convince City Council that keeping backyard hens wasn't just a back-woods fallback to Farmville, nor did it mean roosters, slaughtering, smell, or other dangers and nuisances. We had one vote in favor, the woman whose house we met at.We needed six "yes" votes in order to get the ordinance passed. Most of council was adamantly opposed to the proposed ordinance, which had been soundly turned down a few years earlier. They were afraid of "those people" who will not act responsibly in caring for their hens (i.e. immigrants and renters).

So we launched a grassroots effort to let Council know that people wanted hens. I started a blog, created flyers, and posted on a few websites like backyardchickens.com. A woman emailed me offering to setup a Facebook page. We met at a local school, sometimes with nearly two dozen people, but usually with two or three. Our Council woman lead us through the maze of politics, I ran the web end of things including a petition on Change.com, and others got signatures on a paper petition. People spoke at council meetings. We used social media and word of mouth to get people on board.

We started out with nothing. With major opposition. Last night, with 220 likes on the Facebook Page, more than 1000 page views on the blog, and over 600 signatures, Council voted to change the proposed amendment! We wowed them with our political presence - ninety people showed up for the meeting where the official vote would occur, with kids in tow. A dozen people spoke in favor. One person opposed came to speak, but when he saw the ninety people stand in support, he removed his name from the speakers list and walked out!

What we showed Council was that a chicken isn't just a chicken. They stand for sustainability, food security, community, responsible action, and personal freedom. Most people who want to keep chickens are responsible members of society. We stood up against racist and classist fears about hen keepers.

We also showed our community that if something matters we can work together to get it changed. I hope to use that power to keep moving - fine tuning the ordinance, but also involving more diverse populations in our gardening and sustainable living movement.

There are a million and one actions that need to happen in our world, and as many people and more who have different opinions about what "matters." Many might roll their eyes at how insignificant this movement is. But I'm proud of our little movement to support backyard hens in my corner of the world.

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Into backyard henkeeping? Check out my book,

The Way of the Hen: Zen and the Art of Raising Chickens

A Gardener's Alphabet

What a gorgeous, simple, and life-affirming book! Highly recommended.

A Gardener's Alphabet by Mary Azarian (Houghton Mifflin, 2000)

Bees Can Teach Us About Strong Community

http://www.themelissagarden.com/beekeeping.html

"There is no single bee – as there is no single human being. It’s a product of a limited world view. The single bee is only one individual part of the bigger entity of the entire bee hive....This can serve as a beautiful metaphor or mirror for our own existence: That we are just one individual part of a bigger entity: The earth’s ecosystem and the entire universe." - From themelissagarden.com

I took my first beekeeping class this morning. I've been stung by bee fever! I hope to get a hive next spring, spending the year learning more about bee guardianship, figuring out where to put my top bar hive, and reading reading reading all I can get my hands on.


At the same time, a group of friends and I are ready to take real steps towards a homeschooling community center. In the next month we will start writing our non-profit document and making it real.

I'm working with another group of people to get chickens legal in Aurora, Colorado.

It occurred to me the other day that all these projects express the energy of building strong
community. Bees are all about community. We all know a hive to be the quintessential community, with the queen, workers and drones each fulfilling their purpose being - ahem - busy bees. But honey bees and other pollinators also teach us about the health of our own human communities. We've seen this recently with hive collapse and other bee diseases that have been created by humanity's obsession with monetary wealth. Monsanto and Bayer focus so exclusively on making more money that they are not considering the health of bees, the soil, water, or people, and bee colonies are suffering. Climate change is causing or contributing to droughts around the world that is making bee keeping near impossible. Without water, you can't have bees. This is a global phenomenon affecting the price of honey, small business, and large commercial beekeepers. Then there is the way we grow food in most industrialized nations, namely in monocrops like acres and acres of only almond trees. In a normal ecosystem, there would be other flowers providing bees with nectar throughout the year, and bees wouldn't have to be trucked around (the process of which kills millions of bees each year) to follow the flowers. Our money-obsessed and "efficiency" obsessed society has created a culture of insanity, and the bees cannot or will not put up with it.

I wrote a blog post a while back about how backyard chicken ownership helps build strong communities. And homeschooling is, despite the stereotype, very much about community.

So I'm sitting with this energy of community, and contemplating how humanity (at least in industrialized nations) is having to rethink what community means to us. For many people it no longer means the local church of your chosen denomination, the office, and the neighborhood school. Or if your community does include one or more of these, I would guess that there is some aspect of those communities that are stretching or which you question. You don't have to be a homesteading hippie to be part of this shift, either. Our fears about safety in schools, the debate about same-sex marriage, a Jesuit pope, Facebook, and working from home are all examples of how the idea of community is evolving.

I wonder how bees might teach us about community. Not just in an old-school way, where each has her own place in the hive and it's all about the safety of the hive, but in an evolving way, involving sacred geometry, transformation, and the dialectic of hive versus individual. As we humans evolve, let us call on these higher levels of hive expression as guides. And let us not forget to hum as we create a new world!

Urban Chickens Make Healthy Kids and Strong Communities

Helping the Hungry

One in eight people struggle with hunger, including many children. One way municipalities can help their hungry citizens for very little cost is to promote backyard gardens, including keeping small flocks of chickens. Eggs from hens allowed to forage and move freely (even within appropriately sized enclosed areas) are much higher in nutrients than those available at grocery stores.  From Mother Earth News:

"In 1988, Artemis Simopoulos, co-author of The Omega Diet, found that eggs from pastured hens in Greece contained 13 times more omega-3s than eggs from U.S. supermarkets. In 1974, a British study found that eggs from pastured hens had 50 percent more folic acid and 70 percent more vitamin B12 than eggs from factory-farmed hens. In 1997, a study in Animal Feed Science and Technology found eggs from free-range chickens had higher levels of both omega-3s and vitamin E than those from hens maintained in cages and fed commercial diets. Most recently, in 2003, Pennsylvania State University researchers reported that birds kept on pasture produced three times more omega-3s in their eggs than birds raised in cages on a commercial diet. They also found twice as much vitamin E and 40 percent more vitamin A in the yolks of the pastured birds."

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2005-08-01/Free-Range-Eggs.aspx#ixzz259F4gnNC

Backyard hens' eggs cost about $2 a dozen (for feed and wood shavings; less if they are given more kitchen scraps, weeds and grass), which cost more than $4 a dozen for (almost) comparably nutritious eggs at the grocery store. They are a great source of affordable protein.

Backyard urban hen keeping saves a family money and saves the city money on feeding the hungry.  It also saves a municipality money by reducing the food scraps that go into the waste stream (to see what you can feed hens from the kitchen, click here).

Food Security

If someone wanted to cripple a whole lot of people, that someone could attack large sources of food, such as the drought has attacked the nation's corn crop this year. Or when 228 million eggs were recalled in August 2010 because of a huge salmonella outbreak. When you grow corn in your backyard and raise a small flock of hens for eggs, you are at a much smaller risk of food losses. Taxpayers and insurance companies and families save money on health care costs from such outbreaks.

In his life-changing book Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, Bill McKibben discusses at length the importance of focusing on small and local. Food, energy, and governance needs to be focused on local, manageable projects. Keeping a backyard flock is part of that movement.

Vitamin N

Contact with nature including gardens and pets (backyard chickens are a hybrid of pets and food source), has shown to reduce mental illness - including depression and anxiety - obesity and even violence.  It improves mood and the ability to concentrate (hello test scores), and speeds up physical healing. Backyard gardens, parks, household pets, neighborhood trees, and yes, chickens, help create healthier people and healthier communities. Richard Louv calls contact with nature Vitamin N. In his book The Nature Principle, he writes, "an emerging high-tech/high-nature housing design philosophy includes conserving energy, using nature-friendly materials, and also applying biophilic design principles to promote health, human energy, and beauty." (p. 161) Backyard chickens are not a fallback to dirt yards in podunkville, they are a part of a diverse and progressive redesign of urban living that includes wilderness, gardens, and high-tech living.

Healthy Children and Communities

What happens when you give kids nutritious food, a sense of security, and a connection with nature? They do better in school and are less likely to follow a violent lifestyle.

And what about adults? Well, the same thing happens. Healthy, safe, engaged adults care for themselves and their neighbors.

Now who wouldn't want to create these conditions for their cities? Well cared for urban chickens need to be legalized in Aurora, Colorado.

Letter to Aurora City Council

August 23, 2012

To City Council and Aurora Sentinel:

Aurora has long stood for American freedom and strong community. Both of these are supported – surprisingly enough – by the keeping of backyard chickens. During World War II, the keeping of hens was declared an act of patriotism. Today it’s celebrated as trendy and sustainable by the likes of Martha Stewart, Susan Orlean of the New York Times, and Food Network’s Alton Brown. People who keep chickens in small urban gardens, who follow local ordinances of keeping coops and runs clean and protecting hens from predators, tend to be people who care for animals, the earth, and their communities. 

Arguments against hen keeping usually include noise, odor, and pest attraction. These concerns can easily be avoided by not permitting roosters, keeping coops clean, and well-designed coops. Hens only vocalize for approximately 5 minutes after laying an egg and make less noise than dogs or even human conversations. Well designed and maintained coops and runs (i.e. with hardware cloth buried all the way around to keep out foxes, etc.) reduce or eliminate pest and predator problems. Proper sanitation – washing your hands after collecting eggs or dealing with chickens, eliminates any health concerns. 

Another common concern with allowing small flocks of urban hens (a maximum of six hens works for most families) is that there will be a greater cost to the city and animal control. When Longmont recently legalized chickens, they found these concerns to be unfounded. People who want to raise chickens in their backyards for eggs are doing so (mostly) out of a sense responsibility for taking control of their food sourcing and reducing their carbon footprint. These are not the kinds of folks who'll be requiring animal control to come out and bust chicken owners for too many animals making too much noise.

There is one last concern that is rarely addressed directly. Aurora fears being seen as a backwoods town. They fear that allowing hens will turn the city into Farmville or possibly Little Mexico. I’ve heard several racist comments about Mexicans and hen keeping. Not only are these comments racist and inappropriate, the fact is that regulating hen ownership – no roosters, small flocks, carefully constructed coops – would eliminate most of the predicted problems and give structure to remediation of unacceptable situations when necessary. For instance, if there is a rooster wandering around the neighborhood, the people responsible can be fined, the rooster removed, and others who are keeping only hens in a sanitary and well-constructed situation can continue to care for their animals in a non-disruptive manner. When Councilmen Bob Broom said chickens weren’t compatible with Aurora (quoted in the Denver Post), I suspect he was referring to these images of hen keeping. Tell that to Martha Stewart, Barbara Streisand and Julia Roberts, all of whom keep hens.

Commerce City, Denver, Longmont, Boulder, Highlands Ranch, Centennial, Englewood, and Parker, to name a few cities in the area, allow hens. It’s time we did too. It’s time we stood up for being a free country, one that carefully and respectfully regulates backyard hen keeping in support of sustainable communities.

Sincerely,

Clea Danaan Edelblute

Author of The Way of the Hen

and Aurora resident

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Addendum: Why Chickens?

Chickens that are hand-raised from chicks can be wonderful pets. They come when they are called, enjoy being held and are beautiful and even affectionate pets.

Hens provide great-tasting, fresh, nutritious eggs for your family

In fact studies show that compared to ordinary eggs, eggs from hens with access to plants and bugs have less cholesterol and saturated fat, but several times more beta carotene, Vitamin E, and omega-3 fatty acids. They also have much more vitamin A, vitamin B-12, and folic acid.

Hens require little space to be happy and healthy; 3 hens can live a happy and healthy life in just 12 square feet.

Hen manure is a wonderful fertilizer which can provide you a healthy lawn without all of the chemicals

Hens love to eat the nasty bugs in your yard, including mosquitoes, slugs, ticks, and beetles just to name a few.

Chickens eat kitchen scraps and lawn clippings

Chickens help to keep these items out of landfills and turning them into healthy eggs.

Chicken keeping is educational. Backyard chickens provide lessons for children about responsibility and where food comes from.

Backyard chickens allow us to reduce our carbon footprint by producing some of our own food.  Every food item we can produce organically and on our own property is one less item that must be shipped to us and shopped for. Every item of food we raise ourselves represents a step in living a greener, more sustainable, lifestyle.

June 2012 Homestead Tour

Here's what's going on in our little suburban homestead.

I started these tomato plants from seed, and they have done better than any I've ever grown myself. The secret? Fertilizer. Specifically, they like (brace yourself) urine that has been watered down 20:1. They like a little salt, so a lower water to urine ratio works okay for tomatoes.

I'm growing all my tomatoes in pots this year. Our soil is so fickle and is heavy clay. No matter how much I amend (or fertilize) tomatoes don't like it. Actually, our first year here we did a lasagna garden (layered leaves, dirt, etc.) and they liked that fairly well. But these plants are doing so much better in pots.

Cucumbers also in pots, with a little hail damage on one of the leaves.

This one is a little hard to see, but demonstrates some of the animal residents. We have this old box elder tree that is rotting, but we can't bring ourselves to cut it down. We have trimmed off some of the dead branches to keep it safe and slow the rot. This branch, which is over the path going up to the upper garden beds, is hollow inside. The top black dot is a hole in which nest  starlings. The bottom black dot is a hole in which nest three rather strange looking and strange sounding flicker babies. Letting the tree be a part of the ecosystem has brought lots of life to our yard!

Under that branch grows our grapes. No grapes this year, but they are growing well. I've even successfully started a few branches from cuttings! Last year we had three grapes - as in three little round fruits - total. Needless to say the birds got them. This is a Pink Reliance variety, a table grape.

I'm letting this lettuce plant go to seed, and will save the seed for replanting. Behind it you can see an onion flower from one of the store-bought onions I popped int he ground when it started to sprout. I used the white outer parts and planted the inner sprouting part. I'll save those seeds, too.

At the bottom of the lettuce, to the left, is a honeydew melon that Sophie planted at one of the Denver Botanic Garden's homeschool days. I'm going to try a new squirrel repellant made from essential oils that I saw at a local nursery and hope we get a melon or two. Mostly so Sophie won't be devastated.

Another experiment, based on something I saw in a gardening supply catalog. I cut the top off a chicken feed bag and planted potatoes in the bottom. As the plants grew I covered them with compost. When they die back in the fall I can just dump out the whole thing to harvest the potatoes.

Two of our three baby apples. Also going to dose these with the herbal squirrel repellant. I look forward to our tiny fruit trees getting bigger. For now I have a baby orchard. This apple tree is the biggest. We also have a two-foot-tall peach, a tall but skinny plum, and a three-inch-tall cherry.

The chickens in their "outer" run posing with some hollyhocks. Wondering if I have treats for them. One of our hens is broody again, and we might get a chance to hatch some fertile duck eggs via her warm self!











Second crop of peas, replacing some bolted lettuce. This is the first year I have a bed here, in a shaded area by the patio. It seems to work well for cool season plants. I finally switched to the permaculture zone system and put lettuce, peas, chard, and carrots as close to the house as I could.

 

And lastly, evidence of leafcutter bees - the little circular holes. I decided I'm not up to beekeeping right now, but I want to get some mason bees, which pollinate but don't make honey. Hopefully leafcutter bees pollinate, too!

Magical Homesteading

It seems urban homesteading has passed through fad phase and settled down into a quiet way of life for thousands of people. You don't hear about it much on the news, and the featured book table has fewer titles related to homesteading, but internet groups and blogs are still going strong. I meet fewer people who say they wish they had chickens, and more people who report someone in their neighborhood who keeps a small flock. These urban and suburban homesteaders come from all walks of life: various religions, conservative and liberal, young and retired, women and men. It ranges from the city apartment with herbs on the balcony and a supplemental community garden plot to a small farm producing wool, eggs, and meat.

Urban homesteading is a magical way of life. Magic is the art of changing your consciousness - and the world's consciousness - at will. Magic examines our interconnections to everything around us and our responsibilities towards those things to which we are connected. Both of these qualities can also be said about homesteading of all varieties. I raise chickens because it's fun, because I like knowing where my eggs come from, and I like the responsibility of caring for the animals that nourish me. I like the surprise of my neighbors when they realize I'm growing my own food (especially the children), and I hope I am contributing to the world in positive ways by teaching others how they too might live more responsibly. I am working to change the current paradigm that says that farm and suburb are two different things, that life should be divided by zoning laws and labels.

Homesteading is also about really knowing your land, whether that land is your backyard or your neighborhood or both. This too is a very magical quality. To paraphrase Phyllis Curott, a witch is someone who pays attention. We notice how many squirrel nests we have in our neighborhood, where we can find wild herbs, how rain affects our property, the changing light through the seasons, and other ways in which we and nature coexist. The garden and our animals teach us about life and death, give and take, ebb and flow. These are all aspects of energy we must know intimately to work magic of any kind.

When I was thinking about writing this blog post I imagined I would post things like an amulet you might make to hang in the chicken coop to keep the girls safe from predators, or how conjuring a dragon can be a form of magical protection for your homestead. If you would like to learn some of these tricks, check out Magical Housekeeping by Tess Whitehurst or Cottage Witchery by Ellen Dugan. Both books have lots of great ideas to magic your homestead. I realized while writing this post, though, that homesteading is an act of magic all itself. Just like it's not the tool that holds the magic, but your consciousness, it's not the spells that make a home magical but the power in your heart.

Blessed be!

What's So Spiritual About Chickens?

My newest book, Zen and the Art of Raising Chickens: The Way of Hen comes out October 31, 2010. The book examines the renewed popularity of urban and suburban chicken ownership, and delves into how hen keeping can actually be a part of a spiritual life. It sounds silly  - and believe me, there is a lot of silliness about chickens - but when I looked more deeply at the reasons for the backyard chicken movement, I found a depth and meaning not immediately obvious.

People keep chickens in their backyards for sentimental reasons, or because they just like chickens. Raising one's own flock helps one become a little bit more self sufficient. Collecting a few brown eggs every day feels earthy and good. Given the price of free-range organic eggs, raising your own saves a little money. But the desire to keep hens goes beyond these reasons, too, or perhaps over time keeping chickens becomes more than that.

Raising birds in the backyard brings us right up close with the cycle of life. A chicken is a pet that offers us food, nourishing us both emotionally as all pets do and physically, just as we nourish them through our feeding and care. A small flock of farm animals juxtaposed with the bustle of city or suburban life offers hope, that we can have it all, that we are not bound by historical ways of thinking and categorizing, and that we can change. Keeping chickens is also a fun project, and embracing joy and simplicity are key parts of spiritual living.

Do you keep hens or know someone who does? Have you always dreamed of having your own chickens? What have you learned from hen keeping?

Agricultural Vinegar Weed Killer Available at Denver Urban Homesteading Indoor Market

The Denver Urban Homesteader's indoor farmer's market, which I blogged about here, has grown quite a bit since it first opened. As you walk through the big wooden doors off the buckled sidewalk, a sweet coolness descends. Ahead of you are buckets of local fresh produce, fabulous pictures of chickens, and local milk, eggs, and ice cream. Turn to your right to browse the many fabulous, local vendors selling cheese, pasta, plants, produce, meats, honey, and more. Or take a left at the front door for another big room of vendors offering veggies, teas, and plants. In this west-side room there is also a big comfy couch, a chicken coop (sans chickens), a brewing area, and resource table.

The main vendor, just ahead as you walk in the front door, also offers agricultural vinegar, a natural and non-toxic weed killer (just don't drink it or put in on your salad!!). We got a spray bottle and tried it on the weeds threatening to take over our xeriscaped front garden. It works like a charm: you spray it at the top of the roots on a hot day, the plant sucks up the vinegar, and it dies. It even worked, albeit with some less success, on the bindweed. You avoid the Round Up (which plants are showing to develop a resistance to!) and lessen the weeds. Agricultural vinegar can be hard to find as it's not regulated and therefore not sold in most nurseries. I found a great source for the weed killer in Denver!

By the way, I learned that bindweed grows in hard pan areas of low nitrogen content. So another way to beat the weeds is to fluff your soil and add organic matter high in nitrogen. After a while the bindweed will move on. An integrated system of improving the soil and natural vinegar weed killer is the best approach to rid your yard of invasive weeds.

The Farmer's Market is open Saturday from 1-2, and Wed, Thurs, and Fri from 1-6 at 200 Santa Fe Drive, Denver. We've had no problem finding street parking close by.

Broody Hen!

A few weeks ago we lost Maisy the hen to a neighborhood dog. She's still a part of our yard; we buried her near the garden and my daughter brings her flowers regularly.

Yesterday the new top hen, Sylvie, went broody. This means she sits in the egg box and pretends to warm eggs. At first I was surprised and concerned. I bought breeds that usually don't go broody. But she's still a hen, and here she is, stuck in the box. We don't have any extra room, and only one egg box, so I wasn't sure at first what to do for the other hens. Then I got the urge to get fertile eggs and stick them under her to hatch. Feels like destiny, since we just lost our other hen.

At first I thought - that's CRAZY. The last thing I need is another responsibility. But this urge was nearly as strong as the urge to have a kid myself (which I'm not feeling right now...). So I asked hubby - would you object to my getting two fertile eggs? He said no he didn't object as long as I do all the work.

I' d have to find homes for them if either is a rooster. I will have to research what we have to do for the hen. We have to isolate her, hook up another waterer and feeder. Not sure how we're going to do this. But I figured out how to make a waterer with used plastic containers, and our neighbor offered us a wire cage a few weeks ago that we can line with cardboard. I found a guy on Craigslist with fertile eggs. So. We'll see what happens - I'll keep you posted.

The Proliferation of Urban Gardens

When I was writing Sacred Land, I was on the bus one afternoon, staring out the window. I've never been able to read on a moving vehicle. So I stared and let my thoughts roll by with the scenery. An empty lot between two buildings just begged for green and growing things. It screamed Plant a Garden Here. This lot and my thoughts on the book gave me this vision of every empty lot, every roof top, every yard as a garden. Flowers, herbs, and mostly vegetables and fruits. I wrote Sacred Land with this vision in mind. What would a world be like where we grew half our own food? Where instead of meeting at Starbucks we could meet at a friends' garden to sip mint sun tea? Where parking lots of abandoned malls were bulldozed to grow food?

My idea is not new. I learned from the fantastic book I'm reading, Novella Carpenter's Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, that in Detroit in response to the depression of 1893 the mayor helped people to set up Pingree Potato Patches where the unemployed and indigent grew food on abandoned lots all over the city. Exactly! And then during the world wars such programs existed again, most famously the Victory Gardens of WWII. After the depressions and wars end, though, we go back to the supermarket and let the lots go abandoned once again.

Why? Why do we only cultivate urban farms if we are crazy counterculture freaks or during times of war and economic depression?

Joanna Macy writes in her article "The Greening of the Self" that "What looks like apathy is really the fear of suffering." We have become, as a culture, apathetic about our food. About farm workers. About the land and the subtle and exquisite balances of ecology in relation to agriculture. Why should we care about such things when we can get a tomato from the supermarket any time of the year? Because really growing tomatoes is hard. You have to know what you're doing. And you have to wait until August, and then you have to preserve or give away all the extras you don't get to eating. Working a garden plot takes knowledge and work.

Ah, but the rewards. I can hardly buy a supermarket tomato. I have tasted the real thing. Same with lettuce, arugula, parsley, spinach... the list goes on. I know that not everyone loves digging in the dirt. But most people love the feel of the sun, the call of birds, and the joy of harvesting an egg or a carrot from the source. These joys are very truly possible even in the city. Even from a condo. For a banker or a paraplegic or a dancer or anyone.

Plant something for yourself this year. Even if it's a single basil plant. Or a whole farm! See what happens in your world. In your heart. We can change the world one garden at a time.

Spiritual Foundations of Homesteading

I'm reading a fascinating book (very slowly, since I've nearly no time for reading!) called At Home in Nature: Modern Homesteading and Spiritual Practice in America by Rebecca Kneale Gould. Gould looks at the history of homesteading as a spiritual practice, from Thoreau to Helen and Scott Nearing to contemporary homesteaders seeking a better life by attuning with nature. Helen Nearing is actually the Helen referred to in Krishnamurti's biography: they were young lovers. She studied theosophy. All homesteaders, Gould argues, seek deeper meaning in life through care of the home and the earth. She writes, "Whether we prefer the term spiritual or religious... we can see in the practice of homesteading a lived response to problems of meaning that are personal and cultural." (xvii) She writes about homesteaders seeking a deeper sense of self by "recentering the self amid the wonders (and resources) of the natural world." (xviii)

I am enjoying reading the history of my work, and I'm appreciating the academic discussion of things dear to me, namely nature, homesteading and spirituality. Most exciting to me is to discover the foundations of non-religious spiritual practice through gardening, raising chickens, homeschooling, and other homesteading practices. They go way back! It's a lot like when my husband, a music therapist, learned that one of his grandmothers was a music teacher, something he had not previously known. There is an historical foundation to our creative madness after all.

If you homestead at all and enjoy history and spirituality, you would likely enjoy At Home in Nature. At the very least it will bring you to explore your own motivations and practices as you prepare for another spring on the homestead.

Is Keeping Chickens Right for You?

So you're considering raising a small flock of hens in your urban or suburban backyard, and you're wondering what it's really like. Is it a good fit for you? Here are a few things you might want to consider, both pros and cons.

• Chickens poop a lot. The poop stinks (the runny kind - they make little round pellets that dry quickly and aren't so bad, and they make little stinky miniature cow pies). It's great for compost - I find the balance of nitrogen to carbon in the poopy shavings you get out of the coop to be just about perfect. It's fairly easy to spray the poop off the patio with a hose (get a sprayer attachment), and the grass likes it. It's not as gross as cat or dog feces.
• They scratch. They love to demolish compost piles, mulch beds, garden beds, you name it. When we let our chickens free-range, we can count on needing to rake and sweep the pathways clean afterward. I contained my compost pile in wire mesh after having it flattened numerous times.
  
• Chickens are curious. They aren't brilliant, but they aren't really dumb either. Leave open the backdoor or the garage door and they will go exploring. And they poop wherever they explore.
  
• Egg production drops in the winter. There will be times when you will want to supplement with grocery store eggs and they just aren't as good - you get spoiled pretty fast. And there will be times when you have to give eggs away to friends and neighbors. We have four hens and we eat a lot of eggs, and that seems to be about right most of the time. We bought two dozen additional eggs a month this winter.
  
• Chickens peck at the color red. So don't put a red shirt on your child when she goes to play with them. They will also peck fingers that are held out to them. And tiny toes.
  
• Chickens are dusty. They take dust baths, they have shavings and hay, and they scratch in the dirt.
  
• When they lay eggs, or when they want to lay an egg and another hen is in the box (you need one egg box for every six hens, although two doesn't hurt), they BAWK really loudly. So far the neighbors haven't cared. But you can't really keep them secret. Also, every child in your neighborhood will know you have them.
  
• Chickens make sweet crooning noises when you talk to them. They have their own personalities (chickenalities?) and dispositions, just like any animal. Some will like humans, others will not. Ours are fine with our cats (the cats don't like the hens, though - but they don't go after them now that they are big as they are).
  
• Hen care needs to be part of your routine. Every morning they need letting out and feeding and watering; every afternoon you need to check for eggs; every evening they need locking up and possibly feeding. You need to clean out the coop frequently. With out flock of four we do it once or twice a week. The deep litter technique of stirring it and letting it compost in the coop doesn't work well for our small coop.
• When you go out in the morning to feed them and they make sweet curious crooning noises and you dump their litter in the compost, life is good. The garden is balanced. You've brought the country into the city. All is well.

Need more information? Check out mypetchicken.com and backyardchickens.com. Great websites with lots of information!

Indoor Farmer's Market by Denver Urban Homesteaders

My family and I went to check out the new indoor farmer's market hosted by Denver Urban Homesteaders. I love farmer's markets, but I tend to be whiny about those here in Denver from June through October because they aren't strictly farmer's markets. One can purchase bananas, Juice Plus, and Tuperware at them. I turn up my locovore nose. But this new indoor market was a true farmer's market, offering local goat milk, cow shares, local eggs, one veggie stand with lovely squashes and other winter veggies, and even local mead. Great photos of chickens lines the walls. There were also very cool chicken coops for sale. (Later someone said to me, "Aren't you guys in the market for one of those?" I replied, "No, we built ours. Out of scrap wood. While I was pregnant. I'm such a homesteader!" Hee, hee.)

If you live in or near Denver or happen to stop by on a Saturday, come check out the market. It's at 200 Santa Fe Drive every Saturday from 9-2.

Ack! The Chickens are Drving Me Batty!

So I love my four renegade chickens. Renegade because we're kind of violating zoning laws to have them. But they are much quieter than our neighbors' dogs, we keep the coop safe and clean, and they will, I hope, soon lay eggs.

Meanwhile.

They love more than anything to do their little diggy chicken dance in bare dirt. Which in my garden means where I have just planted fall seeds. My daughter and I put in cabbage, spinach, carrots, mache, peas and chard. The chickens watched, blinking from bottom to top (did you know chickens blink upside-down?) with their orange eyes thinking, yes, my pretties, yes.... and then as soon as my back was turned they danced their happy selves across the dirt. And the bird netting we put up to keep them out. Then they ate the leaves off my only Brussel's sprout plant, which was only three inches tall and not getting taller, but still.

And then. They waddle over to the back patio and poop as all grazers do, randomly, prefering the same spots we prefer to walk. Like the door mat and under the patio table. My daughter shouts, "Just look out for the slimy poo right outside the door!" So I use the hose sprayer and spray down the patio and the mat, feeling bad for using so much water (the broom us just a mess for this task). I set the mat on the grass to dry. Ten minutes later it has three chicken turds on it.

They've been staying in the yard so far, but the other day it was cloudy and cool, so the driveway at the side of the house wasn't such a hot desert. Chickens like shade. They stay away from hot sun. They also like to explore. So once the driveway was not so hot, they thought they'd go check out the neighborhood. Did I mention we're not really supposed to have chickens?

So I, big pregnant belly and all, rigged up a makeshift fence between the garage and house. My materials included a rotted, nail-infested old porch banister and some leftover lengths of hardware cloth from the chicken run. It won't keep them in if they really want to go exploring (only a matter of time), but it will slow them down. Not safe for when the baby starts crawling, though.

Time for some real boundaries. Such a theme in my house these days, what with an almost-four-year-old princess, two spoiled cats, and now four cocky chickens.

My plan is to get some flexible fencing like deer netting and fence off a section of yard extending their run. It won't be safe from predators like the run and coop are, so we'll still have to put them in at night and keep half an eye on them, but it will keep them contained, give them more room to roam, and give them a shady area to play in.

Now I just have to do that project. After I do a few loads of laundry and bake some bread. The homesteading dream!

10 Things I Didn't Know About Chickens

...Until I raised four of my own in our suburban backyard (and this is pre-egglaying, so there is more to learn). In no particular order...

1. They put themselves to bed at night. Come dusk, they hop up into the coop and tuck in. Our four pile up on each other in a corner of the coop, though I keep adjusting their roost to see if I can entice them on to it. We shall see.

2. They are totally fun to just watch. A running chicken is really one of the funniest things ever. And no, I don't have to chase them, they run all the time as they poke around our yard. They sit in funny poses, they take dust baths, they do a little chicken dance to scratch at the dirt. Totally entertaining. Anyone who has chickens knows what I mean, and anyone who doesn't will think I've gone off the deep end. Which maybe I have.

3. They cost almost nothing to keep. I bought a fifty pound bag of chicken feed for less than $25. That will eventually get turned into eggs (the freshest there is!), and is already turning into awesome compost. My cats cannot boast such economy.

4. Along the compost theme, the nitrogen/carbon ratio of chicken poo to wood shavings we get from the coop, which we clean less than once a week, is ideal and breaks down very quickly. And it doesn't stink. I can smell it, but it's not unpleasant. (Poor cats. Can you see a theme here?)

5. They are really soft. Chickens look all tough and nearly reptilian, but their feathers are very soft. So are their legs. Who knew?

6. They make sweet crooning noises when they come over to say hi. Which they do whenever I sit in one place. One of our chickens is more imprinted on us, and therefore more friendly, but they all come over and croon. It's probably a plea for treats, but it's a very sweet sound. I also love the way they look at me: part curiosity, part affection, part wariness. All chicken.

7. They are fascinated with my cats. And not afraid of them at all. In fact, my boy cat is afraid of them. He is twice their size (but they're catching up to him). They are actually fascinated with just about everything, though somewhat easily spooked. They are chickens, after all.

8. I thought all chickens loved earthworms. Not ours. But they can catch a small green spider in the blink of an eye, and apparently they eat mosquitoes, too.

9. They eat dandelion seeds. Since I don't use any weed killer, this is a nice bonus. I have four chickens and a thousand dandelions, so you can guess who is winning, but it's a start. They also love pansies. Sigh.

10. They are really quiet. Apparently when they lay an egg they like to announce it, but for now the loudest squawk is quieter than a crow or a jay. Can't say the same for my neighbors' barky dogs. And no, we do not have a rooster, which you do not need to get eggs, so we do not bother the neighbors.

Can you tell I'm hooked? If you're considering chickens, I have three words of advice: Go for it! You'll love them!

Happiness is Living the Farm Life in the Suburbs

This moment comes awfully close to my dream life. It's Sunday morning, the chickens have been fed and let to range, then shooed back into the run to get them out of the seedlings doing so well in the garden. We had buckwheat gluten free berry pancakes with organic yogurt for breakfast. Our bathtub is being remodeled, so we're heating water on the stove to give my little girl a bath outside. My husband started a little fire in our portable fire pit. He's going to get some yard work done (thank you!) while I get in some writing. I have to finish my thesis, the beginning of a novel, by the end of the month.

It's been a crazy time: hubby needed a crown on his tooth, I need new glasses, we'll have a hospital birth to pay for by the fall, we had to replace all our plumbing (small houses can really be a blessing) and our bathtub (credit card promo checks only way to go with no equity right now), and hubby got in a fender bender - his fault - last night. On one income, all that is deeply stressful. It's easy to feel overwhelmed. And I can't even take a soothing bath right now to de-stress!

But I turn on the news and hear about swine flu, flooding, genocide...; I hear my neighbor yell at his kids, and they yell back; a dear friend is still reeling from her brother's suicide. Life is hard. Yet here I sit, smelling campfire, watching chickens and children mature, we're healthy, the garden is growing (we've had RAIN this spring!), and I'm writing to you, dear reader. The sights and smells make me feel like I'm a writing mama on the farm, though we live in working class suburbia. I feel so very deeply blessed. And despite the overwhelm, so very happy.

Blessings to you, dear reader.

Happy Beltane from the Danaan Suburban Homestead

It's actually overcast here in Denver metro, which makes me the Pacific NW girl rather happy. I've been loving the warm spring days interspersed with rain (rain!) and cool. Perfect. The garden is doing well, and in a few weeks our chicks will go outside. In my garden so far I have spinach, carrots, lettuces, peas, garlic, and chard. I also have a whole garden-worth of seedlings here in the office under florescent lights ready for the Mother's Day planting. We're also excited to get the chicks out around then as well - maybe earlier. One is ready (she has all her feathers), but the others are a week younger. And... the coop isn't finished yet! We built most of it out of free scrap wood from a friend, and purchased $150 worth of additional lumber and hardware. Can't buy a coop for that.

I also learned recently that my intuition was right: I'm gestating a baby boy! Our daughter will have a little brother this fall. We have his first name picked out and are working on the middle name. Right now for the middle name I like Colum, which means Dove (I think that might be his animal guide, as we were gifted with two dozen lovely mourning dove feathers in the back yard - but not harmed dove!), and Loren, which means Laurel, a powerful magical herb offering protection and Sight.

The economy has affected us in funny ways that teach me about faith. We got our property assessment today, and our property lost $60k in value last year. To me this is a sign we need to stay put, build our wealth in other ways like our suburban homestead and a healthy family, and ride the waves of unfolding. All is well.

My Beltane Blessings to you and yours! I'd love to hear updates from my readers on how you are celebrating this May Day by living your life to the fullest.

Reflections on Family: Spirit Lives On

It's been nearly a year since my father crossed over into the next phase of his journey. His spirit has been sleeping since then, recuperating and reenergizing. I sense he will awaken soon for a life review and next steps. I feel him close often - not the least through the unfolding of my own life.

My father dreamed of homesteading, of having a large garden, small farm animals, living off the grid. Today, a year after his death, I am a suburban homesteader. He got to see my garden (in pictures, he never was able to visit this house), but in life he did not see my chickens or the publication of my second book, which is all about living in harmony with the land. Nor will he be here in body to see the birth of his second grandchild. I believe, though, that he will be here in spirit.

My dad died a frustrated and disenfranchised man, unable to garden, feeling "gypped" by the machine, and unsure of what he wanted out of life. But he passed on to me a sense of love for the earth and Spirit, and a desire to make the world a better place. I wish he had lived a happier life in his last thirty or so years, but I feel he is in a much better place and I am grateful for what he gifted me.

In many ways I have striven to grow beyond my family, in terms of emotional communication for instance, but in many more ways I am proudly and fully a product of my parents and ancestors. I find that a beautiful blessing in the ways of Spirit.