Notebook(blog)

The source of the conflict

"To complain about the 'injustice' done by humans to chickens – those cannibalistic balls of faeces and feathers – is to call into question the entire basis of human civilisation."

-- Mick Hume, reviewing Planet Chicken in the Spiked Review of Books

How to avoid building a chicken coop

My website has had a recent surge in traffic. It seems the public are looking for something specific.

While I do quite a good job on line painting, sidewalk stamps and double yolks, I'm concerned that those looking for information on building urban chicken coops might find my website lacking.

I've found a solution for you city dwellers who are allergic to hammers. It is the Eglu, a ready made house for your chickens.

It's quite stylish.

You can also get a rabbit hutch in orange, or a house for your guinea pig in pink.

Suspected ex-chicken coop no. 2

It's warmer out, so I'm roaming the lanes again. I've found another building that looks suspiciously like an old chicken coop.

Reasons to think it's not a coop:
- The asphalt roof and side look very coop-ish, but this material was popular in the 1930s and 1940s. It was used for everything built on a budget.

- The green wall is brick. I can't imagine anyone indulging their chickens with brick.

Reasons to think it is a coop:
- The wood boards look hand hewn, meaning they are pre-car area. This building was something else before it became a garage.

-It has a slanted roof. I have seen lots of chicken coops with slanted roofs like that.

The first suspected chicken coop is archived here, if you want a point of comparison.
 

Suspected ex-chicken coop no. 1

I found this garage in the lane near our house. I am on the fence about whether it is an old chicken coop or not.

Reasons to think it's not a coop:

- I snooped around and couldn't find any obvious windows. You do need good air circulation in a coop, but must be careful about drafts.

- The doors are old, but double swinging doors are too wide and impractical for a coop. All the chickens would try to run out each time you entered.

- It is a bigger building in Toronto (-14 C right now).  Heating the building in the winter to keep the chickens alive would require a lot of energy and maintenance, especially back in the day. This last point might be the clincher.

Reasons to think it is a coop:

- There is metal sheeting on the right side, this could be covering any openings for ventilation.

- The corner, where the doors are now, appears to have been cut back at some point. I wonder if the doors were added later, to accommodate a car.

- The house in front was probably built in the 1900s. This back building is probably some a similar time and, therefore, squarely in the prime chicken coop era.

- It certainly looks coop-ish to me.

Final verdict: Undecided. All opinions welcome, please weigh in.

P.S. If this makes little sense, you can read previous posts on Chicken & egg, or Urban evolution. After that, you may not be any wiser, but you will have used up quite a bit of time.

This is why my neighbourhood is nearly perfect

I can walk to the egg market.

If only I had chickens in the back of my house, things would be perfect.

In the 1970s, the Toronto city council banned keeping livestock within the city. Apparently, some houses still have chicken coops out back, but they have been converted into planters or small tool sheds.

Anyone have the vestige of a chicken coop in your backyard? I am starting my search.

Double yolks don't make twins

I mentioned double yolkers are bigger, like the egg on your left.

I had a question from the audience (on MySpace blog) about the viability of double yolk eggs.

A fertilized double yolker won't produce twins. The embryos can develop to term, but they can't hatch.

A chick needs to push against the shell to break out of the egg. Two chicks can only push against each other and, apparently, this doesn't work.

You can't play the hero and preform an emergency Cesarean either. Whereas a human baby is attached to a mother through an umbilical chord you can clamp, a chick is attached to the egg via a network of blood vessels that line the shell.

One of these blood vessels will rupture if you try to break the shell. This means the whole system will be disrupted and the blood will drain.

I'm suddenly a bit bummed. I think I started out writing about turkey eggs thinking it would be festive. Happy New Year? It must be time to move on.

Double yolks are laid by nice hens

I asked Mary at the egg market how she knew if an egg had a double yolk. She said 'because the nice hens lay them' and tried to get me to leave.

After a bit of negotiation*, she explained how you hold the egg over a light to see inside. This is called candling (as it was first done with candles).

This picture shows a lit egg. If you look at the top, you can see the shadow of two yolks.

*I said I would buy more eggs.

Thank you to Mink Hollow Farm for the image.

I knew it was a double yolk before I cracked it

You'll find a double yolk in about 1 of 1000 eggs.

They usually come from a young hen who is new to laying eggs and gets it wrong. Some older hens also lay them, a skill that is probably inherited.  

Finding a double yolk means good luck (or that you are coming into money, dying or pregnant depending on who you ask).

Or, it could mean that I bought double yolkers from Mary at the egg market.

Tastes like chicken (eggs)

I have put back my fair share of Turkey eggs over the past few days. Mary at the egg market made me buy quite a few.

Verdict: They taste like chicken eggs.

I admit, the writer in me was looking for more drama.

They are big though, about 1.5 times the size of chicken eggs. And they contain more calories, carbs and fat.

If you are feeling lean and hungry, go for it.

More on the pecking order

Back in October, I wrote about my troubles with Big Red, the dominant chicken in the flock.

Since finding the Turkey eggs, I've been reading up on Turkey politics. I hadn't realised before that the 'pecking order' literally means who pecks whom.

The dominant bird can peck every other individual in a group without being pecked back. The second in command can peck all other turkeys except the top one without being pecked back. This pecking order goes all the way down the line.

Chicken politics are similar. And yes, Big Red did peck me. 

Turkey eggs are hard to find in stores

Why?

• In a lifetime, a turkey lays about 1/3 the number of eggs as a chicken.
• Chicken's start laying at about 20 weeks, whereas turkey's start at 30+ weeks.
• Turkey's are much more 'broody', meaning they will fight you for the egg, whereas chickens have long since given up.
• The average turkey is 16+ lbs and eats alot, the average chicken is 3+ lbs and eats much less.

You get a lot more egg for your trouble from a chicken.

However, I've found a source. Much more, including a taste test and double yokes (!) to follow.

The life of a chicken

On the farm, the chickens were in the barn at the back of the house. I fed them, talked to them and scooped out the poo. Caring for the chickens felt an extension of buying free range eggs or organic meat, it helped to disperse my guilt, like giving them a nice life made it fair.

But looking at this picture now, I realize that's crap. I fenced the hens in, denied them sex and took their potential babies for my breakfast.

I don't think life is fair, and certainly not if you are a chicken.

The shape of an egg

At the beginning and end of her egg career, a hen will lay smaller eggs. But, for the most part, egg shape is hereditary.

In our flock, we have chickens that lay very different shaped eggs. This is consistent. There is always an Ernie egg and always a Bert egg in the nest.

The eggs I bought from the store (not free range or other) are almost perfectly matched in shape.

Are chickens in hatcheries cousins?

The ear of a chicken

You can tell if a chicken lays white or brown eggs by looking at her earlobes. Eggs with brown shells come from chickens with red earlobes. Eggs with white shells come chickens with white earlobes.

I guess that means chickens have ears.

The pecking order

This is my flock.

I'm having trouble with the one in the front, the big red one. We seem to disagree on who is in charge. I brought out corn this morning. She got it off me pretty quick by pecking at my feet.

I read that I'm supposed to establish dominance by pushing on her back to force her to sit, so she loses face in front of the others. I'm not sure I'm into humiliating chickens.

Perhaps I'll just wear Wellies.