“If I didn’t start painting, I would have raised chickens….Life is what you make it. Always has been. Always will be.” Grandma Moses
Posts Tagged ‘hens
the girls…
A backyard garden: Growing up in the 50’s/60’s, every family in my neighborhood had a vegetable garden and one or more fruit trees. Some were into composting back then, no one had chickens or rotated beds as far as I can remember. But, still it was normal to have fresh produce for the late Summer and Fall. In the last ten years or so there has been a revisiting of the garden coupled with the obligatory ‘organic’, chickens perhaps, definitely rotating beds, cover crops, composting and bees.
This week, after I investigated the little gem of a cottage and took photos, I received an invite to return. I did indeed return. Walking right out the back door I walked into bee hives and bees seemingly everywhere. Roosters, hens, rabbits. Crops bursting forth. This was not my dad’s tomatoes, cuc’s, corn and string beans. Coops and pens are built to shed poop…then the coop and pens are moved over and a new vegetable bed is constructed atop the past cast off’s area. This is not the feel good urban farming with hens as pets. Food is the purpose. Last weeks rooster is this weeks dinner.
The visit was completed with a nice jar of comb honey and an appreciation of how gardening use to be in the urban setting…and still is for some.
I walked into an area feed store looking for some implement or such. I was met by the shrill peeping sound of hundreds of chicks, hens, filling the four corners with their high pitched peeps.
Salmonella & Chicken Poop
If you or someone you know is raising some hens for eggs or more, then share this LINK re cleanliness and avoiding illness. Wash your hands and watch the transference of that chicken poop about your property.
“Salmonella can be found in the intestines of chickens. That means that their droppings can be infected. And because chickens are often in a confined space, there is a good chance that their feathers, feet and beaks also have Salmonella on them just from their walking around in their environment.
The germs can also get on anything they come in contact with – their cages, coops, water dishes, hay and dirt.
In other words, just by working with your chickens, you can get Salmonella on your hands, shoes, clothes, etc. And this creates the environment that allows you to get infected.”