In the Coop & Around the World – December 29, 2019
A Sad Farewell to My Wonderful Old Roo
As a keeper of chickens, I think every day about their safety and wellbeing. So, I can relate to Emile, my alpha rooster who spent his life obsessing about the safety and wellbeing of his hens. Emile passed away just before Christmas. Emile was old and has been declining since before Thanksgiving. But even last Monday night as I locked the flock in for the night and tossed them some grain, he was wandering around the coop picking up small kernels of grain from the floor and offering them to his hens—he did this while he was probably not able to eat himself. Tuesday morning, I found him lifeless under the roost. I’ll miss my sweet old buddy—my original roo. Paul, my small, frizzled auxiliary rooster and the Hipster Hens are still acting a bit confused. They’re still working through what this new world will be like.
This is the last photo I ever shot of Emile. It was taken on December 3 and shows Emile flanked by his two favorite hens, Mary Campine and Jennifer the Polish. Every night Emile would roost on the very top bar of the roost with Mary on one side and Jennifer on the other. And any hen that would attempt to upset that arrangement would suffer the wrath of Mary and Jennifer. Needless to say, these two old girls are feeling especially lost.
Making the World a Better Place—One Grub at a Time
We all would like to make the world a better place. And while we all can’t be Gandhi or Mother Teresa, every one of us can significantly improve the world by the small actions we accomplish on a daily basis as we live our lives. Surprisingly, one of those small actions is to give our chickens the right kind of treats. If you were to hold a bag of mealworms in one hand and a bag of black soldier fly larvae (bsfl) in the other hand you wouldn’t notice many obvious differences. But here’s the deal: While pretty much all mealworms are grown in China, most bsfl are grown in the US on a diet of food waste. Every year rotting food emits millions of tons of CO2 and methane into the atmosphere. And the carbon footprint of the food waste consumed by black soldier fly larvae is totally erased from the equation. So, when you feed this high-protein, high-calcium treat to your hens, you’re helping deal with our burgeoning waste problem and also helping to solve climate change. That’s improving the world in a very real way.
And then there are those folks who take improving the world one step further by actually producing these amazing hen snacks. Sean Warner and Patrick Pittaluga started Grubbly Farms a few years ago when they realized that they could turn garbage into high quality protein. Michael Servais just successfully completed a GoFundMe campaign earlier this month for GrubTerra, an enterprise that will turn Boston food waste into protein treats for your chickens.
Stay tuned for a post later this month with the whole scoop on these amazing little grubs, why their future goes way beyond chicken food, how they improve the world in so many ways, and why so many people are passionate about their potential.
A Delightful New Chicken Tale—“A Diamond in the Brush”
(By David L. Softley—Illustrations by Austeja Slavickaite-Wojtczak)
Diamond the hen is lost. While being transported with her flock-mates to a Halloween event on a trailer, her cage flies open and then Diamond flies—right off the trailer and into the great unknown. Her family organizes a search. They knock on doors. They post on-line. All to no avail. Will Diamond be lost forever? It’s only when Diamond’s family develops a new search strategy that they’re able to find the little lost hen. When I finished this book I thought, “Oh! There’s a life lesson here!” And then I thought “Oh! The life lesson is not just about chickens!” It’s always fun to read a good chicken story and David Softley makes the fun even more enjoyable by telling this true story in rhyming couplets. And Ms. Slavickaite-Wojtczak’s charming illustrations perfectly capture the story’s agreeable mood. This little book would be great to read to your kids. Or you can just read it to yourself, be amused, and learn the important life lesson that is not just about chickens.
A Marissa the Hen Update
In November, I told you the story of Marissa the Cream Legbar hen, who was suffering from ascites (water belly), no doubt a symptom of underlying ovarian cancer. Her treatment included a couple rounds of paracentesis—essentially sticking a needle into her abdominal cavity to drain the excess fluid, as well as injecting a Deslorelin pellet into her breast muscle to suppress the tumor. At the time I posted the article, Marissa appeared to be feeling better—she was eating, hanging out with the flock, and generally acting like a happy hen. But she looked terrible. Not only was it the molting time of year, but the hormonal changes brought about by the Deslorelin probably exacerbated the molting process. Marissa dropped practically all of her feathers at once. Here’s the update: All of Marissa’s new feathers have grown in, she looks beautiful, and she gives every indication that she feels as good as she looks. I know that you can’t cure ovarian cancer in hens, and that this is all temporary. But for now, at least, this little hen’s symptoms are in complete remission and she’s feeling great.
On the left—a shot from the end of November of molty, sad-looking Marissa. On the right—a shot of happy, beautiful Marissa, taken today.
Happy New Year!
And finally, I should point out that this will be the last post of the year. Over the last year, I’ve enjoyed keeping you updated on the Hipster Hens—telling you of the travails and adventures of specific hens, talking about the new chicks, and posting on specific topics like California’s Virulent Newcastle Disease outbreak, Salmonella in eggs, the cruel blood sport of cockfighting, and all sorts of other stuff. Now, goodbye 2019, and on to 2020 and my fifth year of blogging. From the Hipster Hens and me, have a wonderful new year!
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