In the Coop & Around the World - May 10, 2020

**The Hipster Hens Shelter in Place (But Not for That Reason!)**

The Hipster Hens reside in two fairly plush and commodious coops in a large metal pole barn down the hill from my house. Both coops have outdoor runs where the hens hang out in the summer and on warm winter days; I call them the hen pens. The hen pens are built like Fort Knox, with wire roofs, and wire buried around the perimeter to keep the various sorts of scofflaw predators at bay. Then there’s the big run. It’s about a half-acre, and because it’s not as predator-secure, the flock only get to go there when I’m home - the Coop 1 and Coop 2 flocks take turns in the big run - every other day.

Needless to say the Hipster Hens love the big run quite a bit. I seed it to oats every April, and by mid-May, right about now, the entire surface is carpeted with tender green oat shoots, waving in the breeze. As the weather warms, the hens all gather at the fence and look with unbridled anticipation at the vast utopian expanse—all those green shoots and all that bug and worm filled earth just waiting for their eager beaks! This is the time of year where I fling the gate open and the hens surge out and go crazy! But this year there’s a hitch.

There’s been a hawk hanging around; a Cooper’s Hawk, commonly and ominously referred to as a “chicken hawk.” My neighbor claims to have seen this guy frequently, and says he’s found the nest, which is high in a tree on the edge of the woods—a hop, skip, and jump away from my coop. I wrote about my philosophy on the wild animals that inhabit the world around me not that long ago. I’ve chosen to live in a place that is occupied by creatures who have lived here long before I arrived. I respect their right to be here. And yet, I don’t feel that I need to provide them with a chicken buffet. The hawks are welcome to the wild birds that share this space, but I will do everything in my power to protect my feathered babies.

I’ve already cobbled together a couple of small structures for the hens to shelter under if a hawk appears. And I’m planning on a scarecrow and a few other deterrents. Until this is all put together, the chickens are sheltering in place. I don’t think they’re very happy about it. They can see that lush field of oats from the hen pen, but the gate remains solidly locked. I’m sure their disgruntlement grows daily and without a doubt there have been murmerings about taking up arms (actually when chickens do it, it’s called “taking up wings”) and signs and marching around my house in protest. They just don’t seem to understand that if they go out now they could suffer and perhaps even die. But that’s OK if they can’t think that through. I forgive them. After all, they’re chickens.

The Hipster Hens gaze longingly through the fence while sheltering in place, becoming disgruntled, and discussing taking up wings.

COVID-19 and Black Soldier Fly Larvae

In January I reported on a couple of young entrepreneurs who were raising black soldier fly larvae on garbage and selling them as protein and calcium rich food source for chickens. Michael Servais, the founder of GrubTerra told me that he “wanted to start a business that focused on the environmental aspect of helping the earth, along with being a sustainable business model.” Thus he eventually “came up with the idea of using insects as feed for livestock.” GrubTerra was in the early stages of development in January, had just successfully completed a crowdfunding campaign, but didn’t yet have a product on the market. Neither Michael nor anybody had any inkling in January of the looming world catastrophe and the difficulties it would create for launching a new business.

One of the problems Michael encountered was procuring food for the grubs. His plan was to use preconsumer food waste from Boston restaurants, a commodity that suddenly was in short supply as restaurants either switched to curbside pickup or shuttered completely. Fortunately, he was able to find a local bagel shop that was discarding a significant amount of product, and with a food source in place, he was able to move forward.

Another hurdle was packaging. With global production of practically everything slowed or at a standstill, there was a delay in producing the first-time order for packaging. And when the packages were finally manufactured they went into a long queue for shipping - because planes are just not flying as regularly they used to.

Finally, good news! Michael reported last week that the packaging had arrived. Hopefully these nutritious chicken snacks will soon be available for flock-keepers everywhere, in spite of the pandemic, on both the GrubTerra website and on Amazon!

COVID-19 and Fine Chicken Art

In February, I interviewed two Italian photographers, Moreno Monti and Matteo Tranchellini, who were on the verge of publishing a gorgeous new book of chicken photographs, entitled, “Chicken in Love.” Well, guess what? COVID-19. Italy was one of the first countries in Europe to be hit hard by the pandemic, and the area around Milan where Moreno and Matteo are located, was the most devastated part of Italy. I contacted them in early March, anxious for their health and safety. They thanked me for my concern and told me that they were “working from home and doing the best we can.” The most recent missive from these gentlemen came at the end of April when they reported that “things seem to be getting better and we are starting to see an end to this quarantine. But to this moment unfortunately we can’t yet give you a precise date for the shipping [because] all Italian industry is still shut down so delays are inevitable.” They did add that they were “doing fine” and ended with the hope that we all share: “We’ll get through this.”

COVID-19, Chicken Hoarding & Salmonella

At the end of March, I commented on a New York Times article that I’d read on chicken hoarding. It’s the same phenomenon that has emptied grocery store shelves of toilet paper only this one involves a living, peeping commodity that can’t just be stacked at the back of a storage closet. This situation continues presently. Unusually large volumes of baby chicks are still being sold, with many of them being purchased by first-time chicken buyers. This trend makes sense; you are stuck at home with time on your hands, so why not get a few chicks. And with concerns about the security of our food supply, having a few hens in the backyard making breakfast every day seems like a logical solution.

The concern I expressed in my March commentary was that a certain percentage of all these new chicken owners wouldn’t have a clue how to take care of them—like the woman in the Times article who posted to an on-line chicken forum that she couldn’t understand why her baby chicks were dying one-by-one. It turns out that she was clueless that her babies needed to have a heat source! They were dying from the cold!

Dr. Megin Nichols, a CDC epidemiologist, has another concern about all the new chicken owners. She recently told CBS MoneyWatch, “Owning backyard poultry can be a really great experience, but just like poultry on the shelves, it can carry salmonella. Many of those who get sick are not only first-time poultry owners, but are also young children.” She suggests that first-time flock-owners educate themselves to the risk of getting salmonella from their backyard chickens by checking out the CDC’s guidelines.

I’ve had some back-and-forth with Dr. Nichols over the last several years regarding salmonella, chickens, and the CDC guidelines. I know that she is not only a veterinarian, and an epidemiologist who has done important investigative work on salmonella in backyard flocks, but that she keeps chickens in her own backyard. Unfortunately, most of my communication with Dr. Nichols has centered around my dismay with the impractical suggestions written into past versions of the CDC guidelines. I aired my grievances with CDC in this 2016 post and more recently in this article from 2019. Happily, Dr. Nichols informed me last November that CDC was reaching out to backyard flock owners to determine how CDC “can best craft actionable and practical advice” to help reduce the spread of illness. And you know what? I think they’ve finally got it. I can totally get behind the current CDC guidelines!

So if you’re considering baby chicks for the first time, make sure you understand what you’re getting into, by checking out some of the resources I suggested in March, and then make sure you know how to deal with the salmonella risk by taking a look at what CDC has to say!