Figuring out first-hand food
The e-mail from Murray McMurray Hatchery came on Saturday. The chicks are in the mail! They arrived this morning, as a 7:00 AM call from the local post office informed me. I lined the brooder, filled the waterer, switched on the heat lamp, and was out the door inside five minutes. “Turn the seat heater [...]
Our sick chicken, who we’ve started to call Droopy, has staged a miraculous recovery. As of this morning, her comb is bright red and almost vertical. There is a gleam in her eye and a spring in her step. She scratches and pecks with vigor. I don’t have the foggiest idea what happened. At first, [...]
Like just about every gardener in a 500-mile radius, we use winter rye as a cover crop. We sow it in the late fall, and sprouts before the really cold weather sets in. Then, miraculously, it stays green throughout the winter. It even grows a bit, if there’s a warm spell. Then, in spring, it [...]
4/30 Update: Despite several warm baths and one attempt, by me, to make tactile sense of what’s on the nether side of a chicken’s vent, our chicken remains the same. If there’s no change tomorrow, we may have to take that most drastic of measures. Thank you for all your good wishes, and for the [...]
The first year we moved to Cape Cod, we got chickens. The second year, surprised and encouraged by our success, we considered all kinds of additions to the barnyard, from rabbits to pigs. To make sure we didn’t overextend, we made a rule: one new species per year. Then we got bees and turkeys. In [...]
It was a weird day, today was. It started just after midnight, when Kevin and I were woken up by the sound of something either falling on or falling off our house. The latter, it turned out to be. The wind, which hadn’t been more than breezy when we went to bed, had started to [...]
I worry that my animals are bored. What does a domesticated animal do all day? I understand the wild ones. They’re busy getting food, finding mates, rearing young, and attending Hunter Evasion classes. But pets and livestock have it easy. Food and water arrive on schedule. Mates, when necessary, are procured. Hunters are prohibited. What [...]
I’ve never understood fat dogs. Chubby dogs, sure, but those really fat ones that are clearly collapsing under their own weight? Come on. Dogs only eat what you give them; once they get spherical, give them less. It’s really hard (at least for me) to keep yourself from getting fat because you have unlimited access [...]
It was about a year and a half ago that Kevin designed our chicken coop. We talked about it a lot – how big, how many nest boxes, what kind of predator protection. One of the central questions was whether to run electricity so we could heat it, if only with a light bulb, in [...]
We unfolded the huge canvas tarp we use to cover the boat over the winter and found a nest of ants in its folds. We called over the clean-up squad and, within just a few minutes, every single last ant was on its way to becoming in egg.
Tamar Haspel has been writing about food and health for over a decade. She recently moved from Manhattan to Cape Cod. She’s adjusting well. [Read More …]
TwitteringThis 
by 
hosted by 
, secured by 
© Tamar Haspel, 2010. See linking policies .
Recent Comments