Running Hen Microfarm : Two non-farmers' experiment in sustainable living in Shepherdstown, WV

Come to an herb walk on Thursday, September 9 at 6:30 p.m. with Amanda Collins of Black Hill Farm in Maryland.  She will show us native plants that are of culinary and/or medicinal use.  The fee for the walk  is $10 per person…a tour of the farm is included, of course!  We are at 952 Persimmon Lane, off Rt. 480 (just before “Pigs, A Sanctuary.”)  Please RSVP.

Feathers from the tragic night

On the evening of July 9 we were inside watching a movie and did not get outside to lock up the chickens until 11 p.m.  The dog was inside.  When Mike went out he discovered several mutilated chickens and ducks.  Two of the chickens had disappeared altogether, including one of our original Buff Orpingtons.

Our neighbor says it was a fox.  Apparently sometimes they go on a killing spree, perhaps thinking that they will come back later and carry off their additional prey.  They can climb over fences.  The only protection you can give your chickens is to lock them up at dusk.  So now we try to be sure and get out at dusk and lock them up – a bit awkward if we are away from home in the evening.  Maybe we’ll have to hire a local kid to do it if we’re not home.  Or, since we leave Charlie outside when we’re out maybe he would scare the fox…or maybe not.  I guess there’s no guarantee.  A couple of weeks later a house guest noticed a large fox outside the back of our house.  A relative of our neighbor is on the lookout to shoot the fox if he sees it.  We don’t have hunting rifles – just a pellet gun for scaring deer and (alas) killing groundhogs that get caught in a trap we have set out.

So, two of the original chickens are left – maybe since they were big they escaped.  Our biggest, fattest hen (we don’t name them in case they become stew) is still doing well, as beautiful as ever.  They even lay an occasional egg.

In the meantime, we found an ad on Craigslist for started pullets…from, as it turns out, a piano tuner and teacher in Hagerstown who raises chickens on the side.  So, we went to his farmette and came home with 6 chickens, about 6 weeks old.  The breeds are 2 Barred Rock, 1 Black Australorp and 3 unidentified at the moment…maybe “Golden Penciled Hamburgs”??  They are black with some gold feathering on the neck.

They were shy at first, so hard to get a picture, but here are some:

Here's a Barred Rock peeking out of our newly completed bigger hen house.

They're in there somewhere!!

In their own mini-pen until they get used to their new home

Oops! Escaped already from the mini-pen!!

Running with the big gals...

They’re not as shy as they were, so more closeup pictures to come…

Meanwhile, we have had to deal with THIS:

East entrance to house with part of kitchen garden

"little" ducks & chicks moved outside on May 7...you can see the male duck watching them

"little" ducks & chicks in their temporary enlosure in the orchard

Unfortunately, Mr. Big Duck paid a price for his curiosity…he was so drawn to the females that he would not go into his house at night.  (We had been locking him up with the big chickens in their mobile coop.) One morning we went out and he had disappeared…except for 3 feathers.  Our neighbor says it was most likely a fox.

(originally posted in March) As you can see, spring has been busy.  We have several seedlings going indoors as well as peas, lettuce, spinach, parsnips, parsley, carrots and leeks planted outside.

We’ve also planted 3 plums and 2 apples and have ordered more fruit trees to supplement what we already have.

Seedlings of leeks, broccoli, cabbage, lemon balm, creeping thyme, basil...to the right is a bay leaf "tree"

seedlings of tomatoes, and (not pictured) peppers, butterfly weed, rosemary, lovage, salvia, artichokes