Henderson's ICYouSee Handy-Dandy Chicken Chart has Moved to Sage Hen Farm

To the Point:
Here is the new address for ICYouSee Handy-Dandy Chicken Chart. To bad the old name no longer has the fun that ICYouSee, assume it was a play on IC being Ithaca College.
http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html

I was recently doing a search for my favorite Handy-Dandy Chicken Chart and using my usual key words "Ithaca Chicken Chart" and noticed all these blogs where turning up with the link to the old address for Henderson's Chicken Chart. Hoping you find my blog before going through all the other blogs with the links to error message 404 address unknown. This is a great chart that gives you information about 60 breeds of chickens including their origin (year, location, breeding to create), nickname (Ameraucana aka The chipmunky blue-egger), how rare the breed is, the variety of colors they come in, expected weight, class and type (ex: layer, fancy, meat bird, five toes, bearded, etc), color of skin, color of comb, color of ears, egg color, egg size, egg quantity, time to maturity, ability to withstand cold and foul (or fowl) weather, broodiness, and my favorite behavior characteristics of the breed. This chart has been great for deciding which type of chicken to try out for the backyard.

I'll be providing a video on my blog in coming days on how to sex your duck. Actually, asking the duck its sex and letting it tell you using its own voice aka voice sexing a duck. Other options include vent sexing within a few days of birth, looks easy but can take some practice. The result is you find males and the rest are either females or males you could not EXPOSE. I tried it and found a male and then could not make it happen again on the same duckling. You can also sex them based on the male having the drake feather, the feather that curls up in the air at the back of the duck. Or you can sex them later when they will mount every duck and often chicken they can get a hold of.

I should mention that Henderson provides great links for more information on each breed with the help of the following sites and many more links specific to each breed:

Barry Koffler's Feather Site with some great pictures
http://www.feathersite.com/

Poultry Pages
http://www.poultrypages.com/index.php

Live Stock Conservancy - more information on breeds.
http://www.livestockconservancy.org/

Go visit John and support the Henderson's/ Sagen Hen Farm at Ithaca farmers' market, if you are in town.
http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/sagehenfarm.html

ICYouSee does live on as John's .org and has the cool chicken drawings
http://www.icyousee.org/

Other of my Favorite Sites:
Great sites for your backyard chickens/ducks
http://www.backyardchickens.com/


Here is a screen shot, so get on over there and pick out your next chicken breed.

The old address which is no longer valid and will give you the 404 screen as seen below is:
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

Farmers Market fun, great meal, no cooking

Many people love going shopping at the farmers market. They meet their friends, make new friends, have samples, buy all those local yummy goodies. What a great day. The only issue is some people don't like cooking or have time or skill to make something happen with the great products they purchased.

You want the fun of your day at the farmers market and that great meal. You even found some cool recipes on-line (from home or via your smart phone while at the market). Here is how it works. You select your recipes or ask the chef to come up with a recipe based on the ingredients you bought and want to see in your meal. You check in with the chef stand at the farmers market. They take your goodies and a few hours later you pickup your meal (or it gets delivered).

All the fun, nutrition, and non of the cooking or cleaning.

Food Lover's Substitution Guide to ... but I can't Eat that

New Cookbook.
Food Lover's Substitution Guide to ... but I can't Eat that

A great cookbook idea.
The cookbook has a few sections.
One lists all the ingredients that people have allergies to (or won't eat, veg, vegan, etc) and gives possible substitution ingredients.

The rest of the book gives recipes of old favorites and new ones with various ingredient substitutions.

Chicken Parmesan might become eggplant or veal. The beef broth in French Onion soup might be replaced with vegetable broth and the bread replaced with gluten free matzo. The ice cream with coconut milk or goats milk instead of cows milk.

Chickens: Stop the Rooster Crowing and Still Get Eggs

Urban Chicken Farming dilemma .
2 issues: rooster crowing, chickens not laying

We have a rooster which keeps the other chickens quite and happy. The problem is the rooster likes to wake up the neighbors at day break. Solution was found. Make sure the chicken coupe does not let in the morning daylight that causes the rooster to crow. This was achieved in our case by using some old flannel bed sheets attached to the coupe so light would not get in through the various cracks. This solution allows for airflow while blocking the daylight from entering and has the added bonus of dampening the sound if the chickens or rooster make noise at night.

The rooster problem has been solved and the neighbors are okay with the rooster crowing at 8AM when the chickens and rooster are let out of the coupe. The next problem resulting from the first, the chickens are not producing eggs. It might be that they are simply late bloomers or after various research the answer I liked best was --- most chicken breeds need a minimum of 15 hours of daylight to produced eggs. Lack of daylight, not temperature is the reason chickens don't lay in winter. It could be argued that this requirement is rather suspect unless egg laying chickens and therefore chickens cannot exist near the equator where light stays at 12 hours a day. Maybe they need those special winter laying breeds. Anyway, returning from tangent land. I have inserted a full spectrum 75w bulb in the coupe and will turn it on at sunset and leave it on until midnight. Could leave it all night but why waste energy.

The theory is the rooster will still not crow leaving that problem solved and having 16 hours of light should allow all the chickens to lay eggs. Two week later ... have 12 eggs from 14 chickens. The rooster does crow when the light comes on but the sound muffled by being inside has satisfied all but the lightest of sleepers.

Urban Chickens - method of reclamation and reuse

Urban chickens are all the fade. Some have been doing it for years but critical mass is being reached and people trying it out are on the rise.

After several attempts I have found a systems that works great. In the coup put straw. Using wood shavings and other things gets too wet and messy while the straw does a good job a breathing. In the closed in chicken run put sand. Areas where they are free roaming don't matter as you won't be cleaning up those areas.

Now for the magic.
The straw from the coup
Assuming you have a compost pile where you want to cultivate the Nitrogen from the chickens. Putting the straw in the compost will take a long time to break down and you will go through too much straw so -- put the straw in a wheel barrel and then fill it with water. Mix it around a bit and the bird fesses/dropping/poop will dissolve and sync to the bottom. The straw floats which I then skim off the top with a garden rake and spread out on the lawn for drying and putting back into the chicken coup. Lastly pour the liquid aka tea onto your compost pile. It will then give the compost the water it needs and all that Nitrogen will begin to break down. Don't apply the tea directly to the garden as the Nitrogen content is too high / hot and will burn plants. Also, to kill off any diseases best to compost the droppings before use.

The sand from the chicken run
With a rack or shovel put the top layer of sand that contains the bird droppings, feathers, and other stuff that has built up into the wheel barrel. Fill with water and then pour the water onto the compost pile leaving behind the sand to reuse back in the chicken run. Feathers will have floated and gone into your compost.

Note: don't do the sand and straw at the same time, too much work. This is a good reason to keep straw out of the run and just in the coup.

Here are some quick tips to help you make it work:

1. Go to The ICYouSee Handy-Dandy Chicken Chart at Ithaca College and pick the breed that meets your environment and with the temperament you desire. I like the human friendly and less noisy breeds, winter layers, fun colored eggs.
   
2. Another is Back Yard Chickens, this site will give you ideas on coup building, space, etc.
   

Restaurant Concept

A restaurant idea - works best with sandwich type shop but can do it with anything.

Restaurant Name: One Bite Short (captain goes down with the ship)

Every dish is served with one bite missing. The idea is the food is safe since the captain (aka chef) tastes one bite of each dish. The captain shows the food is not poisoned and you won't get sick or die (think of the old food court taster).

I'm for the cute fun of it. Use tools in the back to make it look like a fork or other implement took a piece out of the dish. For sandwiches, big score, something that makes it look like a person took a bite out of it - teeth mouth shaped piece missing.

Rebecca thinks the taster should do it in front of the customer. Making it a good hang out for the mafia and the like. I think the customers won't go for that and same with the restaurant licensing board.


Invention occurred over lunch with input from - Ann, CC, Rebecca, Lera