Roosters & the meaning of life - update August 2012

Oh dear - roosters - so much testosterone - but I love them - they are beautiful.  The May roosters are now 3 months old, and I have them separated from the hens for the past 3 days with a couple of mild behaving roosters staying with the hens without any issues. In the meantime, their foraging areas have grown pretty big, about 1/4 acre if they wanted to. I have the (not so secret) hope that I will be able to keep 4 or 5 roosters even through the mating season next year. Compared to the hen group, the roosters are starting to forage a bit more and further out in the orchard during the day. I would have thought they would be all over the place, but no - they are very careful and seem to be staying close to "home". Maybe I spoiled them too much? It looks soo good to see the birds foraging in the garden.

There is a crowing "concert" a few times a day, I don't mind it, just a little worried about the neighbors, though this IS zoned agricultural. I had to separate the Golden Polish chicks from the Blue Andalusian roosters as they were just being chased all over the place. It seems though that the lowest chick in the pecking order will end up getting chased, now it is a splash blue Andalusian that has that honor.

It is quite a challenge to get them into and out of the chicken coop into their separate day ranging areas. It takes me about an hour or 2 each time, and I am hoping things will get a lot easier when i have built a roo hatch box/coop and they have accepted it. I have modified the hen-coop section again so maybe the Golden Polish will be content to stay there at night - and not insist to roost in the old spot - with all the roosters .....

Ok, back from tonight's cooping up:

As much as the females run from the roosters in the day - at night, they all want to roost together given the option. I just tested that, after 3 nights of keeping them separate. So until I actually have a separate rooster hutch, I let them roost together again, starting tonight - and see how that goes. For daytime tomorrow, since there are there are so many different run areas now ...the females might have enough space to hide. I'll see tomorrow.

Long story short: if you are getting a straight run and plan to not kill your roosters (either yourself or by giving them away) - have 2 coops and forage areas far enough away before you get them. And remember, straight run NOT 50/50.

From a farming and economical perspective - keeping all the roosters makes little sense, especially as the 50/50 is not the case ...it is more 70/30, and talking to my chicken keeping neighbor - that seems to be the case for those he knows who have gotten straight runs. Also organic soy free feed is incredibly expensive.

Getting a sexed run means: you get the females and the males have been gotten rid of some other way.

You can argue: getting a straight run means all of them have had a chance of life on earth - and now their time is up. Would it have been better not having a chance at life at all?

I can hear the more militant vegans already - but what they maybe have not faced are the thousands of animals killed during commercial vegan food harvesting - AND - in case you are not aware - plants are conscious too. You might be able to feel it yourself, or, do a search on the latest about how trees communicate with each other and transfer nutrients.

In my own sensing, and feeling - we all - every being and thing - are expressions of the ONE -  the one Consciousness that IS. In that sense, EVERYTHING that you do matters. Everything you do affects the whole. Everything is an outpicturing of divine mind.  Life IS a circle - and life force expresses in constant birthing and dieing, and all you (and that is for those who are at all interested in that side of Being) can ever hope to do is not to have contributed to the suffering of WHAT IS - and maybe, to have relieved some suffering in some way on some level. It too makes sense, that if it is within your means, to prevent others from doing harm - for they own sake and for the sake of BEING. It makes sense to not allow dogs to do harm to people or other animals, to not allow people to do harm, if it is within your power to recognize it and prevent it.

I have cried over plants being mutilated by unconscious actions of others - like mowing over baby trees and bushes. I can't even clear blackberries before their "babies" have not matured .....  but I did tell them that after that, and accepting the berries gratefully, that they will have to go. And I do tell them that I love them and their beingness - same as the roosters - acting out their hormones. Some day, unless I get 100 acres and natural wildlife population control, the roosters will likely have to go. The few hens just can't deal with that many. But there is 1 thing: those birds have been loved. In my world and mind - that means something, that is worthwhile - and it is more than can be said about many peoeple, animals and things. Those chickens are loved, seen, appreciated, admired and cared for.  I spend time with them just in awe of how they move, sound and what they do and try to give them what they need within the means I have.
May they be blessed, and with them, the divine beingness itself.

Oh - do you think there are dogs who would give their lives for their owners -- not thinking - just doing? Let us not take away from the divine mind that has some animals and plants being in service of love, awakening and helping humans to grow - physically and otherwise. On the task of : what I learned from keeping chickens: it is way beyond the practical chicken keeping. This project, the endeavor, is deepening my feeling for life, the deepening realization for the sanctity of life and the mutuality we have with everything in it, absolutely everything and everyone. For the most part,  I do not actually have access/skill/experience to LOVE through people, - adult humans (children are a different story),  like some of you might have - I nonetheless am beginning to get that this, the working with animals & giving over the top of 100% to what I am capable of,  is a path with which to access love of humans (who hurt life and beings so much everywhere). With the realization of the ONENESS and its expression through all beings and things - it would include humans. I do know that I am not there yet. There may be compassion, or pity, but LOVE for all humans, even if they are expressions of the divine oneness - I am not there. 

Tonight, I am exhausted from the  work and trying to manage "them chicks" and do right by them. I wish there were someone really in on this project with me.  We'll see how tomorrow goes.
I still think the roosters could roam in a separate area and live longer ....that too we'll see.

Some say creation is like a giant video game. It is a game in which beings feel. - A 3d manifestation of G-D.

The male chickens - what to do with roos?

There is something here for all of you: whether you eat meat or are vegan, Buddhist or a hunter. It is about us - us humans and animals in this world together - and this issue is just something that is coming up as I started gardening with chickens.

Cockerels - still getting along

I love my chickens. They are beautiful and happy. They are now 8 1/2 weeks old and at this point, not only the Egyptian fayoumis, but also the buttercups and blue Andalusians have crowed. Most likely they will all be ok together during the summer months, but sooner or later, there will be the issue of 16 males and 10 females - not a viable solution for either one.  Everywhere I read - it really is not an option to keep more than a few roosters, and that is if you have adequate space.

As a functioning homestead and possibly conscientious breeder of chickens, culling would be done so that only the best and healthiest 10% of each mating will make it each year. I don't know what happens to all the rooster in the natural world. I guess some get eaten by predators, the weak don't make it, but  what about the rest? In any case, the fraction of an acre available to me at this time is not gonna support a flock with many roosters.

So, I know a friend who keeps chickens who will take them - most likely to eat them. So when I look at those guys, happy as they are, some of their lives will be short, no matter how many months I manage to keep them here.

So then I think: why do this? But then, if you eat eggs anytime, they are all from hens, and wherever they are, there were roosters that got culled, (just that someone else killed them for you), and most never saw the light of day or got a worm, a grub or had a dustbath. These guys here have it good - they had the chance of experiencing life here on earth, outside, foraging, hanging out and they have even heard music - and I love them and appreciate them. The domestication of chickens  was not a one-sided exploitation, but a mutually beneficial arrangement. They have life because of it -is is just that some of them will need to go - or so everyone says.

I do not eat meat, so that part of why many homesteaders keep chickens is not a reason for me.
But lets face it, I need fertilizer and compost if I am gonna grow vegetables in this soil. Trucking in amendments and fish-meal each year is not really sustainable and not even vegetarian. Since a mayor part of their lives here was meant to do tilling and composting/fertilizing, I would say: if the males can get along, they can all stay. But NOWHERE have I found evidence that more than a couple of roosters will be manageable in  this kind of flock. They fight and hurt, if not kill, each other. Apparently the males can really have a miserable life with other males in the flock. Is it possible that breeding them for a few generations choosing only the non-aggressive males that there will be a time when roosters just work it out and you can keep them all with a minimum footage of space per bird - without any problem? I am tempted to go that route, as most of the predator warding off will be handled by me. But maybe that is how they die in nature: trying to defend the flock? And if I let all of them live from each year, without any predator selection - they there will be too many altogether.

Granted, by entering the domestication, the chickens agreed to a mutually beneficial relationship, and, as a species, they surely prospered much - being fed and protected, they survived everywhere. So culling some humanely and honoring their spirit (and I have seen it done) and allowing them the final gift of nourishing you would be reasonable. They had a good life here - and it is part of their contract.

It just that - I don't want to kill them - unless it really is for pure survival.
I don't want to even feed them other live things, like worms. Even the grass hurts - but that is live on this planet - it literally is ALL alive - just that we attribute a certain sentience to some beings and not others.

Can you see the dilemma though: what to do with all the roosters?
Am I too wimpy, not accepting the give and take reality on this planet, the circle of life and death in nature?


And going vegan may not be the answer. Soy or other mono-cultures are not doing the earth a favor, just as an example. And harvesting huge areas of planted acreage apparently kills a LOT of animals living there too. In addition, anything you have to truck in from far away carries a high environmental price tag. So the answer really is: grow your own, even in a community, grow locally. And for that, you need fertilizer.....and for that, you need animals, and of those, when bred, roughly half will be males.

da capo al fine

and - it is doing something to me - having to deal with this - not sure what the effects will be. It does bring up a larger picture though of live, life on earth, how it all works out in the einsteinian universe and quantum universe.

Right now I am still hoping the roos all stay non-aggressive - but if not, they got to go.

But when they do, they deserve respect, humane treatment and deep gratitude. And this I know they will get from those who have agreed to take them, whether for breeding or as food.

Being food - for the soul

This title is likely not gonna read for any google searches, but that is what I mean.

The other I noticed how little I am actually eating and working with the chickens and in the garden has made my body thinner and stronger.

While I have not really had much of any food at regular meals on an ongoing basis for years (I would be fairly inexpensive to have as a house guest that way :),  I do frequently now find myself asking for meal leftovers from others and meal prep kitchen compost - for the birds. Friends of mine make special town trips to get greens from stores or restaurants for their chickens.  This I cannot do, but I now do understand why they do it. It is actually recommended as part of healthy nutrition if you can't truly free range, for the making of compost and vermi-bins and such. And there seems to be something else that is worth noting:

The chicks are 8 weeks old today, and they still get their chicks starter crumbles, but for some reason, they leave that in a heartbeat if really veggie stuff is available. The seem to LOOOOVE the real foods. And I notice I love giving it to them and that there is real food for me when I see them eating yummy kitchen vegetable stuff - and I am so happy to share what I do have with them. Their happy sounds are food for my body and soul.

And  I realized the other day that I am being fed, though not through organic food,  when I feed them good stuff and they are happy and well fed. It is Being-food, and it does feel like a substance to me. I am happy when they are and it is food for my soul -  "being-food". I am sure a lot of you have experienced something similar, maybe with your child. This "being-food" is worth more to me than an organic meal.

I know they are "just" chickens - and - caring for them provides being-food  -  could be you only get that when you stop seeing them as "just" chickens. -

They are a living part of who you are, on all levels - and so are the veggies - but that is another story.

Chickens can change your World - HCCML 3

... and so can anything you love enough - or that has touched you deeply enough.

Having fun, doing what you love is compatible with respecting the earth and it's beings!

So, they (them chickens) got me writing again. Why am I doing this? - This writing about this particular topic  - again ? Because I had some inspiration earlier this morning, as in an entire post in my head, and now I can't quite remember but started to write anyway in case it all comes back to me.

I think part of wanting to write again about why I am going this is because I have not yet internally solved (ie accepted) this dilemma of the general unconsciousness of humans and what they do to this planet and each other. I still believe that humans can wake up and start caring and stop abusing ....  if only enough would --- or that at least those in power could and steer it all with true knowing and compassion and without GMO foods and mega pollution. I still envision a world in which humans live in harmony with nature. At least get your life and the animals close to you on track of health and happiness.

So here I am doing this chicken gardening project and there are some very practical reasons why -  which most people can understand or value and which can change their world & perception.

• get chicken help providing fertilizer and tilling help in a vegetable garden.
• making sustainable use of land, which I do not own, that is otherwise just laying there unused.
• getting the best eggs - and proven more nutritious than any supermarket egg can ever be - healthy food for you and your family.
• learning about what it really takes to provide for your own food - at least some of it.

I am learning more and more how big money has used and misused large sections of land and people,
to walk my talk the best I can - but at least being consistent.
Keeping chickens for you  might be a means to get your children in touch with animals - to get to know them so they may have a change to love them - to make them aware that eggs do not grow in the store and maybe even that hot dogs were made from tortured animals in most cases.

Inspire others to become not only more aware, but take action where they live.

and THERE is is beginning to touch on the first point again - inspire others, help folks to wake up just a bit more and feel empowered to change their own life and world towards health and happiness to include the living earth - wake just a bit more from where they are.

I have seen what others do both online and in person. A lot of people do a lot of good - but when you look at what is happening to the planet - many more need to come on board, many more need to start taking action to the best of their ability - locally. Think, feel and connect globally - act locally.

I got raised roman catholic and I (sort of) remember this parable: the master had to go out of town and he gave his servants money to work. One got 1 dinar, one got 5 and the other one got 10. When he came back, the one with 10 dinar came to him and gave him back 20, the one with 5 dinars gave him back 10 - and the one with 1 dinar gave him back 1. So the master asked what happened: and the servant said he buried it to keep it safe but didn't use it to prosper.
So ...ehm - I don't know what the master did ...but the message was: you MUST use what you have and what god gave you. By this are meant your talents and means. Those who are given much, return much, and those who are given little, return little - BUT ALL ARE CALLED to use what they are given and double it and prosper. So for me this means: DO WHAT YOU CAN WHERE YOU ARE with the means available to you to the degree you can take it today. Burying things is like this: Albert Einstein. “The world is a dangerouss place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”

Or, to speak with gxaaxx: "Just say no to apathy". 

Have you ever considered that you are depressed or angry because your are NOT doing what you are supposed to do? Because your scope does not include your love, your purpose for being here?


Find the passion which opens your heart. Ask the universe/God with all you have to show you what that is - if you don't know it already - and give it a few weeks, never forgetting what you asked for - and be prepared to give it all you got when it is shown to you.


Some say if you do what you love that is wnough - I say: do what you love for the benefit of all beings everywhere.
It adds a twist to do what you love that is needed by the world.

It is not enough anymore to just do for yourself. If you read this, you got the means - even if you only got 1 dinar. The whole world is available to you via the internet. You can do something - find out what - and it does not cost you any money either.

I happen to love nature, dogs and birds especially, and trees and plants and  ....don't get me started :). I love other things too, but it is different.

So there are lots of folks loving other things, but let us just stay with those who have a bit of conscience and consideration or who consider themselves on a spiritual path and those who are wanting to awaken.

Awakening happens in stages for most folks, it includes the mind heart and body and willingness, drive  - your soul has to actually want to. You can push the river there - but - you never know who you can reach with what you do - and a tiny shift in this Universe may have huge consequences elsewhere, even if you never know it.

So if you open your heart - and you can do this by watching a number of videos about what happens in commercial animal food production and allowing to feel that pain -  you know your heart is open when you FEEL - so open you heart and then get your mind involved to check out the truth and numbers and environmental impact your supermarket egg production have on the earth and your health and your wallet (hint: taxpayer subvention) for example. ...


I guess the question is: at what point will you change what you do? At what point are you awake enough to not be happy and fooled or satisfied with pretty pictures alone? At what point do you feel enough to not want to just go along but find passion which also contributes to well being the earth - What will it take to want to leave a world for your grandchildren that can still be inhabited?

At what point is it not just about YOUR better life and health, or YOUR family's property and vacation - but at which point do you care enough to include the larger you in who you are?

Because, between spiritual realization and scientific discoveries - we ARE all connected - it is all one.

Now is that what had popped into my head earlier? No, but I'll work with it.

The importance of water - and chicken ignorance?

One day old chicks at the waterer

This is a somewhat comic one. I was reading in the one book I can recommend without any hesitation that speak about keeping chickens: the small scale poultry flock. In there Harvey U. talk about the importance of water for your chickens - and to make it available where they actually are needing it. He gives the example of cornish hens who would rather DIE than walk 10 feet  to water that is sitting in the sun.

So I believed him and I have water in the 3 areas the chickens can spend their time. I observe where they actually DO drink, and change the location if they never go there or if there is no water missing after several hours. I did also notice, when they were 4 weeks old and we had a real hot spell,  that they were laying panting in the heat of the afternoon. I sat in the coop/shade and decided to feed them water with a dropper. I say their learning process and also, many of them seemed to love taking the water from a dropper. .....  even as they were standing right next to the water. Some also started drinking after getting a taste of the water from the dropper. Not sure what it is about their thirst mechanism -  and that is so I don't say that chickens are water-supply stupid or lazy :). Maybe it is some kind of thing where only the one with the strongest drive are meant to make it in case of a drought? Who knows, but whatever the reason, there is something to be said about keeping very vigilant to provide water where it is needed at all time. Nat only do chickens drink a lot - they also need to have water in pretty close proximity of where they are being kept.The special attention on drinking and available water did bring home something else too.

Observation is the key - HCCML-2

Observation - you can learn so much just be observation. For example: for 2 weeks now the chickens have been happy in the greenhouse run and never bothered to go to the door or tried to follow me. However, in the last 2 days, and they are 5 weeks today, they seem interested in following me out  of that space. Luckily I planned the next enclosure and started working on it, though there is quite a bit more to do. Coincidentally, they are growing into the needed size not to so easily fit through the fence which is going to be out there. In fact, I am gonna try to stretch it for another week.

The point is, observe and listen - it might tell you more than any verbal explanation ever can. Because, let's face it, all generalized information might not precisely apply to you and your flock. But your flock will tell you when it is time.

Bald spots underneath - you can see it in certain movements

Another point for observation: for the past few days, the chicks look pretty much fully feathered, but when I get a look underneath the outer layer of feathers, I can see bold spots, like on the neck and some under the wings. At first I only saw it on 1 chick, but now it is many of them. It seems that the baby feathers fall out before all the others are in. Since they get chick starter, worms, eggs and greens, I seriously doubt that is it nutritional. The reason I mention it is because I read on a blog post, where someone asked if his 4 week old chicks can go outside (it was COLD out there) and he sent pictures of his chicks - they looked like mine, miniature fully feathered chicks - but - when you observe them move - the bald spots shine through. LOOK underneath - and you'll see the bald spots. I cringe when he was told they are ready to go out there ...and out of the brooder/coop they were gonna get thrown. It could be that the cold exposure will speed up the feathering out process, but chicks that age can also still easily die from exposure.

It all just confirms: look and listen, observe and trust your intuition to do the right thing for your chicks, no matter what anyone tells you. learn from the best  and even then, how do you know "they" know better? Just like any other path, do your due diligence, verify for yourself.

How has that changed my like? I don't know, only that I need to spend time observing - and that, because I want to do what is best for them, I will take that time. And here is where you realize an inner strength which no one can take away from you. You do the best you can for your chickens, and to do that, you spend time with them, you observe them. There is no substitute for that. In fact, I am now convinced that had I looked more closely on day 2 and 3, I would have caught the pasting earlier and the runt Fayoumi would not have died. Can you do that as a farmer who has hundreds of chickens? I don't know - but that is that farmer's life :). Maybe his chickens are giving him/her other lessons .....

How chickens changed my life - HCCML-1

A visiting friend's first experience with chickens on her back :)

1 - Someone suggested to me yesterday to write a blog, like a book,  about: "How chickens changed my life" because he'd never seen me this happy. I recalled how it started, and reminded him - "You know, it started with Skye". "Yes yes, but still write about it". Just the day before while working in the kitchen and then collecting kitchen scraps for the 4 weeks old chickies - I heard myself say: my current happiness is derived from seeing the chickens happy. And by happy I am not trying to put human emotions and such on them. Happy chickens are are doing chicken things in a healthy, non crowded way, like foraging about in the designated yard. They make happy noises, they are healthy. Yes, they are only 4 weeks old, and puberty has not hit them, nor has breeding season, therefore, so far, they are trusting, curious,  love what I bring them as well as roost on me. Are there other things to make me happy?  Yes, when a dog in the shelter finds a good home, when there are news of a habitat being protected, when folks wake up and their lives are more free - and they can possibly turn to include the earth and her creatures in their awareness. When people get a lot out of a workshop to make their lives easier - or to wake up a bit more

But it is the everyday chicken exposure, that is pure delight and energizing - and in fact - makes me happy. I should say that I LOVE birds, have loved birds since I can remember. To sit there are just observe them move -  could do it for hours. I suppose most people nowadays would think that is crazy and a waste of time, Most people get bored regularly - I never do. There are not enough hours in the day to do a fraction of the things I am interested in. Like a friend told me a LOOONG time ago: "Life is like a supermarket. You get a cart to fill up. You can get anything you want - but you can't have everything".
And boy oh boy (girls too) - is that ever true.
A few years ago I learned, though did not practice, that serving others, working for the benefit of sentient beings - can be fun. having been raised in Germany, this "having fun" thing was a bit alien to me. But that notion has crept up periodically and again very recently. It is not the essential necessity of humor - no, it's actually fun. And strictly speaking, it is still not about having fun - except that is is fun - and I LOVE working with chickens. So far, I have not yet had to deal with the rooster overpopulation - I'm working on it.

So far, when I sit with them - I am happy. Nothing is missing or amiss. I love those chickies. I LOVE them.

So welcome to this label thread of the chicken garden adventure.