City Chickens 101 lecture

On Saturday morning, my favorite urban farming store Pollinate hosted a "City Chickens 101" lecture by Allison Lindquist of the East Bay SPCA. (Who, by the way, also owns ALPACAS!)

Allison owns 60(!) chickens, of many different breeds. She has Malaysian Seramas (the smallest breed of chicken, which she said is no taller than the coffee cup on that table), Ameraucanas (which lay green and blue eggs), Cuckoo Marans (which lay chocolate brown eggs), and many others I can't remember!

I've been reading up on raising chickens, but I still learned a lot from this lecture. Here are some of my notes:

- If you are buying chicks, make sure that they are vaccinated for Marek's disease. It is not common in our area so smaller farmers may not vaccinate for it, but the symptoms are severe enough to warrent it.
- Make your coop and run bigger than you think you'll need, because you will always end up getting more chickens.
- Introduce new chickens in groups of three or more. Do it at night when everyone is sleepy, and there'll be less fighting.
- Allison gets horse shavings (pine shavings) for her coop. Sprinkle in diatomaceous earth and shovel it around regularly, and it will stay dry and clean and odor-free longer than other types of bedding. Change it out completely when you start to smell ammonia. Do not use hay/straw - it retains moisture and gets gross. Do not use cedar shavings, as the oils are dangerous to animals.
- Offer crushed oyster shells (separate from their regular feed) so the hens can get increased calcium when they feel they need it.
- The city of Oakland has no limit on the number of hens you can keep, but roosters are illegal. (Of course there were multiple roosters within five blocks of my previous residence.) They must be kept more than twenty feet from buildings.
- Some feather plucking between birds is normal, but watch out for any blood. The chickens will continually peck at any visible bloodspots and increase the wound.
- You can get a cheap coop by waiting for the "end of winter" sales at OSH/Home Depot/Costco and buying a wooden shed. Just add windows (with screens) and a chicken-sized door.

Then she passed out cartons of eggs for attendees who are chicken-less. Yay! Here's mine:

Conveniently (and enticingly), Pollinate has chicks for sale right now. They are sooo cute! (Click to see bigger picture.)

Although when it's finally time for me to get chickens, I might get pullets (hens just maturing) instead of chicks, since then I can skip getting special equipment for them and all that hassle.