The Art of De-Lousing Chickens

Sometimes things will always be DIY, no matter what.  I mean really, who the heck do you hire to “de-louse” your 39 chickens when they get infested with poultry lice?  You don’t.  You do the dern nasty job yourself.  Most things on the farm I really don’t mind doing including cleaning the chicken coop.  I actually enjoy that chore.  However, imagine going in to get eggs and suddenly seeing a mass of black spots creeping up all over your legs, arms, eyes, ears and other body parts I will not mention. It was a bit Amityville Horrorish, running out of the coop like two freaked out teen age girls in a haunted house.  Our feathered ladies, however, were stuck there.  Poor things!  We felt really badly for our girls who were clearly agitated and upset. We then sprang into action.

In a bit of a tizzy, with bugs all over us, me and Mark immediately went to the local Agway store in Monticello, NY.  They were amazingly helpful.  Between the information from them, the internet and from my friend Melissa Caughey who is a chicken expert, award winning blogger and author (www.tillysnest.com), we had a solid plan to rid ourselves and our girls from this hell we were in.

How to De-Louse your chickens:

Step 1:  We cleaned the coop and scrubbed out all the roosts with a solution of ½ vinegar ½ water.  We also scrubbed the floor with this as well.  The girls were quarantined in the outdoor run while we did this.  Once it was dry and the fumes had cleared we let them back in.  You see, we learned that chickens are VERY sensitive to fumes/smells (except for their own crap of course!) which can cause respiratory distress.

Step 2.  We turned the earth in the outdoor run and incorporated Diatomaceous earth into it.  This stuff is natural and basically acts like tiny razor blades against those pesky creepy crawly lice!

Step 3.  We dusted each of the 39 birds with the Diatomaceous earth.

Step 4.  We then added more Diatomaceous earth in the base of each nesting box before placing fresh pine shavings.

Step 5.  The girls then began to sing Gospel spirituals, light up cigarettes and poured cocktails.

Step 6.  We will repeat these steps again in two weeks.  Oh joy.

Ahhhhhhhhh, life on the farm!

Garlic Scapes Have Arrived!

Scapes?  What?  I know, I too was in the dark about what the hell these were until Mark introduced them to me 6 years ago.  In a nut shell, Garlic Scapes are the shoots that grow out of garlic bulbs and have a really gentle garlic flavor and texture.  THEY ROCK! People used to throw them away until they realized how amazing they actually are. They have a very short season so you want buy them on the smaller/thinner side because the bigger they get, the tougher they get. (Insert human metaphor here!).  They remind me a bit of green beans but have a bit more of a bite raw!  But, if that’s your thang then go for it! Meow! Where do you get them?  You’ll find these mostly at local farmer’s markets because farmer’s know how crazy good these are.  I’ve included a pic below as to what they actually look like before cooked so you can eye ball them at the market.  Cooking is super easy so here it goes.

Ingredients:

1 large bunch of garlic scapes

2 cups chicken stock

2 cloves garlic diced

1/4 cup olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Clean Garlic Scapes, cut brown/dried ends and chop into green bean sized lengths.

2. In a large skillet, heat olive oil on medium heat and “sweat” your garlic until very light brown.

3.  Add chopped scapes stirring for 8 minutes.

4.  Add chicken stock and cover.  Cook until tender

5.  Salt and pepper to taste and serve warm.

*Tip.  Another way to use scapes is to make a pesto out of them. Simply substitute the arugula and basil in my pesto recipe with the scapes.  Remember go easy on the garlic for the pesto as these have a mild garlic value already.

Ladies Only

As many of you know I have chickens.  I love my chickens. They love me back.  I proudly come from farmer stock and must have inherited this from my farmer Grandparents Cecelia and Stuart Root.  Well, the farm now has nine new fluffy White Leghorn chicks (there were 16 but sad to say we lost 7 which often happens.)  Below are a few pics of the young ladies. Ladies only! When I first had chickens I had three horny roosters whom I called the Three Tenors.  Well, that trio didn’t last long. The trio went to a duet, then a solo act then…silence. Ahhhh.  I think the day I butchered that last rooster all the ladies lit up a cigarette and had cocktails in celebration.  They’re now a very content and peaceful all-girl colony.

If you ever decide to embark on chickens be ready for your ladies BEFORE they arrive. Identify your pen location, place your heat lamp and prep your starter food and waterer. When you get a call from the post office that your ladies “have arrived”, go immediately to pick them up or you’ll lose some of your flock.  They are VERY fragile in these first few days of life. Place them under a heat lamp with “just the right” heat ratio.  My lamp is usually about three feet above the girls. For my pen, I use a galvanized stockade water trough.  Where do I get my ladies? I always order mine from Murray McMurray Hatchery  (www.mcmurrayhatchery.com) whom I’ve used for years. They are the most accurate “sexers.” Sexers?  Yes SEXERS!  That means they ensure that you don’t get any roosters!