update: This contest is closed. Miguel is the winner!

This giveaway is an excuse to introduce you to a few of my favorite urban hens. Did you know that keeping chickens is legal in New York City? Did you know that there are chickens improving the lives of some of the most impoverished citizens of our country? Brook Park Chickens in the Bronx are a great example of hens doing good.

photo courtesy of Lily Kesselman

Photographer Lily Kesselman has committed time and resources to the Brook Park Chickens. This is what she says about this urban flock:

Brook Park Chickens was founded in 2011 as a part of The Friends of Brook Park, a community garden in the Mott Haven community of the South Bronx. As the winner of a grant from Just Food, volunteers came together to build the coop and run for the 15 hens that came from the Queens County Farm Museum. Brook Park Chickens is 100% run by volunteers – two come daily to feed, water, clean and take care of the hens. Eggs are shared by all of the volunteers. But the main objective of the coop is to bring in school, after-school and community groups to meet the hens, learn about urban agriculture, and learn more about the community garden where all are welcome.

Mott Haven suffers from serous health issues and poverty. It is estimated that 20% of our youth have asthma and over 50% of all children here live below the national poverty level. The South Bronx is the poorest congressional district in the United States. Community gardens offer neighbors the opportunity to grow their own food, participate in CSA’s and connect with their community. Community beds in the park also allow for residents to learn and grow their own produce no matter what their income. We feel that Brook Park Chickens helps connect people with their food and offer them fresh, healthy and local food they participate in producing. We also encourage neighbors to raise their own chickens and food if they have the space at home! Funds raised through grants and donations provide chicken feed and supplies and tours and workshops are provided to all at no cost. The garden is also a place for rest and relaxation in an area where safe outdoor space is vital.

Lily has created a t-shirt celebrating the Brook Park Hens. The winner of this giveaway will get to pick the size and color of their choice.

All you have to do to enter is to go to this page to read all about the lovely hens that live in the Bronx. Leave a comment here letting me know which chicken is your favorite. (My fav is Betsy – I just love her big, floppy comb.) One entry per person, please. The winner will be selected by a random number generator at 9 pm on Tuesday, November 20. Results will be posted here.

But, don’t rely on fickle fate to get your bronx chicks rule tee! Order one today. You’ll be supporting a great cause.

It was a dreary day. Although the weather was changeable, I could tell what was going on by simply looking out at the coops. If it was only misting, then the girls were out and about. When it was raining hard they went back inside. All day long it was in/out, in/out. The Gems liked how moist the compost pile was. Lots of worms were wiggling near the surface.

But Pearl, with her extravagantly feathered feet, was none too pleased. She stepped carefully, then finally gave up and went inside.

Amber, the Best Buff, despite the dark skies and the shortened daylight hours, laid an egg.

Candy had her morning hop-around but was quite annoyed at the mud.

She spent most of the day glaring disdainfully at the world from her hutch.

Goats hate to get wet. I gave them extra hay, so as far as they were concerned, it was a good day, anyway. The goats are nothing if not optimistic that all works out in the end.

Lily was bored, but she remained vigilant, which was worth it because not one, but two, UPS trucks pulled into our driveway with deliveries. The UPS trucks are a sheer joy to bark at.

The rainy day was all the same to Scooter. He had his morning nap. And then he had his afternoon nap.

Betsy decided to go to bed early.

I was out of sorts. I got caught in a downpour while loading groceries into the car. I was chilled and grumpy. But, I should take lessons from the optimistic goats. Late in the afternoon I was sitting at my computer in my home office, and suddenly the walls glowed pink. I looked outside. The ground was the color of ripe peaches.

It was a heart-stoppingly beautiful, fleeting moment. The skies cleared just as dusk fell and the treetops glowed yellow in the sun, and then it was dark.

Those goats have it right after all – things have a way of working out in the end.

Amber says that something strange is behind her. Garnet’s feathers are all akimbo in fear. Between them is the….

Headless Chicken of Little Pond Farm!

Here’s another look at the strange beast:

What’s all the fuss about? asks sweet Topaz. Really, now, you’d think you’d seen a ghost.

We all want a year round supply of eggs from our hens. But, despite the unchanging and abundant display at the supermarket, the backyard chicken keeper soon learns that eggs are seasonal. Chickens start and stop laying for many, many reasons. One of them is the amount of daylight. The optimum amount of light to stimulate laying is 14 hours. Today, here in New England, we’re getting just under ten hours daily, and that will dip further to under 9 at the winter solstice in December. (This nifty site calculates the amount of daylight in your latitude.) Factory egg production facilities get around this natural fluctuation by housing chickens in windowless buildings illuminated with artificial lights. LIghtbulbs works for them, but it’s not always the right choice for backyard chickens. I don’t light my coops, and I’ll explain why.

Right about now, in late fall, there are a lot of people new to chicken keeping who are anxiously waiting for their young chickens (called pullets) to start laying. They got chicks in the summer and haven’t found an egg yet. Depending on the breed, you won’t see the first egg until 22 to 26 weeks of age, which is usually October or into November. But, that’s when reduced daylight is signaling the pullet to slow down. So, to egg on their pullets (pun intended, sorry!) some chicken keepers keep a light on in their coops. That’s not necessarily a good idea. The University of Maine (where they know firsthand about dark and cold) says that encouraging early maturity with lighting can cause prolapse. Also, A second negative effect associated with early sexual maturity is small egg size. Birds that lay early may never reach their genetic potential in terms of egg weight. And finally, if pullets are stimulated to lay before 17 or 18 weeks, their lifetime egg output may suffer. So, wait to hang a light until after your chickens are consistently laying normal eggs.

In my experience, pullets lay through the winter without additional light. But, one reason that I have had that success is because I designed my chicken housing to have plenty of windows. The Gem’s first winter was a snowy one, and I couldn’t even shovel out their pop-door to let them outside. If they’d been stuck in a small dark coop, they would not have laid an egg. But light streamed in the windows. They had sunny patches to loll in. They laid eggs all winter.

By their second winter, most hens are about 18 months old and so they are all at some stage of the molt. The molt takes up to 8 weeks to complete. During that time they stop laying. It doesn’t speed things up to add a light, and it won’t bring on more eggs. Later in the winter you can stimulate more egg production with a light, but you still won’t get as many eggs as you do in the summer. That might not be a bad thing. Back in 1923, A University of Illinois Agriculture College bulletin warned: Care should be taken not to overstimulate the hens by the use of artificial lights. A production of more than forty eggs daily from each hundred hens during the winter months may be disastrous in that it may result in a spring molt. Molting is a sign of stress, and it makes sense that forcing egg production during the winter, which is a time of rest and rejuvenation for chickens, would cause issues.

Over the years I’ve tried hanging a lightbulb in the coop to increase winter egg production. I’m sure it’s worth it on a large scale – if you have 100 hens, it will make a difference to your bottom line and pay for the electricity. It also works if you have hens under two years of age; in a backyard flock of six birds you might go from collecting one egg per day to three. But, if you have older hens like I do, the added light won’t make a difference. They’re going to take a break no matter what.

If you do decide to use light in winter, (definitely an option if your coop doesn’t have windows) then there’s a few things to know. A 40 or 60 watt bulb is plenty. Worry about fire. Periodically inspect the wires for gnawing by mice, and dust off the bulb. Do not leave it on all night, as it’s been shown that constant light is detrimental (the girls need their rest!) Put it on a timer and have it turn on in the early morning hours. Don’t have it turn on after dusk and then turn off to suddenly plunge the chickens into darkness in the middle of the night – chickens do not have any night vision and they’ll be stuck on the floor of the coop, unable to make it up onto their roosts.

The 1923 booklet did have this advice: The more exercise a hen takes, generally speaking, the more eggs she will lay. An additional benefit of exercise in the winter is that getting the hens outside means that they’ll also be in the sunshine. Chickens don’t mind cold temperatures (see my FAQ on winter care),

and, actually, they rather like how all of that frosty ground sparkles. So, give them as much natural sunshine as you can. Use your judgement about adding a lightbulb if your housing keeps them in the dark for long stretches. And don’t expect an egg everyday.

Back in 2006, this book came out:

It was a small gem of a book but it got lost on the bookstore shelves. After two years the publisher ceased selling it and The Farmstead Egg Cookbook disappeared. Many of you have asked for a copy, and I’ve sadly had to tell you that it was out-of-print and not to be found. But, this spring a new incarnation will be in available! An editor at Wiley asked me to enlarge the book and I have: I’ve written almost thirty more recipes to bring the total to 100. I’ve added a lot of text all about good eggs and what to consider when getting a backyard flock. This larger, improved version is tentatively titled The Farmstead Egg Guide and Cookbook. I can’t wait to share it with you and will let you know when it hatches in 2013!