My hens are so excited to share with you a new exciting book just released, Free-Range Chicken Gardens by Jessi Bloom. I met Jessi last July in Seattle at a national garden bloggers conference, Seattle Fling, when Jessi was just completing this book.

Jessi Bloom has written a terrific book on chickens, and the many facets of the fine line of keeping happy, healthy, chickens in a beautiful backyard garden setting. It is a fresh and informative book on chickens. I consider myself a chicken aficionado, and I think her book is right on. Her tips are little tidbits of chicken wisdom.

That's not all, now through February 17, 2012, Timber Press is currently hosting a contest highlighting Free-Range Chickens and featuring great chicken-related prizes to win. If you love chickens, or you are thinking of getting chickens this spring, this is a great read and guide.

Please share if you let your chickens free range in your backyard garden setting. Please comment how you were introduced to keeping chickens. Please share what you like most about your backyard chickens. Please comment on how you name your chickens.

My morning ritual for my hens is complete by giving them fresh treats. Chickens love a treat, and I know my hens, Charley, a White-Crested Blue Polish hen, and Dahlia, a Silver Spangled Hamburg hen, look forward to their special treat each morning. Treats are given in addition to their endless bucket of chicken laying mash and plenty of fresh water.

Remember, what your hen eats will determine the flavor of her eggs. Avoid giving your hens anything with strong flavors such as onion and garlic greens.

Examples of great treats for chickens are fresh lettuces, sorrel, spinach, chard, corn on the cob, and cut up fruit (apples,figs, peaches, strawberries). Giving them a fresh treat is healthy, and occupies them in a good way.

You can train your hens to eat their treats out of your hand, too. It is a great way to bond with your chickens. Please share if you give your chickens special treats. Please comment on what treats you give your chickens.

VintageGardenGal Tidbit Thyme..... Recently, online design and trend magazine, Standard Magazine, Fall 2011, gave VintageGardenGal's  hens and chicken coop a few cameos. Check out their trendy article on diverse chicken coops.

Bonnie and Her Hens Say Hello What, Are You Chicken?

 

The Slater Family in Claremont, California, takes First Place in this year's VGG Chicken Coop Photo Contest. This is a classy chicken coop with darling storybook details.

Not only is this an incredibly cute chicken coop, it is well designed. You can easily see where the eggs are collected and where their hens have their enclosed outside area. This city backyard chicken coop is nestled in a quiet spot, beautifully integrated in with their garden.

The Slater's compost their chicken manure for vegetable gardening, and share their eggs with friends and neighbors. Their flock consists of Black Copper & Splash Marans, Red Laced Blue Wing Wyandotte, and a Blue Ameraucana. They have demonstrated beautifully a whimsical design in a small spot, such as a city backyard.

Monte & Donna Partlow on the Olympic Peninsula in Sequim, Washington, are this year's VGG Second Place Winners with their immaculate coop creation, Many Feathers Cottage. This "black and white" chicken coop beauty has been lovingly assembled for their flock of 2 Red Stars, 1 Black Star, and 1 Australop, who are happy to call this their home.

This chicken cottage is charming, but also "state of the art" with electrical wiring, insulation, vinyl flooring and base, and an installed "manure box" under a removable hardware cloth grate for easy cleaning.

It has seamless access to an outside pen, with an exterior door. An operable window and louvered vent provide proper ventilation. Note the hanging thermometer for temperature readings, green roosting bar mounted off of the floor, chain-hanging feeder and water-er, and adjustable height heat lamp. It has all of the "bells and whistles" for keeping chickens.

Tonita Fernandez of Enumclaw, Washington, is this year's VGG Third Place winner with her cleverly re-purposed playhouse turned into shabby chic chicken coop. Her chic coop is a fine example of starting with an existing playhouse, or building and modifying it into a chicken coop with interesting salvaged materials.

She reclaimed this row of incredible chicken nesting boxes from an old barn, which was more than a 100 years old. She decorated her coop with "cleanable" wallpaper, a crystal chandelier, and pink stenciling. A re-purposed milk can conveniently stores her organic chicken feed. By her chicken coop entrance, she has a blooming flower box and fun, chicken-related pieces.

Tonita says, "Fixing up a special little house for the hens is my way of appreciating and being thankful to them for their contribution to our food supply". Tonita has also been involved in rescuing dogs for over thirty years. Her lucky dogs, are given plenty of fresh organic eggs in their diet.

Congratulations to these winners! Your coops are fabulous. Many thanks to everyone who participated, and supported VGG in this contest. I heard from people from all over, who love their chickens.

I'm hoping you can reap ideas and inspiration from the above chicken coops for your own yard or garden. Chicken coops can be individualized, and customized for size and style. Chickens are part of the family, just like any other pets. Chicken coops become an extension of one's garden. Chicken coops can be beautiful, as well as functional and practical. Keeping chickens is wonderful.

It is blissful when all of your hens get along easily. My three hens, Charley, Dolly, and Dahlia have been together since they were day old chicks. They get along famously, and move around in my garden as a unit. They are never far from one another. It was special to find them all together in the warm sandy soil under one of my Pink Breath of Heaven shrubs.

Out in the garden, my hens are usually so active, poking for bugs, greens, and treats. The sunny warm soil must have been so inviting, they had to take five, and relax together. Sand flung up on their backs is soothing and cleansing to them. This is the ultimate dirt bath that chickens love.

Hens that are the same age, and have grown up together have better chances of getting along and avoiding the sometimes cruel pecking order.

VintageGardenGal Tidbit Thyme....

The 6th Annual Encinitas Garden Festival and Tour is Saturday, April 30, 2011, from 10am to 4pm. The featured neighborhood this year is the historic tree-lined Crest Drive in Cardiff, with diverse gardens and panoramic views of our community west to the ocean, and east to the backcountry. Don't miss it!

You can purchase tickets online at Encinitas Garden Festival, and at these local nurseries: Anderson's La Costa Nursery, Barrels and Branches, Cedros Gardens, The Madd Potter, and Weidner's Gardens.

People always ask me about their hens and nesting boxes. How many nesting boxes to build for their number of hens. Why are all their hens using the same nesting box. Why does my hen lay her eggs outside and not in her nesting box. What are the best measurements for a hen's nesting box.

My response to everyone is borrowed from a wonderful framed poster I use to have of a colorful caricature of a big sassy reddish brown hen with the saying, "The sun has a right to set where it wants and so may I add as a hen." I use to interpret that poster as "follow your bliss in lIfe" and "be true to yourself."

Since I've experienced the wonderful world of backyard chickens for the last ten years or so, I realize that poster literally captured the essence of a happy laying hen. They naturally do their own thing, when it comes to laying their eggs.

Reaching into VintageGardenGal archives, I have written a detailed previous post on "Backyard Chicken Coop", "Nesting Boxes", with hen to nesting box ratios, measurements, ideal setting, and nesting box suggestions. However, when it come down to the personalities of your hens, they are literally going to lay their eggs where they please.

In general, if you provide a quiet clean side of your coop, protected from bright daylight sun, with nesting boxes slightly off of the chicken coop floor, your hens are naturally going to gravitate to a nesting box, and lay their eggs for you easily and effortlessly. Sometimes there is a favorite nesting box that your hens will prefer. Sometimes they will want to have a party, and all lay together in the same box. The point is with laying hens, just about anything is normal.

You might even have a hen that has a tendency to brood, a hen's natural way of incubating an egg by sitting on an egg(s) for days on end.  If  a hen has a healthy fertilized egg, and she sits on it faithfully for 21 days, she will hatch a chick. Hens can have brooding tendency  with or without a rooster in the flock, and without fertilized eggs. It is called natural maternal instinct.

Hens work for very hard to lay an egg. Give them the freedom to lay where they like. Please share if you have any funny egg-laying stories from your flock.

My husband, John and I had been encouraged to enter our wines in this year's 34th Orange County Fair 2010 Home Winemaker Competition. The Orange County Home Winemaker Competition is larger in number of participants and California geographical representation than the San Diego County Fair Home Winemaker Competition.

Last year's Orange County Fair Home Winemaker Competition had approximately 663 entries from all parts of California. California home winemakers represented in this year's competition were from such places as Healdsburg, Los Gatos, Sonoma, Paso Robles, Temecula, Templeton, Jamul, Olivenhain, San Jose, Walnut Creek, Napa, and many more.

At the Orange County Fair, awards are slightly different from that of San Diego County Fair's Home Winemaker Competition. Double-Gold, Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Honorable Mention awards are offered in each category of wine. One coveted "Best of Show" is given in each wine category.

We entered three of our home-made wines, our syrah (our first vintage from our backyard vineyard), a merlot (a wine we made from grapes we purchased from Dry Creek, Sonoma), and a "merrah" (a wine blend we made up of our own syrah and the merlot). We also entered our two new wine labels in the "wine label" contest. The wine labels were created by our friend and graphic artist Robin Dujanovic.

Our wines placed well and with similar results at the Orange County Fair, as in the  recent 2010  San Diego County Fair Home Winemaker Competition. The  surprising Orange County Fair 2010 results are as follows:

Bronze.....Merlot Syrah........Silver (Our First Vintage From Our Backyard Vineyard) Merrah.....Gold

Wine Glass & Chicken Label, 1st Place Garage Label, 3rd Place

Our friend and graphic artist, Robin Dujanovic, rdujanovic@aol.com, at last year's harvest asked if she could design a few wine labels for us. We whole-heartedly thank her again for such unique and appealing wine labels which capture the essence and character of Domaine de Manion, "Which came first, the chickens or the vines?"  We know.

Once again, we wish to thank all of our family and friends for helping us throughout the year, and their enthusiasm in our backyard vineyard and wine making efforts. Salut!

Please share what you enjoy the most about your local summer fair?  The food? The rides? The animals? Entering your hobby? The art? The music?

As you may or may not know, VintageGardenGal announced its premier "Chicken Coop Photo Contest" last month. I had some wonderful photos submitted, and thank those who participated. The number of photos submitted, however,  were not enough for a true contest. Stay tuned for next year's spring chicken coop photo contest with prizes.

I do have a treat for you. I want to share with you a "chicken coop to love" that I saw in Napa Valley. In a previous post, I wrote about The Farmstead Restaurant and the Hall's Long Meadow Ranch. LMR Rutherford Gardens is another historic property owned by the Hall family and an integral part of their sustainable organic vertically integrated family farm. At LMR Rutherford Gardens they grow their own organic produce, flowers, and fruit for many of the top Napa Valley restaurants, including their Farmstead Restaurant, and the Friday Farmer's Market in St. Helena. Please note, LMR Rutherford Gardens is private, and available for tours by appointment.

LMR Rutherford Gardens is 5.8 acres of rich farm land on the Napa Valley floor, and just south of The Farmstead Restaurant. This property  has been growing produce since the 1930's, and has never been planted in grapes. Besides the land there is a small house, vintage water tower, and wonderful mature trees. Thriving 100 year-old fig trees further add to the property's charm.

At LMR Rutherford Gardens there is a large chicken coop and beautiful flock of chickens producing lovely organic eggs.  In the above photo, you can see the wood door and entrance to their chicken coop. The plank wood door is beautiful, detailed with a chicken motif, and flanked by the romantic floribunda white iceberg roses. Isn't that enough to welcome you to the chicken coop.

Their chicken coop is made of corrugated metal, which is a reasonable building material, creates a wonderful rustic look, and ages gracefully. Framed windows on the side allow air circulation and the important ventilation needed in a chicken coop. Further more, the chicken coop is strategically situated under mature trees to provide shade and dappled light. I can only imagine inside, it is quiet, and filled with nesting boxes for the hens to lay their eggs.

A gigantic outside pen is attached to the chicken coop for their hens to enjoy fresh air, exercise, and produce treats. Landscaping along the chicken coop and outside pen adds color and appeal.

LMR Rutherford Gardens has a large flock of hens consisting of Ameracanas, Black Australorps, and Cuckoo Marans chicken breeds. Three of my favorite breeds.

I was smitten by LMR Rutherford Gardens chicken coop and chickens. Their chicken coop is safe, protecting, nurturing, beautifully adorned, and well-landscaped. Clearly, some thought and creativity went into creating their chicken coop, and caring for their chickens for the best organic eggs.

Please share creative ideas you use for your chicken coop. Please comment on your favorite chicken breeds.

Announcing VintageGardenGal's premier "Chicken Coop Photo Contest." I hear from some many of you around the world regarding your chickens and coops, I'd like to see them! Spring has got to be the best time of year to show off your chicken coop, so I thought it would be fun to have a photo contest.

I believe that chicken coops are an extension of our garden. Are you concerned about where your food comes from?  Do you enjoy fresh food, steps away from your kitchen? Having backyard chickens is a fun step in a nice direction.

What kind of chicken coop do you have? Did you inherit it when you bought your present home and property? Is it designed out of flea market finds? Did you buy a chicken coop kit? Did your dad build it for you? Did you have an existing barn or shed on your property that you modified? How many chickens do you have?

How is it decorated? How does your chicken coop integrate with your garden or property? What is important to you about your chicken coop? What do you love about having chickens in your backyard?

Submit your winning chicken coop photo to bonnie@vintagegardengal.com within the month of May 2010. Along with your photo, send a brief explanation of what motivated you to have chickens, how you created your chicken coop, how your chicken coop ties in with your garden or property, any chicken coop details you would like to share, and generally where-in-the-world you are located. One winner and two runner-ups will be announced in June 2010. Their brief story and photos will be shared on VintageGardenGal.

VintageGardenGal will return next week.