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Waste-not Waste January 17, 2011
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Waste-not Waste
January 17, 2011

I just hate letting waste go to waste. They say that Americans throw out one-third of the food they buy. I reckon it's a matter of pride. Apparently, since the food is so cheap -- we spend a mere ten per cent of our income on it -- there's no reason to make the most of any leftovers. Few people have a pot of soup simmering on the stove to which to add gnawed-upon bones or the head of broccoli that went limp for lack of interest....

It's the same in the Hen House. These American chickens encounter such an abundance of food that their appetites must surely become jaded at times. They not only have access to all kinds of farm leaves, bugs and worms, they have the finest organic (soy-free) feed*. And then there are the trimmings coming out of the farm house kitchen as the cook here (I) doesn't have a soup eternally simmering either. But she has a chicken bucket positioned on the floor close to the chopping block. There she slides the waste right off the counter and into the bucket. Last Friday's edibles included strawberry blemishes and leafy tops. A little treat for the hens while the best parts of the berries went into the freezer.

Our helper, Martin, who loves the chickens, takes great pride in filling their feed pans too full. The hens love this generosity however, as they, like prosperous citizens, can take their feet to the overage and kick it right out of the pans onto the ground, and indeed, right out of the Hen House. The result, especially after a good rain, like we recently had, is a quagmire of wasted feed and mud. Soupy mud. The kind for which "muck boots" are made.

You know I love my hens, but I really detest mucking though quick sand to close the pen up at night, or navigate through sucking mud, grabbing onto sullied perches for balance, to collect the (muddy) eggs and dish up a moderate amount of feed in the pans. And the mud is made puffier by the wasted grains. If you fall down in there, you'll be cushioned, but no one will ever want to be around you again. This is my greatest fear. An attack by Rusty Roo is nothing compared to the thought of becoming one with the sludge. And before I add nice fresh DRY straw to cover the Hen House floor, the mud must first dry out, or the situation will soon be even worse.

I can hardly stand it. Thank goodness it's compost making time! Now there is a need for this waste! Hallelujah! After all, the grain has protein in it. Protein is nitrogen. You might say that the grain is the precursor of poop, and both forms of nitrogen will be welcomed by the dead leaves (carbon) that the community has contributed by the pick-up truck-load over the last couple of months.

Today seemed a grand time to start the process. I'd already laid out a nice stretch of leaves, wet from the rain, mixed with a layer of inoculating, cured compost from our last pile. We still have not used all of this pile, but since we are continuing to plant, it'll be gone soon. It's great compost, high in everything we need, and because of the wastes (hen poop especially), it has been a steady source of slow-release nitrogen in our growing beds. I've not had to buy nitrogen fertilizer in several years, ever since our hen poop achieved organic status, because of the momentous availability of Coyote Creek's certified organic feed*. Before that, since the hens' grain carried antibiotics and chemicals, I did not use it to make compost. Thus our vegetarian compost was good for adding organic material to the soil, but not for adding nitrogen.

Donning my muck boots, I drove Lillian T. Tractor and her big bucket to the Hen House and began shoveling up the feed muck. The pet hens, Babette of the Boss Chicks and Toesy J. Rosey hurried over, excited by the shovel. They anticipated it would be excavating worms. But worms can't live in such a liquid mess of nitrogenous grains, so instead, the hens discovered the benefit of frugality. Leftovers! They picked through every shovelful, extracting still tasty morsels.


Unfortunately, the spoiler, Babette, whose personality often veers to the greedy side, disliked that the Toes was finding grains, so she ran at her and pecked her comb.

Disciplined, the little Toe decided to check out Lillian, with whom she's worked compost piles many times. It might be fun, she thought, to be the driver instead of a tiny hen dodging giant tires in the search for a grasshopper. I had earlier found her a green one and the squirming memory was still fresh. She had gobbled most of it down, save one wing, when Babette noticed and ran over to steal the wing. Toes got out of her way fast, but she had the fortune of eating the body and the head; she knows grasshopper brains are full of protein! The wings? Well not much more than air to them.

Finally the bucket was full enough and I scooped up the surprised Toes and climbed aboard Lillian. Toe wanted to drive and by golly she was doing it! After an initial case of nerves, she settled down and kept one calm eye on the approaching compost pile. Remarkably she was able to drive the tractor without using her wings, but since Babette was such a pill, and refused to jump up and down on the accelerator, I helped out.

Arriving at the new pile, we both hopped down from Lillian's high seat. I shoveled the feed muck on top of the layer of leaves, and Toe-Toe hunted for another grasshopper.

Alas, her search failed to turn up anything other than one measly tree roach (which she greatly enjoyed) and since I was now watering-in the waste, she, who does not like errant sprays of water, toed her way back to the Hen House to see about producing a wee egg.

At least she got to drive Lillian. That must have been a big deal. Only Aunt Penny, the famous Head Hen before her time, was allowed that privilege. Of course, mentioned Toes, Aunt Penny was known to be as cranky as Babette, and there would have been more pecks on the Toe's comb if she were still around. One crank is enough, the practical little red hen warbled.

Carol Ann

*Coyote Creek Feed Mill: Certified Organic chicken feed and Certified Organic Soy-free feed (instead of soy for protein, crab and fish meal are used. Extra Omega-3's!!) http://www.coyotecreekfarm.org

** http://www.muckbootsonline.com for a good selection of boots meant for hen houses, pig pens, you name it.

PS: January 28-30, 2011. Those interested in farming, ranching and gardening, may check out the Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association annual educational conference (TCOOPS) in Killeen TX. For info on speakers, hotel, registration, volunteering, etc: http://www.tofga.org.

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