What does it take to keep a chicken in the coop?

Ah, the lovey Cleo. She's one crafty chick and can escape from any confined environment.

Really this is getting crazy. I cannot figure out how she, and only she, keeps getting out of my chicken wire, black mesh, Fort Knox of chicken runs. I've seen her dig under and put a stop to that with bricks. I've seen her jump on the coop and leap over the fence, so I put a top on the run. But now I have no idea how Houdini chicken is getting out.

So, does anyone have suggestions on how to keep a determined hen out of my garden? So far, she's mostly chomping on weeds, but once those are gone, she's gonna start eating veggies again.

Help!

Pirates or bees?

Since our empty hives were installed a few weeks back, we've noticed that they are very popular with the local bees. On any sunny day, there are at least 2 dozen bees flying around the hive and crawling in the crevices. I didn't realize this until I attempted to push the hives back a bit from the chicken coop so I could give it a proper cleaning and out flew a ton of bees. Luckily, the bees were more confused by the moving boxes than angry and only buzzed around for a few minutes until settling down. Good thing too because I was trapped in the run with the boxes.

We're waiting for the bee people to come check on the hives to see if a bee population has set up shop or a bunch of "pirates" are just sniffing around checking out the competition. In the meantime, I've been told that placing sugar water out for them will help get a hive established. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to try it since we've had nothing but torrential rains lately (and also no bees, since they can't fly in rain).

And what does your garden grow?

It's February. Most of the country is covered in snow and ice. Here in San Francisco, we're supposed to be wading through torrential downpours, but as global warming would have it, we've had a long streak of warm, sunny days with a sprinkling of rain thrown in.

And my poor plants are confused.

I noticed the confusion last year when our faithful lilac didn't bloom, but we had tomatoes! For those of you unfamiliar with San Francisco summers, we rarely see sun from June until Sept. Our summer tends to be an endless, gray fog with temperatures in the low 60's. Not ideal tomato weather.

Anyway, back to this strange February garden.

Currently blooming or growing plants: 3 blueberry bushes, a dozen strawberry plants, a dwarf improved meyer lemon tree, rosemary, thyme, and sage in my boxes. Oh and the faithful lilac is starting to bloom.

MyFarms boxes: Box 1 - ground cover, Box 2 Favas, Box 3 - I 'm not sure because it has the row cover on it, Box 4 - onions, garlic and lots of ground cover, Box 5 - favas, Box 6 - Favas. Random large square trench - asparagus.

Not yet sprouted or bloomed in my boxes: potatoes (banana and purple) and peas. Tulips have started coming up. Daliahs, fresia, and gladiolus are getting ready. Lavender is beginning to flower. Some of the primroses are flowering while others are just leafing out. And random little shrubby-type soft perrinals that I've forgotten the names of.

All this in a space roughly 25x60 plus a jungle gym, chicken run and 2 bee hives.

We're really making this little plot work!

The NBC 11 story that featured my chickens

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Chickens_Welcome_in_San_Francisco_Bay_Area.html

Of eggs and hens

Anyone who has every had chickens knows that they will strip your garden down to dirt. I, sadly, did not - that is not until after not only was the oxalis banished from my yard, but so were the broccoli, the tender baby lettuces and all the carrot tops.

In my best effort to prevent the total destruction of mine and Courtney's (my MyFarm farmer) hard work, I wrapped my chicken coop in chicken wire thus making a run-within-a-run.

So far so good, but Cleo is devious and loves any challenge I throw at her. The above picture is of her enjoying few moments of freedom today.

As a side note, I think it's interesting that every hen has her own unique egg color. My dark eggs come from Lucky Clucky, my medium
eggs come from Figaro and Cleolays the
lightest eggs.

Anyway, here are some more pictures from today's work. Looks like Courtney dug a big hole (I think the asparagus plant is going here) and drapped a sheet on the sprouts to keep my crazy neighbor's pigeon flock out.

You have WHAT??!

The above is a common reaction when I mention that we're raising chickens and starting our own little farm in San Francisco's foggy Richmond District.

So, what possessed me to turn my back sand lot (because it really could not be called a backyard) into a little piece of urban heaven? I really don't know. I'd been actively trying to tame the sand and weeds for 7 years planting flowers, putting in a jungle gym for the kids, laying mulch, building raised beds and experimenting with growing veggies and flowers. It looked pretty but I felt it lacked something.

And then, on July 4th last year, I went to the Marin County Fair and fell in love with the chickens. I had to have chickens! They'd eat the weeds, they'd give me eggs, they'd make great compost! So I ordered up an Egglu from Omlet along with 3 18-week old hens and 2 weeks later I had chickens.

In late August, I ran across an article in the SF Chronicle about a new company called myfarmsf.com that would install, maintain and harvest veggies for you. I liked the idea, but didn't want to give up my involvement in the garden. MyFarm assured me I could work as much as I wanted in the garden. I thought 'why not': they'll lay the drip irrigation and do the crummy winter gardening. Great deal!

And now, as of last week, I have 2 very tall bee hives nestled into the back corner of my yard. The bees haven't been installed yet (not until late March) but there seems to be a lot of bees hanging out around the hives. My hope with the hives is that the bees will help pollinate the flowers and veggies plus we'll get yummy honey.

What's next? I'm hoping the city will let windmills be installed. We may not have sun in the Richmond, but we certainly have wind!