Galloping Chickens and Chess at The Open Gate Farm

The Open Gate Farm
Camano Island, WA
January 5, 2010

Galloping Chickens and Chess at The Open Gate Farm

Dear Friends of the Farm:

More than once folks stopping by the stand in the summer have said something like “Where do you get the material for your newsletters?” and we shrug and mumble something like “well, it just sort of shows up.” This is one of those weeks.

It began a couple weeks back when we noticed Harley, our elegant Brahma rooster, galloping. Not often you see a chicken gallop, but by golly he looked like he was fresh from the Kentucky Derby. Feathers flying in the wind, you could almost see the little jockey on his back encouraging him to chase those girls. Then the other day we realized his gallop had deteriorated into a limp. He needed a cane but the store had none in his size.

Well, now a couple of the hens told us they had developed some leg mites. These little bugs are not fatal but do distract a girl from laying eggs regularly so we needed to attend to them. Lots of chemicals available for the job, but we are Certified Naturally Grown so went the organic route. For the last couple nights now, we’ve slipped into the chicken run after dark with a tin of bag balm (cows, chickens – it’s no difference on the farm) and snagging the sweeties off their roost, we’ve greased up their little lumpy legs. They’ve learned to enjoy it and no longer fuss, just bend their necks to watch and make sure we get all the scales covered and “between the toes too, if you don’t mind.”

But with Harley’s gallop drifting into a limp and Jerry, the big red fellow, following suit, it was time for drastic action. We went for help. Off to the farm store in town where a real diva of a farmer works. We are so fortunate! She had just talked with an electrician coming out to do some electrical work at her place and his rooster had had the same problem.

All it took for him was some good old fashioned Epsom salts. So tonight, had you come by just after dark, you would have seen your farmers heading down to the chicken run carrying two small pails of warm water with Epsom salts.

Have you ever given a rooster a sitz bath?

We have.

Two of them. At the same time.

Harley was the first in and as soon as his toes touched the warm water he sat down and relaxed. Now the bucket was just the right size so his legs dangled in the warm water and his body overflowed the top so he didn’t sink. Started to nod off a time or two.

Then Jerry was plucked from the perch against his better judgment and by the red light of the heat lamp he too hung his legs into his bucket of the cure and hanging his wings over the top like Harley, he relaxed. It was sweet and beautiful until he came too and thought it was a bad dream and started to flap his wings. He yelled something about scalding water and chicken plucking, but a calm word and a firm hand kept him in place until he woke up all the way and remembered where he was. Then he smiled sheepishly and sat back down.

So they sat there, these two roosters, quietly sitting in buckets of warm medicinal water and quietly gazing into the thin air of their memories. However when they spotted the timer, they got the idea that a game of chess would be nice since they had to sit together for a time and asked us to bring the set tomorrow night. Not sure how they will handle this since chickens don’t have opposable thumbs, but they said no problem. Though their legs are in therapy, they said they can push the pieces with their beaks.

So there you have it…a pair of roosters who are interested in settling their disputes the old fashioned way, like the potentates of India who decided rather than go to war, to settle their differences on the battlefield of a chess board. It could work. These fellows both look quite regal in their quiet time together. And the hens approved.

Well, the flopping of the fields is at last underway with vigor. We got another load of manure from the dairy this afternoon and some is in a hotbed, ready to keep little lettuce seeds warm when we plant them tomorrow and the rest is in piles waiting for the chickens and ducks to level it when they wake up.

We continue to plan to have plenty of starts of many kinds of veggies for you in a few months. This means the nursery might open before the produce stand does, but we’ll keep you posted.

And we continue to plan where we will grow what. The farm will look different this year, but it will still be the source of good food, good times, loud laughs, and the love of life that leads us all to health and happiness. What a lovely place to be. And we look forward to sharing it with you soon!

Happy Hoeing,

Jon and Elaine, your therapeutic farmers, Snickers the puzzled dog, Mystery the sleeping it off cat, Harley and Jerry, the rooster patients with their flock of fascinated hens, and Pastor Dudley Brown with his flock of curious colleagues, all of whom live at


The Open Gate Farm
269 Russell Road,
Camano Island, WA 98282
360-387-4449
Email: tsgjon@aol.com
Blog: www.theopengatefarm.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M19128

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