Hi


Stew?

Ah, yes, of course, silly me.

I agree. Roast would be nicer but they're likely a bit tough and old by then.

People we know keep them in a barn/shed and still let them out every day, although there is heating in the shed, and I believe the run.

Your assertion about Kanata is quite old.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa...-bans-1.700383

Note the shorter growing season in Okotoks than anywhere in the UK. There is also much less in precipitation in Okotoks than anywhere in the UK. The native landscape is not lush and green, but dry and parched (unless you irrigate, of course). Okotoks straddles a Hardiness Zone 4a:
http://www.plantmaps.com/interactive...diness-map.php

These are the plants that will ideally thrive:
http://www.almanac.com/plants/hardiness-zone/4

There is a Canadian hardiness zone map and the USDA one, they are different. Check which one you are looking at. Most plant tags and books list plants using the USDA zone map.

Our chickens are layers not meat birds so they'd be ill suited to eating. They live in a shed which has multiple doors and ramps to a large fenced area (fenced against neighbour's dogs). They don't go out in winter. They don't go out because the shed is buried. Here they are on December 1st. The snow is now way up over the doors and we can walk over the fence. Still, the chickens have survived, and continued to lay, with just a heater for their water.

I think the fact that rescinding the clothes drying ban made the CBC supports my contention that there are crazily restrictive local laws in Canada, and that Kanata is a nightmare place where planners have run amok. It was in Kanata that I first encountered a place with a Front Door Colour Policy. Are there still developments that strive for that kind of Architectural Integrity?

They look like they are walking the plank to their deaths... Answers the question about winter nicely too. So does this mean you're a closet hippy after all or just that you're too tight to buy eggs?

Economics really aren't a factor when it comes to eggs, we don't eat enough to notice them on the grocery bill if we bought them. I know from when we had 100+ chickens that we can sell an infinite number of eggs at $3/dozen (or $3/ten for people who want metric eggs) but that's just breaking even with less than a dozen hens. Keeping chickens is about egg quality, not price.

If chicken keeping makes one a hippy then I'm very much out.

Definitely agree on egg quality. Around here, you have to buy from local farmers to get that.

Crikey! So the gist of it is...check, check and re-check local rules and regs before doing anything.

Chickens, veggies and line-dried clothes are all good for the environment - and for some of us, good for our souls. May have to re-think the hens and just grow fruit and veggies then.

Oh, and take my car to a car wash. Whatever will we do with our Sunday afternoons then?

Now you're getting the hang of it! And remember, you can only have 3 dogs and you can't let your cat shit on anyone else's property. Or keep pigeons. Or paint your house pink