I noticed a while back that something has been digging a hole under my fence which leads to our neighbor. I also noticed a series of mid-sized tunnels created under several lavender bushes. There is some excellent real estate in our yard for various mammals but I wasn’t sure who it was. I was dreading the presence of a raccoon. Turns out it’s an opossum. It lives on the side of our yard. It comes out about a half hour before dusk and walks around in the yard. Then it clumsily climbs into a woodpile munching on things along the way. It ventures very close to me and does not seem afraid. If frightened, it hobbles at a pathetically slow pace back to its hideaway, which is a den in a broken retaining wall.

I was not sure how opossum live, what they eat, and if they are threat to my flocks. So I looked it up of course. Opossum are North America’s only marsupials. There are many species of opossum, mostly in Latin America. The opossum we see in California is likely the Virginia Opossum, which was carried West by people as a food source. In fact, several well known cookbooks, such as The Joy of Cooking had recipes for opossum, it was that popular.

Opossum are not aggressive, at all. Though if cornered, they may bare their teeth for show. If truly threatened, opossum play dead. Now, I have heard this but did not understand it. They will go catatonic and emit a foul odor creating a believable version of dead. They can stay in this state for up to several hours and a person could even move them and they would remain dead like. Not that long ago, Dipak and I found a seemingly dead opossum under our deck as we removed the deck boards. As I read about opossum it occurred to me that this animal may have been faking it, but Dipak reminded me that the jaw fell off when I shoveled it up. From what I read, that is not part of the mimicry.

Opossum are omnivorous eating rodents, snails, insects and whatever tasty garbage they may find. Since they are not predatory and don’t like a fuss, it is not likely that it will attack even my hens. They are nomadic and stick around only as long as food and water are easily accessible. They are also solitary and do not built up colonies, so I do not need to be concerned about a family of opossum getting too comfortable in the yard. It also appears that their presence in the burrow will help keep other less friendly mammals. Though opossum are a bit hard to look at, having the appearance of oversized rats, they are not rodents. Also, apparently due to cooler body temperatures, they rarely transmit diseases to humans and are surprisingly resistant to rabies.

They are in fact beneficial animals in the urban setting as they keep it cleaner and safer. All in all, I think we have ourselves a friendly little yard guest.

This is quite unusual but it appears one of my hens has begun crowing. I’ve tried to tell myself that she does not sound like an actual rooster, except she does. She sounds like a young rooster that has not mastered the varied tones and undulations of a mature rooster’s crow. I have been racking my brain to understand why. My first thought is that given that birds tend to be so very territorial and given that many birds vocalize first thing in the morning to indicate territory for the day, it is possible that my all female flock needs a representative that can fulfill the duty.

It has always been Odile that has vocalized more than the others but it was the irritating sound of a grinding rusty wheel. Many hens make a “cluckcluckcluck squawk!” when they want something. This is called a gakel-call. When a hen does it I can notice her beak moving but she does not hold a stance. With this new and emboldened crow, Odile, picks a higher spot in the yard (which has been a boulder beneath my bedroom window) with her chest out, neck elongate, head up, hackle feathers standing on end, and wing flapping at the end of the crow. Just like a rooster.

I have been reading up (references below) on hen behavior to better understand what I am witnessing. It appears that this could be a phenomenon called spontaneous sex reversal. It does indeed occur but its causes are not completely understood. It seems it could have been an issue with Odile oviducts that resulted but I do not believe this is her cause as she has continued to lay eggs. Several articles discuss the occurrence. The most fascinating aspect is that this hen is actually developing secondary sex characteristics of a rooster and apparently, while not common, has the potential to develop ovotestis which could in turn produce viable sperm.

I went out to the coop with a flashlight when the “girls” went to sleep this evening. I wanted to check Odile’s face against her sister’s as they were very difficult to tell apart, expect for their tails. I wanted to see if Odile’s comb is now turgid and erect as a male’s and if she has more pronounced wattles. Perhaps her comb in the subtlest way is more fanned out. Right now, I cannot tell. Below are pictures of Odile from 2006 and 2008. Other than being much plumper I’m not sure. Her comb does seem a tad more pronounced over her beak and her wattles hanging down more.

I would like very much to keep Odile in the flock as this is a pretty interesting development. Naturally, I am concerned with the noise. There are only a few offenses that I am not willing to tolerate from my chickens: real property damage (breaking into the garden does not count); severe aggression (blood and/or small children involved); and excessive noise levels. As much as I think roosters improve flock health, I would not acquire one for their obvious loud crowing and the Oakland ordinance against it. The last thing I want is for my neighbors to think I have shucked the law for my backyard experimentation. I haven’t neighbors, I really haven’t. It is just that my hen is spontaneously turning into a cockrel. This is too weird.

Chan, S. T. H. 1970. Natural Sex Reversal in Vertebrates. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences. 259(828):,59-71.

Forbes, T. R. 1947. The crowing hen. Early observations on spontaneous sex reversal in birds. Yale J. Biol. Med. 19:955-970.

Jacob, J. and Mather, F.B. 2000. Sex Reversal in Chickens. Department of Animal Sciences, Florida Cooperative Extension Service: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PS050

Simkiss, K., Luke, G. Behnam, J. 1996. Female chromosomes in cockerel ejaculates. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B. 263:1245-1249

Before getting started on keeping animals such as fowl, rabbits, goats, etc. It is imperative to know city regulations. Each city has its own codes, so it is necessary to look them up. Most cities have their codes online. I find it best to do as much non-person to person research due to reactions such as “well, if it is allowed, it should be banned.”

Basics to be aware of include:
Housing: In Oakland a fowl shelter must be more than twenty (20) feet from any dwelling, church or school.

Keeping Roosters: Specifically not allowed in Oakland, but allowed in San Francisco. However, as with any of these codes, they only reach so far before another code or governing entity has jurisdiction. So, while roosters are allowed, there are noise abatement laws. You just have to use good judgment about your location and the neighbors.

Sanitation & Treatment: Most cities have laws against poor sanitation and treatment of animals. If an inspector were to drop by they would want to see healthy well cared for animals with appropriate space, clean bedding, and ample and clean food and water. If they see otherwise, they can impound your animals and penalize you ($$).

Number of Animals: Haven’t found restrictions on the number of pets an Oakland resident can have. San Francisco limits pets (of any kind, except insects) to four.

Animals at Large: So, even chickens wandering off your property are considered “at large.” My turkeys recently went for a long walk and ended up in traffic on Grand Avenue. They were contained; picked up by animal control and impounded. Animal Control was kind enough to charge me only one impounding fee for the flock and one fee for animal shelter labor, rather than per bird. Be aware of the fines associated with keeping livestock. By now, my turkeys are no longer part of the winning homesteading equation I was working on.

Fowl for Food: It is lawful in both Oakland and San Francisco to keep, kill, and prepare your own animals for food, provided it is in a humane way. I found this out by calling animal control. This code falls under their jurisdiction.

Since part of my motivation for keeping livestock is for expressing my own cultural practices in regards to food, it is imporant to me that I be able to prepare my food by hand at my own home. I am quite interested what the codes are city by city and will be calling around to report back on a later post.

Sick Animals: Another Animal Control question. In Oakland, it is lawful to kill a diseased animal yourself. In fact, if you do not handle the situation or sacrifice the animal to Animal Control, you can be penalized. In San Francisco, someone with proof of SF residence must sacrifice the animal to Animal Control. In SF, you cannot kill a diseased animal yourself.

Burying of Dead Animals: Not sure about San Francisco, but in Oakland all animals must be buried under four feet of soil in the location they were found dead or on your own property, with exception of cats, dogs and birds. they must be buried under only three feet of soil.

I am quite interested to know how livestock laws differ from city to city and hope to include more on small livestock other than fowl. For today, this is it.

Three coops later, a search for some nice hens for friends, and a chicken dinner has landed me with three turkeys. This year having a load of chicks inspired some rotation of the old chicken coop. By this, I mean some older hens have been tagged for dinner. It has been my original intent to experience the full cycle of chicken keeping from raising chicks, collecting eggs, and lastly making The Mexcian stew called mole with hens that don’t lay anymore. My chickens have never really been pets exactly. However, it has been a long time since I was that involved in my meals. My family prepared their food when they had a small farm years ago. My grandparents have the constitution to raise animals for food. It is part of our culture and traditional way of doing things. However, there is a big difference between being raised with a cultural value and practicing it. At least, these were the thoughts running through my mind as I killed, plucked and eviscerated my first hen.

Turns out, I am fine with it. With the proper set up the task is fast and clean. To prepare myself, I did what any self respecting person in today’s world would do. I researched it online. There are some rather descriptive blogs that walk through the process. While I will likely record and blog the next hen, I was too concerned with the steps the first go around to take any notes or pictures. Instead I set my laptop on the outdoor cleaning station during the process and clicked through the steps at: http://www.butcherachicken.blogspot.com/.

Having successfully prepared and cooked the hen emboldened me with the inspiration and courage to find a heritage turkey to raise for Thanksgiving. Summertime is a busy time for chicken, duck and turkey exchange on craigslist. It seems that those of us who ordered in the spring now have large flocks of young birds on our hands and are looking to sell, trade, or give them away. My turkeys are from a gentleman that asked for bags of feed in exchange. This same gentleman has a front yard full of ten foot sunflowers and an excellent sense of humor. He also has excellent taste in turkeys. He currently has Black Spanish, Blue Slate, Royal Palm and Narragansett breeds available. I went to trade for one bird only. I am not sure how I walked away with three. I think it was the prospect that the beautiful Narragansett may have been a male/female pair (now named Nash and Fern). I was quickly whisked away by the idea of raising heritage turkeys. I selected a Royal Palm tom for the holiday. My little brother and I managed to slap together rather decent turkey housing within an afternoon. Now starts the fun of keeping them warm, well fed and disease free.