Migratory birds

Hi everyone, we're joining from Nicaragua where we live in the city of León. Over the last year we've accumulated 9 mixed-breed chickens and a rooster in our backyard, and at the moment we have two teenage chicks and a broody hen on eight huevos azules (blue eggs). We're learning everything from our Nicaraguan campesino friends (who have lifetimes of experience) but this website has been super helpful! We just saved a golden hen from impacted crop by isolating her, massaging her crop every 20 minutes and feeding her virgin sesame oil, thank you BYC! I'm originally from NY and my partner is English, we're planning on spending most of the year here but seasonally migrating to and from the north. I've worked on US farms and with Nicaraguan small farmers for the last seven years, and we're contemplating some innovative small farm businesses to start down here, including expanding to a larger but still artesenal egg production (called "huevos de amor" here - love eggs! as opposed to "huevos de granja" or farm eggs).

There are lots of differences in the climate and resources available in Nicaragua, the breeds that are available through reliable farm supply stores are limited to what the large scale production farms want and the other breeds available are all for cock-fighting. None the less, we hunted around in the countryside and found mixed breeds that are all different and lay many different colored eggs, including bright white, robins egg turqoise, and olive green. In terms of feed it's a similar situation - the farm supply stores sell purina pellets (no organic options), and we went with that for a while but found that they contain hormones that block hens from becoming broody (which we wanted to happen!). So now we are following some traditional formulas and purchasing sorghum, corn, and soy from the local markets and getting them ground at our local tortilla mill down the street, and supplementing with lots of kitchen scrapps and some home grown greens.

So we are looking forward to getting to know you all, sharing our unique tropical chicken adventures with you all and learning from all your expertise!