chickens

Chickens are without a doubt our kids’ favorite thing to raise. Before moving here, my only up-close interaction with chickens was a couple of evil roosters, owned by a friend’s grandparents, who would chase down any and every living thing just to attack it. Truth be told, I was afraid to have chickens. However, I tried to indulge Superman’s urge to farm something before we even moved here by buying a few meat birds. It was my sincere hope that if we could make it work, he wouldn’t feel the need to leave our home.

“Home” was in a beautiful development featuring one acre lots with wooded backyards. Most of our neighbors never bothered to visit their outdoor space, in large part due to its steep terrain. We happened to be blessed with just about the only lot that leveled out into a decently usable space on the other side of the ravine, so our yard was essentially a private oasis. Our POA prohibited the ownership of chickens even though our township allowed it, but I knew several people did not follow that [and other] guideline. So, after searching for, but not finding, land we could agree on—and me wanting desperately to stay in my dream home—I decided we would join the rebel crowd of chicken owners in our neighborhood. I ordered about 2 dozen meat birds from our local hatchery, reasoning that we could camouflage them in the woods and no one would ever know.

The day our meat birds arrived, our current farm hit the market. Superman didn’t want the project of turning an Amish house (with no electric) into something we could live in, but our friends lived less than two miles down the road and knew the previous owners. They were able to confirm that the house did indeed have wiring in it, so I talked Superman into at least looking at it! [You may be asking yourself why I would do that since I didn’t want to move in the first place, but once he sets his mind on something, it’s going to happen. I knew we would move sooner or later, so why not make sure it’s something the whole family was comfortable with? Plus, I knew my kids would not object to living down the road from their best friends!] After the first showing, we knew it was the one, but we had to get rid of those chickens before listing our house! Maybe being rebellious doesn’t pay after all…

That didn’t stop us from taking a risk though, we ordered egg laying chickens for the week of our closing date. Our friends took in the meat chickens and we were able to get them back just after moving in (and just in time for butchering), and the egg layers arrived soon after that. Though now we have a variety of egg laying chickens, we started out with Welsummers. Our whole premise is to raise the animals in our care as naturally as possible, and Welsummers are amazing foragers and decent egg layers. Of course, we quickly added variety to the mix. Our friends picked up some bargain chicks at the local farm supply store giving us barred rocks and an orpington, and we couldn’t help but buy some olive eggers at TSC in hopes of having green eggs in our basket. Later, Speedy asked for easter egger chicks for his birthday, which we obliged. Who wouldn’t want unique chickens that lay a variety of tans, blues and greens?! Lastly, we added a few buff orpington hens in hopes to use them as a more sustainable form of meat. However, things did not work out with that plan, so they are just part of the laying flock now. Speaking of sustainability, we learned rather quickly that hatcheries give themselves a certain percentage of leeway on correctly identifying chicks’ genders. We now have multiple roosters because of it, so we decided to invest in an incubator. We hatched about 30 chicks this year to allow ourselves to have a sufficient number of eggs to offer to the community in addition to having a steady supply ourselves. Also, chickens only lay steadily for about 2 years before dropping their production, and since our chickens have been around for about a year, we thought it would be a good idea to avoid a lapse in egg yield.

Currently we are experiencing molt, which means that despite our best efforts we are not producing as many eggs as we normally do or would hope to. But at one point over the spring and summer, we were collecting over 40 eggs a day, which allowed us to preserve some for this season, which we knew would eventually come. That’s especially great, because we can still afford to share and sell eggs while still eating good quality protein that we harvested previously. It reminds me of the time of plenty and famine. God is always so good to us, providing our needs—even in times of want—if we just trust him!