Chickens!
The urban homesteader's gateway drug.
The temptation of farm-fresh eggs
I used to work on a boutique hotel property where we raised chickens and goats. I really wanted nothing to do with them. The one time the chefs asked me to gather eggs I was a bit scared to walk in and just take them - who knows how those beady-eyed birds are going to react? But once we moved into this house there was a dog run, unused (we're cat people) and it just looked like the perfect space to raise chickens. And as inflation ramped up and we began to hear about egg shortages in the news, I decided to jump in to raising laying chickens.
It's been a journey since starting with our first flock of 6 chicks. I obsessively researched breeds, focusing in on finding the best temperment (mellow) that lay the most eggs, then selected for less important features from there. Certain breeds are flighty, broody, flyers... I learned there's a whole new language to learn with chickens. I've also become more aware of how many of our idioms are derived from these crazy birds. "Pecking order" and "fly the coop" become very clear when raising these gals.
I ended up with three breeds for the initial flock: two each of Speckled Sussex, Blue Astralorp, and Golden Laced Wyandotte. Since then we've lost three of them to predators and added (and lost) a few others including White Laced Red Wyandotte, Easter Egger, Blue Laced Barnevelder, and Silver Sussex.
When buying chicks you're told the odds are about 1 in 6 that you'll get a rooster. Our odds came through with one of the Easter Eggers, who grew into a little cockerel and was eventually named Brewster the Rooster. He's the only one who has received a name so far - I find it too hard to distinguish between the same chickens of a breed to bother naming them all. They respond quite happily to whatever I call them, generally derived from their coloring.
This summer I decided to try hatching a clutch of eggs under a hen. We have a couple that tend to go broody so I pulled a clutch together of a dozen eggs and my Golden Wyandotte came through for me. She was an excellent mother, sitting on the eggs (even stealing an extra to pull into her clutch) all the way through to hatch. She's protected them from the colder weather (they hatched on Halloween) and I like to watch her guide them through the yard, showing them what to eat and how to practice roosting. She's protective of her babies, but the flock has thankfully integrated the babies very easily without attacking them.
Barnevelder (Barney) pullet flanked by Easter Eggers. Young Brewster sits on the left.
Our first ever egg! Laid by the lady in the photo. A long awaited, exciting moment.
Growing chickens
From one coop for 6 chickens we're up to three coops for 11. The original group lives in the red house on the right. Red mama and her four babies live in the white house on the left. And the rest of the young adult hens live in the middle blue house. Funnily, the entire flock lays eggs in one single nest box in the red coop. Makes it easy for egg gathering! It's always funny to watch them wait in line for their favorite box.
Gallery
Pics of the girls at different stages of their growth, as I've learned their personalities and preferences.
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Everyone is right when they tell you to plan for more chickens than you think you want. When you lose one and want to replace it for egg production, you have to get at least two because they're social and need a same-age playmate. Throw in an extra just in case each time that happens, and your flock size expands quickly!
Prebuilt coops tend to overstate their capacity. I did a lot of research on our first coop, sized for six, but only four made it to full size adulthood. Once I brought new girls home, they were not enjoying having to share space. We went through many nights of pulling various hens off the roof at nighttime and shoving them into the coop after dark until I finally had the idea to install spikes on the top of the roof to keep them off it. But they were telling me they needed more space.
Invest in an auto-open and close door for the coop. It's worth every penny.
Tips I've learned along the way
Hatching new chicks under a mama is SO much more convenient. I never plan to have baby chicks inside my home again. While adorable, their litter travels everywhere and creates messes, and it really tortures my poor cats who can't get to them. I loved that she managed the whole process naturally and we were able to let them grow outdoors, even in our chilly late fall weather.
Pre-plan a way to separate flocks. Different aged chickens eat different food and you can't combine young with mature hens until they are large enough to defend themselves (unless there's a protective mama in the picture). I've spent hours fashioning and refashioning fences to separate flocks. Planning for differently aged flocks (and different harems if you end up having more than one rooster) is important.
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