WHY WE DON’T SIT WITH THE CHICKENS

I wanted to give my children (even tho they have mostly grown) an experience that they didn’t receive in the first half of their lives living in a city. I also wanted a place where my grandchildren and future grandchildren would love to come to and find it engaging and captivating, even if it was just a “backyard.”

Raising chickens has been one of the most entertaining and inspiring things I’d ever done.  We devoted a little more time than we should probably admit to as we would watch them, sit and talk with them, and discuss and research them. The excitement of a new chicken owner is totally insane and actually IS engaging. Keeping a backyard flock of chickens is effortless and easier than you might think! Chickens are simple pets, and for the most part, they have very little need. What we love about having chickens is that they give back! There is just something exceptional about a farm-fresh colorful egg! It’s a real treat!
Here’s what we have learned if you’d like to have some of your own backyard chickens!

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

You’ll need a coop for the chickens to sleep in at night. Chickens are delicious treats for foxes, skunks, raccoons, even cats, and dogs, and so chickens must be protected from these predators! You can easily turn a small shed into a coop, build your own, make a chicken tractor or purchase a pre-built coop. 

• The coop should allow for ventilation for air to circulate.
• You will need a roosting bar (emulating a branch on a tree) for the chickens to perch on at night.
• Your coop will need a few nesting boxes available for the hens to lay eggs in.

If you are raising chickens in your backyard you’ll probably want to build a chicken run. This is an enclosure that you will need for them to have a limited range and also prevents them from wandering into your neighbor’s yard!

You will need a container for water and one for food.

WHAT DO CHICKENS EAT?

Chickens will need protein, minerals, and grit for their gizzard. Many people buy layer pellets which are available at any feed store. For our chickens, we have gone as organic as possible trying to avoid GMOs and sprayed grains. Instead, we provide scraps from our table, dried herbs, weeds, and fresh cuttings in the summertime, and homemade grits made from their very own eggs. In the wintertime, they are given wheat to keep them warm. Chickens also eat bugs, which happens to be one of the great reasons people keep chickens. Our girls love eating grasshoppers, worms, and mosquitoes!

OUR ROUTINE

To give you an idea of a typical day at the homestead here is what we do for our chickens:

Morning: Around 8:30 am they usually are supplied their fresh food and water, their beds are turned over and fluffed, and then we check for eggs.
Afternoon: Check for more eggs again and give chickens a daily treat. We also check water making sure it did not freeze, or it has become too hot in the summertime. 
Sundown: 

Shut their coop door and put up their perching bars (bars are taken down during the day for easier access to walk through the coop) to protect them from predators. During the winter months, they’ll also appreciate scratch grains before bed because digesting them has a warming effect. We have tons of old wheat that we give them before bed. 
Once a week: The pen will get a cleaning! We rake the bedding out of the coop and replace it with fresh. Also, we will scrub their feed and water dishes. 

ENTERTAINING A CHICKEN

We learned quickly that chickens can become bored like children and when they are, they will start pecking each other which can cause a lot of havoc. What we have done to solve some of this was to make sure their chicken run was full of things for them to do.

Some of the things were:

• Built a few low shelters out of crates and window wells to give them a place to hide, for shade, or explore.
• We added old tires and filled them with ash for their dust baths
• We also throw their daily treat around the run so they have to go find it.
• We have created during the fall compost hills we turn over a few times a week for them to scratch at.
• We put an old tree branch in the run for perching

WHY WE DO NOT SIT WITH OUR CHICKENS NOW

It is funny how the “new kids” on the block are now just part of the daily life in the backyard. Once a novelty is now a reality. When I hear the rooster crow it is expected now.  Things we love and might have been obsessed over have become just another part of the daily routine. Now, when my grandchildren come to visit it is just predicted to see the animals, collect the eggs, and say hi to Honey the hen. It is just the norm now to hear Mr. Darcy crow to warn the others that 3-year-old Hanson is around the corner.  Many times I forget about the chickens as life has just moved on, and there is other work to do than to sit and chat with the ladies. Now it is just all part of the homestead life you will find here and these things will become part of our family history as we pass these experiences down to our children!