Our huge 8×12 coop still needs its cedar shakes and run put on to finish it off.
My husband and I are on a long-term goal of living as sustainably, and self-sufficiently as possible. Last year we installed a wood stove and have been loving our new heat source tremendously. Our second large project is poultry-raising. Specifically chickens.
I had hopes of getting this project underway last spring, but it just didn’t work out. Recently we came by a terrific offer to buy someone’s entire chicken operation, including their hand-made, uber tough (read: really heavy) coop. In addition to the challenge of taking on a full running flock of 26 chickens (instead of raising and slowly growing our own flock), the coop is 8 x 12 and presented an amazing feat of engineering (and logistics) to move.
We still have a long way to go in figuring out what will help us keep a sustainable flock in the long-term – including breeding techniques, which feels like a really overwhelming topic when I research it. In the meantime, I’m just enjoying having chickens all over our yard! Minus the poop, of course. They’re funny and quirky and their eggs are delicious.
We are planning on using our birds for meat as well as eggs, so I’ll mainly work on keeping (and eventually breeding) dual purpose breeds like orpingtons and wyandottes. The handsome roosters in the photo above are Black Copper Marans – very elegant and well-behaved boys; I adore them and would definitely either get or breed more. Oldest son named the two largest Fred and George for the Weasley twins in the Harry Potter books. I’ve become so attached to Fred in the one week we’ve had these birds, that he’s guaranteed to live a long, happy life – he definitely won’t be going onto our dinner table.
So there’s the really big challenge; as I get to know these birds as individuals (and have naturally found that I love them), I’m going to have to come to terms with the concept of killing some of them. It makes small game hunting (a topic for another article coming up) look appealing – at least I won’t have cuddled any of the animals I kill. Sorry if that sounded gruesome.
I’m sure there will be more posts to come about our chickens, particularly as I learn and try new things. In the meantime share your sustainable living efforts with us in the comments below!
Nice to see a post…. Hope you are feeling better… I would love to have chickens….but after I met my neighbor’s chickens , I couldn’t eat them anymore…. Michelle
Thanks, Michelle. I completely understand about having difficulty eating chickens once you get to know them. I’ll be struggling with that issue myself, I’m sure. Hope you’re feeling well too – I’ll be by the blog later today.
This is so cool! We can actually have chickens (no roosters) where I live. Since it’s a downtown, densely populated area, it’s pretty regulated. I’d love to have some (I think we can have up to 6), but our yard isn’t big enough for the chickens and 3 dogs. Especially since our dogs like to eat chickens. 🙂 We planted as many veggies and herbs we could instead. I still love the concept of having chickens for meat and eggs. Congrats on your new brood!
Hey Jennifer – good to hear from you. If you’re really into gardening and raising your own food, check out a book called the Quarter-Acre Farm by Spring Warren. It’s full of ideas for raising food on a small plot of land.
Neat. I will check that out. Thanks!
Nice to see you on the blog this week. Hope all is well. 🙂
I’d love to do the same. Unfortunately we don’t have land to do it. Good luck along your journey.
Actually, you can raise a few hens for eggs almost anywhere. There’s a great site for urban/suburban folks who raise chickens called The City Chicken (www.thecitychicken.com). If your town/city’s ordinances allow it (and most do), you don’t need much space for 4 or 5 hens. Give it some thought!