Happy Homesteading: Chickens

Something that has caught my attention in recent years is the homesteading movement. People all over the United States are realizing our economy stinks. Bad. And it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Prices for everything are constantly going up and income and job availability are going down. As a result, people are jumping on the homesteading bandwagon and finding all kinds of ways to become less dependent on "The Man" and more self sufficient. I think it's a good thing. It saves loads of money and makes you appreciate everything a whole lot more too.

In fact, we recently joined the movement after moving into a place that conveniently had most everything our family would need to get started with homesteading. Our journey began with our huge garden, then foraging through the back few acres of the property for wild greens/herbs/fruits, and now we are the proud owners of 41 laying hens and 2 roosters (Angry Bird and Big Boy).

Here's a few snapshots of our new chickens (or "cluck clucks," as our sweet little girl Olivia calls them) :

Big Boy, the rooster, showing his stuff

She's an Isa Brown and lays brown eggs

Don't know what kind she is but I love her gold flecked neck

Big Boy loves the camera!

This is a pretty Barred Rock hen, she also lays brown eggs and loves when the kids pet her

A group of girls chillin' in the hen house.

A group of girls but in the back you can see Angry Bird, our other rooster

I'm happy to announce we haven't had to buy eggs since the we began keeping chickens on the 11th of August. We have a blend of white, brown, green, and blue eggs from our four or five different breeds. Each hen who is able to lay eggs will lay one every 24 to 26 hours. We knew 13 hens wouldn't be enough for long so we added 28 pullets (hens less than one year old, most of ours just coming into lay) and 2 roosters to the mix on Monday the 15th, which threw the other girls laying off a bit because we only had 2 eggs in the hen house on that day. In a few days they should get back on a laying once a day schedule. Mmmmm.

So why keep chickens?

• They are relatively low maintence
• Better poultry welfare standards
• Fresh eggs are way tastier than store eggs
• They are often nutritionally better for you
• You can avoid nasty antibiotics/hormones/etc.
• They're kind of amusing to watch
• It teaches your children responsibility and life skills
• Some money savings: mostly if you have dual purpose birds that can lay for a few years, then be eaten. Otherwise you pretty much break even by the time you buy feed, birds,etc.

 I'll be chronicling my chicken keeping and other homesteading on the Happy Moms blog because I believe more families need to take proactive steps toward buying local, self-sufficiency, homesteading and doing more to be financially responsible. What better place to do this than in the rural Thumb area, where most of this homesteading world is easily available at our fingertips!

For more on keeping chickens:

http://www.mypetchicken.com/

http://smallfarm.about.com/od/farmanimals/a/htkeepchickens.htm

http://www.chickenkeeping.com/

http://howtokeepchickens.org/