Check out Joyce Vances Substack - She is a former federal judge who provides brilliant legal commentary but also is a poultry fan and posts frequently about her feathered lovelies. The photos are enough to make you want them all!
I love chickens! I love their shapes and sizes and different colorations. I have been tempted since moving here to have some but that’s the one thing I worry about too... can I keep them safe? Also, I don’t have any helping hands to clean out the nice warm and dry coop, which I don’t have. But I am an artist and have decided to be content photographing, drawing and painting them. So that’s that. Your piece was so entertaining. I loved it and can’t wait to see how the chickens become part of your creative process maybe:)! Your children will be delighted!! Oh yes... you are getting chickens:)
My husband has dozens of them. For 3 months out of the year, my garage smells awful because he uses one of the bays as a brooder. The eggs are nice but if my husband ever died, my entire flock will be given away and I will return to buying store-bought eggs....not sure if I'm pro or con, but misery loves company so join us in chicken farming.
I will NOT get chickens. I know people say, “Never say never.” But I really, truly (italics, highlight, bold that, please) cannot imagine a world in which I would have them. I briefly flirted with urban homesteading (though it never got past a few tomato plants and raccoons in my compost pile because I had to move), but I always knew I couldn’t be all in if it meant keeping chickens. Your Mr. Rooster anecdotes are the stuff of my nightmares. I grew up around chickens too in Bangladesh, and I was always amazed at how dumb they were. Pecking each other poop to check for bugs?? Why?? Whyyyy?! I’ve had lots of friends who had chickens, and they talk about having to do therapy for them because they were eating each other’s eggs. I have enough drama in my life without chicken drama. Hard pass for me. 🙅🏻♀️ (But I did enjoy this post; it made me actual LOL.)
See--I relate to this too! Once we had an entire clutch of eggs grow up to be roosters. One day they were fluffy chicks and they next they were trying to kill each other. The violence of it!
Oh absolutely loved this compilation of memories, so well connected and meandering. On that note: I held a chicken this year for the first time, my sister-in-law has a coop and I was so excited but then realised that chickens smell, a lot. Like how bad is that stench?
An uncanny collection of chicken relevance! Some friends of ours just got backyard chickens and my daughter is in love. My Mom had chickens for a while and had one that loved to be held, so I loved the story of the one that asked to be picked up! Sometimes I think I’d like to have chickens, if only to have happy eggs. Those mass chicken farms make me so sad.
Chickens have been a delight for our family and especially our children. They have a good place to practice care for a living creature and to encounter and mourn death when it inevitably occurs.
Free ranging hens are so fun to watch but the way they rip up any semblance of landscaping is atrocious and the poop left on the patios and such is something I am SO OVER.
We’ve had vicious toddler-attaching roosters who have had to be “re-homed” (aka turned into rooster soup by someone other than me because my kids would never forgive me for taking the life of their beloved but very mean pet).
This very week we are witnessing one hen gone broody hatching her babies and it’s so darn exciting. The chicks are really the cutest.
The multi-colored eggs are aesthetically very satisfying not to mention delicious and wholesome enough to eat raw in my morning coffee or afternoon smoothie.
I so appreciate your perspective! I’d love for them to free range (I’ve been told they really help with tick control) but I’ve also been told that the 4 bald eagles that live in our valley will definitely go after them. Cant stop imagining my children watching a beloved chicken being snatched and carried high into the sky. 🫠
I have been told -- but have not verified -- that if at least four of your flock are black chickens, the birds of prey will perceive them as crows and leave the whole lot alone?? If true, it’s a brilliant hack. We are in the woods, so ours have plentiful shrubberies and trees to take cover under, and they also take cover under our porch, like it or not
When I was younger, I traded my ‘clean the chicken coop’ chore for ‘make breakfast twice a week’. Best deal I ever made; I hated cleaning out the muck. But are you getting chickens? Yes, it sounds like it 😅 maybe someday I’ll have small humans convincing me that cleaning up chicken poop is worth their delight
All of my kids (five of them, 8 and younger) adore our chickens, but my 7-year-old...that kid will do anything for his birds. He will clean out the coop, feed and water them, and climb in there and snuggle each one of them. One of our spring chicks turned out to be a rooster, and he is sweet as can be (although zoning laws say we can't keep him, which is tragic). I'm convinced it's because my boy tucked that bird under his arm and took him around with him as he played, and held him like a baby, talked chicken to him, and all the things. It's messy, it's stinky, it took me four months to build the coop, but even if I didn't love the chickens (I do), I'd have them for the opportunities it gives my children.
Yes, you should! I miss my chickens so much. They were so funny and demanding and quite affectionate. But even in my urban setting they weren’t safe from furry (opossum and/or raccoon) oppression and they dwindled. We just couldn’t bear the heartache of losing them again.
It can be a lot of work upfront, but there are definitely ways to keep them safe! We don't have much of a predator problem where we live, but my cousin does. They buried the fence a foot down to deter diggers, put an electric wire along the top of the fence (it's tall, like six or seven feet), and one along the bottom, too. I know there are tricks out there for sky predators, too. Weighing the work/stress with the potential benefits of having chickens is the real trick. I did find that the work part was mostly at the very beginning though, just developing that infrastructure. After that, it's not too bad!
I was laughing out loud, especially about that mean rooster. When I was a kid we had one named Bagawk (Like the sound of a chicken, you know? Wow, I've never spelled name out before, I don't even know how!) and I always took my dog out to the coop with me because she would chase him off for me. I love watching my kids with our chickens. They learn responsibility and the rewards (eggs!) of hard work, and other important life lessons ("Mom, why do the eggs only turn into chicks if we have a rooster?"). We've lost a few here and there, and had opportunities to talk about death and grief. And I hardly have to do I thing. I mean, I built the coop and pay for the food and all that, but the kids feed and water them, clean out the coop and the run, and if they ever escape (we don't have enough room for free-ranging, dreaming of our future farm still), I just sound the alert and five little chicken keepers run around gathering them up. There are definitely downsides, but my vote is always in favor of chickens. Or...ducks!! I want to try ducks! Apparently they are smarter and nicer than chickens haha.
Now I have to get chickens just so I can name one Bagawk....
Seriously though--this is so wonderful to read. Believe it or not, my grandparents got each family unit a baby duck for another Easter (truly--what were they thinking?!) and I fell in love them. Mine was named Cricket and she followed me everywhere I went. Big fan of ducks!!
Check out Joyce Vances Substack - She is a former federal judge who provides brilliant legal commentary but also is a poultry fan and posts frequently about her feathered lovelies. The photos are enough to make you want them all!
Thank you! I will.
I love chickens! I love their shapes and sizes and different colorations. I have been tempted since moving here to have some but that’s the one thing I worry about too... can I keep them safe? Also, I don’t have any helping hands to clean out the nice warm and dry coop, which I don’t have. But I am an artist and have decided to be content photographing, drawing and painting them. So that’s that. Your piece was so entertaining. I loved it and can’t wait to see how the chickens become part of your creative process maybe:)! Your children will be delighted!! Oh yes... you are getting chickens:)
So much misery, so much joy, and yes, the chickens are coming. At least get the ones that lay blue or green eggs?
Mandatory!
My husband has dozens of them. For 3 months out of the year, my garage smells awful because he uses one of the bays as a brooder. The eggs are nice but if my husband ever died, my entire flock will be given away and I will return to buying store-bought eggs....not sure if I'm pro or con, but misery loves company so join us in chicken farming.
Haha! This may be my favorite comment so far...
I will NOT get chickens. I know people say, “Never say never.” But I really, truly (italics, highlight, bold that, please) cannot imagine a world in which I would have them. I briefly flirted with urban homesteading (though it never got past a few tomato plants and raccoons in my compost pile because I had to move), but I always knew I couldn’t be all in if it meant keeping chickens. Your Mr. Rooster anecdotes are the stuff of my nightmares. I grew up around chickens too in Bangladesh, and I was always amazed at how dumb they were. Pecking each other poop to check for bugs?? Why?? Whyyyy?! I’ve had lots of friends who had chickens, and they talk about having to do therapy for them because they were eating each other’s eggs. I have enough drama in my life without chicken drama. Hard pass for me. 🙅🏻♀️ (But I did enjoy this post; it made me actual LOL.)
See--I relate to this too! Once we had an entire clutch of eggs grow up to be roosters. One day they were fluffy chicks and they next they were trying to kill each other. The violence of it!
Oh absolutely loved this compilation of memories, so well connected and meandering. On that note: I held a chicken this year for the first time, my sister-in-law has a coop and I was so excited but then realised that chickens smell, a lot. Like how bad is that stench?
Oh god the smell. You're right.
An uncanny collection of chicken relevance! Some friends of ours just got backyard chickens and my daughter is in love. My Mom had chickens for a while and had one that loved to be held, so I loved the story of the one that asked to be picked up! Sometimes I think I’d like to have chickens, if only to have happy eggs. Those mass chicken farms make me so sad.
While I am trying to convey the joys of chickens, your posts about sheep are giving me a real itch to get some sheep!
Chickens have been a delight for our family and especially our children. They have a good place to practice care for a living creature and to encounter and mourn death when it inevitably occurs.
Free ranging hens are so fun to watch but the way they rip up any semblance of landscaping is atrocious and the poop left on the patios and such is something I am SO OVER.
We’ve had vicious toddler-attaching roosters who have had to be “re-homed” (aka turned into rooster soup by someone other than me because my kids would never forgive me for taking the life of their beloved but very mean pet).
This very week we are witnessing one hen gone broody hatching her babies and it’s so darn exciting. The chicks are really the cutest.
The multi-colored eggs are aesthetically very satisfying not to mention delicious and wholesome enough to eat raw in my morning coffee or afternoon smoothie.
So, pros and cons. Just like with any animal.
I so appreciate your perspective! I’d love for them to free range (I’ve been told they really help with tick control) but I’ve also been told that the 4 bald eagles that live in our valley will definitely go after them. Cant stop imagining my children watching a beloved chicken being snatched and carried high into the sky. 🫠
I have been told -- but have not verified -- that if at least four of your flock are black chickens, the birds of prey will perceive them as crows and leave the whole lot alone?? If true, it’s a brilliant hack. We are in the woods, so ours have plentiful shrubberies and trees to take cover under, and they also take cover under our porch, like it or not
I saw two juvenile bald eagles try to pick up a calico cat!! Terrifying. They weren’t able to pick it up but they sure were trying!
When I was younger, I traded my ‘clean the chicken coop’ chore for ‘make breakfast twice a week’. Best deal I ever made; I hated cleaning out the muck. But are you getting chickens? Yes, it sounds like it 😅 maybe someday I’ll have small humans convincing me that cleaning up chicken poop is worth their delight
What do you think the chances are of convincing my small humans to do the cleaning? 😅
All of my kids (five of them, 8 and younger) adore our chickens, but my 7-year-old...that kid will do anything for his birds. He will clean out the coop, feed and water them, and climb in there and snuggle each one of them. One of our spring chicks turned out to be a rooster, and he is sweet as can be (although zoning laws say we can't keep him, which is tragic). I'm convinced it's because my boy tucked that bird under his arm and took him around with him as he played, and held him like a baby, talked chicken to him, and all the things. It's messy, it's stinky, it took me four months to build the coop, but even if I didn't love the chickens (I do), I'd have them for the opportunities it gives my children.
Your kid sounds like magic. ❤️
I mean, it worked to assign me that chore until I was 11, so… I’d say pretty good odds you can assign them that?
Pretty slim lol
Yes, you should! I miss my chickens so much. They were so funny and demanding and quite affectionate. But even in my urban setting they weren’t safe from furry (opossum and/or raccoon) oppression and they dwindled. We just couldn’t bear the heartache of losing them again.
This is a major fear of mine--that I won’t be able to adequately protect them.
It can be a lot of work upfront, but there are definitely ways to keep them safe! We don't have much of a predator problem where we live, but my cousin does. They buried the fence a foot down to deter diggers, put an electric wire along the top of the fence (it's tall, like six or seven feet), and one along the bottom, too. I know there are tricks out there for sky predators, too. Weighing the work/stress with the potential benefits of having chickens is the real trick. I did find that the work part was mostly at the very beginning though, just developing that infrastructure. After that, it's not too bad!
"I'm getting chickens, aren't I?"
yep
Seeing the weather this morning I wonder if flooding is happening around the farm?
No, we are just outside of the flooding. We have had a lot of rain, but it has moved through quickly. Thank you for checking. ❤️
I was laughing out loud, especially about that mean rooster. When I was a kid we had one named Bagawk (Like the sound of a chicken, you know? Wow, I've never spelled name out before, I don't even know how!) and I always took my dog out to the coop with me because she would chase him off for me. I love watching my kids with our chickens. They learn responsibility and the rewards (eggs!) of hard work, and other important life lessons ("Mom, why do the eggs only turn into chicks if we have a rooster?"). We've lost a few here and there, and had opportunities to talk about death and grief. And I hardly have to do I thing. I mean, I built the coop and pay for the food and all that, but the kids feed and water them, clean out the coop and the run, and if they ever escape (we don't have enough room for free-ranging, dreaming of our future farm still), I just sound the alert and five little chicken keepers run around gathering them up. There are definitely downsides, but my vote is always in favor of chickens. Or...ducks!! I want to try ducks! Apparently they are smarter and nicer than chickens haha.
Now I have to get chickens just so I can name one Bagawk....
Seriously though--this is so wonderful to read. Believe it or not, my grandparents got each family unit a baby duck for another Easter (truly--what were they thinking?!) and I fell in love them. Mine was named Cricket and she followed me everywhere I went. Big fan of ducks!!
That sounds like something I would totally do as a grandparent 😂 Cricket is such a cute name! We also had a rooster named Drumstick. He was mean, too!
Our London back-garden chickens indisputably changed our lives for the better. I just wrote/podcasted a happy/sad Substack about them.
Chickens are the most humorous of creatures. I wrote about our ladies a while ago, and reposted last Thanksgiving (to give myself aposting break): https://technocomplex.substack.com/p/the-ladies-out-back-turned-me-into. They are great, those chickens.