Chicken Tips

I had been feeling overwhelmed off and on as I learned more about raising chicks. Chicks are evidently a lot trickier to take care of then grown hens. There is so much advice out there – don’t use shredded newspaper or they’ll slip and die; put rocks in their water dish so they don’t fall in and drown; be sure they have just enough heat the first week, and then back it off by so many degrees every week after. . . . The tips were endless.

This reminded me of my years running a small non-profit. People were always coming up with a new suggestion, great idea, or helpful tip. My approach was to embrace them all. However, often times suggestions simply weren’t practical or made no sense given the size of our staff. So I would sift through these helpful hints, and use what worked for the organization, letting the not-so-helpful tips sink to the bottom.

When it came to raising chicks, I read up plenty, searched the Internet, and talked to lots of chicken owners. I was overloaded with tips just like at the non-profit. Luckily, I’ve had lots of experience sifting through advice!

There never is a perfect time

We had gone back and forth about when we should get the addition to our family. It seems there is never a good time. We were trying to coordinate their arrival around my brother’s wedding, as we would be gone a week for the festivities. We wanted to be properly educated and have everything set up just so – the coop, the chicken run, and the fence. Of course we wanted Ryan’s list of crucial chicken raising questions answered properly.

Surprisingly, that night when I shared this information with Ryan, we both came to the sudden realization that we had better act now – as in why wait until the chicken coop is patched up, and the chicken run is built? Since the chicks would be living inside with us, we had two whole months to get to those details.

So the next day we went to get our chicks. We were reminded that we can spend our whole lives planning and preparing for special events. At some point we just have to jump in and do it. I remember trying to decide when was the ideal time to get married, or when we should have our first child. It seems there is never a perfect time. At some point we have to go for it!

A Lesson from the Chicken Lady

I felt it was important to visit the “farm store,” (as we call it) before actually bringing the chicks home. I wanted to check out the place, talk to the chicken experts, and have a feel of what to expect when we did finally decide it was time to bring home our chicks.

When we arrived we could hear chicks peeping the moment we opened the heavy doors. A young, long-haired woman was cleaning the chick cages, located strategically, right near the entrance. Watching her deal with all that smelly chicken poop did give me reason for pause. As we talked, I hoped I could look past the poop, and see chicks for what they really are.

I struck up a conversation with this chicken assistant, hoping to glean all sorts of information. At one point I mentioned something about how happy they would be living with us outside in their chicken coop. She looked at me aghast. “Outside? Chicks have to be housed indoors for at least the first two full months, until they have their feathers. They will freeze to death if you keep them outside.” I knew she was thinking, “What kind of insensitive person is this?”

Silly me. I had assumed that since both the chicken and the egg (it doesn’t matter which came first) come from the outdoors, that they would thrive in their natural habitat. This clearly is not the case. I felt embarrassed that I could be so clueless as to think they would survive any where else but in a warm, secure, indoor environment.

Researching Chickens

What a surprise it was to learn that we weren’t the only ones with the great idea of raising chickens.  I quickly became overwhelmed with the enormous amount of information out there – friends of friends, books, magazines, and the Internet.  We’re not just talking in general terms like Amazon.com or Wickipedia. 

 

There are chicken chat groups (http://backyardchickens.yuku.com) web sites on how to raise chickens, and even information that farmers pass on about how they solve problems related to chickens.

 

Problems you might wonder?  Yes, like how to keep fresh water out for your chickens when the temperature is below zero.  One farmer suggests putting out warm water, another changes the water more often in the winter, trying to get to it before it freezes.  Some people actually use heaters under their water troughs! 

 

Let’s just say there’s a whole new world.

 

Life Lesson:  Who knew there was a whole world of chicken lovers out there?

What will the Neighbors think?

Ryan (my husband of seventeen years) wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of having a flock of smelly birds wandering around our back yard.  “They’re not very smart you know,” he quipped.  “But they’re soooo adorable,” I argued.

Besides that, we are already over committed with raising our three children, and trying to have rich personal lives ourselves.  Ryan enjoys photography, teaching kids karate, and all things computer.  I teach indoor cycling, just formed a book club, I spend countless hours in the kids’ classrooms, and I’m working at developing a social life in Salt Lake City.  We moved here about a year ago, and it’s been a crazy time of transition.

The kids talked about writing persuasive essays to convince their dad that he needed the responsibility of a bunch of chickens on top of the never-ending to-do list. 

At our family meeting Ryan came up with a substantial list of things that would need to be resolved before we could make a commitment to chickens: 

• What will the neighbors think?
  
• Is Tanner allergic to chickens?
• Does the city allow chickens to be raised in a back yard?
• Who is going to clean the smelly chicken coop?
  
• What about avian bird flu and other diseases?
  
• Who will watch them when we are out of town?

Somehow, after getting these important questions answered, Ryan warmed up to the idea.  The enthusiasm in the household for sweet, quirky, hens must have been contagious.

I knew Ryan was on board, several weeks later, when we happened to run into a friend of ours at 5:30 in the morning as we were headed for the gym.  I’m not too verbal at that hour, so though I was delighted to see Fred I didn’t have much to say.  But I heard Ryan say to him in kind of an excited tone, “We got chickens!”  Through my early morning grogginess I smiled.  Ryan was on board! 

My Very Own Hobby

As a stay-at-home mom with so much time focused on kids, I was excited about the idea of having a hobby of my own – chickens!  Perfect.  They are cute, quirky, friendly, and to top it all off they lay wholesome, fresh eggs of various colors.  How great is that? 

I envisioned myself researching the topic, holding tiny fluff balls in my palm, admiring them as they grew feathers, and perhaps someday even selling eggs to the excessively expensive gourmet market down the ally way.  (It’s called Liberty Heights Fresh, but we like to call it “Fresh Heist” because it’s so expensive.)

The chickens would be all about me.  My hobby.  Something just for me.  So much of my life revolves around kids and family activities that the idea of my own thing energized and delighted me.

Well, it didn’t take long until my hen hobby started morphing into something more.  The kids were so excited about the prospect of chickens that they could hardly contain themselves.  Tanner (age 12) quickly found dozens of chicken related web sites – his favorite being mypetchickens.com.  Thea (age 9) our vegetarian who doesn’t really care for eggs, started to be more interested in them when she realized they could come from her own backyard hens.  Maya (age 6) was taken by the idea of holding a fuzzy little creature as it peeped away.

Darn it.  This was supposed to be my thing.  I didn’t really want to share it.  And yet, I struggled because I wanted my family to experience the joys of chickens and to share in my newfound passion.   Reluctantly, I realized that this was one of those passions destined to become a family affair. 

Only one problem.  What about my husband Ryan?  He wasn’t the slightest bit interested in chickens, unless we were talking about his very favorite meal, barbecued chicken.

An Idea is Hatched

It’s funny how just a simple, ordinary experience can have an extraordinary impact, forever changing your life and those around you.  I tell the kids that every morning when they wake up they don’t know what kinds of interesting, exciting surprises await them.  Sometimes I forget that is true for me too.

We certainly didn’t think anything would come of walking to our Unitarian church one day this past winter.  Snow was starting to melt, the sun was out, so on the spur of the moment I asked Tanner (12) and Thea  (9) if they wanted to join me for a walk to church.

We stumbled upon some chickens in someone’s backyard as we headed up the hill.  Later, on the way home, Thea asked if we could take a route that would take us by the chickens again.  Much to our delight, the owner of the chickens was there, so we struck up a conversation, admiring her three happy hens. 

As a young girl, my family raised chickens on a small farm, so I was intrigued with the idea of hens growing old in a city neighborhood. It was a fun treat to see and enjoy our neighbor’s pet chickens, but we didn’t think about it much more.

Then, as we were just about home, it hit me, “We could have chickens!”  We already have an old, chicken coop in the back yard.  Ryan and I often joke about it, because it is wasted space, just storing junk, which we need to haul away.

And so, by taking that walk, on an ordinary day, the idea of raising chickens was hatched.