Like most people, I always loved looking at the little chicks when Spring time came and the ranch supply stores had an abundance of the little fluffs. We ultimately decided that we wanted to start with chickens after one of our dogs picked up a tick while visiting a different part of the state. Although, ticks are not incredibly common in our particular area, we just didn’t like the idea of finding one in the first place. Additionally, we have really large spiders and what better snacks for chickens then all the creepy crawly bugs I don’t like?
We went and picked up all our little chicks and then had to figure out what we were going to do about a chicken coop. We shopped around and looked over hundreds of Pinterest ideas for a coop before finally designing one ourselves. For us, we just weren’t impressed with the quality of the premade coops or their cost and decided that since we had the means to build our own, that’s what we would do. This year, we have some revisions and additions to make to our coop after seeing how it faired with the wet Washington winter, but overall, I still think it is a grand design.
Originally, I was letting our little flock free-range across our five acres and it was so fun to see all our chickens having unrestricted freedom. However, after fixing the chicken sized holes they were constantly digging in the flower bed I had worked so hard on, something had to change. Who knew they would only go for that one spot when they had literally five acres to enjoy? They still get to be free-range chickens but unless supervised, they have their own little area fenced around the vegetable garden all to themselves. This really worked out well for us and the design of our property because it uses space that we otherwise didn’t have plans for and it comes with some lovely pest control benefits around my vegetables.
We also really wanted to cut down on our trash and waste. Vegetable scraps that we have leftover from dinner or other safe foods that we didn’t consume in time, make for happy chickens. I love watching them do their little chicken run when I walk near their coop in search for snacks. Adding vegetables and fruits to their diets gives us a chance to create some quality fertilizer. We use hay that doesn’t make it to the horses as their bedding and then combine their droppings/hay mixture with our horse manure. I am excited to see what kind of compost goodness we create this summer once we can get some heat added to the mix.
Are chickens more cost effective than going to the grocery store? I haven’t done the math but I do get excited to see the all the fresh eggs every day. I personally can’t tell the difference in the taste but I at least know how my chickens are being raised. This first year, we have tried several brands of organic feeds and I feel they were all about the same. This year, I plan to do more research on making my own chicken feed and following through with consistent fermenting to have even healthier chickens. This summer stay tuned for our first time processing a large quantity of birds for the freezer.
If you're hesitating about raising chickens and you have the means to get a few, I highly recommend it. If not for the fresh eggs and meat, then purely for the joy of watching them be silly.