We Really Raise egg laying hens
This
site is authored by myself, Maria, a work at home mom living with my
family on five acres on the East Coast of the United States. I get many
of the ideas and topics for the article shere from my son's chicken
flock. While we
are saving up for our own self-sufficient homestead and the ability to
raise livestock
and large, productive gardens, we are building up a
mini-homestead on the land we have.
Growing up, I participated in 4-H for many years and helped raise
several backyard poultry flocks. We raised baby chicks into adult hood,
collected eggs, and ran away from aggressive roosters. I remember
vividly the day my grandmother showed us how to eviscerate, pluck and
dress freshly killed chickens. They went from pen to freezer in an
afternoon.
Chickens "run" in my family, it seems. My parents currently own a
commercial chicken operation (yuck!), and my
sister and her husband raise pastured chickens for sale in their local
area (which, lucky for us, is our local area, too). They also keep six
laying hens in their backyard – even though it is a subdivision and
they just have a small yard. You can, too!
My husband made us a new chicken coop recently that houses
our
backyard chicken flock of 14 laying hens and one rooster. I
love having backyard
chickens and hope
your family enjoys the adventure as well.
If you have any comments or questions, please email me at eireitalia @
gmail.com (no spaces).
Best,
Maria
Go home to Egg Laying Chickens or explore more pages on our site, or other chicken-realted resources online:
Top viewed Pages (Says Google):
Best Coop Plans:
How to Build a Chicken Coop detailed plans and construction guide for making backyard coops.
These chicken coop plans and building guide are the best I've found, and purchased them myself to build our first coops. There are five different chicken coops included, beginning with the most basic double-story ark and culminating with the largest design, the Chicken Barn with attached screened-in chicken yard. I want to use their plans again for their largest chicken coop, the chicken barn, when we are ready to upsize our chicken flock's habitat.
Recommended Chicken Books:
- Homemade Living - Keeping Chickens: All You Need to Know to Care for a Happy, Healthy Flock by Ashley English
- Storey's Guide - Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow
- Barnyard in Your Backyard - A Beginner's Guide to Raising Chickens, Ducks, Geese, Rabbits, Goats, Sheep, and Cattle
Favorite Chicken Quotes
“ A chicken you eat only once — eggs a hundred times." ~ Tajikistani Proverb
“ You cannot cook one half of the chicken and leave the other to lay eggs." ~ Sanskrit Proverb
“ You don’t have to kill the chicken to get eggs." ~ French Proverb
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From The Blogs
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Buy Baby Chickens
We're ready to start a new flock of egg laying hens for abundant egg production this Spring. Follow along as we choose the hatchery, pick our breeds and care for new chicks.
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Caring for Pullets in Winter
In taking care of our not-yet-laying hens, I’ve learned a few things about winter care for a small backyard poultry flock. These tips are for adult birds; any very young birds will likely need to be moved indoors to a heat-lamp-warmed cage in a barn stall or basement, during the coldest months.
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