A few years ago I moved into a house in the
country (well, Holliston), with a bit of land, fenced in garden, and… a chicken
coop. Mercifully, the previous owners did not leave chickens behind, and I
convinced my husband that knowing NOTHING about raising poultry, we’d best wait
a bit before starting a flock. As a librarian, I committed to doing my research
before diving into a new endeavor caring for living creatures.
At a family get-together I discovered that a
distant cousin had chickens, and asked her “What do they eat?” Her answer:
“Everything,” seemed glib and less than useful. Nowadays when asked the same
question, I offer the exact same answer. I field many inquiries about chickens,
and a handful stand out as the most common. After just three years of
chicken-wrangling, I don’t pretend to be an expert, but I shall attempt to
answer some here.
Q: What do they eat?
A: Everything. Well, not everything, but we do
feed them: leftovers, garden weeds, grass clippings, oyster shells, desserts,
cat food, and (gasp) chicken, and eggs. They don’t grasp the notion of chicken
or egg-eating as cannibalism, and we only introduce leftover cooked eggs, so
they don’t develop a taste for their own freshly laid eggs. On their own they
enjoy insects, earthworms, and Lyme Disease carrying ticks. Dave Ingham, in Backyard Chickens: How to Keep Happy Hens,
confirms, “Hens are omnivorous, meaning they eat anything.”
I didn’t know based on the “everything” response
that the birds also dine on “crumble,” a supply of food that stays in their
coop for everyday consumption. Chicks get one formula, youngsters consume a
“starter/layer” formula to encourage egg development, and when fully grown, hens
graduate to “layer” variety. Crumble contains a mix of grains, vegetable
protein, animal fat, vitamins and minerals, including calcium important for
strong eggshells. The familiar term “chicken scratch” refers to a blend of
seeds and corn (like bird seed) we toss around the run as a snack they enjoy
“scratching” for in the dirt. Our hens love apples, fight over salmon and animal
fat, and have no interest in asparagus.
Q: What do you do in the winter?
A: Chickens have managed to evolve and survive
all over the world for centuries, and I think they tolerate winter better than
I do after a few rounds of shoveling snow. However hearty though, cold climates
require provision of some heat when temperatures drop below freezing. We use a
red heat lamp in their coop to provide warmth without messing up their
circadian rhythms. When they feel cold, hens huddle together and cuddle keeping
each other warm (and cute). Following a D.I.Y. tip from a backyard chicken web forum,
we made a basic heater to prevent their water from freezing. We cut a hole in
the side of a Christmas cookie tin, put in a light bulb with a cord attached,
and placed their waterer on top.
Q: Do you need to have a rooster to make eggs?
A: Sorry, reader – you may feel awkward, but the
time has come for us to have The Talk. No, you don’t need a rooster; single
ladies make eggs too. Just like women, hens produce eggs. Human females during
their fertile years generally create one per month, with or without a man. In
both species, the male comes into the picture to fertilize an egg, potentially making a baby. Our Casanova rooster
enjoys “fertilizing eggs” indeed, but we collect eggs every day or so, in
advance of embryos developing into chicks.
Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens explains
the tendency of “broodiness,” when hens feel a maternal instinct so-to-speak,
and would prefer sitting on their eggs to hatch them instead of continuing to
lay. Some breeds get more broody than others; ours couldn’t care less about
offspring.
Q: Don’t you hate store-bought eggs now?
A: Nope. Some may feel this way, and I do prefer
mine straight from the coop, but I love eggs and even indulge in Dunkin’ Donuts
bacon egg and cheese breakfast wraps from time to time.
Q: Do your neighbors get mad?
A: Fortunately we have enough buffer space between
yards to, hopefully, protect folks from the rooster’s pre-dawn wake up calls.
Local ordinances vary, partly based on potential rivalries bound to stem from
chicken coops in close proximity to neighbors’ bedrooms. Ours have never
complained… although we do bring them a fresh dozen now and then.
Becoming a backyard chicken farmer turned out
much easier than I expected, and requires minimal work after the initial setup.
The Backyard Homestead includes
beginner-level information about selecting breeds, and the life cycle of egg
production. The library has titles devoted to building chicken coops, including
How to Build Chicken Coops, by Daniel
and Samantha Johnson, and a volume from the For
Dummies series. If the whole family gets involved, check out A Kid’s Guide to Keeping Chickens, by
Michelle Caughey.
To enjoy and get creative with all of those
farm-fresh eggs, I consult Michael Roux’s Eggs,
All About Eggs, by Rachel Khong, and D’lish Deviled Eggs, by Kathy Casey.
When the refrigerator starts getting too crowded I turn to deviled eggs,
quiches, and tortilla Española to use many at once. I bring fresh eggs to
parties in lieu of beer. I give them as thank-you and get-well-soon gifts. For family
Easter festivities the colored egg responsibilities fall to me.
Aside from the culinary benefits, my top reason
to raise chickens is because they make me smile every day. I sit in front of
the run and watch them like fish in an aquarium. I laugh at their stupidity and
marvel at their smarts. I try my hardest not to get attached, but cry when a
bird dies due to natural causes or at the hands (or talons) of a predator. Silly,
pretty, fun, and entertaining, our little flock adds tremendous joy to our modest
homestead, and we have no regrets about repopulating that inherited coop.
