I believe the first step toward homesteading or living more sustainably is chickens. My first introduction to keeping chickens was 3 years ago when my girlfriend, Jes, asked me what I thought about raising chickens. I said I wasn’t sure what we would need or how much care they require. Her response was to show me the box of 5 peeps (recently hatched baby chickens) that she just bought at Tractor Supply. I’ve learned a lot since then. I’ve learned to expect surprises and figure out how to make things work in a hurry. I’ve also learned a lot about the benefits of chickens, and the drawbacks. But I have to say the overall experience has been very rewarding.
All pets need 3 things: Food, Water, Shelter. Chickens are no different. Local organic chicken food is easy to buy. Plus they eat almost any kitchen scraps (plant-based preferred), and they love all the weeds you remove from your gardens. They always need clean water. And they need shelter to protect them from predators and keep them warm and comfortable at night.
We’ve learned that chickens are nature’s chicken nuggets. Everything wants to eat them. Over the years we’ve lost birds to Cooper’s Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks, and Possums. Other predators like Bald Eagles, Peregrine Falcons, Red Foxes, and stray cats attempted to catch them, but failed. The shelter serves for protection, but also for the most obvious benefit of chickens, a place to lay eggs.
There are also several positives to keeping chickens that we learned along the way.
Chickens are a system. They have inputs and outputs, serve various functions, and can make your life easier if you design it well.
Chickens take in food and water and output manure and eggs. They also love to scratch and forage in the ground for seeds, bugs, and plants. We love to put them to good use when we reach the end of a vegetable garden’s season. Set up a fence around the bed and toss the chickens in! They devour any leftover fruit, all the leaves, and all the bugs that went with it. They also leave behind lightly tilled soil with added fertilizer. Perfect for getting the next successive garden going. Plus the manure they leave in the coop and pen can be added to compost to make rich soil amendments for the future. And if you’re worried about the smell, biochar makes a great “scent sink”. Our neighbors were amazed that they could walk right over to the pen and still couldn’t smell anything foul (or fowl!). More on biochar in another post. Stay tuned!
