Our First Chickens: A Journey Toward Self-Sufficiency and Simple Living

Last week we added some exciting additions to the farm!

We got our first chickens.

We should have done this a long time ago. There were many times that we thought we were ready to get chickens, then we'd end up holding off and months later we’d say, “we could have fresh eggs by now if we'd gotten them.”

When organic eggs cost anywhere from $5 to $9 per dozen, we realized we needed our own.

Between the eggs we eat and use for baking/French toast, we use at least a dozen per week.

With the three hens we have now, we expect to have 15-18 eggs per week when they are mature. And there's always room for more chickens.

As part of our effort to be more self-sufficient, eggs is a great place to start.

Our setup

We borrowed a wooden box from some friends along with their feeder and water systems.

On the bottom of the box, we put nonslip material (the kind you'd put in a drawer). On top of that, we put pine shavings. We wanted to avoid any treated material and we read to avoid cedar.

We also read that chicks will try to eat the shavings and this can cause them to die. We put paper towels on top of the shavings.

The paper towels have turned out to be a great idea for a couple of reasons:

• It’s so easy to clean! We just roll up the paper towels and lay down some new ones.

• I bring the dirty paper towels down to the livestock guard dogs (and the alpacas) to bring the scent down before we introduce the actual animals.

We are using organic chicken starter feed. They are loving it.

We have a warming plate. We added a heat lamp that we only turn on some of the time when we're around and available. We want them to be somewhat cold tolerant and not constantly accustomed to warm temperatures.

Our loss

The sad truth about having animals and life in general is that there will inevitably be loss. We just didn't think it would happen so soon.

These chicks were shipped to us overnight. When they arrived at the post office, my husband went to pick them up. He said one was under the warming pack and was unwell. By the evening, it seemed all were perky and found food and water.

The next day, I noticed one wasn’t moving under the warming plate. I picked her up and she wouldn't open her eyes. We spent the afternoon trying to give her water and keep her warm. We gave electrolytes and vitamin B12. I found her perished later in the afternoon when I snuck out without the kids to look. I quickly buried her and told the kids at dinnertime.

We’d been shipped an extra chick, one more than I ordered, and just as quickly as we celebrated our bonus, we lost her.

She had been named Sky. In the future if we have more, we may name one Sky after her.