Chickens!

New Chicken Run!  https://youtu.be/D_6_74GgbyY

FAQ about our Chickens

How many chickens do you have?  

Right now we have 7.  4 are "spring chickens" which we got as baby chicks in May 2024.  The 3 other "old" chickens vary from 3- 5 years old.

What happens to your chickens after they get old?

Our chickens will live out the remainder of their life peacefully and eventually will die of natural causes.  We will not kill them or eat them.

How old do chickens get?

It varies a lot.  We just had one die of old age at age 6.  

Hey!  They are in a pen!  I thought they were free-range?

They are free-range.  The pen is very large.  We have to protect them from predators.  In this area, those are coyotes, who love to eat chicken.  We've lost several chickens to predators and don't want to lose any more.  As of June 2023, we've even expanded the chicken run!  https://youtu.be/D_6_74GgbyY

Do they have names?

Not really.  We sometimes refer to them as their breeds or their color.  We have a variety of types, but sometimes it is just easier to refer to them as white chicken, or red chicken, or Australorp, or Sussex.    

What happens to them in the winter?

Chickens mostly will be penned up in the coop the entire winter.  They don't like snow on their feet.  We'll put insulative windows on the coop and add some heating to it.  Chickens grow extra feathers to survive cold weather.   When we have super-cold weather, we bring them inside to live in a tent in our basement.  When there isn't snow on the ground, they can go outside.

Are they hard to take care of?  

No, chickens are super easy to take care of.   Building the coop and fence was the hard part.  Chickens want to be somewhere secure each night, so we open the door to the coop each morning and close it each night.  They return to the coop before the sun sets.  They have water and food provided to them daily, and they eat bugs and worms in the yard.

What about your other pets?

We have several cats and a dog.  The cats have been taught to leave the chickens alone, or risk getting pecked.  The dog doesn't seem to mind them either.  She's never been pecked, but just doesn't care about them.

Do you have roosters?

No.  We like to control our population pretty tightly, and we have all girls.