Raising Chickens From Eggs Is Child's Play

Raising Chickens - It's baby chick season, and thousands of newbie chicken owners will bring home days-old chicks for the first time.

Over the past few years, there has been a growing nationwide trend of urban residents choosing to keep backyard chickens. Even for inexperienced poultry people, raising chicks to egg-laying maturity (16 weeks) is fairly simple if you know what you're doing and follow a few simple rules.

Here are the basics to help you get started;

Which to buy first: the chick or the egg?

When buying chicks for the first time, there are some important things to note. Most communities have ordinances prohibiting roosters (Myth Buster - Hens DO NOT need a rooster to produce eggs), so many chicken owners prefer to buy only female chicks (Always check you are allowed to keep chickens in your area).

Unfortunately, determining the gender of baby chicks is virtually impossible, so when purchasing chicks, those labeled “straight run”will include both female and male chicks, so you need to have a plan of action if you have boys as they don't lay eggs and will make loud noises when they're older. One solution is to raise the cockerels for eating, but not everyone is comfortable doing this. If you do eat meat, then you should consider this option as you know the chicken has led a good life.

Pullets are supposed to be all females, but it has been known for an occasional chick to turn out to be a cockerel. Sex-linked chicks are cross-bred chickens that produce gender-specific color variations at birth, so purchasing black or red sex-link chicks ensures a flock of just hens.

Most farm stores also sell home incubators for people who want to hatch their own baby chicks, and a search of local online classified ads will produce several potential local sources for fertile hatching eggs. Those who go this route should know that success rates for home incubation is not 100%, so be prepared for this. Maintaining proper heat and humidity levels is critical, and the eggs need constant monitoring for 28 days.

Providing the basics for baby chicks

A baby chicks primary needs are the same as any living animal: shelter, food and water. Shelter for chicks is a warm, dry box called a brooder. A cardboard box will work just fine for "one-time use." A plastic storage tote or a wooden box is a more durable alternative.

The farm stores that sell chicks are good sources for inexpensive feeders and water containers specially designed for chicks, but a small plastic or glass container will also suffice. Chicks are messy, so food and water should be changed at least a couple times a day. Bedding made of wood shavings or several sheets of paper will help keep the brooder and the chicks clean. Replace it every two or three days or as needed.

Warmth is easy to provide with an inexpensive reflective heat lamp, available at any hardware or farm store. The lamp should be about a foot above the baby chicks and the temperature in the brooder should be between 90 and 95 degrees.

The best rule of thumb when raising chickens is to always watch your birds behaviour, and chicks are no different. They will tell you if they are too hot or cold. If they are cold, they will be huddling under the lamp, chirping loudly. If they are hot, they will be as far from the lamp as possible. Ideal temperature is reached when the birds appear to be acting normally, some eating, some drinking, some sleeping, etc.

Raise the heat lamp a little every week to help the chicks adjust to normal temperatures. After four or five weeks, they should be able to survive without supplemental heat as long as they are kept in an area that is dry and free of drafts.

At about four weeks, the chicks will have enough feathers that they can flutter up like a helicopter. At that point the brooder needs a screen or lid on top to keep the chicks contained. The chicks can be moved outside at about six weeks, but they still need shelter and possible supplemental warmth depending on weather conditions. They will also need a protected enclosure to keep them safe from predators like raccoons, foxes, and neighborhood cats and dogs.

Depending on the breed, chickens will start laying eggs between five and nine months. The combs and wattles of hens will be bright red and fully developed when they reach egg-laying maturity.

Health and safety tips for handling baby chicks

Baby chicks can carry salmonella germs on their bodies, feet and feathers. That's why it's so important to practice proper hygiene when handling chicks, especially for children.

Baby chicks are fluffy, cute and fun to hold, but when you handle a chick, the salmonella germs get on your hands. If you touch your hands to your mouth you can get sick, so always follow these tips for handling baby chicks:

[1] Wash your hands with soap and warm water after handling chicks.

[2] Make sure young children wash their hands after handling chicks.

[3] Never hold baby chicks while you're eating.

[4] Do not nuzzle or kiss baby chicks.

[5] Do not use the kitchen sink to clean a chick’s cage or feed or water containers.

[6] Keep chicks out of family living areas.

[7] Chicks and ducks are not good pets for children under 5 years old.

Follow these simple rules and raising chickens will be both fun and safe.

Raising Backyard Chickens

Raising Backyard Chickens

So you’ve decided to commit to a more sustainable lifestyle and are ready to stock it with a flock of happy, egg-laying chickens. Congratulations, you’ve reached the fun part :-)

Before you go out and buy chickens, you need to ask yourself a few questions: do you want hens only, or do you want a rooster for breeding? Do you want to raise them from chicks or buy adults ready to lay? How big a flock do you want?

But the most important question you need to ask is – Are backyard chickens legal in my area? Check you city, county, and state ordinances. You don’t want to invest time and energy into a flock that will be taken away from you. While your at it, talk to your neighbours. Make sure they’re OK with chickens. Promise them some eggs once they start laying. If you’re neighbours enjoy your flock, and the eggs you give them, they probably won’t call the police on your sustainable, educational, community enriching project.

If you want to raise chickens at home, four is the absolute maximum that can live comfortably in it, provided you don’t let the chickens range. If your yard is big enough that you can let the chickens out every day, and only lock them up at night, you can probably get away with a bigger flock. In general, a rooster needs at least 15 hens to keep him busy or he’ll harass the hens too much. So for small flocks, a rooster is out (you’re neighbours will be pleased). Despite common belief, you don’t need a rooster to make hens lay eggs.

What you really should do is spend a few hours browsing all the articles on this site, try and visit someone local with a backyard flock, and spend a few weeks deciding if raising backyard chickens is really something you want to do. In general, pets should never be an impulse decision.

I personally started my flock with day-old chicks, but before you buy chicks, make sure you have a nice, warm brooder set up somewhere inside and safe. Chicks need it very warm to survive. We used a utility light with a reptile heat bulb to keep everyone warm. You can tell if the chicks are too cold because they will become very loud and huddle together.

Once you’re ready to buy some chicks, there are many options. You can find chicks on Craiglists, but we got ours from a local breeder, and later, from our local farm store. You can also order them through the mail from several large scale breeders. Raising Backyard Chickens

Make sure they have plenty of water and food they’ll grow shockingly fast the first few weeks. Depending on how big your brooder is, they can stay there for a couple of months. Once they’re fully feathered, you can move them outside.

It will take them a few days to get used to their new home, and you’ll probably have to pick them up and put them in the coop each night until they get comfortable going up on their own. Once they’ve settled in to their new home, your only duties are to guarantee that they have food and water. Chickens will stop eating when they’re full, so you can leave them with multiple days worth of food. Water should be changed every few days.

Even if you’ve bought pullets, there’s still a chance that you’ve got a rooster in the mix. It will often be hard to tell when they’re young, but once they start crowing, you’ll know, and they’ll probably have to go. We tried to find someone to take our roosters (we ended up with three boys out of the first five chicks) but no one wanted them where we live. If you are going to get chickens, you either need to have someone ready and willing to take your roosters, or be prepared to take care of them yourself. I ended up slaughtering our three roosters, which is a very unpleasant option for many. If you have a small flock, a rooster may end up harassing your hens to death, so often keeping them is simply not an option.

Once your flock is happy and established, you’ll find that they require very little maintenance. You need to check on their food and water everyday, check for eggs once they’re laying, and clean out their coop every month or so. You’ll discover that they’re not nearly as noisy or smelly as many non-chicken owner claim. If you’re coop does start to smell, it means that you need to clean it more often and if they do get very noisy, than something is stressing them out.

You’ll also find that they’re far more entertaining than you originally expected. They have personalities, hierarchies, and strange quirks. I discovered that mine are absolutely terrified of logs. We put a big piece of willow in the run for them to play on and instead they huddled terrified in the far corner until it was removed.

Chickens are a great educational tool for teaching children about ecology, developmental biology, and food awareness and an even better tool for teaching adults about sustainable living. With the right set up, a small flock requires about as much effort to maintain as a house cat, but, of course, house cats don’t lay eggs ;-)

Raising Backyard Chickens

Funny Chicken Video - Techno Chicken

Funny Chicken Video

Techno Chicken - The John Travolta of the chicken world ;-)



Keeping & Raising Chickens At Home

Keeping & Raising Chickens At Home

Keeping & Raising Chickens At Home

Chickens are not only a great source of backyard food, they can also become well-loved pets.

First we wanted our eggs free range, so as not to support battery farming. Then we wanted them organic, without any of those nasty chemicals involved.

Now we want our eggs one stage more wholesome – fresh from the garden and our very own brood of hand-reared chickens.

Keeping chickens has grown in popularity over the last few years, much as traditional crafts and home cooking have done.

Perhaps it is the recession, or the example of TV chefs like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver, or simply our desire to get in touch with an age gone by. Whatever the case, these days you’re almost as likely to see a few Rhode Island Reds or Welsummers in the average back garden as the traditional dog or a cat.

For some, like Philippa Pickworth, keeping chickens came as part of a whole new way of life. Philippa, a former lawyer, and her IT manager husband David gave up their busy lives in Berkshire two years ago to live the good life in Llanon, West Wales.

They now keep pigs, lambs and honeybees as well as six chickens on their smallholding, Banceithin, and rent out eco-holiday cottages on their land.

Getting chickens was all about egg production for Philippa and David.

“It’s a small holding, the whole point was to have as much as possible to provide for us, and also when we do the hampers for the holiday cottages they get some free eggs and then they can buy more,” Philippa explained.

“That said, now we’ve got them, they are very good fun. Two of our original four haven’t laid very well recently but the thought of dispatching them is awful. We’ll keep them as pets now even if they stop laying completely, because you do get attached to them.”

Chickens make excellent pets, responding well to handling and becoming tame, social and even affectionate. Some varieties, such as bantams, are said to be particularly docile and suited to families with children.

After the initial set up they don’t cost very much to look after, and don’t need a huge amount of maintenance. They are also productive pets, with good layers producing up to an egg a day during their peak years.

And of course there’s the possibility of enjoying them as part of a Sunday roast – although most people find that once they’ve had their birds for any length of time, the last thing they want to do is see them on the dining table.

Deborah Longman would count herself among those for whom chickens are definitely more pets than producers. She and her husband Phil got their first chickens three years ago and now have 13 of them, including a few exotic varieties.

“I have some hybrids, some pure breeds; I’ve got a couple of ex-battery hens,” she says.

“I’ve got a real mixture of colours as well, and egg colours – brown, white, blue, green.

“We’ve always been into veg growing and things like that, so it’s about self-sufficiency but they’re pets too; pets with benefits. They’ve got fantastic characters; they really have their own personalities.

“I love it. It’s a whole new world, chicken keeping. There are shows you can go to – I don’t show my birds but I go to the shows and some of my friends show their birds so I go and support them.”

Deborah, who lives in Neath, has seen interest in chicken keeping rise even in the short time she has been involved in the scene, and she now runs classes for those who want to find out more.

“I get a mixture of people,” she says. “You’ve got people who are looking at downsizing their careers and getting a small holding, there are families where the parents think it’s good for the children to know where their food comes from.

“You get some quite middle class people coming along and then you’ve got more working class people. It’s something that’s appealing to a lot more people now.”

Keeping & Raising Chickens At Home

Which breed?

If you are interested in joining the ranks of those who boast a brood of feathered friends in their garden, you’ll need to decide what breeds you’re interested in. Chickens can be pure or hybrid, with hybrids generally being easier to keep.

Some varieties are bred for their egg laying capacity – such as Leghorns and Black Stars – while others such as Hubbards and Cornish-rocks make good broilers, ie they’re well suited to ending up on the table.

Good looking varieties, which make ideal show birds or simply add a touch of glamour to the garden, include such beauties as the Sumatran with its long, shiny green-black feathers, and the fluffy white Sultan, which has a wild crest and feathered feet.

It is important you remember that chickens are social animals, so never buy just one. And consider whether you – and your neighbours – can handle the noise of a cockerel. Unlike in cartoons, they don’t just crow in the morning, but all through the day.

Although it is possible to buy chicks, most experts suggest getting your chickens at ‘point of lay’, ie when they’re about 18 to 20 weeks and ready to begin their egg-producing life.

It’s worth remembering that pure breeds tend to stop laying during the winter months, between November and February, so if you like your fry ups all year round then you’re best off with a hybrid.

What you’ll need

As with any pet, there is no end to the number of toys and treats you can spoil your chicken brood with, but the list of essentials isn’t all that long.

First up is a place for them to live. One of the most popular new brands on the market is the Eglu, a sort of plastic kennel that makes keeping chickens a doddle even in the smallest of gardens. At a minimum of £340 a pop though, they’re not exactly cheap, and many owners prefer to knock up a roost and a run with a few bits of timber and a roll of chicken wire. Instructions are easy enough to find on the internet.

Although some people do keep chickens as indoor pets, a garden is by far the better option. It doesn’t need to be big though, and don’t worry if you don’t have grass; as long as you supplement their diets to include greens, chickens are more than happy to scratch about on wood chip.

If you do have grass, they’ll soon tear it up, so you might want to get a mobile run and keep moving them. Whatever the case, it is important to ensure they are secure, otherwise your brood may well fall foul of predators.

You’ll also need a feeder and drinker, both of which come in cheaper plastic versions or higher quality ceramic or metal versions. Choose solid ones that stand above the ground or hang, and are less easy to knock over or to get dirt scratched into them.

Another useful piece of equipment is a grit hopper, where your chickens can access the grit that helps them digest their food.

Regular purchases include bedding such as wood or hemp chip, feed pellets (you can get specialist ones for layers or growers, for example) and, if you want to spoil your brood, treats such as mealworms and corn.

After that, it’s up to you whether you want to treat your new pets to play areas, dust baths, pecking blocks, bales of straw to climb – the list goes on!

Tips from the experts

If you’re still not quite sure whether you’re well enough equipped to get started, there is plenty of information around in books, specialist poultry magazines, on forums and blogs online, or you could even do a course like the one Deborah Longman runs.

The best thing to do is to start small, with just a few chickens, preferably hybrids which lay throughout the year and are, according to Deborah, altogether easier to look after.

“With the purebreds they get broody,” she says. “They just want to hatch their eggs so they’ll sit on the eggs and get quite moody. Which is fine if you’ve got a cockerel and you want to hatch them, but otherwise the hens can lose condition and get quite ill.”

Talking to other chicken owners is another great way to find out how it’s done, and you’ll discover all sorts of tips and tricks which will make your experience a lot easier, as well as finding out where the pitfalls are.

Philippa, for example, learned through experience that looks aren’t always everything when she chose a couple of attractive Welsummers.

“The Welsummers are very beautiful, they’ve got beautiful golden feathers, which is why we got them,” she says. “But they’re the ones which are laying less well now.”

She’s got a few wise words for anyone who wants to free range their chickens: “If you are going to let them free range and you want parts of your garden to survive, make sure it’s chicken proof. They will soon give your garden a makeover.

“Also, you’ll need to keep an eye on where they’re laying. I found a whole stash of eggs under the herb bushes the other day.”

But, she adds, don’t worry too much about getting it right. Chickens really aren’t difficult pets to keep.

“Neither of us had any experience with keeping chickens,” she says.

“As a lawyer I did lots of research of course, but it’s actually very easy to keep chickens. For all my reading it isn’t as complex as all that.

“They’re fairly self-sufficient, they require very little upkeep. I didn’t expect them to be so much fun. I could spend hours watching them pottering around.”

Deborah agrees: “The main things I’ve learned since I’ve got them is what incredible personalities they have and how they give you so much, not just eggs but affection.

“I thought they were going to be productive pets with the emphasis on productive, but now the eggs are a bonus.”

Keeping & Raising Chickens At Home

Top 10 Tips For Raising Chickens In Your Backyard;

My Top 10 Tips for raising chickens in your backyard;

1. Keep chicken coop clean with fresh water, food and remove droppings.

2. Give chickens enough space to scratch and peck and perch. No cages!

3. Always check on the chickens daily to observe their behavior in case of sickness (and for fun!).

4. Collect eggs daily.

5. Obey the guidelines and regulations of your particular city. Check with your local city hall first to determine if you can legally raise chickens and what the restrictions are.

6. Never chase chickens and approach coop area calmly.

7. Quarantine sick chickens immediately.

8. Diversify their diet of regular feed with fresh table scraps, bread, fresh veggies (especially green veg) and the occasional treat of corn. Mixing in some ground oyster shell with the feed will add calcium, which makes their shells stronger.

9. Keep them safe from predators and offer them some cover from above (They don't like hawks). They will need a nice dark box for laying, perches for sleeping and a run for scratching.

10. Chickens “clean” themselves by taking dust baths, but the odd dusting of mite powder does no harm. By rolling around in the dirt, they’re ridding themselves of mites. So give them access to a patch of dry, loose soil.

What Breed Of Chicken Should I Get?

Fun breeds that are more relaxed for backyards include Silkies, Cochin, Mille Fleur, Americana, Plymouth Rock, Jersey Giant and Polish.

How Much Does A Chicken Cost?

Expect to pay about $3 to $4 per chick for more common varieties. $12 to $15 for a 4 month just before laying begins. Adult chickens generally will eat a quarter pound of feed a day. A 50-pound bag of feed is about $12.

Hens will start laying at about 16 weeks old. A good laying hen will produce an egg a day. Chickens are social animals and need company, so keep a minimum of four to keep them happy and healthy.

Musician Teaches Locals How To Raise Chickens

Nick Rupiper is up with the sun and doing his regular morning ritual of tending to his chickens.

The rest of the day for Nick’s growing family is spent laying eggs, snoozing in the shade and indulging in dirt baths to rid their feathers of mites and lice.

Life is good at Rup Nut Ranch high above the town of Sonoma, where Nick is educating one person at a time about how to raise chickens to be healthy, happy members of your backyard community.

The 30-year-old musician and poultryman, builds custom coops, sells fresh eggs, holds “Raising Backyard Chicken” workshops and serves as a consultant for people fixing to raise a few themselves.

Nick concedes he’s still barely scratching out a living; it’s his other job as a drummer with the Green String Farm Band that pays the bills. But he feels passionate about teaching people how to appreciate these endearing birds who not only give us fresh eggs but who will clean out your spent vegetable patch and patrol your yard for unwanted pests.

“I’ve gotten so much joy out of these animals,” he says, taking a shovel and scraping out the droppings from the chicken coop he built himself from $3 in scrap materials. “And people have so many misconceptions about them.”

In the past several years, interest in backyard chicken raising has soared, fuelled by the growing sustainability movement, concern about food safety and a spike in the cost of groceries.

J.P. Pellham, the chicken expert for Western Farm Center in Santa Rosa, said the demand this year has been “phenomenal.”

“I’ve sold many more chicks this year than ever before,” he exclaimed. Some Thursdays, when the newly hatched chicks would come in, he said he’d send 600 out the door in six hours.

“People would be lined up before we got to work in the morning,” he said. Unlike farmers, who treat their chickens as practical parts of food production, backyard hobbyists often regard their chickens as pets, he added, naming them and mourning them when they die.

Nick has named many of the characters in his flock, posting photos and sharing anecdotes.

There is Sweet Pea, “the nicest living being on earth,” he says, who comes to you went you call her name and who is given to perching on Nick’s hand for a quick nap. And there is his “main man” Elvis, an aggressive little bantam rooster. A Mille Fleur with fancy feathery feet, he’s too small to be dangerous. But he can be counted on to warn the ladies if a raptor is soaring overhead, and he will attack your ankles if you don’t watch your back.

People ask Nick what he loves about chickens, a question he admits makes him a little uncomfortable. He doesn’t want to come off sounding like a kook and stops short of saying they have personalities. But he says he does find their “individual characteristics” fascinating to observe.

“They’re easy to take care of, and they’re cute,” he says. “And with the right breed, they make good pets.”

Beginners should choose their breeds carefully. The smaller bantams are good for smaller yards and for starters. Look for more docile breeds like white Cochins, Americanas, who lay beautiful green eggs, traditional Plymouth Rocks and any of the Wyandottes.

Pellham, of Western Farm, which carries an average of 13 different breeds, warns against the more skittish white leghorns. But he says the orange Buff Orpingtons are big friendly hens and reliable egg producers.

Before embarking on any backyard operation, check with your local City Hall to see if they are even allowed within the city limits, and if so, what the limitations are. Laws vary. Rohnert Park bans backyard fowl. Santa Rosa permits them only on rural residential lots of at least 20,000 square feet.

Cities that do allow backyard chickens typically have setback requirements for chicken coops. And any coop above 120 square feet would need a building permit.

Healdsburg allows up to 10, but no roosters; Sonoma permits 16 birds per 10,000 square foot lot up to 50 birds and also bans noisy roosters (which aren’t necessary unless you want fertilized eggs.)

Nick says you will need a completely enclosed coop for laying and to keep them safe at night from prey animals. Western Farm sells smaller three- to four-bird hutches for a couple hundred dollars and small barns for about $500.

For added safety you may want to add an enclosed chicken run, although Nick says they can be let loose for limited supervision in the yard during the day. Chickens are great for cleaning out and fertilizing spent vegetable beds. But keep them out of landscaped areas. They can destroy a lawn in search of small insects.

They eat a varied diet with chicken feed as a staple with supplementary scratch, table scraps, stale bread and produce that may be a little wilted but still safe. Nick adds some oyster shells, which gives a little grit in the craw for digestion.

With a clean enclosed coop, the right food and room to run (about 5 square feet per bird), you can have a healthy flock. Chickens can live up to 8 years, but Pellham cautions that you should be emotionally prepared to lose them.

Local feed and farm suppliers can advise and set you up. Nick also is setting up a demonstration coop at the Sonoma Garden Park where hobbyists can come by and ask questions.

“There is a kind of revolution going on of having urban chickens,” he says. “And the scarier the food supply gets, the more people want to be connected to it. The great thing about having backyard chickens is that you can have complete control over at least one of your foods.”

Alice Coltrane, Elvis, John, Pigpen, the black-and-white speckled Gertrude and at least 100 more chickens cluck around his feet for their daily scratch as soon as he passes through the gate with his bucket. But this fine cut-up corn and seed is just a snack. Later, there will be a massive salad bar of kale, chard, curly-leaf lettuce, watermelon and summer squash spread out for their dining pleasure.

Bon apetite girls.

There Is A Backyard Chicken Revolution Going On!

It's official! There is a backyard chicken revolution going on at the moment, as raising chickens is taking the western World by storm.

Keeping chickens in the back garden is the fastest growing hobby in the UK, and state officals are being bombarded with permit requests to raise some backyard chickens in the USA.

Below are just a small selection of news items that are flooding the Internet on this subject;

Local residents hatching backyard chicken coops

Ventura County Star - Zeke Barlow - ‎6 hours ago‎

“Mad City Chickens,” a documentary about Wisconsin residents' fight to legalize raising chickens in an urban setting, will be shown. ...

Backyard farmersCity dwellers are discovering the joys of raising ...

The Register-Guard - Cheryl Rade - ‎Jul 22, 2009‎

Sandra Stubbs, Eugene deputy city recorder, says she has received an increase in calls inquiring about raising chickens within the city limits. ...

Williamstown workshop taps into phenomenon of backyard chickens

Advocate Weekly - Rebecca Dravis - ‎Jul 22, 2009‎

"I have noticed some neighbors and friends talking about raising chickens at home and thought this would be an interesting class," said Ivana Luttazi, ...

Urban Chicken Raising: Hip Pets?

Digital City - Tami Yu - ‎Jul 21, 2009‎

Blurring the lines between city and country, more and more urban dwellers are raising chickens (and collecting lots of eggs) in their own backyard. ...

No reason to fear backyard chickens Saraboo News Republic - Joan Wheeler - ‎9 hours ago‎

Raising more food in our own backyards increases the safety and security of our local food supply. Chickens that eat weeds, bugs and regular feed are ...

Area residents raising chickens for fresh eggs

Urbana/Champaign News-Gazette - Siv Schwink - ‎Jul 18, 2009‎

Yahoo! searches on "chickens for sale" is 162 percent higher than last year and searches on "raising chickens" is 576 percent higher than 2007. ...

Hens topic of Polson meeting

Montana's News Station - ‎16 hours ago‎

Crossett added that raising chickens in urban areas has become popular (like in Missoula, and usually ordinances restrict the poultry to hens only. ...

Silicon Valley residents try their hand at raising backyard chickens

San Jose Mercury News - Dana Hull - ‎Jul 20, 2009‎

And that puts him squarely in the middle of the latest fad for some intrepid urban and suburban gardeners: raising backyard chickens. ...

Monona council leaves chicken issue up in the air Wisconsin State Journal

Interested in raising chickens in the city

Examiner.com - Kristen Rezabek - ‎Jul 10, 2009‎

Some friends of ours have built a luxurious chicken coop in their back yard and are raising chickens. They have two laying hens Ms. Red, a Rhode Island Red ...

Landeens get multiple benefits from owning, raising chickens

Arizona Daily Star - Elena Acoba - ‎Jul 12, 2009‎

Chickens serve up more than eggs for Colette and Jonathan Landeen. The eight cluckers help keep the vegetable garden and the rest of the ...

Long live the revolution!

Traditional Buckeye Chicken Breed Makes A Come Back!

The Buckeye chicken was the creation of Nettie Metcalf in the late 1800s. Nettie was the only woman to create an American Standard Breed of chicken on her own. She was a hobby farmer who crossed one chicken with another over several years to create the Buckeye - a bronze-and-black-feathered, plump and tasty bird.

Popular at the time with local families who kept chickens, due to its hardy nature (Tolerated hot summers and cold winters), great egg laying capabilities and it tasted good as well. It was one of the most popular chicken breeds around until the Rhode Island Red arrived on the scene.

But numbers of the Buckeye are cwindling and there are only 350 documented breeding Buckeyes in the country, whic puts it on the endangered list.

But all that is set to change, as Akron egg farmer Jeff Brunty is expecting a shipment of the birds this summer and plans to breed Buckeyes through a program sponsored by the Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy.

Traditional regional breeds, like the Rhode Island Reds, Delawares and Jersey Giants have been left in the dust by broad-breasted birds who develop faster in crowded conditions. That makes the factory birds cheaper, although not as tasty as slow-growing birds like the Buckeye.

"If you put the Buckeye in a barbecue buffet, you might not notice the difference," said Chef Ben Bebenroth of Spice of Life Catering in Cleveland. "But in a six- or seven-course dinner with some chardonnay, you will. It has a more nutty, earth-toney, more developed meat flavor."

And the eggs taste pretty good too. The yolk of the Buckeye stands up firm and it's such a deep yellow it almost looks fake. Tests show the eggs have 50 percent more vitamin E, 35 times the omega-3 fatty acids and half the cholesterol. The meat has 20 percent less fat and twice as much omega-3.

The Buckeye also has a lovely temperament and are easy to handle. Perfect for your backyard flock.

So search out some Buckeye chickens in your area. The best way to find them is to call out 'Buck, buck..buckeye!' and see if they reply. Or you can check with your local poultry suppliers.

The first way is more fun though ;-)