by Aimee
This spring we followed a neighbour’s lead for sourcing our backyard chickens and landed ourselves with an exceedingly good looking little flock of hens.
I had brought my gardening gloves when we went to pick them up, and insisted on inspecting each one from comb to claw before placing it in our carrier. I’m sure the teenage farmhands were amused, as I checked the derriere of each hen, but I didn’t care; I was determined to bring home a healthy brood.
As it turns out, I couldn’t find a single thing wrong as these pullets were plump, perky and pest-free. Into the hatchback they went and soon they were scratching the grass and clover of our little urban homestead.
This little flock of six pullets (meaning they are hens under one year old) have it made, I tell you. By day we let them scratch around the yard, eating greens and bugs, feed which produces their nutrient-rich eggs.
At dusk, they cozy up in the movable coop that Danny built, roosting in the rafters, safe from predators, and in the morning, lay their eggs in the nesting boxes on either end of the coop.
Clara and I come out mid-morning and do our rounds. We stop by the garden to inspect the progress of our plots, we refill the chicken’s water pail, and we collect the eggs.
The little trap door is just Clara’s height and she gets excited every time to see what awaits inside the nesting box. These mornings, she is never disappointed.
The brown eggs are quite small because the hens are still young, but they will grow over the next few weeks. Their shells are thick and healthy; good thing too, as Clara is still learning to transfer them delicately.
We’ve already covered the beauty of farm fresh eggs in a previous post, but it seems like every spring, we rediscover just how delicious our own free range eggs are. I wish we could house 5x as many hens and distribute the eggs around to friends and family, but this flock is a perfect size for our backyard.
The boys pitch in on the weekends and clean out the coop together. It’s not their favourite job, but it only takes a few minutes and they manage to have a fair bit of fun along the way. I will admit to a small sense of satisfaction in seeing them perform a task I had to do as a child!
Hopefully, knowing the effort that goes into raising food is fostering in them a greater appreciation for farmers and growers. And if not? Well, they’re learning responsibility and respect for animals. I knew there was a lesson in there somewhere.
Do you have any desire to tend a small flock of backyard chickens?
Meet the backyard chickens is a post from Simple Bites
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