Building the Farm - Raising Laying Hens
Having been primarily vegan for upwards of 2 decades, I hadn’t really embarked on this journey with animal husbandry as a priority. As I learned more and more about closed-cycle farming, meaning minimizing external inputs and outputs that leave the farm (outside of products sold), I began to consider more strongly the idea of adding some animals to the farm. For one thing, they can be really helpful, turning waste (food and farm scraps) into valuable foods. For another, their waste can be a great input into the compost on the farm, particularly the nitrogen content in poop.
It’s probably pretty common knowledge that chickens are a great starter animal on a homestead or small farm. They’re fun, relatively easy, and provide consistent food products without all that much input. It was only natural we started there. I hoped greatly that raising the chicks from day 1 would draw Truett out to the farm, knowing that she’s not currently enthralled with the idea of broad forking, seeding/weeding, and otherwise managing the garden.
After much research and a little expert advice at Callahan’s, we came home around the Easter weekend with 8 adorable, day-old chicks - 2 each of the following breeds (selected for their propensity to produce lots of eggs and survive Texas heat: blue copper marans, Rhode Island reds, red stars, and golden-laced Wyandottes. Predictably, the names turned out to be characters from Disney’s Descendants, along with some kitchen-inspired names: Mal, Evie, Uma, Audrey, Buttercup, Sugar, Cinnamon, and Ginger. They’re beautiful and funny and sassy.
I designed and built the gals a coop that is built with growth in mind. According to my research, our coop could likely handle upwards of 32 birds, and our kiddo has already been pushing the issue. I constructed the coop with a 4-section run in mind, which I hope to utilize to build a rotation, so that our ladies can scratch and hunt in one section while the other three rest. That also allows for the planting of edible crops for the chickens in one section that they’ll occupy in the future. Their nitrogen-heavy soil that they leave behind will be perfect for growing fodder for them. In this way, we can reduce the quantity of external inputs we provide, giving them fresh, healthy food in addition to the feed that provides nutrients needed to lay consistently and frequently. The only other modification I made was the aviary netting which covers the entire 40 x 80 foot run and coop, which will hopefully deter predatory birds who might see our chickies as a meal.
At times of maximum laying, we should get upwards of 3-4 dozen eggs per week, which will be offered in our CSA boxes as an add-on product. With the infrastructure investment already made, we can scale up our egg production with minimal additional cost. Realistically, the biggest challenge will probably be coming up with names we can all live with!
