Thanks to Lisa Silver Frankel for these photos!

“This past summer, our family decided to raise chickens. We built a coop and a run. We purchased, what we thought to be eight hens. A gal in a neighboring county sold them to us. The chicks were 2 months old, except one 12 month old, when we got them. Later, two of our hens turned-out to be roosters. Since all are named, none of them will wind-up in the soup pot.

Here are a few pics of the coop we built. Note that the inside contains a ladder on one side and an array of 12″ (h) x 12″ (d) x 12″ (w) (2 x 4) cubbies on the other side. The reason why the structure is vertically oriented, roughly 4′-0″(d) x 6′-0″(w) x 7′-0″(h) is that, my husband wanted to construct it as a tool shed, just in case we proved poor chicken farmers.

I am happy to say, (knock on wood) raising chickens continues to be successful.

Hi Gina,

I read the latest edition and I was quite saddened especially with the Jim Tucker story. Ever since I can remember chickens have always been in my life. As a child I would spend my summers at my Grandparents house and most of the time I was outside with the chickens. To understand chickens you really need to take some time to get to know them and see how fascinating they really are. I always joke and say that chickens are the only ones that thank God for another drink (If you have chickens you know what I mean how they take a gulp and then look up and say Thank you to God)

Anyway, I can go on about how chickens are great pets but what saddened me the most is that I have chickens and my area it is not zoned agriculture. You don’t know how fearful I am every time I get a new neighbor. What if they call zoning on me? I just don’t get it. A barking dog or a cat house are ok but an animal who not only gives eggs but ultimately gives their life to their master can not be kept except for out in the country.

I think that is wrong. My chickens will never know a premature death. Rather my chickens provide me with eggs, and die when they are very old of natural causes. Why have them then? Well, they are my girls. They provide me so much happiness when they hatch chicks, care for them, and even to see each of their antics. Each of them is very special to me.

I just wanted to share this with you! Great newsletter and Thanks for all the photos.

Mr.John-Elías Padilla
2nd Grade VE Classroom Teacher

Valerie Rose “My sweet back yard birds have been having a daily about 6 hour jaunt in my 14 x 25 ft garden, and after a good hoeing, they have turned over everything I hoed, and eaten all the bugs, and most of the left over veggie stuff that we won’t eat… and esp appreciated is the eating of the hundreds of calendula seedlings that have popped up. I hope some survive… but if they don’t, I know they are only a note to a neighbor away. They are extremely prolific plants and I am sure some have jumped my fence.

The chickens are now producing 4 – 6 eggs every single day. I am hoping to trade my free range, happy chicken eggs for a bit of room on a neighbors huge yard plot to continue my quest to be as self sufficient as possible in my inner city living space (and grow enough tomatoes and strawberries to hold us through next winter).” 🙂

Keith, Jennifer, Christy and Paula McLaughlin “Last summer, my family took our trip back to my grandfather’s farm in North Carolina and brought back 14 fertile eggs to set. Having no hen, we got an incubator and produced 9 out of those 14 eggs. They are Bantam and Game mixed. The only thing is that we hatched 2 hens and 7 roosters!! Can’t get many eggs that way, right?? So a church member donated 4 Rhode Island Red setters to our desperate cause and we forged on.

We returned to the family farm for New Year’s and brought back more eggs to set. This time we brought back eggs crossed between Araucana hens and a grey Bantam rooster. We also set eggs from our home flock, Rhode Island Red hens and Bantam Game mix roosters. Our second hatch bitties are now three weeks old and live in a produce crate from the local Dollar General store.

We have it in the dining room under the table where everyone checks on them through out the day. It started out as a fun project for the family but now we sell the eggs and have even inspired other families around us to use the incubator and produce their own home flock. Thanks for inspiring us and helping us with your newsletter.

“The tide of eggs is steadily rising, and what are not required for breeding should, when fertile, be sold for incubating purposes. A big business is done in eggs for hatching and the price will vary from twice to six times the figure got for commercial eating eggs. March is a very busy month between looking after chickens, continuous hatching and the disposal of surplus eggs.

Fertile eggs that go by post or rail require very careful packing. Special boxes may be bought for that purpose, and great care should be taken to see that the eggs are packed tight so that the contents will not be unduly shaken.

If the weather is mild let the chicks out of doors as much as possible, but never go away and leave them. A sudden storm of hail or snow might lose you the lot. Even a heavy rain-storm will kill young chickens. All your incubators should now be going in full blast and light breeds should be hatched from now onwards to the end of April. Be it remembered that it is now or never with the hatching of heavy breeds. Better also to be a fortnight too early than a week too late with light breeds. Time steals away like a thief in the night, you can never catch it up again.

Do not coddle the chicks; it is wonderful how they do in dry, cold weather, but do not allow them to get wet.”