by Leah Zerbe, an online editor at Rodalenews.com.
I lived a pretty dysfunctional farm life growing up. The fields were filled with corn or soy commodity crops, not delicious, nourishing people food. My late grandfather’s pigsty and chicken coop were long-abandoned and falling apart, and no one particularly cared to fix them up. The farm was livestock-less, gardenless, and for all intents and purposes, we were living like your run-of-the-mill suburban family who just happened to be plopped onto a 65-acre chunk of land. In full disclosure, I did not learn how to plant a tomato until I was 27 years old.
None of this seemed particularly odd to me until I moved away, and lived in Philadelphia for several years, and started paying more attention to where my food came from. Then, the miracle: Harvest Local Foods’ Meet Your Farmer Day!
Once I shook the hand that harvested my rutabaga, it was a done deal. In less than a year and a half, my husband and I were living back on the farm, figuring out how to grow and harvest three acres of vegetables by hand, and, perhaps most rewardingly, raising about 40 amazing, entertaining chickens for eggs. Because of just one meaningful afternoon, I permanently traded in a life of fancy city restaurant dinners and Coach handbags for a life of dealing with dirt and chicken crap. And life is good!
Greg’s thinking, “Wait, I thought you were just a cat lady when I proposed to you.”
Learning to farm would not be nearly as fun if it weren’t for our small flock of heritage breed chickens.
(Note: This post isn’t going to explain how to raise chickens; there’s plenty of that on Rodalenews.com. This is about how raising chickens changes you!)
Here are 5 ways backyard chickens change your life:
1. You’re scared shi*less.
Sure, they’re just tiny fuzz balls of chirping cuteness. But day-old chicks are scary! It’s up to you to keep them alive, and I obsessed over this fact for a full two weeks. I didn’t sleep, partially due to the fact that we set up the brooder in a nearby spare bedroom. “Wait! Was that a distressed chirp? Is one hurt? Is one being crushed by the freak show Jersey Giant chick? Are they drinking enough water?”
You learn to wipe caked crap off of their backsides (otherwise, it can become plugged up and they die), sometimes you hold them until they fall asleep in your palm, and you generally just fall in love your flock in those first few days. Dark circles develop under your eyes. It feels like you’re a sleep-deprived new mom. You are. It’s worth it.
This same wave of uneasiness may return in a few weeks when you move the gawky, feathered, teenage version of the chicks into an outdoor coop. But eventually, you chill, and learn to appreciate the fact that your chickens are living better than 99 percent of chickens on the planet.
He’s not dead, he’s just sleeping.
2. You’re hypnotized.
Once you get over the fear of killing your chickens, you can relax a bit and enjoy them. Kelly Coyne, co-author of the upcoming book Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World
3. You start to humanize them.
OK, here’s where it gets a bit weird. (And please, people, I’m hoping you all do the same with your chickens, or this might just be awkward!) Because chickens are so hypnotic, you spend a lot of time watching them. In fact, watching chickens became the default form of entertainment for my friends and me. During the first summer, we’d mix up a few cosmos, pull out lawn chairs, and try to pinpoint which human each chicken reminded us of…here are a few:
This Polish rooster was flamboyant and overly dramatic, and he reminded us of my cross-dressing former Philly hairstylist, Jason. When this chicken would run, it honestly looked like he was dashing about like a large man in high heels.
This little lady looked like a gawky teenager who was a clumsy freshman on the high school basketball team.
We couldn’t help but ID the frizzle rooster (above) as the chicken version of a Mummer, a Philadelphia tradition that involves musicians dressed in elaborate, showy costumes. To the right is a little stout, silkie hen. She looks like she’s straight out of the 80s and should be wearing a stonewashed jean jacket, and maybe a white Michael Jackson glove.
Yo buddy
4. Hens turn into roosters.
Here is something you really need to prepare yourself for…the worst-case scenario. We ordered zero roosters, and wound up with 10. That meant that one quarter of my flock would turn into aggressive, horny, out-of-control maniacs. That’s too many roosters per hens, and we had some tough decisions to make. When I ordered the hens, I didn’t envision having to ever kill any of them, but we decided to butcher five when I returned from a work trip. As if sent by the rooster gods, I ran into vegan activist Alicia Silverstone the day before we were set to butcher five of our 10 ornery roosters, took it as a sign, and by some luck, found a larger pastured chicken operation that actually needed a few good roos. We were able to avert slaughter. Do NOT count on this outcome. Be prepared to separate excess roosters, or be ready to eat them. Be prepared to be attacked from time to time, too. I have the scars on my leg to prove it.
I was supposed to be a Polish hen…
“…now I’m all grown up, and I attack my owner every day.”
5. You start seeing chickens as gateway livestock.
Once you get the hang of raising chickens, you start to think about bringing other farm animals into the mix. For us, that meant adopting three goats as the chief organic weed management team at Potter’s Farm. They LOVE multiflora rose, a thorny invasive, and delight in eating poison ivy. Even if you live in a city, you don’t have to limit yourself to backyard chickens. If you need inspiration (and a good laugh), read Novella Carpenter’s Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer
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