Well, it’s about time I introduced you to the ladies of the yard! This was our fourth summer sharing our city lot with chickens. It’s been an awkward dance, for sure, and a lot more work than we anticipated. That work comes mostly in the form of experimenting with trying to maximize our smaller space by combining the chicken coop with a greenhouse, or giving the chickens green space to forage while keeping a large vegetable patch. We couldn’t imagine a homesteading life without them, though. From their fluffy butts, to their goofy stares, daily songs, and incredibly awkward running, they bring a lot of liveliness and joy to our home, not to mention the delicious eggs AND soil-boosting poop!
We currently have eight chickens of four different types: Buff Orpington (the blondies in the back of the photo), Plymouth Barred Rock (the stripy butt in the foreground), Ameraucana (the black and gold speckled pair), and Cherry Egger (a Rhode Island Red and New Hampshire cross, with a red butt up in photo center).
This flock just turned one year old! We experimented with keeping baby chicks in the fall last year when we unexpectedly lost our entire flock to a strong, persistent and dexterous raccoon.
We love having baby chicks around, but it was really heartbreaking to lose our previous flock. They were our firsts, and had become much more to us than farm animals. They were loved like pets, we knew each personality, and even which egg belonged to who!
I’m not entirely sure why, but we are a lot less attached to the current flock. Perhaps that is for the best, though, as the battle with chicken predators is never-ending. This past week, two raccoons made a visit to the chicken yard that did end in bloodshed. Thanks to our beloved pit bull, it was not of the chickens, but of the raccoon! She came out with minor scratches and the chickens are all safe, thankfully.
We like to keep a variety of different breeds for the fun of it, I suppose. It’s really beautiful to see the different types all together, and the egg basket is more beautiful this way, too!
Do you keep chickens? What are your favorite breeds?
This is my favourite post so far 🙂 I have been living in an apartment flat for most of my life. But we have a summer house with a small garden and next month we are planning to move there permanently. I can not wait to start my vegetable garden there. And i have been dreaming of feeding chickens there, too. I wanted to ask you whether it would be crazy to have just one chicken? Our house is in a row of 4 houses. The fenced garden is just 50m2. We have an old cat and many of our neighbours either have a cat or dog. I hoped my chicken would be free ranging around our garden. Do i need a coop? Would the chicken escape if it was alone? And lastly how much voice do they have? I wonder if the chicken would disturb the neighbors. Oh, by the way, i am in Izmir, Turkey, and our climate is Mediterranean.
Thank you for reading! Coincidentally, one of my closest friends is currently volunteering in a refugee camp in your very city! My, the world feels small sometimes! Congratulations on your move. I am sure it will be wonderful to have your garden there. For your chickens, I would not recommend keeping just one chicken. They are social animals, so two is the minimum, though it is often said that three is the minimum so that you still have two if you lose one of them. You do need some kind of shelter from the elements for the chickens. The coop should also have a nest box so they can lay their eggs, a roosting bar (that is where they sleep at night or escape a predator), and the food and water. Coops do not need to be fancy, though. You can repurpose many structures and yours would not need to be very large with only three hens. I recommend this book for all of your chicken questions! I like to let my chickens free range the garden on the shoulders of the season, but if I let them in at other times, they destroy so many plants! They like tomatoes and all the rest, too 🙂 A nice compromise is to have some kind of portable pen that you can cart around the garden to keep them contained in one section until a time when your precious plants are not in danger. Lastly, hens are less noticeable than roosters in terms of noise, but they are not what I would call quiet. I’ve always said, though, that I’d rather hear their cackle than all the city traffic, or emergency vehicle sirens! Good luck and feel free to contact me if you have other questions. Send along a photo, if you like, when your garden is established. I do love to see gardens around the world!
Thank you for the quick reply Holly. Yes, the world feels so small at times.Volunteering all the way from US to Turkey! When i move to the summer house first i will have to arrange the garden. Then i will see if i can fit in a mobile coop (i have seen some examples in different websites). I am an architect and am planning to do some kind of vertical plant towers to gain some space. Maybe i could design a coop, too. The last step is to find baby chicks around my neighborhood. Looking at your chickens i am surprised to see the different varieties. I found your blog through Soule Mama’s garden posts. I will definitely send you some photos if i start my own garden. For the moment we only have two very small balcony gardens. Best wishes.