The Year of the Chickens

In the previous posts I shared our decision to homeschool, our desire to live intentionally in how we raise our boys. I talked about hunting trips and then house hunting. We talked about gardening and what we were growing. But I never got around to the chickens...

Living on an acre of open, usable land and not using it was torture when we finally had so much space. I was so eager to get chickens on it at least. But my husband wasn't as enthusiastic about the idea. Yes he wanted animals, but his timeline is much more 'relaxed' than mine. If I decide I'm going to do something I'm ready to start it right then! Part of our struggle was deciding whether we would actually get chickens at this house because we were renting. We didn't want to jump into something that needed a lot of infrastructure to then have to tear it all down and remove when we would one day buy a house. Of course I was up for anything (we can figure all that out later!) but my voice of reason (husband) thought it would be wise to wait. It seemed like we were always 'almost' buying a house, so it was hard to commit to animals when we could soon possibly be packing it all up. But one day a friend had let us know about a friend of hers looking for a new home for her laying hens. 

The three amigas were already laying eggs, and their little coop came with them- all for FREE! I told Josh, this is our chance to to try our hand at chickens. We don't have to raise them from baby chicks, we don't need to buy anything. God is literally giving these birds to us, all we have to do is say yes! It was the lowest risk opportunity for us to get our feet wet. So that November we had our first chickens and the next few months after that were a little crazy to say the least. We had the fever and we were jumping in with both feet.

By February we had 36 baby chicks for egg layers, 25 meat chicks and 15 turkey chicks ordered to arrive that spring. We also somehow picked up 4 ducklings and then another 12 baby chicks from the feed store! Those teeny little balls of fluff were so adorable and too hard to resist when you see them that you aren't thinking of having to feed them when they get bigger! Then we (Josh) had to build the coops and chicken tractors to house these birds. We had to buy feeders and waterers and lots and lots of feed. We bought portable electric fencing to rotate the chickens in the back pasture, and so we could take with us if we moved. We learned how to process a chicken and then bought the equipment to do this processing with our meat chickens. Within six months we grew, processed, packaged and sold near 180 meat birds.

Growing our own chicken from start to finish was such an empowering experience. We took so much pride and respect in the process. When you do something like this for yourself, your family or for other families, you have the power to do it well, do it honest and do it right. We vowed to do this responsibly, humanely, organically and in a way that is natural to the animal. And I have to tell you I have never tasted anything better. You can literally taste the difference and that was fully worth all the blood, sweat and tears we experienced that summer. We will probably always raise our own poultry for the rest of our lives, it made that much of a difference.

But we did so much so fast that by the end of summer we were all exhausted and ready for a long break from chicken and longing for a vacation. So that's what we did. We took time off and took a road trip to the east coast. We took a breath. Reflected on all that we did, figured out if there were things we could improve. Things we wanted to do again or do differently. Josh had also signed up for a farm business workshop in Indiana, so we made that part of our trip. It turned out to be one of the best trips full of family, friends and farm fun, and in the middle of fall.

It was absolutely gorgeous and the weather was perfect. We camped in family and friends' driveways, at campsites and on farms. We visited the Creation Museum, had farm tours, met new people, lingered by campfires, saw country we've never seen before and celebrated Micah's 10th birthday. We have always loved taking road trips together. We've been doing it since our firstborn was 3 weeks old and it has made some of the greatest memories our family shares. We came home feeling so blessed, refreshed and ready for what the next year would bring.