Why Chickens?

About six months ago, I had this brilliant (but incredibly wacky) idea to raise chickens.  I was envisioning a small flock of backyard feathered gals to inhabit my busy Portland corner lot.  They would peck around and lay farm-fresh eggs and even provide a laugh or two each day.  It shouldn't be too hard - people have been doing it for thousands of years!


Well now the time has come to put this vision into reality.  But the question remains - why chickens?  My response - why not!  To get started, my future flock will cost me less than my Venti Vanilla Latte from Starbucks but in turn provide me with years of Organic (and Omega3-rich) eggs.  Much healthier than the grain fed chicken eggs found in cartons from the grocery store, my free-range hens will buffet on grass, insects, clover, and garden scraps laying eggs that "are what they eat."  Chickens also provide endless entertainment and add to the clan of quirky family pets!  But most of all, why not!  I want to prove to myself that I can raise a flock of laying hens from day minus-21 (it takes 21 days for the eggs to hatch) and show others that all you need is a little passion for "bringing it back old school" and finding happiness in simplicity.


On Thursday, I'll be bringing home a variety of hatching eggs from a local farmer.  I have an inkling what the breeds will be but it will be a definite surprise until their due-date: January 26.  


An excerpt from my favorite "chicken book,"

"Collecting these small miracles right at home is what motivates most folks to keep a few birds under the trellis.  The same oval you've cracked and eaten your whole life suddenly goes from the world of the consumer to that of the producer.  Eventually you'll walk by the cooler in the grocery store, and you won't be able to wipe that smirk off your face.  Buy eggs?!  Please.  That's... well, that's just ridiculous."

Chick Days - Raising Chickens from Hatchlings to Laying Hens

Jenna Woginrich