Shakespearean Chickens

Aemelia, Helena, Juliet, Lavinia, Olivia, Katharina, Bianca and Gertrude are not only female characters in Shakespeare’s plays but they are also a new small flock of chickens that we recently adopted into our family. As I continue to define our homeschooling life as a lifestyle of learning, I am finding that every opportunity provides lessons to learn. Not only will these chickens teach my children the value of life, dependence, and commitment; they will begin giving gifts in about four to five months of fresh eggs and the biggest gift of all – satisfaction.

Part of our goals for our family this year was to find something that we could do as a family to become more self-sufficient. There is an excitement in the air – the excitement of our very own eggs! It may seem small, and a lot of work for such a little reward to some. But, we are hoping to have lessons to share about our experiences of keeping a small flock of chickens in a small city space.

My favorite book that I have read several times is Keep Chickens! by Barbara Kilarski. It’s an easy introduction to small flocks in city and suburb areas. It is a great starter book, but I must admit that without friends to call and ask questions I would have been lost. Thanks to my friends that keep chickens, I have learned that there really is a “pecking order” and some insider tricks on how to keep the cost down by gathering things such as free shavings for bedding.

So, our hen house project was kicked off last weekend, when we got a weekend of cool weather. We built the playhouse-turned-hen house within a closed in area of our yard. I thought that turning this Sam’s Club summer deal into a hen house was a darling idea. I have put up chicken wire in the windows to keep the chics in and the creatures out. We haven’t built roosting boxes yet, but plan to soon. The pullets (chicken lingo for baby chic) will want a place to roost at about 5 months old. We picked out a variety of chickens for their looks, egg colors and dispositions:

Americauna - cautious, lays green or blue eggs

Seabright Bantum or “Bantie” – can withstand heat and stays a small chicken (3 #) that will lay little brown eggs

New Hampshire Red – cautious and calm, lays light brown eggs

Red Sex Link – friendly, good layer, lays medium brown eggs

Black Giant – will be a 10# chicken, lays brown eggs and can be trained to do circus acts. (at least that’s what some locals do….)

Admittedly, it was a lot of work to put together the organization of this chicken project. I had to learn about what chickens need, and how to keep their supplies organized. Thankfully, my older two sons have loved to read about how to care for them and have been fully in charge of their care. The younger ones have held and chased their chickens with much delight. Plus, we’ve incorporated the watering, feeding and chicken-run (the place where they get to run and stretch their little legs) routine into our day. Because they are still small we watch them while they are in the chicken run. We’ve also had to tell our very well behaved boxer to not touch them. So far, so good. We’re working on our little piece of paradise in the city, since we aren’t able to move away just yet. I’ll be posting more about our chicken adventures in the months to come.

To see pictures of the Bard’s Girls, please visit my blog post this week.