My Top Reasons For Raising Chickens

A few of my top reasons for raising chickens in my home:

1. Nutrition- Our chickens are healthy , we allow then to free range during the day in which they eat natural things like grass, plants, bugs which in turn makes the eggs much healthier than caged chicken eggs. My chickens main food source is their grain, but they forage for goodies in the yard and I give them organic fruits and veggies, cracked corn and seeds.

2. Keeping chickens saves you money if you are buying organic eggs in the store. I use to buy regular eggs   before I learned so much about where they came from.

3. Raising chickens is really easy. People always are so interested in how we do this. They ask so many questions and I tell them, we basically have a routine just like any other pet. They have a chicken run and a chicken house. Inside the house is their nesting boxes where they lay the eggs, and perches where they sleep at night. They only go in the house to sleep and lay eggs. The rest of the day they stay in their run. At dawn we let them out of there house. They stay in their run all day until I let them free range in my yard. We feed them their grains, and fresh water everyday. They also get their snacks that I bring in the coop run to keep them busy. At night before dusk they return into the house on their own and onto a perch to go to sleep and we lock up the house. Chickens get bored so I try to give them things to do. I sprinkle cracked corn in the run so they look and peck through the dirt to find it. We clean the coop house every week, change bedding and sprinkle DE food grade powder. The pen, where they spend most of the time we pick up daily.

4. Chickens are really fun. They each have their own personality. It is so funny to watch them catching the worms, bugs and run to me for the treats. They actually get airborne when they run to me. It is so funny to see. My niece and nephew Gianna and Anthony love to come over and feed them, play with them, let them out of the run and then go collect the eggs. They are still amazed that the chickens lay the eggs. Then I have to come in and make scrambled eggs from their favorite chickens.

5. There are so many breeds of chickens and it is worth your time to look into the right breed for your family. So what are you waiting for go and get some chickens!!!

Meet My Girls " Lucy, Ethel and Sprinkles"

   Here are my Chickens that I promised I would talk about and share some tips on how to possibly start your own backyard flock. For the past year I have been trying to feed my family as healthy and organic as I possibly can. I was thinking of ways to do this. As I was on the internet and reading about organic eggs, I said to myself, "why not get some chickens, and raise them for eggs". Well I am so glad I did. I cannot believe how much fun they are and every afternoon how great it is to open up the coop and get my fresh eggs everyday!!! Living here at the Jersey Shore at the end of a cul de sac, you would not think there would be a chicken coop in my backyard. I would have to say the hardest part of the whole process is building the coop,then finding a supplier to get your chickens. After building the coop I looked into the best chickens for laying eggs and also the prettiest eggs. There are chickens that lay anywhere from white to pastel to chocolate brown eggs.

   Lucy and Ethel are Rhode Island Reds which are the best layers. They lay brown eggs daily. Sprinkles is a Maran, which lays a chocolate brown egg. In the morning or late afternoon I let them free range in my yard for bugs and weeds, which are their favorite snacks. The free range should be supervised due to the hawks. They should always have food and fresh water in the coop everyday and all of their treats that they love. I will post the do's and dont's on what to give your chickens in future posts.