On Our Suburban Homestead

I love how our chickens help keep us in tune with nature’s cycles. If you’ve been interested in starting a backyard flock of your own, or want to learn where you can buy local farm fresh eggs, I’ve got you covered. This is a family favorite for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Especially when the boys go and collect the eggs then crack them right into the mixing bowl!

Fresh (or Frozen) from the Backyard

This is also a great recipe to incorporate typical garden fresh veggies, or those patiently waiting in the freezer… I’ve added frozen asparagus, beet greens, kale, spinach, chard, zucchini and peppers to this recipe. If frozen you can just chop and mix in leafy greens, but if fresh you’ll need to at least wilt them. Another reason this is a family favorite, I can make it different every time we have it.

A quick word on Eggs in general. They are a solid source of protein, and extremely ecologically friendly as well. But not all eggs are created equally. The more outdoor foraging a hen can do for a varied diet, the healthy she – and her eggs will be! Typically, a pasture-raised egg contains twice as much omega-3, three times as much vitamin D, four times the vitamin E and seven times the beta-carotene then hens fed on traditional feed.

We’re happy they have lots of space and greens to scratch at all summer long. We also work hard on collecting garden ‘forage’ for our hens to keep them happy over our long winters. During our hens’ winter ‘slow down’ (chickens naturally slow down laying when there is less light) we buy from local farmers that do their best to keep happy hens too!

Strata or Frittata

Since this recipe technically straddles the strata / frittata boundaries I’ll go over both definitions. The Frittata was born in Italy, and means simple ‘Fried’. So this dish is traditionally baked on the stove top, the whole thing flipped once. Basically a very thick, non-folded omelette with all the fixings.

A Strata is American and baked, with some kind of bread (*but we’re skipping the bread so we can also skip the ‘let stand in the refrigerator overnight step), though potatoes can be added as well. An egg casserole (or hot dish for my Midwestern friends) containing protein, starch and veggies.

A Frittata is usually served with a starch, a strata served with fruit or salad. I have found adding potatoes in place of bread fits our family (and my staying away from gluten) much better. But this recipe is easy to play with and can be suited to your family’s tastes.

Homestead Strata Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp Coconut oil to coat baking dish
• 1/2-1 lb cooked breakfast meat of choice (sausage, ham, bacon…)
• 1-2 Potatoes Peeled, diced and cooked
• 2+ Cups chopped veggies (see above for my favorites)
• ½-1 Onion diced (leeks and shallots work too)
• 10 eggs
• 1 tsp each S+P
• ½ tsp paprika or cayenne
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp celery salt if have
• 1 Tbsp parsley
• 1 Cup milk
• 1 Cup shredded cheese (Cheddar, Swiss, Gruyere depending on veggies)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Prepare potatoes – I either use an already cooked/baked potato or microwave the dices in water for a few minutes to start the cooking process.
• Fully cook sausage or bacon if adding.
• Sauté the onions in the fat, wilt the kale or greens, or sauté firmer veggies in the pan too.
• Mix the eggs and the rest of the ingredients, then pour mixture into pie pan over potatoes.
• Chop/crumble sausage or bacon when cool.
• Grease bottom of pan (9″ pie, up to a 9″X12″, or a cast iron skillet) with coconut oil (I really like how eggs and potatoes bake with this oil!) Place potatoes in bottom of pie pan, lightly salt the potatoes.

Bake for 50 minutes to a full hour, checking the center is set by inserting a knife. Let sit and cool for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.
*****

This is true comfort food, with a hint of spring added in…

We love this with dill pickled carrots, lots of microgreens on top or a light + lemony salad on the side.

*Leftovers the next day are always better. So if you want to, you could make this a day ahead and reheat for an easy brunch option as there’s no pastry crust to get soggy.

Dig In,
Michelle

The post Homestead Strata Recipe: Gluten Free appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.

I’ve loved seeing the backyard chicken community grow over the years- and especially this past year! So many new chicken owners; I lovingly refer to us as “chicken tenders”. So it seemed like a good time to gather my thoughts for an overview on getting your hens ready for winter. This article focuses on smaller backyard flocks because this is what I’ve had the most experience with, and what most newbies start with.

For us backyard chicken tenders there are specific city rules and responsibilities. I go over some of those and other local chicken keeping resources in my post, Chickens in the Hood. I also bear my soul in the sobering blog, Fresh Eggs to Chicken Soup, about when we decided to cull a flock of our hens a few years back.

Transitioning to Winter

Transitioning hens to winter can be smooth when you follow a few simple steps… Yes, even if we’re rushing after a freakishly early snowstorm and weeks earlier than normal! Just pat yourself on the back that you’ve taken a step to lessen your reliance on corporate food systems and get a good pair of gloves for winter chores.

Keeping chickens over the winter really comes down to keeping them dry and out of the wind along with giving them plenty of food and water. This should give you happy hens down to -20°F. But, let’s get real- nothing is happy colder than that. Like at any other time of year, being with your hens and knowing their routines is your best offense.

If there’s one thing you get out of this article, let it be that chickens are tough birds! While cold by itself can harm chickens, the thing that can really harm your hens is that sneaky combination of damp + cold together which causes frost bite faster. We’ll cover this in depth later on. For now, we’ll go over three area; the coop, the hens, food + water,
but of course they all intermix along the way.

The Coop

Coops come in all shapes and sizes. If you ever need coop inspiration check out Egg|Plant Urban Farm Supply’s annual “Chicken Coop Tour”. So, what might work in one yard/coop/flock may not in another.  I’ll give basic ideas that can be used to fit your chicken coop no matter the shape or size.

Coops need ventilation, but not wind. This can seem antithetical. Think of it this way- we leave our coops uninsulated but cover the 6’X6’ mesh window in winter. Heat, and most importantly moisture, will escape between the roof trusses this way.

Once upon a time, when we were chicken newbies, we insulated our coop. Airtight. Too well. Luckily, that was during the warmer winters of a decade ago. But, even with lows around 20°F I noticed a LOT of humidity in that coop.

Poop in the Coop

As air gets colder it loses its ability to hold moisture. Add to that, the fact that chicken poop also contains all the urate (what humans would pee separately) and you’ve got a high percentage of water to deal with. The urate is also where that ammonia smell comes from. Most people keep a minimum of 4-6 hens in a relatively small space in urban/suburban settings.

So, let’s imagine it’s one of those -10F mornings and they’ve been in there all night (PS- chickens poop in their sleep) cooped up… then they go outside with colder temps, and maybe some wind chill, the dampness surrounding their combs quickly becomes frozen and you’ve got a hen with frostbite in a few minutes.

With colder but dry combs as the hens come out of the coop, they’re much less likely to get frostbite. So, you can see how important good ventilation becomes!

One of the basics is keeping chickens dry – and if you didn’t notice over your honey-moon period of chicken keeping over the summer- chickens release a LOT of poop, around 1/3  – ½ pound per day depending on the breed. That $#% needs somewhere to escape! If you’re really interested in the chicken digestive tract, and not squeamish about lots of chicken poop pictures, Check out Fresh Eggs Daily’s post: All About Chicken Poop.

Here’s where I’ll give a big Shout out to the “Poop Plate”. This is any board (or piece of metal for really easy scraping) that you put below the roosts to catch poop, because remember chickens poop in their sleep! This makes cleaning the coop so much easier in winter.

Lots of northern chicken tenders enclose their chicken run to some extent. I usually tack on an old clear plastic shower curtain or some garden poly. This lets light in, but keeps wind and snow out. It can even get a little like a greenhouse on calm, sunny days. I tend to wrap just two sides, because the whole idea is to have them outside, and it’s only on the coldest days that I’ll confine them into either the inner coop, or the coop  + run.

How Cold is Too Cold?

As always, I think watching your chickens and see where they hang out is your best chance for raising happy hens. There’s no hard and fast rule to how cold chickens can survive because it depends on the breed, any wind and relative humidity. But generally, if it’s not getting above 0°F I don’t let mine out. If it’s only going to get to single digits, I tend to let them out in the afternoon- and keep them in the run so they don’t get so involved in scratching they forget how cold they are. This usually only happens a handful of times every winter.

We also try to have a solid covering in place for winter over the run, this really helps keep snow out. This not only makes it nicer for the girls in winter, but also in spring when everything melts having snowpack underfoot becomes one HUGE mess! Ask me how I know *We usually have small run areas, 4’X6” or 3’X8’.

I know some of our chickens hated going into the snow and would only venture out after others had forged a path. Others would fly into the middle of a snowy backyard without a care. Both are normal. Both are OK.

Hay There!

Add more hay. We use hay in our garden to insulate plants, and in our coop to insulate the chickens. We’ll be trying the deep litter method again this winter. This is the practice of adding more hay to the spent bedding throughout the winter and letting it decompose in place. While this sounds gross, it’s actually pretty cool, *if* you can keep the moisture down.  The idea is come spring, you’ll have some finished (or nearly finished) compost for the garden. The decomposing hay and chicken poop give off heat, a nice bonus during our cold winters.

You’ll also want to make sure that ALL the chickens can comfortably fit on a roost up off the ground as sleeping on the floor invites disease and is colder. They also appreciate a roost off the ground outside in winter!

Coop Heaters

A point of contention for some chicken tenders is whether to heat the coop. Heating the coop can keep your chickens from getting acclimated to the winter temps and they’ll end up staying inside more; getting less fresh air and less chance to move around and forage. It can also pose a fire hazard if a cord is near or on the ground. You may think you’ve got the cord tucked away, but seriously chickens can be worse than rock stars at an after party.

We never heated our coops until a friend gave us this heater with her hens that we added to our flock. I will say they serve a purpose. It goes back to we do use a timed light bulb to add light hours to their days. Adding light keeps chickens laying eggs more consistently. Chickens slow down and speed back up their laying with the seasons, unless given a little supplemental light. We usually set it to go off an hour or two before normal sunrise, starting around November, going until February. I’d suggest starting earlier in the morning rather than at night, because a light that suddenly goes off might catch a hen off guard. This means a hen could spend the night on the ground and will end up more stressed out as a result.

The Hens

It never fails, I always have that one hen that starts molting about the time the temperature dips. I take care to give hens molting in cold weather extra dry spaces, as girls without feathers around their necks or under wings are the only hens that might have a hard time staying warm enough.

In general chickens are very capable of keeping themselves warm. While they aren’t exactly like wild birds (think chickadees and cardinals) remember they are birds. Some birds hang out in Minnesota (and even colder places!) all winter long. That said, cold tolerance varies with breed; larger breeds being the best in cold climates mostly due to body mass.

Frost Bite + Comb Care

Frost bite can harm our hens quickly and permanently. It can happen within a few minutes but is avoidable. The bigger, thinner and more ridged the comb, the easier it is to get frostbite. I’ll give a shout out to pea combs here. Those tiny, barely-there combs hardly ever get frost bite because they have good blood supply and are so close to the head. Big floppy combs, while adorable will need some extra care in a typical Minnesota winter.

When it gets “January Cold”, as my kids call it- I bring out the small jar of coconut oil and place it above the wood stove to have at the ready. Coating the combs and wattles creates a waterproof barrier between the skin and the cold. Not very insulating, but it keeps the wet off. And remember Cold + Moisture causes frostbite faster on combs. Have I pounded that in enough?

Even so – I like to push the limits and let my girls outside as much as possible, and mine have gotten frostbite. You’ll first see white tips on their combs. Then they will turn black. Really bad cases the affected parts will fall off. This is very painful for your hens, and we try to avoid this at all costs.

Food + Water

As always, give your hens plentiful feed, indoors and outdoors, as long as it can be kept dry. I tend to up their protein during the transition time too, this especially helps that one hen who’s always molting. The protein can be ground up nuts, leftover beans, or a few extra meal worms. I also make up some fun winter treats like garland from produce past its prime; like apples, kale/broccoli leaves, cabbages, and even cranberries. Another favorite treat to feed inside the coop (because it is dry and full of extra energy for when it is really cold and they are stuck inside the coop) is the “Flock Block”

Some people put dog waterers inside, and this just seems like a mess waiting to happen. If you have a smaller backyard coop, please do not put an open topped heated dog waterer inside your coop. Chickens will walk through, poop in, and just get wet (wet = cold) with open water inside a coop.

We use a simple heating pad under the regular waterer which is raised up off the ground. This keeps the water clean, and thawed on all but the coldest of mornings. We just inherited a heated waterer unit and plan on using this outside the coop for an additional water source during the winter to replace the extra water dishes I fill up in the summer.

I will typically add a tablespoon or two of Apple Cider Vinegar to their water once a week just to help their systems. ACV is one of my secret winter weapons to keeping my flock healthy.

I also keep greens around for them for calcium and for something to work at in the winter. I am a huge fan of brassica leaves for my hens. This gives them a great boost of calcium, plus so many other nutrients. It also keeps them busy. I toss over the lower/larger broccoli, cauliflower, beet and kale leaves all summer. I purposefully leave some brassica plants standing in the garden as long as I can to break off leaves and parcel them out to the girls. Later in winter/early spring they get leaves I’ve frozen for them.

Keep it FUN

Adding some herbs, like thyme, mints, lemon balm or oregano to their bedding isn’t necessary, but is a nice extra line of defense. Thyme and oregano have serious herbal benefits with anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antioxidant effects. I add herbs to their bedding, which they scratch in too, to give them a leg up on any congestion issues they might get. *I use thyme tea to sooth my own sore throats and coughs too.

For a real treat, we’ll string up a cabbage, or set out a chicken treat stick. We plan to give them some ‘garland’ for a Christmas treat – and if you missed it, I just presented my girls with a pumpkin Rooster- ha! I wanted to leave with you a reminder that keeping chickens is FUN!

I’ve got some video on winter prep under my “Chicken TV” Stories on Instagram, if you’re looking for visual how to’s!

I hope this helps prepare you for a FUN winter of chicken keeping in the bold north! Let me know if you have other tips and tricks for keeping your hens happy all winter long!

Dig In,

Michelle

The post Prepare Your Chickens for Northern Winters appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.

This is a place that withstands the test of time and triumphs with knowledge blended with caring. I mean, when was the last time a store’s sales person actually listened to you; and then actually knew what you needed, had it for a fair price and did what it was supposed to. Obviously, their customers love them.

Steve Marier runs the Mill and is a fourth generation Marier Mill Manager (say that three times fast). He could easily double as the town historian. He’s been a part of Hugo’s shift from agricultural land to housing developments and Hugo feed mill is still thriving because he and his family desire to adapt to best serve their neighbors.

Walk Down Memory Lane

Steve remembers shoveling and delivering coal to homes and farms on the rail line, along with the huge pile of corn cobs that would get dumped in the parking lot after combining time. The mill itself was built in 1917, it’s been in Steve’s family since 1925. For many years it was mainly a country grain business, grinding local grains for feed.

I remember being a young girl, 8 or 9, and going ‘up to the Mill’ to get mallard ducklings to raise on our family’s pond. Since then Hugo Feed Mill has held a special place in this Urban homesteader’s heart. More history on their website.

It’s their up-to-date practices, with the latest products and applications mixed perfectly with their ability to help you grow that keeps customers coming back.

Greenhouse

Their greenhouse is open for the season with herbs and bedding plants. They’ll be overflowing with their signature HUGE selection of peppers and tomatoes by May 18th; thank you cold and wet Minnesota Spring.

Steve, aka “Dr. Pepper” estimates around 425 peppers 175 tomatoes varieties to be available in the Greenhouse this Spring.
They hold planting parties and tasting events on site. Steve also gives ‘Pepper Talks’ around town. Follow them on their Facebook Page, or sign up for their “timely tips’ email list to stay in the know on their events and specials.

The Mill is a great community partner as well. They give seed and starter plants to Giving Gardens each year. Giving Gardens is a non-profit helping neighbors grow food for themselves and food shelves.

They also tend a Kids Potting Bench where kids can pot up a free flower. Special flowers and pots available for some special kids over Mother’s Day weekend!

**Mention this blog or that you saw it on their Facebook page to get the special Mother’s Day plants!**

Happy Mothers Day from Hugo Feed Mill

Garden Supplies

A full line of soil amendments, fertilizers and seeds is waiting inside the store. From sprinklers to live traps they have everything the home gardener could need- and if its not in their store they can likely order it for you. I learn something new each time I shop there.

Chick Orders

Their chick orders, minimum order of 5 per breed, run now through the end of May. They have over 20 breeds of chickens, and mallards. This is the first place I bought chicks, a dozen years ago. If you stop in when they have the chicks waiting to be picked up you might even catch a glimpse, and they sometimes have extras (another good reason to follow them on Facebook). More about raising urban chickens HERE.

I also get all my straw from them for my backyard flock’s coop bedding. These bales also make a great base for straw bale gardens!

And their organic chicken feed, Nature’s Grown Organic, is my girls’ absolute favorite.

… & Hardware

Find farm supplies like fencing and stock tanks. Horse supplies like bedding and barn lime, bird feeders and seed and pet foods, even plumbing and electrical items (which I admit I didn’t really know!).

The Old Mill

Attached to the old mill is the storage and granary part of the business. Backing up to the loading dock always makes me feel like a little more of a farm girl than I really am

There is always something new to find at Hugo Feed Mill, whether feed, seed or knowledge you’ll have to go find out for yourself.

I feel lucky to have had Hugo feed mill in my neighborhood for all of my years here, and close to 100 years in their family.

Let me know if you stop into Hugo Feed Mill- and be sure to tell me what you learned when you were there. They’re great at helping you get your fork in the dirt too!

Dig In,
Michelle

The post Hugo Feed Mill: Local Icon appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.

This is our family’s story of how we transitioned through loving our backyard chickens to ultimately culling them
after they stopped laying.

For us crazy chicken people it’s *finally* time to place our orders and prepare for our hearts and homes to be overrun with cuteness and chicken poop. We pick up our new girls next week from EggPlant Urban Farm Supply and we can’t wait!

But this story is about our Old Girls, our first flock at this home, because although no one likes to talk about it- even those adorable baby chicks get old. My advice is to have a plan BEFORE you bring them home. It’s helpful to know what you’ll do once they stop laying, get sick, or just really old.

Truth Talking

This was a more emotional experience than I was prepared for. Much more so than when I’d had them in a farm setting, or that one time we had to cull a nasty rooster. We had 4 hens in our backyard chicken flock which my oldest son named Netty, Betty, Stella, Bella. They were regularly carried around, hand fed and in general, doted on.

I need you to know that for our family,
two things can and do co-exist:

1. I loved raising and tending to my girls; from fluffy baby chicks, to their awkward adolescence, molting, bumblefoot, vent gleet, even on -15F days where I had to change their water multiple times a day. They’re really endearing animals. Tending to their needs and completely spoiling them was our pleasure. Getting those eggs was awesome too!

2.I loved knowing where this meat came from: When the time came, we knew the girls had enjoyed a life far better than any of their counterparts who end up in a grocery store come from.

Now, I still get an occasional emergency rotisserie from Costco- but on average I really like knowing where my food comes from.

So, for us- once we got over the emotional roller coaster, the answer was clear. We’d be butchering our hens before Winter set in.

How We Decided it was Time

My family hadn’t gotten more than an egg a week from the girls since the end of August. I think I was in denial for quite a while…

After almost 2 full years of happily laying in the nesting boxes I began to find eggs scattered in the backyard. This was likely related to the Japanese Beetle ‘feeder’ I had made for the girls. They became so obsessed with the beetles that they didn’t return to their nesting boxes to lay their eggs in fear of missing the next bug!

The Perfect Storm

Two of our four hens contracted bumble foot in late July and I figured the ‘no eggs’ was directly related to them taking their sweet time healing from that. Also a shout out to my dear friend, Nicole- a vet tech who helped with the initial backyard surgery. I owe you one girl!

Then one of the Ameraucana’s went into a full molt, then a Black Australorp followed. Hens usually slow down or stop laying while molting because feathers are all protein, and that takes A LOT to regrow your whole feather duster.

Egg Eaters

As I mentioned earlier, the hens weren’t going back to their nesting boxes to lay, so they were laying in the yard. Eggs laying around usually leads to one thing; egg eating. They were likely all eating eggs by the end. I only ever found a few remnant shells, but all four hens wouldn’t stop laying at the same time.

We tried many things to deter egg eating, and encourage laying in the coop. Replacing their finely crushed egg shells with oyster calcium in case that was the issue. Placing ‘false eggs’ for the nesting boxes and continuing to use the herbs that I grew to help promote laying and keep/get them healthy.

Since we had an egg eater, we couldn’t give them to a farmer to enjoy their retirement only to wreak havoc by teaching a new flock of hens to eat eggs…

It was Time

So, I guess once the molting was over, I had to ask myself a hard question. Was I going to keep a flock of non-laying hens through a cold Minnesota Winter? Cold winters can mean boredom for the girls. I’ve used lots of ways to combat boredom before- from scratch blocks, hanging cabbages, new roosts, swings etc., but this time it didn’t seem like a good trade off.

The idea of doing all that work without return didn’t sit well with my homesteader heart.

it was time

Having “The Talk” with our Kids

We talked to our sons about it at length. My husband and I reminded them of our discussion back when we first got the baby chicks that they would have to say goodbye to our backyard chickens at some point.  Our one son was fine with it, our other boy cried for hours when we first brought it up. He was sad about losing them for weeks.

Eventually, the butchering day came.

After a major refresher (thank you YouTube) we prepped for it and had a day when our boys were going to be gone for a 5 hour stretch…

…Afterwards

Not going to sugar coat it; that was difficult. I was sad. I kept trying to remember that we gave them a good life. Then, as there was work to be done, I just kind of came to terms with it.

The birds have now all been stewed and souped on. Even my boy who swore he wouldn’t eat any of the meat, chose to and really liked the soup. And I have to say the bone broth was really amazing.

So, love it or hate it; that’s this Suburban Homesteader’s story.

This time around my boys are just as excited to get our new baby chicks. If anything, we’re all wiser, and if anything we will lavish even more love on this new generation of backyard birds because of our previous girls. We are definitely more appreciative of the meat we eat because of this experience.

If you are (still) interested in raising backyard chickens, read my Chickens in the Hood blog for more how to info.

One thing I know for sure; I’ll never judge another person’s decision on anything like this. It is such a personal choice. One that I am proud our family made.

Those girls will always have a special place in my heart, they were good teachers in so many ways.

I’m curious; if you have chickens, what are your plans for when they stop laying? Obviously, no judgment here

I can’t wait to share photos of my new fluffy babies with you all!

-Michelle

The post Fresh Eggs to Chicken Soup appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.

My social flock, hoping for treats

With a cluck, cluck here, and a cluck, cluck there…

Raising backyard chickens is on a steady rise with no signs of slowing, and I completely understand why! In my opinion, raising hens is one of the simplest and most enjoyable ways we can plug back into our food system.

Since I got my first chickens almost 20 years ago, I’ve been lucky enough to raise chickens (roosters too) in a few different situations. First, a farm in Sweden, then a home with a few acres of woods surrounding it, and now in my fenced-in suburban backyard. Each situation has given me and the chickens unique freedoms and challenges.

Part of my old flock from Sweden

Chickens require only a few minutes of care a day, but it is DAILY care, and they’ll be more like pets the more you hang out with them. There will be a LOT of poop, and some amazing eggs. The continual chicken antics are an added bonus.

There are so many obvious benefits to raising hens:

• Convert Table scraps into eggs
• Break the disease and pest cycle in gardens/fruit trees
• Till your garden space for you
• Add to compost piles and work them for you
• Fertilize plants once manure is aged

The other intangibles include teaching your children, and/or yourself, some basics about where our food comes from, feeling like you can make a difference in the food chain, and companionship. Our hens make our whole yard more enjoyable, and we all spend more time outside because of them. And yes, even on those dark, sub-zero winter mornings, I’m always glad I got outside for a few minutes.

Think you’re ready to pull on your muck boots and join me in the coop?  I can’t wait to welcome you to our flock, but first there are a few things to consider.

Are Chickens Allowed?

Our two Black Australorp as babies

The first thing to do is find out what is allowed in your city. You’ll find this buried somewhere within the city code, like White Bear Lake. Some places have you license each hen, some license the coop, and many don’t have specific language in them about hens yet. But that is changing as more and more people are adding hens to their urban homesteading routine. Here’s a ChickenLaws PDF listing of how the Twin Cities metro cities line up with allowing backyard chickens, compiled and shared by Egg|Plant Urban Farm Supply (THANKS GUYS!).

If you find your city doesn’t allow it, contact them to find out if anyone else has asked about it. Chances are they have. With minimal digging, a little internet stalking, and maybe a call to Bob at EggPlant, things can start moving quickly. I initiated the backyard chicken keeping code changes in White Bear Lake a few years ago. It was a great learning experience, and darn empowering to watch government work for the people!

The girls getting excited about fresh hay, the drawer slides back in to form the floor of their coop.

The Chicken Coop

You’ll need a solid coop to keep out the nasty winter elements and any predators. Chickens need at least 4 square feet per bird inside a coop, plus a fenced-in run area, and most also have much more open space to run in outside.

My husband, the designer + builder of our coop, researched a few online designs before melding them into one. The pull-out drawer makes cleaning the coop SO much easier than our last design.  It is designed to be moveable (if you’re Paul Bunyan) like the chicken tractor models, but ours has stayed in place. The run goes underneath the coop, and the girls love this space in the winter.  We tack frost cloth on the north side of the run in winter to keep the wind down and catch the sun for them.

For a full rundown of getting the coop and your chickens ready to face the cold, read Preparing your Chickens for Winter.

A winter treat

Feeding the Birds

Most people who want to raise hens want to do so in part to give the chickens a good life, and running around scratching happily for bugs and seeds is what makes a good life for a hen.

In the winter when they can’t scratch around, you’ll need to help them out a little. I keep a supply of scratch grains and freeze dried meal worms handy. I’ve also added random ‘bird feeder’ types of amusements to their run just for fun.

There are many different kinds of feed, both organic and conventional. In my years of raising chickens I’ve used every kind out there. Chickens seem to prefer feed that looks like real grains but will eat the pellets too.

Admire the poop plate, doing its job.

Chicken Poop

You’ll have more hay and poop than you imagined, so you’ll need a plan for what to do with it all before you get your backyard chickens. It makes for great compost!

Cleaning the coop can be a lot easier, especially in the winter if you install a “poop plate” under their roosting bar. Ours is made of thin stainless steel and slides in and out of a frame. This allows me to remove the majority of the poop, and even when it’s below zero for weeks on end (Hey there, January and February) I can bend it enough so the poop pops right off! This saves on hay too.

Bringing Nettie back to the flock after her recovery

Sick Chicks

Chickens have an astounding number of ways to get sick. Luckily, I had many years of zero health issues…until this winter when one of my girls got Vent Gleet (EWWW). I learned a lot fast, and was able to treat her without going to a vet, but it was great to know that TeleVet was there (thanks again to EggPlant for that info!). But, yes, I had to bring a full grown chicken into my home, wash dried and frozen poop off her butt, then blow dry her so she didn’t catch cold. Yes, we’re now bonded for life.

Here’s another piece of wise advice from Bob Lies of EggPlant: “know before you get your chicks home if you are the kind of person who will spend $200 on a vet bill for a $5 chick.”

Bella, Betty, Nettie, Stella (yes our kids named them)

The Chicken or the Egg

There are well over 70 breeds of chickens that you could bring home from different hatcheries around the country. Many local suppliers get their hens from the same hatchery in Iowa, Hoover’s Hatchery.

Most northern chicken keepers will opt for a ‘dual purpose’ hen. This means they are good for both egg production and meat.  Another thing to consider is their overall size, as a bigger bird can handle colder weather. The store EggPlant Urban Farm Supply is the most small flock/backyard friendly I’ve found so far, as they let you purchase a single chick of any of their 10 varieties. Most other ‘farm stores’ require minimums of 2 to 5 hens of each variety. I’ve purchased chicks closer to my neck of the woods, from Hugo Feed Mill (their Chick List) and Houle’s Feed and have been happy with the chickens’ health from both shops.

Our egg stash after we missed a day collecting

Another thing to keep in mind is that different breeds lay different colored eggs. There are chicken breeders who breed for specific egg colors.

I’m just happy with the beautiful blues of our Ameracanas and browns of our Black Australorps.

The End of the Road

No one wants to think about this when they’re buying cute, fluffy baby chicks, but chickens do not live forever. They’re most productive in egg laying until about 3 years of age (depending on breed) and then taper off. You’ll have to decide how long you’ll keep a non-laying hen in a small flock. You could slaughter and use as a soup chicken, although this is a hard step for many. Chickens really do become pets even when you think they’ll be treated like ‘livestock’.

We’ve eaten our chickens in the past, but I’m not sure we’ll be able to do it this time around, now that our boys have come to love them. We will likely find a farmer friend to take them after they stop laying consistently, because in White Bear Lake the limit is 4 hens, and I need at least that many laying to keep our family in eggs. Read about our decision to cull our backyard flock HERE.

Chickens are Social!

Bob, the human, showing the class Gimley, the Hen.

If you’re still questioning how big a deal backyard hens are, just take a look at the plethora of online community spaces for all us ‘Crazy Chicken People’. There are some useful, standard online resources like BackyardChickens.com, to university extension programs, to the slough of Instagram feeds dedicated to hens, like @henopause, @thedirtmag, @roundrockfarm; and be sure to check out #fluffybuttfriday… all of which I love.

I’ll Be At Egg|Plant

When it comes to taking care of another living animal, it’s nice to talk to another living person. And for that, there’s nobody better than the peeps at Egg|Plant Urban Farm Supply. They find homes for over 1,000 baby chicks each spring, with Americanas and Gold Stars as their most popular breeds. You pre-order your chicks a few weeks in advance, so now is the time to get planning!

The storefront of my dreams

Walking into Egg|Plant Urban Farm Supply is like taking a step sideways in time. The shop itself looks like it was pulled out of the 1940s, but all the items inside along with the staff’s knowledge is 100% modern. The store is the product of a country girl marrying a city boy and some inspired compromising. After completing her horticultural degree, Audrey wanted to provide a place where she could help her neighbors grow great food right where they were. Audrey and her husband Bob (the chicken class instructor extraordinaire) put their passions into practice and have created a hub of urban homestead nirvana.

The chicken supply corner, my happy place

They sell chicks and everything you’d need to raise them into happy, healthy, egg-laying machines. From basics like bedding and feed, necessities for treating sick chickens (chickens are always finding new ways to get sick) to specialty treats, these guys have you covered! They celebrate the chicken keeping community each fall with a “Coop Tour” of backyard set-ups all across the Twin Cities.

Egg|Plant also has supplies for seed starting, gardening (including  organic pest control and fertilizers) canning, fermenting, cheese making, bee keeping, books on all these homesteading skills, and carry a supply of edible and pollinator friendly plants each spring and summer.  Leslie, the store manager, was a wealth of knowledge and has this way of getting you even more excited for your own projects! All these happenings are housed within this cozy, whimsical space in the hipster*ville between Merriam Park and Tangletown, right off I-94.

Chicken Classes

A class mate, and obvious chicken lover

Even the classes offered at Egg|Plant are fun and funky. I sat in on a class last Saturday and felt like I had found my people Even a chicken raising veteran like myself learned a few fascinating things about pecking order, and how each chicken has one eye that’s far sighted and one that’s near sighted, so they can see what they’re scratching on the ground while watching for predators in the sky. Just like Bob said during the class, “Chickens are VERY good at being chickens.”

A few really good tips from the class were:
*Build your coop for the largest number of birds YOU would want. So if the city allows for 8 hens, but you want to start with only 4, maybe build for 8 hens (they require 4 square feet per bird) in case you decide to increase later. Chicken coops are going to be the most expensive part of getting started with chickens so you don’t want to build twice!

*Electricity. Since many of us live “up North” you’ll want to plan on how to heat the water and coop, provide a light source during the cold winter months.

*Predators are a big concern for some people who oppose backyard hens. Accidents do happen, and it’s part of the food cycle I’ve been able to teach my kids about too. Also, there’s this idea that rodents will be drawn to the chicken run and feed. But as long as you keep your feed in a closed bucket or shed, and clean your coop so you have healthy chicks, you shouldn’t have a problem.

Bella, helping dig potatoes

Why Raise Backyard Chickens?

One of my friends, Deanna, listed these reasons for raising backyard hens: “You can’t beat the flavor of the eggs, involving our girls in the hands-on process of growing their own food, helping to create responsible food consumers, plus the fact that we’ve reduced our weekly trash and have awesome compost, it’s just such a win-win-win.” I think she really hit all the major reasons so many people are finding it not just worthwhile, but rewarding to raise backyard hens.

PSA: Chickens Lay Eggs without a Rooster.
You only need a rooster if you want more chickens.

Another basic REAL reason to keep hens is because you think animals should be treated humanely. Over the years, we’ve become more and more separated form our food; growing, processing and cooking it. The image of the two comparative chicken breeds looks like progress to some and like a horror story to others. I see a horrific manipulation of one of God’s creatures. Now, I know my 4 hens and there few eggs aren’t going to change the world. BUT… if enough of us make these small shifts, we really can make an impact.

The U.S. Government thought it was important enough that each person have backyard chickens that they created these flyers back in the day.

I think raising backyard chickens just makes sense, and makes for some great stories and great omelets too.

But don’t just take my word for it. Bob from Egg|Plant says that chickens “Are a fun and fascinating creatures, they make great pets, and they provide eggs! Keeping chickens makes you an active participant in your own food production. And they are beautiful, too.” Words from an expert who helps hundreds of families around the metro raise chickens each year. Three cheers for Bob and Audrey doing what they love.

I highly recommend hanging out online, talking with someone who raises hens, or visiting EggPlant or your local farm supply store before buying those cute fluffy chicks. But, like always, I also say give it a try, WE can do this!

Besides, who wouldn’t want a chicken to hang out with at your next bonfire?

Here’s to Diggin In, 

Michelle

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