After sitting on it a while, I decided, as my next step toward the self-sufficient life, to get chickens. So Tuesday afternoon I picked up four little black sex-link chicks from the local Feed and Seed Store. Yep, that’s right. Chicks. Meet Margaret, Rosa, Harriet, and Mother Jones (all named after other women who have given great gifts to us all). They’re so adorable!
I built a mobile mini-coop (take that BMW!) with an attached chicken run so the girls have a safe place to scratch, run, roost, and lay without disruption/destruction of our two dogs. (We’ll see how that goes seeing as Damian is already obsessed with the tiny chirps coming from the coop.) The girls are only two weeks old right now so we keep them locked up in the coop with a red heat lamp (red is calming to them), food, water, and bedding and every afternoon we let them in their run to scratch.
Their breed “black sex-link” refers to the fact that they’re basically hybrids of two purebreds thus it’s easier to decipher the sex of the chick simply by their color, so we know we won’t hear a “cock-a-doodle-doo” in a few months. Another name for their breed is “Black Stars”, had I known that earlier, I probably would have named them Oprah, Whitney, Tyra, and Aretha. They’re excellent dual purpose birds—egg layers and meat—and they, unlike purebreds, will produce eggs through this first winter. I’m expecting two dozen eggs a week and already have friends and neighbors fighting over the extras.
What has really shocked me in the last few days is the amazing support we’ve received and child-like curiosity we’ve witnessed. Everyone I’ve told the news to is egg-cited and interested in learning about the process. The number one question that keeps hatching is “Can you have chickens in the city?” Granted I live in the small city of Greenville, SC, population 56,002, Ido live within the city lines which usually means there’s a code for everything. Well—guess what—chickens are allowed in the city! In fact, there are only about 20 cities in the nation where hens are not allowed. Roosters are a different situation; they’re loud. And in case you were wondering as I was when this all began, hens do not have to have a rooster to produce eggs; they just won’t hatch if not fertilized. Aside from beautiful backyard eggs (which have less cholesterol, less fat, more vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids than the sad, cruel grocery store versions) we also get free fabulous fertilizer to boost our garden and free pest patrol!
note to self 