The inevitable has happened. We've perused a dozen books (in we, I mean the little one and I, while hubby stood by and shook his head.) about chicken raising. We've picked out and re-picked out what chick breeds we'd like to own, which produce the best, which will lay the longest. We've discussed and sketched and eyed the contents of the house for any stray wood that might go into a chicken tractor. We've even shown the books to the teen who is never here and wouldn't be a part of the care and upkeep of chickens, but none-the-less has picked out what type of chicken she wants.
But finally, behind closed doors without little ears to hear and a convincing whine to color our judgment, the hubby and I have sat down and discussed the possibility of a chicken coop in our yard. The pros and cons have been weighed (I'm an optimist, he's the opposite so you can imagine which side of the room more cons were coming from).We've talked of coops, feed, letting them roam as opposed to being 'cooped' up all day, wintering them, brooders (the little one already set up a homemade one in the basement), having wood to build a coop, what they eat (bugs and scraps, corn and feed) and the types of eggs they produce.
His argument: it will probably be a mistake, things like this usually don't turn out okay.
My argument: it's worth a try, to at least have tried the opportunity, for the little one at least. If all else fails and we hate it or its not for us, we can find a nice farm the chickens can go live on and sell or give away our coop.
With a sigh, a boast that 'of course' he could build a nice coop but that I better find out the code of ordinances for our city, on chickens... hubby agreed for us to become a chicken farming family! Yay us!
Note: I added information to the 'Chicken Farmers tab above' on how to find out the Municipal Code of Ordinances for your city, as well as how your house lot is zoned (this info matters as to how many chickens you can legally house.) We're zoned residential and we can have 2. I'm going to call City Hall tomorrow to see if we could have a few more if we paid a licensing fee. That is permitted in other cities, so it doesn't hurt to ask...
Okay, who's ready to throw on some overalls, grab a bale of hay and raise some chickens?! Anyone, anyone, Bueller??!
** Stay tuned for more exciting updates **
1 comment:
I wish we could have chickens!! Maybe someday when we get a larger home with a real yard. :P
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