Raise your hand if you jumped on the backyard chicken bandwagon last year! We did, I'm Holly
Capelle, an urban homesteader in Zone 8B and today I want to talk to you about being a new chicken
mama. Last year when the world was shutting down we, like so many other people, were trying to
find ways to be as self-sufficient as possible. With six kids, having food at the ready under any
circumstance is really important to me. We do have a large backyard garden that does produce a ton of
food for us but what we didn't have was chickens. The first thing we did was to make sure that we
can even have chickens, it's important to check your city ordinance and rules to make sure that
they're allowed. Thankfully we can have chickens as long as they obey the noise ordinance law,
but we're not allowed to have roosters in the city limit. So, it is important that you check
to make sure that you're good to go before you start this process. The second thing for us to
do was begin our research on breeds; there are some breeds that are raised for meat, some for eggs,
some for both. Also, we live on a creek that brings a ton of predators so our chickens are not
able to free-range, we have them in this run here. There are some breeds that really prefer to be
free-rangers and some that don't care to live that coop life. So again, depending on what's best for
your backyard setup it's important that you find out which breeds would be best for your flock.
Lastly, we had to find a good place to get them from, we got ours from our local feed store who
got theirs from breeders and farmers. It's really important you get sexed chickens if you can.
Especially for us city farmers, we cannot have roosters, like I was saying in city limits. It
would have been really devastating for us to bring home a bunch of chicks that turned out
to be roosters, our kids would have just died. So we got five chicks all sexed, they guarantee
at about 99% and we got five out of five. So we were really lucky, definitely a tip I wouldn't
skip, a lot of people do hatch eggs and then that's when you run into not know what you're
getting. If you live in the country and you can have roosters then that is an awesome way to go,
but if you can't it's best to get them from a feed store that already has them.
So come on in let's go meet my girls. I'm joined here today with my kiddo, Sydney and we want to
introduce you to our girls. These are our Barred Rocks also known as Plymouth Rocks, they are
beautiful black and white spotted or speckled chickens with red combs. They are delightful,
we call them the raptor twins. They are a lot of fun they are our first egg layers. They're sort
of in charge of the flock we can't really tell which one is the boss but one of them is the boss.
Right? Is it you? Or is it you? Or is it you? They are excellent egg layers they produce about 250
eggs a year, so they are a good addition to your backyard flock. If you're trying to get egg
production they're also very kind, super social as you can see and just a lot of fun to have.
This is luna she is our speckled Sussex. She has the most beautiful feathers, lots of colors in
here, and patterns. They say after they're done molting that their speckles get even thicker.
She hasn't molted yet so we'll see about that. She has white legs and she lays speckled colored eggs.
She is so friendly, very kind as you can see, loves to be petted and paid attention to.
Yes, aren't you? She's a smaller bird but they are raised for meat and eggs. She's just a wonderful
addition to our flock and those speckled eggs are kind of cool. This here is our Easter Egger a very
popular breed of chickens. They love to live in the run. She's perfectly fine not free-ranging
but would also do well as a free-range chicken. They're on the small side, they are bred only
for their colorful eggs and indeed they have colorful eggs. They can be anywhere from pink
to blue to green. Ours just started laying hers at the end of winter and it is a bluish greenish
color. Always a fun prize to get from the nesting box. When we come down she's so sweet and kind,
very docile. Aren't you, aren't you so nice? Yes. She's just started the malting process,
didn't you? She's losing her feathers in her neck and some on her back as well, so
this will be a new one for us. Do you have molting chickens already what am I in for? Let me know on
the comments below. This is Maribel, she is our Model Java. Javas are actually the second oldest
American breed of chicken that there is. Which is kind of interesting. she started out as a
white chick with black spots and is now a black chicken with white speckles. She's a large
bird bred for both her meat and her eggs. She has an egg production of about 200 eggs a year
and she lays pink eggs. I mean pink, absolutely beautiful! A super fun addition to our
backyard egg collection. She's a very kind chicken, very quiet and docile. As you can see,
she doesn't mind us coming over and just swooping her up and loving on her. She's a lot of fun.
When my husband first suggested that we get chickens I was really on the fence about it but he
thought it would be a wonderful experience for our kids and they really have enjoyed raising these
guys from baby chicks till now they are really a lot of fun. I thought they were going to smell bad
be loud and be too much work but the truth is they're quite easy they're not loud at all.
Unless they're laying an egg and can you blame a girl? And the smell, well it's not as bad as I
thought and with some really smart planting, we're able to get the smell of fresh blooms wafting
through the house instead of that not-so-fresh coop smell. Do you have anything to say?
Okay, I'll tell them. Anything else? You got a little something here.
Thanks so much for joining me. Tune in next time when we talk about the
egg-citement of backyard chicken eggs. Also, be sure to hit that subscribe button and notification bell
so you don't miss that video or any other exciting chicken adventures coming up.
Also, if you're on your own chicken adventure tell us about it, we want to know. You can also find me
over on Instagram @bigfamilyliving where I share our daily farming fun, right Judy?
Happy gardening.