10 Reasons to Keep Chickens

We enjoy our chickens immensely. Even though I grew up in the country and my family always had chickens, my husband and I never had any until about a year ago. We "inherited" 8 beautiful red birds from a relative, along with a small coop and run. Sadly, our dogs were really good chicken-killers. We  had enjoyed the chickens so much, though, that we got rid of the dogs and got more chickens (along with a chicken-friendly pooch.) 

We currently have a flock of 17 hens and one rooster. Two of our hens are setting and we should have some baby chicks in the next couple of weeks. (And by the way, you don't need a rooster to have eggs. Hens will lay eggs even with no rooster around. You do, however, need a rooster if you want your eggs to hatch into baby chicks. :) Just throwing that in because it is a common misconception that hens won't lay if they don't have a rooster.....)

Here are my 10 reasons for keeping chickens:

• It's fun. 

While I don't personally consider our chickens to be pets, they are really fun livestock. We do have a favorite hen. She is the buff orpington (one of the yellow ones) that has no toenails on her middle toes. :)

My girls take great delight in catching grasshoppers to feed to the chickens. They also enjoy letting them out of their pen to chase grasshoppers around the yard. And chickens are amazingly easy to herd back to the pen. And if we turn them out late enough in the afternoon, we don't have to herd them, since they always return to the coop at dusk. 

• It's easy.

Really. It is. We only spend about 15 minutes most days caring for the chickens and bringing in the eggs. (Except those times when I escape to visit the chicken pen for some quiet moments alone. :) Unless I'm spotted by a child or two I may spend quite some lengthy time there all alone just talkin' to the hens. It's usually a very one-sided conversation.)

Actually, once you have your set-up, it really is easy. There is the initial time and money investment of building them a shelter and pen, but once that is done, the maintenance is minimal.

• It's educational.

Our kids have learned a lot by having chickens. Not only about chickens, but about all sorts of things. We learned to build a fence and to build the roof on our dog-kennel-turned chicken coop. We also learned what J-clips are (very useful little things!) and that chicken wire is NOT fun to work with!

• It can be done almost anywhere.

We live in a rural area and have plenty of space for lots of chickens. But you can have chickens even if you only have a small backyard. You have to check your local laws (some cities don't allow chickens; some only allow a certain number of hens) to be sure you are in compliance. There are many different ways to approach it. Just a couple of hens can provide you with a dozen eggs a week. You can find LOTS of information and coop designs on Backyard Chickens.

• It can be done fairly inexpensively.

Once you have the initial investment of a pen or run of some sort and a chicken coop for shelter (and of course, the birds themselves), you really only have the cost of chicken feed. I don't think we are actually saving a ton of money by not buying eggs since we now have to buy chicken feed, but the experiences our family has had and the enjoyment we get out of owning chickens certainly makes it worth it! Plus, my daughters really enjoy selling eggs to their grandmother which allows them to have a little spending money of their own! :) 

• It teaches kids responsibility.

My children are learning to care for living creatures. 

• Eggs, eggs, eggs.

I typically get 8-12 eggs per day from my 17 hens. It is enough that we almost never run out of eggs and my girls sell 1-2 dozen per week.

And if you've never had a farm-fresh egg, you really don't know what you are missing. They are so much yummier than store-bought eggs! The yolk is rich and golden. MMMM.

• Surprises 

And sometimes you get a surprise in the nest box!

That top egg is a whopper! I found it just a couple of days ago. The middle one is a normal "medium" egg. The bottom is a bantam egg. I usually get 1 or 2 of those a day from our 3 bantam hens. But the top one is something that only shows up occasionally. Notice how much it sticks up in the egg carton! I'm guessing this one is a double-yolker! :)

• Baby chicks are cute.

• Life-cycle learning.

But it's not always fun. We lost our cute little baby chicks after just a week. To this guy. 

He had eaten lots of eggs and 3 baby chicks. But I couldn't seem to find him. I'd been told that ceramic eggs would kill a snake because they eat the eggs and then can't digest them. He ate 2 ceramic eggs the night he got the chicks. Well, the eggs didn't kill him. But he did spit them out of his nest, leaving a tell-tale sign pointing us to him. His reign of terror is over. The kids have learned that loss is part of keeping livestock. They have learned that part of keeping livestock is protecting them as best we can from predators. 

Overall, we LOVE having chickens. Perhaps you'd like to have some too?

Here are some books that might help get you started.

           

Link-ups:  Far Above Rubies, Growing Home, Deep Roots At Home, Raising Homemakers

Terri's Granola

We visited a pastor and his family in another state a few years back. His wife served us the most wonderful granola for breakfast. She also shared her recipe! It is so easy to make and all the family loves it!

Here's what you need.

Old-fashioned oats, coconut, nuts, oil, honey, sunflower seeds, and raisins. This recipe can easily be adapted. This time I used peanuts, but I usually use mixed nuts. You could use whatever nut you like or leave them out. I also used raisins, which I've found to be our favorite, but I've also used other dried fruits. If the fruits are large, such as apricots, I will chop them into bits. 

The original recipe didn't have sunflower seeds, but I bought some for salads and we've found that we really like them in the granola. I use sweetened coconut, but my friend used unsweetened coconut. 

We have always used honey for the sweetener. The recipe gives the choice of one cup honey or 1/2 cup honey and 1/2 cup brown sugar. I've not tried it with brown sugar. 

I'm sure you could also stir in just about anything else you like! :) I love a versatile recipe!

Another plus for this recipe is that I can stir it up and cook it all in the same dish. I use this large roasting pan because I double the recipe. I used to oil the pan prior to baking, but one time I forgot and found that the granola actually stuck less when the pan is not oiled. There will still be some sticking, but I just fill the pan with water and soak for a while and it comes out really easily. No scrubbing required. 

First I measured in 20 cups of old-fashioned oats. (Remember I doubled the recipe.)

Next I added 2 cups of coconut.

Now my 2 cups of peanuts. 

Followed by 2 cups of oil and 2 cups of honey.

Finally I added 2 cups of sunflower seeds and stirred it all up.

I baked it for 15 minutes at 375 degrees F. 

Upon removal from the oven I added 2 cups of raisins.

Stirred it up and let it cool. 

I like to store this in my Tupperware cereal storer and use a scoop to serve. (The cereal storer doesn't quite hold the doubled recipe, but we ate some for dinner and it held the rest.) We really enjoy this with milk. I'm sure it would be yummy with vanilla ice cream or yogurt as well! 

Link-ups:



    

Taming the Laundry Monster

A family of nine can generate some major laundry!  It took me a while to get into my "groove" with laundry, but I'm almost there in taming that laundry monster!  Here are some of my own "monster-taming" tips:


~First of all, my husband bought me the biggest machine in the store.  Now, I'm not advocating purchasing a new machine unnecessarily.  My machine had washed its last load and we were shopping for a new one.  His one question to the salesman was "Where is the one with the largest washing capacity?"  (He's super sweet like that....thinking more of saving me time and helping me out than the cost of said machine!!)  And that's the one he bought.  So if you are looking for a new machine for your large family, find a super-sized capacity washer.  Mine happens to be a front-loader, but there are some really big top-loaders as well.


~Each bedroom (with the exception of ours) has a laundry hamper in it.  My son has his own room (great benefit of being the only son in a houseful of sisters!!)  so he has his own hamper.  There are two rooms of girls and each room has a shared hamper.


~Once a week (preferably on Monday) each hamper is supposed to make its way down to the laundry room.  Once there I wash each hamper of clothing separately from the others.  Joshua's clothes usually take me two washer loads. The girls' hampers usually take two or three. I don't separate by colors and I have not had a problem with this. (Except for hubby's white undershirts, which I wash separately and bleach.) I try really hard to remember and separate out any new red or dark-colored items that may bleed, but since we rarely purchase clothing brand-new, this is rarely an issue. I can usually finish all this in one day. 


~Loads are removed from the dryer (or brought in from the clothesline) and placed, unfolded, into the same hamper.  Then each room's occupant(s) are required to return it to the room and fold/hang/put away all the clean clothing. 


~I either fold/hang/put away all of my own and my husband's and the little ones' laundry, or I enlist the help of an older child to do it for me.  Quite honestly, this is the one area of laundry I haven't quite "tamed" yet.  Sometimes clean laundry hangs around in baskets a bit too long in our house.  <blush>


~All other laundry (towels, sheets, blankets, coats, etc) are washed on the days I'm not doing the hamper laundry.  I run a load of laundry (or several!) almost every day.  


~Occasionally, such as after an out-of-town trip, I will have a literal mountain of laundry.  And it is not all sorted out by room in those hampers.  During those times I just make a big pile of the dirty laundry in my laundry room floor and go to work.  It may take me several days to get through it, but we just work hard on it until it is finished.  Since it is all mixed up, I separate each load into one of my many laundry baskets.  I separate it just like when I have hampers, by room occupancy.  And at the end of the day, each room is required to put away their own stuff.  Because my laundry room is in the middle of my house, we have to navigate this mountain until it is finished.  This helps keep me motivated to get it done!  :)  


So. These are my tips for taming my laundry monster.  Like I said at the beginning, I'm still not quite where I'd like to be in the taming process, but that monster sure is more manageable than he used to be!  :)