Backyard chickens Part 1

The city of Cold Lake recently changed it’s bylaws to allow backyard chickens and after all this time, I’m finally legal, ha! As a family we’ve had a backyard flock of laying hens for 9 years now. I thought you might be interested to hear how we blend chickens and gardens and why we love having our own little flock.

I wanted chickens for a long time, starting back when my kids were little, but I knew with my husband always deployed with the military the extra work involved wasn’t feasible. As soon as my husband Scott decided he was taking a civilian job, chickens were a possibility! In 2012, we built a well insulated coop in our backyard and fenced in a small outdoor run for them. I read books and pestered my crazy chicken friends with my many questions. We bought hens from a friend who was culling her flock and thus began our home poultry operation. At first they were my project but my daughter Isla Rose quickly became the household Chicken Whisperer and they are now definitely her flock.

What do I love about having chickens? So many things but here are my top reasons for being a fan of backyard hens.

1) Eggs, of course! The taste of eggs from hens who eat bugs and grass is totally different than hens kept in battery cages on large CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operation). We feel comfortable eating eggs knowing our chickens are kept in healthy conditions and allowed to live a good life.

2) Fertilizer. The manure and bedding from our coop is a great source of nitrogen that we add to our compost system. On it’s own, the manure is too “hot” or high in nitrogen to be directly added to your garden and must be composted or aged. Isla Rose cleans the coop once a week and adds the spruce shavings mixed with manure to our food scraps in our home compost bins. The heat from the nitrogen breaks down the food scraps and turns everything into rich black compost that I add to my flower gardens. This has been key to having healthy, vigorous plants in years like this one when climate change has made growing flowers and vegetables really challenging. Eggshells are also another valuable resource that can be turned into liquid calcium for those plants like tomatoes that love an extra nutrition boost. If you aren’t using shells from hard boiled eggs, make sure you lightly toast your shells in the oven to remove the moisture and unwanted organic matter from them first. After they are cooled, put the crushed shells in a glass jar with apple cider vinegar filling it with 1 part shells, 10 parts vinegar. Let it sit on your counter, covered lightly with a tea towel. Do not tightly cover the jar unless you want an explosion in your kitchen. The calcium extraction will be ready to decant and use in a week or two. I use a 1/2 TB of calcium in my 2 gallon watering can (a ratio of 1:500), so a little goes a long way. It can be stored indefinitely in a glass jar as it is shelf stable.

3) Waste reduction. Besides bugs, grass and layer ration, our hens eat a steady diet of apple cores, carrot tops, watermelon rinds, and every other fruit and vegetable scrap coming out of our house. As a plant based family of 6, we generate a lot of scraps and my hens turn it all back into nitrogen and more eggs. I love a closed loop!

4) Responsibility. As anyone who has animals knows, they require daily care. Outdoor animals like hens are another level of commitment in our cold climate. Waterers need to be changed twice a day in winter because the water freezes. Coop doors need to be shovelled out when there is a blizzard. Eggs need to be collected before they freeze. Even just getting dressed in -35C to do chicken chores is an undertaking. The daily work involved requires a high level of maturity and conscientiousness, good skills when you’re raising future adults. Although Isla Rose is still not a fan of getting up in the morning, having her chickens has allowed her to learn things you don’t find in high school. Veterinary skills to name one!

5) Pest control. I like to let our chickens into my gardens once my plants are well established in my raised beds. They will scratch around in the pathways and eat grasshoppers and other harmful bugs that damage my plants. They eat the carpenter ants that try to destroy my wooden raised bed frames. I put them under my apple and cherry trees so they can scratch the dirt and eat the larvae of pests like apple maggot that can ruin the fruit. Insects aren’t the only pest chickens like to eat. Mice are another favorite treat. The first time we saw one of our hens catch and eat a mouse was equal parts horrifying and fascinating.

5) Entertainment and companionship. We call it “Chicken TV” at our house. Hens are endlessly entertaining with their quirky personalities. Some are friendly, some super smart and some just weird. We’ve hatched several batches of chicks over the years and that takes backyard chicken keeping into next level cuteness. Watching a broody hen with her babies is just fascinating. My youngest, Graeme, has autism and having chickens has provided a sort of exposure therapy for him. One aspect of his autism is difficulty with unpredictability. High energy animals like dogs or horses used to provoke screaming fits. With Isla Rose’s help, he has been able to pet and hold our hens, which has helped his confidence around other animals.

So are you ready to build that coop? Don’t buy the lumber just yet. Next time I’ll share some of the less glamorous realities of keeping hens.