Don't Fear The Chook-chooks
November 5, 2021 7:11 AM   Subscribe

Ever thought of raising chickens? YouTube has made it easier than ever to get started. The Insteading channel has a 21 video Beginner's Guide to Raising Chickens. I learned a ton from the Edible Acres channel, their operation is as much about producing huge amounts of compost as lots of eggs. They take in food scraps from restaurants and collect bags of leaves from their neighbors, and let their chickens do all the work. They even use the heat from the compost to keep their chicken warm in winter (in upstate New York).
posted by Bee'sWing (10 comments total) 24 users marked this as a favorite
 
Sean at Edible Acres is a neighbor, friend and general inspiration. His videos are full of info; in person he's even cuter. If you have a chance to attend a tour or a workshop at either of his places do so. It has been a joy watching them evolve over the last 5 years.
posted by Walleye at 8:10 AM on November 5, 2021 [1 favorite]


Ornithology is a lot like demonology: do not raise up that which you cannot put down.
posted by notoriety public at 8:54 AM on November 5, 2021 [7 favorites]


My neighbors got chickens this past summer, which is cool. they also got a rooster, which is not cool.
posted by OHenryPacey at 9:47 AM on November 5, 2021 [4 favorites]


my neighbors have chookies (no roosters) and they are SOOOOOO cute. they hang out in the side (next to my driveway) and I love to say hello to them through the fence. this summer I got to feed them blackberries and now we are all besties.
posted by supermedusa at 9:56 AM on November 5, 2021 [2 favorites]


We had chickens for a while last year. Even with a handful of roosters, we just couldn't protect them from predators. It was nice to have fresh eggs.
posted by ob1quixote at 10:13 AM on November 5, 2021 [1 favorite]


One of the school gardens I used to work with included chikkins as pest management. I used to have a picture on my desk of this adorable little boy cradling a big, curly-tailed red rooster like a stuffed animal.

Also, unbidden memories of the little white feathers clinging to everything in the backyard on the days Grandma would pluck a hen.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:15 AM on November 5, 2021 [1 favorite]


Yes!! I love composting and I love those grouchy little dinosaurs!! I hope to keep a small flock someday. Not while I live in an apartment.

Apparently, in the US, quail are considered game birds and thus exempt from most legal chicanery about keeping livestock in your backyard (/ apartment balcony?). There was a kickstarter for a quail-keeping manual, if you poke around you should be able to find links for international / digital copies. And a video of some stinkin' cute tiny birds taking a sand bath.
posted by snerson at 12:26 PM on November 5, 2021 [2 favorites]


Careful friends, chickens are a gateway drug for emus .... and now I have two pet dinosaurs. True story.
my dinos Ricky & Lucy
posted by birdsongster at 12:52 PM on November 5, 2021 [8 favorites]


I’ve got chickens. They’re sort of beautiful, unbelievably stupid, weird, utterly filthy, and fascinating all at once, and getting back to chickens after an adulthood devoid of the little flock of chickens I grew up with in Scaggsville has been fantastic except for where I’m realizing how much my parents made the experience less traumatic through skillful obfuscation (though my born-in-the-1800s Georgia grandmother’s casual overhead spinning-by-the-neck technique for ending a chicken after a cuddly Southern moment was always a shock). So I find myself heading into fall where I let my broody hen hatch a few eggs and suddenly I’ve got four damn roosters and no stomach for casual overhead anything, which is a problem.

Plus, I think literally every Cooper’s hawk in Maryland lives in our damn trees, to say nothing of how it seems like the foxes are starting to open diplomatic ties with the coyotes and raccoons.
posted by sonascope at 3:55 PM on November 7, 2021 [3 favorites]


Coming late to this as usual, but I've got some too.

They came with the previous house. When we moved we built a new coop and brought them along. It turns out that at night when chickens are roosting, you can just pick them up and put them into cardboard boxes.

There were three originally. The smallest, scrappiest, and probably oldest of them died last month. Of the two remaining, only one lays eggs on a regular basis, and she's packed it in till spring. She's grey and elegant. The other one is big, stately, and white, with a magnificent voice, like Bianca Castafiore.

Most days after lunch I go outside and share my apple with them.
posted by tangerine at 4:12 PM on November 12, 2021


« Older Woman who climbed El Capitan on her 70th birthday...   |   Active moose in classroom Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments