Introduction.

Introduction:

THIS post is NOT about my douche bag rooster particularly, but I feel there should be some back ground about the agonizing process my wife and I went through in deciding to get chickens, what to do and educate ourselves on how to do it.

Early in 2013 my wife and decided that we should like to raise and keep a few chickens. This is a strange notion considering we live on a meager third of an acre in suburban NJ, but what the heck, I’m not terribly bright, my family had raised a few chickens when I was a child, and we were willing to try.

First, the research. We agonized over WHY we want to keep chickens. The major reason we decided was the ‘joy’ of it. Next, we decided that we are interested in food safety and independence and raising our own chickens would ensure at least SOMETHING we were eating was mostly in our control. Additionally, we felt a desire to do something that directly contributes to the health and welfare of our family … beyond a little light gardening.

Next, we had to decide what we were going to raise chickens FOR. We like eggs, we like chicken, and decided raising our own would be healthier for ourselves and more humane than the factory style poultry farming that supplies most of the fare at our local market. So … after much consideration, we decided that we would want a ‘dual purpose’ type of bird, but mostly for the eggs. We didn’t intend to eat the chickens, but when you go into a venture like this … however small … you have to be prepared for the eventuality that you may have to dispatch one or more of your livestock for one reason or another.

Next, being in a suburban area of NJ (a heavily regulated state in regards to all aspects of life and trying to live it!) we needed to determine if it was legal. Now, there are people in the neighborhood with chickens, even a rooster or two, so figured we’d be on safe ground. Never the less, we checked with local ordinances and sure enough! Our town is one of the few that not only allows you to keep chickens, but even roosters. Naturally, they must be kept in satisfactory conditions that do not create a health risk for the neighbors or cruel conditions for the birds themselves. In the clear legally, project could go forward!

Then, it was an agonizing and well researched decision as to what KIND of chickens we wanted (yes, chickens come in different ‘kinds’ … or rather … breeds). So, NJ is a temperate part of the country where high summer can see occasional heat spells of 100+ degrees for a few days and the dead of winter can sometimes have lows below zero for a few days. We needed an all weather bird. Also, since we were raising them ‘mostly’ for eggs, but with the possibility for ‘meat’ we wanted a dual purpose bird. After much discussion, some fighting, a little rending of garments and gnashing of teeth, we settled on Black Australorps. You can look that up … they are amazing birds and we’ve ended up happy with that decision!  Also, we settled on a maximum of a dozen birds. We feel that is the top amount we could handle with our resources and small yard. With that in mind, we settled on starting with six so that there would be room to grow if we enjoyed the experience.

A rooster or no rooster? After much reading, we decided that although chickens are happy enough without a rooster, other people’s experience helped us to decide that having a rooster helps the flock feel more secure, lay better, and, of course, possibly produce new chicks.

Then came the coop and the run. Again we researched the size, style, what it needs to look like, which way the windows should face, etc. I am an experienced woodworker and still have a few tools, so I also planned on building the coop. after pricing out materials and drawing up plans, I realized that buying one would cost about the same and save me a lot of knuckle busting. So, in August of 2013 I bought a coop on special at the local 4H fair to be delivered in early spring of 2014 when the weather broke. This was now going to go forward.