One of my projects this year has been getting “Operation Hen House” up and running. With the completion of our house for the hens in the side yard and the screened in chicken run attached to it, we became the proud “parents” of 5 teenage chickens. They have not yet begun to lay.
All credit for Operation Hen House, goes to the amazing Patrick, who built the house and its accompanying screened in yard and helped me with a bunch of other parts of this project. Patrick is the consummate farmer and builder and my family quickly fell in love with him. The boys helped him to paint the poles of the chicken run and he included them in a number of other (construction) aspects as well.
Having chickens is pretty cool. I feed them little scraps through the chicken wire quite often (their main feeder is in the hen house). They now follow me along the side yard whenever I walk through it hoping I will bestow scraps upon them. We now have 2 separate compost buckets in the kitchen, one for animal food (don’t forget the bunnies) and one for compost waste to go in our compost pile.
The other day as I was out in the garden pulling weeds and trimming overgrown greens, my husband came out to chat with me. “It’s like we live on a farm!” I exclaimed.
“No,” he retorted, “it’s not like we live on a farm, we DO live on a farm.”
Well, just to give you an idea of what it’s like over here….we live about a 10 minute walk from downtown Boulder in a lovely tree lined neighborhood where the houses are very close together. There is not a lot of space. The house takes up most of our yard, however, I do not let that deter me, I just squeeze in everything I can. We have kale where all the flowers used to be, chickens in the side yard and bunnies living inside with us. All of this on less than 1/10th of an acre.
Stay tuned for more gardening, composting, chicken rearing urban farm fun! In the meantime, head on over to Nourishing Days and their blog carnival Food Roots to see what others are sharing in regards to where their food comes from.
Beth says
I wanted to have chickens and a goat, but the city does not allow it.
I love that you are maximizing the space you do have.
Brandae says
Hi Elana,
I just got your cookbook and am waiting for my almond flour to be delivered so I can get started – I almost cried when I found your website because my son was just diagnosed with food allergies to corn, soy, wheat, dairy, peanut, and shellfish. Your recipes are a lifesaver!
Anyway, we have four hens that just started laying last week and are LOVING the fresh eggs. It’s great to see your set-up.
Brandae
Alta says
Wow, how cool! I live in a suburban area that currently doesn’t allow chickens, at least, not in our neighborhood. But I do have a friend that is less than 5 miles away from me that has an alpaca, sheep, and chicken farm, and so I visit her at least weekly to get fresh eggs. Once your chickens start laying and you get to enjoy those fresh eggs, you will never go back to store-bought again! They are so much happier, with their orange-yellow round yolks. Congrats, and enjoy!
Penny says
Hey Elana! Beautiful. My son and I picked up our two Light Brahma hens on the fourth of July. They are hilarious. They love zucchini, swiss chard and tomatoes, and if I let them into the garden, watch out, they attack any available zucchinis with gusto. You can cut a zucchini in half length-wise and each will eat an entire half. We’ve had fun tracking their laying habits on a kitchen calendar. Ours are Cookie and Colette. I’m another city girl urban farming in a suburban neighborhood! I do wish I could have a goat…
Christianne says
How delightful!! Do your chickens have names?
I just read research about cows. They seem to give more milk and suffer less illnesses when they are named and when the farmer adresses them personally…
But from the looks of it, your chickens know very well who the nourishing mother on the farm is.
Please keep us posted, I love to hear how the cattle and the farmers are doing!
Have a lovely day, Christianne
Eve says
Mazal tov on the chickens! I’vve been thinking about it too (a bit deterred because lots of other wildlife come through our South Boulder back yard: foxes, hawks, raccoons, skunks, last summer’s bear; and the neighbor got the mountain lion.) But we’ve been enjoying Windsor farm’s aqua eggs (from Aruacana chickens) bought at the Farmer’s Market all summer, and our New Zealand friend has been encouraging us to raise “chooks”. We want to keep hearing how it goes!
Amy Green - Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free says
Ok, I am green with envy!! I would love to have chickens…and horses and even some cows. We live in Dallas and don’t even have room for a proper garden but someday my husband and I are going to buy a white house with a wrap around porch. Then, we will have chickens.
Linda Simon says
Your eggs will be so much better than store bought. The yolks will be almost orange.
We haven’t gotten live chickens yet, supposedly they are not allowed here. Though our neighbor has a goat, also not allowed. So far we only have chicken garden art.
We subscribe to the magazine Backyard Poultry. It is a nice resource and full of helpful advice.
Enjoy those ladies!
Emily says
Cute cute cute. I love your stories and am excited to learn more about gardening and house farming! I can’t wait to do this myself wherever we end up!
Melissa says
Elana,
I’m just wondering how much it costs you to feed and care for the chickens. I have thought of doing this but wondered if it would be cost effective.
Melissa