This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Lafayette Hen House Egg-cellent Idea; Until The Girls Come A'Visiting

Twenty years of keeping chickens and still happy every day to collect the eggs and the black gold for my garden.

At my first house in Hayward, where I had the barest postage stamp of a backyard I raised my first trio of chickens; Lucy, Ethel, and Thelma were the sweetest Leghorn/Rhode Island Red cross. They laid eggs daily and introduced me to the joys of keeping chickens.

Now 20 years later, I’ve got a flock that fluctuates around a couple dozen birds.  I say fluctuates because the birds die off sometimes and others arrive.  I say arrive because somehow I became known to others as sort of the chicken rescue lady.  Science lab teachers who hatch chicks and then realize they’ve got chickens they’ve got no home for. Or Science Fair projects that are too successful. Or people who have bought too many chicks at the feed store because they’re so cute.  

Once I got a call that a hatchery had erroneously mailed a box of 100 chicks to someone who didn’t order them, nor did she have room to keep anywhere near that many birds. The company said if she tried to send them back to them they would most likely die. They advised her to find homes for them. Fortunately I knew enough chicken keepers in Lafayette that  I was able to track down folks who would adopt a half dozen each. Within the day we had homes for all of the birds.

Now it would be a lot easier to deal with this emergency. So many people are keeping chickens in Lafayette that there is a group called, CLUCK (City of Lafayette Urban Chicken Keepers) that has met several times to discuss chicken issues, swap coop designs and generally share our love of these domestic birds.

Although my daughters can tell which hen is which and often still enjoy naming them, I just can’t keep them straight, so I no longer name my birds, the turn over rate is too high, there are too many of them and frankly I forget which one is which.

I used to let them free range, but the range they wanted to inhabit was my porch and my living room.  Several of the birds would peck at the windows and doors and the moment the door opened would run inside.  Nothing like having a crazy hen loose in your house... feathers, poop...yuck.  Also, the local wildlife thought our free chicken dinners (and lunches and breakfasts) were an awesome deal.  It seems that the world of animals is extremely eager to eat chicken.  So, they have a coop now, a nice safe one.  They are surrounded by chicken wire on all sides (it’s even buried in the ground a foot).  

One day I heard a wild hullabaloo coming from the coop. I hurried out to find a Cooper’s Hawk perched atop the coop peering down at the little nuggets inside.  The dog took off after it and it flew away.  The chickens were upset all day.  I could just hear them talking to each other about the excitement and terror of the close call.

The best part about keeping chickens is of course the eggs. Absolutely delicious, perfect, healthful. However, there is no possible way I can eat a store bought egg any more. They simply do not compare at all.  It’s like comparing a backyard tomato with a January green house version--just not the same at all. The worst part of keeping chickens is the flies which are as irritating as all get out.  Fly traps help, as do regular clean ups, as does cold weather.  Most people might say the poop is the worst, but for a gardener, that’s gold.  Black gold.  

I can’t imagine not having chickens around at this point.  People often ask, what do you do with all the eggs?  We eat them.  All of them.  They’re delicious.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?