Urban Chickie Farmer - Roam vs Roots — Something More Project

Something I've always struggled with is my urging desire to be a roaming soul while also having a desire to be rooted. The rooted half is easy to explain - my parents are ultimate home bodies. I grew up on a hobby farm in central MN and my parents JUST applied for their first passport (and that was only because we’re getting married in Canada coming up). I grew up within the countryside with loads of acres to roam, giant gardens to tend to, and baby sheep as my backyard friends (and in all reality, my best friends - yes, I was a weird child). The rooted longing is easy to explain; the roaming longing is less linear, but it’s been a strong pull since my early 20s.

Example of some things that make me most excited and proud in life:

Exploring new territory - ROAM
Nurturing fruitful gardens - ROOTS
Trying & succeeding at something foreign to me (hello Chirripo)- ROAM
Watching the sun set off my parents deck in the house I grew up in - ROOTS
Being lost in foreign cultures - ROAM
Making salsa with all ingredients picked in Legatt garden - ROOTS
Building a bus that allows me freedom to go wherever, whenever - ROAM
Raising the animals we end up eating (many people will cringe, but raising the animals you end up consuming is a beautiful circle of life and makes you appreciate the process) - ROOTS
Backpacking to India solo for 3 weeks - ROAM

You see, it’s always been a battle & I foresee it will always be a battle for me. I am interested in SO much, but if you try to give your energy to everything, you won’t ever become more than surface-level at anything; and that to, is something that I’m also not satisfied with. I can be a very complicated person.

So when I started tossing around the idea of getting some chickens in our 1/3rd acre Minneapolis backyard, it was clear that my ROOTS side was calling. In my 27 years of life, I have yet to want to own a house. It has always seemed too "permanent", like I would be "settling" and naming my future and that has always seemed too committal. I go through my closet often as I prefer the minimalist life; always being able to pack up all of my belongings in a single carload. I've never been the roommate to "have the couch" or "provide the dining room table" - it seemed too clunky and annoying to deal with and I wanted no part of it. I’d rather pay for half and let you keep it after 12 months.

But when it came to raising chickens, the reward seemed too big and the process FUN!

The hometown ROOTS were wanting to show themselves in my new city life. I wanted that sense of pride for raising something that was different and had such benefit (and supported sustainability)! The ultimate and most direct work = reward (FYI I - I think it's important to note that I never planned to eat the chickens - just their eggs, LAYING hens only. FYI II - not all eggs are fertilized aka have baby chickens in them. We do not have a rooster, and just like people, if you have no man, the egg never gets fertilized #MShealthclassflashbacks)

As we were having some thoughts about getting chickens, it happened that Jake's uncle was looking for a new owner of his chicken coop! So, within a week, we had a backyard coop delivered and were researching most productive chicken breeds capable of withstanding MN winter (you'd be amazed at the options!). My first priority was to turn this thing into something beautiful and homey for the girls. I wanted it to look fruitful and full of life to inspire them of course - with some paint brushes and an artistic friend (S/O to Katie), the output was the most successful DIY project to date. Add some chicken fence to the left and we have ourselves a chicken home!

I make this sound extremely simple, but there are some things to note about the process of preparing an Urban chicken farm…

Check your city ordinance - our city ordinance requires you must get approval for all fowl (&I have never heard of a city that allowed roosters). We emailed the city admin with our proposal and got time in the agenda at the next city meeting! No one raised an issue, and we were approved for our birds. TIP: ask your neighbors for permission first.
Where to get the birds? Chick season is in the spring! Anywhere from Runnings to a local co-op carries birds of all varieties. We decided to go through a co-op for birds, although much more pricey (~$6/bird), they do "sex" the birds, so it's unlikely you'll get a rooster. I did not want to deal with finding a way to get “rid” of a bird that happened to be male.
How many birds? We knew our coop couldn't sustain too many birds due to it's size and only 1 layer box, so we decided on 6 chickens. There are recommended square footage / bird that is helpful guidance as well! NOTE: depending on where you order from, there may be a MINIMUM order qty. This was another reason we went through the co-op, they only required you to get a MIN of 2 as a single chicken is a lonely chicken. Many places I looked at required at least 5 of each breed which didn’t leave us with much variety.
What kind of birds? You can get lost for hours and hours researching bird types - everything from personality to output to hardiness to color. Know your priorities and go from there! Good resources: The Happy Chicken Coop, Backyard Chicken Coop
1. # of eggs / year - this one was a pretty big factor for us, so we set our priorities here. We go through eggs, like a lot of eggs. So that automatically narrowed the options down!
2. Hardiness / environment - of course in MN, it gets cold. Like -30F cold, so we needed hardy birds. In the summer, it also gets pretty warm, like 90F warm, so we needed a bird with tough skin and ability to do both seasons.
3. Bird tendencies - some birds are known to be aggressive or mean. Others are peacekeepers. Our plan was to be able to let them out in our fenced in yard on nice days, so I preferred the nice birdies. The aggression can also come out on the other bird breeds, so no bueno.
4. Color of eggs - contrary to popular belief, brown eggs do NOT taste different. Color of eggs depends on the breed. We wanted some fun egg colors, like blue and green, so we added in a couple Easter eggers (which ended up laying brown eggs…how disappointing...but we love her just the same!)
Logistics - however crazy, chicks can SHIP in the MAIL via the US Post Office (fact check me here). You can literally get birds delivered in your mailbox. As I stated, we went through the co-op, so just set our pickup day, went to the store, and picked out our birdies in the breeds we requested.
1. It is not uncommon for birds to die from the stress of being shipped in the mail. Look for warranties on your birds! Many will replace the bird if it dies with 48 hours of arriving. We had one casualty which was a sad day for Mama Hen Jen.
2. Bring something to the store to put your birds in! We happened to have a movie theater popcorn bin in the car, so WELCOME HOME CHICKIES. :D

Once you have your birdies picked out, the last step is setting up the living quarters as fresh birds cannot go straight into the coop - or at least, not suggested to. We kept our birds in the garage for the first weeks as they needed some TLC and heat. Here was our set-up, nothing fancy, but it worked for the few weeks that they needed it -

Now, you are ready for your birdies!!!

It worked nicely until they started getting big (which they grow SO fast) and were jumping out of the pen. They go from cute to pretty weird looking fairly quickly…and when they are growing their feathers but not full grown, they can jump REALLY high. Like higher than they can when they are full grown just due to their size at that time. TIP: I was also told if you hold and pet them when they are young, they will grow up more comfortable with humans.

CHALLENGES:

Chickens are fun, but like any pet, they need care when you are OOO (Out Of Office). Luckily, we have neighbors that are familiar caring for chickens & another that just got some birds of her own! Unlike pets, they are not so easy to take with you on the road. This has been our biggest challenge with the birds!
The second biggest challenge has been their "PTO" from laying eggs. Birds go through something called "molt" around 18 months. Little did I know, they can stop laying for 3-4 months during this time!!! And, they did. They also stopped laying for some months this winter which can be normal, but they laid throughout the first winter, so we haven't quite figured out the WHY here yet.
The third biggest challenge was freezing water and our electrical issues in the cold winter days. For some reason, the heat lamp bulbs have been burning out on the reg. But we bought a heated water which was a $40 investment, but turned out to be one of our best purchases!! Highly recommend if you are in climates that get below freezing often! It's been a lifesaver. See suggested waterer here.

One of my favorite things is letting the girls out in the summer when I'm outside on the hammock and we hang in the backyard together. The dog and the chickens even seem to co-exist. Sometimes when you let the birds out, they get a little crazy and jump on top of their coop and/or in the neighbor's yard. I like to think they've outgrown that or learned their lesson as they cannot get back over the fence :0 Our chickens LOVE quarantine!!!

My other favorite thing is reaping the rewards once they start laying which took about 6 months. Running in the backyard and picking your breakfast, nothing better :)

They also devour scraps, but be careful not to give them too many as it can mess up the amount of protein they get and ultimately, they may lay less if you over-feed them scraps.