Let's start off with a little bit of background. I have never lived on a farm, never even touched a live chicken (until yesterday), and, aside from some fairly limited research, have no idea what I'm doing. But the idea of raising chickens has stuck with me for a couple of years now, and we decided to give it a shot. By "we", I mean myself, my husband, and our kids.
I could list the reasons for our decision, but I'll just stick with a couple of them. I think it would be an amazing experience for the kids; I'm more than willing to 'try and see' if the home-grown meat and eggs live up to all the hype (I'm fairly confident they will!); overall, I'm really hoping that it will turn out to be a cheaper option than store-bought. Not counting on that one, but hoping. I will also be keeping very close track of all expenses and monetary information, in order to really crunch numbers and make a serious comparison.
My husband is mostly going to be a helpful bystander in this process. He's more than happy to help out when I need him, but he's leaving the project management in my inexperienced hands. The kids range in age from 14 down to 7, and are (mostly) excited about the idea.
However, this new venture has not been well-received by all. My oldest daughter is not happy about this, and had a micro-meltdown yesterday when we informed her that the chickens are not pets, and will eventually find their way to our dinner table. We talked to her about the plan, and told her that she is most certainly allowed to "peaceably protest". Peaceable protesting can range between declining to assist in chicken-related chores, to refusal to eat the end results. Non-peaceable protesting includes, among other things: trying to hide the chickens, attempting to release them to the wild (she was also informed of the specific reasons why this would be worse for them than our plan), and temper tantrums.
After seeing the eldest daughter's reaction, I was worried about how the 7-year-old would react. That turned out to be pointless. We explained the situation to her, and, to get her thinking things through herself, I asked her, "What do chicks grow up to be?" ... "Um... chickens?" "And why would we want to have chickens?" Her eyes lit up, and she said, "Chicken nuggets?" Okay, I don't think there will any problems there. At least not until it's time for the first ones to be slaughtered, that is.
We live in a suburban/nearly-rural area in southwest Michigan. We don't have a lot of space, but it's more than enough for a few chickens; we live on a little more than a third of an acre. It's a fairly quiet residential neighborhood; mostly quiet because several of the nearest houses are vacant.
I definitely should have checked with our township to be certain that chickens are allowed; I do feel rather stupid for not having done that before buying the chicks, but if the people down the block are permitted to have pigs, and people who live in another part of the township are permitted to breed llamas, I'm confident that it's not an issue. I will be calling on Monday, though, just to be sure.
And thus begins the adventure....
I could list the reasons for our decision, but I'll just stick with a couple of them. I think it would be an amazing experience for the kids; I'm more than willing to 'try and see' if the home-grown meat and eggs live up to all the hype (I'm fairly confident they will!); overall, I'm really hoping that it will turn out to be a cheaper option than store-bought. Not counting on that one, but hoping. I will also be keeping very close track of all expenses and monetary information, in order to really crunch numbers and make a serious comparison.
My husband is mostly going to be a helpful bystander in this process. He's more than happy to help out when I need him, but he's leaving the project management in my inexperienced hands. The kids range in age from 14 down to 7, and are (mostly) excited about the idea.
However, this new venture has not been well-received by all. My oldest daughter is not happy about this, and had a micro-meltdown yesterday when we informed her that the chickens are not pets, and will eventually find their way to our dinner table. We talked to her about the plan, and told her that she is most certainly allowed to "peaceably protest". Peaceable protesting can range between declining to assist in chicken-related chores, to refusal to eat the end results. Non-peaceable protesting includes, among other things: trying to hide the chickens, attempting to release them to the wild (she was also informed of the specific reasons why this would be worse for them than our plan), and temper tantrums.
After seeing the eldest daughter's reaction, I was worried about how the 7-year-old would react. That turned out to be pointless. We explained the situation to her, and, to get her thinking things through herself, I asked her, "What do chicks grow up to be?" ... "Um... chickens?" "And why would we want to have chickens?" Her eyes lit up, and she said, "Chicken nuggets?" Okay, I don't think there will any problems there. At least not until it's time for the first ones to be slaughtered, that is.
We live in a suburban/nearly-rural area in southwest Michigan. We don't have a lot of space, but it's more than enough for a few chickens; we live on a little more than a third of an acre. It's a fairly quiet residential neighborhood; mostly quiet because several of the nearest houses are vacant.
I definitely should have checked with our township to be certain that chickens are allowed; I do feel rather stupid for not having done that before buying the chicks, but if the people down the block are permitted to have pigs, and people who live in another part of the township are permitted to breed llamas, I'm confident that it's not an issue. I will be calling on Monday, though, just to be sure.
And thus begins the adventure....
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