I warn people when I see them smiling into the incubator tanks of bird at my local farm computer memory : “ Chickens are a gateway drug to farm lifespan . ”
It was chickens that got me hooked on that aliveness 5 years ago when I founded Dickie Bird Farm . Since then , my farm has brandish . Today , the tilt of livestock includes chickens , turkey , game birds and goats . I also farm a half - acre of vegetables ; tend a miniature woodlet of yield , berry and nuts ; go a goat micro - dairy ; and make my own fresh chèvre and goat ’s Milk River goop .
But before I get ahead of myself , rent ’s go back to where it all began : chickens .
Finding A Farm
My husband , Kipp , and I establish our farm nestled in the hills of southerly Ohio . The planetary house was n’t much to look at , but the big reddened barn was a sweetheart . It was built in the late 1800s from American chestnut timber , before blight wipe that native tree diagram out of the northeastern U.S. and was craft in traditional gambrel expressive style with a two - level haymow .
When we bought the place , the b was empty but full of potential . Our first task was to change over a section of it into a Gallus gallus coop . We picked our doll out of a mail - order catalogue , and 25Silver - Laced Wyandottesarrived two calendar week later .
Wyandottes are reputed by many to be docile , cold - hardy and prolific at egg - egg laying . Our finish for raising poultry was self - adequacy , and we reckon dual - intent SLWs would put up us with meat and eggs . The stock lived up to its repute for laying a bounteousness of big , beautiful brownish egg , but we were disappointed in the meat .
Ivey Harlow
Our first hatful taught us that broiler breeds are higher-ranking meat doll , and that dual - purposebirds are best used as stew shuttle and stock . Our second mickle was a combination of Cornish Rocks for meat , and Welsummers , Buff Orpingtons and Australorps for eggs .
Growing The Farm
The following twelvemonth , weraised turkeysfor Thanksgiving and welcomed our first goats , and I began teaching backyard poultry division to my residential district through the county file name extension agency . I was aroused and encouraged that half of class participants were , like me , millennials interested in growing and lift their own food . I had a lot of free - range experience to partake , and I forge new friendship and made meaningful connections . Ivey Harlow
While it might sound like the perfect farm cock-and-bull story , it was n’t . Like all beginning chicken keepers , I encountered many challenge raising poultry :
Raising birds is a way of life at Dickie Bird Farm . “ I will limp out to hoard testis when I am 95 , if it ’s the only affair I can do ! ” I told my husband .
He laughed and said : “ Good . I would n’t have my omelette any other way . ”
Ivey Harlow
Ivey Harlow
