Chickens at Fairweather Farm

Chickens are the greatest farm animal of all, I believe everyone's lives would be improved by a few chickens in the backyard! Not only do they eat scraps and decorate the barnyard, entertain us and produce wonderful garden supplements, turn the soil and eat insects; they put themselves away at night, and they lay delicious eggs!

We have eggs for sale
$3 / dozen.

Our chickens get organic feed, all the pasture they can handle, and some table scraps and garden extras (though the ducks have been getting most of that). Each egg is individually dated with the date that it was laid.

We have a assortment of laying chicken breeds in different colors - Rhode Island Red, Barred Rock, White Leghorn, Black Austrolorp, Speckled Sussex, and some others - so we can recognize each chicken by name. Perhaps since they have arrived a few every year for some years, even when we have had a crowd, they all get along pretty well and we have not had many problems. We don't give them supplemental light in the winter, and as a result they don't lay much in December and January, but in the spring and summer they sure can lay a lot of eggs.


Audrey, a white Leghorn, hatched out and raised two chicks.
When not broody, she is a good layer.

Meat Chickens

Limited number of chickens for sale
$3/pound - most chickens around 5#

Our meat chickens are Cornish cross. They are fed organic feed and have full pasture access, although they don't range far nor enjoy exploring like the laying hens.

Although we have been raising Cornish cross for meat, we actually prefer Ideal's red broilers. They are fairly fast growing, but much more active and better at ranging. But mail order is sometimes hard on chicks, and we can pick up the Cornish at the hatchery.

Online hatcheries

I've ordered from online hatcheries, a local hatchery and the occassional chick from a feed store:

While I love the convenience and fun online shopping experience of ordering chicks and poults by mail, it's not always easy on the little birds, and if you don't want a lot the quantities can be challenging, especially for turkeys. We have better survivial for turkeys that we pick up, than that arrive by mail.

Our "local" hatchery, Farwest (in Canby, about 15 miles south of Portland), while sometimes maddeningly difficult to work with, I do highly recommend. The owner is the most sincere and committed chick-hatcher I can imagine. Not only does he show up in person at the State Fair - two years running now - with a wonderful display of hatching eggs. He also remembered me and was willing to listen to me complain about the difficult of placing an order. The chickens and turkeys have done very well.

My one McMurray order in 2003 shipped on a Saturday (!) in February and the chicks were in bad shape when the arrived; 10 dead out of 28, two more did not survive long. I'd rather not order from McMurray again; besides this bad experience, they are also quite expensive and I don't like the personalities of the chickens.

Shanks shipped on a Wednesday and the chicks arrived that same day, and all are fine. But they are no longer around, and Terry from Farwest implied things went downhill for a while there.
I've ordered from Ideal a number of times, since they have nice meat chickens and turkeys as well as a great selection of layers.

For all the chicken breed photos and information you might ever desire, go to Feathersite



City Chickens


I started raising chickens when I lived in Portland. In Portland and many other cities, it's legal to have a few chickens (no roosters, though). To learn more about my experience starting to raise chickens in the city many years ago, see this site: City Chicken Site

The last of these hens, Diana, died in Lebanon, Oregon in 2010, age 9.

last updated: 1/6/12