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!
Most of our chickens are layers, we have a assortment of breeds in different colors so
we know each every chicken by name. Perhaps since they have arrived a few every year for
some years, even when we 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.
Our senior chicken, Diana, has been with us since Spring of 2001; soon she will be 9 years old.
We like to raise Ideal's red broilers for meat chickens. They are fairly fast growing, but healthy and active,
unlike the cornish cross standard meat chickens, which are very fast growing but sluggish and unhealthy.
I've ordered from three online hatcheries,
Murray McMurray,
Shanks (now Lazy 54) and
Ideal.
My one McMurray order shipped on a Saturday (!) in February and the chicks were
in bad shape when the arrived; 10 dead out of 28, and two did not
survive long. Alexci was close, had to be force fed and watered for
several days and has been learning disabled since. They are in
Missouri. I'd rather not order from McMurray again; besides this,
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. They are located in Oregon. It was also *much* cheaper.
The order was short one chick (24 chicks arrived)
I've been ordering from Ideal most frequently, since they have nice meat chickens
and turkeys as well as a great selection of layers. We generally have a dead chick
or two but in general they have been fine. Turkey chicks (poults) do tend to die.
For all the chicken breed photos and information you might ever
desire, go to Feathersite
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 raising chickens in the city, see this site:
City Chicken Site
last updated: 1/26/10