Category: Kids & Chickens

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Bragging Rights and Changes Coming

Selling a Prize Winner to a Deserving Junior

This past spring, a woman named Pirjo contacted me. Her daughter was in her last year in the junior division and wanted to purchase some chickens for show purposes. She wanted Ameraucanas, which I did sell to her, but she also bought my big, beautiful Light Sussex cock, whom we called “Buddy-son,” since he was the son of an older cock we had called “Buddy.”

She wrote me recently to say that her daughter won the Grand Champion award of the junior division in her show with Buddy-son! Pirjo wrote, “Best in show, judge said it wasn’t even a close contest! He was also the most admired and photographed bird in the barn. He really did great. And I must say, he is happy to be back home! Thanks for the great birds. They all did well.”

For me, her daughter’s happy face made saying goodbye to this beautiful cock worth it. But why did I sell him? Buddy and Buddy-son are gorgeous: big, robust, and fertile. There’s just one little issue with them: they are “split to Coronation.” What does that mean?

Light Sussex and Coronation Sussex

  • Buddy-son
    Light Sussex cock
  • Photo courtesy: Morton Estate
    Coronation Sussex cock

The Coronation Sussex (pictured on the right above) has the same color pattern and egg color as the Light Sussex, but with lavender in place of the Light Sussex’s black. This color pattern was created for the coronation of King Edward VIII of Great Britain in 1936 – an event which never took place because Edward abdicated in order to marry a divorcee before he was officially crowned.

Coronation Sussex are a rare and beautiful variety of the Sussex breed: they are docile, large, and lay very large to jumbo pinkish, brown, or tan eggs (depending on the hen). The Coronation pattern is recessive; to oversimplify, like blue eyes in humans, a bird must carry two recessive Coronation pattern genes to look like a Coronation Sussex. A bird that appears to be a Light Sussex (with black markings on hackles and tail feathers) can mask Coronation genes. The only way to find out if a bird is “split to Coronation” is to breed him with either a bird known to be split, or with a full Coronation bird. In the first instance, 1/4 of the offspring should show the Coro pattern; in the second, half (statistically) will be Light Sussex and half Coro.

To return to my story, Buddy and his son were both drop-dead gorgeous Light Sussex males, but as we bred this past year, we hatched about 80 Light Sussex eggs from these boys and another cock from a different line that we thought was a pure Light Sussex (with no Coronation genes hiding underneath). About 1/2 of these chicks feathered out to be Coronation Sussex. This means that all their siblings and cousins that appear to be Light Sussex are either split (they carry the Coronation gene, but we can’t see it) or they are “pure”— they carry two of the genes that yield the dominant Light Sussex pattern.

We were both surprised and a bit downhearted to realize that, aside from pair mating and hatching LOTS of chicks next year, there is no way for us to tell if we are selling pure Light Sussex chicks ongoing. So, when Pirjo came this spring looking for show quality birds, I gladly sold Buddy-son to her! He won best in show, proving that he has what it takes to be a winner! He has a good home, and we have his wonderful genes in our Coronation lines moving forwards.

What this means for us going forwards…

As we look to hatching in 2020, we plan to move all of this year’s Light Sussex birds out and concentrate on our Coronation Sussex and our Marans (wheaten, blue wheaten, and black copper varieties). We will also not be continuing with Ameraucanas in 2020. We are, in general, downsizing our chicken operation because of our new involvement with our Mini Nubian goats.

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First Steps to Take With Your Child

This is post #2 of 2 in a series on keeping chickens with children.

Post #1 focused on the research you should do, and decisions that you as the adult should come to, before you introduce the idea of a chicken-keeping project to your child. If you take the time to narrow down options, and identify your goals for this adventure, you have more options and a greater chance of success.

1. From the list you’ve narrowed down, help your child to choose his breed(s).

He might want to specialize in one breed if he’s thinking of breeding and showing in the future, but most kids will want an assortment of breeds when starting out. This gives a rainbow egg basket, and variety in the hens’ appearances. There’s always time to specialize later if you become interested in breeding more seriously.

2. From your earlier research, with your child, choose your breeder.

There are large hatcheries that provide (how to put this?) basic chicks inexpensively. (Read a good article on this here.) These chicks would not be exhibition quality and, more importantly, as the article states, large hatchery chicks tend to be weaker, watered down versions of the terrific birds of yesteryear. Large hatcheries usually allow random breeding (many roosters among many hens in large poultry houses), whereas those who breed heritage birds for exhibition or simply to improve their breeds use selective mating. The difference here is similar to buying a puppy from a pet store vs. a breeder. Generally, the rule is you get what you pay for with chicks. I wrote a whole blog post on this, if you want even more food for thought.

In case you’re wondering: I put this step here because involving your child in this decision gives him experience in cost/benefit choices that we all make in the adult world. However, you may want to narrow down his choices ahead of involving him, so as to not get his hopes pinned on one gorgeous picture that a hatchery happens to post. After you make this choice together, you’ll need to read details about how to order chicks from your breeder (all are different) and when to expect them after you do. But — before you order — read on!

3. Purchase (or build with your child) a coop for your chicks well ahead of their arrival.

Some people start chicks in a simple brooder — it can be a box or baby’s wading pool with a light for heat, food, water, and shavings that starts in your house, but quite quickly you want to move the chicks to their permanent coop.

Note well, please: chicks produce dust after about a week or two that can be dangerous to humans, especially if it gets into food. Always keep chicks in the house for as short a time as possible, and don’t brood them in your kitchen ever.

There are as many plans for making coops as there are people keeping chickens. In this post, I talk about the best coop I’ve ever worked with, and sell plans for it here. In this post, I talk about general features to look for in any coop plans. Check them out, discuss their features with your child, and be sure to get that coop (and all needed equipment, like food, water, and feeders/waterers, as well as grit, perches, etc.) in place before ordering any chicks or hatching eggs! (If you plan to hatch eggs, you’ll need an incubator as well!)

4. Now you can order your peeps (or hatching eggs)!

Again, I’m not a fan of starting with hatching eggs as a beginner, but if that’s your choice, then order hatching eggs at this point. Otherwise, order your peeps and start talking with your child about feeding and watering practices.

As stated above, you and your child can both access online communities where you can learn about rearing chicks. We, at Storybook Farm, sell four different breeds of large fowl, heritage chickens. All of them are excellent choices as dual purpose, gentle, friendly birds. (They are grandchild tested, so we know for sure! 🤗 ) If you are interested in learning about our French Copper Marans, our Silver Penciled Plymouth Rocks, our Light Sussex, or our Blue Wheaten Ameraucanas, click here.

This article should get you started. Do you have any questions? Feel free to post comments and I’ll do my best to answer. Good luck!

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First Steps when Raising Chickens with Kids

So, you’ve been convinced (by me?) that your child will start a small backyard flock of chickens. What a great decision!

Chickens are live animals! There are many things to consider before you bring home your first fluffy chicks! Part 1 of this 2-part series centers on steps to take before you get your child all enthused about chicken keeping.

1. Check ordinances and HOA rules.

  • Make sure that you are allowed by the powers that be to keep chickens on your property. If not, consider storming city hall with a petition. 🤔 This battle has been won in recent years in countless municipalities across America.
  • A second important question to ask is whether or not you can keep a rooster. Many ordinances allow a certain number of hens to be kept for eggs, but not roosters (because of their crowing).

2. Join an online community.

I can recommend Backyard Chickens as a warm, supportive, active, welcoming group, but there are others as well.

From their forums you will get immediate, experienced help from people who have no dog in the fight: they are not salespeople. They are chicken lovers just like you. But make no mistake: these are folks who are knowledgeable and serious about chicken keeping! You can learn about coops, diseases, feeds, breeds, hatching — in short, this is your go-to support as you learn to raise chickens with your child. Your child can/should even have his/her own account on this forum!

3. Peruse chicken breeds while considering your goals

There are hundreds to choose from, and the newcomer can be easily overwhelmed, so here are some questions to help you narrow the search before you involve your child (who probably should have the ultimate choice among those you suggest to him or her) 😉 :

  • How much space can you devote to chickens?
    • Many breeds come in bantam (miniature) sizes and/or large fowl (sizes that you think of when you think of most chickens you’ve seen). Bantams can be kept kindly in about half the space of large fowl.
    • General guidelines suggest that each large fowl chicken needs 4 square feet (so 2′ x 2′) of floor space inside your coop, and 10 square feet of run space outside the coop (which can include space under the coop if it’s elevated).
    • Large fowl need 1 foot/chicken of roosting space, and a 1 foot cubed nesting box (provide 1 box for every 2 hens). Nesting boxes can be very simple: you can do a Google search and see them made out of everything from dish pans to crates to wood to metal to 5-gallon buckets. There’s no lack of creativity among chicken keepers–that’s what keeps it fun!

  • Our colorful eggs

    What are your goals for eggs?

    • Large fowl birds are the better choice for large or jumbo eggs, and there are breeds that lay up to 280-350 eggs per year. Eggs from these hens can be green, blue, brown, tan, dark brown, and white.
    • Bantam hens are also used as laying hens, with some breeds laying up to 150 eggs per year. However, Bantam eggs are only about one-half to one-third the size of a regular hen egg.
    • In general, some breeds are reputed to “go broody” easily. This means that they will lay a clutch of eggs and sit on them until some hatch–three weeks, minimum. Then, they will care for these young for months. They will not lay during this period. So, in terms of egg production, broody hens are not a plus. (However, read more about broodies below before deciding on this factor!)
    • There are champion egg layers among the breeds (topped by the white Leghorns). These birds tend to be small and streamlined. There are also the “dual purpose” breeds (so called because they both lay a decent number of eggs yearly and have enough size that they are good for meat as well). The latter are also often termed “heritage breeds.” The story is too long to tell here, but suffice it to say that today’s commercial breeders raise hybrid birds in conditions similar to veal calves. (You won’t want your child to even know about conditions in such operations.) Many backyard chicken keepers choose to breeds that are beautiful, docile, and have a long heritage among poultry keepers because they were prized for their meat and eggs in bygone days on smaller, family farms. (These are the breeds that we have chosen to raise, and sell as day-old peeps and hatching eggs.)
  • Do your goals include raising chickens for meat?
    • With the growing movement towards organic foods, many backyard chicken keepers raise and process their own meat. If you are not so much oriented towards having your child raise chickens as pets, but want him to learn the cycle that brings food to our table, you may be interested in a heritage breed that is known as a good table bird and a good layer (called a dual purpose breed).
    • There are great resources in the online communities that can teach you to process your birds if you decide to go this route.
  • Would your child be interested in hatching chickens to raise, or breed, or possibly show or sell?
    • In this case, you want to know which breeds are somewhat unusual, and in higher demand. Simple searches on the Internet will open your eyes to the possible markets for day-old chicks or hatching eggs. (Check out Greenfire Farms as an example of a breeder who started small but has made an entire livelihood out of selling rare and exotic breeds for high dollar amounts.)
    • I highly recommend that your child hatch chicks at some point in your chicken-keeping adventure. It is such a great experience, and again, the online community at Backyard Chickens can hold your hand every step of the way. A small, but decent, incubator can be had, new, for something between $60 and $150. (Check out our favorite online store for incubators, and/or check Craig’s List for used ones near you.) To gain vision, check out this lovely guide.
    • Please note that, if you incubate chickens, you will end up with roosters. What will you do with them? It is quite unreasonable to plan to rehome them as pets. Most people will not feed a bird that gives nothing back, no matter how beloved a pet it has become in your household. Most of the time, you’ll need to plan (and prepare your child) to give it away to a farmer who will eat it, or sell it for meat. That’s just a reality in hatching chickens, and if it bothers you greatly, please read this post. It may help.
  • Finally, what kind of housing will you provide for these birds? You absolutely need to have a coop built, down to the shavings and heat lamp in place, and feed ready, when you bring your first chicks home. So, consider (and price) the housing that your chickens will need (using allowances in chicken math offered above) before you purchase your first hatching eggs or peeps! This is another great project for you and your child to do jointly! (See more on this below.)

Next post in this series: First Steps to Take With Your Child

 

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10 Reasons Why Kids Should Raise Backyard Chickens

I birthed, raised, and homeschooled six kids: three boys and three girls. I’m nearing my 60th birthday (April of 2018, and yes, it’s surreal, thanks for asking), and I’m blessed with 10 grandchildren who visit us often. All of my grandchildren love doing farm chores, but our most avid young farmer is probably my two-year-old sweetie, named Torri.

Torri & Grandpa check for eggs

If Grandpa gets his boots on in the morning, Torri scrambles to find her “farm boots” — which her mom says she had better remember to pack when she comes, or else Torri will go out barefoot!

Grandpa and Torri feed the calves their grain, and make quick work of mucking the horses’ stall before beginning the real joy of the morning: feeding the chickens!

Because we use small Family Coops in a clan mating program, we have lots of small feed and water bowls at just Torri’s height. She truly can help with the chores! With just a little help from Grandpa, two-year-old Torri can open the nesting box and look for eggs, she can pull the cord to open the pop door, and she can feed and water the chickens. Because our Family Coops are designed as they are, she does much of this work herself, and comes out clean after doing so! (Read more about this here.)

Torri (and our other grandchildren) have also enjoyed helping with incubating eggs. They love to watch me candle eggs. They are fascinated to see chicks hatch (aren’t we all?). I have shared hatches with my grandchildren via FaceTime: you can see grandson Hector watching the chick hatch all the way from Maryland in this picture to the right!

And of course they all love to hold the fluffy darling chicks as soon as they are dry enough to do so. One task we set them is to watch the smallest chicks –usually the last to hatch — as we put them into the brooder. They make sure that the older chicks don’t peck or heckle younger ones.

Some of my older grandchildren have become quite adept at catching adolescent chickens when it’s time to move them to bigger pens as they grow out. They are not afraid to hold the flapping birds and help us to clip their primary wing feathers so that they’ll be safe in uncovered garden pens.

All this to say: generally speaking, children and chickens are natural together.

I know that my grandchildren come by a love of the farm honestly. It’s in their blood, and nurture! I always loved animals, and our family enjoyed a huge variety of pets growing up. To list a few, we had: salt water fish/corals, chinchillas, a ferret, white rats, a guinea pig, horses, an octopus, parakeets, and dogs.

Being a homeschooler, I was always on the lookout for projects that my young children could do. I wanted ones that would bring a sense of independence, hands-on learning, and delight in nature (and nature’s God). Book learning is necessary, but I always felt that my kids should also have as close a connection with what I called “the elements” as possible. For this reason, for instance, we chose to heat our home with wood when we could, took our kids to zoos and nature centers, and (of course) had all those pets.

Kids Should Consider Keeping Chickens

Raising, breeding, and even showing chickens are all well within the realm of a young child’s abilities. Most of the work can be done by them independent of hands-on adult supervision. Thirty years ago, when my kids were born, the backyard chicken movement hadn’t gotten underway. Our suburbs didn’t allow us to keep chickens, much less our HOAs. So, I never even considered chicken farming as a project for my homeschooled kids.

But, today I sure would! Things have changed. The movement towards buying food that’s fresh and local, and as organic as possible, has led to chicken advocates across America lobbying successfully for the ability to keep small flocks in backyards. Chickens are easy to keep, hardy, and inexpensive to buy. Like all pets, they need housing, food, and attention.

So, here are 10 reasons to consider encouraging (and financing) your child’s chicken project:

  1. Chickens are the right size. Whether your child chooses bantams (miniature chickens) or large fowl breeds, chicks are certainly not intimidating when you purchase them as babies, and they tend to grow up to be very tame. Kids can handle adult chickens all on their own, usually without intimidation.
  2. Chicks are adorable, and then they grow up to be beautiful birds. Aesthetically, chicks are as cute as puppies, and you don’t have to housebreak them. Kids have a huge variety of breeds to choose from when starting out, which is part of the fun. They can choose heritage breeds, and help save them from extinction. This is meaningful, but perhaps they’ll choose more exotic breeds for their amazing plumage. It’s up to them. 🤔
  3. Forget the parakeets! Chickens are far more hardy and handleable! Chickens will eat treats from a child’s hand, sit on her lap (with training) and follow her around the yard. Chicken antics and expressions are funny and endearing. Chickens are great pets by any standards!
  4. For those with allergies to furry pets (like some of my grandchildren) birds can offer an great alternative. And chickens are great birds to choose (see #3). Chicks are cheap, and their housing can be as reasonable as any other pet. (Older children can assist in building a chicken coop as well, which is a great hands-on project itself!
  5. The life cycle of a chicken — especially egg formation/laying and then hatching eggs — is fascinating and brings great glory to the Creator God. You can study chickens and be amazed at how they propagate and grow.
  6. If your ordinances permit a rooster, your child can breed chickens. He can learn about genetics, and become an astute observer of breed traits, good and bad, in the birds he breeds. He can raise better and better birds each year. Ordinances may limit the number of birds you can keep, but if you are in a rural setting, you don’t need a lot of space to dedicate to breeding chickens, and it’s easier than breeding puppies!
  7. Possibly, there is no cheaper or easier animal to show. If your child likes to compete, she can enter her chickens in shows large and small, near and far. This is a great experience for many young people, offering honest feedback on your child’s efforts. Most counties have a 4-H office, or YFA where you can learn more about showing.

  8. Torri feeding chickens

    Don’t forget the eggs! The same satisfaction that a gardener experiences is felt when your child, day after day, goes out to the coop to harvest eggs for his family’s consumption. Different breeds lay different colored eggs. Your child might want to choose breeds that yield a rainbow egg basket.

  9. As with all pets, keeping chickens will teach your child to be consistent and responsible. Chicken pens do not need to be stinky or difficult to clean. There are methods of bedding and there are coop designs that minimize the work and unpleasantness of tending chickens. Most birds can be tended only morning and evening, so those in traditional schools can keep chickens just as well as can homeschoolers.
  10. Going all out, your child could dabble in a home business. She can sell table eggs (in your neighborhood, or at a local farmers market). If a rooster is allowed, she can sell hatching eggs and/or day-old baby chicks! This last one will need adult help and supervision, because there are permits and car trips involved, but the child can do much of this home business on his or her own!

Do you have questions or comments related to this topic? Feel encouraged to comment below if so!