If You Don’t Backyard Chicken Like Me, That’s OK
What a backyard flock means to a family can be many different things. Chickens have been bred to serve many purposes over the years including being egg layers, meat chickens, show chickens, and companionship chickens. Flocks can serve more than one purpose at a time. They can even provide things like natural pest control and help to raise the next generation of backyard chickens. The primary purposes of the flock on my micro homestead are to be egg layers, pest control, and companionship chickens.
However, and for whatever reason you decide to adopt backyard chickens, I enthusiastically support your journey. I created my YouTube channel, Instagram, and blog to share beginner friendly information about backyard chickens and homesteading because this lifestyle has restored peace, happiness, and wholeness to my life. I can’t guarantee those same results for you, but without question, the act and the work associated with raising your own food will change you. Caring for chickens is a year-round multiple year commitment to their care, with the exception of meat chickens who even though they have much shorter lives, still require basic care.
There is a correct and incorrect way to humanely dispatch an animal for home food consumption. The correct way preserves the quality of the meat and minimizes the suffering and distress of the animal. The incorrect way, often done by people attempting this activity for the first time, not only spoils the meat of the animal but adds suffering and distress to a world that already has too much of both. My heartfelt wish is that if you will be culling and consuming your excess roosters that you do so with respect to the life of the animals and after having done appropriate research. Proper research and equipment are important to this process. Home processing without prior research invites the potential for contaminated and unusable meat. The American Pastured Poultry Producers Association has excellent free resources available online about raising and processing meat chickens. I’m not associated with that organization, just sharing awareness of their existence and free resources. There are also many books available about the humane processing of meat chickens for the small-scale homestead.
Small flocks and small gardens can save the world. Every flock grown in the presence of a family with love, every small garden or container garden makes the world a better place. You don’t have to be entirely self-sufficient to enjoy many of the aspects of a slower pace of life. Even if all you’re able or willing to do is support local small farm producers in your area, you are still having a positive impact. Grow herbs in a small pot in your window. Learn to sew one thing. Cook your favorite meal from scratch. Prepare for and adopt a small flock of adult hens. Check out a book from your local library about homesteading or small crafts. Start where you are. Just start.
I recognize that the ability to regard some of my flock as pets is unique to my situation. I don’t expect or want everyone to keep chickens exactly how I do. If you’re able to and you want to regard your chickens as pets, great. If you want to raise chickens but you’re interested in treating them more as livestock animals, that’s great too. However you decide to include backyard chickens in your life, my hope is that you will do so humanely and live by the principle of one bad day. That even short-lived meat animals until they are butchered should have access to a natural environment and only have one bad day in an otherwise peaceful and happy life. I want everyone to keep backyard chickens in a way that makes the most sense for their family and their goals which includes the humane and respectful treatment of these amazing animals. Until you have raised chickens yourself you will struggle to understand the significance of their life and their intelligence. Until you have grown at least one plant to feed your family you won’t know the indescribable flavor of a sun kissed tomato from your own garden or the significance of a well-timed summer rain. Follow your interests, follow your goals, and most importantly follow your heart back to the homestead. Joy is waiting for you.
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Chuck and the Chicks 