It doesn’t get much more local then right out your back door, literally. I remember when Proeun and I first started keeping chickens. It was such an exciting and scary introduction to keeping “live stock.” I remember fondly the chick days, the wonder the children had for them, somewhere I have a picture of the chicks in our little toy ark.

I remember getting more nervous the bigger they got. They have given me quite a fright a couple of times, but I had to conquer my fear or at least nervousness and know that my job is taking care of them.

But by far the best chicken keeping day was the day of the first egg. See I knew chickens laid eggs, but I had no personal experience so it was a complete miracle when it happened (at least for me). I called my parents to tell them, I told my in-laws and they laughed at me, oh well.

Over the winter we don’t put a light in the chicken coop which artificially lengthens the days. So our our chickens don’t lay over the winter. This gives them a nice break, but it also means sometimes we buy eggs. Now our girls are laying again and it is such a joy to go collect the eggs in the morning.

We have all heritage breeds but no rooster, so no fertile eggs. Right now we only have enough chickens for personal use but hope to one day add this to our farms offerings. We also love to share about “chickens in the city.”

Here’s my favorite chicken–a Gold-laced Wyandotte. It’s next to impossible to get a chicken to stand still so this is what I came up with. This breed caught my eye as soon as I started looking at breeds.

You can really see the lacing here. Also I have a partridge rock and I believe a speckled sussex, I can’t remember for sure though. Anyone have good egg recipes?