Rewind time a year ago and no one could have convinced me that I would love chickens so much. I genuinely thought that we would get some eggs and put some in the freezer for family meals on Sundays! I did very little research because I wasn’t anticipating chickens would become so much of my daily life.
We bought our land to start our farm in September 2020 and shortly after that I made my first order for chicks from Murray McMurray. That first order was for 12 layer chickens and 15 meat birds. Seems reasonable, right? Well…that isn’t where it ended.
There was a delay! That was the worst thing that could have happened. Because, since there was a delay, there was no reason NOT to order more chickens! So, I added another 25 meat birds to my outstanding order.
Well…it didn’t end here either.
Before my chicks ever shipped from Murray McMurray, the local Tractor Supply Center started getting chicks in. Oh boy…this is where it gets bad! I couldn’t help myself and before my 12 layers ever left the hatchery, I came home carrying 9 little girls from TSC. I was hooked! Somehow I convinced my husband that it was going to be ok to have 21 layers because the 40 meat chickens would only be on the farm for 8 weeks…give or take.
*As a side note…we had never raised meat chicken, never processed chickens, and didn’t have any equipment to do so when I made this first order. Seems like a smart decision, right?
Back to my chicken story. Eventually, my hatchery order shipped. The lovely people at Murray McMurray added an EXTRA chicken into my order so now I was the proud mama of 22 layers and 40 meat birds. Thankfully, my husband was really the main caretaker of the meat birds and I was able to fall head over heels in love with the sweetest little flock of 22 HENS…or so we thought. Guess what…1 rooster! That happens, I know! And, while he was a sweet rooster, in our county we are not allowed to have roosters so he had to go. I was so sad about this that…you guessed it…I bought 4 more chicks from TSC. I couldn’t help myself.
All this chicken math got me to where I am today. I have a flock of 25 birds. 7 Barred Rocks, 6 Buff Orpingtons, 8 New England Reds, and 4 Americanas.
