Welcome to our farm
Like so many people all over America, we wanted to move away from the big city and grow/raise our own food.
Wait, that isn't everyone's dream? Well it wasn't exactly ours either. Before Chris and I got married we both flew full time and rarely had time for our personal lives. I planned events for all of our friends, we had a softball team, we took sailing classes and planned to see the world by boat. I did have one request, I wanted chickens. I love good quality food and I love when I get that good quality food from happy animals. Stressed out animals, do not produce good food. The answer was always "no" and rightfully so, we didn't have time to manage the weeds growing in our yard, how can we manage these chickens?
Then Covid hit, the airline industry found itself crumbling fast and Chris and I didn't know if we would have a company to fly for. Our company offered voluntary time off, and needing a break we both took it. We were excited to pull the weeds and unpack the boxes I moved in from my apartment. Then all of the sudden Chris said the magic words "you can get chickens". That was it, it was over that very minute. We stopped weeding and unpacking and instead, we bought a book, Raising Chickens for Dummies. we listened to it on our drive every time we left the house. We didn't even finish it before we bought our brooder, ordered our heat lamp, and bought all the essentials. Now for the cutest little fluff balls.
Originally we decided on four chicks, then six, then 10. We knew we wanted a rooster so we could some day hatch our own chicks. So we went to the store, used the little knowledge we had about how to pick out a chick and snagged eight. The man at the store informed us we would have to order a rooster, so we decided to stick with our eight and come back for an additional chick when the rooster got there. In the end we ended up with only nine chickens, for now... I mean look how stinking cute they are!
Eight laying hens is great for a family of four, but what about selling at the Farmers Market? What about having a farm stand? Oh. My. Goodness, we need MORE!!! (By the way, if you have never heard of chicken math, it's a real thing). We now have 31 chickens, 29 laying hens and two roosters. We're getting just under two dozen eggs a day and we've been selling them, unwashed, each day at the farm stand for $2.50/dozen.
Our cute little fluff balls have grown into some funny little ladies. We have them free range in our fruit tree orchard during the day, but apparently that's getting boring so they fly out and head over to the compost pile, or take a tour of the garage. Sometimes when they see me walking up to them, they run up to me to say hi. Watching them run around is basically the best form of entertainment.
This fall we plan to expand their run, and create an herb garden specifically for the chickens, they LOVE herbs and it keeps them healthy.
We'll keep you updated, you keep an eye out for us!
Thanks for reading,
Fluffy Butt Farms BC