Feeding the Chickens

When we are at the family farm, I love to be in the barn and be around the farm animals. Here I am in the chicken coop helping with feeding them and giving them fresh warm water. Being that it's -10F out, they need warm water twice a day because the water freezes pretty quickly despite being in the barn. The barn is not heated, but it's a completely covered structure so they are out of the wind and snow. It's still pretty cold in there.

The farm has mostly hens, and 2 roosters.  In total, there's about 50 or so chickens in the coop.  The chickens are free range, they have a little doorway at the bottom of the coop for them to go outside to get fresh air and roam around the farm.  However, being that it's so cold, they mostly stay inside during the winter.  They eat only organic feed and organic vegetables.  Their egg production is less in the winter, but they still produce enough eggs for the family to eat all winter long.  None will be sold.  Eggs are sold starting spring, and they are so delicious.  100% organic and free-range chicken eggs are like no other!  So rich with flavor!

Here's a photo of the nesting box.  The hens take turns using the nesting boxes to lay their eggs.  Sometimes the hens are impatient and lay their eggs on the perching areas.  Hey, when you gotta lay, you gotta lay!

Here Chick, Chick, Chick

On the farm, they raise a lot of chickens. They stay in a coop inside the barn at night, but in the day, they are free-range. They are free to travel anywhere on the farm, which they love to do.  They love to forage for food and find grubs and other treats.

The farm also just got in 35 new chicks. My father-in-law told me that with their first group of chickens, they taught them to come in to eat when they said "Here Chick, Chick, Chick". The chickens associated that call with food. So cool! Hopefully these baby chicks will learn that too. It gets cold on the farm, so they have this heat lamp to keep the chicks warm.

Aren't these baby brown chicks just adorable. I just want to pick one up and hug it!  I can't remember what breed they are, but they are prolific egg layers when they are full-grown.

These white chickens are being raised as "meat chickens", but "shhhhh!" don't tell them that. Gulp!

Chickens on Staten Island

We get this local newspaper called the Staten Island Advance. I love reading it because the local stories are really interesting and a lot of the stories lately are about agriculture, gardening and cooking. Staten Island used to be a lot of farm land, however it is not known for that anymore. What was once fertile ground is now strip malls, condos, houses and apartment buildings. There are still however pockets of places that grow their own food and raise animals like chickens. My husband has been wanting to raise chickens ever since we moved here. I'm a little more apprehensive. I love the idea of raising chickens for organic eggs, but I'm worried about what my neighbors will think. They live so close to our property. We do have the space for chickens, we live on 1/3 of an acre, however if I were to raise chickens, I would want them to be free range. I don't want chickens to be a nuisance to my neighbors. I've never raised chickens before so I don't know how loud they get or how far they roam. I would love the advice of the blogosphere, do you raise chickens? How loud are they? Do your neighbors mind? What are some key things to know?

I saw this article in the paper last month. It wasn't informative about how to riase chickens, it was more of opinions from residents on raising chickens. If you bigify the article, many of the residents seemed against it. :(
I found this other article online about a Staten Island family who is raising chickens. It's inspiring.
http://www.silive.com/northshore/index.ssf/2009/06/ladies_of_livingston_rule_the.html
This is a slideshow of images from their backyard.

Chicken farm in Staten Island's Livingston section