10 reasons to raise chickens in your backyard garden

01 - you get the healthiest, antibiotic and pesticide free best tasting eggs.
02 - the provide natural bug pest control in your garden.
03 - your chickens will forage your garden until it is ready to be planted - saving you time and backaches.
04 - you get fertilizer you could not pay for.
05 - they eat your vegetable scraps
06 - your children and any visitors will learn about animals and their beingness and respect for nature.
07 - they make cheap pets
08 - you get hours and hours of entertainment (and relaxation) from watching them.
09 - they keep your brain young and healthy through learning and your body by being outdoors more.
10 - healthy tasty meat from chickens that had a good life (if you eat meat)

and not to forget -  they are an almost endless source of joy.

Why am I getting chickens?

At this time I think I am getting chickens for  help in the garden with getting beds ready to be planted, for the eggs and for having a reliable food source.

I also happen to love birds and I am suspicious that I will simply love being around them.

What chickens to get for your homestead backyard chicken?

What chickens to get?

Chick and Weeds on facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chicks-and-Weeds/261323850623341

What chicken breed should I get?

How I chose the chicken breed to start out with.

I agreed to work a piece of land as best I could for food - and suggested to be able to get some chickens after having read "The small scale poultry flock". Finally I got the go-ahead. Being a total noob on chickens, I wondered which chickens should I get?

The decision on which chickens to get depends on what you want the chicken to do or mean for you.

Do you want them for eggs or do you want them for meat or both? Do you want to breed and show them? Do you live in a hot or cold climate? Do you want them as pets? Do you want them to work the soil?

I wanted: high egg layers, the climate here is mostly hot, I preferred friendly if possible, color does not matter, not to prone to flying away, not to inclined to want to sit on the nest to have baby chickens (called broody) but rather working the land.

I asked a friend in the area what I should get: and he said: Buff Catalana.
I also found the interactive decision maker help below, and got Buff Catalana when I chose: dual purpose together with high egg laying and seldom broody and hot climate.

Otherwise, there were a couple of other breeds. One consideration: heavier meat chickens are less prone to fly. I was told the buff catalana work the soil well.

So I ordered buff catalana chickens, from a recommended source and that meant a straight run. Most on that the next post.That is, I sent off the order - because as of today, I have not heard from them. They only do snail mail orders, prepaid.

Here is a very good page to find out about which chicken is best suited for you 
You can click the boxes which apply to you and it will show you the chicken breeds that will fit that characteristic..
and here is a page for Buff Catalana's

Below is an image taken today while looking at a friend's chicken set up and structures.

The light brownish hens are the Buff Catalanas

Chicks & Weeds getting started video

Here is a link to our first video - showing the land and run down green house which hopefully will house the chickens in a few weeks Chicks and Weeds- getting started

Chicks and Weeds - Integrated Gardening blog

 OK - Chicken order mailed out - waiting to get their reply (all orders in writing, fully paid - snail mail only) - AND - if all goes well, chickens will be send April 24, that leaves a month to get ready.

On March 12 - I was given the ok to use a parcel of land and an old, delapidated greenhouse to start a project I lovingly call: Chicks and Weeds. It is an integrated gardening project. The folks living on this property have an acre of gardenspace, but are no longer able to work there. It is pretty back-breaking work, even if you love it, and then  you have a full schedule on top of it.
I am using "The small scale Poultry Flock as a guide, some online information and in 2 days I will be going to check out how someone here in the community has handled various issues about keeping chickens.

Why keep chickens:
to get eggs from truly free ranging chickens,
to get the soil worked by them as well as fertilized,
to keep the bugs out of the orchard.

to potentially have a well functioning healthy animal/plant unit that can feed a family independent of being on the net.

Here is what now needs to be accomplished

Use the existing structure to construct a chicken house.
Have a space where the birde and be outside safely.
Build a chicken brooder

Get help
Check out my friend's chicken house
Find suppliers - equipment, feed etc

This is the old greenhouse - to be made into an area where the chickens will live