I grew up in rural Colorado where we raised all sorts of birds and animals … for dinner. When my father brought home live birds and animals, he told us not to get too attached because they would eventually wind up on the dinner table. He even named one of the rabbits “Stu.” Sometimes we would prevail by bonding, giving them non-food names, and begging that they be spared. Other times, we had food on the table. Chickens, geese, turkey, rabbits and a cow named T-Bone came and went throughout my childhood. We had a large flock of chickens for both eggs and meat as did many of our neighbors. 

When we moved into our current house with a large yard whose landscaping consisted of dirt and weeds, the boys suggested we try our hand at urban homesteading. Many of our neighbors have goats, horses, cows, pigs, lamas, chickens, pea fowl … it really runs the gamut. I quickly nixed their goat idea even though they promoted the idea of drinking fresh goat milk and making our own cheese. Then, they suggested something “easy” like chickens.

I gave in, remembering the chickens from my childhood but forgetting the work it took to maintain a flock. I wanted buy-in from the boys who built the small coop enclosed with a stretch of chicken wire fencing. The boys looked in the newspaper for available chickens (the internet and social media were in their infancy), called the man selling his chickens, and arranged for a viewing. We fell in love with them and the seller gave us good advice, realizing we were newbies. They were Bluff Orpingtons – a gorgeous breed with a great temperament. They were named Henrietta and Mrs. Cha-Cha. 

We quickly learned that our coop was not up to par so we built a larger, secure coop with a segregated yard and added more birds: Dorothy, Martha and Patricia. They got along nicely and were great egg producers. I made the mistake of letting them into my vegetable garden to eat the bugs, but they ate everything, including the lettuce and young seedlings. Ah! Another learning moment! They kept their yard tidy where weeds had no chance of growing.

You do not need a rooster for the hens to lay eggs. They lay just fine without male supervision! Roosters do have important roles to play: protector and boss. But, they also have a big downside: aggressiveness. I recently saw a meme of a child running in terror as a rooster chased him with the caption: You haven’t had a real childhood unless you’ve been chased by a rooster. Well, I don’t know whether being chased by a rooster constitutes having a “real childhood,” but I can tell you that roosters chase, roosters stalk, roosters come at you talons first because they are protecting their hens. It’s what they do. That’s great when a raccoon or dog is threatening his girls, but not so great when you want to harvest eggs, change the water, or clean the coop. I’ve had to use big towel as my shield. A friend of mine would use a truck as a shield whenever she visited her mother who had a free-ranging flock and a nasty rooster. She made sure to keep an old pickup truck between her and the rooster at all times after suffering an ambush.

We had a rooster in our flock. His name was Don Jefe (“Sir Boss” in English) A beautiful fella with a proud comb and grey-white striated feathers that we found at the local feed store with a similarly bedecked hen. They joined my backyard flock with little problem. Yes, there was jockeying but the other girls seemed relieved to finally have someone in charge. He was a gentleman, keeping the flock safe from predators and keeping the girls’ pecking order from getting out of hand. A truce formed between us, and he would allow me in the yard to feed, water, clean and gather eggs, but he would not come close and watched me carefully. When he passed away, the hens were simply lost: they did not know when to go to bed or when to get up. It took about a month for them to return to their former routines. I never got another rooster because I did not want to take a chance. 

Dogs generally do not mesh with chickens. When we first started the flock, we had a small, gentle dog who enjoyed hanging out with them in their yard and would take any opportunity to steal eggs whenever she found one unattended. (I would often find rotting eggs in flower beds – hidden by the dog for later.) After she was gone, our son’s dog came to live with us for a few months while he finished college and moved to a new state. She was a sweet dog with people, but we soon discovered that she was not so sweet with chickens, so we fortified the chicken yard and coop. One day, while I was at work, she jumped onto the dryer in the utility room, opened the window and vaulted into the chicken yard. What ensued is known as the “Great Lucy Massacre of 2013.” Only one chicken remained, albeit without a tail, and she was truly traumatized. After Lucy moved back with our son, I traded a bottle of wine for three chickens and brought the flock back to its former size. When we eventually got a new dog, we had to watch him closely and fortify the chicken yard and coop like Fort Knox because he just could not resist the temptation! 

We went to Boulder for a semester-long sabbatical and gave the remaining birds to a neighbor where she introduced them to her large flock. We learned later that they were eventually eaten by coyotes as her house is closer to the irrigation ditches where coyotes live and roam. Chickens are vulnerable to all sorts of predators: terrestrial threats from dogs, coyotes, bobcats, raccoons and aerial predators like owls and hawks. Just when you think you have a fortified coop, you lose a bird to a different predator with a different tactic and you have to fortify again. 

The eggs from your backyard are simply sublime and absolutely nothing in any supermarket comes even close. There is no comparison whatsoever. Hens generally begin laying when they are 8-9 months old and lay for about 5 years. You can expect an egg per day from each hen for about 6 or 7 months. They do not lay as much when the days shorten and completely stop laying in December and January. Then they ramp up again as the days lengthen. Hens can be protective of their eggs and often try to bite or scratch the hand that reaches in to grab an egg. And it hurts! A yogurt cup on a hen’s head makes the egg heist much easier. 

Chickens eat just about anything but using chicken feed is important to give them the nutrition needed to produce eggs. They absolutely love fruits and vegetables, and we often gave them cucumber peels, corn cobs, melon seeds, tomato cores. Bugs of all sorts are a great source of protein. Any bug making its way into a chicken yard is not long for this world. I would throw tomato horn worms into the yard and the girls would fight over them. My neighbor is besieged with snails and would bring a weekly escargot dinner for the chickens. They ate the shells and all. However, they drew the line at adult squash bugs and would give me the evil eye if I dared throw one in their yard. Weeds are generally gobbled up, especially dandelion and wild mustard greens. 

Chickens do fly – not far or fast, but they do fly. So, clipping wings is a necessity if you have an open yard. I had to clip their wings about once a year. A few years after we stopped raising chickens, we heard quite a commotion in the yard that included dogs barking and a chicken squawking. It took a few minutes to register that something was not right. We discovered a terrified chicken in the vegetable garden (which is fenced off from digging dogs) and two snarling dogs trying to get to it. We quickly locked the dogs in the house, grabbed a towel and caught the poor thing. (Towels are my go-to tool to catch chickens.) We had absolutely no idea where she had come from as none of the nearby neighbors had a flock, or so we thought. I called a friend with a flock and asked if she wanted another. A few weeks after rehoming the chicken that fell from the sky, a neighbor who shares about 10 feet of a fence with us popped her head over the fence and asked if we had happened to find a chicken! Whoops!

We have not had chickens in quite some time and the temptation occasionally arises – especially now that it is difficult to find eggs and they are expensive. I do miss “my girls” with their different personalities and eccentricities. And I definitely miss their eggs! A friend recently called to let me know that a farm store had chicks; she wanted to go look at them and for me to start a new flock. (Her yard is too small so she lives vicariously through me.) Tempting! But, the commitment these girls command and my near-term retirement plans consists of travel, not tending chickens. I think it is time to dismantle the chicken coup and reclaim that part of the yard. Perhaps a greenhouse? A bench with a shade tree? A rock garden?

Before signing off, let me recommend a lovely book about raising chickens: The Chicken Chronicles by none other than the great Alice Walker. It is a wonderful memoire centered around her backyard flock. You will fall in love with her chickens and maybe even go out and get a few of your own!

Pepper, March 2025