I am NOT a bird person. However, I am an egg person (with the right amount of cheese). It’s my weakness for eggs and the vision of a beautiful little variety pack of “home grown” eggs from my own little urban homestead (I think that’s the trendy term), that made me think that somehow I could get past my aversion to beaks and claws. The boys want chickens and I want eggs and Jason just doesn’t want to have anything to do with it…which I heard as a “yes, that’s fine.”
Once I decided the urban farm picture in my head worked better if it included chickens rather than an image of me hopping a fence carrying eggs I lifted from the neighbors, I started to get kind of excited about it. It seems to me if we get the chicks when they are small and furry, maybe I can not be afraid of them when they’re bigger.
I’m already thinking of names too so they don’t seem as scary. Erma.
Plus, look at my super cool chicken coop! How great is that? I now have visions of chickens on the slide! Our chickens are so lucky! YouTube here we come!
Twyste 
Fun. Is your yard totally fenced? Will you need a rooster, too?
Our yard is totally fenced, but we’ll also do a small chicken wire fence area around the “coop.” Hayden assures me we don’t need a rooster, and at this point he is my sole chicken advisor.
I have seen your fear of birds, so will pray for you! Have fun 🙂
Crazy, huh?!?
So I want the picture of the first time you actually get in the pen with the grown chickens…cute, fluffy, little chicks don’t count.
Hope you have neighbors that enjoy the sound of “chirping” – especially the little ones! It might be too much to ask of them to put up with a rooster though!! Tell Jason it’s his job to go to the coop and say, “Time to get up my little chickadees”. Since that’s a phrase from his childhood, he may be more willing to get involved!!!
Kelly –
There’s a lot to learn with chickens. First off, since chickens don’t fly and get put into small coops every night, they are a favorite midnight dinner item for possums, skunks, racoons, badgers, foxes, coyotes, and other predators you’ll be neighbors with in Portland. That slide and the ladder on the other side make for easy access.
Some breeds keel over in a stiff, cold breeze, which comes down out of the Gorge during the Winter. In Klamath, the California Whites and Plymouth Rocks did well. Sometimes we had no eggs, and then times when we had more eggs than we needed. We did have roosters, and if we didn’t make it to the ranch during the week, on Saturday morning we might find a hen attacking us to protect her pile of eggs and subsequently have several new chicks running around a couple weeks later. How this turns out requires a separate blog post of my own.
Since you’re looking to regularly make everything in the Eggs, Omelettes, Frittatas, and Souffles cookbook, get some advice on which breeds would be regular producers.
I did a quick search, and saw a place with chicks, supplies, and classes:
http://www.urbanfarmstore.com
Lesson learned — don’t get between your chickens and any spiders, worms, grubs, beetles, or flying insects, no matter how big. Those are yummy chicken treats.
Have fun!
Tom.
The breed of chicken is really key. Research to find family friendly birds. You don’t get to choose male/female, typically because it damn hard to know when they are young. But you can always eat the roosters. 🙂
I have a friend who did the urban chicken thing hardcore down the street from us if you want her advice. Loved getting eggs from her, but would not have loved having to do all the work she did for those little gals. And she did need to find new homes for the little gals who grew up into manly roosters.