A Spectacular Day On The Coastal Cluck Coop Tour

We had so much fun on the 4th Annual Coastal Cluck Coop Tour yesterday – the rain held for most of the day it did sprinkle some but overall the day was spectacular! I know the Viking would agree! The turn out was fabulous and who knew four years ago when the founder of the tour Denise Culler asked me to come on this tour that our schedule would finally work out to be on it! I had so much fun and I love that so many people are seeing the value in raising backyard chickens they certainly are worth the egg’stra trouble!

The Viking and I were so excited to share our knowledge of raising chickens for about 10 years total on and off and what has worked for us in the past and even why we like our current set up better now. The thing about raising chickens is you have to do what works for you! There are a lot of folks interested in raising chickens right now and when they would say to me….”hmmmm I’m not sure…” I would say “Are you in an HOA?” ….if the answer I was no I would say “Dive in you will love raising chickens they are the easiest gateway farm animal in my opinion to heading on your path to self-reliance and they are fun. The only downside to raising chickens in my opinions is predators because in a small flock like ours illness is rare.  Important items to consider when you add chickens are: space, neighbors, don’t dive into adding too many chickens too quickly, sanitation procedures, knowing how to clip their feathers if necessary, garden protection just to name a few.  You don’t want to have so many chickens and not enough garden protection that you get frustrated.

The Viking also had time for his bee banter while I was in my glory talking chickens….I am very proud of our gals and all my gals the Buff Orpington, the Barred Rock, the Americauna, and our newest lady the Rhode Island Red were all so excited about company and received extra oatmeal from children who visited they were indeed happy!   Chickens are fun to watch so they not only lay fresh eggs but they entertain you as well!

We also loved sharing about our edible garden as well. People asked questions about our fig trees, elderberry bushes, and our berry bushes and some of our gardening strategies!  Our goal is to turn our entire 1/3 acre in suburbia into an edible arrangement!   We have so many items that when I was younger I probably would not have looked at as a potential food source and now I do and I even have faith that one day our almond tree will be producing us a source of protein here on our lil’ homestead. I am even planning a canning party with one of my friends that stopped by on the tour we are going to can peaches first I think…..a great start!

We learned a lot from folks that came by too….one gentleman gave us some advice on ways to make our plumeria healthier!   I also shared our future plans with some of our visitors you see the things is a suburban homestead is constantly evolving and changing to meet our needs at the time.  We are now heading to the empty nest so we have scaled back some and it works for us!  That’s the thing with events like this we all learn from each other!  For all of you that our new to homesteading, chickens, and canning come join us and if you have chickens make sure to contact Denise and hop on The Coastal Cluck Coop Tour next year you will be glad you did!

I wish you all a beautiful week….until next time!

Fondly,