when more isn’t better: why we keep fewer chickens now

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chickens are a fan favorite among backyard farmers everywhere. but that wasn’t the case for us.

getting animals was never a short term or hobby type of thing for us. we were building the beginning of our future. the farm we had been planning. originally, i was the one who wanted chickens and alex, my husband, was the one who wanted ducks. we loved duck eggs and wanted to create our own supply. late march two years ago, i bought five ducks from murdoch’s. (if y’all know me, this is one of my favorite stores) i snagged two khaki campbell (dax & tourmaline) and three black indian runners aka penguins (pickles, lovey & captain). the next week, i snagged two blue swedish. (tatiana & mauna) this was our og crew of seven.

i fell in love with them. no matter how messy they were or if they stunk, i loved them with all my might. my order for fall was already secured. one day we stumbled into tractor supply & there were two lone ducks in the same housing as the chicks, they didn’t look great. i convinced him to let me grab them. these two were luna and sunny. it was at this point we had secured the order for chicks in fall.

fall came around.

to start off… chicks are soooo much easier to have in a brooder than ducklings, one thousand percent. they just have to be contained, unlike ducklings. having them as chicks was okay, then as they got to be 6 weeks & hawks started showing up. i lost my favorite chicken that way before i could even see her full potential. as the chickens grew older, they were just attracting predators. when they were old enough, we set up their run and dealt with a fox and possible raccoon. we lost a few hens this way. then when our ducklings arrived, we lost a month old one to an owl that was coming around because of the chickens. due to all of this, we decided to cover the entire run with bird netting. this was a simple task but made it more difficult on us because it would start to slope or the wind would destroy it.

and that’s when things started to shift for us.

we decided we were gonna move. we had temporary housing for our animals set up and within the first few days, we lost 6 hens. we tried to save one that survived and it ended up passing within that day. this took our 11 hens down quickly. we had 5 left. now fast forward, everything was going well. we added new chickens, lost some chicks and thought we were in the clear.

unfortunately, at some point, i noticed a couple of them had caught dry fowl pox. not a big deal. we secluded and allowed them to heal. i sprayed this silver honey on them every day and we gave them these electrolytes. everyone was doing great and healed up. then one day, i noticed one of our hens passed laying down. i couldn’t identity anything that would have caused it.we continued with electrolytes. a few more passed the same exact way. at this point, we were baffled. i was already planning on processing some of them, but with everything happening we decided it was best to cull them. while we were getting ready to process, we jointly made a swift decision to keep a hen. that girl was rosemary (couldn’t have made a better pick) and our heritage black copper maran rooster. a few days after we culled, our rooster was attacked by something. we felt bad for rosemary cause she was our only chicken now. thankfully, my girl at two cedar station had some hens she was selling. that’s when we got panini as a companion for rosemary. we’ve had the two ever since. we haven’t had a full flock of chickens since november and we are genuinely so much happier without them.

chickens brought a lot of issues for us. predators. illness. unexpected loss. it just wasn’t for us. ducks, on the other hand, have been completely different. ducks are our preferred method of eggs. ducks don’t attract predators in the same way and, honestly, they just seem more aware. now, i’m not saying we will never own chickens again. i am just saying that the only way we will have them is to raise for meat. but, we do plan to have a small flock of maybe 6 and then a meat flock. we intend to get bresse and we will be getting those from two cedar station.

don’t get me wrong. i’m not saying the dinosaurs are awful. they just aren’t for us. do not feel bad if you don’t admire them the way everyone on social media does. i will never love chickens as much as some people do, but i do appreciate them for putting food on our table. i feel much better knowing that our food was loved and taken care of rather than how they are raised commercially. if you haven’t done research into where your meat comes from, than take a moment to appreciate the farmers who are doing their best and do care.

i’ve noticed a lot of people trying to build generational wealth through farming. and many are doing it for the first time. to those people, it’s okay to mess up. you’re learning. you’re doing your best. you are not gonna get everything perfect the first time, no matter how hard we try. there are definitely things i would have done differently while raising chickens and i asked for advice from some of my trusted friends who have done this a bit longer. it’s not a weakness, asking is a strength & makes everyone better. for example, we misjudged how long we were supposed to withhold feed for chickens before culling. i asked my friend (at two cedar station) what she does and would recommend and we took notes for the next time we process birds. it’s that simple on how to learn and adjust your future plans and to simply learn. if you’re doing this, you have to be humbled enough to know when you need to ask for help, when you need someone else’s input who has more experience and brave enough to simply own up to a mistake and learn from it.

your plan doesn’t have to look like everyone else’s, your plan is intended to fit your needs. if you don’t like chickens, don’t keep them. buy chicken meat from a local farm. tthat supports another local small business owner & supports your dream by allowing your resources to go into something you do like. whether that be gardening, ducks, cattle, whatever. this is why we no longer own a whole flock of chickens. we prefer our ducks to chickens.

and we’re okay with that.

less really is more sometimes.
and for us, that looks like fewer chickens.