Well, not quite Salt Lake City, We're in the smaller and not quite so metropolitan(end sarcasm font) South Salt Lake City. Chicken ordinance is being passed as we speak, and my chicks will soon be legal! We used to have this sort of informal permission, lots of people around here keep hens, and Animal Control has never really bothered anybody. But now when my jerk neighbor complains, they CANT do anything! Mwahahahaha!
So, I'm an unemployed carpenter, a stay at home-dad and an aspiring writer of science fiction and fantasy novels. I love to cook, and am in the process of building a brick barbeque and a wood-fired pizza oven. Having the construction skills that I do, I tend to over do things(who has a wood-fired pizza oven? C'mon!). I've had the coop planned out in my head for over a year now, had a nice empty spot in the garden where it was going to go, waiting for its turn. Right next to the compost pile, which has been eagerly waiting to feast on some nitrogen rich chicken poo!
I found some cold hardy breeds, and picked my four favorites: an SL Wyandotte, a Golden Sex-Link, A RIR and an Australorp. My plan is to start with four hens, and in a couple years when egg production drops off, add two more hens, probably a Speckled Sussex and a Barnevelder. I kept pigeons as a teenager, so I'm totally new to taking care of birds and their needs, and my wife is a farmer's daughter(if you ever have the opportunity, marry a farmer's daughter!)
I fell in love with the taste(and the idea) of fresh eggs when working for my cousin who keeps two dozen hens. He sent me home with some extras, and I was hooked. I like the ideas of Permaculture and being a LocalVore.
I believe our society has an enormous disconnect between our food's source and our plate. I want my children to know where their food comes from, from the garden and the coop, not from plastic packages at the grocery store.
And now that my pullets are getting settled in to their new home(about four weeks old, so still on heat for a while), I have discovered bee keeping... I need a job before all these new yummy hobbies take over my life...
So, I'm an unemployed carpenter, a stay at home-dad and an aspiring writer of science fiction and fantasy novels. I love to cook, and am in the process of building a brick barbeque and a wood-fired pizza oven. Having the construction skills that I do, I tend to over do things(who has a wood-fired pizza oven? C'mon!). I've had the coop planned out in my head for over a year now, had a nice empty spot in the garden where it was going to go, waiting for its turn. Right next to the compost pile, which has been eagerly waiting to feast on some nitrogen rich chicken poo!
I found some cold hardy breeds, and picked my four favorites: an SL Wyandotte, a Golden Sex-Link, A RIR and an Australorp. My plan is to start with four hens, and in a couple years when egg production drops off, add two more hens, probably a Speckled Sussex and a Barnevelder. I kept pigeons as a teenager, so I'm totally new to taking care of birds and their needs, and my wife is a farmer's daughter(if you ever have the opportunity, marry a farmer's daughter!)
I fell in love with the taste(and the idea) of fresh eggs when working for my cousin who keeps two dozen hens. He sent me home with some extras, and I was hooked. I like the ideas of Permaculture and being a LocalVore.
I believe our society has an enormous disconnect between our food's source and our plate. I want my children to know where their food comes from, from the garden and the coop, not from plastic packages at the grocery store.
And now that my pullets are getting settled in to their new home(about four weeks old, so still on heat for a while), I have discovered bee keeping... I need a job before all these new yummy hobbies take over my life...
