I love imagining farm life and livin’ on a farm, (however, I’m in the Suburbs). I dream of having chickens. Backyard chickens are gaining in popularity, but I’ve gotten no further than ordering hatchery catalogs and having a chicken motif in the kitchen. Having read up on the subject, raising poultry is one of those things I need first-hand experience on, to be shown what is involved. Come with me as I visit my friend Susan and her family, and meet a real “Chicken Whisperer”.
is a certified farmgirl at heart. She’s happily married to her beach bum Yankee husband of 20 years. She went from career gal to being a creative homeschooling mom for two of her biggest blessings and hasn’t looked back since. Debbie left her lifelong home in the high desert of Northern Nevada 10 years ago and washed up on the shore of America’s hometown, Plymouth, MA, where she and her family are now firmly planted. They spend part of each summer in a tiny, off–grid beach cottage named “The Sea Horse.”
“I found a piece of my farmgirl heart when I discovered MaryJanesFarm. Suddenly, everything I loved just made more sense! I enjoy unwinding at the beach, writing, gardening, and turning yard-sale furniture into ‘Painted Ladies’ I’m passionate about living a creative life and encouraging others to ‘make each day their masterpiece.’”
is a “MaryJane Farmgirl” who lives in a large metropolitan area. She is a lawyer who has worked in both criminal defense and prosecution. She has been a judge, a business woman and a stay-at-home mom. In addition to her law degree, she has a Masters of Theological Studies.
“Mustering up the courage to do the things you dream about,” she says, “is the essence of being a MaryJane Farmgirl.” Learning to live more organically and closer to nature is Rebekah’s current pursuit. She finds strength and encouragement through MaryJane’s writings, life, and products. And MaryJane’s Farmgirl Connection provides her a wealth of knowledge from true-blue farmgirls.
an old-fashioned farmgirl with a pioneer spirit, lives in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. As a “lifelong learner” in the “Live-Free-or-Die” state, she fiercely values self-reliance, independence, freedom, and fresh mountain air. Married to her childhood sweetheart of 40+ years (a few of them “uphill climbs”), she’s had plenty of time to reinvent herself. From museum curator, restaurant owner, homeschool mom/conference speaker, to post-and-beam house builder and entrepreneur, she’s also a multi-media artist, with an obsession for off-grid living and alternative housing. Cathi owns and operates a 32-room mountain lodge. Her specialty has evolved to include “hermit hospitality” at her rustic cabin in the mountains, where she offers weekend workshops of special interest to women.
“Mountains speak to my soul, and farming is an important part of my heritage. I want to pass on my love of these things to others through my writing. Living in the mountains has its own particular challenges, but I delight in turning them into opportunities from which we can all learn and grow.”
Dori Troutman is the daughter of second generation cattle ranchers in New Mexico. She grew up working and playing on the ranch that her grandparents homesteaded in 1928. That ranch, with the old adobe home, is still in the family today. Dori and her husband always yearned for a ranch of their own. That dream came true when they retired to the beautiful green rolling hills of Tennessee. Truly a cattleman’s paradise!
Dori loves all things farmgirl and actually has known no other life but that. She loves to cook, craft, garden, and help with any and all things on their cattle farm.
describes herself as a goat charmer, chicken whisperer, bee maven, and farmers’ market baker renovating an 1864 farmhouse on an Ohio farm. With a degree in Design, Mary says small-town auctions and country road barn sales "always make my heart skip a beat thinking about what I could create or design out of what I’ve seen.”
Rooted in the countryside, she likes simple things and old ways … gardening, preserving the harvest, cooking, baking, and all things home. While you might find her selling baked goods from the farm’s milkhouse, teaching herself to play the fiddle, or sprucing up a vintage camper named Maizy, you will always find her in an apron!
Mary says, “I’m happiest with the simple country pleasures … an old farmhouse, too many animals, a crackling fire, books to read, and the sound of laughter … these make life just perfect.”
is a budding rural farmgirl living in Palmer, the agricultural seat of Alaska. Alex is a graduate student at Alaska Pacific University pursuing an M.S. in Outdoor and Environmental Education. She lives and works on the university’s 700 acre environmental education center, Spring Creek Farm. When Alex has time outside of school, she loves to rock climb, repurpose found objects, cross-country ski on the hay fields, travel, practice yoga, and cook with new-fangled ingredients.
Alex grew up near the Twin Cities and went to college in Madison, Wisconsin—both places where perfectly painted barns and rolling green farmland are just a short drive away. After college, she taught at a rural middle school in South Korea where she biked past verdant rice paddies and old women selling home-grown produce from sidewalk stoops. She was introduced to MaryJanesFarm after returning, and found in it what she’d been searching for—a group of incredible women living their lives in ways that benefit their families, their communities, and the greater environment. What an amazing group of farmgirls to be a part of!
Suburban Farmgirl Nicole Christensen calls herself a “vintage enthusiast”. Born and raised in Texas, she has lived most of her life in the picturesque New England suburbs of Connecticut, just a stone’s throw from New York State. An Advanced Master Gardener, she has gardened since childhood, in several states and across numerous planting zones. In addition, she teaches knitting classes, loves to preserve, and raises backyard chickens.
Married over thirty years to her Danish-born sweetheart, Nicole has worked in various fields, been a world-traveler, an entrepreneur and a homemaker, but considers being mom to her now-adult daughter her greatest accomplishment. Loving all things creative, Nicole considers her life’s motto to be “Bloom where you are planted”.
Nicole, you will love having chickens. We have had our 7 ladies for a year now and they are just fun. Neither my husband nor I have been around chickens since we were kids and it has been a learning experience for sure, but a relatively easy one. We live in an older subdivision but have almost an acre lots. My husband made a storage shed into a hen house with a nice run. Our back yard is large and the girls have pretty much free range there. They are a bit destructive with their digging, but a bit of fence around flower beds you care about takes care of that. They are great company when doing yard work or hanging out . They are anxious to ‘help’ with any little thing you are doing. Our neighbors all find them interesting and entertaining and we all love the eggs. It has been a great experience and one I would recommend to anyone. It is so peaceful/comforting to look out and see them pecking their way around the yard.
Jean, your comment makes me want to get chickens even more! Thank you for sharing. -Nicole
Loved reading your post! We just had our first shipment of baby chicks arrive yesterday and our world has changed! We live in suburbia as well and while my husband is a few weeks away from completing our backyard coop, the six little puffballs are doing fine in their brooder box for now. Basically, it’s an extra large borrowed dog crate with an inner shell of cardboard and a hanging red heat lamp. We have a 16 foot chicken run attached to the coop to protect from the hawks and owls that frequent the trees around here. http://www.mypetchicken.com was WONDERFUL and they only have a 3 chick minimum, allowing you to mix different breeds within your order to create a beautiful varied flock. Go for it! Believe me, you need chickens 🙂
-Thank you for the website! Enjoy your "little puffballs"! -Nicole
As a child growing up, I learned so much from my grandmother about chickens. She had many mysterious talents with all animals, feathered and furry and human! I used to watch her with her flock of hens and listened very hard to all she had to say. Much was learned simply by watching her, for as she always said, "I can show you, honey, easier than telling you!"
It’s so very neat to see other children living and learning all about chickens. I finally have a garden of my own and hope to either get our "three non-crowing" chickens the town allows or move further out and raise eggs and chickens just like my grandmother did. It was not uncommon for me to bring back forty or fifty eggs in a morning for breakfast and with all the farm workers and family, they went fast!
Love love this article!
Jenn
WoW! I hear you. I too want to raise some chickens and have lovely fresh eggs. Hope it will become reality soon. We’d like to move more toward the country to do this, but this crazy RE market is not allowing the house to sell fast. So guess it will be more ‘chicks’ in town!!
Good luck to you too.
Christina
Great article – Yea for chickens in the burbs – I too wanted some chickens and fortunately my son lives just a few miles away on 5 acres – so ‘we’ now have 20 chickens – yeah the first 3 grew to 20 – love the benefits (superb eggs) and oh what great knowledge for children.
Great article.Positive insight into a subject most people need to see to believe. Perhaps your journey into raising chickens will encourage many to follow your lead.
This is timely for us – we’re working with the city of Billings, Montana to get them to join the almost 70% of American cities who allow a limited number of backyard hens! We had to sell our beautiful Buff Orpingtons, which really REALLY upset my kids, when the city decided they needed to enforce the previously unenforced ordinance… after our article went in the paper about many of us wanting to change things. AUGH!
Backyard hens are THE BOMB!!! 🙂
Oh Nicole-
You simply MUST get chickens- you will be so positively happy with them. I have had my hens for 3 years (Yesterday was our 3rd Anniversary- Flag day- hence the names Star and Liberty).They are a Rhode Island Red and a Black Australope We also ordered chicks from mypetchicken.com which we received on May 24th so our newest girls are now 3 1/2 weeks old. We ordered 4 girls- 1 Silver Laced Wyandotte, 1 Black Australope, and 2 Easter Eggers- which are going to lay pretty colored eggs (possibly blue/green or pink- hence the name Easter Eggers)
We named our new girls Nina, Lila, Einsteine, and of course Henrietta!
We are in the process of builing them their own enclosure right next to our other 2 girls and they have their own brand new coop. I am hoping to be able to "mix" my old gals in with the youngin’s once they are a little bit older. Its just so exciting, the eggs are great- soon I will have enough to share with my neighbors even more! Once you have chickens you will be amazed at how smart they are! You will also feel even that much more like a farmgirl! I love to wash my dishes and look out the kitchen window and see my girls…just makes me smile!
Good luck on your quest!
Smiles,
Laurie
Farmgirl Sister#1403
I live in a sub-division with an acre lot and can’t wait to start! I have been dreaming chickens for years!!! Thank you for the great and helpful article and the comments…now I know where to order them! Happy ‘farming’!
-Paula, you, too! -Nicole
Chickens are great! You won’t believe how much fun they are!
Hi Nicole!
Oh, I hope you are encouraged by all these great comments to go ahead and get your chickens! We’ve been keeping backyard chickens for 5 years and it truly does this farm-girls heart good to have them tucked into the rear of the yard in the midst of the garden. We love the fresh eggs, and the companionship too. Ours keep me company while I garden…Your kids will love it too! Great post
Deb ( mjfbeachfarmgirlblogger)
Thank you, Debbie. Yes, it is definitely something I can see doing…I love the idea of them out keeping company in the garden! The fresh eggs are so tasty (and huge)! -Nicole
Nicole- I, too, have "chicken envy"! My backyard is just way too small for chickens even though Portland, OR supports having them. We’re planning a move to Albuquerque, NM and when we do, the only home I’ll accept MUST have room for chickens. My friends that have them wouldn’t have it any other way and, ooh, I’m sooooo envious. I can hardly wait! Good luck to you! Tess
Tess, good luck with your move! Hope you get your chickens! -Nicole
For over a year I had two muskovy ducks in my back yard. A few weeks ago a racoon got into their yard and killed both of them. They were pets that came when I called them and sat in my lap to be pet. I cannot tell you how sad I was and cried for two days. Yes, I am that sentimental. Now my daughter who has a hobby farm a couple of hours from here just got 61 new baby chickens. (she already had 30) Some of her chickens are destined for the freezer and new ones are replacing them for egg production. She gave me three of the cutest little chickens you can imagine. Since I have an amish made duck coup it will not be my new chicken coup. I live in a residential area with very close neighbors and the first one that complains will be reported for their very noisy barking dogs that bark all day. I am sure that my little pets will be quieter. My daughter says that if one turns out to be a rooster she will exchange it for a hen so the neighbors will not complain. I look forward to at least three eggs a day by fall. Yes may be a maverick in my town!!! Lee
Lee, I would have cried, too, over those ducks. I’m so sorry! -Nicole
If the chickens have "the run of the yard" how do you keep them out of your vegetable gardens? Do you have to fence the gardens in? I have six raised beds so I’m not sure I could just let them run all over.
– My vegie garden is fenced in. My cutting garden and hosta beds are not. I wouldn’t let the chickens run loose unless I was watching anyway. Susan’s did not seem hard at all to corral when we wanted to go inside. -Nicole
Can you have chickens were you live? Check with your town. They even allow goats in city limits now.
I live in Louisiana 🙂 I woke up this morning and decided I wanted chickens and BAM here is your blog, newly discovered today. B/c it’s how I roll, I’ve decided it’s a sign from God. You rock!
Hi Nicole, I am new to Farmgirl but not new to chickens. I have been raising chickens for years. I love my chickens and missed them when I lived where I wasn’t able to have them. I wish I knew how to send pics on here… I would send you some pics of my coop and run and girls and guys. They all have names and are very sweet. I have about 14 different breeds. I have 28 laying hens and 4 roosters. 3 of which I just acquired in the last bunch of peeps I raised. I will have to see how they get along with each other and with Big Sam my main rooster who is a Black Jersey Giant. I hope you get to have some chickens as they are so therapeutic. Or at least I think so. They are alot of fun to watch. Be Blessed and go ahead and get you some yard birds.
Ms. Scarlette
Ms. Scarlette, thank you for such a nice comment…makes me want chickens even more! I can just envision you out with your chickens running around! I am working on getting some real soon! Thank you for reading!
-Nicole
love this post! we also have chickens in the burbs and have lots of fun doing it!! love your post!!!