A Day in the Life

Meet Penny, the hen who thinks she's a person.  She regularly scoots onto our porch, hops up onto a chair, and spies on us.  She drives the cats crazy.

Kristin and I are starting this blog to chronicle our experiment of raising chickens in the city Tacoma. I say "experiment" because we are certainly not experts in the field of chicken-raising; nonetheless, we hope that our experience will be beneficial to others.  We also hope that other urban chicken farmers and those interested in producing their own food will contribute to the blog to add to the knowledge base of urban food production in the Tacoma area.

We became interested in starting our own flock a couple of years ago as a way in which we could draw closer to the food we put in our bodies daily.  We value sustainability and autonomy, and we are hesitant to put our full faith in the vast global food network to provide quality food for all people indefinitely.  We hope that this blog can articulate the importance of local, urban food production and explore the philosophy behind this movement while encouraging others to start making adjustments in their lives.

There are lots of questions that people have about raising chickens and starting gardens. Sometimes it seems as though there is so much information that it can be difficult to sort through it all and know where to begin.  We aim to make this blog a place where practical information will be readily available and where people will feel comfortable asking questions and posing problems.  And if we don’t have a good answer, we hope that others will step in and share their knowledge.

Chickens are a lot like conventional pets such as dogs and cats. Anytime you bring an animal onto your property and into your life, you can expect to have to make adjustments in your routines and schedules.  Along those lines, this blog will also be about the day-to-day aspect of keeping a flock in an urban environment. We'll be posting photos, anecdotes, delicious egg recipes, etc., and we encourage other urban farmers to send in their photos and stories as well.

Thanks for reading! We plan on updating at least a couple of times a week, so check back and please do participate!  If you'd like to add any content to the blog, feel free to comment or send us an e-mail.