Eggs, Entertainment & Questionable Life Choices
There is something wonderfully wholesome about walking outside on a beautiful Arizona morning, breathing in the fresh country air, and gathering warm eggs from your very own chickens.
At least that’s the Instagram version.
The actual version may involve pajamas, chicken poop, a missing shoe, somebody escaping the coop, and you yelling:
“WHY ARE YOU IN THE GARDEN?!”
Welcome to chicken ownership at JDK Ranchette.
It Started With Four Chickens
Like many things on our homestead, chickens weren’t necessarily part of some carefully developed five-year agricultural plan.
We were gifted four chickens.
Because apparently once you move to 40 acres in rural Arizona, people start assuming you need livestock.
And they’re right.
Those four chickens represented another step in the transformation of our property from raw Arizona land into the place we dreamed about when Dan and I decided to leave Southern California and build an off-grid life.
We started with land.
Then came solar.
A well.
A house.
A greenhouse.
Gardens.
Fruit trees.
Chickens.
Goats.
At this rate, Dan is probably afraid to leave me alone with Facebook Marketplace.
Fresh Eggs Really Are Amazing
There is absolutely something special about gathering eggs from your own chickens.
They’re fresh.
You know where they came from.
You know what your chickens eat.
And there is an odd sense of accomplishment that comes from walking into the house carrying three eggs as though you personally laid them.
LOOK WHAT WE MADE!
Technically, the chicken did most of the work.
But we’re taking partial credit.
After all, somebody bought the feed.
Chickens Are Excellent Homestead Employees
Chickens actually have several jobs around here.
They eat bugs.
They scratch the soil.
They eat certain kitchen scraps.
They produce manure for compost.
And, of course, they lay eggs.
It’s a fairly good arrangement.
Room and board in exchange for breakfast.
They do not, however, respect property boundaries, landscaping plans, raised beds, newly planted seedlings, or anything else you may personally value.
Give a chicken access to a garden and she immediately becomes a tiny feathered excavator.
You can spend three months carefully improving your soil, planting seeds, watering seedlings and protecting everything from the Arizona weather.
A chicken can undo your work in approximately seven minutes.
Efficiency.
Chickens Are Part of Our Food-Security Plan
One of the reasons we’ve become increasingly interested in producing our own food is food security.
Not in a “Dan, build the bunker!” sort of way.
More in a:
“Maybe knowing how to feed ourselves is actually a useful skill.”
We still go to the grocery store.
We still order things online.
Amazon can find JDK Ranchette remarkably well for a property that barely existed a few years ago.
We aren’t trying to abandon modern civilization.
We simply like knowing that some of our food can come from right here.
The garden gives us vegetables.
The fruit trees will eventually give us fruit.
The goats give us milk.
And the chickens give us eggs.
Occasionally the garden gives us nothing because the jackrabbits got there first.
Homesteading keeps you humble.
Chickens Turn Scraps Into Breakfast
One of my favorite things about chickens is watching something that might otherwise have been thrown away become useful.
Certain vegetable scraps and garden leftovers become chicken treats.
The chickens produce manure.
The manure and bedding can become compost.
The compost feeds the garden.
The garden produces food.
The food produces scraps.
The scraps go back to the chickens.
It’s a beautiful closed-loop agricultural system.
Until somebody leaves the garden gate open.
Then the chickens skip several steps and just eat the garden directly.
Our Grandchildren Are Learning Where Food Comes From
One of the things I love most about this life is that our grandchildren are growing up seeing where food actually comes from.
They see seeds planted.
They see vegetables growing.
They see fruit trees being cared for.
They see goats being milked.
They gather eggs.
They understand that food doesn’t originate in a plastic container at Walmart.
Although, to be fair, quite a bit of ours still does.
We’re a work in progress.
But they’re learning something I think is incredibly valuable:
Food requires work.
Animals require care.
Gardens require patience.
And chickens require fences.
Preferably good ones.
Off-Grid Does Not Mean Living Like It’s 1873
When people hear that we live off-grid, they sometimes imagine Dan and me sitting in a dark cabin somewhere, churning butter by candlelight.
Not exactly.
We have solar power.
We have batteries.
We have internet.
We have modern appliances.
We have vehicles and equipment.
We have cell phones.
And I can stand in the middle of our Arizona homestead and order something online that will mysteriously appear at my door two days later.
We’re not trying to go backward.
We’re trying to take some of the really good ideas from the past and combine them with the really good ideas from today.
Grow food.
Raise animals.
Use what you have.
Waste less.
Learn practical skills.
And also have Wi-Fi.
This is modern homesteading, people.
You Don’t Need 40 Acres
One thing we’ve learned is that you don’t need a huge property to start becoming more self-reliant.
We happen to have acreage.
But your version might be four chickens in a backyard.
Or tomatoes growing in containers.
Or herbs in the kitchen window.
Or learning how to preserve food.
Start small.
Because small projects have a strange tendency to multiply.
One day you’re growing basil in a pot.
A few years later you’re standing on 40 acres explaining to your husband why you definitely need a hoop house, another fruit tree and possibly more chickens.
I can’t explain how it happens.
It just does.
So Why Raise Chickens?
For the eggs.
For the compost.
For pest control.
For food security.
For teaching our grandchildren.
For becoming a little more self-reliant.
And because chickens are hilarious.
They have personalities.
They have opinions.
They seem deeply concerned about everything you’re doing.
And they are absolutely convinced that whatever you are holding probably belongs to them.
Our chickens are just one small part of what we’re building here at JDK Ranchette.
We’re learning as we go.
We’re making mistakes.
We’re trying new things.
We’re growing food.
We’re raising animals.
We’re building a home and a homestead from what started as raw Arizona land.
And somewhere along the way, we’ve discovered something important:
You don’t have to give up modern life to live a little closer to the land.
You can have solar panels and chickens.
A greenhouse and Amazon Prime.
Fresh eggs and Wi-Fi.
And apparently, you can spend the first half of your life trying to make things easier…
…only to move to 40 acres and voluntarily give yourself chores again.
Wouldn’t change it for the world.
From JDK Ranchette — living, learning, laughing, and occasionally chasing chickens in the Arizona White Mountains.