Introducing the Barred Rock Chicken for the Suburbs

Check them out! If it's daylight, the girls are usually outside in the run, catching some rays or scratching up the dirt, looking for bugs and worms. The run is about four feet wide by eight feet long, and the cam is located on one end, at chicken eye level, facing their split-level house. There's a temporary roof during the rainy season which helps keep the ground from getting muddy. Instructions and guidance on how to build their house and this run are forthcoming.

The hens spend a lot of time looking to your left, because in that direction lives The Man That Feeds Us. There's a constant supply of chicken feed in the coop, but The Man brings them goodies, such as people food and even an occasional worm!

These Barred Rock chickens really prefer to recycle the table scraps and garden trimmings. Not only are we able to close another ecological loop, each hen also presents us with over several hundred superb eggs per year, and lots of entertainment.

A Quiet Breed

Barred Rock hens are ideal for the city or a subdivision because they are docile, quiet, and well mannered. They are heavy birds and produce large eggs, with some production even during the winter months. A healthy hen will supply you with at least 20 dozen eggs per year. And what eggs! The brown shells contain rich, orange yolks that stand up in the pan. The eggs are not watery and taste like eggs used to taste.

Here is more information about the breed, then some instructions for building their coop and their run (a chicken tractor!), where to get them, and how to best meet their needs and care for them. When you have chickens, your life will be the richer for it!

Next: About this type of chicken, the Barred Rock