So the other thing I never cogitate I ’d ever say , besides “ I have a chicken henhouse in my backyard , ” is … I have backyard chickens ! But that kinda go without aver , yea ?
Whenour coop was underwayand I started looking into chicken , I acknowledge that I wanted them to come from a local humanistic farm that hatched many unlike breeds to choose from . The idea of ordain chicks through the mail and make them ship across state lines just seemed slaphappy to me .
I also want pullets — young chickens that are fully feathered and can live outside , but are not yet mature enough to lie testis . immature chickens would stand for more bonding metre in their developing month , and more soldering clock time would raise a flock of loyal and laidback lady .
With all that in mind , I search through countless sites and finally found a wonderful low farm up the seashore whose value repeat mine .
Two week ago , Will and I made the beautiful three - minute drive up main road 1 to Dare 2 Dream Farms , a genuinely barren - grasp chicken farm just outside the small-scale agrarian residential district of Lompoc . They offered to set us up with a starter troop of hens , and we were so emotional to be capable to pick out our own .
pucker into the Santa Ynez River Valley , the sustainable , family - have and operated farm posture on 40 landed estate of mostly unexploited land dotted with old - ontogenesis oaks and eucalyptus tree .
All this open domain mean herds of happy hen free - ranging around the farm all day , lay farm - fresh eggs of all colours and sizes that supply the local CSA and natural markets . Alongside the hen are rooster , quail , duck duck zany , the farm ’s three blackguard ( Conner , Walker and George ) and Bandit the cat , all of whom partake this idyllic spirit with Megan and Jeremy , the couple behindDare 2 Dream .
We brought our pugs on this footling road misstep with us that Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , so they could serve take their new sister . Our firstborn pug bring to the resident poulet immediately , skipping through the grass and playing with them as if she ’d lived on a farm all her life . Our jr. pug-dog did n’t mind them , but had a scrap of apprehension as some of these birds were bigger than she was !
We were recognise by Megan , a former city girl who moved to the countryside with her fiancé Jeremy in 2009 . After raising a modest flock of 12 biddy and falling in sexual love with them , they add home 40 more and Dare 2 Dream was brook .
In that myopic amount of metre , the farm ’s modest operation have grow to include a 4,000 - satisfying - foot vegetable garden next to the house , several quirky coops scattered around the prop , and acres of pasture where wimp roam and pasture freely .
Megan and Jeremy execute the whole show themselves , from do the farm to take a shit deliveries to commercialize their business organisation . It ’s really a family - run farm in every room .
Inside a classic Americana barn filled with modern and vintage farm relics — directly out ofAmerican Pickers — weeks - old fryer purred and coo in a pen . Did you know that pullets really purr and coo ? They sound like a flight of Dove — so pleasant and peaceable .
Everywhere we looked , pullets perched atop roosts and huddled around tributary . I had never realize so many spring wimp before in my life ! Megan help us opt the best lookin ’ of the gang ( and the most even - tempered ) from what seemed like one C of hens that all looked and purred alike .
The pug-dog were sit down side by side , see us and waiting impatiently as we rounded up our girls .
Out of the corner of my eye , I noticed that a pair of Barred Rocks were standing side by side in front of the pug , watchingthemwith interest . While the other pullets scuttle out when the pugs came ’ round , these two confidently held their soil . One peculiarly curious pullet even inched her mode nigher to the pugs , unfazed by their hyperactive heaving . At that moment , we knewshehad chosenthem !
We walked out of the b with three sexy new addition to our family — Kimora , Iman , and Gisele — a Barred Rock , Golden Laced Cochin , and Easter Egger , severally . They were all 14 weeks onetime and attractively feather .
These supermodels are quite the sassy triplet and one even welcome me with my first real poulet experience … right down the side of my shirt ! ( as luck would have it , I ’d been out surfing that break of day and had an extra shirt in the gondola … otherwise I think Will would ’ve made me compost my shirt right then and there ! )
We insert the daughter into a cardboard box for the journeying home plate , right in between my surf bin and Will ’s surf blanket in the back of the car , where they nestled in restfully .
Happy and healthy at 16 weeks erstwhile now , Kimora , Iman , and Gisele have settled nicely into their new house . Within two days they take to hop up the ladder to rest in their coop at sundown , and let themselves out into the run at sunrise . They make a beeline for the door when they see me coming , eager for a treat of organic gelt or dried mealworm , or — if I ’ve been digging in the garden — a tasty smattering of grubs or grasshopper .
I ’ve started to rent the girls free - range for the last time of day before dusk , and they never stray far . I love watch out their playful joke and their abundant personality emerge ! Such highly underrated animals they are .
I still ca n’t consider I have chickens in my backyard . And you could have some too .
Dare 2 Dream Farmssupplies poulet , coops , poultry supplying , and a friendly sounding instrument panel for sub / urban people concerned in elevate their own backyard flocks . They also hand deport throughout the Greater Los Angeles orbit , the Central Coast , and the Bay Area — but if you could swing a visit to the farm , it ’s very much worth the drive !
This post is bring to you byDare 2 Dream Farms . Thank you for support the small businesses that support Garden Betty .
