The Challenge Remains

 

by Jennifer Burcke

It's official: The Purina 60 Day See the Difference Challenge has come to an end at 1840 Farm. At least the 60 day part. Farming and raising food for my family is a journey of the never-ending variety. Sixty days may come and go, but the challenge remains.

During the 60 days, so much happened here on our farm. Hurricane Irene came for a visit and left us in the dark for almost a full week. She reminded us that we really do depend on electricity to carry on the business of our daily life. She also taught us that fresh eggs cooked on the grill were a delicious way to end another day without power, telephone service, or access to the Internet. Each dinner of fresh eggs served as a reminder that chickens didn't care about electricity and that we had to be sure to add chicken feed to the top of our storm preparedness list.

While we participated in the challenge, we also passed a chicken keeping milestone of epic proportions here at 1840 Farm. Our heritage breed hens turned one year old. It is hard to believe that we have been lucky enough to have our own flock for an entire year. In so many ways, it seems as though they have always been here. It's difficult to imagine a time when they didn't call our farm their home.

From the coop construction to the arrival of the day-old chicks, the last 12 months were definitively the Year of the Chicken here at 1840 Farm. We spent the entire summer of 2010 talking about and working towards having our own flock of chickens. While it seemed simple enough, it proved to be anything but.

As I sit here typing, I am reminded just how arduous a process it was by simply looking down at the scar on my finger. I'm wondering if the emergency room nurses are still talking about my explanation that my continuously bleeding finger was the result of a day's work on our chicken coop. Of course, they couldn't stop asking me about our chickens as they tended to my wound with the hospital version of super glue. By the time I left the emergency room with my glued and bandaged finger in a splint, they had all taken a turn asking me for chicken keeping advice.

It was all worth it. Since our seven hens started laying eggs at the end of February, we have harvested an amazing 949 eggs from our chicken coop. For over nine months, they have provided a steady supply of fresh eggs for our whole family. We have marveled at the perfection of each and every one of them as we log them into our 2011 farm journal. Our hens have given us the remarkable ability to be more closely connected to our food supply.

More than that, they have given me the opportunity to watch my children become farmers. It has happened right before my eyes. In this first year of our family farm experiment, they have evolved from casually interested children living on a farm to children that remind me every night at bedtime to wake them up early in the morning to help me do the farm chores. They have both embraced what it means to be a farmer and take great pride in the bounty that their hard work makes possible. I take great pride in watching them become people who understand just how much hard work is required to produce a meal on the family table. Who knew that seven hens could teach two children a lesson that will last them a lifetime?

Truth be told, I have been learning right along with my children. I see the world differently than I did before we began producing our own food on the ground that we call home. I judge the success of my summer season by the pounds of heirloom tomatoes grown on our farm instead of the days spent at the beach. I tally the fresh eggs found in the coop every day without fail and look for every possible way to increase the health and productivity of our hens. I've become a person who buys Popsicles to keep the flock from overheating in the summer sun. I guess that our hens have taught me a thing or two as well.

Barely more than a year ago, I couldn't have imagined that I would be keeping chickens and sharing my experiences with members of the Mother Earth News and Grit Magazine online community. Yet here I am, wrapping up my twentieth post for this forum. While the Purina 60 Day See The Difference Challenge has passed, I have no intention of bringing my greater challenge to an end. I'll keep sharing my experience and the stories, photos and videos that accompany our everyday life here at 1840 Farm.

I hope that you will continue to share your advice and experiences with me. Your comments have taught me so much during my first year as a chicken keeper. Each comment affords me the opportunity to feel as though I am standing at a proverbial fence row speaking to a trusted neighbor, learning from them about this art of tending chickens. While I know that there may be countless miles between us and no fence row in sight, I feel extremely fortunate to be a part of this community.

To celebrate the end of the Purina 60 Day See the Difference Challenge, I would like to offer a little encouragement to those of you who have shared so much with me. I will be randomly selecting a reader to win a Purina FLIP video camera. This is the same camera that I use to share videos on this forum and on my own blog. It is my hope that it will encourage you to share your chicken keeping experiences with our community.

To enter the drawing, visit the 1840 Farm blog and read the details regarding the giveaway. The winner will be chosen at random on Monday, November 21, 2011. I will notify the winner by email and announce them in my next post for Community Chickens.

Until then, I'll be busy tending to our chickens and trying to prepare them for the upcoming winter as laying hens. They have entered their first molting period, so we sadly have more feathers in the coop than fresh eggs. We're trying to be patient as they molt, but it is difficult to accept that as farmers, we must simply wait for the days to pass and the feathers to be replenished.

We'll endure molting and the winter that follows knowing full well that spring will bring warmer temperatures and a steady supply of fresh eggs back to our farm. It will be another challenge for all of us, but we'll persevere. We're farmers and the daily challenge simply goes with the territory. It's part of the process of producing your own food. I wouldn't have it any other way.

You're always welcome at 1840 Farm. Visit our blog at www.1840farm.wordpress.com.

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