Today is the day I get my backyard chicken flock underway.

Our family decided to start a backyard chicken flock for many reasons. First, we think it is important to be as close to the source of our food as possible, and who can really be against fresh eggs from the backyard? Second, chickens provide many other beneficial services other than meat and eggs - such as eating insects that want to eat our garden, provide fertilizer for the lawn and garden, and some pretty cool entertainment for us, our friends and family.

I am fortunate enough to have found a local person that is willing to set a few eggs in an incubator and watch over them for me. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of tracking down an incubator of my own - cheap ones usually will work but you really need to watch the temperature and humidity in them to make sure that the eggs are under the correct conditions for hatching, and the ones that take care of all of that for you are really expensive. Since I am only looking to raise 4 or 5 layers (chickens for eggs) and then 1 or 2 meat birds it seems silly to spend a lot of money on an incubator.

So what’s next in this process? Once he gets the eggs together that I ask for, then I have 21 days for the eggs to hatch. That means 28 days to get my act together and have a little place set up for them to live when I pick them up. They will need food, water and a heat source to keep them pretty close to 100F. They will live inside for a week to 10 days, and then they will be big enough to move outside to a coop - which I still need to build.

Once they are big enough to be outside, then they will be put to work around the yard eating the bugs, dandelions and other weeds.

So I guess that is the beginning. I will keep everyone posted on the progress, including pictures, as we get up and running around here.