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Just over a year ago, Irene Cronkright adopted Gloria, Flower, Red and Oreo. They arrived home in a cardboard box and spent the first few days at their new home in South Norwalk living under a heat lamp before moving into an expansive two-story condo in the backyard. "I wanted to teach my grandsons, Max and Miles, to appreciate where their food comes from," Irene said at the time.
The thing that has surprised Irene the most is how friendly hens are. "They talk to me all the time," she says. And if she picks one of them up for a cuddle the other three get extremely jealous, attacking it when it's back in the pen. Most of the time the hens get on well and take turns being boss. "They try to crow," Irene says, "but they're really just making loud clucking sounds."
The four hens -- loud roosters aren't neighbor-friendly so urban chicken farmers avoid them -- live in Irene's backyard in a large fenced area that includes their coop. This is where the hens lay their eggs. At this time of year, each hen lays one egg a day but in the winter that drops to one a week. The yolks of Irene's hens are a deep orange-gold, thanks to the omega-3 in the grass clippings Irene gives them after she cuts what's left of her lawn. "I don't put any chemicals on my grass," she says. "And I use an electric mower so there are no fumes."
Irene's hens are possibly the most spoiled chickens. She cooks them pasta and buys them fresh spinach "because they love it." They eat most of Irene's table scraps and have pecked away all the grass in their large fenced pen. "The only things I don't give them are onions and garlic," Irene says. "You can smell them in the eggs."
In addition to raising chickens, Irene grows her own vegetables. She's been composting the hens' droppings all year to use as natural fertilizer. Since it's so high in nitrogen, she waters it before digging it into her raised vegetable beds.
Irene can't think of many downsides to urban chicken farming. She makes sure the "girls" are tucked away in their coop at night to protect them from raccoons, and she can't leave them free in the yard since the arrival of her new puppy who wants to chase them all day long. How about the winter? Was that hard on the hens? "No, they were fine," she says. "I shoveled paths for them through the snow so they could peck the ground."
Has Irene's story encouraged you to keep hens in your backyard? I'd love to hear. Email me at fpearson@mainstreetconnect.us.
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