Have you thought about getting pasture raised layer chickens for your backyard, but not sure where to start and what you need?

Would you like to find a family friendly way to enjoy your eggs and the presence of your chickens, but it feels overwhelming to get started?

Join us on April 18th at 10 am at the farm for a 2 hour course in keeping your own backyard pasture raised layer chickens!

We teach you all you need to know to get started with day old chicks, how to brood them, how to house and feed them, protect them from predators, how to get the healthiest eggs, and much more.

Picture by Rebecca Bloomfield Photography

Nothing is as lovely as getting out in the morning, greeting your chickens and gathering some eggs for breakfast. The bright orange yolked eggs you can get from a chicken that is raised on grass has big health benefits. It is higher in Omega 3s, has a lower Omega 6:3 ratio, has increased vitamin D and more antioxidants.

Plus chickens (and guineas) have made a huge difference in the amount of ticks we find in our backyard!

During the class you will learn:

• If your backyard can be the right place to raise chickens
• Where to buy your chickens and what to do when they arrive
• How to build an easy, quick brooder for your young chicks
• What kind of (mobile) coop  you can easily build and move by hand
• What to feed your chickens in their differnent stages
• How to set up an affordable and simple feeding and watering system
• How to create and maintain nesting boxes that invite your chickens to lay (instead of laying everywhere else)
• What you need to keep your chickens healthy
• The best and easy ways to protect them from predators we have in this area

We visit our own brooder with chicks born that same week. After we cover all the in's and out's of brooding chicks, we move to our mobile chicken coop outside where we have our older layer chickens.

We ask all participants to wear masks during this event. The brooder part takes place in an open barn with plenty of space to keep distance from each other. Most of the class is outside with all the space and fresh air we could wish for.

The class is taught by Dan Carr. Dan has raised and cared for thousands of layer chickens in different pasture set ups. His big passion is pasture based farming, and he loves to teach how to transfer those best practices to your own backyard.

Where: We meet at the entrance of Beavertides Farm, at the corner of Cobble Rd and Undermountain Rd in Falls Village. You can park along Cobble rd.

When: Sunday April 18th from 10am to noon.

Who: Anyone with interest in how to keep healthy, happy pasture raised chickens in their own backyard.