Heather Hebner’s chicken journey began around ten years ago.
“My husband Mike decided our two children would benefit from having some responsibility, so he called his brother who lives near Midland and had connections to get chickens, asked him to bring us a few … and here we are!”
The Hebners reside in Flushing on around ten acres of property. “I let my ‘girls’ free-range, which means they have the run of the yard to forage for food,” Heather explains. “Letting them eat insects from our property gives their eggs the brightest-colored yolks,” she adds. The chickens also eat supplemental feed that contains vitamins, as well as insoluble grit that is essential for their food digestion. “I give them oyster shells that contain calcium to make the eggshells harder.” Strong shells keep bacteria out and help improve the safety of fresh eggs.
After their daily free-range feeding, the chickens know to go back into their coop at night. When the Hebners started raising chickens, Heather purchased a little house that was “cute” but not built to last. “A couple of years ago, I had a new coop built by the Amish that is very sturdy and will last a long time,” she states. “It has a metal roof, a place for the hens to lay eggs and a ladder for them to roost on.” One challenge with free-ranging chickens is that they are targets for predators. “We usually keep around 18-24 chickens, but I’m on the lower end of that now because we have had some killed by hawks that hunt in the area or the coyotes and raccoons that roam near us.”
For Heather, spring is an enjoyable time – the time to get new babies! “We purchase them at the local farm store,” she says. “It’s a good option, because the chickens they sell are sexed which pretty much guarantees we get females.” This year, however, there was a surprise. “Someone at the store probably mixed up a few egg-layers with meat chickens,” she says. “I noticed that three of the chicks we got were growing super-fast – by double! They are the sweetest ones, running to me as soon as I’m out the door and wanting me to love them.”
The Hebner flock includes a variety of breeds: Leghorns, Orpington, Sussex, Plymouth Rock, Australorp and Red Star (a hybrid). All are known to be excellent egg producers. “I love all the colors of the eggs they lay,” Heather shares, “variations of green, blues, brown, amber and whites.” The two roosters typically co-exist peacefully, but they can be territorial and get into disagreements over the hens.
The egg-laying volume varies, with the summer months being the most productive. “I get close to a dozen a day in the summer and they are spoken for pretty quickly!” Heather says. “People like that they are free-range eggs – it definitely makes a difference in their taste.”
For the most part, Heather says raising chickens is easy – they need shelter, water and food. She offers this advice to those considering the free-range method: “It means the landscape rocks and mulch in your yard are never where they are supposed to be, because the chickens love to move it around!” And, like almost any responsibility you give to young kids, they thought it was fun at first but the novelty eventually wore off. Heather adds, “All in all, it’s been a great experience for our family.”
