June 4, 2025 • 23 mins
Ever wondered why chicken keepers become so passionate about their feathered friends? In this heartwarming conversation with Thomas Zenos from the Crazy Chicken People Podcast, we discover the unexpected emotional benefits that come from raising backyard chickens.
Thomas shares his remarkable journey from reluctant chicken owner to devoted enthusiast now caring for over 70 birds. What started with his wife bringing home "just a few" silkie chicks evolved into a profound connection that changed his perspective on these remarkable animals. His story will resonate with anyone who's experienced the joy of watching chickens explore their world with curiosity and personality.
The most surprising revelation? The therapeutic power of simply spending time with chickens. "There's something so peaceful about just being with chickens and watching them peck around," Thomas explains. "When I get home, I'll often go straight to the barn... it really levels me out, and I don't find that with a lot of things." This natural stress relief has become an essential part of his daily routine.
We dive into practical advice for new chicken keepers, from brooder setups to coop sizing (always go bigger than you think you need!), and explore nutritional considerations including supplements like poultry cell for optimal health. The superiority of backyard eggs becomes evident as we discuss the common reaction from friends and family: "That's hands down the best egg I've ever had!"
Whether you're considering your first flock or already deep into "chicken math" territory, this conversation offers valuable insights into creating a healthy, happy environment for both birds and their humans. Listen now to discover why backyard chicken keeping has become so much more than just a hobby for millions of enthusiasts worldwide.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Are we ready, pawpaw?
Hello friends and welcome toChicken.
Every Day, a podcast for you,the backyard chicken enthusiast,
and mine.
Your host is my Pawpaw, gary,Gary Valerie of Senla Backyard
Chickens.
Here we have fun while sharingideas and learning how to care
for our foul-feathered friends.
Check out our videos at Senlathat's C-E-N-L-A Backyard
(00:24):
Chickens on YouTube, tiktok andFacebook.
So, without further ado, let'sstart today's show.
How was that?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
While I'm sitting at this red light, I wanted to let
you know that the audio qualityof this podcast cuts out in a
few areas Not a whole lot, butit does it some.
Not sure why I'm using Zoom forthis one.
Zoom is usually bulletproof,but in this case we have a few
instances that does.
That Doesn't really affect thecontent, but wanted to let you
know it was there and Iapologize.
Thanks, hey guys.
(00:56):
Gary Vallee with you again, andtoday I have a special guest
with me.
I'm so excited we have MrThomas Zenos and Lord excited.
We have Mr Thomas Zenos andLord I hope I'm pronouncing his
name right from the CraigslistPeople's Podcast.
I have been listening to Thomasfor quite some time now and I
definitely want to encourage youto go do it.
He's got a great program outthere.
He's got a wonderful way ofchatting with people just one of
(01:16):
those soft voices that you wantto pay attention to and a lot
of great content.
Thomas, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Thank you, Gary.
I appreciate that.
It's always humbling to hearthat other people actually
listen to the show and enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yes, absolutely.
The first thing that I want toask you for my viewers out there
how did you become a chickendad and how did you make your
way to finally evolving intopodcast?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Yeah, you know it was a long road.
It started off, you know, wemoved out to the country.
We got us a little place, fiveacres, and it had a barn, and
that's the type of place I'vealways wanted to live and raise
my kids.
That's the kind of place I grewup in.
So one of the first, well, wegot a donkey and a couple of
(02:04):
goats first, uh, but thenchickens were the next animal
and I wasn't really even allthat into it.
Uh, I wasn't real big on theidea of chickens.
Uh, my parents kept some whenwe were kids and I remember
going out there and collectingeggs and, uh, being chased
around by a rooster and it wasfun.
But you know, it wasn't thefondest memories.
(02:26):
Uh, but then, you know, fastforward another 25 years or so
and my wife said, hey, I foundthis lady that breeds silkies.
They're these cute littlepuffball chickens.
Uh, they're like pets.
And so she said I'm going to goget some.
You know four or five.
And I said, okay, four or five,that sounds good.
(02:49):
You know, let's stick with that.
And I mean, it started rightthere.
She came home with, I think,nine of them.
You know about double what wetalked about.
So we started raising them andthese are a little two, three
day old chicks and I meanthey're super cute, of course,
and you know, you kind of fallin love with them right there
and I'm kind of the animalcaregiver around the house.
So I was doing most of that andwe started raising them in the
garage and, you know, justwatching them every day, um,
(03:11):
seeing how fast that they weregrowing, I was like, all right,
well, I need to start building achicken coop.
Uh, and I like building stuff,so that was kind of fun for me.
It gave me a project to do,although I did not do a good job
on my first one.
I didn't realize the specialneeds that silkies had.
So I built a coop that would begreat for normal standard size
chickens and it was not so goodfor silkies.
(03:32):
So that was a lesson I learnedearly.
But gosh, you know there was.
There was one point in withthose silkies, that group, and
they were starting to get mature, so they were maybe 12, 16
weeks old, something like that,and one of them got real sick
and we hadn't dealt withanything like that to that point
, which, looking back, we werelucky.
(03:52):
Uh, you know, cause when youget eight or 10 chicks, there's
a good chance that something'sgoing to happen, um, but we, we
went a while almost three monthsI guess without any problems.
And then, once this chicken gotsick, and I was just totally
attached to them at that point,you know, and we, we were also
very fortunate.
We had a good mix.
I think we only had tworoosters, uh, so six or seven
(04:15):
hens, and so this was one of thelittle hens and I had no idea.
You know, I didn't know whatkind of sickness is a chicken
could get, um, but I am verygood at figuring things out with
YouTube and, you know, usingpodcasts and stuff like that to
learn.
And so I just dove in deep andstarted just taking in as much
as I could to figure out whatwas going on with this chicken,
(04:38):
and it took some intense carefor probably close to a week, uh
, but and I still don't know, Imean, that's four years back I
don't know exactly what waswrong with that little chicken
and now, knowing all thepotential issues that silkies
can have, it could have beenanything, um, but she made it
through, uh, you know, we, wegot her turned around and, uh,
(04:58):
we had that flock of birds for along time.
In fact you might've heard oneof my recent shows.
We lost Jeffrey, who was ourfavorite rooster, and he was the
last one of that original groupof chickens.
Because, you know, we we madesome mistakes along the way.
There were some things that wedidn't know and I didn't get
myself totally educated onchickens before getting them,
(05:20):
which now I wish I would haveand maybe that's part of why I
started doing a podcast about itis to share some of those
things that I had learned.
But you know, the biggestsurprise through all of it I
mean, I've always liked raisinganimals.
You know, the donkey and thegoats are fun, we have cats and
the dog and all that, butthere's something so peaceful
(05:41):
about just being with chickensand watching them just peck
around and do their thing.
I mean it's something like Ikind of need at this point.
You know, when I get home I'lloftentimes just go straight down
to the barn.
You know I get all the animalsfed and I'll try to get at least
.
You know, maybe it's only fiveminutes or 10 minutes or
something, but it's such a greatway to kind of restart the day.
(06:04):
You know, put work behind me,just get mellowed out from
anything I might've dealt withthat day, and everything's
everything seems a little biteasier to take on after that.
You know it.
Just, it really levels me out,and I don't find that with a lot
of things.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Oh, I totally get it.
I mean, an hour ago I was outthere with my chickens myself
and I spent time with them everyday in the retreat.
I have some eight-week-olds aswell, and so I'm always out
there trying to get them moregentle toward me.
I have a young Polish roostercoming up with them, so I'm
going to try to see if he'sgoing to make it as a member of
the family again.
(06:41):
Yeah, I just love spending timewith them and it's amazing how
chickens have gone from therealm of the backyard animal to
a pet and people are gettingthese things in their pets,
their family pets, and they getemotionally attached to them.
But you know, the bad part forlack of a better word is when
(07:01):
they're not prepared for whatthey're getting themselves into.
So if you had to put together achicken kit for somebody and
say, all right, if you're goingto start raising chicks, this is
what you want to get, beforeyou actually buy that first
chick from the store, you knowyou need this and this and this
and this.
What would you tell them to do?
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah, well, you know there's, that's a good one.
You know the brooder isimportant right off the bat and
I mean I didn't even have one ofthose when we got started.
Those chicks showed up and Iwas like, all right, well, I
better go get a heat lamp, youknow, and start with that.
But everything probably make ita little bit bigger than you
were suspecting.
You know, a small brooder willhold eight or 10 chicks just
(07:44):
fine for about a week and thenthey quickly start to outgrow it
, especially the standard sizebreeds, you know, within just
three weeks.
I mean, they're six, eightinches tall and they're running
all over the place and they needa little bit of room now you
know.
So, a good size brooder, youknow.
Heat plate versus heat lamp Iknow there's a lot of opinions
(08:06):
on that.
I still use both, you know, Iuse what I have available and I
do like the heat plate.
It does seem a little bit saferand I think if you're going to
invest into this a little bit, agood heat plate can last you
quite a while versus those bulbsthat are eight or 10 bucks a
piece.
You know that you're going toburn through.
So a good heat plate, you know,a good feeder for chicks is
(08:33):
important.
There's so many of themavailable, but chicks are so
good at wasting feed, justkicking it all out of those
feeders.
I talked about this in one ofmy episodes.
At one point I found one thatwas really good at keeping the
feed in, you know uh.
So I like that becauseotherwise you got to clean out a
brooder and it's like I justcleaned out a couple pounds of
feed out of that thing, you knowuh.
(08:54):
And then planning for your coop.
I think it's suggested 10 feetof outdoor space per chicken for
a chicken run is what'srecommended.
I could see how, you know,chickens would get by with that.
But if you really want to spendsome time with your chickens
and see them enjoy a full life,you know, the more space you can
(09:15):
give them the better, and itgives you a little bit of room
to hang out with them too.
You know, bigger coop than youthink you need.
Bigger run than you think youneed, because even if it's big
enough, you're probably going toget some more chickens.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Chicken math is a real thing, guys.
I'm telling you, you buy six ofthem.
Next spring you're going to bebuying 10 more.
So always Absolutely right.
And my run is 8 feet by 40 feet, so I have a good size run and
it's completely in two segments.
(09:48):
But I also let my birds freerange every day, so they don't
they don't really.
They hang out in the run if athunderstorm shows up or when
they get ready to go to bed.
They really don't hang out inthere.
But so they get to spend a lotof time outside and eating bugs
and worms and crickets.
You know, somebody once said,uh, the only insect that chicken
doesn't enjoy eating is the onethat hadn't talked yet, and so
(10:08):
if you, you're gonna find alower insect uh account in your
yard.
So that's another cool thingabout it.
Well, what about cost?
You always hear people talk.
You know, every year you'regoing to see somebody on
facebook showing off their brandnew thousand dollar egg.
Yeah, as much as they want tospend on a tooth.
But again, I've said it onceand I've said it so many times
(10:31):
Some of the people in thepoorest countries in the world
successfully raise chickens.
You don't have to spend an armand a leg.
I'm the overboard guy.
I get it.
All my buddies at work used tocall me the high tech redneck.
I know what I do is is much,but you don't have to do all
those things, so what's theperson looking at?
You know, you buy all thebasics.
You want to make sure that theyyou know that they have good,
(10:53):
good shelter, they're they'rethey're protected from predators
and feeders, and all that.
What am I looking to spend todo all this stuff?
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Yeah, it's a good question.
You know, because you're right,it doesn't have to be an
expensive hobby or an expensiveway to produce your own food.
You know, if you're really init just because you want to eat
a healthier egg, because thereis a world of difference between
an egg that comes from yourbackyard and an egg that comes
from battery hens you know I'dsay invest in a good, solid,
(11:22):
safe coop.
You know, using that half inchmesh, a half inch hardware cloth
, you know, to keep thepredators out, making sure they
can't dig underneath it.
You know that does take alittle bit of money.
You know it costs something tobuild a coop and a run.
And if you can't and you'rejust going to have them free
range, you know, make surethey've got a good place that
they can jump up and get awayfrom predators.
(11:43):
You know, maybe they can getinto a barn or under a porch but
, it doesn't have to be anexpensive hobby, you know you
know.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
But but yeah, it's a sad thing when you come home and
you find one of your birds, youknow that that a hawk has got
it or something like that, andyou know you could have done
something and there's times youcan't, you know, with me because
I choose to free rank.
I know that I've got thatchance and since 2016, if memory
serves, I've lost three birdsto hawks.
(12:11):
It happens, you know, but inthe long run, you know, I get
more personal fulfillment.
I know my chickens are happierto get to run around like that
when they get inside the coop atnight and inside the run.
I've got all the hardware off.
I've got it on the ground, I'vegot it on the side.
You know, I feel like they'repretty protected.
You know, and you're right, youdon't have to spend tons of
(12:33):
money to do this, but when youlose them, we lose them and
we're sad about it.
So we're going to do what wecan do to protect them.
A good quality feeder, goodclean water goes a long way.
But if you want, if you gotyour chicken, okay, these people
have their new chicks out thereand that they're, you know,
eight, ten weeks old now.
They're starting to grow.
(12:54):
Now we're starting to thinkokay, what kind of supplements
do we need for these birds?
What do we need to do to keepthem happy and healthy and
engaged?
And there's a lot of things outthere that people can do, if
I'm not mistaken.
You know what are some of thethings that we can do to keep
our birds healthy and happy.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Yeah, that's a good one.
You know, that's something Iwasn't super aware of and I know
a lot of new chicken ownersaren't.
I see the questions asked.
I spent a lot of time cruisingaround and chicken Facebook
groups, you know, looking forthings to talk about, wondering
what people are struggling with,um, but yeah, when, when to
give them the right feed, uh, issuper important and it's it can
be different for differenttypes of chickens.
(13:34):
Um, our silkies, for example, Ikeep them on starter or, yeah,
chick starter feed their entirelives.
Uh, they need a little bit moreof the protein that's in there,
uh, and then I supplement withthe calcium, uh, but your
standard chickens, uh, you knowyour heritage, breeds and things
like that.
Personally, I keep them onstarter feed, uh, until they lay
their first egg or if it's oneof those weird times a year, you
(13:57):
know, 20 weeks, 22 weeks, ifthey haven't laid yet.
You're probably safe to switchthem over.
But you know, people raisingbroiler chickens might switch
over to a grower feed at six oreight weeks.
They all require something alittle bit different.
I shouldn't say all of them,but you know there's, there's a,
there's a range of chickens outthere.
So, understanding the animalsyou've got and their specific
(14:19):
health needs is really important.
And beyond that I like tosupplement.
I use something called poultrycell.
It was recommended to me by abreeder that we buy some of our
silkies from, and silkies havean issue where they're prone to
vitamin deficiencies.
So giving them thatsupplemental vitamins in their
(14:39):
water and that's where they takeit is you mix it up in their
water.
I give that to them always.
All the water they drink hasthat poultry cell in it, and
that goes for all my chickens.
I want to make sure they'regetting everything they need.
That feed should have it all.
I give a good quality feed.
It's not the most expensive one, but it's not the cheapest
either.
But at the end of the day Iknow that's processed food, you
(15:02):
know.
So I try to supplement withvitamins, supplement with greens
and vegetables and mealwormsfor protein and things like that
, to make sure they're getting awell-rounded diet.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
How many times have you heard the people who enjoy
your eggs tell you oh my God,these taste amazing, the yolks
are firm and it's just premiumyeah I have a chicken stand
outside and we have a guest bookin in it and I'll I'll try to
remember put a picture of it up.
But there's a guest book in it.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
People always sign it and they're amazed at the
difference in just the taste andquality of an egg that you
raise yourself versus what youget out of the supermarket yeah,
you know, it still always kindof surprises me when I hear that
someone will be like that is,hands down, the best egg I've
ever had, and I'm just so usedto them.
You know, I don't eat a lot ofeggs outside of home, anyhow, uh
(15:55):
, but then once in a while I doand I'm like, looking at the
plate, like what was that?
That didn't taste like anything.
What are your?
Speaker 2 (16:03):
thoughts on apple cider vinegar.
I do that maybe once a month,maybe a little bit, uh, more
than that in the heat of thesummer some also do.
Some black soldier fly larvaetreats every now and then.
Nothing every day, you know.
But but do you like the applecider vinegar?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
You know, I've read mixed reviews on it and I can't
tell you that it's right orwrong to use it, because I could
go out there and find 50 peoplethat swear by it and 50 people
that say they'll never give itto their chickens.
I did use that our first coupleof years.
As I read more about it, it'snot that I thought I was doing
them wrong, but that I thoughtthat there were some other
(16:41):
directions.
I could go using someelectrolytes and some other
things.
I still use it for cleaningsome things out, you know,
cleaning their water buckets andthings like that.
And if there was a specifichealth issue where the apple
cider vinegar could help, I'mstill open to using it there.
But it's kind of likediatomaceous earth, right.
There's people out there thatswear that is the absolute best
(17:03):
thing for keeping the mites andcritters off your chickens and
there's people that'll tell youyou're going to kill your
chickens by using it, you know.
So you kind of got to, I hateto say you got to do your own
research and make your owndecisions, but there's just a
lot of aspects of chickenkeeping that are like that.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, and everything can just be so personal to you.
You know, and I will tellpeople, do your research, find
out what, what's actually goodfor you, and just like what you
brought up about de diatomaceousearth, you know there's two
varieties of it.
You have a standard varietythat they'll use in horse feed
and they're using swimming poolpump for filtration, and then
(17:39):
you have a food grade varietyand the difference in the two is
how much they're refined andit's the very minute particles.
And if you don't know whatdiatomaceous earth is, guys, uh,
diatomaceous earth is littlebitty, tiny sea creatures from
millennia ago.
They're called diatoms and they, they mine what, what basically
is going to be that, theirskeleton that's left over, or
(18:01):
exoskeleton, however it workswith these guys and then they're
used in all these kind ofdifferent products.
Well, the extra refinement is isthe refinement that people will
use for their own sense, fortheir birds and what have you.
And it's in its food grade andyou can actually put it, and
they do put it in certain foodproducts.
Uh, for years and years andyears, oreo cookies had the
ultimate just earth in, and you,yeah, yeah, without toimatius
(18:23):
Earth in it, and you put theUltimatius Earth in it and I
will eat an Oreo cookie.
I ain't scared.
Yeah, do your homework,absolutely.
Because there's so muchinformation, there's so much
disinformation too, so alwaysbalance that out with what you
read and go by your gut.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Most of the time that's going to lead you
straight, I agree, I agree.
Yeah, you know, especially likewith the D, it comes down to,
you know there's some risk andthere's some reward.
Uh, so which one do you want togo with?
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yep, Yep, Uh, and I, and again I will, I like to use
the black soldier fly alarm.
You know, probably every coupleof days or so I'll you know, if
my girls go, if I go out thereand they see me carrying my
little glass, that I do that I'mrunning.
You know that.
They know what's happening tothem, okay.
Well, we talked about howwonderful it is to have chickens
(19:12):
and the fun that you can haveand the emotional attachments
that you're going to eventuallyget to them, how chicken math is
a real, real thing.
Surely there's a pitfall inthere, some.
What are some of the pitfallsthat you see that we have with
our girl?
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Sure, you know, if you raise chickens for long
enough and it probably doesn'ttake all that long eventually
you're going to lose some, andthat's always a bummer.
It's sad.
You get attached to theseanimals and you know if you're
lucky they're going to liveseven or eight or nine years and
possibly longer than that.
But you know you're going tolose some, whether it's right
(19:47):
off the bat as a chick or apredator that comes along, or
sometimes just out of the blueand you never see it coming.
So that's a tough one to dealwith, you know, I guess.
I guess if something's going tomake you as happy as chickens
can, there's got to be some yinto the yang, know, and it's got
to remind you of hey, if you'regoing to be that happy,
sometimes you got to be sad toowhen I was a boy, I was raised
(20:11):
on a farm and we had the onlyanimals I don't remember having
were goats, and we had pigs andwe butchered our own pigs.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
We had chickens, we butchered on chickens, we had
cows and horses and mama duck,but we had all this these
animals but it was my job.
I had to go feed these darnthings in the morning.
This was not an enjoyable thingfor me and then when I got off
the school bus, I had to do itagain.
You know this was not fun, andwhen I cranked this back up in
2016, all of a sudden it's likeoh my goodness, look at these
(20:43):
animals.
You know, I got so attached tomy chickens and I found I'm like
you.
You go out in the chicken yardand you spend some time with
them.
They're just an honest animaland the chicken will give you
back what you put into them.
You spend time with them.
They're going to want to spendtime with you.
They know you, they recognizeyou, they hear your voice and it
(21:04):
gives them comfort to know thatyou're the guy who's out there
taking care of.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yeah, it is a great feeling to walk outside when I'm
letting the girls run aroundand you know they hear me come
in from the time the door closes, probably, and they start
running up the hill to meet meand I mean that's great.
You know my dog does the same,but it's kind of different with
chickens.
But you know the I guess oneother downside is you know it's
(21:30):
a lot of work especially.
I mean I've got chickens inthree different coops right now
and with all the babies thathave hatched so far here this
spring, I think we're at about70, 75 chickens.
That's a lot of work, it's alot of cleaning, it's a lot of
moving feet around, you know.
So there's some time that goesinto it, and not that I don't
enjoy it, but it's something yougot to make time for in your
life and if you can't budgetthat four or five, six hours a
(21:53):
week into into caring for them,then you know you got to maybe
reevaluate how many chickensyou're going to have or how
important it is to you.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
And guys, before you get that many chickens that Tom,
remember you're going to go onvacation at some point, you know
, and just always get theneighbor to come by and gather
eggs whenever they can bringthem home.
But 60 chickens you might wantto.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Yeah, we're pretty committed at this point.
I'm very lucky that my brotherlives across the street and him
and his wife, we kind of taketurns taking care of each
other's animals and, and youknow, my dog stays over with him
when we're gone.
Uh, we're actually leaving forDisneyland here soon and I had
to remind him like hey, dude,you know, six sheep, four goats,
a donkey and 70 chickens areall yours for a few days.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
But, thomas, we're going to wrap it up.
I'm so glad you decided to comehang out with us today and
share all of this with thepeople that listen to my podcast
and watch my videos.
Just a good basic conversationabout the joys of having
chickens.
Thank you so much, guys.
Thank you so much for listeningwith the show Check out Crazy
Chicken People.
I know you're going to love it.
(23:01):
It is a great program out thereand a lot of good, informative
information with it.
Thomas, once again, thank youso much.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Thanks, Gary, Appreciate you having me on man.
I enjoy your show too.
You're doing a great job, Thankyou.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
That's all we have time for today.
I really hope you enjoyedlistening to the podcast.
Be sure to watch our videos.
So, on behalf of my pup, gary,and me, sylvie,
Are we ready, pawpaw?
Hello friends and welcome toChicken.
Every Day, a podcast for you,the backyard chicken enthusiast,
and mine.
Your host is my Pawpaw, gary,Gary Valerie of Senla Backyard
Chickens.
Here we have fun while sharingideas and learning how to care
for our foul-feathered friends.
Check out our videos at Senlathat's C-E-N-L-A Backyard
(00:24):
Chickens on YouTube, tiktok andFacebook.
So, without further ado, let'sstart today's show.
How was that?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
While I'm sitting at this red light, I wanted to let
you know that the audio qualityof this podcast cuts out in a
few areas Not a whole lot, butit does it some.
Not sure why I'm using Zoom forthis one.
Zoom is usually bulletproof,but in this case we have a few
instances that does.
That Doesn't really affect thecontent, but wanted to let you
know it was there and Iapologize.
Thanks, hey guys.
(00:56):
Gary Vallee with you again, andtoday I have a special guest
with me.
I'm so excited we have MrThomas Zenos and Lord excited.
We have Mr Thomas Zenos andLord I hope I'm pronouncing his
name right from the CraigslistPeople's Podcast.
I have been listening to Thomasfor quite some time now and I
definitely want to encourage youto go do it.
He's got a great program outthere.
He's got a wonderful way ofchatting with people just one of
(01:16):
those soft voices that you wantto pay attention to and a lot
of great content.
Thomas, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Thank you, Gary.
I appreciate that.
It's always humbling to hearthat other people actually
listen to the show and enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yes, absolutely.
The first thing that I want toask you for my viewers out there
how did you become a chickendad and how did you make your
way to finally evolving intopodcast?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Yeah, you know it was a long road.
It started off, you know, wemoved out to the country.
We got us a little place, fiveacres, and it had a barn, and
that's the type of place I'vealways wanted to live and raise
my kids.
That's the kind of place I grewup in.
So one of the first, well, wegot a donkey and a couple of
(02:04):
goats first, uh, but thenchickens were the next animal
and I wasn't really even allthat into it.
Uh, I wasn't real big on theidea of chickens.
Uh, my parents kept some whenwe were kids and I remember
going out there and collectingeggs and, uh, being chased
around by a rooster and it wasfun.
But you know, it wasn't thefondest memories.
(02:26):
Uh, but then, you know, fastforward another 25 years or so
and my wife said, hey, I foundthis lady that breeds silkies.
They're these cute littlepuffball chickens.
Uh, they're like pets.
And so she said I'm going to goget some.
You know four or five.
And I said, okay, four or five,that sounds good.
(02:49):
You know, let's stick with that.
And I mean, it started rightthere.
She came home with, I think,nine of them.
You know about double what wetalked about.
So we started raising them andthese are a little two, three
day old chicks and I meanthey're super cute, of course,
and you know, you kind of fallin love with them right there
and I'm kind of the animalcaregiver around the house.
So I was doing most of that andwe started raising them in the
garage and, you know, justwatching them every day, um,
(03:11):
seeing how fast that they weregrowing, I was like, all right,
well, I need to start building achicken coop.
Uh, and I like building stuff,so that was kind of fun for me.
It gave me a project to do,although I did not do a good job
on my first one.
I didn't realize the specialneeds that silkies had.
So I built a coop that would begreat for normal standard size
chickens and it was not so goodfor silkies.
(03:32):
So that was a lesson I learnedearly.
But gosh, you know there was.
There was one point in withthose silkies, that group, and
they were starting to get mature, so they were maybe 12, 16
weeks old, something like that,and one of them got real sick
and we hadn't dealt withanything like that to that point
, which, looking back, we werelucky.
(03:52):
Uh, you know, cause when youget eight or 10 chicks, there's
a good chance that something'sgoing to happen, um, but we, we
went a while almost three monthsI guess without any problems.
And then, once this chicken gotsick, and I was just totally
attached to them at that point,you know, and we, we were also
very fortunate.
We had a good mix.
I think we only had tworoosters, uh, so six or seven
(04:15):
hens, and so this was one of thelittle hens and I had no idea.
You know, I didn't know whatkind of sickness is a chicken
could get, um, but I am verygood at figuring things out with
YouTube and, you know, usingpodcasts and stuff like that to
learn.
And so I just dove in deep andstarted just taking in as much
as I could to figure out whatwas going on with this chicken,
(04:38):
and it took some intense carefor probably close to a week, uh
, but and I still don't know, Imean, that's four years back I
don't know exactly what waswrong with that little chicken
and now, knowing all thepotential issues that silkies
can have, it could have beenanything, um, but she made it
through, uh, you know, we, wegot her turned around and, uh,
(04:58):
we had that flock of birds for along time.
In fact you might've heard oneof my recent shows.
We lost Jeffrey, who was ourfavorite rooster, and he was the
last one of that original groupof chickens.
Because, you know, we we madesome mistakes along the way.
There were some things that wedidn't know and I didn't get
myself totally educated onchickens before getting them,
(05:20):
which now I wish I would haveand maybe that's part of why I
started doing a podcast about itis to share some of those
things that I had learned.
But you know, the biggestsurprise through all of it I
mean, I've always liked raisinganimals.
You know, the donkey and thegoats are fun, we have cats and
the dog and all that, butthere's something so peaceful
(05:41):
about just being with chickensand watching them just peck
around and do their thing.
I mean it's something like Ikind of need at this point.
You know, when I get home I'lloftentimes just go straight down
to the barn.
You know I get all the animalsfed and I'll try to get at least
.
You know, maybe it's only fiveminutes or 10 minutes or
something, but it's such a greatway to kind of restart the day.
(06:04):
You know, put work behind me,just get mellowed out from
anything I might've dealt withthat day, and everything's
everything seems a little biteasier to take on after that.
You know it.
Just, it really levels me out,and I don't find that with a lot
of things.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Oh, I totally get it.
I mean, an hour ago I was outthere with my chickens myself
and I spent time with them everyday in the retreat.
I have some eight-week-olds aswell, and so I'm always out
there trying to get them moregentle toward me.
I have a young Polish roostercoming up with them, so I'm
going to try to see if he'sgoing to make it as a member of
the family again.
(06:41):
Yeah, I just love spending timewith them and it's amazing how
chickens have gone from therealm of the backyard animal to
a pet and people are gettingthese things in their pets,
their family pets, and they getemotionally attached to them.
But you know, the bad part forlack of a better word is when
(07:01):
they're not prepared for whatthey're getting themselves into.
So if you had to put together achicken kit for somebody and
say, all right, if you're goingto start raising chicks, this is
what you want to get, beforeyou actually buy that first
chick from the store, you knowyou need this and this and this
and this.
What would you tell them to do?
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah, well, you know there's, that's a good one.
You know the brooder isimportant right off the bat and
I mean I didn't even have one ofthose when we got started.
Those chicks showed up and Iwas like, all right, well, I
better go get a heat lamp, youknow, and start with that.
But everything probably make ita little bit bigger than you
were suspecting.
You know, a small brooder willhold eight or 10 chicks just
(07:44):
fine for about a week and thenthey quickly start to outgrow it
, especially the standard sizebreeds, you know, within just
three weeks.
I mean, they're six, eightinches tall and they're running
all over the place and they needa little bit of room now you
know.
So, a good size brooder, youknow.
Heat plate versus heat lamp Iknow there's a lot of opinions
(08:06):
on that.
I still use both, you know, Iuse what I have available and I
do like the heat plate.
It does seem a little bit saferand I think if you're going to
invest into this a little bit, agood heat plate can last you
quite a while versus those bulbsthat are eight or 10 bucks a
piece.
You know that you're going toburn through.
So a good heat plate, you know,a good feeder for chicks is
(08:33):
important.
There's so many of themavailable, but chicks are so
good at wasting feed, justkicking it all out of those
feeders.
I talked about this in one ofmy episodes.
At one point I found one thatwas really good at keeping the
feed in, you know uh.
So I like that becauseotherwise you got to clean out a
brooder and it's like I justcleaned out a couple pounds of
feed out of that thing, you knowuh.
(08:54):
And then planning for your coop.
I think it's suggested 10 feetof outdoor space per chicken for
a chicken run is what'srecommended.
I could see how, you know,chickens would get by with that.
But if you really want to spendsome time with your chickens
and see them enjoy a full life,you know, the more space you can
(09:15):
give them the better, and itgives you a little bit of room
to hang out with them too.
You know, bigger coop than youthink you need.
Bigger run than you think youneed, because even if it's big
enough, you're probably going toget some more chickens.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Chicken math is a real thing, guys.
I'm telling you, you buy six ofthem.
Next spring you're going to bebuying 10 more.
So always Absolutely right.
And my run is 8 feet by 40 feet, so I have a good size run and
it's completely in two segments.
(09:48):
But I also let my birds freerange every day, so they don't
they don't really.
They hang out in the run if athunderstorm shows up or when
they get ready to go to bed.
They really don't hang out inthere.
But so they get to spend a lotof time outside and eating bugs
and worms and crickets.
You know, somebody once said,uh, the only insect that chicken
doesn't enjoy eating is the onethat hadn't talked yet, and so
(10:08):
if you, you're gonna find alower insect uh account in your
yard.
So that's another cool thingabout it.
Well, what about cost?
You always hear people talk.
You know, every year you'regoing to see somebody on
facebook showing off their brandnew thousand dollar egg.
Yeah, as much as they want tospend on a tooth.
But again, I've said it onceand I've said it so many times
(10:31):
Some of the people in thepoorest countries in the world
successfully raise chickens.
You don't have to spend an armand a leg.
I'm the overboard guy.
I get it.
All my buddies at work used tocall me the high tech redneck.
I know what I do is is much,but you don't have to do all
those things, so what's theperson looking at?
You know, you buy all thebasics.
You want to make sure that theyyou know that they have good,
(10:53):
good shelter, they're they'rethey're protected from predators
and feeders, and all that.
What am I looking to spend todo all this stuff?
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Yeah, it's a good question.
You know, because you're right,it doesn't have to be an
expensive hobby or an expensiveway to produce your own food.
You know, if you're really init just because you want to eat
a healthier egg, because thereis a world of difference between
an egg that comes from yourbackyard and an egg that comes
from battery hens you know I'dsay invest in a good, solid,
(11:22):
safe coop.
You know, using that half inchmesh, a half inch hardware cloth
, you know, to keep thepredators out, making sure they
can't dig underneath it.
You know that does take alittle bit of money.
You know it costs something tobuild a coop and a run.
And if you can't and you'rejust going to have them free
range, you know, make surethey've got a good place that
they can jump up and get awayfrom predators.
(11:43):
You know, maybe they can getinto a barn or under a porch but
, it doesn't have to be anexpensive hobby, you know you
know.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
But but yeah, it's a sad thing when you come home and
you find one of your birds, youknow that that a hawk has got
it or something like that, andyou know you could have done
something and there's times youcan't, you know, with me because
I choose to free rank.
I know that I've got thatchance and since 2016, if memory
serves, I've lost three birdsto hawks.
(12:11):
It happens, you know, but inthe long run, you know, I get
more personal fulfillment.
I know my chickens are happierto get to run around like that
when they get inside the coop atnight and inside the run.
I've got all the hardware off.
I've got it on the ground, I'vegot it on the side.
You know, I feel like they'repretty protected.
You know, and you're right, youdon't have to spend tons of
(12:33):
money to do this, but when youlose them, we lose them and
we're sad about it.
So we're going to do what wecan do to protect them.
A good quality feeder, goodclean water goes a long way.
But if you want, if you gotyour chicken, okay, these people
have their new chicks out thereand that they're, you know,
eight, ten weeks old now.
They're starting to grow.
(12:54):
Now we're starting to thinkokay, what kind of supplements
do we need for these birds?
What do we need to do to keepthem happy and healthy and
engaged?
And there's a lot of things outthere that people can do, if
I'm not mistaken.
You know what are some of thethings that we can do to keep
our birds healthy and happy.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Yeah, that's a good one.
You know, that's something Iwasn't super aware of and I know
a lot of new chicken ownersaren't.
I see the questions asked.
I spent a lot of time cruisingaround and chicken Facebook
groups, you know, looking forthings to talk about, wondering
what people are struggling with,um, but yeah, when, when to
give them the right feed, uh, issuper important and it's it can
be different for differenttypes of chickens.
(13:34):
Um, our silkies, for example, Ikeep them on starter or, yeah,
chick starter feed their entirelives.
Uh, they need a little bit moreof the protein that's in there,
uh, and then I supplement withthe calcium, uh, but your
standard chickens, uh, you knowyour heritage, breeds and things
like that.
Personally, I keep them onstarter feed, uh, until they lay
their first egg or if it's oneof those weird times a year, you
(13:57):
know, 20 weeks, 22 weeks, ifthey haven't laid yet.
You're probably safe to switchthem over.
But you know, people raisingbroiler chickens might switch
over to a grower feed at six oreight weeks.
They all require something alittle bit different.
I shouldn't say all of them,but you know there's, there's a,
there's a range of chickens outthere.
So, understanding the animalsyou've got and their specific
(14:19):
health needs is really important.
And beyond that I like tosupplement.
I use something called poultrycell.
It was recommended to me by abreeder that we buy some of our
silkies from, and silkies havean issue where they're prone to
vitamin deficiencies.
So giving them thatsupplemental vitamins in their
(14:39):
water and that's where they takeit is you mix it up in their
water.
I give that to them always.
All the water they drink hasthat poultry cell in it, and
that goes for all my chickens.
I want to make sure they'regetting everything they need.
That feed should have it all.
I give a good quality feed.
It's not the most expensive one, but it's not the cheapest
either.
But at the end of the day Iknow that's processed food, you
(15:02):
know.
So I try to supplement withvitamins, supplement with greens
and vegetables and mealwormsfor protein and things like that
, to make sure they're getting awell-rounded diet.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
How many times have you heard the people who enjoy
your eggs tell you oh my God,these taste amazing, the yolks
are firm and it's just premiumyeah I have a chicken stand
outside and we have a guest bookin in it and I'll I'll try to
remember put a picture of it up.
But there's a guest book in it.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
People always sign it and they're amazed at the
difference in just the taste andquality of an egg that you
raise yourself versus what youget out of the supermarket yeah,
you know, it still always kindof surprises me when I hear that
someone will be like that is,hands down, the best egg I've
ever had, and I'm just so usedto them.
You know, I don't eat a lot ofeggs outside of home, anyhow, uh
(15:55):
, but then once in a while I doand I'm like, looking at the
plate, like what was that?
That didn't taste like anything.
What are your?
Speaker 2 (16:03):
thoughts on apple cider vinegar.
I do that maybe once a month,maybe a little bit, uh, more
than that in the heat of thesummer some also do.
Some black soldier fly larvaetreats every now and then.
Nothing every day, you know.
But but do you like the applecider vinegar?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
You know, I've read mixed reviews on it and I can't
tell you that it's right orwrong to use it, because I could
go out there and find 50 peoplethat swear by it and 50 people
that say they'll never give itto their chickens.
I did use that our first coupleof years.
As I read more about it, it'snot that I thought I was doing
them wrong, but that I thoughtthat there were some other
(16:41):
directions.
I could go using someelectrolytes and some other
things.
I still use it for cleaningsome things out, you know,
cleaning their water buckets andthings like that.
And if there was a specifichealth issue where the apple
cider vinegar could help, I'mstill open to using it there.
But it's kind of likediatomaceous earth, right.
There's people out there thatswear that is the absolute best
(17:03):
thing for keeping the mites andcritters off your chickens and
there's people that'll tell youyou're going to kill your
chickens by using it, you know.
So you kind of got to, I hateto say you got to do your own
research and make your owndecisions, but there's just a
lot of aspects of chickenkeeping that are like that.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, and everything can just be so personal to you.
You know, and I will tellpeople, do your research, find
out what, what's actually goodfor you, and just like what you
brought up about de diatomaceousearth, you know there's two
varieties of it.
You have a standard varietythat they'll use in horse feed
and they're using swimming poolpump for filtration, and then
(17:39):
you have a food grade varietyand the difference in the two is
how much they're refined andit's the very minute particles.
And if you don't know whatdiatomaceous earth is, guys, uh,
diatomaceous earth is littlebitty, tiny sea creatures from
millennia ago.
They're called diatoms and they, they mine what, what basically
is going to be that, theirskeleton that's left over, or
(18:01):
exoskeleton, however it workswith these guys and then they're
used in all these kind ofdifferent products.
Well, the extra refinement is isthe refinement that people will
use for their own sense, fortheir birds and what have you.
And it's in its food grade andyou can actually put it, and
they do put it in certain foodproducts.
Uh, for years and years andyears, oreo cookies had the
ultimate just earth in, and you,yeah, yeah, without toimatius
(18:23):
Earth in it, and you put theUltimatius Earth in it and I
will eat an Oreo cookie.
I ain't scared.
Yeah, do your homework,absolutely.
Because there's so muchinformation, there's so much
disinformation too, so alwaysbalance that out with what you
read and go by your gut.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Most of the time that's going to lead you
straight, I agree, I agree.
Yeah, you know, especially likewith the D, it comes down to,
you know there's some risk andthere's some reward.
Uh, so which one do you want togo with?
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yep, Yep, Uh, and I, and again I will, I like to use
the black soldier fly alarm.
You know, probably every coupleof days or so I'll you know, if
my girls go, if I go out thereand they see me carrying my
little glass, that I do that I'mrunning.
You know that.
They know what's happening tothem, okay.
Well, we talked about howwonderful it is to have chickens
(19:12):
and the fun that you can haveand the emotional attachments
that you're going to eventuallyget to them, how chicken math is
a real, real thing.
Surely there's a pitfall inthere, some.
What are some of the pitfallsthat you see that we have with
our girl?
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Sure, you know, if you raise chickens for long
enough and it probably doesn'ttake all that long eventually
you're going to lose some, andthat's always a bummer.
It's sad.
You get attached to theseanimals and you know if you're
lucky they're going to liveseven or eight or nine years and
possibly longer than that.
But you know you're going tolose some, whether it's right
(19:47):
off the bat as a chick or apredator that comes along, or
sometimes just out of the blueand you never see it coming.
So that's a tough one to dealwith, you know, I guess.
I guess if something's going tomake you as happy as chickens
can, there's got to be some yinto the yang, know, and it's got
to remind you of hey, if you'regoing to be that happy,
sometimes you got to be sad toowhen I was a boy, I was raised
(20:11):
on a farm and we had the onlyanimals I don't remember having
were goats, and we had pigs andwe butchered our own pigs.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
We had chickens, we butchered on chickens, we had
cows and horses and mama duck,but we had all this these
animals but it was my job.
I had to go feed these darnthings in the morning.
This was not an enjoyable thingfor me and then when I got off
the school bus, I had to do itagain.
You know this was not fun, andwhen I cranked this back up in
2016, all of a sudden it's likeoh my goodness, look at these
(20:43):
animals.
You know, I got so attached tomy chickens and I found I'm like
you.
You go out in the chicken yardand you spend some time with
them.
They're just an honest animaland the chicken will give you
back what you put into them.
You spend time with them.
They're going to want to spendtime with you.
They know you, they recognizeyou, they hear your voice and it
(21:04):
gives them comfort to know thatyou're the guy who's out there
taking care of.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yeah, it is a great feeling to walk outside when I'm
letting the girls run aroundand you know they hear me come
in from the time the door closes, probably, and they start
running up the hill to meet meand I mean that's great.
You know my dog does the same,but it's kind of different with
chickens.
But you know the I guess oneother downside is you know it's
(21:30):
a lot of work especially.
I mean I've got chickens inthree different coops right now
and with all the babies thathave hatched so far here this
spring, I think we're at about70, 75 chickens.
That's a lot of work, it's alot of cleaning, it's a lot of
moving feet around, you know.
So there's some time that goesinto it, and not that I don't
enjoy it, but it's something yougot to make time for in your
life and if you can't budgetthat four or five, six hours a
(21:53):
week into into caring for them,then you know you got to maybe
reevaluate how many chickensyou're going to have or how
important it is to you.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
And guys, before you get that many chickens that Tom,
remember you're going to go onvacation at some point, you know
, and just always get theneighbor to come by and gather
eggs whenever they can bringthem home.
But 60 chickens you might wantto.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Yeah, we're pretty committed at this point.
I'm very lucky that my brotherlives across the street and him
and his wife, we kind of taketurns taking care of each
other's animals and, and youknow, my dog stays over with him
when we're gone.
Uh, we're actually leaving forDisneyland here soon and I had
to remind him like hey, dude,you know, six sheep, four goats,
a donkey and 70 chickens areall yours for a few days.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
But, thomas, we're going to wrap it up.
I'm so glad you decided to comehang out with us today and
share all of this with thepeople that listen to my podcast
and watch my videos.
Just a good basic conversationabout the joys of having
chickens.
Thank you so much, guys.
Thank you so much for listeningwith the show Check out Crazy
Chicken People.
I know you're going to love it.
(23:01):
It is a great program out thereand a lot of good, informative
information with it.
Thomas, once again, thank youso much.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Thanks, Gary, Appreciate you having me on man.
I enjoy your show too.
You're doing a great job, Thankyou.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
That's all we have time for today.
I really hope you enjoyedlistening to the podcast.
Be sure to watch our videos.
So, on behalf of my pup, gary,and me, sylvie,
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