Andrew got to know Lisa in 2010 and this is his interview with her from December of that year. Her husband is retired from the United Sates Navy (thanks for your service!). They live on a “hobby farm” in Virginia, where Lisa is slowly (or not so slowly) becoming a committed farmer and agricultural expert.
Enjoy her profile.
1. Who are you? Lisa Steele.
2. Where are you from? Grew up in central Massachusetts.
3. Where do you live? Suffolk, Virginia.
4. Is the area urban, suburban, rural? Rural, we have a 6-acre farm about 1/2 hour outside of downtown Norfolk.
5. What do you do with your days? Take care of our 8 chickens, duck, horse and cat; and sell coop plans and other items on eBay.
6. Do you have children? Ages? No.
7. Are you involved with any other “urban farming” activities? Vegetable and herb gardening.
8. What causes are important to you? Humane treatment of animals, raising self-sufficiency/homesteading awareness in our country.
9. Where can we find your writings online? Facebook.
10. Are there any issues/causes/websites/products, etc. that you would like to raise awareness among our readers? Probiotics and Diatomaceous Earth. I add both to my chickens feed and sprinkle DE on the floor of their coop and in their dust bath area. Both help with internal and external parasites. I only give my chickens natural products. No chemicals or medications.
11. How many years have you been raising chickens? Only since spring of 2009.
12. How many chickens do you have? 8 and plan to add a few new chicks each spring.
13. How many eggs a week do you get? 35-40 during peak laying.
14. What got you into raising chickens? My grandparents immigrated from Finland in the 30′s and had a working chicken farm across the street from where I grew up when their restaurant closed during WWII. We had a few chickens ourselves growing up, but it never dawned on me to raise them as an adult until we moved out here to our farm and my husband suggested chickens as an alternative to the pygmy goats I originally wanted!
15. When did you first learn about “backyard chicken” raising? I grew up in a family of chicken farmers.
16. Who is the first person you knew to raise chickens (not a farmer), and when did they start raising chickens? My yoga instructor. I believe she started a few years ago.
17. What is the general cost and types of expenses of raising chickens, say on a monthly basis? I spend probably $12 on feed, and that’s about it. They have a large yard, part dirt and part grass, where they roam for bugs and which I supplement with our healthy table scraps, worms and grubs that I dig for them out of our manure pile and occasional yogurt or lettuce heads. I crush all my egg shells and feed them as calcium supplement also.
18. What will you do with your chickens after they stop laying eggs? Continue to feed them! Since getting the chickens, I have a hard time eating chicken. I could NEVER eat one of ours, and have trouble even eating a chicken I didn’t know! Our chickens are purely for the eggs and companionship, which is more than enough reward for the little work they require.
19. What type of coop do you have? Raised 4″x6″ wooden with three nesting boxes and two roosting bars. Shingle roof.
20. Did you build it yourself? I built it myself after doing a lot of research online.
21. How long did it take? I built it over the course of two weekends.
22. How much did it cost? It cost about $250 for the materials.
23. Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently? I wouldn’t do anything differently. I incorporated all the ideas I saw online into my plans. Although, since building it, I did cut a few more vents and covered them with hardware mesh to allow the heat to escape in the summer since this past summer was so hot…
24. What are the key ingredients in a “successful” coop? Primary concern is that it should be secure from predators. Use 1/2″ hardware mesh on all openings, not chicken wire. Raised off the ground to prevent predators from digging in through the floor. Use predator proof eye hooks on the door, a raccoon can figure out a regular latch. Dry from the elements. Ventilated but not drafty, in general the openings should be above the chickens heads, not floor level. Nailing down a sheet of linoleum on the floor makes cleanup easy and prevents floor rot. Lots of clean straw bedding is also important.
25. What type of predators do you have to deal with? Fox, red tail hawk, neighborhood dogs, black snakes
26. How do you defend against them? Lock the chickens up at dark every night. Their yard is fenced in with crisscross strings running across the top to prevent hawk attacks.
27. Do you have any predator horror stories? Unfortunately, I did lose two chickens – we think to a fox – while I was still letting them free range. They just disappeared. We also lost a baby chick to a black snake – while the chicks were in our garage! The snake slithered in and up and over the brooder box which was open on top. After that, I made a nice, safe brooder box out of a large plastic container with a lid and a hardware mesh opening on the top.
We have also had three red tail hawk attacks. The first one, my buff was too heavy and the hawk couldn’t carry her off, so he dropped her. She was fine, even laid an egg that day! Didn’t phase her a bit being carried across the front yard. The second attack, our dog alerted me and I was able to get out there and scare the hawk away. My chicken was bleeding from the mouth and head, limping, I didn’t think she would make it, but I put some clotting powder on her wounds, gave her some sugar water and put her in a nesting box until my husband got home, figuring that was the end of her. But somehow she pulled through that day and the next. It took about a month, but she made a full recovery. The third hawk attack was after I decided that free ranging wasn’t working, so only let the chickens out while I was outside with them. The hawk swooped down not 20 yards from where I was sitting, but fortunately the chickens all ran for cover and no harm done. After that, the free ranging was over for good.
28. What do you love most about raising chickens? Collecting the eggs every day and seeing them come running to me for treats. I also love the soft cooing sounds they make when they are happy.
29. What do you love least about raising chickens? Predator alert. It’s very stressful, and so sad to lose a chicken. Keeping chickens safe from predators has so far been the only challenge to raising chickens. They really love to roam around, and it’s healthier for them because they find all sorts of bugs and grasses and seeds, but it’s too hard to keep them safe that way. I know a lot of people who say their chickens free range and they’ve never had a problem, but take it from me, it only takes one time.
30. What is the funniest story you have about raising chickens? This year’s batch of baby chicks would all run to the corner when I put my hand in to change their feed or water. All except for one Ameraucana. She would run headlong into my hand and then karate kick me. I kept telling my husband and he didn’t believe it until he fed them one day and she did the same to him. Full on two footed karate kick. He named her Bruce Lee. She has since grown out of the kicking and she’s very sweet, but definitely has an attitude. And at 5 months, she’s already at the top of the pecking order, even comandeered the ‘best’ roost position from one of my older hens. She’s the first to jump up on anything I put in the yard, she’s not afraid of anything. She even chases our cat away when he comes too close.
31. Is raising chickens a family affair? If yes, how so? My husband will step in and close up the coop in the evening or let them out in the morning if I’m not home and he’s good about helping me carry the big bags of feed down to the barn, but other than that, I pretty much am the sole chicken person in our family.
32. Why would you recommend others to get into chicken raising? I would most definitely recommend it. Even if you think you live somewhere that you can’t raise chickens, check with your town. Our mail carrier lives in a neighborhood development and after seeing my chickens and a few dozen fresh eggs, she decided to get chickens herself. They live in a coop in her 1/4 acre backyard. Many areas will allow a few chickens but not roosters, so if you are interested, please make a few calls and find out. You can easily convert a regular doghouse into a coop for just three or four chickens.
