It’s official, I’m a #chickenmom! The truth is that I’m really excited about using this experience to teach my younger two boys about entrepreneurship. The older ones are far too cool to want anything to do with chickens except eat eggs..
These are the girls at about a month old.
I’ve always wanted to raise chickens but honestly, the thought of adding another living creature to my life was pretty intimidating. It’s hard enough to raise kids and a dog much less chickens, and that smell…I always imagined that chickens would be smelly and too much work. Then again, as a mom to four boys who play hockey, I shouldn’t complain about smell!
After careful consideration and logical planning, it was agreed that chickens would be a fun addition to our family. The younger boys are always looking for ways to make money, so the idea of creating an egg share with friends seemed like a perfect way for the boys to learn business while earning a few extra bucks.
We purchased 12 chicks from the local feed store then an additional 12 so we would have an eventual average of about 120 eggs per week. This in turn would provide enough eggs for our family as well as several dozen the boys can share with family friends. Each chicken lays an average of about 5 eggs per week. Since we have an old barn where we can set up a coop, the idea came together pretty easily and both boys have been willing to help. Well, maybe not exactly both, the younger one is definitely into it more than his older brother.
Next we created jobs:
- make sure they have food and water
- clean the coop
- let the girls outside
- check / collect eggs
- keep financial records of what we spend and what we sell
Since my 13 year old is not as into this, we assigned him the task of being the bookkeeper, marketer and occasional maintenance. He made a flyer that he texted to a bunch of moms and followed up via text to secure a few families. The 11 year old is in charge of operations. He helps with the daily tasks. They’ve quickly learned that the food costs far outweigh anything we’d ever earn but they get a percentage of everything and the rest goes back toward costs. Teaching kids to care for animals, contribute to our food supply with fresh eggs and basic finance is a wonderful lesson I’m glad to have the opportunity to share with them.
The smell can be nasty at times, but it’s been so much fun to watch the girls grow. they really do have such funny personalities.