Chickens Every Day
Dedicated to helping backyard chicken owners keep the happiest and healthiest flocks we can.
Chickens Every Day
Are Chickens the Perfect Backyard Therapy?
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.
Are we ready, pawpaw? Hello friends and welcome to Chicken. 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 sharing ideas and learning how to care for our foul-feathered friends. Check out our videos at Senla that's C-E-N-L-A Backyard Chickens on YouTube, tiktok and Facebook. So, without further ado, let's start today's show. How was that?
Speaker 2:While I'm sitting at this red light, I wanted to let you know that the audio quality of this podcast cuts out in a few areas Not a whole lot, but it does it some. Not sure why I'm using Zoom for this one. Zoom is usually bulletproof, but in this case we have a few instances that does. That Doesn't really affect the content, but wanted to let you know it was there and I apologize. Thanks, hey guys. Gary Vallee with you again, and today I have a special guest with me. I'm so excited we have Mr Thomas Zenos and Lord excited. We have Mr Thomas Zenos and Lord I hope I'm pronouncing his name right from the Craigslist People's Podcast. I have been listening to Thomas for quite some time now and I definitely want to encourage you to go do it. He's got a great program out there. He's got a wonderful way of chatting with people just one of those soft voices that you want to pay attention to and a lot of great content. Thomas, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Gary. I appreciate that. It's always humbling to hear that other people actually listen to the show and enjoy it.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely. The first thing that I want to ask you for my viewers out there how did you become a chicken dad and how did you make your way to finally evolving into podcast?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know it was a long road. It started off, you know, we moved out to the country. We got us a little place, five acres, and it had a barn, and that's the type of place I've always wanted to live and raise my kids. That's the kind of place I grew up in. So one of the first, well, we got a donkey and a couple of goats first, uh, but then chickens were the next animal and I wasn't really even all that into it. Uh, I wasn't real big on the idea of chickens. Uh, my parents kept some when we were kids and I remember going out there and collecting eggs and, uh, being chased around by a rooster and it was fun. But you know, it wasn't the fondest memories.
Speaker 3:Uh, but then, you know, fast forward another 25 years or so and my wife said, hey, I found this lady that breeds silkies. They're these cute little puffball chickens. Uh, they're like pets. And so she said I'm going to go get some. You know four or five. And I said, okay, four or five, that sounds good. You know, let's stick with that. And I mean, it started right there. She came home with, I think, nine of them. You know about double what we talked about. So we started raising them and these are a little two, three day old chicks and I mean they're super cute, of course, and you know, you kind of fall in love with them right there and I'm kind of the animal caregiver around the house. So I was doing most of that and we started raising them in the garage and, you know, just watching them every day, um, seeing how fast that they were growing, I was like, all right, well, I need to start building a chicken 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 special needs that silkies had. So I built a coop that would be great for normal standard size chickens and it was not so good for silkies. So that was a lesson I learned early. But gosh, you know there was.
Speaker 3:There was one point in with those 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 with anything like that to that point, which, looking back, we were lucky. Uh, you know, cause when you get eight or 10 chicks, there's a good chance that something's going to happen, um, but we, we went a while almost three months I guess without any problems. And then, once this chicken got sick, 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 two roosters, uh, so six or seven hens, and so this was one of the little hens and I had no idea.
Speaker 3:You know, I didn't know what kind of sickness is a chicken could get, um, but I am very good at figuring things out with YouTube and, you know, using podcasts and stuff like that to learn. And so I just dove in deep and started just taking in as much as I could to figure out what was going on with this chicken, and it took some intense care for probably close to a week, uh, but and I still don't know, I mean, that's four years back I don't know exactly what was wrong with that little chicken and now, knowing all the potential issues that silkies can have, it could have been anything, um, but she made it through, uh, you know, we, we got her turned around and, uh, we had that flock of birds for a long time. In fact you might've heard one of my recent shows. We lost Jeffrey, who was our favorite rooster, and he was the last one of that original group of chickens. Because, you know, we we made some mistakes along the way. There were some things that we didn't know and I didn't get myself totally educated on chickens before getting them, which now I wish I would have and maybe that's part of why I started doing a podcast about it is to share some of those things that I had learned.
Speaker 3:But you know, the biggest surprise through all of it I mean, I've always liked raising animals. You know, the donkey and the goats are fun, we have cats and the dog and all that, but there's something so peaceful about just being with chickens and watching them just peck around and do their thing. I mean it's something like I kind of need at this point. You know, when I get home I'll oftentimes just go straight down to the barn. You know I get all the animals fed and I'll try to get at least. You know, maybe it's only five minutes or 10 minutes or something, but it's such a great way to kind of restart the day. You know, put work behind me, just get mellowed out from anything I might've dealt with that day, and everything's everything seems a little bit easier 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:Oh, I totally get it. I mean, an hour ago I was out there with my chickens myself and I spent time with them every day in the retreat. I have some eight-week-olds as well, and so I'm always out there trying to get them more gentle toward me. I have a young Polish rooster coming up with them, so I'm going to try to see if he's going to make it as a member of the family again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just love spending time with them and it's amazing how chickens have gone from the realm of the backyard animal to a pet and people are getting these things in their pets, their family pets, and they get emotionally attached to them. But you know, the bad part for lack of a better word is when they're not prepared for what they're getting themselves into. So if you had to put together a chicken kit for somebody and say, all right, if you're going to start raising chicks, this is what you want to get, before you actually buy that first chick from the store, you know you need this and this and this and this. What would you tell them to do?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, you know there's, that's a good one. You know the brooder is important right off the bat and I mean I didn't even have one of those when we got started. Those chicks showed up and I was like, all right, well, I better go get a heat lamp, you know, and start with that. But everything probably make it a little bit bigger than you were suspecting. You know, a small brooder will hold eight or 10 chicks just fine for about a week and then they quickly start to outgrow it, especially the standard size breeds, you know, within just three weeks. I mean, they're six, eight inches tall and they're running all over the place and they need a little bit of room now you know. So, a good size brooder, you know.
Speaker 3:Heat plate versus heat lamp I know there's a lot of opinions on that. I still use both, you know, I use what I have available and I do like the heat plate. It does seem a little bit safer and I think if you're going to invest into this a little bit, a good heat plate can last you quite a while versus those bulbs that are eight or 10 bucks a piece. You know that you're going to burn through. So a good heat plate, you know, a good feeder for chicks is important. There's so many of them available, but chicks are so good at wasting feed, just kicking it all out of those feeders. I talked about this in one of my episodes. At one point I found one that was really good at keeping the feed in, you know uh. So I like that because otherwise you got to clean out a brooder and it's like I just cleaned out a couple pounds of feed out of that thing, you know uh.
Speaker 3:And then planning for your coop. I think it's suggested 10 feet of outdoor space per chicken for a chicken run is what's recommended. I could see how, you know, chickens would get by with that. But if you really want to spend some time with your chickens and see them enjoy a full life, you know, the more space you can give them the better, and it gives you a little bit of room to hang out with them too. You know, bigger coop than you think you need. Bigger run than you think you need, because even if it's big enough, you're probably going to get some more chickens.
Speaker 2:Chicken math is a real thing, guys. I'm telling you, you buy six of them. Next spring you're going to be buying 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. But I also let my birds free range every day, so they don't they don't really. They hang out in the run if a thunderstorm shows up or when they get ready to go to bed. They really don't hang out in there. But so they get to spend a lot of 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 one that hadn't talked yet, and so if you, you're gonna find a lower insect uh account in your yard. So that's another cool thing about it. Well, what about cost? You always hear people talk. You know, every year you're going to see somebody on facebook showing off their brand new thousand dollar egg. Yeah, as much as they want to spend on a tooth. But again, I've said it once and I've said it so many times Some of the people in the poorest countries in the world successfully raise chickens.
Speaker 2:You don't have to spend an arm and a leg. I'm the overboard guy. I get it. All my buddies at work used to call 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 the person looking at? You know, you buy all the basics. You want to make sure that they you know that they have good, good shelter, they're they're they're protected from predators and feeders, and all that. What am I looking to spend to do all this stuff?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a good question. You know, because you're right, it doesn't have to be an expensive hobby or an expensive way to produce your own food. You know, if you're really in it just because you want to eat a healthier egg, because there is a world of difference between an egg that comes from your backyard and an egg that comes from battery hens you know I'd say invest in a good, solid, safe coop. You know, using that half inch mesh, a half inch hardware cloth, you know, to keep the predators out, making sure they can't dig underneath it. You know that does take a little bit of money. You know it costs something to build a coop and a run. And if you can't and you're just going to have them free range, you know, make sure they've got a good place that they can jump up and get away from predators. You know, maybe they can get into a barn or under a porch but, it doesn't have to be an expensive hobby, you know you know.
Speaker 2:But but yeah, it's a sad thing when you come home and you find one of your birds, you know that that a hawk has got it or something like that, and you know you could have done something and there's times you can't, you know, with me because I choose to free rank. I know that I've got that chance and since 2016, if memory serves, I've lost three birds to hawks. It happens, you know, but in the long run, you know, I get more personal fulfillment. I know my chickens are happier to get to run around like that when they get inside the coop at night and inside the run. I've got all the hardware off. I've got it on the ground, I've got it on the side.
Speaker 2:You know, I feel like they're pretty protected. You know, and you're right, you don't have to spend tons of money to do this, but when you lose them, we lose them and we're sad about it. So we're going to do what we can do to protect them. A good quality feeder, good clean water goes a long way. But if you want, if you got your chicken, okay, these people have their new chicks out there and that they're, you know, eight, ten weeks old now. They're starting to grow. Now we're starting to think okay, what kind of supplements do we need for these birds? What do we need to do to keep them happy and healthy and engaged? And there's a lot of things out there that people can do, if I'm not mistaken. You know what are some of the things that we can do to keep our birds healthy and happy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a good one. You know, that's something I wasn't super aware of and I know a lot of new chicken owners aren't. I see the questions asked. I spent a lot of time cruising around and chicken Facebook groups, you know, looking for things to talk about, wondering what people are struggling with, um, but yeah, when, when to give them the right feed, uh, is super important and it's it can be different for different types of chickens.
Speaker 3:Um, our silkies, for example, I keep them on starter or, yeah, chick starter feed their entire lives. Uh, they need a little bit more of the protein that's in there, uh, and then I supplement with the calcium, uh, but your standard chickens, uh, you know your heritage, breeds and things like that. Personally, I keep them on starter feed, uh, until they lay their first egg or if it's one of those weird times a year, you know, 20 weeks, 22 weeks, if they haven't laid yet. You're probably safe to switch them over. But you know, people raising broiler chickens might switch over to a grower feed at six or eight weeks. They all require something a little bit different. I shouldn't say all of them, but you know there's, there's a, there's a range of chickens out there. So, understanding the animals you've got and their specific health needs is really important. And beyond that I like to supplement.
Speaker 3:I use something called poultry cell. It was recommended to me by a breeder that we buy some of our silkies from, and silkies have an issue where they're prone to vitamin deficiencies. So giving them that supplemental vitamins in their water and that's where they take it is you mix it up in their water. I give that to them always. All the water they drink has that poultry cell in it, and that goes for all my chickens. I want to make sure they're getting 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 I know that's processed food, you know. So I try to supplement with vitamins, supplement with greens and vegetables and mealworms for protein and things like that, to make sure they're getting a well-rounded diet.
Speaker 2: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 premium yeah I have a chicken stand outside and we have a guest book in 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:People always sign it and they're amazed at the difference in just the taste and quality of an egg that you raise yourself versus what you get out of the supermarket yeah, you know, it still always kind of 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 used to them. You know, I don't eat a lot of eggs outside of home, anyhow, uh, but then once in a while I do and I'm like, looking at the plate, like what was that? That didn't taste like anything. What are your?
Speaker 2:thoughts on apple cider vinegar. I do that maybe once a month, maybe a little bit, uh, more than that in the heat of the summer some also do. Some black soldier fly larvae treats every now and then. Nothing every day, you know. But but do you like the apple cider vinegar?
Speaker 3:You know, I've read mixed reviews on it and I can't tell you that it's right or wrong to use it, because I could go out there and find 50 people that swear by it and 50 people that say they'll never give it to their chickens. I did use that our first couple of years. As I read more about it, it's not that I thought I was doing them wrong, but that I thought that there were some other directions. I could go using some electrolytes and some other things. I still use it for cleaning some things out, you know, cleaning their water buckets and things like that.
Speaker 3:And if there was a specific health issue where the apple cider vinegar could help, I'm still open to using it there. But it's kind of like diatomaceous earth, right. There's people out there that swear that is the absolute best thing for keeping the mites and critters off your chickens and there's people that'll tell you you're going to kill your chickens by using it, you know. So you kind of got to, I hate to say you got to do your own research and make your own decisions, but there's just a lot of aspects of chicken keeping that are like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and everything can just be so personal to you. You know, and I will tell people, do your research, find out what, what's actually good for you, and just like what you brought up about de diatomaceous earth, you know there's two varieties of it. You have a standard variety that they'll use in horse feed and they're using swimming pool pump for filtration, and then you have a food grade variety and the difference in the two is how much they're refined and it's the very minute particles. And if you don't know what diatomaceous earth is, guys, uh, diatomaceous earth is little bitty, tiny sea creatures from millennia ago. They're called diatoms and they, they mine what, what basically is going to be that, their skeleton that's left over, or exoskeleton, however it works with these guys and then they're used in all these kind of different products.
Speaker 2:Well, the extra refinement is is the refinement that people will use for their own sense, for their birds and what have you. And it's in its food grade and you can actually put it, and they do put it in certain food products. Uh, for years and years and years, oreo cookies had the ultimate just earth in, and you, yeah, yeah, without toimatius Earth in it, and you put the Ultimatius Earth in it and I will eat an Oreo cookie. I ain't scared. Yeah, do your homework, absolutely. Because there's so much information, there's so much disinformation too, so always balance that out with what you read and go by your gut.
Speaker 3:Most of the time that's going to lead you straight, I agree, I agree. Yeah, you know, especially like with the D, it comes down to, you know there's some risk and there's some reward. Uh, so which one do you want to go with?
Speaker 2:Yep, Yep, Uh, and I, and again I will, I like to use the black soldier fly alarm. You know, probably every couple of days or so I'll you know, if my girls go, if I go out there and they see me carrying my little glass, that I do that I'm running.
Speaker 2:You know that. They know what's happening to them, okay. Well, we talked about how wonderful it is to have chickens and the fun that you can have and the emotional attachments that you're going to eventually get to them, how chicken math is a real, real thing. Surely there's a pitfall in there, some. What are some of the pitfalls that you see that we have with our girl?
Speaker 3:Sure, you know, if you raise chickens for long enough and it probably doesn't take all that long eventually you're going to lose some, and that's always a bummer. It's sad. You get attached to these animals and you know if you're lucky they're going to live seven or eight or nine years and possibly longer than that. But you know you're going to lose some, whether it's right off the bat as a chick or a predator that comes along, or sometimes just out of the blue and you never see it coming. So that's a tough one to deal with, you know, I guess. I guess if something's going to make you as happy as chickens can, there's got to be some yin to the yang, know, and it's got to remind you of hey, if you're going to be that happy, sometimes you got to be sad too when I was a boy, I was raised on a farm and we had the only animals I don't remember having were goats, and we had pigs and we butchered our own pigs.
Speaker 2: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 darn things in the morning. This was not an enjoyable thing for me and then when I got off the school bus, I had to do it again. You know this was not fun, and when I cranked this back up in 2016, all of a sudden it's like oh my goodness, look at these animals. You know, I got so attached to my chickens and I found I'm like you. You go out in the chicken yard and you spend some time with them. They're just an honest animal and the chicken will give you back what you put into them. You spend time with them. They're going to want to spend time with you. They know you, they recognize you, they hear your voice and it gives them comfort to know that you're the guy who's out there taking care of.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is a great feeling to walk outside when I'm letting the girls run around and you know they hear me come in from the time the door closes, probably, and they start running up the hill to meet me and 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 one other downside is you know it's a lot of work especially. I mean I've got chickens in three different coops right now and with all the babies that have hatched so far here this spring, I think we're at about 70, 75 chickens. That's a lot of work, it's a lot of cleaning, it's a lot of moving feet around, you know. So there's some time that goes into it, and not that I don't enjoy it, but it's something you got to make time for in your life and if you can't budget that four or five, six hours a week into into caring for them, then you know you got to maybe reevaluate how many chickens you're going to have or how important it is to you.
Speaker 2:And guys, before you get that many chickens that Tom, remember you're going to go on vacation at some point, you know, and just always get the neighbor to come by and gather eggs whenever they can bring them home. But 60 chickens you might want to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're pretty committed at this point. I'm very lucky that my brother lives across the street and him and his wife, we kind of take turns taking care of each other's animals and, and you know, my dog stays over with him when we're gone. Uh, we're actually leaving for Disneyland here soon and I had to remind him like hey, dude, you know, six sheep, four goats, a donkey and 70 chickens are all yours for a few days.
Speaker 2:But, thomas, we're going to wrap it up. I'm so glad you decided to come hang out with us today and share all of this with the people that listen to my podcast and watch my videos. Just a good basic conversation about the joys of having chickens. Thank you so much, guys. Thank you so much for listening with the show Check out Crazy Chicken People. I know you're going to love it. It is a great program out there and a lot of good, informative information with it. Thomas, once again, thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Thanks, Gary, Appreciate you having me on man. I enjoy your show too. You're doing a great job, Thank you.
Speaker 1:That's all we have time for today. I really hope you enjoyed listening to the podcast. Be sure to watch our videos. So, on behalf of my pup, gary, and me, sylvie,
