This could be subtitled: How I went from suburban California to a chicken ranch in Arkansas. I was minding my own business one day in February, managing a busy veterinary specialty hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area when I received a phone call from a vet in Arkansas. It seemed like he was on the reference list for the practice management software program we were using, and this doctor was trying to get information on how we had the program set up and our IT system. After three months of occasional phone calls, they asked me if I would consider moving to Arkansas.
Of course, my knee-jerk reaction was, “Arkansas? I don’t think so!” After all, I was born and raised in California. Why the hell would I want to move to Arkansas? But, you know how things have a way of working in your brain. That night I did some research online. I found out that Arkansas was not as far behind as it is portrayed on the Tonight Show, the school system scored better than the school system my son attended in California, and the cost of living was much lower. I did a quick real estate search and found that I could actually buy a house with land, something I never thought I could afford to do in California.
So, I took a huge leap of faith. I reviewed my resume, mailed it out with a cover letter, and booked a flight two weeks in advance. I contacted a real estate agent to set up some showings while I was there. The drive from the Little Rock airport to Clarksville, in the Arkansas River Valley, convinced me that this was where I wanted to be, whether or not I got the job in the specialty veterinary practice. Two weeks later they made me an offer that I accepted. The last week of August, I moved my family (mother, sister, son, and dog) to Arkansas.
It took me three more months of searching, but I finally found the perfect home set on 15 acres, roughly half wooded and half pasture; a hundred size pond, year round, cross fences and a barn. I had only been there for a couple of months when a friend from the vet called and asked if I would like to have some chickens. The doctor’s neighbor has a Tyson farm, and during the collection, several chickens “ran away.” Once they’ve been released, Tyson doesn’t want them. So, 25 chickens were delivered to my house. Now the biggest experience I’ve ever had with chickens was trying to raise three silkies in our backyard in California until raccoons got them about 3 weeks into the project. Suddenly, I had 25 adult laying hens to care for. Just for the record, when asked how many I wanted, I said a dozen. Apparently a dozen is considerably more here in Arkansas than it is in California!
Unfortunately, for my poor chickens, I learned a lot through trial and error in those first few months. But several years later, I have a good-sized flock, mostly free-ranging. We enjoy farm fresh eggs almost year round. I have successfully incubated and hatched chickens. And while some of my family still have trouble with the idea, I have euthanized some of the roosters and served them for dinner when my rooster to hen ratio was too high. In future articles, I will discuss details on raising backyard chickens and running an animal rescue.