In the course of everyday life, I interact with a lot of companies. As a consumer, sometimes it is merely through the products that a company brings to market. Other times, I find myself corresponding directly with a representative via email or telephone. In the case of my relationship with My Pet Chicken, I have been interacting with them for nearly two years.

I have spoken with their employees on the phone, corresponded via email, and visited their website on countless occasions. I have found myself reading the extensive information on MyPetChicken.com to learn more about breeds of chickens that I am unfamiliar with. I have also used their site as a resource to learn more about caring for the chickens in our coop. They offer an incredible selection of chicks and offer a breed selector tool to help narrow down the options.

We placed the order for our first batch of chicks with My Pet Chicken during the summer of 2010. Once the order was finalized, we knew that there was no going back. The coop needed to be finished because its inhabitants would set foot on our property during the end of September. Heat waves would have to be endured during the week that the roof needed to be completed. Fingers would have to be repaired at the local emergency room when I collected my first chicken-keeping injury. The show had to go on: There were baby chicks to prepare for.

When we first began searching for day-old baby chicks, we ran into what we thought was a dream-ending roadblock. We simply couldn’t meet the minimum order requirement for most of the hatcheries that ship chicks nationwide. We were not looking to purchase dozens of chicks. We wanted between six and ten chicks to christen our coop. We felt comfortable with that number and knew that our coop would provide ample room for a flock of that many mature laying hens.

Given our small order preference, we could immediately eliminate many of the hatcheries offering day-old chicks for sale. Once we had focused on the hatcheries that allowed orders for less than a dozen chicks, we discovered our next hurdle. Many of the remaining hatcheries only offered straight run chicks. We didn’t even understand what “straight run” meant. It didn’t take long for us to commit to memory that straight run meant taking a chance and hoping that at least some of your chicks would mature into hens instead of roosters.

For our farm, that constraint was a deal breaker. Our coop would be a girls-only dormitory. There were no roosters allowed. I’ve mentioned before that we raise chickens at 1840 Farm, but we don’t eat chicken. It was a choice we made long before we entertained the idea of adding a flock of heritage breed hens to our farm. No matter the reason or timing of our culinary decision, we were only interested in purchasing hens. Fresh eggs were the commodity we were after. We simply weren’t raising birds to grace our dinner table.

We knew that a rooster was not necessary for egg production. While we live on a circa 1840 farm, the area around our farm had been developed long before we moved here. There were neighbors on all sides of our acreage and it was safe to assume that they were not going to welcome the sound of a crowing rooster from our coop early on a Sunday morning. It was official: Straight run chicks were not what we were looking for.

Once we further narrowed down our choices by eliminating hatcheries that only shipped straight run chicks, we were left with a very short list to choose from. I spent a lot of time researching the hatchery policies and the breeds available for purchase. It didn’t take long for me to determine that My Pet Chicken was the best fit for 1840 Farm. They allowed shipments as small as three baby chicks and allowed me to select that only hens were sent in my order.

Then the fun began. I started researching the breeds of day-old chicks that My Pet Chicken offered. Suddenly, I was swimming in options. There were breeds of every type and color from fancy bantams to heritage breed heavies. Their site provided a wealth of information on each breed including average size, temperament, egg-laying tendencies, and cold hardiness. This information proved incredibly helpful to a newcomer like me.

I read each breed’s profile on My Pet Chicken’s site and discovered that some were better suited for life at 1840Farm than others. For instance, the Australorp seemed like just what we were looking for: a champion egg layer who wouldn’t mind living through the bitterly cold New England winter and was likely to have an easygoing temperament. I continued reading the breed profiles until I felt confident that I had a short list of breeds that would be happy to call our farm home.

I selected breeds one at a time and loaded them into the basket. It didn’t take long for me to have a basket full of the promise of baby chicks and a shipping date to mark on our farm calendar. We all took a moment to celebrate our big leap into chicken keeping. Moments after the celebration began, we got back to work. We needed to finish our coop if there were baby chicks on the way.

We did finish our coop and the baby chicks arrived on time and intact. We became chicken keepers the instant we opened their tiny shipping box and we haven’t looked back. Our girls are an integral part of our daily lives and it is difficult to imagine our life without them.

Our flock of hens has provided so much to the three generations living at 1840 Farm. We have been entertained by their activities, nourished by their fresh eggs, and inspired to try things we never would have considered before. The three goats living in our barn are testament to the latter. Who knew that I would owe a debt of gratitude to seven hens for the fresh milk I collect every morning?

I can’t help but think that I also owe a big thanks to My Pet Chicken. If they had not made placing a small order of sexed chicks so accessible, then we might not have realized our goal of adding a coop full of egg-producing hens to our farm. Without those chicks, my life would be immeasurably different. I would not start my mornings in the quiet aisle of our barn milking the goats. I would not end my days by spending time at my laptop sharing my experiences with you.

It’s no wonder that I approached My Pet Chicken first when the A Year In the Life at 1840 Farm project presented itself. I hoped that they would want to participate in sharing the story of a batch of chicks as they progressed through the first year of their lives. I was thrilled when they agreed to provide the chicks that would be the stars of the yearlong series of posts.

With the assistance of the helpful staff at My Pet Chicken, breeds were selected and a hatch day of April 30, 2012, was chosen. It was again time to circle a hatch date on the farm calendar. We readied the brooding pen and waited for the call to come from the post office. My children listened for the phone to ring and talk in our house revolved around the anticipation of the delivery of our newest batch of chicks.

The call came around 1:00 pm last Tuesday. We grabbed our coats and headed to the truck. In five minutes, I strode into the post office with my mother and two children in tow. We waited impatiently in line and greeted the postal employee by telling him that we were the lucky family that belonged to the chirping box of chicks. He happily retrieved our living package, wished us luck, and sent us on our way.

On the ride home, my children’s excitement was too much to contain. As soon as we arrived home, we went to the barn and prepared to open the package. I carefully cut the top of the box free from the package and picked up a corner of the lid. Inside, there was a batch of chirping, living chicks ready to make 1840 Farm their new home.

The shipping box was lined with soft bedding and the gentle heat was still radiating from the heat pack that had made the journey more comfortable for the chicks. Each chick was lifted out of the shipping box and placed in a container lined with pine shavings. We checked each chick and verified that they appeared healthy and that their vent was clear before placing them in the brooding pen. We confirmed that their brooder was warm enough to combat the weather on a rainy and cool New England day. Then we sat back and watched as they took their first steps on our farm.

Watching this second batch of baby chicks was just as exciting as watching our first batch a year and a half ago. They were so small, so delicate, and represented my hope for our family and our farm over the next year. I can’t help but feel my spirits lift when I watch them. Listening to my children talk about the chicks and watching my children observe them reminds me why I throw myself so fully into the work of our family farm.

In the coming months, there will be a new coop erected to house the group of fancy bantam chicks living in the brooding pen along with their standard-sized roommates. They will bring beauty and utility to the raised beds of our vegetable garden. I can’t wait to watch my children interact with them in the garden on a daily basis.

The biggest lesson I’ll expect to learn during A Year In the Life at 1840 Farm? Drawing from the last 18 months of chicken-keeping experience, I’d have to say it will be equal parts hope and gratitude. Looking at baby chicks, I can’t help but feel hopeful. In fact, I would say that there are tiny beacons of hope chirping in our barn. While small, they hold the promise of the next year and beyond. They hold the hope of further embedding our status as chicken keepers and the power to provide our family with more fresh eggs.

The gratitude is more difficult to express in words, perhaps due to the sheer weight of it. These tiny chicks will remind me every day that I am thankful to everyone who has helped bring me to this station in my life.

I am thankful to my family who indulged my dream to add chickens to our farm. I am grateful that Community Chickens has allowed me the wonderful opportunity to share our experiences with its readers. I appreciate every reader who has taken the time to tell me that they enjoy reading my family’s story and share an idea or tip to help me become a more successful chicken keeper.

I am thankful that My Pet Chicken has done their part in my journey to become a chicken keeper. I will be reminded just how grateful I am to them each time I walk out to our coop. With each egg that I collect and each chick that graduates to adulthood, I will continue my ongoing relationship with them.

I hope that the next year brings wonderful successes to our flock here at 1840 Farm. There will be milestones to share along with the successes and inevitable failures to match. Here’s hoping that it will be a banner year for my pet chickens and yours.

Congratulations to Karen who was randomly selected as the winner of a custom-painted welcome sign from my family at 1840 Farm. I hope that it will proudly welcome visitors to her coop and who knows; maybe it will inspire her flock to lay a few extra fresh eggs!