Rebecca Lach has always wanted to live on a farm. A few years ago, when she realized that was never going to happen, she decided to do the next best thing: build a chicken coop, and get six backyard laying hens.
Lach gave me a tour of her flock. “Plymouth Barred Rock are called a dual purpose breed,” she said, pointing out the black-and-white striped birds. “So they’re used for either meat or for their eggs. The other two breeds are specifically for eggs. All three of these are pretty well adapted to fairly cold weather, so we don’t have to worry too much about that.”
Lach lives in Brewster with her husband Michael and their two kids—Skyler, age seven, and Sage, five. It’s hard to find statistics on just how many families these days are keeping chickens, but locally the hobby seems to be on the rise. Last year the Northeast Organic Farming Association held its first ever Backyard Poultry Workshop in Acushnet. Michael Lach said he’s not surprised that chickens are getting so popular—for his family, they’re not much work.
“We get up first thing in the morning and let them out, give them fresh water, fresh food,” he said. “Takes really less than a few minutes, and then they’re fine for the day. And in the evening around sundown, they go into the coop on their own. Shortly after, we lock up the inner coop. They’re fine for the night—and that’s really it. It’s really very low maintenance. Every few weeks, spend a little more time cleaning out the coop. Other than that, it’s just fun watching them and watching the kids watch them.”
The kids seem to be watching the chickens almost constantly—Sage carries around her favorites, Ciely and Kiely, two at a time—and she and Skyler tell stories about the chickens playing soccer, or tag, or how they like to burrow into the dust and take a dirt bath. But both kids also know a lot about what the chickens need for care and feed.
Skyler pointed me to a pile of crushed shells. “They eat them so their eggshells can be stronger,” she said.
“Oh, were you having a problem with weaker shells?” I asked.
“Yes, because the weaker the shell, the more the shell gets in the yolk.”
Skyler tells me that the chickens also eat fruit and vegetable scraps and an organic feed, and that their favorite treat is cantaloupe. Sage points to the laying boxes, and says that every morning they collect five or six eggs, usually one from every hen. As for how the family keeps up with their backyard egg supply, Rebecca and Michael trade them for babysitting and cook a weekly rotation in the kitchen.
“It’s French toast every Saturday, omelets every Sunday, and egg salad in the middle of the week,” Rebecca explained.
So far, the Lachs haven’t had any complaints from neighbors—but as Rebecca Lach points out, they don’t have a rooster. Regulations vary by town. In Brewster, you don’t need a permit for hens unless you have more than ten, but you have to file with the board of health to keep even one rooster. Rebecca Lach says for her family, six hens are enough: there’s no crowding, there’s a steady supply of local organic eggs, and for the kids, a hands-on way to learn about where their food comes from and how it’s raised.
RECIPE: CURRIED EGG SALAD
The trickiest part about egg salad is getting the timing right on the eggs. To hard boil the eggs, put them in a pot of water, bring it to a boil, and wait exactly 9 minutes. No less, no more. Then pull them out and drop them into an ice bath. Leave them to cool for about five minutes or so. This process should yield an egg that is easy to peel and has a soft, just cooked bright yellow yolk. It's all downhill from there.
1/2 cup chives, chopped fine
6 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons whole grain Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons white vinegar or lemon juice
4 teaspoons cumin
salt and pepper
a dozen eggs, hardboiled
In a small mixing bowl, beat together the chives, mayo, mustard, lemon juice, and cumin with a whisk. Add the egg yolks and continue mixing until everything gets smooth and creamy. Taste for seasonings—you may want a little more lemon juice, or a bit of salt and pepper—and then set this aside.
Get out a cutting board and chop the egg whites into fairly small bits. (How small you go is a matter of taste; I tend not to go too fine.) Mix the whites in with the yolk mixture and boom!—you're done. This egg salad is excellent with leaves of butter lettuce on toasted whole wheat bread, and maybe a pickle on the side.
