Home to Roost Helping city folks raise chickens!

Home to Roost is back at the Chicago Botanic Garden for the following classes! Registration is not yet open, but stay tuned.

October 14, 2023, Sat. 10 am – noon: Basic Backyard Chicken Keeping, Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake Cook Road
Glencoe, IL 60022

October 14, 2023, Sat. 1:30 – 3:30 pm: Coops, Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake Cook Road
Glencoe, IL 60022

November 11, 2023, Sat.10 am – noon: Snow Birds –Winter Care for Chickens,Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake Cook Road
Glencoe, IL 60022

We will be at the Oak Park Farmer’s Market – Go Green Days 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. We’ll be bringing a live chicken too!

The Oak Park Farmers’ Market is held rain or shine every Saturday through October in the Pilgrim Congregational Church parking lot at 460 Lake Street.

More information is at www.oak-park.us/farmersmarket.

Join me for my basic chicken-keeping class on Saturday, May 20 from 1:00 pm to 3:00 at the Indian Prairie Public Library, 401 Plainfield Rd., Darien, IL.

We’ll talk about choosing breeds, chick care, care of adult birds, legal considerations, and other important topics!

Register here: https://ippl.libcal.com/event/9898062

I look forward to seeing you there!
Jennifer

Have you thought about raising chickens in your backyard? Not every community allows that. Currently, it is against the law to raise chickens in Bolingbrook. However, the nearby communities of Downers Grove, Naperville, Lombard, Westmont, and St. Charles have updated their municipal codes to allow residents to raise chickens in their backyards.

Raising chickens can help your bottom line. If you have four egg-laying hens, they could produce as many as four eggs per day. Chickens eat grubs and other pests, and chicken manure is great as a fertilizer.

Lauren Matuszak has championed the raising of hens in Bolingbrook and will be featured at a town hall meeting on May 23, 2023, at 7:30 p.m. The meeting will be held at Bolingbrook Village Hall, 375 W. Briarcliff Road.

The goal of the meeting is a proposal to change the village ordinance to legalize chicken keeping in Bolingbrook. If you support this effort, please consider coming to the town hall meeting.

Don’t miss out! Sign up NOW to learn how to care for your chicks and adult hens. This class is for both beginners and those who’ve had chickens for a while. $15 for 2 hours chook-full of great info!

Sign up on Gathr by Friday, 4-14-23, at noon central time!

Here are a few tips for your new chicks!

1. Mail-order chicks may have trouble recognizing food and may eat their bedding, which can make them sick. Use white paper towels (rather than pine shavings or other material) as bedding for the first day or so. Drop some chick starter on it. They will start pecking at the food. Then put the food in a dish. When they have learned where the food is, you can put them on normal bedding.
2. Set up your brooder a day or so before bringing your chicks home. The brooder should be in a room with a consistent temperature (like a basement, NOT a garage or unheated sunroom). Observe the temperature and adjust as needed. This way your brooder will be at the right temperature for when they move in!
3. Heat your chicks’ brooder box at 95 degrees F for the first week of life. Then reduce the temperature by 5 degrees each week.
4. Place your heat source at one end of the brooder so they can move away from the heat if needed.
5. Use a small kitchen thermometer to gauge the temperature.
6. Be prepared to move your babies to a larger brooder as they grow. They will need about a half square foot per bird from ages 0 to 4 weeks and 1 square foot from 4 to 8 weeks.
7. Move your chicks out to the coop when they are fully feathered and the temps are 65 degrees F at night.

I’m excited to be presenting this class on April 29, at 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. with Prairie Food Co-Op, For more information, including how to purchase tickets to this event, click here.

This class is a slightly scaled down version of my popular 2-hr basic chicken-keep class. It’s designed for curious folks who are considering getting chickens, as well as for those who already have their own birds. Learn how to find local laws, choose and raise chicks, care for adult birds, and more.

I’m offering my popular Basic Backyard Chicken Keeping class ONLINE on April 15, 2023, 10 AM – 12 PM central time. Click here to register by noon April 14.

Join Chicago-based chicken consultant Jennifer Murtoff of Home to Roost LLC for this popular 2-hr class. For curious folks who are considering getting chickens, as well as for those who already have their own birds. Learn how to find local laws, choose and raise chicks, and care for adult birds.

NOTE: This class was developed for the Chicagoland area, which has cold winters and warm summers. Don’t forget, you must register by noon on April 14, 2023.

NOTE: The instructor is not a veterinarian. See all class offerings at here.

Join me and Maria the chicken for a chicken-keeping class on March 1, 2023, from 5:30 to 7:30 at the Fossil Ridge Public Library, 386 W Kennedy Rd, Braidwood, IL 60408.

We’ll talk about choosing breeds, chick care, care of adult birds, legal considerations, and other important topics!

Register here: https://fossilridge.evanced.info/signup/EventDetails?EventId=643&backTo=Calendar&startDate=2023/03/01

Join Dr. Julie Gauthier, DVM, Assistant Director for Poultry Health at USDA, and other poultry health experts for a webinar and live question and answer session. As part of APHIS’ Bird Health Awareness Week, Dr. Gauthier will host a discussion about what avian influenza is, how it impacts different segments of the poultry industry and the surrounding communities, and respond to the most frequent questions asked by poultry owners.

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GkFMEYP_R_6IcxfrI0uR8w?gclid=Cj0KCQiA6LyfBhC3ARIsAG4gkF9uGQe7mOr8Vx9NpgSeOUj39abzc-XBo3yYnL-PzbfHhkdLTu-pGQsaAvPsEALw_wcB