Home to Roost Helping city folks raise chickens!

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

Are you a chicken owner who is also an attorney and/or CPA? Chicago Chicken Enthusiasts is looking for someone to advise on or help with setting up a 501(c)3 and other matters related to our community.

If you’re interested, reach out to me by making a comment below or on using the Contact tab and let me know where your experience lies.

Chicago Chicken Enthusiasts is looking for help with reworking our existing website (a Google site, https://sites.google.com/site/chicagochickenenthusi/home.)

If you have expertise in this area, we’d love your advice (and possibly some hands-on assistance) with

-Rebuilding the site

-Making it mobile friendly

-Choosing a platform (WordPress, Weebly, Squarespace?)

-Investigating options/pricing (domain, email, site, storage)

If you’re interested, reach out to me by making a comment below or on using the Contact tab and let me know where your experience lies.

MANY THANKS!

Come out for the following classes taught by Home to Roost at local libraries. Learn about choosing and caring for chicks, keeping adult birds, building a coop, and legal considerations.

Jan. 25, Weds., 6-8 pm, St. Charles Public Library

March 1, Weds., 5-730 pm, Fossil Ridge Public Library

May 20, Sat.,1-3 pm, Darien Public Library

June 10, Sat.,1-3 pm, Westmont Public Library

I look forward to seeing you!

A message from our fantastic Coop Tour coordinator, Jenny Addison. An FYI and a call for help!

The Windy City Coop Tour is Roosting for 2022! Don’t panic! You haven’t seen the last Windy City Coop Tour.

Real talk: it’s been a rough couple of years for your Friendly Neighborhood Coop Tour Coordinator here. In 2021, I had ample time to devote to planning due to pandemic unemployment (yay?) and we had an awesome Tour! But the planning process is complex and delegating tasks to volunteers without significant training is its own challenge. This means the work falls almost entirely to Yours Truly. This year, I started a new job in May (yay!), and my capacity to devote to planning the Tour is low – the bandwidth isn’t there this year.

This doesn’t mean CCE will lie fallow! Improving the Tour and CCE in a meaningful and intentional way has ben on my mind for a few years. Our supporting organization, Advocates for Urban Agriculture, and our own Chicken Educator Extraordinaire, Jen Murtoff of Home To Roost are involved and we are in agreement that the Tour needs a year off to get our ducks in a row. The impetus for this process is to ensure the Tour and CCE thrives, and that our resources and systems are clearly established so when the time comes, passing the torch be smooth and successful. I am excited to take this time instead to re-group and streamline the planning process.

With your support, we can get there! Thank you for your patience, and I can’t wait to see you all in 2023!

– Jenny –

At the suggestion of a number of loyal clients, Home to Roost’s rates are increasing as of of 12 September, 2022. We’ve kept our rates the same for the last 14 years, so it’s time!

Check out our list of services here. Need something not on this list? Just ask!

If you have a chicken issue and the rate presents a hardship, let’s talk.