I'm coming up on Week 6 of having baby chicks in my house, and they're growing like crazy.

They're looking less like chicks and more like chickens now—and when I unzip their playpen to refill their waterer and feeder, their favorite thing is to practice flying!

We had utter comedy last week when all four chicks flew out of the playpen and across the living room. They hopped into all the potted plants that I still have overwintering in front of the sliding glass door, scratched out the soil, and flew across the dining room trying to escape my kids who, in turn, were trying to chase them back across the house into the playpen.

Doesn't that make you want to raise your own chicks too? 😁

When there was a run on baby chicks earlier this year because of soaring egg prices, I think most of those people forgot that they wouldn't get eggs for at least four months. 🥚 (Oops!)

But if you've been waiting things out, now is actually the perfect time to get started because baby chicks aren't selling out the same day anymore (at least, not in our area) and their allure has worn off with egg prices settling down.

But who's to say it won't happen again?

Any step you can take to increase your family's food security (by growing your own food, preserving what you can, doing more with less, or bartering with neighbors) is always worth trying, and raising chickens can be done for very little. (We built our first chicken coop out of scrap lumber and it was better than anything we could've bought for the same price.)

Not to mention, chickens are an excellent form of natural pest control and give a steady supply of free compost all year long! (We let them loose in the garden in early spring to devour overwintering grubs in the soil.)

​So if you love eating eggs and you're not afraid of poop 😆 here's how you can raise healthy chicks from Day 1—from helping them build their immunity naturally to keeping their development at a more gradual pace.​

(We managed to herd all of our chicks back into their playpen, by the way. Chicken poop averted!)

Why Chickens Go Broody—and What To Do About It Read more

How to Get Dark Orange Yolks From Your Backyard Chickens Read more

What To Do When There's Too Much Nitrogen In Your Soil Read more

42 Surprising Things You Can Compost Right Now Read more

How to Use Mulch Effectively In Your Yard (and When Not To) Read more

The Surprising Reasons You Actually WANT Moths In Your Garden Read more

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P.S. If inflation and egg prices have you worrying about the current state of the food supply, it may be time to start raising your own chickens. Here's exactly how you do that.​

P.P.S. If you already have chickens but have thought about making your own feed at home (to save money, be truly organic, or have more control over the ingredients), I've been using variations of this chicken feed recipe for over a decade.