I Turned Grandma into a Crazy Chicken Lady

Grandma knew nothing about raising chickens but wanted to get into it once she moved next to us. I helped her with everything she needed to know to get started. That was several months ago. Let's check and see how she's doing now. Look at this. Come wait on Grandma. What is this? I think she's slowly becoming the crazy chicken lady. Good morning! Hey, there's the crazy chicken lady in training.

There we go. Get my boots.

Yep. Oh, they have horses on them. You're not quite the crazy chicken lady without chickens on your boots.

Oh, I just love horses. So we put the feed in here because we used to keep it out here until a bear took it away.

Oh really?

So now that's okay.

And you just— you've just been getting that from my house when you need something? Correct. Okay.

And then I just give them— I got this scoop that I washed and I just give them 6 of those little scoops and they still have some left over in the afternoon.

So okay, that's good. Yeah.

Oh, wait a minute, I hear it.

Yep, that'll make you know it's on, won't it? Oh yeah, the electric fence is— you snap and you can hear it grounding out.

And then we made a little gate here because, okay, it's easy, just do that, this, and then you can just, uh, come on, made it out of the joint there. There you go.

How old are you, Grandma?

Oh, 70.

You kind of say that with a sigh.

I know, where did all this time go? I was just a young person like you.

Yes.

All right, first I do this. See, look, there was some left in there. They're getting enough goodies. I bring out the, uh, little compost can that I bought, and they think that— I call it their snack, so they follow me around.

You have that right now.

It's fun.

No, no treats. Okay.

I mean, I do, but I usually give it to them, you know, after I let them out.

Okay.

Because that way, you know, keeps them, uh, something going on. Yeah, keeps them busy.

Yeah. And that's just a feed tray just from us, really, Premier One. The waterer over there too, same thing, right?

They don't much like the waterer. They like these, really. So I, I usually dump them out and then these are Pretty clean. Okay, except for a few leaves.

Oh, I bet the goose really loves these.

Oh yes, but I've noticed the chickens come right next to them.

You got any names for them?

Pardon?

You got any names for them?

Well, one is Freckles. Okay, and the goose is called Rosie. Here we go. Hi, chickie chickies! There we go. See, that's a good one. Come on out, come on out.

Look, they're letting you pet them. That's great.

There we go. This brown one— what? That brown one doesn't much like it.

You pet them every morning?

I try. You never know. Now the white ones will let me pick them up.

Really?

Is that somebody different? Oh, somebody different.

Does she not act like that?

See, we could pick up the white one. What's the, um— these are what? These are the two I call Freckles.

These are Delawares.

Delawares. Okay.

And I don't know why they're more calm than the others. That's interesting.

The two brown ones are very skittish. This One, she talks all the time except right now.

Really? Okay. Do you have a favorite?

No, I guess the white ones because I can touch them.

So that's it? That's all you do in the morning? You check eggs?

Uh, no, because there never is any.

Are you cleaning out their water?

Yes. And then, um, we, um, We come out about noon and get the eggs. Okay, so that's good. Okay, see, that one thinks I might have a treat.

So you're from Florida, you grew up in the suburbs, really?

I did.

What in the world made you get started on chickens at 70 years old? You don't blame me.

I've always wanted to have real eggs, really fresh eggs. I mean, we always bought the best eggs that we could, right? Here's the water. So I just turn it on here and then take the hose over. But, um, it's really fun having animals. Yeah, a lot of people say that if you have a dog or a cat, you can, um, you'll live longer because you have to take care of them, and, and it's really fun to be around them.

So, um, you kind of pay attention to the weather. Yeah, you— I see you You always have a story to tell of something one of these guys did, or how you're able to pet them, or—

right, well, they're fun—

how you heard the coyotes or something and got nervous.

Oh yeah, then I came back up here.

Let me unkeep that for you. Yeah, you're right, you flipped it.

It's fun to just— I like— we had them around the back of the house, but it's more fun to have them at the front of the house, so, because you can watch them out the window. Just because it's fun.

What would you say to somebody else who's 70 years old and, uh, has just— it's just thinking about getting in chickens?

Oh, I do it because, um, it doesn't take 5 minutes. I don't have to do this. I could do this, and that's true. Yeah, wouldn't have to, but they enjoy it.

I feel like you, you like to do a little extra for them, which is nice.

Yeah, we— oh, so we've been moving the fence along. We're moving them down the hill.

Okay.

So we've come over now, we're right to the road. And they hang around the food while I move the fence. Or they hang around me.

And we, that's big daddy, helps you? No.

He says good job.

You have a cheerleader. That's his role.

That's right.

Now maybe he did these panels. You put up a couple of winter barriers just to give them a little extra protection in the winter.

But what happened was that, um, I broke off the leg off the back, so I ended up, uh, I found a couple of blocks that I had.

Okay.

And I just prop it up.

Okay.

Because we're so hilly, but it's lots of fun. And the, um, I have another set of grandchildren and Daniel just loves to come and pick up the eggs. Yeah, so we have him some, um, some special shoes he can wear so the chicken poo doesn't go in his shoes. But, um, he, he has a little basket and he comes and gets the—

yeah, that's fine. So this is what's good about it. What's, what's this biggest struggle? What's the hardest thing about it?

I'm afraid that something might come and get them.

Yeah, okay.

You know, so I do keep the electric fence on. This one, one of those two can fly and it'll start running and take off, and Bruce has found it on the outside of the, yeah, of the fence.

So see, it's pretty simple, and you just put a plug-in energizer from Premier One, the IntelliShark 20, underneath a bucket, right?

Jonah showed me how to hang it on the bucket.

Yeah.

And then I cover the plug.

Yep.

There's my ground in it.

You got a little hole for the ground wire, and this is smart because that, that's a very powerful energizer. Yeah.

And this, it's not hot unless it's plugged in, and if you lay it there and pick it up wrong and it's plugged in— so I am—

how'd you find that out? How do you know that, Grandma?

I said, woo, that's hot!

That'll keep you young too.

Yeah. So anyway, it's all fun.

So what would you say to a 40-year-old young family that's on the fence, not sure if they should get chickens?

You know, if you— even if you live in the city, hens, hens are quiet. So yeah, um, I would, I would probably have some kind of a little box and just get 4 or 5, 6 hens. Yeah, because they give us 3 eggs, sometimes 4. It's perfect. So I've really enjoyed it. So it was a lot of work making our little chickshaw because, yeah, we had to get at it, you know. Okay, but until we figure out what to do with our yard, this is— this is perfect.

You guys are doing great.

Yeah, and they like to come and eat all the bugs, so I move them, let them do the scratching.

Nice. Okay. All right, good job, Grandma. What's next? What's next for your farm adventures?

Maybe a horse down at your kid's house.

Oh, don't tell my fans that. Oh my gosh, you just blew up the comments.

Thanks.

Get him a horse! I can hear it now.

Nothing's extra. Nothing, nothing more. Okay, this is what I've come to. All right, I like your kitties and my chickens.

Good, you're doing good. All right. All right, well, we'll talk to you later. Yeah, yeah. What you doing, huh?

Well, thanks for coming.

Yes, thank you.

See you later. All right, bye-bye.

Yep. So Grandma was able to talk with me a number of times just to get set up. I've been doing chickens for like 12-ish years now, pretty much the apron-wearing permaculture chicken ninja master. If you guys would like to learn, I can teach you everything You Need to Know for Raising Chickens in one evening. Right now it's 4 years celebrating our film Permaculture Chickens. It's, uh, 4 years ago we made that, guys. That was our first film. Everything you need to know for raising chickens in about 2 hours. I'm giving it away to celebrate the anniversary. You can watch it for free this weekend till Sunday at midnight. So go and enjoy that. I've taught Grandma, I want to teach you. No cost this round. Get in there, check it out, enjoy the show.