Janelle Wilkinson
Q: What inspired you to start raising chickens? A: When we lived in Princeton we had between three and five chickens on a small quarter-acre lot. Now we have a farm, and there are two types of chickens: meat chickens and laying chickens. It was important [for us] to know where our food was coming from and it grew from the garden to chickens. We also had turkeys in Princeton.
Q: What kind of daily routine goes into taking care of your chickens? A: You take the eggs out of the nesting box every day in the afternoon. [The chickens] lay in the morning, are very vocal about it, and wander around the grass and the farm. The rooster is the last one into the coop at night and makes sure that all the girls are back safe and then you lock the door once the sun goes down and it keeps them safe for the night.
Q: What advice would you give someone looking to start raising chickens? A: The first thing I would say is they need to check the Princeton ordinances. For a while, chickens were not allowed in Princeton since they were considered farm animals. Princeton has evolved and realized that chickens are not necessarily farm animals and you can consider them pets and that is the loophole there. Just be sure to check the ordinance because they may allow only chickens as chickens, not as pets. [Besides that] they would need a waterer, a feeder, a small coop, and chickens.
Nicholas Kopaliani
Q: How many chickens do you have and what kind of breeds are they? A: We currently have 11 chickens, and they’re pretty much all different breeds. There’s usually two of the same breed, and there’s just a whole bunch of them. They do sometimes — they are chickens, so they are going to get hunted. Princeton has way too many foxes, so we’ve been buying new ones occasionally, which is why we currently have an odd number of chickens. There’s this one breed — the entire chicken is just black including the feathers which is really cool. They tend to have this blue shine in the sun which looks really nice.
Q: What were some of the biggest challenges raising your own chickens? A: Keeping them safe has probably been the biggest challenge because foxes, raccoons, hawks. They all really want chicken. There are a lot of those in Princeton, so we put a lot of fences up. We also recently got a dog, because these animals kept trying to hunt them which was really annoying.
Q: What are some of the biggest benefits of raising your own chickens? What are your favorite parts? A: We get a lot of eggs, but Princeton doesn’t let you sell eggs. So instead, we use them to make pasta or just give them away a lot. The chickens have been really productive because it’s been getting warmer. Typically we get around eight, but it tends to build up, so we make pasta a lot. It’s like four eggs a batch, and we just let it sit. In the end, you get great pasta, so I think that’s my favorite.