Hey guys, it is Becky Williams and I am back with another video, but today I have a very special guest. This is our three-day-old chick named Vesta. So I'll get real close here for you to be able to see her. She is a Polish Chicken, which is part of the Silkie family, I believe. And we actually have 15 or 16 chicks at this point, and the reason that we have so many is because we wanted all of the different kinds for the different color eggs that they lay. 

So now she is a egg layer. It's gonna be six months at least before she starts to lay eggs. But most of our other girls that are a little bit older are, she's a wiggly thing, they have brown eggs. So you have like the cream color and then you have light brown, dark brown. We have some that do dark brown, and then we have some Americanas that lay blue eggs. And then this weekend we're gonna get one or two more called Olive Eggers, and they will actually have green eggs. 

So once we have that, I think her flock will be finally done and we'll have all the different colors. But today I want to talk to you about my Top 5 Reasons to Keep Backyard Chickens. And please excuse the appearance, I've been outside playing with my kids, playing with the chickens, and as you can see how dirty my hands are digging in the garden. So she keeps pecking on my fingers, yeah I still have dirt on my fingers, but I wanted to get this video done for you guys so that you would know all of the benefits of having backyard chickens. 

And so the first one of course, she's going to sleep, the first one of course is Eggs, right? The eggs that you're gonna get at the store, you don't know how fresh they are, you don't know when they were picked, you don't know when they were picked and how fresh they are. And most of the time the eggs that you get are gonna be from Leghorn Chickens because they're really really super great layers.  Let's see if she likes it if I put her up here, really really good layers, see she's scratching me up. But they are not going to be as nutritious because a lot of them are not gonna be, you're gonna calm down, thank you, a lot of them are not fed really good food. She's just pecking away at everything here. But if you have backyard chickens you know exactly what they're being fed because you're feeding them. So that's a really big benefit of having your own, you know exactly what's going in so that whenever you go to eat it, you know with the nourishment, where the nourishment is coming from. I guess this is her preferred position because she's going to sleep. 

The second thing is also gonna be pest control. I do not like bugs, I don't like worms, I don't like mosquitoes, I don't like flies. There's one that got in here whenever I came to my office, so if it makes its appearance, sorry about that, but apparently it's followed me into my office for this video to talk about pest control because it wants me to protest and not have any more chickens around here because chickens help with fly control. 

And the third thing is Compost. So if you made your Immunity Garden like I talked about a couple weeks ago, it is expensive, okay? If you're going to do a raised garden, especially compost and the soil to get really nutrient-rich soil, it's very expensive. And so when you have chickens, you can actually, whenever you clean out their coop, you can use that for compost in your garden. So you feed your chicks, they do their thing, you clean out the coop, you put it in the garden, and the cycle continues. Very cost-efficient to be able to do that. 

The fourth thing is less food waste. So a lot of times we'll have just a little bit of salad left that we're not going to be able to eat or we'll have, you know, like the edges of different things like watermelon or what have you. And you don't want it to waste, you want to just throw it away. And so you can actually give that to your chicks and they love it, especially if you put some fruit, if this is not leftover fruit, but if you have some fruit like berries or whatever and you freeze that in ice cubes, they just have all day fun during the summer, pecking and trying to get that fruit out. 

The last reason is something that a lot of people don't talk about and I think it's because it's kind of, for some reason, still taboo. And that's talking about like companionship and stress management with these. Just to be very personal and very real here, I've had three, I've given birth to three babies over the past eight years and each time postpartum depression was very, very hard and very real for me. I'm a health coach, so I understand how to get my body back and you know, work on my mind and mindset and you know, meditation and devotions and prayer and all those kind of things. But unfortunately, I still needed to get extra help with medication. And so I am not a fan of medication if I can find an alternative. And what I didn't know, the effect that I would have when I started my immunity garden, when I started my flowers, she's pecking me again. Why are you so feisty? What's going on? So, but I didn't know that whenever I got chickens and whenever I start my gardening and stuff that it would really help me with stress management. It would really help me with my emotions and all those kind of things. But it has and I'm so glad we've had chickens for a little bit over two months and I'm grateful to say that I'm not on any medications anymore. 

Please don't take this and go and just stop your medications without talking to your doctor. That's not what I'm saying. My point is getting back to the earth, being able to dig up the soil, plant my flowers, be outside, watch these chickens, you know, especially when they come out in the morning. It's my favorite time. I get my coffee, I go sit out in the morning. It's still not super hot like it is right now, as you can see by my appearance. And just watch them. You know, you have some that come out and they're like yoga chickens. They do all kinds of stretching and all kinds of things and you got the sprinters that come out and they run around and they're acting crazy. And then you have some that just barely come out and they're looking for the food and all that stuff. It's just adorable to watch these creatures and they're just, their innocence and their personalities and all that stuff. 

So I didn't realize how much of a stress relief it would be for me but it really really is. And so if you're able to have backyard chickens, I say go for it. It is a lot of work. It is expensive in the beginning to get their coop set up and all that kind of stuff. And I'm gonna have a little either pictures or videos at the end of this to show you the setup that I have. But, and if you have any questions, you're welcome to message me and ask me about it. But just the joy that these little guys or little girls actually bring is just incredible. 

So if you're able to have backyard chickens and you have them, please let me know. I love videos of chicks. I love pictures of your garden, pictures of the garden around your chicken coop, all those kind of things. Post them in the Facebook group. Show me what you have. Show me the the flock that you have. I'd love to know if you are like me and wanted to collect all the colors of the rainbow for the eggs or if you just went with one one kind since you would know exactly, you know, how to take care of them and all that kind of stuff. So until next time, I am Becky and I'm going to play with my little humans and my little chicks. Y'all have a great day. Bye bye.