Smart Home Ideas for Smart Homesteading: Backyard Chickens, April, and May Is Hatching Season

Spring is here. The gnarly and unpredictable weather in northeast Texas will at least get warmer. Things will bloom and you'll be outside, minus the sweatshirt.

As for outside of your home, gardens are a pleasant decoration for any house, but they can be a lot more. Increasingly, suburban and rural families living a 21st-century American life are Instagramming the produce they grow in their backyards, involving their kids in the harvest, and even going whole hog—sort of—with a small hen-roost.

We'll be exploring some smart homesteading options for the next few months; the sowing season, as it were. But today, we'll talk chickens. Getting your own chickens is officially a thing in the 20s. (And has been for a few years.) We'll discuss backyard chickens and how Evolve Technologies can help you set up a home roost. 

|| Why Are People Suddenly Raising Chickens? || 

Eggs, mostly. Hens lay a good deal of fresh eggs. In season, a roost of three hens can yield egg production of well over one dozen eggs per week. That is, during the peak of summer daylight. The female chicken takes up to 26 hours to physically create and dispense an egg. But there's a catch: she may not start with another egg right after laying. Altogether though, one egg per day per chicken in the summer is a good schedule.

But, getting back to the why. Why get chickens?

It's a hi-tech world: work-free meals are no longer just delivery options for indulgent comfort foods. There are home meal kits. You'll also get a few hits if you type in "kale" on Door Dash. The homesteading craze suggests a hunger for uncomplicated but screen-free ways to get healthy food. It might also be part of why the farmer's market has surged in popularity.

|| Reclaiming Your Spot of Earth and Gardening with Chickens || 

There's a primal human satisfaction in eating something that came from your own property. Home chicken coops are one way to get that. Vegetable gardens and fruit trees are another. But there's an odd companionship many a first-time chicken owner would report about their feathered friends. Also, experienced homesteading Moms can testify about the teamwork, bonding, and sense of investment kids can gain from the simplest homesteader.

Best Names for Your Backyard Chickens

• Attila the Hen
• Chikira
• Cluck Norris
• David Beakham
• Larry Bird

|| Smart Home –steading ||

Evolve Technologies can help you enrich your home life in the expected ways: the ease of kitchen automation or on-demand, ultra-high-definition theater-quality audio video. These create experiences that make your house a home: delicious, meaningful family meals to eat and unrivaled family entertainment to bond over. But a home roost is a great way to involve the whole family in self-sustaining fun. And Evolve can help.

A surprising amount of the work--and there is some when it comes to raising chickens--that goes into the reliable creation and maintenance of a residential roost can be automated. Our earlier blog posts even discussed a Miami-area ranch that automated much of its farm operations through Control4. Getting a coop and a "run" doesn't mean you have to rise with the chickens, as it were, and put on worn bib overalls (unless that's your thing). 

This US-based company is the groundwork for Evolve's galaxy of smart home systems and features. With the proper versions of hardware and apps, you can let the hens out for their early am and early evening cardio. You can do a lot more too. 

Cooperating with Technology to Raise Chickens at Home with Evolve and Control4

• Add lighting
• Lamps for warmth
• Heatable water dish for those snap freezes
• Insteon, which is adaptable to Control4, is one way to set up a door control with the added benefit of on-demand remote operation if you're out for dinner or at a weeknight ballet recital
• Tie-in motion sensors to alert you about any intruding dogs, raccoons, " 'yotes," or other predators

|| The Rules and How Many Chickens to Keep in Your Space? ||

First things first, what are the rules for residential outdoor area chickens? In Texas, ordinances on backyard chickens and homesteading are determined by the city. For Dallas proper, the exact rules are part of Dallas Code Article 936. Within there, it's broken down by district. There are a lot of variables for "urban homesteading" in the city, but for chicken breeds--if you live in a particular district--there are surprisingly few rules.

First, the bad news: in Dallas, keeping roosters or any live male fowl on your property is illegal unless you're a business or other entity. And, of course, you can't slaughter any chickens on site. Apart from that, each bird in the coop needs nine cubic feet; for a "run," the birds need five square feet. 

Also, one must always consider the HOA (ominous music: dunh dunh DUNH!) . . .

|| Your Coop ||

At Evolve, we have helped set up any and all automation and conveniences for premium Dallas-area homes. We create time-saving, cutting-edge comfort in the digital age; from pre-construction with local home-builders to adapting century homes. Call for a consult today!