Why you should raise chickens:
We have two programs at Little Rock Poultry for adopting chickens. The first one is for youth and children and you take the birds home with you:
The cost is free but rules do apply:
*you must supply your own cage, feeders, waterers, and heaters. We simply cannot do it for you.
*You must have your parents permission and they must contact us first.
*You must write an essay or make a video telling us how you are going to take care of the chickens, how often they eat, temperature needed, etc…
*You must send us a picture at least once every 6 months for our website of how your chickens are doing. Pictures of eggs are ok also.
*Your parents must be willing to let us take one picture of you for our website.
*Most of the time you cannot pick the breed and only get what we have available. We attempt to do sex-link reds so the sex is known at birth and you do not get stuck with a bunch of roosters. Our goal is two hens and 1 roosters.
*If we did not hatch any sex-link, then you will get 3 straight run chickens of whatever breed we have the most available of. Rarely, someone ends up with all roosters doing this. If you do, call us. We will make it right.
*The price is FREE (as our funds allow) but the limit is three per family.
*Due to rampant diseases in the public, we only meet at a local church or school.
*We only do this in the Spring and Summer. We don’t hatch much in the winter. As birds are available, we will list them on our website for a sign up sheet. Please do not contact us to sign up unless you see a recent post on our website.
*This program is only open to children under age 18. We give first preference to ages 8-18 as we have had stories of younger children sometimes squeeze chickens to death.
*Later on, we might have an in-person class where you attend 30-60 minutes and then take your chickens home with you that day but, right now, I do not have anyone to teach that class.
*Chickens are a few days old but we are considering not donating them until they are 2-3 weeks of age just to get youth past the delicate stage of raising them. If we change the age, we will update our website.
The 2nd program:
In this Adopt-a-Chicken program, the chickens don’t actually go home with you. This program is for people who cannot raise chickens due to finances, health, or living situations: If you are a city dweller who cannot own chickens, elderly, or disabled; this program might be for you. It is open to all ages.
Preserving these rare birds comes at a cost. We have never had one year that our sale of eggs and birds has covered our budget costs. Chickens cost a lot to feed and house. We collect eggs at least twice a day–more in the summer heat. We started this adopt a chicken program to help raise funds.
In this program, you look through the breeds of chickens, chose a breed you like, and then pick a hen (or rooster) and name it.
If you adopt a chicken, you get your name posted on our website (only if you want) but you don’t get to take your friend home with you. The chickens stay us–sorry we can’t have visitors due to disease control.
In return for the $50/year membership, you get……..(drum roll)……..EGGS!
That’s right. In return for your chicken adoption, you can come to the farm driveway every two weeks and pick up a dozen eggs (we keep a stand our front–just let us know when you are arriving so we can stock it): that’s 2 dozen per month–a total of 24 per year–which makes your eggs cost $2.00 per dozen! It’s hard to beat that even at Walmart.
Some rules do apply:
* The chickens name must be clean (you can’t name it A-hole).
*The most eggs you can get at a time are two dozen. For example, if you live 30 minutes away and don’t want to drive twice a month but only want to drive once a month, you can get a max of 2 dozen at a time. I can’t give out 5-10 dozen at a time if you decide to wait months to come and get your eggs.
*Program ends one year after you sign up. If you do not show up to get your eggs, they do not carry on to the next year.
*When the hen or rooster hits 2 years old, we give them away if they are still alive (lots of times they are unless we have a predator problem). You get first choice of taking that bird home with you. If yours is not alive, you can chose another bird but just know that bird will be 2 years old and laying will be cut down. We ask that you only take them for a pet and not soup.
*If you do not want your bird, you don’t have to take it and we will give them to someone else.
*These eggs are eating eggs–not hatching eggs. Most of the eggs will be from the breed of chicken that you adopted but, when their laying is down or we are out of eggs in that breed, we reserve the right to substitute for whatever we have available.
Little Rock Poultry 