Chicken-Wrangling: Raising Backyard Birds

Learn the basics of starting a backyard brood, whether you're raising birds for eggs, food, or friendship. You'll love learning from long-time "chickenwrangler" and experienced teacher Meg West, who leads this class at her backyard ranch in Santa Ynez.

What You Will Learn?

• Tools of the trade: all the stuff you need to get started
• Selecting the best breeds for your backyard
• How to rear chicks into happy chickens
• The difference(s) between hens and roosters
• Happy hen habits: keeping mama healthy and happy
• A healthy diet and happy home: feed and coop maintenance
• Collection and safe storage of eggs
• DIY brood boxes
• What to do with roosters (Coq au vin!)

What You Take Home

• Cal-Folk's "Top 10 Secrets to Happy Chickens" guide
• A handmade brood bucket for your own backyard
• Half dozen fresh eggs from the Mustang Ranch

Recommended for Folkies ages 14 and up (youth with adults, please). Have younger children you want to bring? Kindly email us before you register to talk make arrangements.

Head Folkie for the Day

Meg West has over 30 years of experience raising chickens. "While some people may scoff at the thought, chickens do indeed have individual personalities," she says. "From the exciting moment they pop out of the eggs in the incubator to the day you have them sitting on your desk at work, they will delight and enlighten you."

With degrees in biology and education from UC Santa Barbara, Meg is a self described "goldfish trainer, chicken tamer, and kid wrangler" who teaches science at Dunn Middle School in Los Olivos. She keeps 30-50 chickens on her property in Santa Ynez— including 10 distinct pure bred varieties and her own concoction of hybrids. This doesn’t include the Sebastopol goose, the miniature call duck, the three coturnix (an Old World breed of quail), or the turkeys ... She knows what she's doing and she knows how to teach it. What else could you ask for?