Five Reasons to Keep Chickens as a Housewife!

 

A couple of generations ago it would have been rare to have a household which didn’t have a few chickens outdoors in the backyard. If you are trying to live a frugal, more simple lifestyle then you also should invest in a few hens (and a rooster if your area allows it) as well.

Eggs

Chicken’s produce eggs and with a steady supply of eggs you will never go hungry. These are not just the white eggs that you see in the supermarkets but come in a variety of shapes and colours depending on the chicken’s you are breeding. When you crack them open the yolk is so fresh and orange, like a little sun, and they taste better than eggs at the supermarket scrambled or put into your cakes and puddings.

Meat

It may seem an unpleasant task but slaughtering your stock is a part of the process of keeping livestock. By doing it yourself you know you are doing it in the most humane way possible and that your chickens had a good life before the chop. Your flock of chicken’s will provide you a nutritious food source when you are in need of it.

Manure 

Chicken manure is excellent for your plants and vegetable garden. Lay a thick layer on it and watch your seedlings and fruit trees thrive. It means no more trips to Bunnings or other garden and produce stores for your manure because your chickens produce it for free.

You can Keep Them in a Small Backyard

Chickens just need a small space to peck around and scratch to keep them happy. Unlike other farm animals which a impractical for suburbia every backyard has space for at least a couple of hens. They are also a lot less time intensive than other farm animals and just need a steady supply of seed and water. If they are free-ranged they need hardly any seed at all.

Enjoyment 

I love going out in the morning and having my chicken’s run up to me ready for their breakfast. I even love Jimmy, my rooster, even though I have felt the sharp end of his spurs a couple of times. The kids also get a lot out of it as well and enjoy feeding them, collecting the eggs and interacting with them in the backyard.

So do you keep chickens? Why do you recommend other housewives and households keep them?

Frugal Snack Recipe-Fruity Oat Biscuts

Housewives produced all their own snacks for the household. It saved money and ensured all food was nuturitional and could support growing, hard-working bodies. Oats are affordable and can make a meal of porridge and great snacks, like these fruity oat biscuts.

FRUITY OAT BISCUTS

INGREDIENTS

2 cups of oats

1/4 cup of sultanas

Grated orange peel

1 cup of flour

1 eggs

1 cup of milk

Butter

Brown Sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

Beat together the butter and eggs.Combine the flour and oats and sugar. Grate in the orange peel and pour in milk until you have created a sticky batter. Spoon the batter into cookie shapes on the tray and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. When they are ready to eat drizzle with honey to make them an extra delicious snack.

 

 

 

About Why I’ve Started ‘The Era of the Housewife’

When most people think of the era of the housewife they think of the 1950s, gorgeous frocks and slim, perfect homemakers who managed to keep a house clean and maintain a happy home and a happy husband. The 1950s, however, built on the housekeeping secrets of their grandmothers, going back many generations. Their most important role was to ensure the household continued to run, sometimes within a very meagre budget. In this blog I plan to take on the tips and tricks suggested in old newspapers and magazines to be the best stay at home mother I can be and to live within our means.

Housewives of the past did not have the luxury of credit on demand. The role of homemaker was looked on as a vital role and the women who did so were seen as the norm. It was an era of making do with what you have, recycling what you had to new purposes and making food and clothes from scratch. This is my exploration into whether we will be able to cut back out debt, heighten our enjoyment of life and lessen the stress by adopting the old ways of doing things to our modern lives. Thank you for joining me here and I would love to know more about your own journey as a housewife. Maybe you would like to take your journey with me?