Raising Chickens in Nikolski: Interview with Lily Stamm
Raising Chickens in Nikolski: Interview with Lily Stamm
Food Sovereignty Program Administrator Kiana Holland sat down with Nikolski resident Lily Stamm to discuss raising chickens in the region.
Background & Farm Overview
Can you tell me a bit about your farm and how you got started with raising chickens?
I am originally from Arizona and was raised on a family farm with many types of animals, including chickens. I actually really disliked them as a child and never wanted to get them. My husband and I started with ducks after I moved to Alaska and have enjoyed them a lot for many years now. It was just in the last 3 or so years that I finally decided we could give the chickens a try, as a project for food security in our village. Our village “farm” includes geodesic dome greenhouses and currently 1 chicken coop. We also have wild cattle and reindeer on the island.
I began with ordering hatching eggs online and hatched them myself in an incubator. It’s not really feasible to get live chicks delivered anywhere in the Aleutian’s safely. We had a few unsuccessful attempts with ordering live ducklings and quickly learned that it doesn’t work and is also very sad.
I should probably note that the flock I will be referring to for these questions is the “Village Chickens” and is separate from my personal flock, which includes just a few ducks, chickens, and guinea fowl.
What breeds of chickens do you raise, and why did you choose them?
We started with a mixture of assorted eggs and ended up with a lot of Black Australorp and various colors of Orpingtons, amongst some other breeds that we were never really sure of. The eggs came in damaged and we ended up with maybe 5-7 layers from that hatching. The second year that I ordered eggs, we included a number of breeds, the most notable probably being Black Copper Marans, Silkie Bantams, and White Leghorns. We chose them mostly because we wanted laying breeds and just chose the ones that looked fun. I believe I hatched about 60 chicks from that group.
I have made another large egg order for this Spring with the intention of hopefully doubling our flock size. We ordered 90 eggs and the breeds included are: Rhode Island Reds, Barred Plymouth Rock, Buff Orpington, Blue Orpingtons, Frizzle Easter Eggers, Light Bramahs, and some Buff Laced Polish (just for fun).
How many chickens do you currently have, and what is the primary purpose—eggs, meat, or both?
We currently have 29 laying hens and 2 Silkie Bantam roosters. After hatching all of the eggs, we raise the birds to maturity and butcher the excess roosters for meat.
Challenges & Adaptations
How does Alaska’s climate impact your farming, and what adjustments have you made to keep your chickens healthy?
Our Aleutian climate has really been pretty mild for the last couple of years and hasn’t made it difficult to keep chickens at all. They need to stay dry and have unlimited access to water, which can be an issue for places with constant freezing temperatures in the winter. It hasn’t been much of an issue for us here.
What kind of housing or insulation do you use to protect your flock from the cold?
We have a repurposed shipping container that we cut a large door in, with a small (dog door sized) opening that leads out into a fenced yard. They are locked inside at night and allowed to go in and out as they please during the daytime. We built roosts and nesting boxes inside the container and use a deep litter method with pine shavings or hemp bedding. The coop typically needs to be completely cleaned out and “reset” about 2-3 times/year, barring any unusual incidents. We use an electric heater to keep the humidity down and the temperature above freezing.
How do you handle feeding and watering during the winter months?
The chickens tend to consume more food when they’re cold but otherwise, there’s not a significant change in the feeding/watering, throughout the seasons.
Have you had to deal with predators? If so, what are the biggest threats, and how do you protect your chickens?
We have foxes, bald eagles, and hawks that pose a potential threat. For the foxes, we have buried chain link fencing around the yard to prevent them being able to dig in and we lock the chickens inside their coop for the night. For the birds of prey, we covered the entire fenced yard with fishing net, salvaged from the local beaches, so that they cannot get to the chickens at all.
Sustainability & Self-Sufficiency
Do you grow or source your own feed locally or do you ship in supplies?
We ship in supplies. Layer pellets/crumbles and scratch. Usually ordered from Walmart or Amazon. In the few instances that we haven’t been able to get shipments in, we have been able to supplement their feed with locally sourced food waste, fish, and beef.
How do you handle waste management and/or composting on your farm?
We typically just dump the waste into a compost heap, because it only needs to be done a couple times per year, it hasn’t been an overwhelming amount of waste.
Egg & Meat Production
How do you manage egg production during the dark winter months? Do you use artificial lighting?
We are still experimenting with this. The egg production dropped down significantly this winter, in spite of heating the coop. We recently added artificial lighting and have had an increase in the number of eggs since then.
Do you sell your eggs or meat locally, and if so, what has the demand been like?
Because this is a community project, all of the eggs and meat are stored at the village store and are free to our community members.
Personal Experience & Advice
What has been the most rewarding part of raising chickens in Alaska?
The animal husbandry and educational benefits for the children are definitely my favorite part. Fresh eggs are of course the number one reason that we have them.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned from farming in this environment?
Things rarely work out the way you expect them to and it’s important to stay flexible and be willing to try new things and make use of whatever resources are available.
Do you have any advice for someone considering starting a small chicken farm in rural Alaska?
Hatching is typically a Springtime activity, just for the sake of brooding your chicks until they’re fully feathered and ready for the outdoors. Meyer has a delivery schedule so you can choose a shipment date for your eggs to be sent out, based on what they have available. It typically takes about 10 days – 2 weeks for us to get the eggs in the mail. I recommend having all of the needed incubation and brooding supplies on hand prior to ordering the eggs. We seem to get our eggs quicker than other orders. Amazon and Walmart are both good options for chick supplies and frequently offer free shipping, with paid memberships. We have had problems in the past with the eggs coming in damaged from the journey, but the hatcheries are pretty decent about refunding or replacing eggs, when that happens, unless their website states differently. We have used other hatcheries in the past and each individual one has its own policies on replacements, so you definitely want to verify that before placing orders. Other than potentially getting a box of broken eggs, there aren’t really any special handling needs. The eggs should, ideally, be stored at room temperature, pointy side down, and moved as little as possible, for at least 24 hours prior to starting the incubation process. It is important to note that eggs cannot be sexed prior to hatching so you’re going to end up with approximately a 50/50 split of Hens and Roosters and will need to dispatch most of the roosters. Roosters are not needed at all for egg production and they have a strong tendency to get aggressive (not to mention that they eat a lot). If you want to have fertilized eggs, for the purpose of hatching more of your own eggs in the future, you want a ratio of approximately 8-10 hens per rooster, depending on the breed.
Egg production varies greatly by breed, diet, daylight, age…etc. Most laying breeds will begin laying around 4-6 months old and generally lay approximately 250+ eggs/year. Google says that they lay best in their first 2 years, but my personal experience has been that my 2-4 year old hens are the most consistent layers. Chickens will naturally lay in the Spring and Summer and then usually taper off and cut way back or completely stop laying during the cold, darker months. Having a light and heater inside their coop is necessary if you want them to lay through the winter.
We do not currently track feed per chicken and have had to change up their diet a few times to get really decent egg production. We are currently feeding Layer Crumbles and Scratch that we purchase online, through Walmart and they’re delivered through the mail, as well as Black Soldier Fly Larva (from Amazon) to boost Calcium and Protein. I think we go through approximately 1 bag of crumble each week and a bag of scratch maybe every 10 days or so but I’m not the person currently doing the daily feeding so I’m just estimating. We are currently feeding 30 chickens. I plan to track their food intake a little closer down the line and will maybe have some numbers on feed consumption later in the summer. They should be able to live on local food sources, if necessary for some time, but likely won’t be very efficient layers without supplementing. We have given ours local fish, beef scraps, greenhouse weeds and waste, and all the food scraps we can collect, whenever there is a delay in our food supply.
What are your future plans for your farm—expansion, new breeds, or other livestock?
We have plans to retire one of our old greenhouse domes and repurpose it into a chicken coop for the chickens I’ll be hatching this Spring. Eventually we would like to build a larger outside yard for them so that they can do more grazing and free ranging. We don’t have any plans for other types of livestock this year.