Why Chickens? The Heart Behind the Flock
When people ask us why we chose chickens as the starting point for A-7 Farms, the answer is both practical and deeply personal.
At the beginning, it was partly about making ends meet. Like many families, we’ve had seasons where finances got tight. Between work, the dog rescue, and everyday life, we were looking for an additional way to support our home. Chickens seemed like a manageable first step—a way to generate income through eggs while also moving us closer to the dream of self-sufficiency. Once we realized we could establish egg sales as one steady stream, everything else began to fall into place.
But it quickly became about much more than money.
I’ve always loved the idea of lush gardens and fresh produce, and chickens became the natural companions to that vision. Their manure has been essential for building compost and creating fertile soil for future garden beds. In some ways, the chickens taught me to slow down and think about how everything ties together—the land, the animals, the garden, and our family.
And speaking of family, our flock has become a surprisingly important part of our home life. Each of our kids has their favorites:
Elijah loved a rooster named Rusty, a beautiful protector who once gave his life defending his hens from a predator. Losing him was hard, but it opened my eyes to how roosters embody the role of protector—much like a father should.
Grayson enjoys our current rooster, Joe Rooster. Joe’s a good guy, though a little overzealous at times, and Grayson has enjoyed helping me work with him.
Kyra prefers a hands-off approach, watching the chicks run around while riding on my shoulders.
Lyla is the egg collector—if she doesn’t get to hold at least one egg a day, she’ll let you know about it.
Even Emily, though not directly involved day-to-day, supports me and steps in whenever needed. She’s grateful the chickens have given me something meaningful to pour energy into.
Through these small connections, we’ve found joy. Chickens—even with their tiny brains—are full of personality. They hop on your lap, they follow you around, and they become part of your daily rhythm.
That doesn’t mean it’s always easy. We’ve had hard losses, especially to predators. Losing an entire flock we’d raised from chicks—each one named by the kids—was devastating. There were days I wondered if it was worth continuing. But those moments became lessons: to slow down, to secure what we already had, and to trust God’s timing rather than forcing our own.
And that ties directly into our farm’s motto: Planted in Faith, Reaped in Love. Raising chickens has taught us patience, perseverance, and trust. You can’t rush a chick into laying an egg—you have to nurture, protect, and wait for the right season. Farming, like faith, is about letting go of fear and believing that God has the right plan, in His time.
Looking ahead, our vision is steady but hopeful. In five years, we’d like to have about 100 laying hens and a rotation of meat birds—eventually producing around 500 per year. But we’re pacing ourselves, growing responsibly, and keeping our family’s well-being first. Chickens will always be central to A-7 Farms. They’re where we started, and they’ll continue to provide not just eggs and meat, but lessons, stories, and purpose.
We hope that when people experience A-7 eggs and poultry, they don’t just see food—they see the care, the love, and the faith that goes into every step of the process. Chickens may be small, but for us, they’ve built the foundation of something much bigger.
