If you visited the homestead “Antique Stonehope,” you would soon be surrounded by Icelandic chickens, turkeys, and, if you were really lucky, a wheat field.
Assistant Professor of Biology Christopher Heckel grew up on a dairy farm in Litchfield, Michigan, but he now spends his free time raising “viking chickens” and doing other homesteading projects with his family. Antique Stonehope, homesteading, and his chickens were the subject of Heckel’s talk, “How to Raise Viking Chickens, and Other Stories from a Wannabe Homesteader,” put on by the Mossey Library faculty in the Faculty After Hours series on March 2.
“We moved out to our property about five years ago and thought we wanted to have chickens,” Heckel said. “We learned that raising chickens is kind of hard. The Icelandic land race are known for being pretty tough birds. They survived in Iceland; they ought to do well in Southern Michigan.”
Heckel gave the audience a run-down of the birds’ origin story.
“These chickens brought the Vikings with them to Iceland in the 10th century,” Heckel joked. “They remained there in isolation until the 1930s.”
It wasn’t until 2003 that this particular type of chicken was available in the United States. After starting off with other kinds of breed, Heckel said he decided to try the Icelandic chicken for its unique traits.
The chicken is both “hearty” and “self-sufficient,” which meant that there was more room for error in taking care of them, according to Heckel.
“This doesn’t mean we don’t have to feed them, but in the summer time they are constantly scratching, finding their own food. They take several laps around the farm every day,” he said. “I don’t like it when they cross the road, but they do sometimes.”
The color and comb variations of the birds are also an attraction for Heckel.
“We’ve got reds, we’ve got blues, we’ve got browns. We’ve got all kinds of variety,” he said. “The color of the adults are so varied. We have no idea what the chicks are going to look like when they’re older, other than being nice yard art.”
Because the Icelandic chicken is a land race, rather than being bred, they are usually more colorful and varied in appearance. Animals that are bred often look more uniform.
“Anything goes for the Icelandic chicken,” Heckel said.
Another unique trait about the Icelandic chickens is that they have retained much of their natural instincts, especially when it comes to “broodies,” hens who have just layed eggs.
“For so many commercial breeds of chickens, those instincts to be a good mother have been bred out while focusing on producing a bigger bird or making bigger eggs. Those instincts have been lost,” Heckel said. “The Icelandics still have those primary traits. They make great mothers.”
This means that raising chicks is much easier with this kind of chicken.
“Mama hens are the best way to raise chicks,” he said. “It’s a load off your mind, that as long as there’s food and water, and you may not even need that, you will have well-raised, healthy chicks.”
However, their instincts can also make it difficult to keep track of the birds.
“We love our chickens. We love this particular type. They’ve got all their instincts,” he said. “But that does leave some downsides. You can’t control when they hatch eggs and they roost really high.”
The chickens will also “hide” the eggs they’ve laid from Heckel and his family, as the birds still have the instinct to reproduce.
“Icies are really picky. They really want their privacy,” he said. “They’re hiding eggs from you because they’re trying to reproduce.”
Senior Jack Shelley, who is interested in homesteading and has even owned his own bees, said the lecture gave him a new interest in Icelandic chickens.
“Dr. Heckel’s presentation was very informative,” he said. “I went into it with no clue as to what an Icelandic chicken was, and left wanting to raise a whole flock.”
Heckel also gave the audience some practical tips for how to raise the chickens. A hopeful homesteader would need space, a high roosting area, food and water, a chicken coop, and nesting boxes for laying.
Heckel also mentioned that fresh eggs, if not washed, can stay fresh for up to two to three weeks.
“All chickens when they lay their eggs have a bloom on the shell. That’s a coating of beneficial microorganisms that seals that egg up and keeps it fresh so that spoilage organisms don’t make their way through the shell,” he said. “It’s a biological protection.”
The Icelandic chickens are particularly easy to raise and each bird produces about six eggs a week.
These tips were particularly useful to senior Paul Esposito, who hopes to have some sort of farm or homestead in the future.
“My great-grandparents had a farm that was sold from the family long ago,” he said. “I grew up hearing stories about the old family farm, and being here at Hillsdale has opened me up to the rural life even more. I’m hoping that maybe sometime in the future I can try to rebuild my family’s farm life, and learning about homesteading seems the perfect place to start.”
