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Our chickens & usMy name is Lenny and I am originally from Hungary in Europe, and I came to the USA when I was 23. When I was a kid, we always had farm animals in the backyard. Pigs, goats, chickens, and ducks. At one point my parents had 600 egg-laying hens! My grandparents also had a farm, so I was always surrounded with animals no matter which family member we were visiting. It taught me to respect them and care for them.
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My partner Desirae and I moved to Hunterdon County, NJ, over 4 years ago. She is from Vancouver in Canada and is also an animal lover. When we were house-hunting, we knew we wanted land — at least 2 acres so we could have animals in the backyard. We started with chickens first and created a safe environment for them to protect against predators. We were learning (sometimes by losing a chicken) how to make sure foxes, coyotes, hawks, and raccoon's wouldn’t get to our hens. A year later, we had three Nigerian Dwarf goats in addition to our growing flock of chickens and now we have a sweet baby lamb!
Our three kids now grow up on a farmette similar to when I was a child, and the experience it brings to our children — teaching them responsibility and caring for living beings -- is invaluable. It brings our family together and makes everyone appreciate the fresh eggs we collect each morning. Happy hens equal delicious healthy eggs and we dedicate our time to making sure the conditions and environment in which our animals live is optimized, safe, spacious, and full of enrichment.
