Peninsula Chicken Keepers

PeCK is a local educational, resource, and social group for people in the Virginia Peninsula area who have backyard chickens or who are interested in learning about humanely keeping small flocks. We held our first meeting in 2010, and now have more than 500 members. Membership and meetings are free and open to the public. 

(No regular monthly meetings for now)

The Chookmobile Lending Library:
We have a number of chicken-related books and a few chick-raising items that PeCK members can borrow, as long as we have your address and phone number. (To become a PeCK member, join our email list!)

Click image to view items for loan

PeCK position on classroom hatching projects: The mission of our group is to help educate people on taking care of chickens throughout their whole lives, and we’re concerned that classroom hatching projects do not always fit this purpose. Here's a short video that explains some of the drawbacks: "Classroom Chick Hatching Projects - Choosing a Humane Alternative."
We recommend alternatives to live hatching in classrooms; a web search of school hatching project alternatives will give you some ideas. Here’s one site that has a list of suggestions:
https://www.mspca.org/cruelty_prevention/pledge-not-to-hatch-campaign-2/
If you’re interested in having one of our members come and talk to your class about chickens, we’d be happy to try to arrange a visit! 

CAN'T KEEP A ROOSTER? It's really important to think through what you will do if you end up with one anyway! Don't assume he will be easy to re-home to a loving environment. It's best to scope our potential homes or contingency plans before you end up in that situation, and do your best to avoid accidental roosters. But if you need to find a home for one, you can post on one of the local chicken-related Facebook pages (see the Links page on this website), or leave me a message and I can post it to the PeCK group. Never, ever abandon a rooster to be taken by a predator or become someone else’s problem.This is cruel and gives backyard chicken keepers a bad reputation in the community.  "Hipsters Off the Hook: The Truth Behind Abandoned Backyard Chickens," and Harvey Ussery's "Moral Puzzles in the Backyard."
To learn more about roosters, how to avoid ending up with one accidentally click HERE.

The importance of ventilating your coop: Proper ventilation is a life-and-death matter in our heat, and believe it or not, in cold climates too, where the humidity chickens build up through respiration and deposition of manure chills the air in winter and increases the chance of frostbite. Also, chickens' respiratory systems are different from ours, making them more susceptible to respiratory illnesses...proper ventilation keeps your chickens healthier in so many ways! Don't judge your chicken's comfort level by your own, unless you have feathers and air sacs. (And just say NO to heating your coop in the winter!) Here are two excellent articles on the subject:
"Want Healthy Birds? Give Them Fresh Air!" By Don Schrider in Backyard Poultry Magazine
"Chicken Coop Ventilation - Go Out There and Cut More Holes in Your Coop!"