Chickens Give Severna Park Family Something To Cluck About

Severna Park residents Glenn and Jennifer Magnusen have a large backyard surrounded by woods where their daughters — 14-year-old Mykenna, 12-year-old Skylar and 10-year-old Maisey — enjoy playing. The family has planted a variety of flowers, added some fun items for the girls, and is renovating its patio. Two years ago, the family decided to add chickens.

“They were a surprise Mother’s Day gift,” Jennifer said with a smile. “In my head, I had this vision of fluffy white chickens running around the backyard. I never took it seriously enough to do any research. Then for Mother’s Day two years ago, they brought this box home that had holes in it.”

The Magnusens named the three baby chicks Cinnamon, Butterscotch and Mocha, and they quickly became family pets with no danger of making it to a frying pan. Cinnamon is a “red cross,” the combination of a Rhode Island Red and a Long Island White; Butterscotch is a “golden comet,” and Mocha is an “Ameraucana,” and lays peach-colored eggs.

The girls pick the chickens up freely and pet them, and the chickens happily roam the yard, pecking at the dirt, doing their job of eating ticks, mosquitos and other bugs.

After she received her gift, Jennifer went online to study chickens and she discovered that local predators abound — foxes, raccoons, snakes and hawks.

“A neighbor said they caught coyotes on their security camera,” Jennifer said.

They bought a chicken coop online and surrounded the coop with hardware cloth, and buried the cloth underground as well to prevent raccoons, possums, snakes and other creatures from digging underneath. For added protection, they let the chickens out only when the family is with them, and when a hawk or other predator is seen, they quickly shuffle them back to the coop.

Jennifer and the girls agree that the chickens have personalities and a pecking order. Cinnamon, the brawniest, is at the top of the order and clucks when she lays an egg; Buttercup is the smartest; and Mocha resists being held.

“They’re entertaining, and they’re pretty easy,” Skylar said. “I do the food and water.” Jennifer gets the job of cleaning the coop.

They do require significant care, Jennifer said, always needing fresh water, as well as warmth in the winter and sometimes cooling off in the summer heat. “This year isn’t too bad, but last summer, we had two weeks with over a 100-degree heat index.” The chickens were treated to cold corn and watermelon, and ice in their water.

Even with the upkeep, the chickens provide a lot of fun, and some great perks.

“They are excellent at keeping away bugs,” Jennifer said. “They’ll eat everything: mosquitos, ticks, worms … bracelets.”

The family also enjoys the eggs, which Jennifer said will keep fresh for one month without refrigeration and up to two months total, though the family eats them quickly. She explained that when mass-produced, the eggs are power-washed to get off the dirt and grime.

“Eggs have a natural coating on the outside to prevent bacteria from going inside, but that’s washed off when they’re mass-produced,” she said. All the family has to do is wipe off the eggs. “It’s economical,” she said.

Many folks in the area keep chickens, Jennifer said. Some even rent goats to help clear out the brush and brambles in a yard.

One of the girls asked, “Can we have a goat?” Jennifer isn’t entertaining that idea yet.