The Homesteading Series: Backyard Chickens

938 Post Road,Wells ME 04090

28 April, 2022

Description

Join us for our very first Homesteading Series class where we learn how to raise a backyard chicken flock! For centuries, Mainers have sustained themselves and their families through hard work and self-reliance. They were the original DIYers and their homesteading traditions offer great insight into the way they lived and how we might use those skills today. Join us as we debut The Homesteading Series, where we hope to bring our community back to its roots. The Homesteading Series was inspired by local photographer and HSWO Board member Rachael Kloss Pawlik. Rachael and her husband, Ogunquit police officer Neal Pawlik, along with their young daughter, have been renovating an historic homestead in Wells since 2018. This led to an interest in traditional skills, like gardening and raising livestock, which have been a part of homesteading in Wells for generations. Historically, homesteads in Maine, and across New England, were complex operations that involved every member of the family. In addition to barns and cultivated fields, dooryards were busy places where poultry and swine roamed, while the family maintained a rich kitchen garden. An orchard was typically not far away. Our photograph archives are full of images of homesteads in Wells and Ogunquit, where you can see the relationship between home, farm, and garden landscape, so common in New England. The series kicks off on April 28 with Raising a Backyard Chicken Flock.