Nash Farm

While visiting Texas in July, we found Nash Farm in Grapevine. It’s a living history site, not yet fully developed. The site itself is open every day, but there aren’t any interpreters. The house was closed the day we were there, so we didn’t get to go inside. We looked through the windows, though. It’s furnished with antiques that reflect its history, around 1859.

They keep a flock of Speckled Sussex there. The Nash Family kept about 50 chickens and sold around 200 dozen eggs a year. They might have kept Dominiques and Dorkings back then. Speckled Sussex are another good choice, with their dappled feathers and eager foraging. They might have come along with the English settlers who brought Hereford cattle to the West.

This picture of the actual chicken coop is from 1880. Today the coop and its residents looks like this.

 Someone has taken quite a bit of care to make it attractive, functional and accessible. Thanks, Nash Farm, for preserving your history and keeping this lovely flock.

 The nest boxes have a hinged roof that allows eggs to be collected easily. No coop entry necessary!

 The flock has two roosters and about a dozen hens.

 

The glass walls on the nest boxes allow visitors to see the hens at work. The hen doesn't seem to mind this loss of her privacy.