Company description

We are a small family farm team running a humane chicken hatchery run on 100% solar power we generate on the farm.

We are pioneers in the chicken hatchery world, we are a no kill hatchery, 100% plastic free in our shipping and striving to be zero waste on the farm. A portion of our proceeds supports the Children's Eternal Rainforest in Costa Rica.

We breed and create chicken breeds for biodiversity with climate resilience, sweet temperaments, egg laying ability and gorgeous egg colors on the forefront of our minds.

On the face we are a chicken hatchery, scratch the surface and you will find that we are ecological activists, constantly educating on climate change, regenerative farming and a chickens powerful place in reducing food waste and closing the loop for gardens small and large.

We are striving to be plastic free on the farm and zero waste in our operation. We love inspiring and educating others on how to do the same in our industry as well as anyone keeping chickens in their backyard.

We are kind, clear communicators. We live on the land where the farm is located, same as you will be. We are happy to give you your space or have you be part of our farm family with shared evenings around our outdoor fire.

Interested in working with chickens, hatching out baby chicks and helping us build up our soils? We have a fun sweet live/work opportunity for you!

Job description

Dynamic Live & Work Position Available at Alchemist Farm

A Humane Chicken Hatchery In Sebastopol

We looking to expand our farm team, would you like to join us? The position is a 5 month commitment with potential for long term extension into 2025 if we are all a good fit! Position and housing available starting August 8th 2024

What we are offering:

Join us for the dynamic work of raising breeding groups of chickens and running a humane chicken hatchery. Five days a week you will be the first eyes on the birds in the morning and the last eyes on them at night with lots of chick cuddling in-between if you so choose!

Some of the hours we have available are in the evening after dark, specifically putting the flocks of chickens away and scanning to make sure all of the auto doors have closed on the coops so whoever takes the position needs be living on the farm for ease.

As the year ebbs and flows with the seasonal shifts of raising birds/hatching/shipping chicks you can expect 30+ hours of work a week from August-January and 35+ hours a week from January – August.

Tuesday is a longer hour work day because we hatch our chicks Tuesdays, you will be helping with the hatch, preparing shipments of chicks, and cleaning after hatches, the rest of the week the bulk of the day hours are free if you have a second job in town or are in school. All other tasks and chores can be scheduled according to the flexibility you need as long as they are done daily (egg collecting/tuck-ins) and weekly (coop cleaning).

Your work days would be Saturday through Wednesday with Thursday and Friday off.

Stating pay is $18 an hour with options for more hours of property upkeep such as mowing, weed whipping, irrigation repair and general tinkering with the coops and farm infrastructure. Lots of learning opportunities available.

The living space is a 120sq ft stand alone cottage with private yard, and a large greenhouse to put in a garden if you have a green thumb. We all live together on the farm, it has a community feel but everyone has their own space to be with their thoughts and live their own comfortable lives. We have cultivated a very sweet energetic space on the land.

Rent for the living space is $800 we cover all utilities with the exception of your propane and trash.

Examples of work hours:

Daily checking to make sure each coop door opens (solo work)

Daily collecting of eggs and sorting from our breeding groups (solo work)

Tucking the birds in at night (solo work)

Training juvenile birds into coops at night (solo work)

Trimming wings in winter (solo work)

Moving chicken tractors and care of juvenile birds on Tuesdays with farm owner Ryan

Daily checking of chicks in brooders and refilling their water and food (solo work)

Weekly Cleaning Brooders from baby chicks (solo work)

Weekly cleaning of chicken coops (not yucky work because it is done weekly) (solo work)

Setting eggs in the incubators and hatchers (solo work)

Weekly Preparing shipping boxes for the chicks (solo work)

Weekly prepping of chick pickup boxes (solo work)

Packing up baby chicks on Tuesday mornings for shipment with our farm owner Franchesca

Packing up hatching egg orders for shipment (solo work)

Weekly cleaning of hatchers and incubation space on Tuesdays after hatch (solo work)

Management of pasture watering/reseeding for flocks (solo work)

Random fixes of coops/upkeep if latches/hinges need attention (Solo work)

Farm sitting for a few weeks at a time throughout the year.

Who we are looking for:

Someone who is interested in seeing what a season of hatching baby chicks at a hatchery is all about. You will jump right in with putting the birds away at night, daily egg collecting, caring for our juvenile birds and helping with our last few hatches/shipment dates of the 2024 season (We stop hatching in October).

In October we shut down the incubators for 2024 but the care of the birds will continue and daily egg collecting will be available as we train our juvenile birds to go into the coops each night. Come January we will be preparing the flocks for laying and breeding after the hens have their natural break from laying in the winter.

To thrive in this role with us you will need to be:

A self starter, interested in working with animals and open to learning. Must be able to lift 60lbs and have attention to detail. Must be a clear communicator and willing to ask questions while being trained. Vacations can be worked into the year for longer days/stretches off with enough planning and notice.

Hours are completely flexible with exception of Tuesdays which are our hatching/cleaning day of the incubation space. The rest of the hours can be made up around your schedule, they just must be consistent for the health of the birds.

Compensation

this position is: hourly, $15-20/hr

Application instructions

Deadline

no deadline