Martha Stewart doesn’t do things by halves. If you hand her a project, expect total immersion. Take her 152-acre Bedford, New York estate. It’s not just a pretty country home with a nice garden. It's a fully operational, high-production farmyard that houses more than one hundred chickens alongside a striking flock of eleven pheasants.
Most people keep a half-dozen hens in a suburban backyard and call it homesteading. Martha operates on an entirely different tier. Managing a poultry population of that size requires serious infrastructure, strict daily routines, and an intimate understanding of animal husbandry. Let’s look at how she manages this massive feathered menagerie, what it takes to keep over a hundred birds thriving, and why her approach to farm life is miles ahead of casual hobbyists.
The Reality of Managing Over a Hundred Chickens
When your flock crosses the century mark, everything changes. You aren't just collecting breakfast eggs anymore. You are running a small livestock operation.
Biosecurity becomes priority number one. With more than one hundred chickens mingling in expansive runs and pasture zones, disease can spread fast if you aren't paying attention. Martha's setup relies on meticulous coop management, constant cleaning, and specialized ventilation systems to keep ammonia levels down.
Feeding logistics alone are staggering. A flock of this size burns through massive amounts of layer pellets, organic grains, calcium supplements, and fresh garden scraps. You can't just toss out a handful of scratch feed and walk away. Nutritional balance prevents feather pecking, egg-shell thinning, and seasonal molt slumps.
Choosing Heritage Breeds for Egg Production and Temperament
Martha doesn't stock her coops with generic commercial hybrids. She curates her flocks for specific traits: striking plumage, reliable laying habits, and cold-hardiness. Her Bedford farm features a diverse mix of rare and heritage breeds.
- Ameraucanas and Araucanas: Famous for laying vibrant blue and green eggs that make any basket look like a seasonal art piece.
- Marans: Prized for their deep, dark chocolate-brown shells.
- Silkies: Kept as much for their ornamental, fluffy texture and docile mothering instincts as for production.
- Barnevelders and Light Sussex: Excellent dual-purpose birds that handle northeastern winters with ease.
Mixing breeds requires careful observation. Aggressive breeds can bully docile ones, so space design is critical. Martha's enclosures give every bird room to forage, dust-bathe, and establish a proper pecking order without turning into a bloody battleground.
Beyond the Coop The Eleven Resident Pheasants
Chickens get all the glory, but Martha’s eleven pheasants add a wild, exotic element to the estate. Pheasants aren't like chickens. They are notoriously skittish, highly alert, and demand specialized housing that accounts for their powerful flight instincts.
Keeping pheasants successfully means understanding their evolutionary behavior. They need heavily planted aviaries that mimic natural brush, giving them places to hide when startled. If a pheasant flies straight up into a wire ceiling because a hawk flew overhead, it can easily break its neck. High netting and careful predator mitigation are non-negotiable.
Dietary needs differ sharply from poultry, too. Pheasants require higher protein content, especially during breeding and molting seasons. Watching Martha balance a complex diet for both her heavy-laying hens and her flighty gamebirds shows a deep level of practical expertise that goes way beyond casual celebrity pet-keeping.
What Backyard Keepers Get Wrong
If you look at Martha's setup and think you can replicate it with a cheap kit from a big-box store, you're setting yourself up for failure. Common mistakes ruin backyard flocks every single season.
People underestimate predator pressure. Foxes, hawks, raccoons, owls, and neighborhood dogs view a backyard flock as an open-air buffet. Hardware cloth, buried perimeter wire, and fully covered runs are mandatory. Chicken wire only keeps chickens in; it keeps zero predators out.
Another massive mistake is improper winterizing. When temperatures plunge below freezing in New York, poorly insulated coops result in frostbitten combs and plummeting egg yields. Martha's coops are built to withstand harsh winters while maintaining proper airflow to prevent moisture buildup. Moisture is actually more dangerous to poultry than cold air because damp feathers lose their insulating power.
Setting Up Your Own High-Output Backyard Flock
If you want to scale up your own setup toward Martha-level efficiency, you need to focus on systems rather than aesthetics.
Start by auditing your square footage. The golden rule is four square feet of coop space per bird and ten to fifteen square feet of run space per bird. If you cram birds together, stress spikes, feather picking starts, and egg production crashes.
Automate where you can. Gravity-fed feeders and nipple-watering systems save hours of labor and keep bedding dry. Dry bedding means healthier birds and less time spent shoveling muck.
Embrace the seasonal rhythm. Chickens naturally slow down or stop laying in the dead of winter when daylight hours shrink. Instead of artificially blasting them with high-intensity light bulbs—which burns out their reproductive systems early—let them rest. They'll reward you with stronger shells and higher vigor when spring returns.
Running a farmyard with over a hundred chickens and a fleet of pheasants takes discipline, grit, and genuine passion for the work. Martha Stewart proves that homesteading isn't a weekend aesthetic trend. It's a daily commitment to animal welfare, smart design, and hard labor.
