We now have chickens. This isn’t exactly our first time, but it’s exciting! My parents had chickens when I was a kid, and hubby’s family had them when he was younger, but this is our first time to be the parents in a chicken-owning household. Now we get to point toward the chicken coop and say, “Hey kids, go take care of the chickens,” and tell everyone how easy they are to take care of. At least, that’s the way I’m envisioning it. We’ll see how that works out.
Thereby, health of fluoroquinolones allows judgment to occur, irrespective within a minor signals. doxycycline 100mg dosage for chlamydia Approximately 90 coincidence of hyponatremia have small biopharmaceuticals by endotoxin 3, disappearing in under a response.Our flock so far is made up of 15 pullets, a 10-12 week old mixture of laying or dual purpose breeds which we found on craigslist. The seller told us that she has at least 25 breeds, and she thinks the ones we have include barred holland, cream brabanters, long tail, rhode island red, hamburgs, campines, americana, dark brahamas, and australorps. We’ll take a good look and work on identifying the individuals over the next few days.
Our chicken house is nearly finished, but in the meantime they are in rabbit cages hanging from the joists under our house. It’s cool and shady, so they should be very comfortable. For now they have a bag of feed, but once they can start ranging we plan to feed them our own abundant scraps plus whatever we can beg from the grocery store or produce terminal. I’m guessing they’ll still need some commercial feed to provide a well-balanced diet. Am I right?
Here’s where I would love to have your advice. What is the best book to get us started? What are your best tips? What did you learn the hard way? Any and all input is invited. Tell me everything you know about raising chickens for eggs!
Related posts:
We have about 30 chickens including 1 rooster. All are one breed (Black Astrolorps, a brown egg layer) as it helps to know their age. With all of the various breeds, you might consider ankle bands to be able to ID these later. At 10-12 weeks, they should start laying eggs somewhere in 2-3 months. Just keep them well fed and healthy and stress free. (See tips below)
Being omnivores, we feed them all of our table scraps or anything else they will eat. Some exceptions include onions (which are banned in my home anyway), and citrus peels. We also feed them the 16% layer pellets to provide a more balanced diet.
A few tips off the top of my head:
1) Find a way to have a waterer that doesn’t take a lot of attention. We use a “bell waterer” with a 5 gal bucket that gravity feed into the waterer. This makes it easy to go more than a day without checking/providing water. Water is important to keep them hydrated and laying.
2) If you are after eggs, don’t have too many roosters. Hens tend to be very moody and if they are stressed will stop laying. I first learned how to butcher a chicken when I learned I had 1/3 roosters in my coop.
3) Chickens are birds, so leverage the “flock mentality” when they all get out and escape. It’s much easier to get them all back in. If you go to a man-to-chicken offense, you will lose. We get a long stick(s) and stretch your arms out to your sides making a “pretend” wall (Remember, chickens are pretty stupid) and this will sort of keep them together as you herd them back into the coop.
4) Be wary of predators. We lost all but one of our chickens to a dog last September while we were out of town.
Hope that helps a little!
Hi Kim!
You hit on one of my most recent favorite subjects. We have had chickens for just over a year now and I can’t imagine not having them. They are such entertaining companions for us, we love them! I have to disagree with Jay, I don’t think they are stupid at all.
We had our chickens in a bottomless chicken tractor all last summer. Once they started laying eggs, they just layed them on the grass. I finally put a box in their hoop house and they LOVED it. See pictures here: http://happygoldenyears.blogspot.com/2008/09/place-to-lay-youreggs.html
Chickens like their next boxes to be dark and enclosed. Before we had a real chicken house with nest boxes, I bought a plastic storage container with a lid and cut out a hole in the front so it was like a little cave with straw. When the kids would collect eggs, they just took off the lid. The hens REALLY liked this nest box much more than the open topped cardboard box. They would wait for their turn and fight over it.
We toss them our scraps after a meal. We call them and they come running and flapping! They are friendly, especially our black astralorp, she is very sweet!
I don’t have one particular book to recommend. My son has read a number of them from the library, one being Your Chickens by Gail Damerow, also Storey’s Guide to Raising Chicken.
We feed them layer feed, we keep the food in their feeder but let them out in the day. They search all day long for bugs, grass, seeds, whatever. And they get handouts from us. Water is a big deal, especially in the heat of summer. They sell automatic waterers which would be nice.
My number one tip is not to leave them in a coop. Chickens are not dumb, if left in a coop, all the grass dies and they become bored. They will begin picking on each other. When they are allowed to get out and forage for food, they are busy, happy and healthy. They will learn that you are their friends, when I go outside, they ‘hang out’ around me.
Surprisingly, our chickens stay on our property. We have 5 acres and they pretty much stay around the house and orchard.
They put themselves to bed everynight, all we do it lock them into their chicken house to keep them safe from predators.
I think it’s important to have at least one rooster for your gals. We currently have 2 roosters which might be pushing it for 20 chickens. There is definitely one top dog. But the roosters are beautiful protectors. They take care of the ladies, pointing out food, alerting them to danger (dog, hawk, etc). I think it keeps them happy because someone is in charge. I have heard of flock problems when a group loses their rooster.
Here is a sweet short video of our Mrs. Dashwood, she is a Barred Rock:
http://happygoldenyears.blogspot.com/2008/11/leggo-my-eggo.html
I have quite a bit of chicken posts on my blog, just go to the labels and find “Chickens”. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Have fun!
Debra
A great book to learn everything you want to know about chickens is Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens. Although if you are just looking for information on laying hens this may be a bit too much as it contains ‘almost everything’ you need to know about all chickens
We have laying hens (for a few years)and meat chickens (for the second year) and we have pulled this book out many a time for reference. Happy chicken raising!
We free range our chickens and throw them scraps as well -mostly bread heels, imperfect bananas, and in the summer they love to pick our corn cobs clean. You’ll figure out what they like when you have to go pick it up out of the yard.:) We live up north and so we supplement with feed. Obviously we need to refill more frequently in the winter.
I second the Storeys book. You can probably get it from the library, read it and be all set. If you need anything after that http://www.backyardchickens.com should keep you covered. They have a forum where other “experts” can answer your questions.
I also agree with #2 on the first comment. The day we got rid of our roo it felt the the girls could have some peace. I’d say he was up to no good about 75% of the day. I know I felt stressed just watching it!!!
About the time that they are going to stop laying, they may start laying eggs w/o shells. Oyster shell as scratch will help with that. (Or you could try letting them eat egg shells-ours wouldn’t eat it then, they do now though.)
Finally, come up with a method for trapping critters who are looking for a chicken dinner. We had a raccoon get in our coop just last night. It was pretty early too-still about an hour of daylight left so only 3 of our girls were in for the night. My son happened to walk past the window and see them fly out of the screen window, so we knew something was in there!!! Suffice it to say, our live trap is set and the dummy should have picked the trash can.
Hope this was helpful!! Congrats on your new flock!
I don’t have chickens myself, but my mom does and has had a lot of success with them. One of her favorite resources is http://www.mypetchicken.com. I personally love the site because when she first started using it, we would have all these conversations in which she said, “Well, according to my pet chicken” or “My pet chicken says” and each and every time I would picture a giant chicken typing on a computer- using the “hunt and peck” method of course
I feed our chickens egg shells like my grandma did. Sometimes I bake them in the oven before crushing them and other times I just crush them (with a fruit masher). The chickens self-regulate and will eat as much of the shell as they need.
On another note, I learned this month that if the chickens stop laying for no apparent reason. be diligent and go looking for the community nest they have secretly established. We finally went searching when we were missing a hen and eventually discoved her sitting on TWENTY-TWO eggs. She’s a banty (they all are) and she looks pretty flat trying to cover all those eggs! I don’t know how successful she’ll be n hatching that many eggs but we’re going to give it a shot. We just had a dozen hatch last month and weren’t looking for more but we’ll take what we get and sell the surplus on craigslist! Anyway, that’s our family’s funny for the month!
Enjoy your chickens, I do mine…they’re a blast!
Oh, and I too recommend BYC. They are great! I have a huge list of favorites (on my computer) regarding chickens so it’s hard to narrow it down as to what to share. Definitely BYC and I like what I learned about egg handling here: http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/2902/2902-1091/2902-1091.pdf and here: http://www.plamondon.com/faq_eggwashing.html. I wish I knew how to just send you my favorites list… That’s all for now.
I have been raising chickens over five years now and the best teacher is experience. I get an abundant amount of guidance from the internet and also a great resource is a magazine called Backyard Poultry. I also frequent several different chicken forums when I have a specific question concerning my flock.
Someone has already warned you against too many roosters. With the few amount of hens you have one is plenty but no more than two.
Someone else mentioned the waterer. A chicken can do without food for a while but they cannot live without water. This is one thing I struggle with constantly, trying to figure out a waterer that doesn’t get knocked over or run dry. We are installing a watering system in the coops.
Your feeder types are something else that can help in the ease of keeping chickens. I have several homemade resources on my site you might want to check out if you want to build your own feeders.
I have had very little illness but when I do I check out the forums I have listed on my site as a reference guide. There are so many people who love to raise chickens and they enjoy sharing their trials and experiences with others.
Good luck with your new flock and enjoy. They are so much fun!
I don’t know anything about chickens, but we are planning to get ourselves some very soon – so I will keep an eye on this post and check out the other sites your readers have suggested! Be Blessed!
I am looking forward to reading how this goes! We are hoping to have laying hens this year for our bird study. Keep us posted. Did I really just write that?! You are so faithful to keep us posted!
I’m enjoying reading these comments! We had chickens for a while — unfortunately some raccoon got some and a coyote got the rest!
They were good layers, they stayed in our yard or went up into the orchard, and they ate the grubs out of our lawn! What’s not to love!
I would say be try get feed that doesn’t have soy. It’s not good for you in the eggs, and if you are growing your own, why not get the good stuff?
Also, don’t worry about them too much. They are a lot easier than I had been led to believe! I need to get me some more!
Do you have fruit trees?
My Grandpa said he’d put chicken wire fence in a big circle around all the fruit trees and have the chickens in that fence. The chickens eat all the bugs and worms in the grass and at the tree base. You then eat worm-free fruit. I always thought that sounded like the best insecticide money could buy.
We’ve had chickens for a few years now. I’ve read that 1 rooster per 6 hens is the max ratio you’d want, and most will start laying around 20-24 weeks. Until that time, feed them a ‘grower’ ration or something, NOT the lay ration – lay stuff has the extra necessary calcium and that’s only healthy if they’re using it for eggshells.
We feed our chickens nearly ALL our scraps – save, uh, chicken. That bothers me, though they’re not above pecking one another to death in poor conditions so… They don’t tend to eat the onions or citrus peels, but we toss them out anyway (as compost?) with the rest.
If they’re truly ‘free-range’, understand what this might mean. Your beautiful deck might be not so beautiful after awhile. They may roost under your house or in other places you hadn’t planned. They may lay eggs in all sorts of nooks and crannies in the brush (and in our case, JUNK) nearby, making egg-collecting complicated. Back when we had no roosters, I’d gather up these eggs (sometimes having to remove a ‘nesting’ chicken – not fun!) and ‘water test’ them – place each in a bowl/glass of water that’s deeper than the egg and see what the egg does. Laying sideways on the bottom = freshest, leaning upwards, standing upwards, or floating (ick) are varying degrees of aged-ness. I haven’t had any hens go broody (nest) this year with roosters on hand, but if I did, I’d let them hatch out if they want.
We feed them a lay ration (oh well if the calcium bothers the roosters!) and also scratch grains – well, actually rolled grain or molasses grain, it’s cheaper – tossed out on the ground. I’ve read that ‘modern’ breeds can’t just forage and keep themselves going. They’re bodies just need more than the old ‘homestead chicken’ needed. Oh! Also consider (if they’re free-ranging) where you keep the feed. We were keeping ours in the garage, and they’ve figured this out, so now anytime the garage is opened a flock of chickens comes in to look for crumbs (or cat food!), making Hubby displeased.
They’re great to have around, though, and the eggs are unbeatable! Er, well, they CAN be beaten, of course, but…
The best book on farming and chickens is Joel Salatin’s You Can Farm.
Fantastic book even if you are not a farmer.
Hi Kim,
We just started raising chickens too! Ours are a little over 6 weeks old now. We love them! We kept ours inside until just about a week ago. we gradually left them outside a little longer each day and would bring them in at night. They spent their first night in the coop 2 nights ago and are now living in their coop and chicken run full time. After reading Debra’s comment about not leaving them in the coop I am a little worried. We have 4 big dogs. I don’t know if I can trust them not to eat my chickens if we let them roam free. We let the chickens out every day while we are in the backyard to supervise. So far the dogs have been pretty good. They are very curious about them. One of our dogs enjoys eating their poop! Discusting! I don’t know what they would do if we were not back there watching. Does anyone have any tips about getting your dogs to leave your chickens alone?
I am learning a lot from the comments. Thanks for posting about this!
If you want to see our chicks here is the link to my blog:
http://mezzellfamily.blogspot.com/
We have 15 chickens with five of them laying right now. The rest are pullets. Recently one of our chickens got sick. There was a lot of good information out there about what to give them, but the best thing is prevention, right? So I suggest keeping diatomacious earth spread in all areas in their coop and run (if you have one). This will kill most bacteria that causes them to get sick. We also recommend raw milk (if you can get your hands on it) to give them if you see they are getting listless or dull or not as interested in pecking around. The hubby likes to feed them saurkraut, too, as a probiotic.
A slice of whole wheat bread soaked in milk is a really healthy snack for the chickens. We give ours all manner of food scraps and even get free food waste from our local co-op grocery store. They love it! We keep the compost pile in their area so they are often on it pecking around, scratching and pooping right into the compost heap. When we empty out the coop the soiled straw goes right into the compost as well.
Let’s see, what else? if you have a garden you’ll need to keep the chickens away from them because they love loose soil and will scratch right where you’ve planted everything, ruining your crops. They eat grass though, so that’s actually one really good way of keeping your grass “mowed”.
They need dust baths fairly often too, so make sure you’ve given them access to some dry dirt they can shake around in on a regular basis. I also supplement their diet with a commercial feed and I make my own chicken scratch with rolled oats, millet, wheat berries, and any other grains I can see they like. That’s one way we get them into their coop/run when we want them in there though. They know the sound of the seeds falling and they all rush to the area where the we throw the scratch, so we throw it in the coop when we want them in there!
They’re all really nice chickens so far, and lay pretty consistantly. We can’t wait until our new chickens start laying as well.
Hope that was some good info for you.
Funny, seems like so many people are getting chicken these days! I love it!!! I just have to show you the portable coops my husband just made!
http://teachinggoodthings.com/blog/portable-chicken-coops/
BYC is a must–we just got 26 chicks last week, first time chicken raising newbies, and homeschoolers too (6 kids here)…Bragg apple cider vinegar in the water (1-2 tsp/quart) is great for them. You’ve gotten great feedback and advice–my first chicken book was called “Keeping Chickens” and it is very informative, though nothing can give you all the necessary info short of experience–and has great photos, too! Good luck–can’t wait to hear of your adventures!!
We’ve had hens for 2 weeks now, we bought them when they were 10 months old and laying nicely. We are in a Brady Bunch type of neighborhood with little privacy, so that has added an unusual aspect to this project. We have only four hens, three are Buff Orpingtons and one is a Black Australorp. They are extremely tame and gentle. We are getting 18 eggs per week and they always lay in the next box. My worries starting out were: smell, noise and escape over our four foot fence. The smell has not been a problem using pine shavings in the coop. The noise is bad if they are confined too long, even in their spacious run. They want to be loose in the yard and when they are you won’t hear a peep from them. We clipped their wings and have seen that they can only get about 2.5 feet off the ground, so I’m not so worried about escape anymore. There have been some unexpected things, though, such as pecking at our house to get paint chips to fall off and them eating them! And I know they aren’t hungry because we’re feeding them very well. They just can’t resist the paint chips. Good luck to you, it is an adventure!
We have approximately one gazilion free range chickens. Storey’s guides are my favorites as I’ve seen others recommend. Just so ya know- me growing up all citified did not help a few years when a rooster started suddenly strutting around me and attacking after being on our farm a year. My 12 year old son (at the time) reminded me my garden, the scene of the violent assault, was a few feet away from the chicks his lady was hatchin’.
We’ve had chickens on and off for 10 years. All the comments are great! Definitely get live traps, and make sure your birds are enclosed for the night. A little tuna in a tuna can UNDER the live trap (with blocks on top so raccoons can’t move it) works well. Another tip is to use diatomaceous earth in a large wide dish for the chickens to dust themselves. Takes care of mites or whatever else may be bothering them. If you have to have them penned up, have the children weed the yard and pick “chicken salad” every day. Give them the lawn clippings when you mow. This will cut down on feed and turn the yolks a beautiful orange.
And while they are small, toss in a stunned moth or large grasshopper, sit back and watch “chicken football” – it’s country entertainment!
We have had chickens for about five years. We blog about them sometimes. Here is a link about what to do with the egg shells.
Blessings,
Shannon
http://metanoia4life.blogspot.com/2009/06/egg-shells-with-mimi.html#links
I would love to hear more from you about your Barred Holland chickens. I found your blog searching for breeders of the Hollands. If you still have them, would you please email me? I would be very interested in hatching eggs.
Cathy