Chickens!

This is the time of year that your local farm supply store gets baby chicks.  A small flock of hens can give a nice supply of very fresh eggs and can teach your children a bit about caring for a pet or livestock.  Investment is minimal, but do a little research before you get your chicks so you know what you need to provide.

I've had a small flock since around 2012 and it's been fun.  Lost several hens to predators last year, so after making some improvements to the coop, I added six new baby birds today.  Gosh, they is cute!

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

Awesome, I have questions. 

Is there a difference between a coop and a run? How much space do they need to be happy?

It's much cheaper to build a coop, but for a first timer would you recommend buying?

Can they be trained? Not to jump through hoops, but could I let them roam around the yard and teach them where they are and aren't allowed to go?

It's a fairly quiet hobby if you don't get roosters, correct?

I see averages of one egg per laying hen per day, I also see lots and lots of eggs for sale. Is there a good number of birds to get to cover 18-24 eggs a week without tons extra? I guess with that math I should look at 3 to 4.

What do I do with them in the winter? Just eat them or try to build a weatherproof place for them to stay? Southwest PA hasn't been getting the snowfall we used to, but weeks at or below zero aren't out of the question, we saw that cold quite bit this winter. 

Actually, is there a difference between eating chickens and egg laying chickens?

Sorry for all the questions, but I've been putting a lot of thought into it lately. I had ducks before by accident, and wasn't quite prepared for them to dig their way out of the enclosure and float away down the creek. Now I'm just trying to make the most of what I have available, so with my garden getting bigger, adding some chickens seems like a good next step. 

In reply to RevRico :

I will answer each of your questions, but I'll have to do it later.  Meanwhile, I'd be surprised if some knowledgeable person here didn't beat me to it!

We have 3 hens that are approx 2 year old sex-linked that we got at 1 year old from a friend that was moving.  Hens will not lay until about 6 months old, so keeping them over the winter is better than starting over each year.

Every so often we'll get a yolk-less mini egg, or a softshell, but those became less frequent as the chickens settiled in to their current home. Since we got them we have been getting approx 3 eggs per day, and overall they've been very consistent producers. 

We feed them Layer Pellets from a hanging feeder and and have a heated waterer (thermostat turns on heater at 35).  We also give them table scraps ( they love roast chicken, pasta, veggies, and bread) as a treat, and  hang cheerios, or old bagels from a string in the run to try to prevent too much boredom.

They've survived the cold here in NE without any issues. We have a small coop that we purchased from Tractor supply, and then linked that to a run that we made. They sleep on a 2x4 perch (placed so the 4" dimension was horizontal) in the run every night, summer or winter. they only go into the coop to lay eggs.

For the winter I put plastic sheeting all the way around the run, except the door, so they can get out of the wind, but still get fresh air. Even on the nights that were below 0, they slept on the perch in the run. They would be all fluffed up like balls of feathers, but didn't get cold enough to go inside the coop. 

To help keep them busy during the winter I throw them a cup of scratch grains each morning in the run, but on the nice days we let them out to free range in the yard while we're home. I like to keep the dog out with them when they free range to act as a deterrent to hawks and other predators.

They poop a lot. My neighbors chickens seem to like my driveway in front of the garage. If they weren’t such good people, I’d complain. They apparently are resistant to cold. Well, except for the comb on the rooster. 

The coop is their "house", the run is the enclosed outdoor space. I built a combo commonly known as a chicken tractor (just google it) for ~$100. The advantage of the tractor is that you can move it around your lawn - they're pretty competent diggers, so a permanent run will be dirt in less than a week. With the tractor, you can move it every few days and get free fertilization.

They need less room than you'd think, but look to Murray McMurray hatchery or backyardchickens.com for guidance - Murray McMurray is probably where your local store is getting chicks, or you can mailorder them yourself.

They are not super smart, but are very food motivated. Ours weren't super adventurous so they mostly stayed close, but they did roam into the neighbor's yard occasionally. Don't know how feasible training is.

They are pretty quiet, unless there's a predator nearby. They are capable of making more noise than you'd think but generally just cluck and squawk quietly.

Egg laying depends on breed, as does cold hardiness. We had New Hampshire Reds and White Leghorns. The Leghorns reliably laid an egg a day, the reds were about 5 eggs a week but were better in the cold, as they're bigger and have more dense feathers.

In the winter, you don't need to have a completely weatherproof enclosure - in fact you still need sufficient ventilation to keep them healthy. Winter hardy breeds will be fine in the cold if you prevent drafts, keep their water liquid, and prevent them from going into the run when it's really cold (again, they're not super smart). I covered the chicken wire sides of my coop with plexi so they would still get sun, and put baffles on the vents to prevent the wind from blowing through. They were fine through 2 New England winters like that.

Generally, they're pretty low maintenance and fun to keep. They have some personality and the eggs are phenomenal. Ours required less than 5 minutes of work a day - refill the food and water, collect the eggs, and you're good. Every couple weeks we would clean out the coop and replenish their bedding, and dump the dirty stuff in the compost pile.

RevRico said:

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

It's much cheaper to build a coop, but for a first timer would you recommend buying?

Depends on where you live.  Around here there are plenty of people who got into the chicken thing and then discovered they didn't like it, so CL has plenty of used ones for cheap/free.

Can they be trained? Not to jump through hoops, but could I let them roam around the yard and teach them where they are and aren't allowed to go?

Back when I had chickens (as a kid) I recall that they don't go far.  They're home bodies.  They stay close.  At the end of the day I remember going out with a slice of bread and they would all follow me back to the coop and go inside.  So, trainable, no, but a second cousin to Pavlov.

What do I do with them in the winter? Just eat them or try to build a weatherproof place for them to stay? Southwest PA hasn't been getting the snowfall we used to, but weeks at or below zero aren't out of the question, we saw that cold quite bit this winter. 

We ate ours.  We would slaughter them in September or October.  Some folks just put a heat lamp over each roost, but if you're not careful you can overheat, underheat, or sometimes the lamp would fail and you wake up to a frozen chicken.  I think its more humane to slaughter than risk the torture of possible over/under heating or a freezing death.

Actually, is there a difference between eating chickens and egg laying chickens?

Commercially, yes.  Much like beef cattle and dairy cattle.  Beef cattle makes Ribeyes.  Dairy cattle makes McDonald's hamburgers. They are bred with traits that make them better for one or the other.  Laying hens are bred to be small and wimpy so they can fit more in a building.  Eating hens are bred to be big and fat but their eggs (if they lay at all) are usually small and don't have as much nutritional value that makes them marketable.  Home chickens are often some "heirloom" breed that shoot the middle.  You boost the egg quality with feed, and aside from some potential inconsistent color or size, they taste exactly like commercial eggs.  Just don't expect a Perdue when you put it in your crock pot.  Its meat.  It tastes like chicken.  But it won't have the big yummy drumsticks and the fat breast like you get from a commercial frankenbird.  Mom often stretched our birds by keeping the breasts for meat and making soup from the rest of the carcass

jstand said:We also give them table scraps ( they love roast chicken)

As I suspected!  Chicken people!  Thank you folks.

There are tons of people doing this and posting about it online, so there is much to be learned from the internets.  I think this article references 4 sq. ft. of coop space and 10 sq. ft. of run space per adult bird.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/how-much-room-do-chickens-need.66180/

I've built all my coops and runs, but I see nice ones for sale all the time.  Whatever fits your time and budget.  Adult chickens are pretty self-sufficient.  They need food, clean water, and protection from predators.  If you don't have a coop, they will roost in trees and lay eggs on the ground.  But I recommend a coop.

It may be possible to train them, but when you let them "free range" as we often do,  they tend to wander in search of bugs and other stuff to eat.  If you live on a busy street, have a small yard, or if you're pretty sure your neighbors won't appreciate them, you may need to be a chicken herder.  They will come home to roost at dusk.

Hens can make a fair amount of noise at times, not least when they're pushing out a particularly large egg, but it's not that loud and it's not frequent. 

At their peak, they may lay one egg per bird per day, but it will never exceed that, and it will often be less.  Unless you supplement with artificial light, they will lay much less in the winter.  Egg production is linked to hours of daylight, and they need 12-14 hours for optimal production.

Breeds differ with regard to cold-hardiness.  Biggest thing is to keep them out of the wind.  If your coop is pretty tight and full of birds, they will be fine.  I've only ever lost one bird that I think froze, and it was after a period of warm weather in March, followed by a very cold snap.  Since then, if I know it's going to be very cold (in central VA, that's anything in the single digits) I use a very small electric heater in the coop.  Many will tell you that no heater is necessary.

Different breeds are favored as egg-layers and others for meat.  I'm after eggs.  I've been very happy with our Ameraucana/Leghorn crosses, Buff Orpingtons, and Barred Rocks.  The Black Australorp we had was aggressive toward the other hens, so I won't be getting any more of those.

Good luck.  Honestly, depending perhaps on where you live, keeping the birds safe from predators may be your biggest challenge.  It seems that almost everyone likes the taste of chicken.  Read and heed advice regarding building a run.  It's no fun going out one morning to discover that some ferocious small mammal has dug under your fence and wrecked two of your best layers.  Other than that, adult birds require very little attention and we enjoy having them around. 

What timing.

My city is debating allowing chickens within the city limits as we speak. I'm tempted and have the space, just wondering who I could get to care for them when I'm on vacation. With automatic feeders and watering, how long could you leave them unattended?

But we do have coyotes and a fox every now and then also. And a bunch of hawks and owls and an occasional eagle. Would I just be feeding the wildlife?

My daughter wanted some when we were at Tractor Supply a few days ago (she's 3 and they're fuzzy.) Told her if we got some I'd have to do something about the family of fox that live in the brush near the house.

She chose the fox. OTOH the way she eats eggs I'd need a dozen chickens or ducks. Luckily we know some people that whose chickens produce more than they can eat so they keep us in eggs.

In reply to SaltyDog :

The feeder and waterer (3 1/2 gallon) we have a will last a week without refill for our 3 hens  

The bigger issue is the build up of eggs. For some reason all three use the same nesting box, even though there are 4 nesting boxes in the coop. So if we don’t take them in every day or two, they will eventually start laying in other areas of the coop. 

My dad has had them for years.  What I can add: They don't like fireworks.  If they get worked up, they stop laying for a while. 

How do they deal with trains?

In reply to EvanB :

My dad lives within a stone's throw of I-94, which gets stupid loud at times.  Familiar noises are OK.  Sudden/unexpected seems to be the problem. 

I see snakes and hawks as the biggest predatory problem here. The snake issue concerns me for several reasons, like an unexpected guest when I'm getting eggs. 

Thanks for the reassurances. I've got some carpentry projects coming up, and the leftovers should be good for a 4x4x4 or so coop, but I will also look at that chicken tractor idea. 

RevRico said:

I see snakes and hawks as the biggest predatory problem here. The snake issue concerns me for several reasons, like an unexpected guest when I'm getting eggs. 

Thanks for the reassurances. I've got some carpentry projects coming up, and the leftovers should be good for a 4x4x4 or so coop, but I will also look at that chicken tractor idea. 

 

Funny you mention snakes.  Adult chickens have little to fear from most snakes.  On the other hand, one of the biggest surprises of chicken-tending for me was witnessing my large Buff Orpington hen woof down a juvenile blacksnake a few summers back.  That snake was easily a foot long, and about a minute later, it was inside the chicken's tummy.  I had to consult the internet to learn that this was common, and that the chicken would likely suffer no ill consequences.  Since then, I've seen my hens eat other snakes, though none quite so large as that first one.

It can be a tad startling to find a snake in the nesting box.  I've had that happen on numerous occasions, so if you're not fond of snakes, be aware that fresh warm eggs are very attractive to snakes large enough to swallow one.  Nothing like opening the nesting box after dark and discovering a big old 6-foot blacksnake exactly where you are about to put your hand.  Surprise!

Yes, chicken ownership has its ups and downs.

Snakes aside, be aware that your biggest challenge will be providing a safe place for your birds, particularly at night.  I got complacent thinking my fenced run was sufficient to keep out predators and I got away from securing the coop at night for a time.   But I was proved wrong.  Something managed to dig under my chain link, push through an impossibly small gap in the chicken wire, and dine at my expense.  Think overkill when building your run, and remember that if your run is located in a wide open area, that you'll need to defend against aerial attack as well as ground.

I think I've posted these before, but here's the coop I built on our property.  this was from a few years ago, before paint and trim.  I made it to match a shed that's standing about 40 feet away from it so they have the same roof pitch, human-sized door and two windows..  It's 7'x7' inside floor size, the run is 8'x16'.  It's elevated about 3" higher than my yard cart/wheel barrow so cleaning involves putting on a dust mask and a few scoops of the snow shovel out the door.  Then it goes into the fertilizer pile for a year before ending in the garden.  Takes about 30 minutes to refresh the bedding and since we keep less than 15 birds (generally around 10), I only need to clean the litter 3 times a year or so. Being raised also means they can be "out" in the rain, since they'll hang out under the coop.  10 birds is good for about 8 eggs a day at their peak. 

The key features are the two roof vents (front and back) that I ran pullies for (look for the string on the far left side of the front, there's one on the back) and a weighted door for run access with a string on pullies so I can close it when I'm in front of the coop.  I close the roof vents when it's going to get below ~30°ish and I'll close the run door when it's going to get below 0°.  There's a water heater to keep the water from freezing and a normal feeder.  With 10 birds, the water lasts around a week as does the food. 

We let them out through the run door whenever it's nice out, and I always close the door at night.  They wander around and eat ticks and bugs.  They do poo everywhere, however.

Our biggest problem is predators, and we bank on loosing 2-4 birds a year.  We're accepting of that, as it keeps fresh birds in the flock.

I will note that there are days that the chickens are our favorite pets :)  They never drag mud into the house or pee on the couch.  They can be left for up to a week to their own devices and most days our interactions are less than 5 minutes and it's fun to watch the flock roam around the property. 

The cats on the other hand....

I didn't read everything so ignore this if it's already been mentioned.

The most important thing (to me) is to keep their coop clean. Throw some straw down and swap it out before it gets too poopy.

If you don't you will get rats. They're not hard to kill off but you don't want them around.

Otherwise, like some have said, they can make good pets.  They won't wander far, will go back to their coop at night, and if you feed them a few times they will actually come running when you call them. I take table scraps out to them at night and they get excited when they see me. They'll eat just about anything and I've even seen them go after small mice and devour them.

As for covering the floor of the coop, I use pine shavings.  Seems to hold up better than straw, and it's cheap enough. 

1988RedT2 said:

As for covering the floor of the coop, I use pine shavings.  Seems to hold up better than straw, and it's cheap enough. 

As do I..  The really important thing is keeping it dry, which is why lots of ventilation is important.   In my coop, the roof is spaced off the walls by ~4" so there's always some cross breeze even if the vents aren't open.  

The advice I was given at the beginning was to put down a few inches of it, when it starts to get junky, throw in scratch and the chickens will mix it up.  Add in some more shavings on top until it gets to a compressed 6" or so.   Then toss it.  So far so good :)

RevRico said:

I see snakes and hawks as the biggest predatory problem here. The snake issue concerns me for several reasons, like an unexpected guest when I'm getting eggs. 

Thanks for the reassurances. I've got some carpentry projects coming up, and the leftovers should be good for a 4x4x4 or so coop, but I will also look at that chicken tractor idea. 

Do you have neighbors that are close? If you don't, guinea fowl will lve with the chickens and are good for taking care of the snakes and other predators. They do sound the alarm when something is around they aren't used to which can irritate the neighbors. I don't know about hawks though, but we have not lost any ducks to predators.

A couple years back my brother and I were out enjoying a ride on our motorcycles.  As we rode down a fairly well populated country road I noticed about half a dozen chicken wandering along the side of the road up ahead.  As I got close they did as I had expected and bolted into the yard.  Well, 5 of them did.  The 6th one decided to cross road...you know, like chickens are known to do.  He didn't make it very far and I ended up with chicken "juice" all over my right shoe.  In my experience I would suggest keeping them fenced in.  That's all I have to add. :)

WonkoTheSane said:

The advice I was given at the beginning was to put down a few inches of it, when it starts to get junky, throw in scratch and the chickens will mix it up.  Add in some more shavings on top until it gets to a compressed 6" or so.   Then toss it.  So far so good :)

I don't even spread the straw out. I throw a bale in, the chickens spread it around and a do a really good job of it