Aren’t chickens running around the yard one of the first things that you think of when you imagine having your own little farm? Having fresh eggs isn’t the only benefit to having chickens. Chickens can reproduce themselves which can make them a renewable resource of your own. They’ll eat table scraps and turn them into eggs. And, of course there is no substitute for BBQ chicken. Plus they provide great entertainment. Not many things are as endearing as watching a mother hen scratching around in the yard with her baby chicks. If you have never owned your own chickens, this article is devoted to answering the questions that you may have in regards to what’s involved with their care. This should help you make an educated decision about whether or not owning chickens is what’s best for you.
There are a couple things that require consideration before undertaking the project of owning and raising poultry. Do you want only eggs? Do you want to raise them for meat? Do you want meat and eggs? And do you plan to let the hens hatch their own chicks, or do you plan to buy the chicks?
Housing
Before bringing any chickens home, one of the first things that will need to be prepared is suitable housing for the chickens. I have known many people who have tried to keep their own chickens and then became frustrated and quit. In almost all of those cases, the frustration was due to the chickens being housed in conditions that permitted predators to invade the chicken house at night, which often results in many casualties. If the chickens are permitted to run loose outside of a fenced area during the daytime, there are still risks of loss, but not nearly as much of a risk as nighttime losses. Proper housing to prevent nighttime losses will require making sure that soon after it becomes dark outside, their door is shut. Also, many times people neglect to install a floor that prevents animals from digging underneath the wall and gaining entrance to the chicken house. For example, one notorious enemy of the chicken is the weasel. A weasel can squeeze through a hole the diameter of a quarter and will take out several birds in one visit, often coming back nightly until you have no chickens left. If you keep the place where they sleep buttoned up tight, you will have a much more pleasant experience with your project.
How much space will you need? Our recommendation for one household is a chicken coop with a floor area of approximately 8ft. X 8ft. plus a few roosting poles. This size of chicken coop will allow you to have enough space for a flock of up to 20 birds. A flock of 10-20 is enough to ensure that you will not be likely to have to buy any eggs at the store. A flock of 20 will most likely give you more eggs than you need in the springtime and summer, but maybe not quite enough in the middle of winter depending on how warm it stays in the coop. A bit of insulation in the walls and ceiling will translate into lower feed demands and more eggs when its cold outside. Be sure to have a couple widows that can be opened to ventilate the coop for the occasions when they need to be locked up in hot weather. A safe and secure chicken house does not need to be expensive as long as predators cannot invade. An old camper can be a cheap, ready-made place to keep chickens for a couple years while you decide how you want to design your permanent coop. Always bear in mind all of the critters that like to eat chicken as much as you do while designing your coop. The animals to be thinking about that could cause you trouble if proper precautions aren’t taken are: skunks, opossums, weasels, raccoons, cats, rats, fishers, mink, eagles, hawks, your dog, and your neighbor’s dog. If you choose to allow your chickens to be outside only in a fenced in area during the day, be sure to check with your local game warden before attempting to put netting over the top of your chicken yard to guard against birds of prey, because this could be legally construed as “sight exposed bait” which basically means that you are luring a bird that is usually protected by law (bald eagles etc.) into a snare trap where they get tangled in your nets.
If you are raising baby chicks with a heat lamp, be sure to secure the lamp in such a way that the chicks can’t jump around and cause the lamp to swing. Many people have had chicken coops burn down because the chicks were playing and made the lamp swing and break the bulb, causing a fire. This can be prevented by letting a mother hen raise her own young chicks because there won’t be a need for a heat lamp.
Damage
If you are new to owning chickens, one thing that is good to remember is that chickens like to scratch and dig for bugs and worms, so if you like to have a nicely manicured lawn, you might not want to let them roam totally free because they are likely to eventually ruin your yard.
Laying Hens
If you want hens for only laying eggs, you do not need to have a rooster. A hen will make eggs for you even if there is not a rooster around to fertilize them. Though, if your hens are allowed to roam free, a rooster can offer a bit of a preliminary defense against a predator attack. A rooster will keep a lookout for trouble while the hens are looking for something to eat. A hen can live for a number of years, but for the expense of the feed that they eat, they should be replaced every 2 years, because after 2 years the number of eggs they make won’t be worth the feed that they eat. If you happen to buy hens that are already mature and they don’t happen to be laying any eggs for you, remember that a hen will take a break from laying eggs periodically when she is molting her feathers. Most hens won’t make an egg for you every single day of the year. Plan to have a couple weeks in the coldest part of winter when you won’t see many eggs, because they will be putting more energy into staying warm.
Meat Birds
There aren’t many things that can compare to the taste of a home-grown chicken. Also, having the peace of mind that you know how your food was raised and handled is a big plus. However, there is one thing that I want to point out about the expense of raising meat chickens on Organic feed. The last time we raised our own meat chickens, when we calculated the price per pound of what we raised versus Organic chicken bought in the grocery store, we discovered that we were paying nearly the same for just the feed as we would have paid for packaged chicken in the store. That is to say, even though the quality and flavor of the meat we raised was better, all of the time and trouble cleaning the coop and butchering was for free. So, keep in mind that raising your own chickens for meat organically is not necessarily less expensive (though much tastier). See the information below on sprouted grain to learn more about how to make a radical reduction in feed cost for meat chickens.
Time
How much time will you need to devote to taking care of chickens? If all you have is a dozen hens for instance, there isn’t much time needed other than a few minutes morning and evening and a half hour cleaning out the coop every few weeks. Most time requirements would be in the raising your baby chicks. Stay tuned for future blogs on the specifics of raising chicks with or without heat lamps.
The Big $ Savings
Now, the above information about how expensive it is to raise your own chickens for meat assumes that you are only buying store bought starter/grower chicken food and they are not getting much else to eat (which is how the chicken that you buy in the store is raised). However, if you sprout wheat or barley for them, you can make a big reduction in the feed price. This method also works for your laying hens as well, and gives the egg yolks a nice orange color even in the winter when there are no green things outside to eat (the more fresh green things a hen eats, the darker the yolk will be from all the carotene in the greens). The time investment to make sprouts for a household’s flock is less than 10 minutes per day. So, there is a bit of a trade off of time for the savings on the feed bill, but well worth it. It only involves soaking the grain overnight, then draining and giving them a good flushing rinse daily. If you would like more detailed information on how to make a grain sprouting setup, use our contact form to request sprouting instructions. Sprouts, garden waste (such as melon rinds, overgrown cucumbers, etc. ), and leftover dairy products if you have a cow, can make meat chickens affordable and better tasting than what is sold in stores. It just takes a few more weeks to get them up to butchering weight, due to the lesser protein content, compared to being fed only the grower ration.
Check out these links for the gear needed to raise chickens and more knowledge on keeping them healthy.
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