Getting started with chickens: Where do we begin?

[Sahamamama]

Yeah, we're city people who've moved to the country. ;) Help us, please. Where do we start with chickens?

[Ottakee]

How many do you want?  Do you want egg layers or meat chickens or a dual purpose chicken?  Do you want brown eggs or white or even the blue/green ones?

 

You need a coop that is secure from predators with nesting boxes and perches.  Do you want them to run loose in the yard or have a pen?

[bluemongoose]

get this book http://www.amazon.com/Storeys-Guide-Raising-Chickens-Edition/dp/1603424695/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1376595902&sr=8-2&keywords=raising+chickens

 

and check out this site http://www.backyardchickens.com/

 

Those are the best places to start.

[Heatherwith4]

Don't let yourself get bogged down with all the choices! It's a lot like homeschooling - overwhelming at first. There should be some Getting Started articles on backyardchickens.com that will tell you all you need to know. :)

 

We have two coops that we've ordered online from Tractor Supply. They're cute and keep predators out and are a good start if you don't want to build one yourself.

[Sahamamama]

How many do you want? 

 

I don't know, seriously. What's a good number to start with?

 

Do you want egg layers or meat chickens or a dual purpose chicken? 

 

Eggs, I think? But when they stop laying eggs, do we put them in the crock pot? Not sure I'm butchering a chicken, though.

 

Do you want brown eggs or white or even the blue/green ones?

 

Any color shell will do, since around here the eggs will be eaten up!

 

You need a coop that is secure from predators with nesting boxes and perches. 

 

Yeah, we know we have foxes, we've seen them in the morning. We have hawks, too.

 

Do you want them to run loose in the yard or have a pen?

 

We thought about building a chicken tractor (actually, having a friend from church help us build a chicken tractor). That way, we could keep the birds cooped up and safe, but move them around to greener pastures.

 

I had no idea how clueless we really are, until you posted these questions. Thanks! :)

 

[celticmom]

The way to figure out how many laying chickens you want is to figure out how many eggs you want to have per day. Then add one or two chickens or not depending on whether you are more worried about having to go buy a dozen eggs every once in a while or realizing you have "too many" eggs building up in your refrigerator. I would err on getting one or two more chickens than you think you need in case something happens to one or two of them.

 

ETA: Mother Earth News website has quite a few articles about chickens and building coop and tractors and such.

[WishboneDawn]

You probably want pullets. Those are hens about 5 months old that are on the verge of laying. Take how many eggs you eat in the run of a week, divide by 7 then add 1 or 2 for good measure and that's how many chickens you want.

[skirch]

Yeah, we're city people who've moved to the country. ;) Help us, please. Where do we start with chickens?

Um, you might want to rethink this whole chicken thing. Seriously.

 

The Hazards of Raising Backyard Chickens

[Liz CA]

Get a resource like Storey's Guide to Chickens by Gail Damerow or "Chickens in your Backyard."

 

Decide how many chickens you want. One hen can lay one egg every day, not all do.

 

Design a simple coop.

 

Congratulations! :)  Chicken are among my favorite animals/pets!

[Guest]

Yay! This is my first year with laying hens and I BIG PUFFY HEART LOVE them! I cannot even explain how happy I am to have chickens. I agree with the resources mentioned above. I also picked the brains of a couple friends who have chickens; that was a wealth of info. We have six hens. We bought them as pullets; they started laying about a month later. They are Rhode Island Reds and lay brown eggs. 

 

I think six is pretty much the perfect number for us to start with.  We have plenty of eggs to use ourselves, sell a few and give some to family. 

[nd293]

Are you allowed roosters? If not, make sure you get older pullets where it is clear what you're getting. Don't call one of your three baby chooks Curry, or it will turn out to be a rooster and will have to 'go home', and everytime you suggest Chicken Curry for dinner the kids will give you dirty looks.

 

That said, don't over think the problem. I read too much and worried too much at the beginning. Water. Food. Shelter. You can start with a bowl for food and water and get fancy feeders later if you want them.

 

They are such fun to have. Our first set (3 less Curry The Rooster) are about ready to lay and we have just added two more younger ones (after discovering that adding one more was a recipe for disaster - chickens are Mean Girls).

[Liz CA]

Um, you might want to rethink this whole chicken thing. Seriously.

 

The Hazards of Raising Backyard Chickens

 

Just about everything in this video is true.  :lol:  Especially the baby talk...

[Truscifi]

Um, you might want to rethink this whole chicken thing. Seriously.

 

 

:smilielol5:

 

 

I've seen it before, but it still cracks me up!  Mostly because she's not wrong.  :tongue_smilie:

[Sahamamama]

Are you allowed roosters? If not, make sure you get older pullets where it is clear what you're getting. Don't call one of your three baby chooks Curry, or it will turn out to be a rooster and will have to 'go home', and everytime you suggest Chicken Curry for dinner the kids will give you dirty looks.

 

That said, don't over think the problem. I read too much and worried too much at the beginning. Water. Food. Shelter. You can start with a bowl for food and water and get fancy feeders later if you want them.

 

They are such fun to have. Our first set (3 less Curry The Rooster) are about ready to lay and we have just added two more younger ones (after discovering that adding one more was a recipe for disaster - chickens are Mean Girls).

 

This gives me ideas for the names:

• Our Indian chickens, Curry and Tandoori
• Our French chickens, Marsala and Cordon Bleu
• Our Italian chickens, Parmesan, Alfredo, and Cacciatore
• Our plain, old American chickens, Dumpling, Stew, and Pot Pie

   

[Truscifi]

Do you want to start with little peepers or pullets?  Pullets are easier and lay right away, but chicks have the cuteness factor.  If you start with chicks you have to have an indoor brooder for them to start, and they are loud.  And smelly.  So if you don't have a shed or spare room for them and have to have them in, oh say, your dining room you don't want to be throwing any dinner parties for a while.

[Truscifi]

 

This gives me ideas for the names:

• Our Indian chickens, Curry and Tandoori
• Our French chickens, Marsala and Cordon Bleu
• Our Italian chickens, Parmesan, Alfredo, and Cacciatore
• Our plain, old American chickens, Dumpling, Stew, and Pot Pie

   

 

 

We named last year's pigs Bacon, Ham, and Sausage.

 

 

Okay, those weren't really their names, just what I called them when I was mad at them for escaping into the neighbor's yard.  Again.

[Guest]

My girls are named:

 

Florence

Eva

Red

Henrietta

Maple

Juliette

 

 

[Berta]

I LOVE my chickens! I have babies that are hatching today.. three are out, 11 still waiting.

 

Go to backyardchickens.com. Spend some time reading and you will learn tons. Does your town have any restrictions on how many you can have, or if you can have roosters?

 

Six is a good number to start with. This gives you some room if some get sick or die. Chickens are social creatures and keeping one or two makes for sad chickens. DH and I agreed to get four (4) hens. A yr and a half later I have close to sixty (60!), no including the ones hatching today.

 

I also advise going bigger then you think coop wise. I was going to start out with a 4x6 coop, but then saw the 6x8 wasn't much more $, but wait... the 10x12 will hold XXXX chickens. I ended up with a 10x16 :)

 

Chickens are VERY easy to take care of and require minimal work. Clean water and feed daily, and collect your eggs. The entertainment value of keeping chickens is priceless. They are so much fun to watch. Every so often you get the one or two that have personalities that really shine. I have several that will follow me around and one that pecks me because she wants to be picked up.