Chook Me!

I would like to raise some laying chickens.. have you ever?

I'm an adult and my home is zoned for chickens. having said that: where do I start? we won't be eating the chickens and plan to provide a good home even past their egg laying days. How many chickens should I get? It's more for fun, but we do want the eggs. Where should I get the chickens? Waht is the best time of year to start? How much money will it cost to get started? Do vets generally care for chickens too? Do regular coops protect against natural predators, or will I need to take special precautions/ (coyotes and the rare neighborhood cat) ok, well, LOL, I think I have enough questions.. really , any legitimate answers and/or information would be well appreciated. Thanks so much to both of you for such wonderful information! (and,lol, to Heidi for being interested) Nature Mother.. I genuinely appreciate the personal stories.. I smiled at your description and decided against plain white chickens. Green eggs? Pink eggs? How delightful!! Rainbow feathers? Your answer was very uplifiting, .. thank you for sharing =)

Public Comments

1. Well i have not bought chickens and hatched them but my best friend has so how about 2 chickens and find someone else to help u!! Sorry
2. They won't ship them until it is warm enough in your area, I think, anyway... You need a chicken house. Something big enough for you to stand up and move around in. You will have to shovel it out once or twice a year. Put it in the garden and use a rototiller to till it in. Laying boxes on one wall. A small lip on the bottom to keep the straw and eggs inside the box, big enough for the hen to set comfortably and turn around. When she is done, she will get out, but some like to sleep there, too. Roosting perches for them to sleep on. Put them at an angle so the birds on top are not pooping on the birds below them. You need room for the food and water feeders. Chickens get a water jug attached to a base that lets them get water without fouling the whole thing. You will find this at your local farm store. They use a mini trough for the laying mash, but you may need a smaller one for the chicks. Also for the chicks, you need a heat lamp and a box. They can get lost if just tossed into the chicken house. Make the sides of the box about 2 feet tall and 3 feet long. Actually, a child's swimming pool (smallest size, the 3 ft across and 8 inch tall one is perfect for the first week that you have them. I kept mine in the house for the first week or 2, til I couldn't stand the smell anymore, lol. I don't remember where I ordered them from, but there are lots of places these days that hatch chicks and ship them. It is cheaper if you get a box of 25 or 50 unsexed chicks, but then you would likely have way too many roosters. You can get only females, they will lay eggs, but you will have no chance to have your hens hatch out babies of their own and keep your coop at full occupancy. Maybe they will let you order a few males, I would get 3 with 25 or 5 with 50. Chicks get a special mix of chick feed. I got rare breed Chinese Bantam chickens. I loved my rooster, Snowman. He was large, had pure white feathers all over, even down his legs! Rainbow was my Easter Egg layer. Her eggs were pale green. Dad had one that laid pale pink eggs. They are awesome! Dad also had a Bantie with a top notch on his head, a crest, I guess. He was little and a mean bugger! He protected his flock like no other rooster I have ever seen! My mother-in-law had plain ol white laying hens. Boring. Couldn't tell them apart, so none got named. Racoons will kill your chickens. Make sure your chicken house is racoon proof. Rats may want to move in, endless source of food and warmth, esp if you live near a river, creek or woods. There are lots of sites that will tell you everything that you want to know, it has been 25+ years since I had chickens, so I haven't a clue on prices. Your eggs will taste different, because they are more nutritious than store bought. You chickens would taste different, too, no steroids or junk in them. If I was allowed, I would have chickens right now!! Good luck!!
3. It depends on how much room you have but 2-4 is a good number to start with because it's not too much work! I started with 4, 2 welsummer hens and 2 lavender araucana bantams. If you can, get the chickens from a battery farm. They are cheaper and deserve a good home :P http://www.downthelane.net/battery.html http://www.downthelane.net/Page_35.html Any time of year is fine! It depends what coop you get and if you buy or make a run. This costed me aproximately £400. Then I bought a feeder which was £7, it is metal so is more expensive than plastic ones. A drinker, which was also metal costed £5. I don't know the price of shavings or straw because we get them free. I also line the bottom of the coop with newspaper, then put the shavings on top to make cleaning quicker and easier. Then there's the food, I get layers pellets instead of mash, which costs £7.50 for a bag which lasts a month between 11 chickens! I then get a bag of corn which is about £7 as well and lasts the same amount of time. They have the layers pellets in the coop all the time and they get a handful of corn each in the morning and get treats in the afternoon. Then you need to buy the actual hens. For ex-battery hens, you can pay between 25p and 75p each. For rare breeds, you can pay anything over £10. You need to find an avian vet in your area, else they won't know too much about their illnesses. If your hens are in the coop for the night as long as you shut the door, you won't get any predators in during the night. But, they do attack during the day too, so have a pen with a 6ft pen around the edge or put a roof over the top. These sites have helped me alot! Save them to your favourites and you can access them easily if you have any problems: http://www.downthelane.net/Page_7.html http://www.thepoultrysite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2653 http://www.omlet.co.uk/guide/guide.php?view=Chickens It would be a good idea to register in www.thepoultrysite.com to join the forum. It's free and you can post any questions about chickens you want. The people on it are great and are very experienced! If I haven't provided enough information, you can always type things like the following into google: 'backyard chicken keeping' 'chicken keeping' 'chicken care' 'chickens as pets' And of course, you can post questions on here. Hope I helped and good luck!