Chook Me!

About keeping Chickens.....?

Me and my friends are POSSIBLY getting chickens. What do I need to know about: -Prices? -Food? -Food prices? -Coops? -Do I need fences? -What if they get sick? -How many should we get? -Should I get a male, too? -Is there a limit of land we MUST have? And most importantly, how many eggs will each chicken lay a WEEK? And at what age will they start laying? Thank you verrryyy much! :D Yes, actually, I AM trying to learn about them. That's the point of my question. I want to learn about them. Possibly you could answer, instead of telling me what to do? ^.^

Public Comments

1. Julia; Would you and your friends POSSIBLY consider attempting Brain Surgery on each other, given your level of complete ignorance on the subject ....? I'd like to think not. Now; How about reversing ye own question? You and ye friends first take the time and effort to learn about all ye can about keeping the given creatures. Then ask yeselves; " Is this a venture we are prepared for and can reliably sustain? ". That's not rocket science. Is it?
2. I will answer your question as best as I can. I'd do better if I was there personally and could show you. I was raised on a farm and have always had chickens. There are many different types of chickens. First of all you have to decide what kind of chicken you are going to get. Why do you want a chicken, to have fresh eggs, to raise and sell babies or just to have in your yard? They are good for any of those reasons of course, they are very good at keep spiders and a lot of bugs away! What kind of place do you live at, are you in the country or city? No matter where you live you will have problems with other critters trying to kill them if you don't keep them locked up in a good pen. Once they are use to were they live you can let them out during the day and they will go back in at night. Just make sure nothing can get to them. Possums, Raccoons, foxes,hawks, and owls have been some of main problems. You can get baby chicks anywhere from $1-5 depending on the breed. Since you have never had any chickens before i would suggested getting 4 chickens. If you get chicks you may have to keep them under a light to keep them warm in a small box or tub until they are bigger. As chicks you start them out with start chick mash, you can get this at a local, co-op, TSC or whatever country feed store is near. Once they are older you can either feed them scratch feed(which is bits of corn) or you can feed your hens laying mash. Which is suppose to be good for laying healthy eggs. If you want chickens for fresh eggs I would suggest getting some Rhode Island Reds, they are very gentle good laying chickens.Chickens will usually start laying eggs around 4-5months old and lay the most eggs their first year. Unless you want to have chicks don't get a rooster. Our chickens lay an egg or two a day. We have a carton or sometimes two cartons a week. We have 8 chickens. Use to have a lot more but a fox killed a whole bunch of them. It really doesn't matter how much land you have. Just have a safe Chicken house for them. If you have anymore question feel free to ask me. Oh and I can't think of how much the feed cost right now I'll get back to you on that... Also, if you want some chickens just for pets silkies are really sweet and cute. They are fuzzy chickens. Here is another site that shows some interesting ideas on making small chicken coops out of just about what ever you have. It is nice to have a good closed-in area with nesting boxes and then a pen area connected. So whether you let them out in your yard or not they can still have some grass area. http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/pictorialhistory.html
3. If you have a farm feed store near you they can help with real answers where others would guess. Or hope to impress you with smart answers. Case in point, I am an old farm girl and rescued some wild geese. (Long story) I had in my mind a certain feed. I was wrong. They knew what I needed because that is the job they do every day. They would and do know about chickens. And you could talk to them face to face, touch the feed, touch the water servers. There is so much more to raising chickens than typed words can answer here. Find a feed store. Smell the smells. Talk to the people. Look at the cages filled with little chicks. Feel, smell, touch, the creatures you want to know about, then decide.
4. Hey Julia, To answer all of these questions and to look after your chickens, and even build the right type of chicken coop for you and your friends, you can find a good blueprint over at http://www.BuildAChickenCoops.com . This shows you everything you need to know about looking after your chickens and the exact steps you need to take to build a chicken coop for your new chickens (and any more in the future!). I hope I've helped :-) - James.