Raising Chickens for Eggs

[TwinMom]

Okay - after reading the post about milk and the earlier post about eggs and the request to start a new thread about chickens...so here it is! :)

I have been curious about raising chickens since we started getting our eggs from a local farmer about 4 years ago. Her eggs are fabulous and her chickens are treated so well.

But...I've always wondered if it was worth doing ourselves. We have 6 acres, so space is not any issue. So what does it entail to raise chickens? Some basic questions I had are:

1. How many chickens to get a few eggs a day?
2. I would want chickens that can go out and eat bugs, etc. so how do you protect them from coyotes, etc. I know our farmer has portable chicken coops that she moves around, but for a home raiser how would you let them roam?
3. What about when you are gone on a trip (an overnight or a week long trip) - do you need someone to take care of them?
4. Is the local farmer's coop the place to get organic feed?
5. What about winters - how do you keep them warm enough?
6. What about when they get old... do you butcher them or let them live a happy life until they die?

I have more questions but that's all I can think of right this second.

Thanks for any and all information!

[Rae]

There was a very good article in one of the recent issues of Mother Earth News about raising chickens in the backyard. I guess there is a group in Madison, WI who raise them right in the city. If I remember correctly, the article gave directions for building portable, rolling pens and lots of good tips about what kind of chicken to buy, locking them up at night, etc. I'm very interested in doing this as well, but just don't have enough space right now. Sounds like you'll be in really good shape with six acres!

[MrsReber]

How funny- DH and I talk about this all the time. So many bad things going around in the food industry. We have 1 acre, which is probably enough. Someone told us that three chickens would probably be plenty. We do know people who raise chickens. They had a bobcat come eat their rooster one day. When they go away, another neighbor takes care of them. I haven't been to their place (we own property nearby them), but I'm pretty sure they're let in and out each day.

[nancymaring]

Your local feed store can answer many of your questions...as well as a goggle search. You don't need a lot of space to have a few chickens...and you only need a few. My friend at work has 6 and they provide more then enough eggs for about 7 or 8 of us.
You don't need a rooster to have eggs...in fact, it is probably easier to not have one. No 'rooster calling' morning, noon and evening...no half developed eggs in your cake batter (ewww...I used to HATE that!)

They are fun to raise...and if I lived in a place where I could have them again, I would in a heartbeat.

Have fun...nancy

[mbrogier]

I was just wondering some of the same things about chickens, and I found this article about keeping chickens in Raleigh, NC. http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/440523.html

This is also a blog from one person that keeps chickens in Raleigh. There are some links on his page to other sites that have some great information about chickens.

Sparrowgrass from this board also answered the couple of questions I had a few days ago. Thanks again, Sparrow!

[donleyk]

I was just wondering some of the same things about chickens, and I found this article about keeping chickens in Raleigh, NC. http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/440523.html

This is also a blog from one person that keeps chickens in Raleigh. There are some links on his page to other sites that have some great information about chickens.

Sparrowgrass from this board also answered the couple of questions I had a few days ago. Thanks again, Sparrow!

Sparrowgrass is the resident expert, she's been answering my questions as well. Thanks again.

You can get the plans for the portable coop right on the Mother Earth website. There's an article about chickens as well. Good luck!

[semmens]

1. How many chickens to get a few eggs a day?
2. I would want chickens that can go out and eat bugs, etc. so how do you protect them from coyotes, etc. I know our farmer has portable chicken coops that she moves around, but for a home raiser how would you let them roam?
3. What about when you are gone on a trip (an overnight or a week long trip) - do you need someone to take care of them?
4. Is the local farmer's coop the place to get organic feed?
5. What about winters - how do you keep them warm enough?
6. What about when they get old... do you butcher them or let them live a happy life until they die?

Some of my chickens have given me an egg a day (RI Reds did). The Aracaunas are more like 3/ week each. If I did it over I would build a portable coop, but I do let mine roam around a few hours a day. If you do this late afternoon, they naturally come home at dusk. If I am just leaving for a day or two they are fine, with a decent sized waterer and feeder. Longer than that, I get a neighbor child to help; we have lot of pets so this works for us.

I confess that I am not currently using organic feed so I just go to the normal feed store (Tractor Supply for me). I was hoping that my dairy farmer made his own mix that I could buy but his chickena are entirely free range and not really laying much as they are older.

Winters are one thing that I worried about too. I had never had outdoor animals, and esp not here in PA. But with a well-insulated coop and the use of a heat lamp on a timer that also helps extend their laying (layers are sensitive to day length and a heat lamp stretches their days) they have been fine for over 3 years. When it snows, they don't come out for awhile as they either are scared of it or their tiny brains don't know what it is. I have a flat heating base for my metal waterer so it doesn't freeze.

Mine stoppped laying around 2 1/2 years. I let them just hang out and grow old in peace. I guess you could eat them, but they'd be good only for stewing and I just don't have enough of the farmer mindset to do that.

[KCSoccer]

I don't know anything about raising chickens, but my good friend Jen does. She and her family moved from suburbia to a rural location (15 acres) about 8 years ago. She wanted to raise chickens for eggs, so they built a coop (a major undertaking) and fenced in a portion of land as well.

Baby chicks - she ordered the chicks from a catalog! When they arrived, they needed to stay warm. The coop (and small barn) wasn't heated, so they kept the chicks in an enclosed sunporch for 2-3 weeks, then gradually "hardened" them off until they were ready for outdoor/coop living. The mess was incredible -they moult their fine little feathers; it was very dusty and smelly, too.

Eggs - chickens produce more eggs in the warm months than in the cold winter months, so you won't have a steady month-to-month production. She usually had 10-15 chickens. They had enough eggs for their family, plus more to sell or give away to friends. I remember her commenting once that she was sick of eggs! I was a lucky recipient, though, and the eggs were wonderful!

Roosters and broody hens - She kept a rooster or two. They can be mean, both to humans and hens. Also, there's the noise factor. Very quaint at first, but I'm sure it gets old when you're trying to sleep past 5am on a summer morning! Sometimes her hens would go broody and would peck terribly when you tried to gather eggs.

Snakes, Coyotes, Hawks, and other pests - They built nesting boxes that you could access from the outside (without having to enter the coop). Sometimes, snakes would curl up under a chicken (for the warmth, I guess, and to eat eggs). Eeekk! She usually made her boys gather the eggs :o . The hawks would swoop down and get the smaller chickens, so Jen had to fashion a net with chicken wire over the top of the outside chicken yard. Coyotes and roving dogs also took their share.

Jen being the typical "city" girl named all her chickens and they were like pets. After 2-3 years of egg production, the hens don't produce as well. Most farmers then butcher the old chickens to eat, but Jen didn't have the heart to butcher her pets, so she had a bunch of old, non-productive hens to feed.

Jen no longer has chickens and now gets her eggs from a farmer down the road from her house. It was a great learning experience for her whole family (and me, too!) I no longer dream of having livestock . . .:D

[mrswaz]

I've been spending a bit of time on Gardenweb (http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/) lately, and just recently someone there was asking about chickens- there were quite a few answers, so it would be worth going over there and doing a thread search.

[sparrowgrass]

I have chickens--they are the easiest and most productive critters I have ever raised.

I use the "deep litter" method for mine--I put a thick (a foot or more) of loose straw on the henhouse floor. When it begins to get a bit dirty looking, or matted down with chicken you-know-what, I scatter a couple pounds of scratch feed (like birdseed--a mix of grains) over the surface. The girls scratch all the bedding up and mix it together, which allows it to dry.

Doing that once a week or so really keeps the smell down. The only time my chicken house and yard smell is if we have several days of rain. Once a year or so, I scoop all that out and put it on the garden. Because it has lots of straw mixed in, it is not too "hot" and doesn't burn the plants like plain chicken manure would.

I have about 20 hens, and I ordered them thru a catalog (Murray McMurray). The post office called me to tell me my babies had arrived. To provide eggs only for me I would probably only need 2 or 3 hens, but I figured if I was going to all that trouble, I might as well have a bunch. My family and friends appreciate the extras.

Chickens do lay more eggs during the summer months. To keep them laying thru the winter, it is necessary to add supplemental lighting, to keep the daylength at 14 hours or so. Just a 60 watt bulb hung in the chicken house is plenty.

Also important are food and water. Hens won't lay without water, which means an electric de-icer for winter. Feed laying mash or pellets, as much as they want--I have a metal feeder that holds about 25 pounds, which lasts about 3 or 4 days. If you let them run, they will not eat as much purchased feed, but be warned--gardening and chickens are not compatible. Chickens think mulch is a gift from the Chicken God, and they will immediately scratch it all out of whatever place you put it.

They will eat all of your tomatoes and peas and anything else they can reach. A low electric fence will keep them out pretty well, but they may learn to fly over it.

Chickens are good composters--my kitchen scraps, except for bones, go to the chickens. (No bones, because I am afraid the dogs might dig under the fence to get them.) When I shuck corn or shell peas, the waste goes into the pen. I bring home all the autumn leaves I can find. Even if they don't eat it, they scratch around in it and turn it all into lovely soil.

Here is an excellent source of info--look at the "family chicken flock" and "brooding and raising chicks" to start.

http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/agguides/poultry/

[TwinMom]

Thanks for all of the information! More to ponder as we decide if we're going to do it!

[tamawrite]

DH and I have our own chickies for eggs. :) We have 13 hens (mix of Aracaunas, Rhode Island Reds, Black Australorps, and White Plymouth Rocks) and 1 banty rooster. I have read that, over time, hens will stop laying if there isn't a rooster around, but sources seem to disagree. We keep Harlem (our rooster) "just in case" and because we like him. :)

We get 2-7 eggs per day, but 8 of our hens are actually pullets (young females) just starting to lay, so numbers will likely be higher next year. We sell our excess eggs for $1/dozen to coworkers, which is sufficient to pay for the chickens' feed.

We like to let a few chickens roam free to pick apart horse manure and serve as bug control, but during the summer months we find that they disturb the garden too much. So, we keep them in a spacious coop that is half outdoor and half tin-covered for protection from the wind. The covered half of the coop features 6 nesting boxes, a fully-enclosed wooden box that some of the hens prefer to lay in, and three 6-foot roosts.

As long as they have a place to stay dry and out of the wind, chickens can deal quite well with cold weather. Hot weather can be a problem for them, so you always need to be sure they have plenty of clean water and shade.

Water and feed can be laid out for a couple days, but you should have someone take care of your chickens if you're away from home longer than that.

Predators haven't been a problem for us because when we have hens loose, they tend to stay up by the house and round corral -- that is, the highest-traffic areas on our property. Coyotes and weasels can be dangerous, though, so it's safest to bring chickens into a rodent-proof coop at night. (It's easy to train them to eat and roost in a particular area, as they naturally look for a roost at dusk and prefer familiar places.)

Chick raising can be time-consuming and requires rather a lot of equipment that you may only use once every few years. We took the easier route of purchasing fully-grown pullets. That is, they were born this year but purchased when mature. They cost $5 each from our local hatchery, as opposed to chicks that sell for as little as $.25 each, but we would have paid more for the equipment needed to raise chicks.

Check with a nearby hatchery if possible; they may sell mature chickens only a few weeks out of the year. If you don't have a local hatchery, you may be stuck with raising chicks, which does have its advantages. (They're awfully cute! :D ) You'll have more breed options if you order through a catalogue. Chicks seem to survive the postal system remarkably well.

Also, straight-run chicks (not sexed) are cheaper than hens-only, but you'll have to be prepared to dispose of the cockerals (young roosters) if you go that route. Plucking chickens is not my favorite job, and I find that as much as I prefer the fresh meat, it isn't worth the effort.

As the hens get too old to lay, DH will dispatch them as quickly and humanely as possible. I doubt we'll eat them because it's such trouble, but if you're handling sufficient volume, and like stewed chicken/homemade stock, and have a small meat packing company nearby or want to spring for an automatic plucker, you certainly could make use of the aged chickens in the kitchen.

I'm no expert, but I'm happy to take a stab at any other questions. :)